Sapper Train Up

One of the neat things about the Army is that there are constant opportunities to go to additional schools. When I was still a student I was able to go to Airborne and just out of airplanes. As Engineer students, we have the opportunity to compete for additional follow on schools. I'm trying to get a slot for the Sapper Leader Course. It's a month long course where you learn more engineer skills and spend about ten days in the field doing missions while sleep and food deprived. It is a very physically and mentally tough school. In order to compete for the slots we have a train up program. Up until this week it has been fairly easy. All we have been doing is start PT earlier. Well, Monday we had day zero train up. We started at 4:15 in the evening and had a smoke session (basically working out the entire time) until 10:30pm. Part of the train up included low crawling through a mud puddle multiple times. I've never been so dirty in my life and that was at around 5. we also did some combatives which was the funnest part of the train up. They split us up into two teams of about 15 and we wrestled head to head. A friend posted a video that I'm going to try upload. After the first smoke session we got to go home and shower around 10:30. At 2:30am we had to be back at the PT fields for another 3 hour smoke session. We started with about 40 people and dwindled down to 26. Then we had to go to class all day. It was brutal and we were all falling asleep, but such is life. It was brutal and I'm sooo sore. I have so many bruises but it was worth it!

ENFORCE

My class was lucky enough to be part of the ENFORCE ball two weeks ago. ENFORCE is the engineer conference that takes place at FT. Leonard Wood every year. Every class has to do some sort of dinning in or ball and we got to go to the ENFORCE ball instead. It's possibly the only time I will ever be able to partake in it.

I was also lucky enough to go to the fallen soldier memorial where they recognized all the engineers who have been killed in action the past year. It was very emotional and I was honored to be part of the ceremony.

During the conference, a lot of civilian vendors come and set up a show case. So we got to see some of the new technology that is starting to be introduced into the Army which was really neat.

Weekend Trips

My weekends have stayed really busy since I have been here. We are only an hour away from the Lake of the Ozarks and the Army has a resort there that only military personnel can stay at. A couple weeks ago we rented three cabins and spent the weekend relaxing, boating, grilling, and hanging out.

One Saturday we decided to go to Springfield (about an hour away) for a gun show. That was random. There were a lot of interesting people there...but I did find a hip holster for my handgun!

Last weekend about ten of us went to St. Louis for the weekend. We had a girls night on Friday and then the boys met up with us on Saturday and we saw the Arch and went to a brewery. We got caught in a crazy thunderstorm while we had dinner and the parking lot flooded. But, it created a lot of puddles to jump in :) That night we went out dancing and had a lot of fun.

This weekend has just been relaxing. I have left my room once today and it's been great :) Since we were out in the field this week, all we had to do yesterday was clean the equipment so we finished around noon. We organized a cook out for the afternoon and played a game of kickball. It was awesome!

FTX

Last week we got to go on our second field training exercise. I really enjoy these because we get out of the classroom and get to do some hands on training. We started at 1pm on Wednesday to get all of our gear set up and ready to go. Around 7 we headed to our 'FOB'. A FOB is basically homebase when conducting operations. From there we continued getting everything set up. I got to help set up the demolitions we were going to be using and the people in leadership for the first mission started planning. Our first mission was to blow up a crater in a road to impede enemy movement and it started at 1am. For every mission the OPFOR (pretend enemy) already know what we are going to do so we can never 'win' but we still have fun. I ended up getting hit in the head with a paintball and went 'blind'. This is the first time I've done training with paintball guns and I really enjoyed it. It's a lot better than just yelling bang bang. It's also the first time that we have actually been able to use vehicles during our missions. We normally walk everywhere whihc isn't realistic. We had three vehicles:


1 Stryker:

and 2 LMTV's:



After each mission we doing an after action review and discuss what went well and what needs to be improved on. Then went back to the FOB and started the next mission. The second mission was to blow a bridge. All the missions were done by platoon and my platoon has three squads. For this mission the other two squads went up to the bridge and basically walked into an ambush and got slaughtered. My squad then came to the rescue! Haha, we had to CASEVAC (casualty evacuation) about 15 people. Doesn't sound like a big deal but every person that was dead had additional weight on their body due to equipment (about 20 lbs). We had to lift, drag, pull, carry, whatever we could do to get all the bodies onto the vehicles. It took four people to lift a single person on the back of the LMTV since they have to be lifted up to shoulder height. It was a workout! But we came together as a team.

