PTSD experiment

     You ever have one of those guys? You know the one. He asks questions whose answers nobody cares about. He has expectations that are so far out in left field they're dodging baseballs in the parking lot. He wants things done that not even his boss care about. You all know this guy and so do I. How do I know him you may ask? I work with him now.

     It's starting off as a slow night, nothing much to do and nothing much to report at the end of my shift. Hell, we're not even going to have a briefing today, which I think is pretty cool. No slide to do and update, no questions to answer, nothing. So I get the lowdown from my counterpart. He says that this is the way of the weekends. Nothing much goes on so the op-tempo is a lot slower. Less is expected of you and you don't have to report to anybody. Still have some things that must get done, but the end of shift briefing doesn't happen. I'm all smiles at this point. Then the other stack of shoes drop.

     I'm asked a question about schedule changes on things that we report. The same question that I answered last night to the same guy. I'm not going to get that report for another 2 hours, I can't update it. So he wants to know when I'm going to update my slide. I tell him there is no slide to update because there is no brief. Well, we still have to do the slide. I ask why and get the response of for historical data. Really? Historical data? Pull the other, it has bells on. So, I update the slide, as much as I can without getting the report I can't get for another couple of hours. I get done and ask where he wants it saved. Oh, just put it in the usual place. At this time I just want to slap the piss out of the guy. I can't put it in the usual place, there is no brief, there is no slide show, the usual place doesn't even exist today!  He actually goes to the guys who control the slide show and ask them to create the spot for my slide. So there will be a historical record of today's brief, complete with ONE FRICKEN SLIDE! MINE!

      I have been wondering of late if it is possible to get PT SD without being in a fire fight, being hit by an IED or having a building burn down around you or seeing something horrible. The next few months will be an experiment to test it. If I develop PT SD then it will be a success, in a way. Lets all hope and pray that the test is an abject failure, shall we?

Till next time dear followers.

MOHH  ;-)

Desert living

     The desert is hot and dry and tan, right? Not so much. Most people think that the desert is nothing but a hot arid place where nothing but cacti grow.  I'm here to tell you, it's a lie.  It rained here in Iraq a few days ago. There is grass growing around my living quarters, actually it's weeds, but it's still green. We have flowers on the deck of the office I work in and they are actually blooming. The desert actually yeilds life in so many ways. I've not seen too much of animals, though I saw a dog in Kuwait. There are tons of birds here, mostly sparrows and pigeons and a few morning doves.

     Work is going pretty good. I'm learning all I can before my counterparts go back home. I'm already doing the updates and briefings without too many promptings. We had issues with computers the night before last, but it didn't last too long and we were back up and running things. What I'm really looking forward to is something I'm curently planning. My trip to Italy.

     My plan is to bring Carrie to Italy and go on a 3 city tour of the country. I'll have right around 2 weeks to do it too. I plan on us seeing the canals of Venice, the ancient buildings and museums of Florence and all the history we can absorb in Rome. It's going to be a blast. I can't wait to see her face when we hop onto a gondola and ride up one of the canals of Venice. If anybody has any recomendations of what we should see or do while we're there, I'm all ears. I do have a Europe guidebook but nothing beats the experiences of friends too.

Iraq

Guess who'se got 2 thumbs and is in Iraq! *points thumbs at self* THIS GUY!!!

So I made it here in one piece. I've got some decent roommates and the room is not too bad. My captain and warrent officer even made sure I got a bottom bunk, a much coveted thing in any barracks with bunk beds. Chow in the mess hall is a wonderful thing. If I'm not careful, I'll come back one of the fat kids. Of course, the air force run the mess hall so food is always going to be better than army chow.

Nothing serious to report other than I'm here. I've already been given some of my basic load (ammo) but I've not yet started work. No fear though dear readers, all of my work should be in an office right here within an easy walk of my CHU (Combat Housing Unit) pronounced *chew*.  I've had no reason to and probably won't even go off base, which we call outside the wire though I have no idea why. I think I'll end here as, like I said, I have nothing to really report.

Range fire

     So I went to the range today. Wow! You would think that when your job is to be a range cadre (cadre=worker) and working and teaching at the rifle range is something you do often that you would have your shit together. Right? Not so much. Let me tell you about our range instructor today.

