OK, for those who have not heard, for all intents and purposes, I am in the Army for the next year or so. I have been training with the Army for a little more than 2 and 1/2 months now in Indiana, as well as North Carolina in preparation for a deployment to Afghanistan this fall. We began with language and cultural training at Indiana University, then moved to Fort Bragg in North Carolina for combat skills and mission specific training.
My team is one of the provincial reconstruction teams. Our mission is to help the Afghan government rebuild their country, economy and government. My focus on the team will be construction. I am very excited to be a part of this mission. We (and the thousands of other diligent military and aid workers) have the opportunity to affect a great deal of positive change for many people. 30 years of near constant warfare has taken an enormous toll on the entire country.
As for my time here in North Carolina, it’s been very valuable training, but certainly has included a number of ups and downs. We will continue our training for another month or so, then head to Afghanistan. As you can see, we focus on combat skills here. Our mission is to rebuild, aid and enable the Afghan government, so hopefully, we won’t have to use these skills, but we are learning them, just in case.
If you are interested in more details about our mission and training, the following links will provide more insight:
PRT Overview
‘Outside the Wire Mission’ Article –>I am actually quoted in this article.
‘Language Immersion’ Article
Deployment Preparation Article
An article about the current PRT
Another article about the current PRT
With all that background reading out of the way, allow me to present a few images from the first part of our training. Fortunately for me, our chief here is a phenomenal photographer (also happened to be one for the Air Force as well). So, these images are a combination of his and mine. He was very kind to share them with me.
As a format side-note, I will try posting my comments directly under pictures, instead of on top as they were in prior posts.
This is me looking through the sight on my M-4.
This is an image of the whole team
Now, for the title to this entry. It is homage to the continued relevance of the movie “Stripes.” For reference, it was released in 1981 and is a timeless classic. In fact, the barracks in that movie (along with just about any other released since WWII) are the exact same that we lived in when we first arrived.
One of the other engineers, Joel, looks very happy to be there. Don’t you think?
We quickly came together as a team. Here, you can see the Airman in the center was selected for promotion. The commander is congratulating him on a job well done to earn the advancement.
In the early part of our time here, we had specific training. During a session for the engineers, we got stuck in the middle of a micro-burst. It was nearly the intensity of a tornado, and experiencing that in a tent was… interesting.
These guys are trying to hold the wall of water back. It was about 70 mile an hour wind, with rain and hail. Oh, and when we realized that holding aluminium poles with lightning all around wasn’t a good idea, we headed straight for the bus.
Here is some of the destruction after.
Multi-tasking in a HMMWV (AKA Humvee).
Part of the team after a long day of training.
Fortunately, communication equipment normally works, even in the woods of North Carolina. It’s amazing that even in the middle of nowhere, you can stay in contact with the outside world.
Top (the informal form of address for an Army First Sergeant) had a good time in this simulator. It taught us what to do in case of a vehicle roll-over, which is a very disorienting experience.
Map reading, and land navigation (both day and night) are essential skills that we reviewed and practiced.
We got a bit of hand’s on medical training. As you can see here, we began intravenous saline treatments on each other. There is much to be learned by actually doing it.
As you may be able to tell, I am less than thrilled going through this process.
MAJ Mundt, looking like the quintessential soldier.
These next two images are me working on a 50 caliber machine gun.
Everyone had to prove their ability to load, clear, disassemble, re-assemble, then function check several crew-served machine guns in a short amount of time. The only one that gave me trouble was the Mk-19, which seemed to have about 50,000 pieces. There is a picture of a Mk-19, a little later on, if you are interested.
Concentrating VERY hard.
More field training. This time with the M-4, the standard weapon we carry all the time.
Here’s the Chief with his Mk19 on top of a HMMWV.
Daniel kept a sharp eye out during our base defense exercises.
So did Matt, even at night.
LTC Kenna giving us direction.
Sitting around, telling stories has been an essential part of our experience here at Ft Bragg. Actually, everyone that I have talked to and who have trained with the Army has said that.
For almost a week, the team was expected to sleep outside (instead of our normal tents). Oh, we spent several weeks in those WWII barracks, but then moved to a “Forward Operating Base” that consists of a number of large (12-16 person) tents. That is where we have resided for a while now… Here you can see the chief made the most of his time out in the woods and brought several creature comforts (no pun intended).
Joel was also ready to defend our base.
Our only place to relax for a few minutes during a lull.
Yes, I too was ready to defend.
I know Daniel looks a little scary in this picture, but it was about 6 o’clock in the morning. We all look a little scary at that time of the day.
Nearly every day that we’ve been here, our lunch (and sometimes breakfast and dinner) has consisted of a Meal Ready to Eat (or MRE). These are pre-packaged food that is supposed to last for several years. In my opinion, they could probably survive in a nuclear winter. Although their quality has improved significantly over the last decade, it is no culinary masterpiece.
These next two images are from the Chief. He caught G-right and Slagle in the nice afternoon sun.
This is G-right
Slagle is enjoying his cigarette.
This is G-right again. This time he’s in his gunner’s turret of the Humvee. The chief did do some minor retouching to his image, as you can tell.
That concludes the training, as of right now. Next week, we have a big culmination exercise to practice all the skills we’ve learned. In the near future, we will head out to Afghanistan and use them for real.
So, until the next post…
–Jim
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