Between missions 2 & 3, we had hot chow and the cadre gave us a 'sapper power hour' to sleep since we hadn't slept in over 24 hours. I slept for about 15 minutes and was woken up and told I had to hang out at the TOC (headquarters basically) for the next mission. Which was a bummer because you just sit around. The third mission was a traffic control point and the other platoon was on a quick reaction force mission. Basically the OPFOR created such a mess that our platoon had to call the other platoon in for reinforcements. It was comical listening to over the radio. A perk to being in the TOC is that I got another short nap but I think it made me more tired than helping. Part of the other platoons mission was to take over the TCP for us and my platoon headed back to the FOB.

After mission 3, it was lunch time but right as we were eating, we were called in as a quick reaction force. The other platoon need our help to evacuate a casualty. As soon as we got there, the cadre called in a mortar attack and killed pretty much everyone in our platoon. Like I said, we can never win!

After that, we cleaned up the FOB and headed back in. After we had accountability for all of the sensitive equipment (radios, maps, etc) we got to go home. I got home around 7, showered, ate, popped in a movie and fell asleep. I slept for 12 hours straight. It was amazing!

Demolitions

One of the most fun days I have had in a learning environment since I have been here. Enjoy the video!

Offensive

This module was much more interesting than doctrine or defense. We learned more about the different systems that we have to clear routes. IED's are one of the biggest dangers right now in Iraq and Afghanistan so learning more about how to defeat this threat is a huge job for the engineers. We have explosive and mechanical ways to breach obstacles. It's a lot easier to see what these things do than to explain them so here ya go:

MICLIC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0lLCdBYGmU

Bangalore Torpedos (we have been using these since WWII): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qFtlnw1L_Y

MRAPs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViqOpXjLTTM

At the end of this module, we did another TEWT with a mission analysis. For this one though, we didn't do JANUS and instead drove around and saw the different terrain that was talked about in our mission.

Defense Phase

Defense was a little more interesting that doctrine. We started with learning about the big picture in defensive operations and then focused on what the engineers would do in the given situation. The way they teach us here is frustrating. My classmates and I are all going off to be platoon leaders but they are teaching us things on a much higher level. Here is the army structure from lowest to highest:

Squad: 12 soldiers, all enlisted with a squad leader
Platoon: 3-4 squads, with a platoon leader (that's what LT's like me lead)
Company: 3-4 platoons, with a company commander and an executive officer (XO)
Then proceeds to Battalion, Brigade, etc.

So they are teaching us company and battalion level tactics and knowledge, when we really need to be learning about platoon level. Once you become a captain (company commanders are captains), you go the Captains Career Course. So ideally, you would learn this stuff there, not here. Like I said....frustrating.

We learned about different type of mines and explosives and the effects that they have. Also, how to lay different minefields in order to manipulate the enemy.

We had a tactical exercise without troops (TEWT) for the defense module. We were given and operations order and had to apply the military decision making process and mission analysis and then do a brief. Thankfully they split us into groups of about 15 so we could spread out the work. Then we used JANUS, which is basically a video game to execute our plan. It was nice to get out of the death-by-powerpoint classes and do some hands on stuff.

Doctrine

The first month or so of OBC was focused on basic soldiering skills. Now we are starting to get more into the engineer side of things. The first module we learned was on doctrine (possibly the least interesting of all the stuff I am learning here). We learned about mission analysis and the military decision making process. The army likes to dumb things down a lot and make them idiot proof so there are steps for everything. Seven steps for the military decision making process, and a lot more for mission analysis (which is part of the MDMP).

