How Small is the World?

OK, There I was, there I was . . . . at the dessert line at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, waiting on my oatmeal raisin cookies (you never know when you will get another chance for oatmeal raisin) when I overheard someone talking about the HUSKERS, who play VA Tech sometime today. I ask him where he is from and he says Omaha, looks at me and almost drops his tray. Turns out, he is from Omaha, but runs a bar in Plattsmouth, NE that is in a building my dad owns. Wow, he told me he had just signed the lease a few days ago, while he was talking to my dad they started to talk Army shop and one thing led to another they figured out we would both be in Kuwait at the same time. He swore to my dad he would look around for me and as fate would have it, we ran into each other at the dessert line. That is how small the world is. Two days ago, this guy was talking to my pop, now he is talking to me in Kuwait.

We are in Kuwait, and are doing our last training live fire tomorrow, today was a series of tactical Situational Training Exercises using vehicles, radios and weapons. Every kids dream. A couple of more days of Kuwait, then off to Iraq.

I went for a 30 minute run yesterday, felt GREAT. My next run should be somewhere in Iraq, not sure where though.

Fantasy Football update . . . After a shaky first week that saw the anchor man, Tom Brady, go down for the season, Team Fritz made a week three comeback and moved ahead of Team Wade. Not by much, but ahead none the less. I made my last trade, gave up Randy Moss (who I think has given up the season without Tom Brady chucking him the ball) for Terrell Owens. Wade has also used up all of his trades, so it is down to team we got. I don't think either one of us will finish in the money this year, so it is pride on the line. Team Bowder, well, it is not his fault, turns out he didn't know what he was doing when he picked his team.

Hello from Kuwait

We are one step closer to getting to Iraq, good news is our one year clock has started. The team has made it to Kuwait without incident. After leaving Kansas we flew for a solid 20 hours - Topeka, KS to Bangor, Maine, to Germany (not sure where but we spent a couple of hours on the ground there) then to Kuwait. We got in about midnight in Kuwait, then took a bus to our training FOB. The folks in Bangor are awesome: We arrived there shortly after midnight, and there were probably 10 folks there to shake our hands and greet us as we got off the plane and back onto the plane. They had a little welcome center with cookies, pretzels, other munchies, a couple of cell phones for folks to use, I had heard they were friendly to US soldiers, but wow, that was going the extra mile to be friendly.

We have knocked out some ranges here in Kuwait (HOT, BROWN and DUSTY) - - re-confirming the zero on our rifles (good to go for me), did some advanced, close quarters marksmanship (fired a ton of ammo, it was fun, of course) and today we did some urban operations (room clearing, building clearing). Overall, good training for the team. The camp here is ok, it is literally in the middle of the desert, nothing at all around it, so, what can you really expect? There is a nice chow hall, our building is air conditioned and we have a warm shower, so, no real complaints. Superman has been taking pictures on the ranges and of the camp, as soon as I get them from him I will post them to the web page and put a link in the blog.

Couple of nickname updates: CPT F who was previously Spooky or Specter or something has earned a nickname change: 6.5. Even though it is a number, it starts with an S and fits the bill for the nickname. Why 6.5? Traditionally in a unit, the commanders radio call sign is 6. For example, my call sign is SWATT 6. Whenever you hear a 6 on the radio, you know that a commander is talking. 6.5 is actually the number 4 in the chain of command, but has made it known that anytime I want to abdicate my authority, he is more than willing to take charge. I am closely monitoring the team for any coup attempts, especially when me, the XO and Superman (the first three in the chain of command are not around). 6.5 has also been selected for promotion to major, so he has a little extra motivation for taking over.

The XO has also earned a nickname: Soapman or Soap for short. He was pretty concerned that he would not be able to get his specific brand of soap in Iraq so he brought a ton of it. He packed about 10 bars of Dove, extra smooth in his duffle bag, which now smells very nice. According to him he wants to remain extra pretty and exfoliate his skin well while he spends the year with the team. The team is carefully monitoring him for other signs of lessening his manhood.

