Kuwait: Day 3

Not much to report from the beach front. It's been nice having downtime here, although there isn't a ton to do. We've had a brief or two and done some admin, other than that it's been refreshingly dull. Spending a lot of time in the awesome USO here, about to head over for a taping of "Attack of the Show" for G4, which is one of my favorite cable channels. I will be in the crowd attempting to seduce host Olivia Munn with mind powers. Stand by for results.

Heading out to the field for a few days tomorrow. More convoy training; back in the turret. Should be back on Saturday, here in Kuwait for an indefinite amount of time after that. Having already posted pictures of sand, I'll save that part for some more momentous occasion... should one occur.

The process of going away

So - now that I've got a little time on my hands I purchased a wireless card from what appears to be a reputable tin hut here on base and I'm now sitting in Starbucks (yes, that Starbucks. Pretty surreal) with decent internet. I did have to buy yet another power adapter to add to my collection from Europe. I kind of assumed we'd use our technology in our base that we built, but apparently I'm the idiot in this equation.

I digress. Left FT Jackson on Saturday after a few hard hours of goodbyes and other assorted life maintenace. Took a bus to the same small airport at which we arrived to find that the local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post had set up a farewell for us (as they do for every NIACT class apparently). It was awesome. I'd guess around a hundred veterans and volunteers showed up to give us tons of free food, drinks, and assorted goodies, and otherwise just wish us well. From WWII vets to soldiers who've been deployed longer than they've been home in the last six years, we got to hang out with a ton of awesome people who showed up just to send us off. Pretty cool.

One thing you should know about me if you don't already is that I'm a bit of a gear-head. I love machines and gadgets of all types and I'm very easily amused/impressed by them. The plane waiting for us was a wide-body DC10 - something I'd never encountered before. It's not all that long an aircraft but it's REALLY stocky looking and it's got a massive engine on the tail that looks like it was strapped on as an afterthought when the builders realized the thing couldn't strip the paint off the houses it flew over and they really wanted to leave no doubt. My kind of vehicle.

We get in this thing and thankfully about every other seat was empty and we had a ton of room - a good start, but I didn't realize what I was dealing with until we started moving. I tend to fly a lot these days and it's usually always on something like a 727 or A320 or some other dinky little short hopper being pressed into service for 6 hour flights. Not the worst thing in the world but it seems like it's about equivalent to riding the bus. On the contrary, the wide-body DC10 does not play such games. It is an incredibly solid plane and feels insanely powerful. It looked ridiculous on the runway because it's WAY too big for the airport we took off from, but as soon as the pilot throttled up it felt like we just jumped up and left. The only shorter take-off I've experienced was from the deck of the USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, and that took a little help. Amazing. No turbulence, beautiful landing. All the way to Kuwait, kicking the ass of every other airborne object along the way. I want one.

Rant off. Actually got some sleep on the flight. Didn't get a window seat. We flew over Iraq on the way in apparently but I didn't get to see any of it... not that I won't be getting more than my fair share soon enough, but I don't know how many opportunities I'll have to see it from a safe altitude. Landed in Kuwait about 6PM local time - a full 1.5 days on the calendar after we left FT Jackson. I truly feel cheated out of that time. Pretty surreal.

What I didn't know is that Kuwait is actually on the moon. This place is nuts. Can't see the sky because of all the sand in the air, and it isn't even sand stormy. And speaking of the sand, it's closer to brown flour than something you might find at the beach. The same stuff has been blowing around and getting trampled for thousands of years here and it's turned it into a fine powder that lifts off the ground in the slightest breeze and makes a beeline straight for my eyes. Sweet. Not so hot yet, but you can tell it wants to be.

We're now at an undisclosed location in the middle of the desert for a few days doing admin stuff and relaxing (purposefully, which is nice) before heading even farther out into the desert for some more exensive weapons and convoy training, after which we will short-hop into Iraq and start the party. Should have decent internet access for the remainder of the time we're on this base, won't have any during training, and can't tell when I'll be back up in Iraq. Stay tuned.

For those of you who know me, I now have a Skype account which is the easiest and best way to communicate because you get to stare at my beautiful face and I won't think it's weird. Communicate with me by the normal channels with which we communicate and I'll give you my contact info. I believe I'm 7 hours ahead of eastern standard time, 10 ahead of pacific. Could be wrong. I don't even know what day it is.

Thanks for reading - it is quite meaningful to me that you take the time to stop by and ramble along with me, and I imagine over the next indefinite number of months it will become more so. Let me know you're out there - I miss you all!

VFW greeting at the Columbia, SC airport.

