FHL Day 15

Well we are almost our of here. Just basically checking the list of courses and running through the motions. All of the tactical training is pretty much over, we turn in our IBA today and I think we have another RFI issue before we leave. We still haven't been issued any new boots, socks, undershirts, or uniforms. This whole process has been kind of jacked up. We have a tone of extra crap to put on our weapons and tactical vests, but we don't have the basics. How that's supposed to work our is beyond me, but I hate running around in a dirty uniform. Plus we really had to get down and dirty for our training the last few days.

Day 12 seemed like it was going to be a cake walk compared to the Land Nav course the previous day, but it really wasn't. We had a full day of Combatives training, which covers hand-to-hand combat maneuvers the Army has put together. It's very much like what you would see in an MMA match or on one of the Ultimate Fighter shows, a mix of martial arts put together. They cover a lot of ground techniques, how to set up for this or how to escape that, but it's usually not covered in any depth. We have so many other means to take out the enemy before we actually resort to hands-on fighting. We are taught how to use our rifles as weapons without shooting, utilizing the butt stock like a club and also attaching bayonets on the muzzles. Actually, I've been told we are no longer authorized to use bayonets on our weapons, who thought of that I have no clue. I never really used it anyway, but it's nice to know I can. So we have our ammo, then the rifle itself, which brings us to the knife. The Army doesn't cover knife fighting, at least I've never seen the Technical Manual or Field Manual, but I've received some training with them I've employed myself in real life situations. Anyway, every soldier on the battlefield today they carry some sort of knife. I would much rather prefer being proficient with a knife than with my hands, but we still have to go through the training. We got through all of it, with a few good fighting matches towards the end of the day. Nobody was seriously injured, but a few guys had their feelings hurt from a certain someone...

Day 13 was an experiment, for us and the cadre here. We were trucked out to a new training facility, less than a year old. This was only the second training rotation to go through this new site, and the cadre's plan wasn't the best. We covered five stations: the M18A1 Claymore, NBC, securing buildings, Sniper Control, and the M67 Hand Grenade.
The Claymore mine is an "oldie but a goodie" as they say. We hardly ever use them anymore, but they are the most effective antipersonnel mine I've ever seen. Depending on terrain, a few pounds of C4 in the back of the Claymore send about 200 metal marbles and a few less metal washers out to cut through enemy personnel coming towards it. We normally mount them on the ground, but it can be mounted at eye-level or above for different uses. It first came with a wire you had to lead out and cover, and then detonate with an electric charge, but now they have wireless kits that convert it. Easy to use, relatively light, and extremely effective.

The NBC training was gay, and the instructor seemed like she was on crack. We basically had to don all of our protective gear and walk around the perimeter in it. Doing ANYTHING in all this crap sucks. It could be 40 below outside and you would STILL get hot as hell in the suit. It's a pain to take off too. Hopefully we don't ever use them. I've never taken any of mine out of the package.

My squad kicked ass in the next training exercise. We had to approach a building and secure just the outside of it. Pretty simple right? Well if you don't have your shit together it's not. The OPFOR, or Opposition Force, was armed with AK-47 paintball guns, while we had M4s. The paint balls were filled with olive oil, so it was pretty greasy if you go hit. We had a six man team approach, and as soon as we hit contact from the enemy on the top floor we took cover. We split up in two man teams, and bounded or 'leap-frogged' up to the front. This is basically having one team run while the other lays suppressive and covering fire, then reversing the action to get both teams up to the building. Piece of cake for us, but we saw some other groups go through that didn't do so well. The point is to keep moving and secure the building as fast as possible, without taking any hits. Some groups didn't find good cover, others bunched up and got taken out by RPGs or grenades. Having too many soldiers in one position is bad, but being too spread out is worse. Anyway, we took the building easily without getting hit.

Next we went over sniper and counter-sniper measures. Mostly this was just just stating the obvious pros and cons to snipers, and how to combat them. Snipers are extremely effective tools, as they can do MUCH more than just shoot one target. Sniper teams serve as forward observers, calling in artillery on certain locations. They can also gather intelligence and relay troop numbers and positions back to their superiors for ambushes. The Army has anti-sniper methods it uses, most of which are classified. But really it comes down to common sense. Don't stand out in the open, don't stay still, and think about what to do if there was a sniper BEFORE the sniper hits.

