(This is our Platoon Flag, also referred to as a Guidon, the Guidon bearer, [the person who holds the flag], takes it everywhere with them and always stands at the front of the formation)
(5th Platoon Picture-I'm in the first row all the way to the right)
Well we all made it back alive from our second FTX week. It was a very busy week for everyone but also a lot of fun...well...most of it...
We started off on Monday morning with formation outside the hotel at 0350. Just as the buses showed up to transport us to Camp Bullis, so did the police...lots of them...with their lights and sirens going like crazy. After a little commotion, a guy from 4th platoon was pulled out of the formation, hand cuffed, and taken away! We didn't know what happened so on the bus ride we started making up rumors about why he got arrested. Later in the day we found out he was speeding on post because he was going to be late to formation and didn't pull over when the cops tried to stop him. He didn't get in any trouble and our commanding officer even laughed at him and the cops...the real story wasn't nearly as exciting as what we had made up though!
After we got to the FOB, we got an MRE (Meal-Ready-to-Eat) for breakfast and lunch and then had to go draw our weapons for the week. We all wish we didn't have to have the weapons on us...it's a 24/7 thing, wherever we go, so does our trusty M16. We sleep with them, take them to the port-o-potties, to chow, everywhere. I laugh because I feel like I'm at camp again, we're like little kids except instead of getting in trouble for being out of our tents after dark, we are sneaking around hoping we don't get caught without our M16's! The common thing to do is leave it with a buddy. If we need to head to the bathroom, we tell our battle buddy it's under the cot and take off without it. It was working out well until people started to lose them. Then we all got yelled at and now we can't leave it with our battle buddy anymore. We still do sometimes anyway though. We're such rebels!
Back to Monday. 9mm qualification day! I was pretty excited for this day because I really like the 9mm and I'm not a bad shot with it. We had to shoot 17 out of 30 to qualify and I shot a 21! Woohoo! I thought I did a little better than that but I was really happy. The safety officer at my post said I shot really well, a lot better than most! This took most of the day to complete.
(9mm Qualification Range)
While we were rotating groups through the qualification range we also had various convoy classes to attend. We also picked up our pro masks (gas masks) for our CBRNE training the following day.
We decided to change our platoon motto as well. We used to say "Plead the 5th" but we decided to change that to "Drink a 5th!" We felt this was more fitting for our platoon, then we tried to convince 6th platoon to follow up our motto with "And a 6-pack!" but they didn't think it was nearly as funny as we did...
Tuesday: Started the day with chow and then 5th and 6th platoon formed up to walk to the gas chamber...felt more like a death march though. We were told it would only be a 3/4 mile walk, turns out it was closer to 2 miles. Needless to say, I got several blisters and my feet did not enjoy the rest of the day in my boots. The gas chamber sucked. We started off going in with our gas masks on, so we could see that they worked like they were supposed to.
(Me in my gas mask)
Then we did some jumping jacks...so the gas could really get on our skin. Then we had to take the masks off, say our full name, rank, a fake social security number, and where we were from. It burned every inch of skin that was exposed, mostly my neck and hands. I took a big breath inside my mask and took it off, got through everything I was supposed to say but had to take a breath on my way out. Then my lungs were burning as well as my throat and eyes. Once outside we're told to walk (NO RUNNING), flap our arms to get some of the gas off of our clothes, open our eyes, and face towards the wind. No wind in Texas though! It took about 10 minutes for everything to stop burning and the feeling of throwing up to go away. The only plus side of the gas chamber was that my sinuses were completely cleared out, because it had all come out and was now on my clothes. Sneezing and drainage also goes along with the gas effects.
(This is me flapping and trying to open my eyes)
It was entertaining to watch everyone come out and go through the same thing. One person passed out inside, they think she had her mask on too tight and she had to be carried out. The talk of the company though was a girl in our platoon, she went in with my group, this was her 6th time going through the gas chamber from various training courses and she said she had panic attacks at the previous 5 and figured this would be no different. Sure enough, right in the middle of our jumping jacks, she starts to panic, throws her mask off, kicks the door open, and proceeds to run about 500 meters at a dead sprint. No one could get her to stop running and no one could stop laughing. After the gas chamber we had lunch, then had some more training relating to treating casualties of a CBRNE attack. Then we had to walk back to the FOB, blisters and all. We were all really glad when that day was over!
Wednesday we had convoy training and it was a blast! We started out at the simulator. Our platoon was divided into groups and from there divided into Convoy teams. My team of 5 was in truck number 2. I was the driver's bodyguard. It was a really cool simulation, each vehicle was in a separate room and there was a 360 degree screen around it so we could see all the other vehicles and what they were doing in a video game format and we could drive the HMMVW and the screen would respond to everything we were doing. We had to avoid IED's, shoot at insurgents that were attacking with our M16's that were also hooked up to the simulator (reminded me of Mario Duck Hunt but with way better weapons!), and complete our mission to get from point A to B. Unfortunately our group failed miserably. Good thing we were just learning! A couple of our vehicles got blown up, 5 people from another truck were shot, and another truck may have accidentally run over some children. Aside from those minor details, our truck was the only one that didn't royally screw up; it's a team effort however, and we got a "D" for convoy operation! haha, we weren't actually getting graded for anything, we just were getting some experience.
