The Start

It all started at about 7pm on 24 April with a very tearful goodnight with Luke. He fell asleep next to me, tears in both our eyes. I couldn’t sleep at all that night so I turned off the alarm 1:45am and got up to get ready. Sneaking off while the kids were asleep was a good idea, as it would have killed me to hear Luke say “don’t leave daddy.” I was at the airport by 3am. I had to travel in uniform to avoid lost baggage (if you wear civvies you will be out of uniform once you arrive, and if your bag is lost, you’re screwed). My bags were lost (along with about 50 other people) but at least I had a complete uniform on me. I have now been wearing the same clothes for 38 hours…

At Chicago O’Hare a group of blue uniformed ladies were hanging out at the gate, handing out guardian angels and giving hugs, thanking all the airmen and soldiers for their sacrifice. In retrospect, it was nice to have it acknowledged, because I feel like I am sacrificing here at Fort McCoy—and I haven’t even deployed yet. Bad sign.

Fort McCoy is old and it feels old. Most of the buildings in this section of the base are dilapidated and worn looking—like something out of an old Army movie or like what I imagine a Soviet gulag looks like. I live in a two story WWII era barracks, with open bay sleeping arrangements. I am bedding down with about 15 airmen and sergeants, a Lieutenant, another Captain, a Chief Master Sergeant and a Lieutenant Colonel (the Chief and the Lt Col get their own room). The Lt Colonel is the class commander and the Chief is the superintendent, so it is kind of fortunate that I am getting to know them.

Although we are at an Army base, being trained by Army personnel, we have our own Air Force chain of command, which is good, due to the cultural differences. There are about 100 or so Air Force men and women here from a variety of career fields but all are headed towards deployments with the Army for either 179 days or 365 days. This is a testament about the state of the Army, that they need so many Airmen to fill these jobs. I have met one other psychologist and a psychiatrist, but they are headed to Iraq.

During our welcome briefing today we got a brief overview of why we do the training and what it will entail. The purpose of the training is to develop Army-compatible combat skills, kind of a “combat training for dummies”, if you will. They emphasized that, at this training, we leave our specialties behind and just focus on combat skills. This is in line with the Army philosophy where people are soldiers before anything else, even the medics. I have minor qualms with this, because I purposefully did not join the Army for exactly that reason—I don’t want to roam around outside the wire. I guess this exemplifies the fact that when you join the military, they own you, and they can make you go anywhere. At least they are giving me this training if that’s what they’re going to make me do!

Anyway, the training starts off with language and culture skills, then moves on to tactical driving and combat life saver courses. We then need to qualify on the Army shooting range for our weapons (officers need to qualify on both the M9 pistol and the M16). Part of the acculturation process is to carry your weapons at all times, practicing good safety and practicing just having the things on your body. After that we are scheduled to spend about 8 days at the sim FOB (Forward Operating Base) where we will practice base defense, entry control procedures, and other combat-oriented skills in field conditions. I’m sure we will eat a lot of MREs, take few showers, sleep on cots, all that good stuff. After the FOB we will be at the halfway point and I think we come back here for various and sundry trainings before spinning down the last week. There are no days off, no leaving base, no beer drinking, and I hear that the days will be a mix of long (18 hrs plus) and short (5hrs).

It doesn’t sound that great but I’m trying to reframe it. I’ve always been one who enjoys physical challenge, gaining new skills, and I like gear, so this is a good place for all that. The commander pointed out that we have to look at this as an opportunity to train with perhaps the best and most effective ground combat force the modern world has seen (best at blowing things up, just to clarify). Those words resonated with me, not because I particularly want these skills, but because I will have an opportunity to experience this machine from the inside, and maybe learn something about our nation and myself, even though I hope desperately that all of these skills will go entirely unused by me in the latter half of 2008.

I hope our bags get here so I can change clothes…

JP