Girl Scout cookies. No Samoas. Boo.

This old sailor has been kicking ass since WWII, kept it going through Korea, and spent his Saturday letting me know he appreciates me. To say that our conversation was humbling does not begin to do it justice.

The Beast.

VFW, NIACT, and Task Force Marshall staff shaking our hands on the way out.

I carried on justice.

Staging area at the airport in Kuwait.

Dominoes with perverts. Actually, those are just their cruise 'staches. Long story - Navy tradition. I am contemplating growing one of my own - stand by for developments.


Water and I speak different languages.

Tent City - living large.

So large.

My life in 4 sea bags, a back pack, a pistol belt, and a cot or less. Carried all but the cot at once last night.

In case of mortar or rocket attack, here's a C. Thanks.

Not a lot of note around here.

Boots on the ground

I have arrived in Kuwait. More details and of course photo documentation to follow when I have my own computer. I'm imposing on the good people of the USO at the moment and I do not want to take up a machine for too long. I'll get to work when I can come back with my laptop.

I feel like I'm on the moon, and the 26th of April never truly existed for me. Somewhere in the sky over.... somewhere, an entire day of my life was sucked up into the void. Hopefully someone is keeping track of these things. I'd like to be able to call in my markers at some point should I find myself in a tight spot and need to buy some time.

Late/Last Night Picture Dump

I had some parting words planned but go time has crept up on my quite suddenly and I find myself sitting on a picnic table typing in the dark outside at 0200 to get something up before I leave. Up, Up, and away tomorrow - off to Kuwait for some fun in the sun and my first taste of sand. And hopefully camel spiders. No I didn't make that website. Yes I wish I had.

If we haven't discussed camel spiders in person I will post something substanial in the coming weeks. I have a side quest attached to this mission involving some really nasty little creatures that I am completely fascinated with. I want to make one my pet.

I survived the convoy. Learned a lesson about weapon maintenance. Even more to think about. Doing things in a combat zone requires a serious amount of preparation and attention to detail just to get out the gate. I'm getting my checklists in order, but there are a whole lot of them. I didn't kill any civilians this time, so that's an improvement. I will work up some posts on the plane tomorrow - what else is there to do on a 16+/- hour flight. For now, show and tell.



JAGs getting ready for Land Nav.


Not lost. Just taking our time... and you know.... checking some stuff out along the way.


Land Nav team.

Regulators mounting up.

The view from the cheap seats.

Duder manning the street sweeper.

Dealing with some unidentified nastiness downrange.

These are the boots that will take me there, and hopefully back. Only took me a month and a major credit card to find them. The standard issue desert boots are like cheese graters for heels. Thanks lowest bidder!

That's all for now. I bought the ticket, I'm taking the ride.

The Final Countdown

First - if you can read that title without the most baddass synthesizer line in rock history imediately kicking off in your head, then you're dead to me.

Second - today is our final day of training at NIACT. My platoon is gearing up for our convoy later this morning. There are two patrols going out before mine, but since Alfa Company runs by the cluster we all had to get up at 0-dark-thirty to eat breakfast together in a classroom and see the first group off. We're stocking up on ammo, cleaning weapons, and doing other important tasks (obviously internet nerdery falls high on my list of pre-combat prep work) prior to our mission brief and rock drill a few hours from now. What's a rock drill, you ask? Regardez, s'il vous plait.



A rock drill is a really low tech power point presentation. It consists of drawing up a map in the dirt, grabbing any visual aids available (hence the "rock"), and rehearsing a miniature mission plan prior to heading out. Above is our fearless convoy commander doing an initial rock drill yesterday when we received our first intel brief. We're expecting an ambush and mutiple IED's. Given the fact that I'm the 240 gunner in the convoy commander's vehicle and the idea is to test all hands to make sure we can jump into any position in the convoy if someone else goes down, we're all assuming our truck is going to get hit hard on the actual mission and both of us will probably die to create a little chaos. Sweet. O for 1.

Another high point of the last few days was Urban Ops. We learned some basic house-to-house fighting tactics yesterday. Though short but sweet once again, it was useful information and fun to put into motion. We formed an all JAG entry team for the practical exercise and received the highest marks of the day from our drill instructor.

Received out transportation brief at the end of the day. I will be leaving the US this week, although we'll have a few down days to enjoy the sucking void that is Camp McCrady before our flight. Local folks are taking leave and getting out to see friends and family. Those of us who are tourists will continue to sit around in a foul squad bay and be served meals by a grown man who wears a superman hat and refers to everyone he talks to as "cuz." Perhaps if I get motivated I'll take the half hour shuttle drive into civilization and buy more crap I probably won't need. We'll be in Kuwait a lot longer than we'd been told previously. At least a week - I was expecting 3 days. Sounds like there will be some good down time before we head into bat country though. I will do my best to keep in touch.

