FHL Day 11

Yikes, the last few days have been a blur. We have been exposed to a great amount of information in the last couple of days, and it looks like the last few we have here are packed as well. I have spent more time thinking to myself in these past 72 hours than I have so far, and I think I'll reflect on those thoughts a little as I keep blogging our training here and throughout this deployment.

Day 9 kicked off with a bang, but not the kind we had hoped for. We were supposed to be on the machine gun ranges all day, firing the M249 SAW, M240B, M2 HBMG, and the Mark19, but there was a change of plans. There is a saying in the Army that is quite popular but hard to deal with, "Adapt and Overcome". It has many applications, from plans that occur in the field, combat, or training. Ours cam in training this last Sunday. The area up here at FHL is extremely dry, and brush fires are started weekly and sometimes even daily. In fact, I can't think of a time in the last 3 years since I've been coming here that I didn't see a brush fire. They are usually huge, consuming thousands of acres at a time. Well when we shoot the machine guns, we use what is called a combat mix of 4 to 1. This means that every fifth round in the link of bullets is a tracer. What makes a tracer a tracer is the coating on the projectile itself burning as it rotates in flight. Well a burning bullet and tinder-style brush don't mix, so only about five soldiers got to shoot, and only their SAWs. The rest of use went to the EST 2000.

The EST 2000 is a training module that helps soldiers become familiar with the different weapon systems the Army has, without ever firing a live round. In short, it's an interactive video game. Think of playing Halo or COunterstrike on a big screen, while holding an M16 or sitting behind an M2 .50 cal! It is actually a great tool, and it's fun. The weapons all have infrared lasers that link them to the screen, and magnetic sensors that read the rounds you put in them. There are air compresors hooked up to each weapon, giving it the appropriate amount of air to emulate the recoil or 'kick' of that real weapon. So instead of shooting live rounds on the machine gun ranges, we were all familiarized on the EST 2000. As much as I love to blast away on the M2 .50 cal, the EST 2000 was way better for us as a unit. We got to see which soldiers paid attention in the classes and which ones didn't. We also got to practice aiming and communicating the different roles of the weapons. The scenarios helped with that, allowing the SAW gunners a chance to lay down suppressing fire on the troops, while the M240B guys could hit up the light vehicles and troop transports, saving the tanks and the choppers for Ma Duece. All in all, it wasn't what we thought is was going to be, but we followed the "Adapt and Overcome" saying and kicked ass while doing so. AND, we were done around 1100hrs instead of taking all day. We chilled out the rest of the day, and we even had a inter-platoon soccer game, in which everyone kicked my ass. I am NOT a soccer kind of guy, but I played anyway.

Which brought me to ponder: would I have played soccer with the guys in my unit 2 years ago? 1 year ago? I don't think I would have, which is why I thought about it in the first place. I feel more connected to this group. Not saying I feel all warm and fuzzy about everyone, because I definitely don't, but I do feel more connected to more of them than I would have a few years back or even a year ago. I have experienced so much in the past 12 to 18 months, and it has really changed my views on my relationships with my family and friends, and with the guys in my unit. I have also become more cognizant of how much I affect other people's lives, especially those directly around me. In years past, I have acted selfishly, burned bridges, and hurt people I loved, all without really seeing it. I can't explain why, nor can I excuse any of it, but I can reflect on it and ask forgiveness from any I have hurt or wronged. And I have, more recently, begun to 'bounce back' if you will, and make sure I don't commit the same errors again. That means becoming more familiar with the group, getting to know the people around me better, and just generally being more aware of people's feelings. It didn't take this deployment to make me realize it, but I have never told anyone or written about how I feel about it. More on all this some other time, let's get back to the training.