I've also started learning more about engineer tools and capabilities. There are a lot of interesting vehicles that are being developed to help out with route clearance. Route clearance is what engineers are doing a lot on deployments. Here are a couple:

The Buffalo is an up-armored vehicle that can withstand most IED attacks. It's one of the better vehicles for route clearance.
The wolverine is used for bridging. The platform on top folds out into a bridge...pretty neat.


The rest of the doctrine phase was really boring...so I'm not going to say anymore about it!

It's Official!

I'm going to FT. Richardson! YAY!!!!!!! I just talked with the S1 (the person in charge of personnel) yesterday and had it verified. So I will be living in Anchorage, near Target and Arbys! And I just found out there is Cold Stone in Alaska...made my day :)

Other things I've been up to:

Cross Fit: There is a group of about 7 of us who started doing cross fit. One of the guys in my class is a trainer so that rocks. This is the first work out we did:

10x pull ups
25x push ups
25x sit ups
25x squats
200m sprint

Rest for 3 minutes and repeat three times. Each set was done for time. We did this on Monday and my legs are still sore!



My classmates are awesome. So just hanging out with them. Yesterday it was in the 70's so we played ultimate frisbee and then had taco Tuesday (it's Tuesday...so you eat tacos).

All in all.....a good time!

Land Navigation

Today we had land navigation. They ran it a little different from what I am used to. We are required to do a night and a day course. Our cadre combined the two and we started at 4am this morning. First formation was at 2:30...early day! We had six hours and 8 points that we had to find. Everyone is given different points in a 3km by 4km area. We are given a map, compass, protractor (not a math protractor) and 8 digit coordinates for 8 points (no GPS!). After plotting the points, you wonder around trying to find them. There are different techniques that people use. I like to walk on the roads-easiest I think. This course was nice because there were actually terrain features like hills, draws, and valleys. The courses in Minnesota are flat so you can't terrain associate. We were given six hours to complete the course. They let us leave around noon which was nice because it let me catch up on my blog!

Other training

We worked on other things as well while we were in the field.

I got to use NODs for the first time. NOD's are what the military uses for night operations. It takes a while to get used to seeing through them. The ones we used only went over one eye and the other eye was used as normal. This is what they look like:



And what it looks like seeing through them:


I had a massive head ache after from my eyes straining so much. Your depth perception gets really distorted while wearing them. But it was a good experience!

We also did MOUT (Military Operations on Urban Terrain) training. All the tactical training we learn in ROTC is based on non-village situations. MOUT is training focused specifically on how to clear buildings and villages which is going to be very helpful.

We stayed in wooden buildings that slept about 18 to a room. We had enough space for our cot and about 2 feet between each cot to put all our equipment. This was the first time that females weren't separated from the males while in the field. Normally we are put in our own building and then everyone forgets about us and we are then clueless. It was nice to be treated as part of the group for once. They brought us hot breakfast and dinner and for lunch we ate MRE's.

An MRE is a meal of 3000 calories and I end up eating very little of what comes in them. Most of them don't taste very good. My favs are ravioli and cheese tortellini. Some of the MRE's come with M&M's or Skittles that are expired but still taste good....

An MRE:
The green thing is the heater-the chemicals in it react with water and heat up your food.

BRM

Monday morning we headed out to the field for a week. The main area of concentration was BRM (basic rifle marksmenship). In the past, I have only fired an M16:



And last week we used the M4.


The M4 is the new weapon that is being introduced to the army. I like it a lot better than the M16 because the butt stock (the back end of the weapon) is collapsible so for people like me with short arms, it makes the weapon more comfy to shoot. Other than that, they are basically the same to shoot.

I also got to use a CCO (close combat optic):

A CCO is basically a laser scope. Normally you qualify with iron sites which looks like this:


I liked firing with the CCO a lot better.

This is what our BRM schedule looked like:

Monday: weapon familiarization and EST (engagement skills trainer). The EST is a weapons simulator. Basically it's a giant video game. The technology used for it is extreamly accurate and the weapons used are replicas of the M16 and M4. They are hooked up to an air compressor so that you get the 'kick' from firing the weapon.

