For the past week and a half or so, we have been doing a series of classes designed to get us back up to speed with the equipment and techniques we will be seeing during our mission.
For those of you unfamiliar with our mission (our's as in the team that I am on mission) we are going to be combat advisers for an Iraqi National Police Brigade. We will be working very closely with our Iraqi counterparts as they work to establish security in their corner of Iraq. We will also be working closely with a US Brigade Combat Team and it's Battalions as they work with the Iraqi's to secure Iraq. The overall goal is to transition the mission to Iraqi's, so we will be coaching and advising them to assume the overall mission.
The team that I am on is based on the tried and true SF team: 11 guys, with various specialties. There is me, a LTC as the leader, an executive officer, MAJ D, an operations officer MAJ L, an Intelligence Officer, CPT F, two logisticians CPT P and SFC R, two operations NCOs SFC C and SFC T and a Commo guy, SSG W. We have been together for a few weeks and are forming pretty well as a team. (there are pictures of most of us in the IV Training section of the blog)
The training that we have done so far: First Aid, Commo, some vehicle training (nothing intense), an intro to all of the radios we are going to be using in theater, some admin classes (how to deal with the press), culture, language and now we have started up our weapons training.
The first thing that popped into my mind when we started off most of our training is "wow, the Army has changed a whole lot since I was a Battalion Executive Officer." the next thing was "Hmmm, most of this equipment is new to me" and my final thought was "how am I going to learn all of this before we go to Iraq?". A couple of examples: When I was leaving my battalion at FT Bragg in 2002, we were on some of the first generations of radios, last week we were training on the fourth generation of a radio system, I can find the ON switch, recognize the hand mike, and the antennae looks about the same, that is about it. That was just one radio. When they broke out the other 3 radios, I was quickly overcome. I am thinking we will get some more hands on training before we get into Iraq.
During the vehicle introduction we were introduced to the latest generation of HMMWVs, we had HMMWVs when I was an XO, but nothing like this. The first thing they emphasized was the vehicles weight - - when I was an XO they were around 9-10,000 pounds, now with all of the armor and turret on them, that is up around 13,000 pounds. I think the steering wheel was about the same and the lightswitch, that was about it. Bigger engine, bigger transmission, beefier suspension, more powerful brakes and a whole lot of armor plating. We will actually drive them next week, I can imagine they handle a lot different that anything else.
All in all, it is an eye opener for me. SFC C has been taking pictures, I will hit him up for the shots and hang them on the blog in a few days.
1 comment:
Ok. Here is what I know...There is usually a button on the side of the walkie talkie that allows you to speak to others when it is pressed in. Or at least that was how they worked in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. They are much more effective than the little flip flashlights we used to use when we played "Star Trek" (which, by the way, I'm disappointed didn't make your favs list). If they are digital, that is far more sophisticated than I know about...at least in walkie talkie land.
I hope all is well. Abs goes to camp tomorrow for ten days. She is excited, Syd is excited and, well, we are excited for her as well.
The basement flooded last night. A good 1.5" of water. God bless the water extraction guys. We have damage, but it could've been much worse. Wade is such a handy guy to have around when the sump pump fails!
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