Sand and Pine Trees

I have been in the Army since 1987. I went to Basic Training at ft McClellan, Alabama. Since that first Army installation I have visited Ft Benning, Georgia; Ft Bragg, North Carolina; Ft Stewart, Georgia; Ft drum, New York; Ft Irwin, California; Ft Lewis, Washington, Ft Dix, New Jersey; Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri; and finally - Ft McCoy, Wisconsin.

Each of these bases have one thing in common - pine trees and sand (with the exception of Ft Irwin which has NOTHING but sand and Ft Lewis which has NOTHING but pine trees, maybe it was a two for one deal). I mean, how is that the US Army found and purchased the worst possible land to train on? And what is up with all of the sand here in Wisconsin? Huh? Do they ship it in? Is it so the Marinies can train here too and they won't feel lonely for the ocean? How is that all of these places look exactly the same?!

I am in the middle of East Beejeezus here (just west of Podunk) and there is beach sand where there is no logical reason for it.

Oh sure, sure, millions of years ago this place was a tropical paradise with oceans and beaches. Yea, I get it - but that was millions of years ago...

How come we can't get nice places like the Navy? You know; San Diego, Newport News, Key West...

So there is my rant for the day.

Training continues to go well. Lots and lots of shooting this week. Yesterday alone we burned through 45,000 rounds.

R&R

Today we let off a little steam and, boy, did it feel good.

Today was our last day off until we leave Ft McCoy. The rest of the time we are here we will be in training. But today we had off and we had a cook out.

We reserved a pavillion down by a lake. It was a quiet place with a nice little sand beach and a swimming hole that had a huge water trampoline. The area had everything we could ask for; volleyball, horse shoes, hammocks, and enough distractions to make us forget we were in the Army.

I felt like a regular guy for a change. No uniforms, formations, or orders. We cooked hot dogs, hamburgers, bratwursts, and drank beer. In fact we drank three kegs of beer. (Despite the apprehension of the higher ups, no one got in trouble, hurt, or in a car) It felt like I was home and far away from the reality of the up coming year. If they had asked I might have even mowed the lawn...

So this is what R&R feels like. I saviored every minute of it.

Thank You, Jessica Lynch

Half way there...well at least 'til we are out of here.

We are in convoy operations training which will include live fire from moving vehicles.

Now - most of this is the result of that convoy from last year that got shot up and had the POWs. But - what I thought would be less than interesting training has actually turned out to be pretty good. After two days of practicing operations that include how to react to IEDs and hostile fire we went to the live fire range. Today we did a run through using blank ammo only. Shooting, moving, and communicating all at the same time is complicated - even at 5 mph.

Imagine it at 60 mph! With real bullets! In BOTH directions!

Tomorrow we use live ammo. There are a lot of controls on the scenario (a tad too many for my liking) to ensure a very safe environment.

The last three days are probably the most valuable training we will get here. We have only just begun to train this stuff to our soldiers.

(A day later)
Just got back from the live fire and it was successful. It went down just like we trained for the past few days. There were a couple of things to improve on but overall it was good training.

Rumors

Ok - so these are rumors that I am responsible for starting just to pass the time and to get a rise out of people who are already stressed over the NO drinking issue.

1. Cell phones are no longer allowed to be used out of fear that Al Quieda might be listening and soldier might be speaking about classified material.

2. Civilian clothes may not be worn after duty hours. It's either BDUs or PT uniform. After all this is the Army and you won't have civies over in Iraq.

3. (This requires set up - all officers must pay a charge for their meals including the MRE ration served at lunch. However no-one has set up any kind of cash collection) All officers will be charged for every lunch for the month that they were at Ft McCoy, regardless of whether they ate it or not and that money will collected before we are allowed to leave.

4. No walkmans, CD players, MP3 players - period.

5. The Senior NCO from eah unit will ensure that there soldiers wash their hands before each meal to prevent disease.

6. Soldiers will practice falling asleep in there beds at the position of attention.

Havin' fun in the Wisconsin sun!

It's Like Basic Training, Without The Yelling

Still here in Wisconsin. We continue to train for our deployment. The training is actually fair to good, most of it being put together in a short amount of time by Civil Affairs soldiers with Iraq of Afghanistan experience. Most soldier/instructors have some "war story" that they impart on the class. The effect of these stories is two fold, one it provides the listeners with some real-world-I-was-there knowledge. The other effect is that it is scaring the hell out of some of the lower Enlisted soldiers. 18, 19, 20 years olds don't like to hear that they can get shot at. But then again, neither do 37 year olds.

But that is not why I write - there will be time for stories like that of my own I suppose.

No, the reason I write is that at 37, a Captain (soon to be Major), a father, home owner, and all around good guy I feel like I am back in Basic Training. There are hundreds of Civil Affairs soldiers out here for this training. Most are like me, grown up, adult, mature, etc. But we are being restricted in out behavior. Here is the the list so far: we cannot drink under ANY circumstances, we cannot go off post, we cannot go to the recreation facility (alcohol is served there), we cannot go to the snack bar (ditto), we cannot play any kind of contact sport in our off time.

