Well, it's graduation day here at Fort Riley. The last couple of weeks were actually pretty fun; we trained in Urban Operations and Close Quarters Combat. This training showed us how to clear rooms and houses and how to use our firearms under pressure and at distances of 25 yards and closer. The Close Quarters Combat ended with a "stress fire" lane where we had to run to cover (with all of our gear on) inside a shack and shoot right handed out of one window then left handed out of another window. Then we ran to another cover area and shot left and right handed again, then to a vehicle to fire from behind it. All this time there are grenade simulators going off (think fireworks on the ground, all the boom but none of the pretty lights) as well as smoke grenades. The object was to effectively engage the targets while your heart rate is up. The Urban Ops ended with us clearing a house using plastic/paint rounds fired from our M4s, and yes they did hurt.
I am going to have to keep this one short because its time to go. I will write more next time about my Memorial Day weekend with Melissa and the boys. I will be heading up to Wisconsin tonight, so I will see some of you then!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
On Mother's Day...
Well another week in the books, and the next one is getting ready to start. First off, happy Mother's Day! I know this doesn't apply to everyone, but I'll just put it out there anyway. While we're on the topic, I did get to spend some time with Mom and Dad last weekend, when they came down for a visit. We had a great time, we got to see a lot of the post and even one of Dad's cousins. We learned a lot about the area by going to the Calvary Museum, The 1st Territorial Capital, and a couple of other places. One thing that I found especially interesting is that Camp Funston, the part of Fort Riley I'm training on, trained over 50,000 WWI soldiers. Another interesting factoid is that the H1N1 virus (AKA Swine Flu) had an outbreak at Camp Funston in 1918.
This past week of training was all class room stuff, kinda slow but all in all good information. We talked about the insurgency and what causes it, counterinsurgency, and things to do if you become isolated or captured. What blew my mind about the things we learned this week is that the same thing we are seeing in Iraq is the same as what was witnessed in Vietnam and probably hundred's of other wars throughout history. I always thought we went to history class and studied history so that we can learn from our past mistakes, giving us the ability to recognise situations and what the appropriate response to the situation should be. For example, the way to win a Guerilla type war is to get the indigenous people involved, something we didn't realize until three years into the war. All the people want is to live their normal life and not have to worry about anything but providing for their family. In the beginning of the war, this meant getting the US out of their country. Now that we have helped to train their Army and Police force, and provide a basic need of security, the Iraqi people realize that to end the insurgency, they need to get rid of the insurgents. I could go on more about all of this, so if you want to talk about it more just email me with your questions.
Lastly, in honor of Mother's Day, I just wanted to say thank you for all the Moms out there. Thank you for doing a job that no one in their right mind would apply for! Thank you for doing a thankless job that you don't even get paid for. Most of us don't realize all the trouble and heart ache you have to go through until we are on the receiving end of all that trouble (the little loves of our lives, kids). I know one thank you coming from me won't fill the quota that you deserve or make up for the ones that are past due, but from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.
This past week of training was all class room stuff, kinda slow but all in all good information. We talked about the insurgency and what causes it, counterinsurgency, and things to do if you become isolated or captured. What blew my mind about the things we learned this week is that the same thing we are seeing in Iraq is the same as what was witnessed in Vietnam and probably hundred's of other wars throughout history. I always thought we went to history class and studied history so that we can learn from our past mistakes, giving us the ability to recognise situations and what the appropriate response to the situation should be. For example, the way to win a Guerilla type war is to get the indigenous people involved, something we didn't realize until three years into the war. All the people want is to live their normal life and not have to worry about anything but providing for their family. In the beginning of the war, this meant getting the US out of their country. Now that we have helped to train their Army and Police force, and provide a basic need of security, the Iraqi people realize that to end the insurgency, they need to get rid of the insurgents. I could go on more about all of this, so if you want to talk about it more just email me with your questions.
Lastly, in honor of Mother's Day, I just wanted to say thank you for all the Moms out there. Thank you for doing a job that no one in their right mind would apply for! Thank you for doing a thankless job that you don't even get paid for. Most of us don't realize all the trouble and heart ache you have to go through until we are on the receiving end of all that trouble (the little loves of our lives, kids). I know one thank you coming from me won't fill the quota that you deserve or make up for the ones that are past due, but from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.
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