The Joe Ganz Fan Club

I have been on leave prior to the deployment, hanging out with the relatives and doing some Nebraska stuff. The highlight of the week was going to the Nebraska vs. New Mexico State football game this past Saturday. My sister scored two tickets to the game and gave them to me for my birthday. My brother in law Mark went with me, he was a football player and high school football coach so it is pretty interesting getting his perspective on football.

Backing up a bit, Saturday started off with a pretty good ten mile run at Chalco State Park (near Gretna in Nebraska), they have a path that goes around a lake, across a dam and generally through some Nebraska terrain - - low hills, nice prairie grass, picnic areas, some trees, etc. Overall a good run route, I got some good speed going towards the end, dropping it down below my marathon race pace for the last 3 miles or so. I went there with my older sister Melissa (she gave me the Husker tickets), who was meeting her friend and partner in running crime, Anne, for a shorter run and patiently waited for me while I knocked out my longer run. I was planning on 8, but it was a nice morning, and my trail just kind of wandered for a couple of extra miles. Good run, nice trail, great way to start the day off.

After the run, me and Mark made the drive to Lincoln and went to the game. The game against NM State was supposed to be our last warmup game before the real football starts for Nebraska. We had good seats in the South Stadium - - right next to the president of the Joe Ganz Fan Club (pictured below in the white hat). For non-Huskers: Joe Ganz is Nebraska's current quarterback, and is pretty good at it. According to the young man right behind us, Joe Ganz was slightly ahead of such Husker greats as Eric Crouch and Tommie Frazier, and was a lock for the Hiesman Trophy this year.



Here are a couple of his quotes:

After a scramble by NM's QB in which he ended with a slide: "Joe Ganz would have took the hit . . .'

After Joe Ganz caught (that's right, caught) a TD pass from Marlon Lucky: "Almost as good as Eric Crouch (Nebraska's third Heisman winner, who caught a TD pass against oklahoma during his Heisman Season)"

After Joe Ganz threw a TD: "Sam Keller has nothing on you, what were they thinking last year?"(Sam Keller was the big name QB that bill callahan played ahead of Joe Ganz last year, Keller didn't do so well, Ganz replaced him with four games left in the season and threw for HUGE yards in those games).

Anyway, great game by the Huskers, I have posted some of my pics from the game to the blog.

Couple of game notes:

Nebraska has pretty much erased the statewide nightmare that was bill callahan and scott pederson (our ill-fated athletic director and football coach for the previous 4 years, they were unceremoniously fired by Tom Osborne). During the pederson regime, most mentions of previous Husker glory was played down by pederson. He went as far as to take down the pictures of Nebraska All Americans (there are a few of them) and most of Nebraska's bowl trophies from the football offices. The final straw was when he would charge Husker greats the price of a ticket to come and watch the game from the sidelines. The current administration has made it a point to bring back Husker greats and highlight Husker tradition, big props from the Husker fans for this.

During the pre-game festivities at Memorial Stadium a few Husker greats were inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame including Husker legend Grant Winstrom (member of three National Championship teams). Very cool. Also honored was Dan Coneally, one of the foundations of the Blackshirts (the nickname of the Husker's Defense) during the 1994 National Championship Season. He never made it in the pro's, but Nebraska fans remember him.

Before the Huskers come out of the tunnel at Memorial Stadium they play a Husker Legends montage on the HuskerVision screen, starting with Bob Devaney, going through Tom Osborne and now Bo Pellini. It has shots of Husker greats (Mike Rozier tearing it up) and great moments (Tom Osborne winning the 1997 National Championship). Very cool.

For some reason, one of the Nation's Supreme Court Justices, Clarence Thomas, has taken a liking to Nebraska football. He was named an honorary coach for the game and got to stand on the sideline for the game. It was funny to see someone that you think of as a quiet, reserved person going nuts on the sideline when the Husker's rolled. Very Cool.

OK, back to Riley here soon, talk to you later on.

Another Good Run

I have only had a few good runs during the train up here: KC, the tank trail (with the tanks rolling by) and yesterday.

Yesterday, I snuck off the FOB to check out a run route, I did it early on Sunday morning to make sure none of the JRMC police saw me. One of the Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal guys was talking about a HUGE hill on Hohenfels main post called Warrior Hill the way he was talking about it was just short of Everest, except for longer and steeper.