Show and tell time.



Kicking in doors with my new boss.



JAG team about to handle the truth.



El Duderino doing his thing.



240 rounds - the red tips are tracers.



HEAT trainer. It's a HMMWV roll-over simulator. We all piled in with our full kit on and got flipped to practice getting out of the vehicle in case we turn over in a ditch (very common, often fatal) or get turtled by an IED. This was very valuable stuff - it's amazingly disorienting to roll over in the thing and extremely tough to get around wearing so much heavy, restricting gear. Just finding my seatbelt latch was a task when hanging upside down from the ceiling, which used to be floor. Then of course there's the graceful drop onto your head, and it's on to awkwardly groping for the door handle, hoping your door isn't the one smashed shut. After a few tries I got an effective routine down and if I can remember it at the moment of truth I am sure it will come in handy.

Heading out soon - happy trails.

Play time is over

As we've been moving through the course here we've been combining skills and tactics learned in simpler exercises earlier along the way. This is all culminating next week in our urban operations and convoy exercises, which are full scale simulations of operatins in theater complete with a mock Iraqi town and actors playing insurgents and local civilians. We'll be doing more extensive stuff like this when we reach Kuwait next week, but our first taste of the "real" thing will come on Monday.

The army has some pretty sophisticated training equipment these days. We were cycled through a few quite large simulator buildings in what is know as the Engagement Skills Trainer (EST). (that should be a working link - I'm getting the hang of this) It's basically a scary Duck Hunt. Two squads of five work in a dark room with a video wall that puts us through real life scenarios based on differing test parameters. . We carry real weapons equipped with a CO2 system to simulate recoil and a barrel-mounted laser to track where our shots hit on the screen. It's not the most realistic thing in the world, but it's very good training compared to sitting on a range shooting paper

The two scenarios we ran yesterday were night fire and shoot/no shoot. The good news is I'm shooting very accurately. I hit 32/35 targets on the night fire exercise. My score was highest, average was probably around 20, and the next behind me with 29 was none other than my new boss. The bad news is I placed some accurate rounds in a few people who probably didn't deserve to be shot during the shoot/no shoot exercise. It's designed to put your discipline to the test and just about everybody falters the first few times, but it still brought some difficult realities to bear.

My squad was manning an outpost on the wire outside of our Foward Operating Base (FOB) during a battle just outside the gate. We controlled access to the gate, so the test was determining who was friendly and should be let through and who was hostile and should be engaged. Our forward visibility was obscured past about 20 meters due to a ton of smoke in the air and people were running in and out of it all over the place. The first to come out of the smoke at us was a black SUV driven by a guy with his arm out the window. As he came closer we coulD see it was a contractor badge and we correctly let him through without firing. Next came a much stiffer test as a group of Marines came at us, weapons at the ready, carrying a few wounded with them. I believe our instructor was supposed to tell us that a patrol was in front of us in the fight, but as he failed to do that, we very nearly opened up on our own guys. Thankfully we recognized their uniforms in time and didn't fire. They approached at an all-out sprint and were covering to the rear as they went by, leading me to believe that whatever was coming after them was a threat. A few seconds later the background gunfire became quite a bit lounder and from somewhere in the smoke I heard a voice shout the infamous insurgent battle cry "Allahu Akbar." Suddenly 4 arab males ran out of the smoke straight at us looking every bit like they were about to attack us, so I popped my safety off and put two center mass controlled pairs (I shot them each twice in the chest - on purpose - that's the controlled part) on the closest two.

Before I could hit the third the lights came on, the scenario stopped, and a big grey box appeared on the screen with the phrase "JUSTIFY YOUR ACTIONS" front and center. Our instructor, a fairly intense retired army infantry soldier with significant trigger time, got in my face and asked me in his own gentle way to explain myself. With a seriously sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach I realized that I had basically nothing. I heard allahu akbar, I saw arab men, and I killed them. That was it. Nothing else. They turned out to be completely innocent and unarmed. I know all of the rules. I have made a living out of finding a way an exception or a way around them and I like to think I'm pretty good at it, but I knew right away I was done for. I fired without positive ID. If this wasn't fantasy land I'd be headed straight for the brig, probably vilified by the press, and I'd have to live with the fact that I'd shot innocent people for the rest of my life.

