A Week in Kuwait - Rolling Over in the Desert

My Unit and I have been at Camp Beuring, Kuwait now for almost a week.  It has been a pretty easy time so far.  Just trying to get use to the conditions here.  Unlike back in 2006, the weather has been quite mild with some cool breezes after the sun goes down.  Back in August 2006 we experienced 140 degree heat in our stay here but so far we have not even come close to that.  Sleeping seems to be more of a problem this time around for me, but I did get a good night sleep last night.  Today we did some training on how to survive a vehicle rollover.  For the young soldiers this training was a little like going to Six Flags.  After a hour long power point presentation we performed a practical exercise involving a training simulator designed to look like a MRAP military vehicle.  The MRAP stands for "mine resistant, ambush protected".  It is a very heavy vehicle that was developed to protect soldiers from IED and sniper fire and it has done a great job of decreasing deaths and injuries since the Army began using it in 2007.    However, the excess weight and top-heavy design has made it a "roll-over" risk, and a number of accidents with MRAPs have taken the lives of soldiers.  As a result, the Army makes soldiers take "roll-over survival" training and that's what we did today.  For the exercise, 9 of us climbed into the simulator and buckled down.  Soon later, the exercise began with the simulator being rotated 90 and 180 degrees and than a full 360.  The purpose of the exercise is to successfully evacuate the vehicle after the rollover is over.  Of course for the training, the vehicle ends up at a 180 degree angle and we than had climb out the gunner's hatch.  In that position half of us were suspended upside down looking down on the other half of us that were right pinned against the side of the vehicle.  Meanwhile the rollover causes everything in the vehicle to go airborne including everyone's weapons and just about everything else.  Once the shock of rolling over wears off you have to figure out how to get unstrapped and oriented toward the one exit available for escape.  I was in the seat closest to the hatch but couldn't get unstrapped so I was "plugging the hole" and no one could escape before I got out.  I started to feel panic and could only imagine what it must feel like to go through this for real...in real time...in the dark...or in water.  Not a pleasant feeling my friends.  After what seemed like forever, one of my fellow soldiers got me unstrapped and a crawled out followed by my fellow soldiers.  God that sucked.  I hope never to ride in one of these vehicles and God help me if the effin thing flips.  But today, I survived the training and will continue training the next couple days.  Tomorrow is counter IED training and the next day we go to the range to shoot our weapons.  Right now, it looks like I will be here at Camp Beuring for another week or so.  The Army has thrown yet another curveball at me, so I may not be going to Bahrain after all.  It's not official yet, but I'll keep you all posted.  Until next time, slow down in your SUV and if you rollover make sure the fat boy you're riding with don't plug the escape hole.  Ha ha.