I started off at 6 am, snuck onto main post and started off the run, it was a very pretty day here in Germany, but kind of cold (49 degrees!), I was thinking I should have my favorite running gloves (Best Christmas gift ever from Aunt Faye) but it was August, so they were back in the truck in KS. I ran up onto post, up around the airfield, commissary and post housing, but didn’t see the hill. I was going to turn around and just head back to the FOB, but I wanted to run up that hill. On the way back, I saw it off to the right hand side, it was a pretty good hill, but, not quite as wicked as the sisters at Bragg. The catch was you had to run down a steep hill to get to the bottom of Warrior hill, then up Warrior hill.

It was a good hill, turning around was cool because you knew there a good downhill, but bad because you had to go back up the hill you ran down to get to Warrior hill. The main post is a good run because it sits in a north\south running valley, so there is a good sunrise coming up over the hills as you are running. Beings how it was a Sunday morning on a very small post in Germany, there was nobody else out there running. I was definitely missing the Manna Multi-Sport group, running solo is cool for a while, but I need the elf to run with me, or me with him.

Running Note: I was told by one of the Observer Controllers that it was not safe to run on the tank trail when the tanks are on the road. I am not quite sure why, I am pretty confident I can avoid getting hit by 70 tons of rolling steel, I will adhere to the rule. I would hate to be the cause of chaos by breaking a rule.

Anyway, the field problem is about over here and the teams are drifting back in. The quiet solitude of the barracks will suffer.

Couple of team notes:

Nickname update: CPT F = Shapeshifter, didn’t want to call him Supernatural, that might have gone to his head, my little sister recommended Shapeshifter, apparently it is a character on a TV show that she and the nieces watch. I think it fits. He also has earned the nickname of SWATT 6.5 because he is number 4 in the chain of command is working on ways to move up the chain of command.

SSG K = Sweet home, he is from Alabama and is always talking about it, so, Sweet home from the Lynard Skynard song works.

Me: Sweet tooth
MAJ L: Superman
SSG W: Slim
CPT F: Shape shifter
SSG K: Sweet home
SFC T: Smooth

Still needing a nickname: MAJ D (the XO), SFC R (LOG NCO), CPT P (LOG Officer), SFC J (medic)

MSG P (Sweetface) will not be deploying with the team, he has a stomach problem that will hold him back. His steady, senior NCO hand will be sorely missed by the team.

What is Tobasco Sauce worth?

We knocked out some battle drills in one of the training area today, it was good to get out of the FOB for a while. We pretty much covered the drills we did last week, just added a few more details to them and added two drills: What to do if a vehicle is completely disabled and can’t be towed away and how to move with the Iraqi’s when we are moving together.

We spent about 5 hours in the training area, this was our last opportunity to do that sort of stuff, the big wargame starts up at noon today, so all of the gates will be locked up and the enemy will be prowling about.

We were training in an area that was a lot like Western NC, the Smokey Mountains specifically. The same sort of trees, the same sort of terrain, some nice hills, just a pleasant area, I felt very comfortable there. I am attaching a few pictures to the blog, they are shots of my vehicle, the seat that I have to cram myself into and some of the guys on the team.

We had a little MRE picnic out in the woods, I found out exactly how much a small bottle of Tobasco sauce was worth.

MRE History lesson: Starting in the '90s the Army started to put about an ounce of Tobasco sauce in each MRE, it truly made an improvement to the overall MRE. As the MREs evolved, someone started leaving the Tobasco out of certain versions. The Tuna version (which is the king of lunch time MREs: A packet of tuna, a packet of mayonnaise, two flour tortillas, some spices, pretzels, chocolate chip cookies AND a bag of peanut M&Ms, way to civilized for Army food) does not have Tobasco sauce in it. I have no idea what they were thinking, but it proved to be a boon to me.