I've had several moments of revelation at this course that have increased my already hefty respect for combat operators but this has been the most significant. Beyond being able to move around effectively with a ton of gear on, deal with indescribable stress and discomfort, and fire weapons with precision under the worst of circumstances, there is also an extremely difficult mental task to accomplish in distinguishing friend from foe and when to shoot. Often this means our guys must wait until they are in greater danger than necessary simply to satisfy the rules. Everybody gets the benefit of the doubt until they present some verifiable evidence of hostility. I should know better, but under those circumstances I just acted. That additional moment of discipline required to wait for PID is something that I don't think will be easily acquired. It goes against every conscious desire and subconscious self preservation instinct a person has. One thing that has become infinitely clear to me is that it is absolutely impossible for anyone in this country to second guess a bad shoot/bad kill situation. A whole lot of people are up in arms about some situations involving Blackwater personnel lately, and maybe rightly so, but I doubt they'd squawk so loudly if they'd played a little Duck Hunt with me.

I was legitimately affected by that mistake. I guess that means it's good training.

Did some land navigation today - got out in the woods with a topographical map and a compass and had to reach some plot points on foot. Good fun once we got underway, but like a lot of the training here it wasn't substantial enough. Many of the sessions just brush the surface and could be a lot more effective if they were more in depth and difficult. If I need this stuff I'd like to have already had my butt kicked by it here so I'll be better equipped to give it back downrange later on. Pics coming.

Side note - I bought Johnny Cash's last album "American IV - The Man Comes Around" just before I left CA and I have to say it's amazing. Almost perfect. I take issue with some of the back-up vocals. That's a nit-picky thing to be upset about I know, but I have a lot of time on my hands and not many options to expend it. It sounds like he knew he was about to die when he recorded it so the whole record has a bit of a fatalistic feel, but it's so genuine and simple. Buy it.

NIACT Week 2 Recap

Week 2 has flown by and I haven't been able to poist much due to a combination of lack of free time and (USD law'ers will appreciate this) some bastard setting up a peer-to-peer network on our wi-fi which basically hogs all the bandwidth and prevents anyone else from accessing it. It's a trick to get you to log on to their "Free Public WiFi" network so they can do all manner of nastiness to and through your computer. That has been resolved, hopefully with violence, and we're back in action.

We've been shooting a lot this week and it's been good times. I qualified on the M16 under Army standards but did not do anywhere near as well as I'd have liked. The course consists of shooting down a long range bordered by trees with pop-up targets at varying differences from 50 - 300 meters at different locations across the range. I was doing respectably on my first run when a bead of sweat ran down the inside of my glasses (which are strapped on underneath my helmet, meaning I can't take them off) directly in my line of sight, forcing me to fire underwater and costing me a few targets. Between rounds I tried to wipe it off with my glove which had some kind of schmeg on it that smeared all over my glasses and removed no moisture, so the second round turned into a massive CF and I had to settle for a less than ideal score. It's just about pride once you hit 23/40 and qualify, and I did significantly better than that, but I could have done better.

Have to run - more to come later today.



My rack (top - shitty), at the end of the day, ready for bedtime at 8PM. Waking up at 0400 every day will do that to you.



Long view of the M16 qual course.

Top 10 best days ever

Despite being one of the longest and most tiring days I've worked, yesterday was AWESOME. Begining at 0330 we spent the day firing the majority of guns in the arsenal. Did some reactive fire and the M16 stress shoot, which is a simulated attack begining in a HMMWV and ending in running across a firing range with different cover set up and engaging targets from a variety of firing positions while being berated by drill sergeants all along the way. Heavy weapons familiarization was the best. Video to follow.







Amazing.

Photo Documentation

A few pics from the last couple of days that I was unable to post last night. Internet here is atrocious. Fear the Veggie Burger. The last is the dude abiding during a perfect run on the M9 stress test this morning. I ate the bar.

Yes.

For the past two days the American tax payer has paid me a pretty good wage to crawl around in the sand and shoot a machine gun. MY machine gun.

Yes.

I can't help but feel that somehow on a grander, cosmic scale, this is cheating.

Everything I ever thought was cool is happening here. As a child I had a fixation with gas masks. That was the coolest miltary gear to me. I wanted a gas mask - bad. After years of searching I found a half broken one that never fit at a thrift store once and I'd be willing to bet that sorry POS is still in my closet somewhere. Almost by accident I now own a gas mask. I didn't even appreciate the momentous occasion about to take place the day I was issued my mask until I was a few steps away from the sizing station. It's kind of amazing/disturbing that in the midst of such a serious exercise I can find some childish joy, but I have to say that at that moment I felt like an 8 year old on post-apocalyptic Christmas morning. Here's hoping I never need the damn thing but it sure is cool to cross little Mike's wish off the list.