Tuesday: Group and Zero. In order to be accurate when qualifying, we have to group and zero our weapons first. Each round of grouping and zeroing you fire 3 rounds and fire from 25 meters away. The goal while grouping is to get 3 rounds in a 4 cm circle. Once grouped, the weapon is adjusted so your shot groups are in the center of the target. In order to zero, two consecutive shot groups (six rounds) need to be in the black circle (center mass of the target). Here is what the target looks like:



Wednesday: Verify Zero with CCO and set up Iron Sites Zero.

Friday: Qualifying. For each round of qualifying you are given 40 rounds.

20 rounds are shot in the prone supported (lying on your stomach with your rifle supported by sandbags-gives you more support):

10 rounds are shot in the prone unsupported:

10 rounds in the kneeling position:


While shooting, targets pop up at distances ranging from 50 meters to 300 meters and you are given 5-10 seconds for each target. A couple of times, two targets will pop up at the same time. In order to qualify you need to shot 23 out of 40. Only about 30% of our class qualified the first time they shot. I shot a 25...not great but at least I qual'ed the first time!

Hiking and Coldstone

Since we have our weekends off and live so close to the Lake of the Ozarks, it's only expected that I do a lot of hiking while I am here. So we planned for about 9-10 people to go hiking on Saturday. The weather wasn't looking the greatest so that morning 4 of the boys bailed on us. So we ended up with 5 people (4 girls and 1 guy) and headed out. The weather was a little chilly but the rain held off until we were done! We went to Ha Ha Tonka State Park and there is an old burnt down mansion we explored.

Afterwards, we went to Osage Beach (about 1 hour and 15 minutes away from Fort Leonard Wood) and had some Cold Stone ice cream (my favorite!) and did a little shopping. The rest of the weekend was chill and vegging out.

APFT

Thursday brought along the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). All the males had to get their shots for SRP on Wednesday and then take an APFT the next morning. Thank goodness they had to wait for the females pregnancy tests to give us our immunizations seeing as I needed to get five and got them later that day. Anyways-here are the standards for the APFT: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/army/a/afpt.htm

The test consists of three different events: 2 min of push ups, 2 min of sit ups, and a 2 mile run. Each event is graded on a scale from 0-100 with a total possible scale of 300. In order to pass, you need to get a 60%. If you max all three events, you can go on the extended scale. We had a female here get a 370...insane!

I did fairly well considering I haven't taken an APFT in nearly a year. In ROTC, we take a minimum of two per semester. We will be taking another APFT during the last two weeks of class.

Week 2-More Inprocessing

This week started out fairly low key. We had to do SRP (soldier readiness processing) which is basically a process that double checks all of our data. It ensures our medical and dental information is up to date and makes sure we have all of our immunizations. We also went to CIF to draw equipment needed for week 3 when we were out in the field. We were issued things like wet weather gear, gortex jacket and pants (why we get gortex and wet weather gear is beyond me-they serve the same purpose), a poncho, ruck sack from the Vietnam era:
and LBE:

We also get an amazing three layer sleep system (sleeping bag), eye protection, ear protection, rubber boots that go over our actual boots that are three sizes too big and used for when it gets super muddy, a neck gaiter, gloves, magazines for our weapon, and other odds and ends.

Paperwork...

The last two days have been uneventful. Finishing up paperwork and sitting through briefings. It's insane how much paperwork I have to fill out to get reimbursed for stuff. One packet for a DITY move (do it yourself). Since I am on TDY (temporary duty) I'm allowed to move 600 lbs of stuff here. I had to weigh my car, empty and full, and then submit paperwork to the transportation office to get paid to move my stuff and for mileage. I also get reimbursed for gas and lodging but that paperwork goes to the finance office. So I've been trying to get all this stuff straightened out. Then while I am here, I have to keep track of driving to and from work and I get reimbursed for that too. Lots of paperwork! We had the mandatory yearly sexual harassment briefs yesterday and did a POV (privately owned vehicle) inspection.

I've been getting to know my peers more and I think we have a solid group. The other females are squared away which is nice. We have our weekends off so last night a couple of us went to a movie and today I'm going to a MMA fight for the first time ever. Should be interesting.

