Chaotic To Say The Least

I guess I need to start off from where I left off with the last post and then continue into the events of the last few days. The RVTT, Reconfigurable Vehicle Tactical Trainer, was a pretty good simulation that we were able to use while here in Kuwait. Its main benefit is the emphasis it puts on communication because all 4 vehicles that are part of the convoy are separated into different rooms. You go through the simulator as an entire patrol with 5 guys in a HMMWV in 4 isolated rooms to stress communication as well as command and control. It just helped us practice as a group. It was nice to be in the A/C but the mile walk there and back in our full gear sucked really bad. The heat makes carrying all of that weight so much worse especially when your sweat is dripping down into your eyes under your helmet.

Yesterday we went through an MRAP egress trainer which was awesome. MRAPs are the new vehicles that the Army brought over here to Iraq because they are supposed to handle the roads and IED explosions better than HMMWVs even though they are all really just as good as one another. Anyways, the egress trainer is a machine we go through to practice rollover drills and how to get out of the vehicle if it flips over or onto its side. It was like a contained roller coaster that you need to get out of upside down. It made me really want to go to Six Flags and at the same time reminded me that I shouldnt have eaten right before especially when we were suspended upside down just by the wait belt! After that we spent all afternoon down in the motor pool getting the guns ready to roll out to the range and making sure that all our equipment was set and ready to go for today.

Calibration and firing today could be its own post all in itself. Today was a complete disaster and a total wast of time. First off there was a whole timeline for how the day was supposed to play out put out yesterday, it had us getting up at 0300 this morning in order to load the vehicles up onto 18 wheelers because in order to fire live artillery in Kuwait we had to go over 2 hours away. The 18 wheelers were supposed to show up at 0400, they didnt get here until 0800. 4 hours late and I guess everyone in the middle east blames tardiness on "In Shalah" or "God Willing" but to me thats crap when they come late like that. That was really aggravating because we got off to a late start. My mood got a lot better when on the way out to the range driving in the bus we past 2 goat herders with huge herds as well as a ton of camels. I got a lot of pictures of camels and they were pretty neat to see just wandering the desert. It is a whole different world out here I dont know how the Bedouins survive out in the desert and in the heat with just camels all over the place. Then when we got to the firing point there were so many camels it was like ants on an ant hill. They were everywhere and myself and 4 other lieutenants had to try and go talk to all these herders to get them to move their camels off the impact area. Those communications didnt go well at all it was like we were trying to play pictionary with someone who had no idea what we were saying at all. It was pretty funny actually, we must have seemed so stupid. Then we took his picture with his main camel and that came out awesome! I cant wait till I can post my pictures up and everyone can see. The rest of the day was just very long and boring and tiring and tedious. We only shot 40 rounds and it took forever. After about an 18 hour day I am ready to take a shower and get some sleep.

Thank you to everyone that is following this and making comments. I love reading them and getting a chance to see who is following along and keeping up with this experience. Like I said I will try to get pictures up as soon as I can get Internet on my personal computer. Sending my best to everyone back home!

Dust Storm

So the other night when I finally got a chance to make the first post from here in the beautiful desert of Kuwait, I walked into the free internet cafe and it was nice and warm outside with a clear sky. When I left it was a completely different story. I coulnt see further than 5 feet in front of me and had no idea where I was on the FOB of ours. The wind was blowing pretty hard and the sand was kicking up into my face, into my nose and mouth, and everywhere else it could possibly go. But I guess I couldnt get enough of the sand that night becuase then I took my guys out to the volleyball court the next day to have a little morale boost during PT. Of course I was dominant and schooled them all on how to play like a champion. The best part about being a LT and outranking them is that I get to be the judge and make all the close calls, which of course went in favor of my team!

Tomorrow and the next day my platoon is going into another convoy simulator so we can practice our communication skills, reporting back to the base unit and the operations center, and our movement. It is all getting very repetitive but at least its a simulator indoors and that means there will be A/C. I much prefer that to having to wear all my gear in the increasingly hot Kuwaiti desert which is in the high 90s during the middle of the day. Besides the heat the only other annoying thing so far is the amount of time I have to go to the bathroom. I have been drinking so much water that not only do I have to go every other hour, but I have to get up in the middle of the night multiple times and go then too. It really sucks especially when Im sleeping like a rock, which doesnt happen very often because Im sandwiched by 2 guys that snore like friehgt trains. Oh well.

Kuwait

I made it to Kuwait safe and sound with very few problems. It is a very weird atmosphere here because this is more of a base than I thought. It is almost identical to NTC becuase there are permanent party stationed here that live and work for the year. In addition to the Army personnel there are American civilians here that run training and the security force protection detail is all contracted out. There are a lot of Kuwaitis that work on this base; which by the way is called Camp Buehring. There is a Starbucks, KFC, Pizza place, Donut shop, Green Beane Coffe, its actually really weird to have these things out here. The joke is that all the meat comes from camels and goats since they dont have any cows out in the Middle East! Communication is rough becuase the permanent party people tie up all the resources and are always out using the phones and computers which makes it hard to get on.

As it stands now, based on information I got a few hours ago, I am still going to COB Basra and will be there doing the supposed PRT mission. That is good news becuase we should have resources there. Well, there is a time limit on how long I can be on the computer so I will be back to post in a few days. Hopefully home is better than the sand box!

Unbelievable

Well, today has been unbelievable to say the least. Originally I thought the trip would go like this, Colorado Springs to Houston to Germany to Kuwait, but I was wrong and the actual trip is this, Colorado Springs to Maine to Ireland to Kuwait. Learning that was pretty interested but just wait, it gets better.

We landed in Maine to refuel, reload with supplies, and give everyone a few minutes to get off and stretch, well no no no much more happened in that time period. While everyone got off the plane to stretch and go to the bathroom the medics attended to 2 people that had gotten sick during the short flight from Colorado Springs to Maine. Apparently one guy got so sick that they had to call an ambulance and get official people to check him out. Mind you the ambulance is looking him over while everyone else has gotten back on the plane. 2 hours later they take him to the hospital. 1 hour after that they decide that he is going to go back to the springs to get healthy and fly out in a week and meet us there. That's all nice and fine until the crew and pilot then tell us that they have been working too long and need to take a break so they can rest. Now, 6 and a half hours later we are all supposed to rack out and sleep in the airport and wait until the crew is ready again to fly to Ireland.

I sincerely hope that the year does not follow this path, luckily the soldier that got ill is not one of mine and the only problem I am facing is annoyance and complacency.

The Night Before

So, I really didnt realize how hard this actually is going to be. I have been anxious all the way up until this point and now I am nervous and quite sad. I am really going to miss talking to Abby everynight and hearing from my parents how everthing is going back home in Watchung. I can't believe that the time has come for me to really gather all my things and get ready to get onto a plane and head half way around the world to a completely unkown destination. I know that everything will be ok and I am confident in what I know and how well I will perform but I still am nervous to go and embark on this journey.

This next year will really define me and what I do in the future. I just hope that after this experience I come out a better person with a ton more knowledge and I am looking forward to the opportunity to enhance myself and learn who I really am. Tomorrow is the beginning of my future.

Getting Ready to Go

I am starting this BLOG out on the first day that I really feel like it is time to go to war and kick off this experience. Everything that I own has been packed up and moved out of my apartment and put into storage. It is kind of sad to be sitting in an empty apartment filled with only stuff my roommate owns. I just feel like I really am getting ready to go because the sooner I leave the sooner I will be able to come home.