After that adventure, we headed out to the rollover vehicles. One of the most common causes of injury and death in the military is due to vehicle rollovers. All the vehicles are so top heavy because of all the armor that they roll very easily. We were taught how to secure our weapons in a matter of seconds and brace for the impact. The instructor then turned their joy stick our vehicle spun in circles. I got nailed in the head by the fire extinguisher, and even though it was made of hard rubber for the purposes of our activity, it still hurt. Once the vehicle stopped rolling, we were locked in except for one door (out of 5 possible, 4 passenger doors and the gunner hatch up top). We had to release our seat belts and drop down to the "floor" of the vehicle, which was actually the ceiling and then find the door, get out and secure the area. Lots of fun!!
(This is the rollover simulator right side up)
(And here we are up-side down!)
Our third convoy activity for the day was an actual convoy mission. We were each assigned roles (mine was in the back of the second vehicle, as a lookout and also radio correspondent for our driver and tactical commander), given our mission, loaded up in the trucks, and headed out. Several people in our platoon were pulled out beforehand to act as insurgents, and IED's were placed along our route for us to identify and respond to. We did have one KIA on our truck, the guy on the left dismount failed to find an IED. We were also given a magazine of 10 blanks to use if needed. I never ended up getting to fire my weapon, all of the attacks came on the opposite side of the truck but it was still a lot of fun.
(Me manning my convoy post)
Normally, the cadre have pyrotechnics set up all along the route for blasts, however, since the state of Texas is at risk for spontaneous combustion with even leaving a cigarette butt burning on the ground, they had to leave their fireworks at home. Oh well...would have been cool though. After we completed our mission, we had to set up a landing zone so our wounded could be evacuated out. After we got back to the FOB they flew in a Medivac Helicopter to teach loading and unloading and safety when working around them. That was pretty cool to see up close. 
(This is what the helicopter looks like) Thursday: This was the busiest day of all!! We started out with land navigation, my partner, Slack, and I were pretty confident in our skills. We had 3 hours to find 3 of our 4 points. We found all four points in about 2 hours and walked about 3-4 miles. Each point is identified on a post, and there is a punch at each post with a letter and number so you have to punch your paper and write down the letter and number (alphanumeric) to get credit for that point.
(Slack and I ready to start land nav)
After land nav we had classes on the various hospitals we might encounter in theater then we moved on to Warrior Leader Task testing. We had to clear, disassemble/reassemble, and do a functions test on our M16 in under 4 minutes; clear, disassemble/reassemble, and do a functions test on our 9mm in under 2 minutes, assemble/set up a radio, program the frequency, and call our neighbor, and lastly, send a 9 line Medivac request in under 5 minutes. These are considered 'Go/No Go' activities. You either get it on the first time, or you do it again until you get a 'Go'. They really aren't that hard and almost all of us got first time 'go's' for everything. There were a few people (some of the new reservists) that got 'no go's' on almost everything and we can't figure out how because we've had 2 weeks to practice everything, with the cadre there to help whenever we needed it. They'll have to figure all that out later though, can't graduate until you pass! After those tasks, our platoon went back on tent detail and built 2 more of the Alaskan tents in the blistering afternoon sun. We grabbed dinner after that and then immediately formed up to start night nav. Slack and I partnered up again, we had 4 new points and 4 hours to get at least 3 of them. After we plotted our points on the map, we decided that rather than count our steps and shoot an azimuth, to find our points, we were just going to 'eyeball' it. We skipped our start point and just headed to the first marker. We were hoping to get there before it actually got dark to make it easier but we didn't. We still found the point and then quickly moved on to find the other three and make it back in 2 hours, without shooting a single azimuth or counting a single step! Just in time to go to bed. Another 3-4 miles of walking bringing the daily total up to around 6-8...
(Slack and I headed out for Night Nav)
Friday: Finally! We got to turn our weapons right after breakfast because we were leaving the FOB for our Combat Support Hospital (CSH-pronounced CASH) training. We got an introduction on the construction and building of a CSH and then a quick tour. 
(This is the CSH-Same tents as what we sleep in but these are all connected)
We were each assigned a role in the hospital (mostly related to our actual professions) and then we proceeded to take on casualties and run the hospital as we would if we were in theater. I got the role of an ICU nurse.
(This was our ICU tent)
There were 5 of us to run the unit and care for the 'patients', I floated between the critical patients and the ones that were stable and waiting for transport and then also acted as a runner to the lab and pharmacy. 
(Our 5 man ICU team!)
Our 'patients' were members of 6th platoon. They were given cards with injuries that we had to treat. It was pretty fun, we ran it relatively smoothly, although one guy was able to sneak a weapon in and shot our psychologist. The ER team was able to stop the suicide bomber and his wife from entering. After this training ended, we headed back to the FOB where we had a little free time in our air conditioned tents (perfect for a nap), loaded up the buses, and headed back to Fort Sam!
We have a 3-day weekend this weekend - yay Columbus Day! Tuesday morning we have formation at 0250!!! and we head back to the field for all day Tuesday and Wednesday and then we are done with the field! We have to turn in our gear at the end of next week and practice for graduation and graduation is next Monday! After that we have 2 weeks for our nurse specific training before heading for home!!
No comments:
Post a Comment