Back from ole Virginnie

I am back at Camp Shelby from my TDY trip to the commonwealth of Virginia.  I was suppose to write from there but I was just too busy going to class and eating at really nice restarants and enjoying a little freedom...sorry about that.  But the week flew by...I left on Sunday at the god awful hour of 0300 (meaning I was up at 0200).  My self and SFC Bailey took the post shuttle down to Gulf Port where we caught flights up north.  It was really nice to leave Camp Shelby for the week.  We arrived in Richmond and then drove down to Charlotteville, VA to the JAG school where the course "Law for Paralegals" was held.  Very interesting stuff.  Class ran from 8 to 430 each day, so it was a pretty easy week.  Instead of mystery meat at the mess hall it was Pizza and Chipotle for lunch and Indian and Greek food for dinner.  Very nice indeed.  We left Charlotteville this morning and got back here just in time for salsbury steak at the DFAC.  Not the same.  I miss Charlottesville already.  Tomorrow will be an easy day and then really early on Monday...its home on leave!!!....I miss T and the dogs terribly.  I look forward to 7 days of rest and relaxtion in Albany.  Less than two weeks until we head east...to the middle east.  We came here in winter...we leave in spring.  Maybe home by Christmas?...I can hope can't I?

Validation

I am now six weeks in on this deployment and what a six weeks it has been.  When I last posted we had just finished our Base Defense exercise and were heading in to Gunnery and then our FTX.  Gunnery is where you fire crew served weapons from moving vehicles along a convoy route.  There were four days of that, and I partipated in the final two days.  I was assigned to be the gunner (the guy who fires the big gun from the hatch) in vehicle 6.  Although normally the gunner fires a big gun, the last vehicle did not have to fire on the targets that were popping up along the route.  That's good, because I didn't know nothing about firing anything other than an M4 or M16.  At anyrate, we left very early each day and did a day fire and than a night fire.  Long effin days, let me tell ya.  Night fire was fun...pitch black and trying to fire on targets you'd couldn't see without using your NVGs.  (night vision glasses)  We did very well though.  The next four days we headed out to the field again and slept in tents and did a little ECP (entry control point) training.  Mostly we just slept though.  On Thursday and Friday I attended COR training.  COR stands for Contract Officer Representative, which means that I will be checking on any contractors who are assigned to our unit in Bahrain to ensure they are compliant with any contract they have with the Army.  Today, I am just resting a bit and doing some laundry before I head out bright and early tommorow to attend a one week course called Law for Paralegals in Charlottesville, VA.  That course should be interesting because it relates directly to my MOS.  Then it is back to Shelby for a day before I head back to Albany for leave.  Wow, time is really starting to move.  Back when I went to Iraq, once we accomplished all of our pre-deployment training we were declared "Fit to Fight".  My unit has now officially qualified (or been validated) to go overseas.  Fit to Fight?  Well sure... I guess.  Though we will be getting combat pay, not sure who we will be fighting in Bahrain.  But anyhoo, we don't always have to kill people to make a difference in the world, so I accept base defense in Bahrain (aka, the Vegas of the middle east) as the cross I will bear the next few months.  If everything goes as plan, I should be in Kuwait a month (more or less) from today.  I still have my doubts about this deployment...but it seems to be more certain than it was a month ago.  I'll write again from Virginia.

Checking more Boxes -- FOB Defense and other Fun stuff

Another week down here at Shelby.  I have been training my ass of doing all kinds of interesting and fun things.  But just like a few years ago, I am not sure I will ever really use any of the stuff in real life...but it better than just sitting around and doing nothing all day.  Last Saturday we went to a secret briefing on how to survive being held captive as a pow...scary shit but it's all secret so don't ask me what I learned in that meeting.  The next day, we did our two day FOB (Forward Operating Base) defense exercise.  I was with 4 other guys in a hummer as the rear rifleman dismount in the QRF (quick response force).  Sound important, but really I just hung out with the other guys waiting for higher headquarters to call us up to respond to some crisis.  The first day was kind of quite...just hung in the truck and waited.  The next day was busier and we had to go to the ECP (entry control point) to quell some disturbances between our guys who were working the ECP and third country nationals who marched on our location shouting "death to America" and telling us we shouldn't haven't burned their korans.  All of a sudden one of the Afghans pulled out a pistol and shot and killed three of our soldiers and all hell broke loose as the mortars starting coming in.  I ran from barrier to barrier, ducking and cover the whole time and then ran up to the ECP to try to calm people down.  Our surviving guys were trying to keep the civilians back while our medics were tending to the wounded.  The civilians were not moving back.  One Sergeant was trying to be good cop and be all nice and shit.  It was not working.  I raised my weapon eye level to one of the civilians and took my hand and forcefully pushed him back and told him that if he didn't sit the hell down and shut the eff up I was gonna shoot his ass.  That worked.  For a moment.  Than the mortars came again and we all had to find cover.  The mortars scared the civilians and they all ran back to their village.  With order restored, we mounted up in our vehicle and headed back to the safety of the FOB.  Or that's what we thought.  But soon mortars starting popping into the FOB and our vehicle was hit on the passenger side, killing our TC (truck commander) and the rear passenger side dismount.  I was on the other side and survived but our vehicle was trashed and that was that.  Like magic though, the powers to be brought to life all our dead and our vehicle was fixed and the game began again.  Fun stuff really.  Playing war games and shooting guns and blowing shit up.  Now who needs video games when you get to do what we are doing?  America...thank you for letting us play soldier down here on your dime.  Hopefully none of us ever have to use this training for real anytime soon.  SSG Read, over and out.

One Month Down---11 to follow?

It is hard to believe that we are through February and I have been on active duty just over one month.  I wish I could say the time flew....but to tell you the truth, I feel like I have been at Camp Shelby forever.  The past week or more since I last wrote has been productive as we move toward validation (which we need before we head overseas.) Last weekend my company conducted a two day  counter-IED (improvised explosive device) training.  Day one we learned about different kinds of IEDs and what to look for and ways to avoid them and the next day we actual went through a practical exercise where we got in a convoy and went out in the woods to find IEDs and avoid getting blown up.  At one point we went to a "village" (which consisted of civilians dressed up as Afghans) and negotiated with the village elder to allow us to convoy through his village.  He stated that somewhere on the road we were taking there were hidden IEDs and that if we found and safely destroyed them we could use the road through the village.  So we set out on foot carefully scanning for danger.  I saw an IED hidden under of a culvert and notified my commander.  Unfortunately as I was heading back to the convoy a suicide bomber came up close to me and blew himself and me up.  I was dead.  But later I claimed it was just a flesh wound and got up and continued the mission.  Overall it was a good day although it rained the whole day.  The next day, I went out to the M4 Range and qualified with my weapon.  (by the skin of my teeth---I ain't gonna win any marksmen awards.)  Next week we have Base Operations training and then a five day field training exercise the following week.  So things are busy here at Camp Shelby and will be for the next month.  On March 26 I will be returning to Albany for a week of leave.  I look forward to that.  Until then I will keep on dealing with the training and the Mississippi mud.