Superman makes it a point to always grab a Tuna MRE for his lunch, yesterday as we were having the picnic, he really wanted some Tobasco sauce for his Tuna. As noted above, there is none in the MRE, but, MY MRE had Tobasco sauce. I am not a Tobasco sauce fan, but I am a fan of bargaining. He started the bidding by offering me his moist towelette for my Tobasco, I counter offered with his bag of peanut M&Ms. Round one ended with no trade made, he queried the rest of the team, they turned him down. Round two started off with me offering my Tobasco for 4 Peanut M&Ms and the moist towelette, he countered with 4 Peanut M&Ms. I settled and celebrated my victory. 1 ounce of Tobasco sauce is worth 4 Peanut M&Ms in the MRE auction society.

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.

The Alternative to the Techno Café

We have found another chow hall here on the FOB that is as close as the Techno Café and it seems to be better than the Techno. We were walking to the Techno one day for dinner when we saw two Germanish females standing around in cooks uniforms. They waved at us very nicely; we waved back and asked them what they were up to. They had opened up another chow hall two buildings down from the Techno, and nobody was going to it, so we started to. All of the chow on the camp comes out of the same boxes; it all comes down to atmosphere.

To be honest, I was a getting a little tired of the oppressive beat of the Techno, so the Happy Café is a pleasant alternative. They play pop-ish music, not too loud and they are always happy to see us, normally we are the only folks in the chow hall. It is kind of funny, whenever it is breakfast or dinner-time they are waiting outside the chow hall with no customers, they see us walking up, wave and run inside to get the food ready to serve. They have even picked up on some of our bad eating habits and enable them: They always have bananas and oatmeal at breakfast (my favorite), they put out a lot of Rice Krispie Bars and White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut cookies (the team’s favorite snackish food) and they give us extra large portions of everything we ask for. Pretty cool to have almost personal service in an Army chow hall.

We have spent the last couple of days practicing and refining our battle drills and integrating a few new personnel. The first new person is SSG K, a replacement for SFC C; he came from another team and has been welcomed all around, especially in his vehicle, now they have 4 people in the vehicle to do all of the drills instead of just 3.

We also now have 3 interpreters attached to the team, they are pretty happy to be here and working with us. Two of them are from Iraq, the third is from Morocco, and they all have been living in Europe for the past few years. We spent today integrating them into the different battle drills, they were a little leery when we told them that they will be required to drive from the back seat of the HMMWVs in case of injury to the driver: Their assigned seat is right behind the driver seat, if the driver is injured they are the only ones that can quickly reach the steering wheel and keep driving. The first time they did it, they were a little tentative but they got the hang of it. They even go to the point where they could accelerate the vehicle, drive around curves and corners, and stop the vehicle, all from the back seat, pretty cool for the first day. They also got into the vehicle rollover drill - - If the vehicle starts to roll over (which happens in Iraq, especially with heavier vehicles that are driven hard) they have to help pull the gunner out of the turret and hold on to him to keep him from bouncing around the vehicle. Every one else is strapped in with our seatbelts, but the gunner would be loose, so we grab hold of him to keep him from bouncing around.

Once again, they are an extra hand in the vehicle and really have gotten into the mission: All three of them know where the first aid kits are, where the evacuation litters are kept as well as the landing zone marking panels so they lend two extra hands to the casualty evacuation drills. Very cool. One of them is a veteran of the Iran/Iraq war, I am going to ask him about that some tomorrow. My interpreter is Kurdish from Mosul, he left shortly after the first Desert Storm, when Saddam cracked down on the Kurds. We had a very interesting discussion about how hard the life of a refugee has been for him and his community.

Tomorrow is more battle drills, we will throw in some more variations, but we should get good at them here shortly.

Cultural Note: British people are incapable of closing doors. We share a latrine/shower facility with one of the British units in the exercise, it is not uncommon to be enjoying a nice hot shower and get a blast of cold German night air. When you feel that, you know that some British soldier came in and left the door wide open. We may have to have some door closing lessons if it gets much colder.

Nickname update: SSG W has earned his nickname: Slim. During the past two days of casualty evacuation drills he has turned out to be the worst casualty to have to evacuate: He is about an inch taller than me (6’4”) and weighs 250 lbs. He is a LOAD to pick up and carry around, especially with his 50 lbs. of extra gear (body armor, helmet, etc.)