FIX BAYONETS!

Day 39

This week we are working on ‘Warrior Task Training.’ This used to be called Common Task Training, as the tasks were things that were (and are) ‘common’ to soldiers. Things like First Aid tasks, communication tasks, weapons maintenance, etc. We also spent some time on weapons drills. Not a WTT task as such but, the more you practice reflexive fire drills and magazine changes, the better off you are when the need arises.

Remember the SWAT team in the movie “Blues Brothers”? Anytime they appeared on screen they were accompanied by a hearty “Hut, hut, hut, hut!” as they marched in lockstep toward their goal. This renaming of various things around the military strikes me as cheerleading in a similar vein. Not necessarily a bad thing but, perhaps a little over the top.

Anyway, today we worked on detainee operations. That is, how to deal with prisoners; both in the physical aspect of controlling and searching them and, aspects of properly dealing with them in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and the Law of Land Warfare. Old hat for any soldier who’s been around for more than a couple of years but more emphasis is being placed because of the stupidity of the (few) who flaunted regulations and scandalized the world.

The bad thing about the training today is that a lot of us are somewhat more old and fragile than we’d like to admit. Part of the exercise is to actually flex cuff the ‘prisoner’, which turned out to be right on the verge of feasible due to the stiffness of the joints of some of us codgers. SSG Holmes got his shoulder tweaked while being restrained, so he’s been placed on light duty, complete with sling and Percocet. Hopefully the pain will pass and he’ll recover rapidly.

The good news for the day is that, not only is the weather lovely, (ice on the puddles first thing in the morning but rapidly thawing and moving to a high in the ‘50’s with clear skies) but, the new Advanced Combat Helmet that we were issued is the next thing to pleasant to wear. No headache after wearing it all day. The old Kevlar or the even older M-1 steel pot both gave me headaches within about an hour of putting them on, so this is a VAST improvement.

Day 40

Today was ambush drills. Because we are supposed to be mounted in country, the drills were supposed to be aimed at being ambushed while mounted. Unfortunately, the Wa Wa supply officer didn’t want to sign for HUMVEEs yesterday afternoon, so we had no vehicles to be ambushed in!

(Let’s see, go back sixty five years, to just before WW II. They had supply problems, too, though theirs were more related to the non EXISTENCE of supplies as opposed to simple non availability thru bone headedness. They too practiced convoys by lining soldiers up as if they were actually in vehicles and then literally ‘walking’ through the exercise. At least we aren’t using broomsticks for rifles.)

We also ran infantry drills to fight through an ambush, drills to replace a wounded driver while still in a moving vehicle (one HUMVEE had finally showed up) and some combatives.

Infantry drills were, well, OK, we checked the block on some requirement, maybe. Driver replacement actually could come in handy; take a look at the movie, ‘Blackhawk Down.’

Combatives? This idiocy has got to stop. We hurt one person yesterday just applying flex cuffs and now they want to throw people around without any stretching or warm up, while wearing full battle rattle so they can land on a canteen or some other proturbance? When, pray tell, are we going to need hand to hand combat skills? In the bar once we get home? Come on. There’s not enough time to teach it properly in the first place, it’s not a requirement, you’re going to hurt the trainees (us) and if you ever do have to get that close, it’s going to turn into kicking, gouging, slugging mayhem. Won’t be any fancy take downs involved. No net value to this training.

On the plus side, I did run into an NCO who’s also going overseas soon and, he turned out to be a fellow Gideon. Very cool. Also had nearly perfect weather again today. A little cooler and a little bit of a wind but overall pretty nice.

Day 41

Today we worked on dynamic entry, mounted and dismounted patrol techniques in an urban area, react to ambush both mounted and dismounted. We actually had vehicles because the supply officer woke up for just a moment and signed for them. Out to Range 74 with us! Where resides a complete small town built of cinder block, consisting of around a dozen buildings. Small, ranch style houses clear up to three story apartment complexes and city buildings. Using the crawl, walk, run method of instruction, we advanced clear up to the crawl phase before some of our officers who have been incarcerated here the longest began to revolt.