Now - c'mon. From 0800-1800 they can trust us to use hand grenades, fire machine guns, rifles and practice fighting tactics (I am sore and bruised) - but we can't be afforded that same trust in the evening? Really. The powers that be have enforced these rules, and no, I do not know the reason. They are sending us off to war some time in the near future (the whole put your life on the line for your country thing) but you can't have a beer. At 37 years old. Silliness.

Unfortunately, here is my predicament. I am a leader. Therefore my gripes are limited to my higher officers and, well, you all. I have to keep my feelings from the enlisted and enforce the rules. I also have two distinct thoughts on this. First, is GIMME A FREAKIN' BREAK!, for all the reasons listed above, and, you know what, it's bad for morale. Also to keep all of these young men and women cooped up for 30 days with nothing to do means that sooner or later someones temper will show. The second line of thought is that it is only 30 days of misery. If we can't hack this - what will our deployment be like? We can be miserable for a couple of weeks.

Our worry is that Ft Bragg will be more of the same...Lord, please no.

So, when I get home I am going from the airport to the Dinosaur BBQ, having two Sam Adams, dinner, and another Sam Adams.

(With apologies to Drill Sergeants Lamp and Owen - MY first and only Drill Sergeants)

Fort McCoy, Wisconsin

I have been in Wisconsin for four days now. This is a very small Army Reserve post in western Wisconsin. The area itself reminds me of central New York farm lands, especially along ST-17 between Elmira and Jamestown. Everything is green and lush. The weather, so far, has been kind; warm days, cool nights, no rain.

The big picture looks like this: everyone who is here for this training, and there are a lot of us, will be deploying overseas. We are all Civil Affairs oriented. The training is focused on the important things we need to refresh on before we go in-country. We are well aware that we will receive this training two or three more times before we go into Theater. There are significant muscle movements going on; what people are going, who is here now, what unit is responsible for subordinate units, where are those units being assigned overseas. Now most of this is WAY above my pay grade, and WAY beyond my ability to worry about it. (A lot of our soliders are worried about where/what/why and what I have told them is this, "All I know is that I am in the Army all day long today. I know that I am here until 10 AUG. I know I have a plane ticket back home and I know I am getting paid for being here. Everything else is subject to change - and it will.") It would be unfair to say where I was going with any certainty, except to say that I am going to Iraq - and even that I am not 100% sure of.

Small picure looks like this: this place is very well maintained. It is a WWII style post with white two story barracks just like you see in the movies. The barracks are all laid out with neat precision. The have been renovated so that there are new windows, showers, lights, floors, sinks, toilets, etc. Now for most of you reading this you are thinking, "So?" but for those of you who ever actually stayed in one of these places you know that is a good thing. They are still open bay barracks and we are sleeping twenty to a floor in single beds instead of forty to a floor in bunk beds. There is a computer center right down from my place so access to the outside world is good. Other than that there are very few amenities around here and we do not have a whole lot of transportation available. The club on post has been put Off Limits.

Personal picture looks like this: the unit I am training with is a conglomeration of other units so we do not have a whole lot of community between us as we arrived. The commander is from Miami. We have two units under him; one from Utica, NY and ours from Syracuse, NY. Now this is a temporary thing for the month we are here - and we are all learning who each other is. I have been pulled from the position I was put in arriving here (Company Commander/OIC) and been made the Executive Officer for the whole training unit. So, I work for the commander from Miami. This is all good experience for me. It means no change in pay or anything else.

I will post more at another time.

The Good Bye

Today is Thursday, 08 July 2004. In four days I will be on a plane to Wisconsin for a month. From the sounds of things at my unit yesterday it sounds like I will not be able to come home for the brief period of time that we return to New York.

That means that most of the good byes are happening now - which is well they should be. The problem is that, so far, nothing is fitting into my logical plan of how everything is supposed to go. There is frustration here - and anxiety. You take a deep breath, mentally say a couple of "M-F's" and continue on. I am going to start to expect more of the same frustrations both here and there.

The good news is that I will be promoted before I go. This is good for me and the soldiers I will be responsible for. I loved being a Captain in the Army, but being a Major will give me more clout to get things done.

There are so many people that I will miss over the next umpteen months. Good bye to Pops; this time away will be difficult knowing that he will be going thru a hard time as he loses to cancer and that I can't be there. To Mom; who is trying to keep it all together and be everything for everyone. To Andy; who remains un-phased by all of this but has promised to do his part to be with Sam from time to time. To Lisa; my love who I feel so sorry for having to leave but with who I know will continue to grow with. To Stacey; for meeting this challenge. To my students; who I hope to proud by leading by example. To Roxanne; who has been a tremendous source of support, friendship and love - this has been a most difficult time for you. To the cadre at Cornell Army ROTC; who will just barely get by and survive without me. To friends; for all of their support. And to Sam; a great kid caught in the middle of something she can only grasp in the statement "daddy is going to be gone for a year".

Until next time...