     First of all, today was windy so it was difficult to hear anybody. It didn't help that this guy was as soft spoken as a timid freshman on his first day at a huge new school. So he gets the bull horn out, still can barely hear him. All that aside, he was supposed to teach us to shoot while moving and pivoting by the new army standards. One might also think that he would know how to do this, not only step by step but also the physical fundamentals too. Well, in a way, he did. He had a card in his pocket that told him how. The problem came when he was hooked on the verbiage of what we were supposed to do and not on the physical act of us doing it. He wanted us to repeat after him everything he said, for example: Run, stop, shoot; walk, look, turn, shoot. We had to say it right or he wouldn't continue on, even though when we did it, we did it right.

     The problem I have with this is that eventually, we're going to be basically shoulder to shoulder doing this with live rounds loaded in our weapons. Turning or even walking right behind our buddies with live rounds. To me, the most important thing that should have been stressed is, where are you pointing the muzzle of your rifle? So long as you turn, walk, run or do whatever without flagging (Pointing the muzzle of your rifle at a friend) your buddies and remembering to put your weapon on safe after each exercise, who cares of all you say is, "see spot run, see spot chase".  It took us about 1 hour, give or take, to get all 30 shooters through the lane. It took this guy close to 3 hours to teach us. But wait, that's not all!

     In my unit, we have a lot of senior people. No, I don't mean old and crusty people though we have our fair share of those too. I mean we have a lot of high ranking people. When a high ranking person, who has been in the army for well over 15 years, asks a question that our youngest and freshest recruit could answer it kind of makes me cringe. It doesn't help that the answer could be found by applying a very light coating of common sense before ever being asked. During our instruction, we were told that when we ran between two points to shoot, we were to give a yell. Kind of like a battle charge yell. This person, who I will not name, asked if we should yell. They wondered if it were wise to yell since the enemy would be able to hear us approach then. This person was an E-8 which means that they are the second highest rank an enlisted person can make in the army. The person standing next to them, the E-4, easily answered the question by saying that it was just for motivation. That we wouldn't really yell if we were charging an unsuspecting enemy, we just do it in training. Sheesh! Give me a break.

     So now I am sitting here, drinking my Gatorde  and hoping that the rest of my (hopefully) short time in Kuwait will be a bit less dumb.  What I really need is a shower and a shave and probably a good nights sleep. What I want...well, lets just say that if I get caught with it, I'd get in trouble. They don't allow Scotch into country so we're not allowed to drink it or anything else like it. *sigh* I guess I'll just have to wait till June when I hit Italy. More on that when the time is close. For now, I'm signing off.

Good night out there!
Love you Mom.

Today

So today we went through some more training and I realized that these instructors/military people here are nuts. In class and as I sit here typing this the temp outside is around the 60's I think. It's windy and chilly outside, though it is dry. Inside, however, they have the AC running. WTF? My neck and ears are so cold it freezes my hands just to touch them. This is rediculous! Somebody save me from the chill. I thought the desert would be a little bit warmer, even in winter. Guess not.

In the Beginning...

Before I get started, I want to say I'm sorry for the poor excuse this first entry is destined to be. You see, I'm tired. The explination for that will be forthcoming.

On Friday the 11th we loaded up bags and boxes, gathered weapons and climbed on busses. We were manifested, fed, briefed, prayed for then loaded on a plane headed for Maine. We landed in Maine sometime around midnight Indiana time. After an hour or so rest, we re-boarded and headed across the pond to the land of beer and schnitzel, Germany. 8 hours or so later we land in north-east Germany and off loaded ourselves. Many took this time to find food, though we were fed like kings on the flight, or find rest. Those like me merely found people to talk to. I did take my captains offering of a cell phone and called Carrie for too brief a moment.

After all the fun that cound be had in Germany was had, we re-re-boarded the bird and headed into Kuwait. Though it seems like only a days worth of travel, it is curently 2:30 PM Kuwait time on Sunday. I've not rested much though I tried. Sleeping on a plane is usually no problem for me, but this time it was more of a chore than my body could handle. Now that I'm here, my bags have been downloaded to my cot and I've showered all I want to do is curl up and sleep. A good idea right? Nope. See, if I do that then I'm going to wake up around 1 AM my time here and have a completely screwed up sleep schedule for weeks. So I force myself to stay awake so that I can try to get to bed in the early evening. Hopefully I won't be too punch drunk to sleep then. It's happened before and I'm sure that it will again. I just don't look forward to it if it does.

Well, I think that's about all the excitement I can handle for one entry. I hope you enjoy and feel free to leave comments and ask questions. One other thing before I go. I began this blog at a suggestion from my mom. She wanted to keep up with the things I'm doing over here for my unit and our country. My mom is a pretty neat gal, so for her I'm dedicating this first entry. I love you Mom!

Always:
SGT Adam Davis