Situational Training Exercise

Today was our first and only graded exercise - - a Situational Training Exercise (STX). Our mission was to move from our Forward Operating Base (FOB) to a smaller FOB to link up with our Iraqi Army counterparts. Or so they said . . . What we were actually doing was moving down a planned lane where we encountered typical tactical situations that occur in Iraq so we could be evaluated on our reactions and actions during the encounters.

Right up front, we smoked the lane. Good training, but we did good.

The situations that were on the lane were the same as the situations that we have planned battle drills for, our rehearsals over the past 4 days paid off in spades. We linked up with the Observer/Controllers (OCs/evaluators) and moved to the assembly area and waited for our turn to go down the lane. While we were waiting, we reviewed our battle drills, did some more rehearsals (rock drills – using rocks to simulate our vehicles and what each vehicle would do, while the driver, TC, gunner and passengers talk through what they would do in each situation) and talked to George, Ali and Safaree our interpreters. More about George later . . .

When our turn came up and we rolled down the lane, things went very well. Our first situation in the STX was a small ambush, two enemy soldiers in an ambush, they fired at us, we unloaded on them and broke contact. Good driving, good communication, good fire control. All in all, a good event.

The second situation was a more complex ambush that involved a series of IEDs as well as enemy soldiers. The first IED went off between vehicle 1 and 2, neither vehicle was damaged. The complexity started after that: A civilian vehicle (part of the problem) drove itself into the road and separated vehicle 1 (Superman’s vehicle) and vehicle 2 (mine) and 3 (MAJ D’s vehicle), while that was going on, enemy soldiers started firing us up. Once again, good communications, good fire suppression (the enemy soldiers did not get near our vehicles), the vehicle separating our vehicles was a bit confusing - - if we had been in Iraq, we would have just rammed it and pushed it off the road, but here, we didn’t want to wreck our HMMWV or the Toyota pick up. Once we maneuvered through the ambush and linked back up, we spotted a surface laid IED, called it in to our higher headquarters and proceeded. We didn’t see the one that was on the other side of the road, that one took out vehicle 3 (MAJ D’s), and one soldier (SSG K) was assessed as a casualty. Luckily, our team medic (SFC J) was in the vehicle and immediately started to do first aid. The team executed our vehicle recovery battle drill (my vehicle pulled security, Superman’s vehicle hooked up and towed the vehicle out of the ambush site) and moved about 600 meters away to call in a MEDEVAC. There was actually a helocopter standing by for MEDEVAC, and it was as close as a live situation as we can get. Pretty cool actually, I am the primary talker with external units, so it was cool to talk in an actual pilot, and watch the MEDEVAC happen.

Great training day, I was pretty happy with how we reacted.

About George: George is one of our interpreters; he is from Bagdhad and left in 2001, before everything happened. He is an Arabic Catholic, a minority in Iraq and left for religious/political reasons. I chatted him up about his military experiences in the Iran/Iraq war, very interesting. Because he could speak English, was college educated and could type, he worked in the Iraqi Ministry of Defense as a contract writer/typer. He primarily worked as an interpreter for the Iraqis working in Jordan and Syria as they purchased rockets and missiles from the Soviets and other countries that were supplied by the Soviets. He said he had it good until he made ONE typographical mistake on one of his contracts, then he got sent to the front for 3 years. Remember that when you are typing, one mistake, 3 years at the front.

Nickname update: CPT F is close to earning a nickname, and two have been picked out. His first nickname was Ghost because he has a tendency to disappear when we are heading out to class our to training - - my normal quote is “why do we only have ten people? Oh, wait, where is CPT F?”. Ghost does not start with an “S” so we are pondering Spook or Supernatural. More to follow.