We've been shooting a fair amount lately with a lot more to come. Having grown up a backwoods retard I thought I was pretty good with a musket, but I've found I have some room to improve when shooting things other than discarded farm equipment and beer cans. The techincal training here has been pretty good so far. Not learning a whole lot of new stuff but the excessive practice is making me a lot better. We're moving off the fixed ranges more to pop-up targets at different distances (out to 300 meters today - drilled it. All paper terrorists wasted. Sleep tight; you're welcome) and will be doing some stress shoots starting tomorrow. A stress shoot involves donning our full battle rattle and running around some kind of physical course to get us out of breath and exhausted before we fire. Don't know how I'm going to do with that - I've been pretty sick the last few days due to allergies/living in 2000 square feet with 40 dirty dudes/no sleep. I'm on the mend but definitely still depleted. No big deal. Motivated.

Given the bureaucracy uber alles environment I'm coming out of it's been a strange thing to realize that people actually make a living doing this stuff. I'm doing things I truly enjoy for the first time... maybe ever, and it's hard to believe that after all I had to push through to get here, this is my JOB. This is FUN. I always thought it'd be better to have a job that I hate so that I'd never bring it home with me. I'm beginning to think that was an erroneous approach to career planning. If I have any regret about joining the military it's that I didn't do so sooner when I was a little better at playing the young man's game. As tired and dirty and sore as I am at the moment, I truly look forward to what is to come from this deployment.

Side note - if you are ever offered a "Veggie Burger in Barbecue Sauce" MRE, you should destroy the person making the offer.

This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

NIACT day two has officially come and gone and life is getting more interesting by the hour. So far it's been a lot of hurry up and wait,, a lot of standing in line, and a whole lot of "hooah," which in army talk is interpreted as meaning "everything but 'no'" and is primarily used as both a question and as the only appropriate answer to that question. Yeah.

Every step of the way we've been padded down with more and more gear - I'm up to 3 full sea bags of stuff I need, one full of stuff I was issued for some reason but don't need, and still with NBC (Nuclear, Chemical, Biological) yet to come. The "need" will all be going forward with me, most prominently my body armor and weapon issue. It's a little weird to think that the things I'm carrying and wearing around right now will be the things that may save my life or end somebody else's when I'm in theater.

My IBA (Interceptor Body Armor) is WELL worn and has obviously been there and back at least once, as have both of my weapons, so at least I'll be accompanied by some experienced gear. I'll only be taking the M9 with me from here, which is good because the M16 they issued me is crap. I'll carry a rifle as needed in Iraq, but for my day-to-day activities on base I'll only need a pistol. This is both a welcome relief and a somewhat worrisome omission.

Altogether my full "battle rattle" with weapons and ammo is somewhere between 75 and 90 extra pounds. Pretty ridiculous. I have a huge amount of respect for the guys who run around and fight in this stuff all day.

Let me see your war face!!!

After a long night and an early flight from NAS Coronado courtesy of the USMC, I have arrived at FT Jackson in South Carolina for Navy Individual Augmentee Combat Training (NIACT). I'm going to try to keep the acronym talk to a minimum, but you can see why it's easier to say NIACT than this course's actual name, which is about a 4 on the obnoxious military jargon scale... which goes to 11. Had an outstanding time in San Diego - actually got butterflies in my stomach when we hit Del Mar on the way back. Kind of miss it. It was great to see everyone I had a chance to touch base with and I'm sorry I missed some of you, but there will be an even bigger party when I get back. Of course I went out in style on Friday at the beautiful and prestigious Catalina Lounge, my favorite bar on the planet. They refinished the shuffleboard table so the raw spots are gone and it's not such a homer's field. Annalis destroyed me. Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar... well, he eats you.

Definitely thought I was already a casualty when we attempted to land in Manhattan, Kansas to drop some people off at FT Riley. Slightly windy; pretty sure we landed sideways. I managed avoid screaming like a girl. After about about thirty seconds of silence following our eventual touchdown it was a relief to hear the rest of the plane exhale and utter a collective "Holy Shit!" and laugh off our first close call.

Most people in my group of about 300 seem to be going to Afghanistan, but I've crossed paths with a few who didn't get the memo like myself. The other TF 134 hot fills are here, and allegedly the oncoming CO, who will be my boss in Baghdad, is somewhere in the crowd. Gear issue is tomorrow at about O-dark-thirty and after that the fun begins!