03 August 2009

Days 93-96

27 July 2009  (Day 93- 18 days to go)

FTX DAY 1
Surprisingly, we didn't get woken up last night, and we slept until 0445 when we had to turn in our linens.  We came back upstairs, and made the decision to turn off the lights and go back to sleep.  We only got about a 15-20 minute nap in before lights came back on, because our drill sergeant had arrived downstairs, and the other three platoons had their lights on and were cleaning their bays.  I got up and took a nice shower, and then got dressed in ACUs.  This week, first platoon's fourth squad (the squad I am in) is duty squad.  That means when equipment needs to be moved, me and the eleven other guys in the squad move it or ride in the deuce to take it elsewhere, and we also have the job of serving the company food whenever it is delivered to us (catered food-- either unit pick up or field food).  So anyway, duty squad was called downstairs to take the duty equipment (ice sheets for heat casualties, stretchers, company board, gideon (flag), and a case of miscellaneous things needed throughout the day) and barriers out to the range that we would be training at for the day.  We loaded our rucks onto the back of the deuce, and then headed out to Malone Range 18.  When we got there, we unloaded our rucks, took off our battle rattle, and then went about unloading the rest of the truck.  We set up barricades at the nine lanes at the shooting range, made sure everything else was set up, and while we waited for ammo, ate MREs for breakfast.  I had chicken and dumplings (another great MRE!), which I didn't mind at all...way better than getting stuck with the vegetarian egg, cheese, and veggie omelette... BLAH!  When we were done eating, ammo arrived, so we spent about 90 minutes loading 15 rounds into some 700-800 magazines.  We finished that task, and the deuce was already back with about half of the company's ruck sacks.  We unloaded the deuce as quickly as possible, and then sorted them into their respective platoon areas while the deuce went back to load up the rest of the rucks.  Our drill sergeant was talking to us earlier about the weather for the week, and if the lightning and thunder storms come as predicted, we might be in for an interesting week, meaning the Army doesn't mess around with that, and since we are only training, we could end it early, skip Honor Hill, and just get our pins down in our formation area.  I want to finish this all out, but if we finish early, I won't complain.  I wonder what will happen!  The deuce arrived again and we unloaded the rest of the rucks.  When we finished, we got to sit in the bleachers in the shade, drink cold Gatorade, and relax until it was time to get to our area to help this event go smoothly.  Our jobs were to pass out loaded magazines, tell people where to go, make sure weapons were clear afterwards, and sort empty magazines into crates for each platoon.  After the first two platoons went, the duty squad loaded up into the deuce and joined our platoon at Malone 14.  When we got there, our platoon was pulling security in a triangle shape, we got smoked for no reason, and then after joining our platoon, we did more workouts, then headed out on a very quickly paced mile.  We ran up to the firing line under simulated machine gun fire, smoke grenades, and flash bangs.  We shot 45 rounds or so at moving targets, and then we were done.  Duty squad tore down the range, while fourth and first platoons policed brass.  Afterwards, duty squad had to take things back to the barracks, so they asked for volunteers to join the rest of the platoon on a ruck march (found out it was about four miles... at 1600 the sun was still hot).  I volunteered to ruck, but after only three or four of us volunteered, Townsend had the idea that the first seven rucks pulled out of the deuce had to ruck, and the five left were helping and staying back with the deuce.  Mine did not end up being pulled, so I stayed back.  Townsend, who went to ruck, came back and told me to go ruck, since I was the AG for a M240B.  The drill sergeant told him to get over it, and Townsend, my team leader, seriously pouted away.  So while the platoon marched away, the five duty squad members from first platoon loaded ammo into the ammo truck when it arrived, and then we headed back to the barracks in the deuce.  We unloaded the barricades once we got back, enjoyed some ice cold water from the water fountain in our bay, and then ate MREs on the way out to the FTX site.  We got to the site and unloaded the deuce.  Townsend came over and quickly gave me grief for not going (whatever :P), and then the five who went with the deuce joined the rest of the platoon, which was just relaxing in the shade.  We quickly heard horror stories of the ruck march we missed, and found out that seven people from the platoons that marched out together went down, and had to be I.V.ed and taken to the hospital.  Meanwhile, our platoon had still not eaten their lunch MREs and were told to wait, because UPU was on its way out.  After waiting an hour, the platoon was starting to give up hope on the UPU, and so they dug into their MREs and 18:30!  Shortly after, the drill sergeants called the squad leaders up, and they came back with cases of MREs, which they handed out to the platoon.  I chose not to get one, because I had just eaten one and was not hungry at all.  I decided to use this time to catch up on my journal, so I wrote until everyone had finished eating, and it was time to  move and set up our control base.  We went wandering off down a path, and finally picked a place in the woods.  I was assigned the  M240B for the night, so after we dropped our rucks at the spot we would be sleeping at that night, I slung the M240B and the platoon headed out to be assigned our task for the night.  Six people from first platoon, including myself, were put into an OpFor (Oppressive Forces) group, and our job was to provide fire against third platoon as they reacted to contact.  To get to the training site, we walked a good mile or so through thick brush, and carrying a rather large and awkward weapon proved to be a challenge.  We finally made it to our area, set up our position, and then spent the next three hours lying on the ground, playing bad guys, waiting for third platoon to run through their night training.  I used the M240B with no trouble, and Spiva was my assigned AG for the night.  We had nice little chats while we waited, but mostly we enjoyed just having downtime in the woods.  The drill sergeant we were with built a small fire (signal as to where we were), and it was Salado's job to keep it burning.  Finally, at 2330, an hour after we were supposed to be done, we packed things up, and got the word that we got to get in the back of the puptruck (F150 with a cover on the back) for a ride back to the main base camp!  We got back, waited for another OpFor group to join us, and then headed back to our control base and set out to go to sleep.  Spiva and I set up our sleeping pads and then fell asleep, tired from a busy first day!