The grenade training was a bust. Seems like the Army may be spending money in the wrong places, as all we had were 2 M68 practice grenades. Basically just pulling the pin and throwing a metal grenade shell with a blasting cap in it. It doesn't do much but make a really loud 'bang' and a bit of the explosion comes out the hole in the bottom. Yay, that was fun.

Day 14 was the best so far. We had urban operations training all day. Clearing rooms is probably the most dangerous part of being a soldier. You have to breach and enter a room that you know nothing about, being prepared for anything inside. There can be bombs, insurgents, fire, babies, women, children, people sleeping, people shooting, all sorts of things. Yesterday we used four man stack teams to clear houses with single rooms, houses with multiple rooms, and the best of all: The Shoot House. The Shoot House is the best training facility I have seen on any base yet, even topping the HEAT rollover training we had a few weeks ago. It's a setup of a house, with no roof. There's a catwalk above it, where the instructors can see into the hallways and rooms. The OPFOR were running around in there, hiding in rooms and ready to pop us with their paintball markers. The thing that made it even more realistic was the fact that we weren't using paintballs, we were using .68 caliber rubber balls. They really hurt. We had to run in with two stack teams of four. I was the number four man on my team, and my Lieutenant was the number two guy. As the four man, I provide rear security until I'm called up to kick the door in. When I come up to the door, I give it a quick and quiet check for wires, booby traps, and to see if it's locked. If it's clear, I get to rear back and turbo-kick it down! There's nothing like putting a boot to a door, it's just that fun. After I kick it open I watch the rear as the rest of the team rolls in and clears the room. I then have to come in, kick the door back just to make sure there isn't a hadji back there, and then we clear the room. After we exit and stack back up, I close what's left of the door and mark the room clear with an 'X' with chalk or paint. Pretty simple eh? Again, only if your team has it's shit together. We bound with the other team too, they clear a room and then we clear a room. We have to constantly adjust for hallways, furniture, and the OPFOR firing from hidden positions. There are a lot of danger zones to cover, and everyone has to trust in their team to cover each others ass. Almost every other team that went in yesterday got shot, and we only had one hit. Our front man got shot in the hand, but I think it was a ricochet. One of the rooms we breached had an IED at eye-level right in front of the door. I saw it a split second after I booted the door, and I yelled it out. I had to pull our front man andthe LT our of there by their collars. We cleared out of the room fast enough and didn't sustain any casualties. We also found a weapons cache underneath a bed in one of the rooms, and my front guy didn't recognize what was right next to the bed when he checked it. It was an M15 Anti-Tank Mine, with a radio on it and wires sticking out everywhere. I yelled for everyone to get out, making sure I was the last on in. After that the action pretty much slowed. We had taken out all the OPFOR and searched all the rooms, finding all the IEDs and weapons caches. Overall a great exercise, and especially great because I didn't get shot. Plus, I didn't have to fire my weapon. If that was how it always went in the real world, everything would be great, but it's not and room clearing really sucks.

Today was our last day of instruction. We had an IED class this morning that covered the newest kinds of roadside bombs and tactics the insurgents are using. Most are pretty negotiable, meaning we have a way to notice and defeat them. There's one however that is particularly frightening. It's a Russian-made grenade that can pierce through our up-armored HUMVEES. The grenade looks similar to the WWII stick grenades the Nazis used in the trenches and fields. The thing that makes this one more lethal than any other grenade is the fact that it's a parachute stabilized shape charge with copper inside. When it is thrown, the parachute deploys and insures that the shape charge is pointed directly down. The charge then explodes, sending molten copper through whatever is underneath it and igniting anything combustible. It really jacks up our vehicles, and it's so easy for a hadji bastard to hide that we can't see it coming. Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du7OInH1PwQ

Tomorrow we just have to clean up the barracks and pack all our stuff. We have to be out of our bay by 2400hrs, but our bus doesn't pick us up until 0200hrs which kind of sucks. I've got a few connecting flights, and then I'll be solid at Camp Atterbury.

-Mac