There really isn't anything interesting going on right now!

Welcome!

Alright everyone...

So as I said-no more mass emails cluttering your inbox! And here is what I did today:

Zero Day:

Today was a bunch of in-processing. For those of you not in the military, in-processing takes a long time and is very tedious. We will be doing in-processing until the end of next week. So today we were given an intro to the class and meet our cadre (instructors). There are two captains and three NCO's. They all seem down to earth and squared away, which is going to make the next 17 weeks go well I hope! And of course, we did paperwork. Signing privacy statements, inputing personal information, etc. I went and ate at the DFAC (chow hall, lunch room, whatever you want to call it-on military installations it is called a DFAC) and the food was actually good. Fresh sandwiches and yummy soups!

I started meeting all the other LT's (Lieutenants) in my company today. There are about 70 of us and there is a variety of Active Duty, National Guard, and Reserve LT's. I would say a majority of us commissioned through ROTC but there are about 12 OCS graduates and a couple West Pointers too. Of the 70, there are 12 females-more than I was expecting. I already knew two of the LT's prior to coming here as we were in the same platoon at LDAC (the summer training I went to two years ago) and one of them went to Airborne with me.

Our lodging is decent. It's basically a hotel room (with maid service!) with a kitchenette in it. I'm pumped to have a stove but there isn't an oven....no cookies I guess. We have DSL internet which works but is slow.

Ft. Leonard Wood (where I'm assigned right now) is basically in the middle of nowhere. Two hours to St. Louis, hour and a half to Springfield, etc.....Lake of the Ozarks is about an hour away which is excellent. I'm looking forward to doing a lot of hiking and camping on the weekends and once it gets nice-stuff in the water. Weather is a little warmer here than in Minneapolis. I think it was mid-40's today.

I asked today about my orders. For those who don't know-I've been having issues with them. For you non-military folks, orders are what the army gives you whenever you are sent to training or change duty stations or go on a deployment. My initial orders had me going to Ft. Richardson (by Anchorage) and then I received new ones upon commissioning that are sending me to Ft. Wainwright (by Fairbanks). Seven months later, the S1 (personel person in the Army) from Richardson contacted me to get demographic info. A few phone calls later I had been told:

1. I still have you on our list to Richardson so you are coming here.

and

2. Well, if your orders say Wainwright-that's where you are going!

Great! Thanks for clearing that one up for me. Anyways, I talked to one of our cadre today and told him the whole story and at first he says 'well, if your orders say Wainwright, you are going there'....then said, 'wait, your a female....Wainwright is a Stryker unit so they only have combat engineers (I can't be a combat engineer as a female) so you are more than likely going to Richardson.' Ok.....so why do my orders say Wainwright? His response: 'Well you might report to Wainwright and then head to Richardson'. Which makes no sense! Not only is Fairbanks is 5 hours north so it would be a pain to drive those extra 10 hours, but the headquarters for Alaska Command are in Richardson. So if anything, I would report to Richardson and then go to Wainwright. So this has been a lot of fun trying to figure out. The biggest pain and the reason why I want to know right now is that I have to release my house hold goods (all my stuff the army packed up and is now storing for me in Minnesota) to Alaska six weeks before I leave Ft. LW so that I don't get to Alaska and have to sleep in my sleeping bag and eat ramen noodles for two months waiting for all my crap to get up there. Anyways, my cadre are helping me out so hopefully I will know soon!! Both duty stations have good things about them:

Ft. Richardson:

• Anchorage
• Target and Arby's in Anchorage (the only ones in Alaska)
• Alyeska: A really nice ski resort where I can snowboard!!!
• Home to an Airborne unit. I wouldn't be just a five-jump-chump (the army term for soldiers who have gone to airborne, but never get to jump again)
• Weather is very similar, if not better than Nodak

Ft. Wainwright:

• Stryker Unit: Right now there are only 7 stryker units in the world
• I already have a friend up there that commissioned from the U the year before me
• I know their deployment schedule already

So...perks to both and I will be happy either way. I just want to know!

Anyways, I think that's enough for tonight.

I think that's about it for now.