JRTC

I'm leaving for JRTC (Joint Readiness Training Center) in Ft. Polk, Louisiana tomorrow. Wish me luck as we get our asses handed to us by the best opfor in the world.

Army Speak

One of the hardest things about training up and being in constant Army surroundings is the lack of things to talk about when you call home. Most people, unless they are prior service, have no idea what the heck you are talking about. If I call home to complain about standing around at the ECP for 6 hours, doing EPW search, filling out my CPA forms, and then transferring a detainee to the BIF, you're not going to have a clue what I'm talking about. Be understanding when your soldier calls home. It’s just as frustrating for us to not have anything to talk about as it is for you.

Be understanding of how hard your soldier might have it. Now don't get me wrong, there are some soldiers who don't do a whole lot, and aren't deprived of much of anything. I don't hold that against them, it’s just their MOS and their situation within the working machine. There are some of us though who have to deal with only a couple hours sleep at a time, irregular meals (if you even get a complete meal), being constantly on the go, wearing body armor at all times, mounting heavy weapons systems, doing constant pre-combat checks and inspections, working all hours of the day and night, and always running on an empty tank but being forced to drive on anyway. Now try doing it for days or weeks on end, and you'll start to see into the mental and physical state of your typical infantryman. Sometimes it’s tough to keep your spirits up through all this, especially when it drags on and on.

So next time you're talking to your grunt, whether it be your husband, father, brother, or boyfriend, be understanding when they don't give a rats ass how hard your day was at the local retail store, college, or whatever it is you do. While you're in bed, sitting on the couch watching TV, or sleeping in your nice warm bed, they’re out training hard so they can properly do their job without getting killed or wounded. So please, try and be understanding. We don't mean to be blunt and straight-forward, it's just how we have to be to get things accomplished.

Wet Feet

I'm at the ECP by 0530. It starts raining (pouring) promptly at 0600. My brand spankin new waterproof Desert Boots are soaking wet by 0645. I have over 5 hours left in my shift. Another wonderful start to a wonderful day.

Charlie Foxtrot

Today is definitely a Charlie Foxtrot Day. Normally I would say it's a Golf Foxtrot day, but that was yesterday during the battalion exercise.

An extra 10 points to anyone who can figure out what those terms mean. :)

Craziness

Things have been absolutely crazy around here lately. Between all the different missions we have going on, we're on 24 hour call. That pretty much means you only sleep when you can. I should be sleeping right now and making up for the 4 hours sleep I got from 0100 to 0500, but I figure since we're on duty the next 24 + hours, what's the use? I'm going to be tired now and I'm going to be tired later so I might as well be tired now and stay up and get some stuff done. I've learned that if you can be tired and still do your job properly you can take advantage of the extra time and use it to square away yourself and your Joes.

A lot of people don't know what I do for a job in the Army National Guard, and here on this deployment. My primary MOS is 11B, which is Infantry, typically called a grunt. According to the Go Army Website, the definition of an Infantryman is as follows:

The infantry is the main land combat force and backbone of the Army. It's equally important in peacetime and in combat. The Infantryman's role is to be ready to defend our country in peacetime and to capture, destroy and repel enemy ground forces during combat.

The following are some duties expected of Infantrymen:

• Perform as a member of a fire team during drills and live combat
• Perform hand-to-hand combat
• Aid in the mobilization of vehicles, troops and weaponry
• Assist in reconnaissance missions
• Operate two-way radios and signal equipment
• Process prisoners of war and captured documents
• Learn to use, maintain and store various combat weaponry (rifles, machine guns, anti-tank mines, etc.)

To put it into civilian terms without too much false bravado, we shoot stuff and blow shit up. If there is a bad guy, our mission is to kill, capture, or otherwise eliminate them. You know that guy on the news with the RPG? The scumbag making IED's? The guys that makes the suicide vests to blow up women and children? Our job is to eliminate those guys. Our job is also to win hearts and minds, and protect the good people of the world from the bad, whether they be American, Iraqi, or whatever. That's my job, and I love it. In what other job in the world do you get to roll down the road with 50 cal mounted on a swiveling turret on top of your Hummer (not that pussy civilian SUV but an actual up-armored HUMMVV)? Where else are you given an M4 and an M9 Pistol to carry around every day? Sorry ladies, women aren't allowed in the infantry.

So greatly summarized, that's what I do. So next time you see boots on the ground doing a patrol through an Iraqi village, with little kids gathered around, chances are its a bunch of grunts doing their job.

The quote of the day: "Salzman, I think you gave me ass warts." Don't ask, for god sakes don't ask.

Trendy

Ok, I'll admit it, I went ahead and did it. I joined myspace. Why? Cause a few of my log rolling friends are on there, as well as my fiancee. Go ahead, call me trendy, tar and feather me and leave me passed out in the gutter.

On the upside, I did post a few recent pics (unfortunately you'll need to log in or create an account to see them though). The pictures are here. Don't worry, I don't plan on doing my blog over there. Being that I've been blogging since the year 2000 (that's right kids, I've been at blogging for over 5 years!) I was a member of blogger back when Pyra Labs (aka Evan Williams) used to tell you two days in advance when he was going to do updates to the system and blogger would be down. Hell, I remember when Blogger used to eat half your posts you made for no apparent reason, and you had to keep a manual text file backup. So in a way, I'm a bit old school when it comes to blogging. I'll either use blogger (which believe me has come a loooooooong ways since its beginning) or my own scripted CMS. So don't worry, I'll be staying here to blog. The trendy bug might have bit me in the ass, but not hard enough to make me jump.

I'm flying back to Camp Shelby, Mississippi (the bipolar state) Tuesday. Say your goodbyes and happy new years and merry xmas' and happy hanukkah while you can, because once it's back to training I have no idea how much I'll be around. I'll be busy training to save the world... or something like that.