28 July 2009  (Day 94-  17 days to go)

At 0200, I was woken up to pull security, and for some reason, my shift was only 30 minutes, but I didn't complain.  I then went back to sleep and didn't get woken up again until wake up at 0500.  I got up, finished writing yesterday's journal by flashlight, packed up my ruck, and at 0530, met in the middle of our control base with full battle rattle, and moved out to formation by 0600.  Breakfast arrived by truck, and another job description of duty squad is to serve chow, so I served a biscuit for biscuits and gravy until I was relieved to eat breakfast.  After breakfast, while I was cleaning up, someone was caught in our platoon for not shaving, so the entire platoon was smoked while those who didn't shave ran back to their rucks, grabbed their razors, came back, and shaved.  At 0900, it was then time for us to start training.  Our  platoon did react to contact, which is what I was the OpFor for last night.  As for the M240B, it looks as though I am going to be stuck with it, because the rest of my squad doesn't want it, and I am tired of listening to them saying FTX is hard, so I'm just going to take it and hope that it will be one less thing they complain about.  So anyway, now that I traded my nearly 7 lb. M4 for a nearly 30 lb. machine gun!  Today's training, we took a different way there, but it was about the same distance- a little over a mile.  We completed our training in a couple of hours, and then did the mile or so back.  By then, it was 1230 or so, so we passed out MREs and ate lunch.  I had manicotti, which was a decent meal.  After lunch, we just had time to relax, and were told to take apart and reassemble the SAW (M249) and Bravo (M240B).  It was supposed to be our afternoon training.  At about 1630, storm clouds moved in, and by 1700, the drill sergeants had us on standby for evacuation.  We had dinner brought out to us, and while we set it up, it started to rain.  Lightning was in the are, but still to far out to make a call.  Duty squad served dinner in a steady, and annoying rain.  By the end of dinner, the rain was lighter, great for growing grass type of rain.  I helped pack everything up and got on the deuce to return the food tubs and other dinner items.  It was a nice break to get out of the rain!  We went back to our barracks, and we unloaded everything at the D-Fac loading docks.  We then went to our bay, used the latrine (which was very nice!), and then went to pick up ice for our water buffalo (500 gallon water tank pulled around by the deuce) and the drill sergeant's coolers.  When we got back to the FTX site, we put the ice where it needed to go, and then joined back up with our platoon to start our night training.  NODs were distributed out to the platoon (which mine was awful), and ammo was also distributed.  We then marched a mile and a half or so by road to the area we had been training at earlier, and did the same training that we did during the morning, except this time we had our night optic devices!  In the confusion of everything, my weapon jammed and I lost an earplug.  At least my weapon was inactive, so I didn't have to listen to it blasting in my ear!  When training was over at 2230, we marched back to base camp, turned in our NODs, and went back to our control base to get some sleep.  Spiva, who is my AG, had made a spiffy shelter while I was gone earlier, so we had a nice place to take baby wipe baths, and then fell asleep.  I was out, and slept until morning!


