I am in the final part of getting ready for my combat skills training in Wyoming. I have to attend a course prior to deploying and they are held all over the country. Most of them are done at Fort Dix in New Jersey, but the class there was during my leave and well, it was more important for me to go home and see the wife and kids then go play soldier. Luckily, my command was able to understand and get me a different class, therefore, I was able to see my family. Thanks to them!
So now I will be attending Advanced Expeditionary Skills Training at Camp Guernsey. Its a ten day course and is supposed to be very fast paced. I assume it must be considering the last time I did this kind of training was at Camp Shelby in Mississippi and it was five weeks long. I tell you what, there is nothing worse than running around the woods in 95 plus temps wearing body armor. My uniforms seemed to be constantly soaked. Gotta love a cotton tee shirt!
My tickets are in hand and all I need to do is make sure I have all of my gear that is needed for the class. They gave me a big long checklist, so just like Santa I'm checking it twice. Thankfully, this time I am used to the heat from dealing with Turkey, so there I have a leg up, but that vest sure does get heavy, even heavier with water and a combat load.
After I get back from training, I do some last minute outprocessing, get some more gear and uniforms and then get on a plane to Germany to wait for my team and the plane that will take me down range. While not really looking forward to the deployment, I am looking forward to getting it started. The sooner I get started the sooner I will be done.
I leave Sunday morning. I will do my best to keep up with the blog while I am there, I am just not sure about how much internet will be available.
Stay tuned dear Readers!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
My first post
Welcome friends and family to my first posting in this new means of communication called "Blogging." I had heard a great deal about this, and now with the military pretty much advocating its use among the enlightened ones, I decided that it was time to do something. I actually wish they had this during my last deployment, as it would have been a great chance to talk about the things I had seen, done and experienced. Instead, I was forced to find other ways of dealing with my issues, some good and some bad.
So as the top of this blog states, I am using this new medium to for a number of reasons. First off, this gives me an opportunity to show people exactly what is taking place down range. It seems that these days, there are so many filters before information gets to the average person that what is actually truth and reality are never certain. An event, such as an attack takes place and when it finally makes it to the five o'clock news, many facts about what happened normally have changed or been skewed. Remember, there is an old credo in the media community, "If it bleeds, it leads." That means that death and destruction will always trump goodness, and perception is often too many times taken as truth. So this is my attempt to cut right to the chase and show you the truth straight from the front line. Yes, there will be my feelings and thoughts, but I will also be talking about what is actually taking place.
My second reason goes along with the first and that is to help show what the Air Force is doing downrange. Too often, it seems as if the AF is just known for the cool fighter pilots dropping bombs. That does take place and I know those professionals have saved many, many lives. But did you also know about the fact that the majority of people hauling supplies into Iraq down those treacherous roads are AF? What about the operators and security forces and EOD who are constantly patrolling outside the wire? We have people in the air and on the ground, taking the fight to the enemy. I even heard one time that insurgents don't like to engage Air Force convoys because too often the AF were spoiling for a fight and took on all comers! They soon learned to recognize who were in the turrets and who wasn't.
Lastly, I am doing this for my own reasons hoping that by talking about it, it will be better for me in the long run. Its hard to talk about these things with people who haven't been there and know what you are talking about and feeling. I have a good buddy, Ed Holzapfel, who I talk to often. He talks to me as well. We are both cut from the same cloth and have similiar experiences. We have found that talking about, enjoying a laugh at our "black humor" helps us. Its nice to have found a person who truly understands. Plus he comes from the Spec Ops world, like I did, so we have that in common too. He has been the one who had done a lot getting me the stuff I need for this deployment.
There will be many posts to follow this one. Some may be long and some may be short. There may be days where I don't post at all. This is not being lazy, I just may be somewhere where there isn't any internet. The mountains of Afghanistan are not known for their "hot spots."
I have started my serious training for this deployment. Workouts have increased in intensity and number. I have to be truly fit and ready to take on this challenge. Talking with the person I will be replacing, I know that I have to be at the top of my game if I want to survive this. Marching around with an eighty-pound ruck, sixty pounds of vest and combat load, and two weapons at eight thousand feet elevation is not for the faint of heart. Its not easy to do that normally, now throw in an ambush and you can see how you need to be as physically, mentally and emotionally fit as possible.
I have heard the sounding of the bugle once again and am getting ready to charge once more in to the fight. This ole sheepdog may be getting a bit long in the tooth, but there is still a good bit of fight left in him.
More to follow dear readers. Stay tuned!
So as the top of this blog states, I am using this new medium to for a number of reasons. First off, this gives me an opportunity to show people exactly what is taking place down range. It seems that these days, there are so many filters before information gets to the average person that what is actually truth and reality are never certain. An event, such as an attack takes place and when it finally makes it to the five o'clock news, many facts about what happened normally have changed or been skewed. Remember, there is an old credo in the media community, "If it bleeds, it leads." That means that death and destruction will always trump goodness, and perception is often too many times taken as truth. So this is my attempt to cut right to the chase and show you the truth straight from the front line. Yes, there will be my feelings and thoughts, but I will also be talking about what is actually taking place.
My second reason goes along with the first and that is to help show what the Air Force is doing downrange. Too often, it seems as if the AF is just known for the cool fighter pilots dropping bombs. That does take place and I know those professionals have saved many, many lives. But did you also know about the fact that the majority of people hauling supplies into Iraq down those treacherous roads are AF? What about the operators and security forces and EOD who are constantly patrolling outside the wire? We have people in the air and on the ground, taking the fight to the enemy. I even heard one time that insurgents don't like to engage Air Force convoys because too often the AF were spoiling for a fight and took on all comers! They soon learned to recognize who were in the turrets and who wasn't.
Lastly, I am doing this for my own reasons hoping that by talking about it, it will be better for me in the long run. Its hard to talk about these things with people who haven't been there and know what you are talking about and feeling. I have a good buddy, Ed Holzapfel, who I talk to often. He talks to me as well. We are both cut from the same cloth and have similiar experiences. We have found that talking about, enjoying a laugh at our "black humor" helps us. Its nice to have found a person who truly understands. Plus he comes from the Spec Ops world, like I did, so we have that in common too. He has been the one who had done a lot getting me the stuff I need for this deployment.
There will be many posts to follow this one. Some may be long and some may be short. There may be days where I don't post at all. This is not being lazy, I just may be somewhere where there isn't any internet. The mountains of Afghanistan are not known for their "hot spots."
I have started my serious training for this deployment. Workouts have increased in intensity and number. I have to be truly fit and ready to take on this challenge. Talking with the person I will be replacing, I know that I have to be at the top of my game if I want to survive this. Marching around with an eighty-pound ruck, sixty pounds of vest and combat load, and two weapons at eight thousand feet elevation is not for the faint of heart. Its not easy to do that normally, now throw in an ambush and you can see how you need to be as physically, mentally and emotionally fit as possible.
I have heard the sounding of the bugle once again and am getting ready to charge once more in to the fight. This ole sheepdog may be getting a bit long in the tooth, but there is still a good bit of fight left in him.
More to follow dear readers. Stay tuned!
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