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!