Ending Week 6...from the Field

Here we are ending week 6. I haven't been able to write in a while because we've been out in the field or i've been too busy or tired to make it over to the wifi area to get online. Things have been very fast paced lately and free time is scarce!

We just came back from the field, we were there Monday-Thursday. We learned a whole lot while we were there! First we marched with full packs probably 3 miles to our camp site all tired, sweaty and panting. After we got there we set up our two-man tents and then proceeded to our first training which was throwing hand grenades. That was pretty fun, but our training grenades didn't pack a punch you were expecting, i guess thats a good thing and a safe one. After that we did some Land Navigation. Thats a nice way to say that we all got lost with compasses out in the woods. We all had maps and points to get to but my group never found our marks, but it was cool being out there wandering in the woods. The next couple of days we worked on patroling, setting up ambushes, and attacks. What made it better is that we were given blanks to fire off at each other during our training simulations! What didn't make sense was that we were in the woods in our desert cammies, instead of our woodland cammies, but it was all fun and games either way.

I never took baths with baby wipes before until I got to the field. The whole time we were there we never had running water to shower in, sometimes in the field you won't be able to shower or change for days. It wasn't fun but it was tolerable knowing everyone else was in the same boat. What was kinda hard was shaving at 0500 in the morning with no daylight! We did our best either way and tried to make the best of it.

Yesterday we took our HMMWV course which was driving 4 different lanes with some obstacles and then driving 5 miles around the base. It was really fun driving the HMMWV (High mobility Multi Wheeled Vehicle...incase you were wondering), we then learned we were getting just permits. To complete our license we have to log 250 more miles!

I finally got some pictures on my hands, here's a few...

Here i am on patrol...

Here's us messing around waiting for the next period of instruction.

Here's my platoon in the mud pit after the obstacle course! we were covered head to toe in that mud! we had to crawl on our bellies through it first though at the end of the course without getting our rifles muddy!

Killing the "Paper Taliban"

The past Friday to Friday we've been at the range shooting. I can't remember how many rounds we shot in all it had to be somehwere in the range of 200 rounds. I didn't think shooting could get tiring but it does! It could've been because we had to wake up at 3am everyday and we were outside in the heat all day. All we ate were MRE's all week except for a few times when we made it back to our barracks in time to get to the chow hall to have a hot meal. It was tough b/c of our schedule we were up at 3 and then we had to meet outside in the dark together around 4 - 430 and that was our "breakfast" time, who eats that early? I certainly couldn't, especially a heavy MRE. I usually had a piece of fruit and another light snack from the MRE's like the bread and cheese or a fig bar or cookie. Its a treat when you get peanut M&M's or a fruit and nut mix in your MRE, it provides precious energy for the long day ahead when you're crashing and you need a jolt of energy. What kept most of us up through the day were the ol sunflower seeds! I'm a new fan of jalapeno salsa flavored seeds.
One thing we did like about being away from our base camp was our barracks had air condition! back at our usual barracks the a/c is broke and we literally sweat anytime we're in there, especially with 50 other guys!
As for my shooting I did pretty good! we shot from 200 yards, and 300 yards the first couple of days. Then we had a day of class to help us refine our technique and then we moved to rapid fire and learned where to hit a guy to stop him dead in his tracks. We also practiced on moving targets. We didn't do any qualifications, it was mostly for familiarization. It was good training.
One of the toughest parts of the entire training was operating the targets. The targets themselves were huge, probably 5ft x 6ft that were tied on to some wooden posts on a metal railing system that fit two targets. when one target was up the other was down, which were operated by pure Navy muscle! We literally had to pull them up when they were shooting and then pull them down to score the hits and show the shooters where they hit. We all became very familiar with the sound of rounds flying past over our heads breaking the speed of sound and cracking through the paper...it was beautiful music! We were all protected by a big burm and a concrete wall and concrete overhead, incase you were wondering. It was kinda scary at first but if you did what you were told and obeyed all the rules you wouldn't get hurt. We were told stories of guys who were messing around and got injured. One put his hand up over the edge and got his hand shot off! dummy!
As for the Paper Taliban...dead.

Mmmm....Food!

If you were wondering how I've been eating out here, here's a picture.

Its definately better than Navy chow! So far my favorite dinner has been fried chicken! Tonight i couldn't resist the pecan pie, it was really good! I usually don't eat this much...ever! but here we do so much we burn alot of calories and you're always ready for the next meal. My body is officially in a messed up routine. When I was up at 3:30 this morning my stomach was hurting because I was so hungry! We have breakfast promptly at 5am everyday, except sat and sun. I thought I ate alot before i saw one of my guys get 2 trays of food for himself! One Saturday during brunch he had breakfast, which was cereal and eggs, bacon, potatoes...THEN he got two hotdogs and some fries! He's not even fat, he's more fit than I am! I'm sure his pigging out days are numbered!