29 July 2009  (Day 95-  16 days to go)

I don't know why I (or Spiva) wasn't woken up to pull security last night, but I'm not complaining!  I woke up at 0530 (sore from carrying the Bravo all day yesterday), put my boots on, packed my things, and then joined the platoon at 0600 for first formation.  At about 0730, the white food truck came to bring breakfast, so duty squad set up the tables, unloaded breakfast, and then served food to the entire company.  Once breakfast had been served, we cleaned it up and got ready for the day's training.  We put on our FLCs and ACHs, and headed out on a road march on a sand road.  After a good mile, we set up a control point, and fourth squad (heavy weapon squad) had been divided so that first, second, and third squads had a bravo and a few people from fourth squad.  Anyway, first squad went first, then second, then third squad...the squad I was in.   We walked down the road and were ambushed, but we saw some RPGs and so we did a movement to contact, and initiated the fire fight.  We were told we were the best squad in our platoon, so that was good news!  Anyway, by the time we finished policing brass, it started to rain, and during the mile walk back, the rain just got heavier and heavier.  We made it back to base camp, and were distributed MREs.  Eating in the pouring rain is not fun at all.  We just sat in the open and dug into our MREs.  I had chicken and noodles, but that was it.  Eating in the rain killed my appetite for some reason.  After lunch, we were told about going back to the bay to take showers, and by the time we went to our control base, the rain had stopped.  We grabbed out wet clothes and personal hygiene kit and came back up to base camp to get on the bus.  We rode back to our bay, and had 25 minutes to get everyone through the shower, changed, and back out to get on the bus.  The bus dropped us off and left to get the next platoon as we rushed up the stairs to our bay, and I was one of the first ones in the shower.  It was really nice to get clean, but it went by really quickly.  I threw my dirty wet clothes into my laundry bag, grabbed some clean clothes, and headed back out.  The next platoon arrived and got off the bus, and our platoon got back on the bus to head back out.  I looked at the odometer on the bus when I got on and again when I got off, and the FTX site is about 8 miles away.  So we got back and did nothing but clean our weapons until dinner time.  I got to clean the bravo (which I hope the whole platoon takes turns cleaning that monster), which took a couple of hours to do it right.  Finally, at about 1700, the dinner truck arrived and duty squad did their thing (served the company dinner), and then cleaned up and got ready for a mini church service.  The chaplain came out with his guitar and led the company in song, then spoke about the difference between killing and murder, and how we are to listen to our government, and that is honoring God.  After the service, it was time to get ready for our night mission.  We passed out our NODs and adjusted them to our helmets, making sure they had batteries and worked.  We then headed out at 2100 to do our react to ambush night training.  We took a different path to our training area than we did this morning, but it still took just about as long.  We did the mission as a platoon, which in my opinion, was way too many people.  We started out fine, but when the drill sergeant told another M240B to fire, half the platoon and the OpFor started firing again.  It was a good learning experience-- fire at what you see and know is there.  After training was over, we marched back to base camp and turned in our NODs.  When all NODs, weapons, and personnel were accounted for, we went back to our control base and got ready for bed.  Spiva and I laid out our mats and fell asleep almost immediately!  One more day down, just two more to go!!!


