Sleep Is A Crutch: FTX Week 1

This past week was our first FTX (Field Training Exercise) week in the field.  Monday we had some last minute things to take care of, then we went to the armory to draw our M16's for the week, packed our bags, and loaded the buses.  Our field training takes place at Camp Bullis, it's about an hour away from Fort Sam Houston.  Once we made it to Camp Bullis we continued through camp until we made it to our FOB (Forward Operating Base). 

 (Some of the tents on the FOB)

We got situated in our tent, got our gear stored, had formation, and then finally, around 2100 got our MRE's for dinner! 

 (This is our tent, Tent 16!)

(This is my corner of the world)

  (Some tent mates hanging out in my corner of the world)

We didn't stay up too late because reveille was at 0400 every day!  It is dumb that we have to get up so early because first formation isn't until 0515, then we have free time until chow at 0600, and then another break until we form up to start our day of training, usually around 0730.  So by 0730 in the morning every day, I already had been up for 3.5 hours and had 2 naps in.  Don't know why they can't organize any better than that but that's how the Army works, so that's what we do!

Tuesday: We had land navigation training today.  Really boring stuff because it's nothing new, but we all played along, plotted our points on the map, and then headed out as a group to find our points.  Next week we have our land nav qualification in which we have to plot our points with our partner, and find 3 of 4 points in 4 hours.  We also will have night nav, in which we do the same thing at night, but only have to find 2 of 4 points in 5 hours.  Nothing hard at all and the course is self-correcting.  My partner and I have everything down so we will be good to go on that.  Our platoon was on Hand Wash Station detail Tuesday and Wednesday.  We had to fill the hand wash stations with water, soap, hand sanitizer, and paper towels outside the port-o john and the mess tent.  Nothing terribly exciting but it needed done. 

(Coming back from Land Nav)

Wednesday: We headed out to one of the M16 ranges to zero our weapons.  We each got 6 magazines with 5 rounds each to zero.  Once we did that we got training on the M9 and then it was more hurry up and wait.  I was done for the day by 1030, it all depends on when your group gets through each training session.  I happened to get on the range right away and through my M9 training early but since there were close to 250 of us, everything takes a while.  Since I was done early, I sat in the shade on the bleachers, read my book, ate some lunch, and took my 3rd nap for the day.  Around 1400 everyone was finished so we headed back to the FOB for our afternoon details and dinner.  After dinner we have time to do whatever we want...even though there is nothing to do.  I was only able to find one area of the FOB where I get a cell phone signal so most of the evening was spent in the tents chatting with people, reading, and sleeping.  Bed time is usually between 2000 and 2100.

 (Part of the range)

(Slack and I relaxing by one of the trucks)

There is a pogey bait truck that comes around the FOB almost every day and sells sodas, candy, burgers and fries, lots of food to make up for the bad chow that comes from the mess tent.  The line is usually really long so I only got a soda one afternoon when I was trying to cool down. 

Thursday: We had a practice qualification for the M16 at a ballistic range.  Only a few targets at various distances, we had a total of 80 rounds to shoot.  To qualify, you have 20 rounds in a prone supported position (resting on sand bags), 10 rounds prone unsupported, and 10 rounds kneeling.  So we had 2 sets of qualification ammo to shoot in 8 minutes.  The cadre at my lane said I was shooting really well and I thought I was as well, I was pretty steady and hitting a lot of the targets.  We also had different stations in which we learned about some of the various medical vehicles we may encounter in the field, how they are loaded and unloaded and some of their capabilities.  I was quite impressed with some of them, very high tech.  The first we saw was a HAGA (Heavy Armored Ground Ambulance), which is part of the MRAP (Mine Resistance Ambush Protected) family of vehicles.  A couple of the cool features it has are hydraulic lifts for the litters so personnel don't hurt themselves lifting in the confined space and a V-Shaped hull which deflects IED shrapnel.  It also has state-of-the-art exterior and interior lighting systems, the lights are natural lights so they don't distort skin color, which allows medical personnel to observe patient skin color and monitor their condition better.  (Had to throw in the info on the lights, I'm a bit partial to lighting! :)    

 (This is a HAGA)

After the HAGA we looked at the Stryker MEV (Medical Evacuation Vehicle).  No V-shaped hull but heavily armored to withstand blasts from IED's.  This one also has the hydraulic lifts inside.   



(This is the Stryker MEV)

Finally, we talked about loading patients in the basic HMMWV ambulance, and the 2 1/2 ton trucks, commonly referred to as the Deuce and a Half.  These are not high tech, most don't even have air conditioning, but they are primarily used for transporting patients around the FOB.

(This is the HMMWV Ambulance)               

(This is the Deuce and a Half)

After vehicle information and a few practice runs loading patients, we were done with that training for the day and we headed back to the FOB for some chow and relaxation.  Thursday night we got some incredible storms.  It started raining buckets about 1900, tons of lightening and thunder too.  The tents were rocking back and forth in the wind and then the flooding started.  Our tent was on a bit of a slope (and my cot is on the high end) so the other ended started filling with water quickly.  After some quick rearranging, we got all the cots out of the water and everything off the floor and then sat back to let the storm roll through.  The floor has a plastic mat over it so we could see the water on our end of the tent running underneath but it never came up through so we were happy about that.

(Me and some of my friends on the truck headed back from the range)

Friday: Up early again and we headed to a different range for the day to qualify on the M16.  It was actually cool and comfortable for a change.  Every other day was over 100 degrees, instant sweat, but today we had a breeze and it was in the 80's.  In order to qualify you have to hit 23 out of the 40 pop up targets.  I did not qualify, in fact, I only know of 3 people of about 200 that did qualify.  I was disappointed at first that I only shot a 14 but after knowing that no one else did well either, I was pretty content that I hit 14!  It was a ridiculously hard range, some of the targets didn't pop up, others couldn't even be seen.  None of the prior service guys in our platoon qualified nor did the police sniper from 6th platoon.  Good thing graduation from our course doesn't rest on qualifying or there would be a lot of us repeating it!  After we did that, we had time to eat our lunch and then we went back to the FOB until the buses came to take us back to post.  We had about 4 hours before the buses came and our platoon was on tent detail for the week so we started the process of tearing down old tents and putting up new ones.  It took us about three hours to put up two tents, very involved and a lot of hard work but we got them done.  We will have two more to put up each of the next two weeks.  One of the cadre told us during the day when we all were dragging that sleep was a crutch and we didn't really need it...most of us begged to differ though! 

 (Out for an evening stroll with my trusty M16)

(Building Tents!)

This weekend was spent showering, sleeping, doing laundry, and packing for next week...busy busy!

Tips:  A few things to bring with you in the field that you might not think about: bug spray, sun screen, flip flops, a small pillow, a utility tool/knife, and most importantly, lots of baby wipes as there are no showers!! 

Side Note: For those that are wondering, the red thing on the end of the M16's in some of the pictures is called a BFA (Blank Firing Adaptor).  When we are in the field our M16 is with us at all times.  We take it to chow, to the bathroom, we sleep with it...everywhere.  The BFA is on it whenever we're not shooting at the range, I guess it's just there to make sure we don't shoot each other, even though we have no ammo.