Sooo I haven’t written much because there isn’t much going on. We are kinda spread out all over the place right now.. a bunch of different classes and some of us are here and others there and just kinda crazy. I went and told my plt sgt that I wanted to be volunteered for any and every class we can get. Well I had really good timing because I got into the cooles class the very next day and there are only 6 of us in the whole thing. Its on the ASV (armored security vehicle) picture enclosed… it is 20 x 8.5 x 8.5 for 3 people. The gunners turret is completely enclosed which is awesome. The gunner can stay inside the vehicle and still be able to shoot without being exposed at all. Its also 30,000 lbs so that’s a lot of armor and protection! Its kinda hard to get in and out of, very similar to a tank on wheels with how cramped it is inside. We also learned all about the headset microphones we will get, makes you feel really cool to have all those play toys. One of those vehicles costs $780,000. The class is 5 days but we are getting credit for a 70 hr course, that’s a lot of credit for a course which will help with promotions and stuff down the road. The coolest part is still that there are only 6 of us in the class and one of the guys may not get credit for it anyway because his wife went into labor so he might be heading home before the class is over. Tomorrow we get to drive it, little nervous because it is so big but im super psyched that I will get to drive and become licensed on this thing. Tuesday is our last day of the class and we have to be able to get all the weapons set up and loaded and we actually get to go out to a range and shoot the weapons, it has a m2 .50 cal and a mk19 ( a 50 shoots a round that is as big around as your thumb but longer than your longest finger. The mk19 shoots a grenade). With the optical on the weapon we can shoot them both accurately 1800 meters so it’s a pretty sweet truck. We should have a couple of them once we actually get to Iraq so im hoping I get to drive one over there.
Wed we get new uniforms, 4 sets of fire retardant uniforms which is exciting because from what I hear they are actually a lot more comfortable than the ACUs. Guess ill have to let you know later once I get to wear them! We got issued our new bullet proof vests (called an OTV or IBA). It was actually exciting too because this one is sized correctly for me unlike every other one ive ever worn so it is more comfortable. The weight actually sits where it is supposed to so hopefully that will help take some stress off my shoulders and back, I wont really know until we actually spend some time out at the ranges or in the field moving around in all the gear. At some point while we are here we will spend a good bit of time out on a FOB (forward operating base) basically staying out in the field ( im not sure if we will be in tents or just like wooden buildings) and spending a lot of it running missions and actually getting prepared for what we will be doing in Iraq. Someone said we will be out there for like 4 days this coming week but if we get uniforms issued wed then the earliest we could get there would be wed night? I don’t know.. information isn’t really being passed down very well right now, if we know whats going on 2 days before its like super crazy. The past 2 nights we haven’t gotten our brief for the next day until 12 or 1230 at night. Been some late nights sitting around waiting for information which has gotten really old really quickly. We have had a couple of issues with my platoon, were kinda the redheaded stepchild of the platoon, always get stuck with worse rules than everyone else. If we are sitting around the barracks during the day 3rd platoon will be on lockdown while everyone else can go to the gym or the px or something. Hopefully it will get better soon though..
Um sorry this is really long just kinda catching up on some of the new stuff going on, im sure im missing a lot but oh well!