day24/20
April 14
ok, we just got out of the field and of course it’s raining and has for three of the five days in the field. Go figure. Lets see I think day 8 is where I left off.
Day 15 was a 5 oclock wake up and started the day off with our second anthrax shot. We then had a written test for combat lifesaver certification and had to run through two full blown senarios. by 3pm we were combat lifesaver qualified. We then proceded over to vehicle rollover training as many soldiers are killed when their humvee rolls over, expecially the gunner sticking up out the roof of the vehicle. After the evening meal we had weigh in of our selves and gear as we are only allowed 4oo lbs per soldier on the plane to Kuwait. Squad meeting was at 6pm and then preped for the next days training. The sun actually came out today and was 45 degrees.
Day 16 was a 5 am wake up and after chow we loaded gear and moved to the FOB for five days off training in the field. by 8 AM we were already on our first mission of defending the base. this was a live fire exercise in which I was incharge of as well as for the rest of the day untill leadership change time. the live fire went well, no one was shot and the OC’s (observer controlers) the ones who evalutate us gave us a go in all areas except the medical casualty. all went well in that area as far as reports, litter team retreaving the victom and so on untill my combat life saver was to nervous to make a good IV stick in the wounded soldiers arm. He missed the vein on the first arm and then on the second try of the other arm he acidently pulled the cathider out of the vein while given saline solution. the wounded soldier had one big bubble in his arm for awhile. its way easier to perform first aid in a class room than it is when you only have seconds to treat the casualty before he dies and live rounds are being fired around you. By 6pm we began prep for the next days mission of ground assault convoy and then attended a briefing on suicide in the combat zone. This first day in the field went fast.
Day 17, wake up was at 5am and it had already rained all night long and is 40 degrees. We started the morning with prep and rehersals for the ground assault convoy training. Loaded humvee’s and got the commo up and running with both primary and secondary commo radios. We headed out of the wire to the convoy lanes training with several senarios of different vehicles in the convoy getting hit with IED’s and small arms fire as well as the key leadership in the convoy being wounded or killed. This took us to evening chow and of course late into the night we planed and preped for the next days mission. It rained hard this whole day as well as hailed on us for 15 minutes and then continued to rain. two tornado warnings were given and they touched down about twenty miles to the north east of our position so no problen there for us. forcast is for rain the rest of the time in the field also.
Day 18 was a 5am wake up and following morning chow we started with convoy lanes training again only the intensity was now going to be steped up. We went through two convoy lanes today each being about 10 miles long. Our first mission was to recon a route looking for IED’s and to stop at a villiage to talk to the local shiek to gain intell on insurgents. We encountered numerous attacks and then finaly made it to the village where there were about 30 real iraqi’s surounding our vehicles as we stoped in town. it was actually real weird to be surrounded by them while the convoy commander and the interpriter and security talked to the shiek. they even tried getting into our humvee’s. the 9 mm pistal detered that. Someone in the convoy spotted a bomb on one of the iraqi’s and we gave the signal to load the commander and hauled ass out of town we didn’t loose any vehicles but had two wounded in the proccess. Yep another IV stick, thank god I was the driver and not the combat live saver giving the needle or whorse the casualty getting stuck with a needle. By 8 pm we were done for the day and it’s still raining.
Day 19 we woke up at 5:30 and was tested on convoy opperations today with one mission to go to Balad and pick up 9 mm pistals and deliver them to the police chief in Baghdad. We learned our lesson yesterday and this time when entering Baghdad with all the iraqi’s we created a box formation with the vehicles on the edge of town so nobody could get to us inside the area created by the vehicles, and with keen scanning of the area we spotted and IED right away so sounded the alarm loaded and blew through and out of town in under 60 seconds. This total pissed off the evaluaters as we out smarted them. they had all kinds of attacked set up for us that just didnt work. This ended by mid afternoon and we then spent a couple hours cleaning weapons and then met with the 1st army sergeant major and then prepared and preped for tomorrows mission. It has quit raining now and at 7pm we took a unit picture to be sent home to the family support group.
Day 20 was a 5am wake up with chow to follow. It was an easy day as we only had clean up of the field area execpt for the ten saw ( squad automatic weapon, machine gun) gunners as they had to go to a live fire exercise of fireing from a moving humvee. the rest of us packed and cleaned and then moved into the contonment area. Finaly a warm shower and fresh clothes. We have the rest of today to complete some online training and personal things. Three days and we will be on the plane to Kuwait.