Seems the dynamic entry class, though well done, was focusing on police type tactics rather than Army doctrine. Since most of these guys had been through a similar class at a previous Fort, they were fully aware of what Army doctrine is in this arena. They were not pleased and the instructor shortly become not as satisfied as he had been.

One other instructor received a little informal counseling because of the language he was using around some of our female soldiers. He’s an MP with combat experience and has the vocabulary to go with. Still, you have to maintain situational awareness and watch what’s coming out of your pie hole.

By late in the day, one of our high speed Captains had taken over the dynamic entry class and was running teams through drills. People were having lots of fun but that didn’t keep some from asking the pertinent questions.

“We’re Civil Affairs. Would we be likely to be busting into places on raids?”

“Um, well, no. But it’s great training!”

Yup. Great training, lots of fun but, no matter how good it tastes, it’s still artificial filler.

Wa Wa Brigade has had our leave requests for nearly three weeks now. This should be a simple process. Fill out the form. Turn in the form. Their A Company Commander signs the forms. Their Personnel section then takes care of maintaining the leave log and signing soldiers in and out from leave.

Over three weeks, they did nothing. Our personnel specialist, PFC K, and our S-1, MAJ G both spent the bulk of today sorting out the mess. Our CSM tried to educate the A Company First Sergeant in how to do her part but, he was talking to pure bone.

SSG Holmes is walking around with his arm in a sling. The doctors feel he may have torn something in his shoulder.

Day 42
Back out to Range 74. Moving to the run phase of react to ambush while mounted. COL K and I helped out by acting as OPFOR. (Always great fun) Unfortunately, the range had been signed out to a unit of MPs, who folded up shop by 1000. This shut down the range and by the time we sorted it out and Range Control was ready to let us use the range on our own, everyone had already turned in ammo, cleaned his weapon, and was ready to head back in to garrison. We were only scheduled to train to noon anyway, so we just folded up our tents and went home. Range Control people were actually very good about all this, it just took too long for messages to go back and forth.

The leave process is still messed up but, our folks are making headway. A couple of soldiers who had only been able to get on flights this afternoon went down to sign out, in a rush because their ride vanished and they suddenly had to catch a van up to Raleigh-Durham. One got signed out OK and got a copy of his leave form. The other signed out but couldn’t get the leave form because the A Company Commander had gone to lunch and hadn’t bothered to sign maybe half of the forms!

We finally got this one taken care of, and we’ll be faxing it out to the soldier so that he’ll be legal. Oh, and our little PFC, who’s been slaving away to fix these problems? Now he’s been drafted to take care of the Wa Wa Brigade leaves, too, because their personnel can’t handle it AND some of them have already LEFT on leave, without doing their jobs! These folks really know how to take care of soldiers!

SSG Holmes is out of the sling today but he says the doctor has put him on a temporary profile and will be wanting an MRI when we get back off of leave. He can’t wear his IBA, or carry more than 20 pounds, or run, or do sit ups or push ups, or just about anything else. His greatest fear is that he’ll be put on medical hold and have to stay as part of Wa Wa Brigade.

Well, off to get this posted and then to bed. Flying tomorrow!

Late update:

The day before going off on leave, we finally got the name tapes and other accouterments for our new ACU uniforms. This is the stuff that was ready two days after the uniforms were issued but then couldn’t be found. Then, it was ‘going to be ready in a week.’ Then, it was ‘it’s in storage somewhere.’ The uniforms were issued eighteen days ago. What took so long for this stuff, which is all off the shelf stuff except for the name tapes themselves? Well, and I quote, “ACUs are for deployment, not for training.” Which would certainly explain why there are so many troops all over this post wearing them for training, including the bozo who made the above statement. I’m too tired to keep throwing my hands in the air like this.