Day 10 started pretty heavy, with an earlier start time than normal. We started out with a Reflexive Fire range in the morning followed by the M203 range right after. The Reflexive Fire range was quick, refreshing our movements with reflexive fire. Reflexive Fire helps the soldier to react to quick movements while clearing houses, rooms, and such. We all stand in a line with three small targets 25meters in front of us. There is a red square, a green triangle, and a blue circle on each target. The range officer calls out a target, and we then engage it with a controlled pair of shots. Basically like a 'double-tap', but the Army likes to call is a "controlled pair". There are five different firing points, at 25meters, 20meters, 15meters, 10meters, and 5meters. We advance to the next point after firing 2 controlled pairs at each point It is way more difficult than it seems, but I've had plenty of practice with it and I hit more than half the targets. Next, the M203 grenade range. The M203 is a 40mm grenade launcher that sits underneath the handrail of the M16. It can fire somewhere between 300 and 450 meters, depending on the ability of the firer. We popped off a few of those, and then it was off to our next class, ROE/Geneva/Hague.

The Rules Of Engagement, along with the Geneva and Hague Conventions, is an overall touchy subject. There is so much going on with the ROE over in Iraq and Afghanistan, it changes daily. In fact, just last week the top commanding general in Afghanistan declared that Mosques can no longer be fired upon, even if fleeing insurgents previously engaging US forces hide in them. SO, get ready to see the same kind of stuff we saw in Iraq when we first got there: guys shooting RPGs at us and running into mosques. It's the crap like that that gets us killed. AND, now in Iraq we are no longer an occupying force, but 'guests' of the Iraqis. This means we must follower THEIR laws. The biggest problem I have with that is regarding the capture of suspected insurgents and Taliban personnel. Now we have to have an IRAQI ARREST WARRANT GIVEN TO US BY AN IRAQI JUDGE TO DETAIN ANYONE. Talk about taking the bat out of our hands! There are so many incidents occurring because of these ridiculous changes, and I think it's all leading towards disaster. I also think it is due mostly to the media coverage of these wars. The Iraq and Afghanistan theaters have completely changed from the start of our operations there, all because of media. In Afghanistan, we used to be able to use whatever amount of force we saw necessary to eliminate threats. That included leveling a mosque if any Taliban or Al Qaeda were inside. Now, with all of our attention focused on the war there, soldiers are no longer allowed to fire on mosques and other historical stuff. The media blows everything out of proportion, covering only events that help their cause whether it be liberal or conservative. It happens on both sides. The media also limits what our soldiers can do. Look up the book "Lone Survivor", it's a book about a Navy SEAL that didn't kill the 2 goat herders that saw him because he thought the media might find out. They later gave away his team's position, getting all of them, and many other top trained SEALs, killed in Afghanistan. ROE is difficult to understand, and even more difficult to follow while in combat or conflict. But we got through the class without too much trouble, at least for now.

We had another after-dinner-chow class too, which really sucked. We covered the DAGR (pronounced 'dagger'), a high tech and secretive GPS system the US uses in theater to get around. This is like the stuff you see in movies, with all the GPS systems you've ever seen combined into one. Not too difficult to use, but we definitely had to go through some instruction before we went out and used them. Which brings me to today.

Today, Day 11, was just plain hard. We had Land Navigation all day. We ran two different routes today. The first was with just a compass and three points. We had to plot the points, find the distance between them, and then find the best route based on terrain. It wasn't too difficult, as we had roads running by all of our points and round trip was only about 1,100. It started to get pretty hot out, but we were full of energy so all was well until we found out our next task. The second route we took the DAGR with us out to our first point, which was about 900meters away. From there we were given our azimuths and the distance to the next point. Following an azimuth over rough terrain sucks, and dragging a female in our group sucked even more. We stopped too many times for entirely too long, and we adjusted our routes to accommodate for her injured foot or something. Apparently she was fine to go to the pool just a few minutes ago, but she couldn't walk up a hill a few hours ago. Anyway, we got off track and couldn't recover our course. 5 hours and thousands of meters later, we made it back to base without hitting any of our points. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy with our performance. But hey, it was a learning experience and just plain good PT for us.

Tomorrow we have Combative courses all day, and I know on Friday we have the Shoot House. I'll explain all that later, my dogs are tired!

-Mac