30 July 2009  (Day 96-  15 days to go)

Last night, Spiva and I were not woken up to pull security again-- I guess since we are heavy weapon squad and have to carry 3 times the weapon weight, we get more rest!  I woke up this morning still tired though, and my shoulders and back were sore.  I stayed laying down for a little while after we were first woken up at 0500, knowing all I had to do was put my boots and top on, grab my FLC and ACH, then head up with my bravo-- it would only take about 10 minutes tops!  So at about 0545, I finally rolled out of bed, got ready, and then headed to form up for first formation.  We didn't do anything until 0700, so until then, I just laid down and rested.  The breakfast truck arrived, so duty squad unloaded the truck, set up breakfast, and then served the company their food!  Once everyone had been served, the servers ate their breakfast, and the drill sergeants followed behind us.  We then ate and cleaned up, loaded it back onto the truck, and then joined the platoon.  We had about 45 minutes to utilize the woodline and get ready for the day's mission.  We put on our gear, and by 0830, we were ready to go.  Our drill sergeant was busy doing something, so we didn't leave until 0915, but when he did come, it was hurry up and move out.  While we were walking, I was thinking about home, and how great it is to be close to finishing up.  Mentally, I am probably one of the strongest here, but that's because I know I will be with Brittney, my parents, and grandparents at exactly two weeks from that moment!!!  Let's just say I have been in a really good mood all week, and FTX so far has been cake mentally, because then end is so close!!!  So anyway, we stopped and set up a perimeter while first and second squads went to do the mission together (leaving third and fourth squads behind).  We waited nearly an hour in the prone while the other two squads did their mission, then they came back and it was our turn!  We formed out in the field in a wedge formation, and then started heading through the woods.  We walked for about 10 minutes, where we met up with the drill sergeants, where we quickly had to clear to tower and set up a traffic control point.  I didn't fire during the entire mission, but when one of the detainees ran after we stopped the truck, a half dozen people were a little trigger happy.  When the mission was over, we did a little AAR (after action review), and discussed what we did right and wrong.  We should have chased down and tackled the guy running instead of shooting him down, and we needed to do a more thorough search of the truck.  Other than that, we did well, and then headed back to join the rest of our platoon.  Once we were all back together, we went back to base camp and ate MREs and drank Gatorade that had been made for us!  After lunch, Spiva and I went back to our shelter, because the new drill sergeant said that shelters should only be 12-18 inches off the ground, and ours was 3-4 feet.  While we were fixing it, a thunder shower rolled through and soaked everything and everyone, except Spiva and I, who stayed dry under our shelter.  After the rain rolled through, our drill sergeant noticed how dry Spiva was, so he made him jump into and lay in a puddle of water.  I thought he asked who else was dry, and for them to join him, but he didn't.  I would have been the only dry one, and I wasn't about to be the odd man out, so I jumped in and got wet, too. A couple more showers rolled through, and by now, we all moved back to our control base to review basic soldier skills.  Then, someone came by and said for everyone to get to base camp because they had mail!  I received four letters from Brittney, two letters and a postcard from my dad, and a card with a letter inside from my mom.  My mind set has been on seeing my family at the end, so my morale didn't change, but for a lot of the other guys, receiving mail helped them get motivated to finish out the next 36 hours!  After all mail had been passed out and I was able to finish reading it all, the dinner truck arrived, so duty squad unloaded it and we served the company dinner.  We finished cleaning everything up just as another shower rolled through, which soaked everything again.  After the rain stopped, it was time to do our last training mission, so the last of the ammo was handed out to use (they don't take any back).  We headed off back through the woods, but this time with out NODs on.  The first two squads went first again, then about an hour later, it was my squad's turn to do it with third squad.  Our traffic control point went fairly smoothly, but still being new at it, we did a couple of things not by the book.  After we finished, we lined up in the field and just got to shoot all remaining ammo.  A lot of the guys wanted to shoot the M240B, so I let them take turns firing off 50-100 rounds.  When all ammo had been shot, we policed our brass and headed back to base camp.  We turned in NODs, received a Nutrigrain bar, and then headed off to bed.  Spiva and I did the usual hygiene routines and then fell asleep.  Only one more day to go and I'll be done with training!!!

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