Well at least one troop. You may have read in an earlier post that my Sister and her Husband were featured in the a local News media story covering a recent troop deployment. My brother-in-law, Jeremy is sending periodic updates and has given me permission to post them here. He will not exactly be on the front lines but it will give good insight as to what our troops are experiencing and how their morale is out in the field, and get and inside look at how the Army functions.
Jeremy will soon be sent to Qatar as he has been training at Fort Bragg for the last few months. He writes in part:
Well I am done! Done with training that is... ...Now the only thing we have left is our 4-day pass and then we sit and wait for a flight to go overseas. I am told that our flight will be around the 20 th, but I am not holding my breath, it could change to September 1st, or they could all of a sudden get us on an early flight and we leave on the 17th. So the main thing now is to get all our ducks in a row and make sure we are about 80% packed so if we do get a last minute flight we are ready to go.
I know some of you have said you get a kick out of my stories on dealing with Fort Bragg and how inept they are. But they certainly got an earful about it a couple of weeks ago. My Brigade Command Sergeant Major and Colonel decided to come down for a 1 day visit about two weeks ago. We knew they were coming for about two weeks before and so any chance we had we told the Fort Bragg people "Hey we have VIPs coming, this is their itinerary and they are going to need transportation". Oh "don't worry" was the standard reply. Guess what? The morning the Col and CSM were here they waiting for almost two hours outside their hotel room waiting for transportation. I finally managed to yell at someone enough to get them to take their own van and go pick them up. But it was a real eye opener for our COL and CSM to see just how messed up things are down here.
Well the next time I e-mail I plan on being in my new home away from home in Qatar
I will continue to update you on Jeremy's progress as he continues his Tour of Duty. I would ask anyone reading this to keep him and his family in your prayers
Read Jeremy's full letter after the jump...
Hello all!
Well I am done! Done with training that is. We completed the last of our training requirements as of yesterday and this morning we moved off the FOB and back into some nice A/C barracks. Just in time because the heat has really been cranked up around here. During our training we had temperatures in the tent around 100 in the heat of the day, now it is 90+ by mid morning and around 110-112 in the mid-afternoon. Now the only thing we have left is our 4-day pass and then we sit and wait for a flight to go overseas. I am told that our flight will be around the 20 th, but I am not holding my breath, it could change to September 1st, or they could all of a sudden get us on an early flight and we leave on the 17th. So the main thing now is to get all our ducks in a row and make sure we are about 80% packed so if we do get a last minute flight we are ready to go. But one thing is for sure and that is that we won't fly out before our 4 day pass, so I am definitely looking forward to that! Beth and Eva are flying down here and we are going to head to Myrtle Beach for a couple of days, it should be relaxing time with the family.
The training these last few weeks has actually been pretty good. My personal favorite was TCP Ops (Temporary Control Point Operations). There we learned how to setup a temporary holding area to hold, search and transport detainees. Not likely that we would ever have to do that, but just something that the Army has decided everyone needs to be trained on. We learned how to search vehicles, and people and then they do exercises where they have COBs (civilians on the battlefield) that are dressed up like Iraqis and it is very good training because you get a real feel for how the language barrier is so difficult to work with. They also showed us moves on how to subdued and control people twice our size. I didn't personally get to test out the method, but when I was in charge of the transport cell they brought over a COB that looked like Shaquille O'Neill and one of my average size soldiers had to subdue him when he started getting out of hand, so I saw first hand that the methods do work! We also did base defense operations, which is basically how to guard a base camp from attack. I was in charge of the ECP (Entry Control Point) and was shot by a sniper within about 5 min. of starting the scenario so I did nothing for the next two hours. (By the way, it was a cheap shot, I didn't even hear a shot go off, one of the trainers just looked over at me and said you have been shot by a sniper and it took me out of the scenario :( ) But it was a pretty hot day, so I was semi-thankful to not have been out in the sun playing the game for two hours. We also did urban operations, which is where they teach you how to enter, clear and search rooms. It was a long day and our trainer wasn't very good, thankfully the MN guard has some excellent trainers and most of my soldiers were already pretty squared away on urban operations. The last big event is a 4 day event, "GAC STX"(Ground Assault Convoy, something, something, something) anyway, basically we learned how to conduct convoy operations in theater. It was good training and the main event on the 4 th day is when you go out with live ammunition and drive through a course that has pop-up targets shooting at you and fake IED's going off. By the way, special thanks goes out to my Commander, LT Mangen, she was supposed to be conducting 5/25/100, where when you dismount a vehicle you do an immediate 5 meter search around your vehicle for any IEDs, then you do a 25 meter search and then you scan 100 meters. I was still in the vehicle talking on the radio when I noticed the OC/T (Observer, Controller, trainer) asking her if she saw any IEDs, she said she didn't and he was pointing at something and asked her again if she say any IEDs, she still didn't see it, so he took out an IED simulator and set it off right outside my door, let me tell you, those things are LOUD! Thankfully the OC/T decided not to kill me and let me continue on my mission, and we later went back and he showed us the IED which was thoroughly buried and almost impossible to see, so I cut LT Mangen a little slack, but I still give her a hard time about it.
I know some of you have said you get a kick out of my stories on dealing with Fort Bragg and how inept they are. But they certainly got an earful about it a couple of weeks ago. My Brigade Command Sergeant Major and Colonel decided to come down for a 1 day visit about two weeks ago. We knew they were coming for about two weeks before and so any chance we had we told the Fort Bragg people "Hey we have VIPs coming, this is their itinerary and they are going to need transportation". Oh "don't worry" was the standard reply. Guess what? The morning the Col and CSM were here they waiting for almost two hours outside their hotel room waiting for transportation. I finally managed to yell at someone enough to get them to take their own van and go pick them up. But it was a real eye opener for our COL and CSM to see just how messed up things are down here.
And for one final story this e-mail….It was a Friday a couple of weeks ago when he had nothing going on, we were just sitting around in our tents all day when I received a phone call from one of my sergeants in another training group saying that some people were looking for us because we were supposedly missing some training event. So I went to the BDOC (Base Defense Operations Center) to find out what was going on. When I got there, just outside the door were three sergeants talking about how they were upset that a unit had missed the training. So I asked them if they were the ones calling for the 347 th PSD. They said they were and wondered why we failed to show up at 1900 for a Base Defense Operations class. Well it was quite ironic that that was the class they said we missed, because only a couple of days prior LT Mangen and asked the LT in charge of Base Defense if we could do the class on Fri. he said no, she asked him again the following day and he said no again, she asked him a third time and he was adamant that we could not do Base Defense Ops on Fri. So when I found out that we "missed" the class I thought it was pretty funny. So after taking 15 min. of explaining the whole situation to them and them calling their LT and getting confirmation on the story, they finally said, your right it was our mistake, you didn't miss any training, you are scheduled for the training on 30 July. So I walked back and had just finished explaining to LT Mangen that we were in fact right and good to go when all of a sudden they came over the FOB PA system and ordered all 347 th PSD Personnel to report to the BDOC ASAP. Well that really set me off, because they had just said 10 min. earlier, that everything was good to go and none of my soldiers needed to be in class. So I practically ran back to the BDOC and asked them why in the world they would page all my soldiers when they had just told me we were good to go. They guy looks at me and he says "Oh, your with the 347 th? I thought you were with some other unit". I was upset at them, but just laughed to myself and figured it would be another good story that you guys would all enjoy :)
Well the next time I e-mail I plan on being in my new home away from home in Qatar, so take care everyone, and I will chat with you all later!
Jeremy
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