so more changes woohh... were now going back to iraq.the army is kinda enjoying yanking our chain around so the new details.. were going back to our original mission in iraq. be leavin for kuwait in a couple of weeks. the 4 day pass thatwas originally mar 15 is now mar 5. so yea, wasted some money trying to change that flight bbbbutttttt i get to see carrie now! yay im excited. we spent a couple of days out at the field last week running convoy ops. we were suposed to be there for 9 days but after 4 our new orders for afghanistan came in so they sent us home. we were suposed to come back and do 28 more days of training and then go back to the field to get validated (basically for them to decide that we are prepared to depoy by us running ops for 4 days based on our mission). so we came back to the barracks for days and then our training would start again. well yesterday they called us in for a meeting and told us that were going back to iraq so we leave for the field tomorrow for 4 more days. were going to go ahead and get validated now, a couple of days of make up training for people who missed stuff. then we come home for our pass, do a couple more days of makeup training and then get ready to go ahead and go. i will get to spend my birthday in kuwait wooh wooh. happy 20th!
ill spend some time after this field trip trying to go into detail about the training and everything. its been really good and the field is pretty sweet. its set up jsut like a fob in iraq or afghanistan would be, it has a gym, and a dining facility, an internet cafe, and like 20 showers.. its good stuff
my platoon sergeant was really nice yesterday, gave me some compliments and was asking about how long until i was available for promotion (around august I can put in my packet to get segeant if I get enough points). He was asking how many points I had and said hes going to try and help me get some more by then if i just keep working hard and doing what Im doing. Thats always nice to hear, especially from him since he is farly high in my chain of command. one of the other officers (the executive officer) walked up to me the other day and said "why is it that every time I hear your name its a good thing? thats a good thing keep it up" so i guess Im doing alright here so far! sorry had to brag a bit, its always nice to get some recognition.
hope everything is well back at home.. ill be there in a week and a half wooh wooh.

heres kostera my battle buddy/ possible team leader/ possible gunner. all depends on what they decide about our squad leader drama. our squad leader is going home for a med. injury so we are trying to move up our alpha team leader as our squad leader, move kostera to a team leader position, and then our team pick up another gunner. we may be getting a new squad leader though, still no idea.

this is during our covoy ops. we took a casualty and had to MEDEVAC (evacuation) them using an old helicopter staged on the range. they already had the cas on the bird and were pullin security but i still though it was a cool picture.

3rd platoon 2nd squad... in order of face from left to right.. me, castellion, sgt perez, crowe, kostera, lewis, mack, sgt lambert, garris, craig, gonzalez, sgt rogan, lashley. notice the weapon im holding is bigger than all the other ones you see! grrrr

we go out to the field on the 17th for 9 days of living at a fob but i will still have my phone and all. well just be doing a lotmore training.

Today was a very short day which is really exciting because the last couple have been very long. ft. dix and 1st Army Division (the people in charge of our training) are very strict about doing our training in a crawl, walk, run process. So a couple of days ago we were doing driver/gunner training. the first day we loaded crew served weapons (the really big ones that weight 80 lbs plus) onto the hmmwvs and drove up to a point, stopped the vehicle, and then the gunners shot at targets. On the 2nd day we actually drove around a circle thing and there were 4 different points for the gunners to shoot from. so we would stop at a point, they'd shoot and then I'd back up and drive to the next point and do it all over again. that night we also did it as night fire so id turn on the lights, drive to the point, and then turn the lights off and let the gunners shoot at illuminated targets. It was actually a pretty cool day of training, first time the gunners got to shoot from the turret with real targets and ammo. It was a very long day though, we were at the range from 0700 to 12 that night. and of course the next day still started at 0600.
the big problem with this place is that we are not allowed to have our weapons in our barracks. because of this we have to wake up and starting at 0430 and every 30 minutes after that a platoon goes to the arms room to pick up weapons. when the training is done we have to go back and turn them in again. it is very not convenient. its also annoying, the reason they do it is because apparently a command sergeant major (the highest enlisted rank in the army.. like a general) got shot. well... i understand there will always be those people but the rest of us are training for war and over there our weapon will ALWAYS be with us... you cant walk to the latrine or shower without a weapon and atleast 15 rounds and thats on a big FOB. so its obnoxious and contributes greatly to our lack of sleep around here.
sorry, off my soap box. the next block of training was PTT, for those of yall following along closely, that is our mission. i know youre about to ask what exactly ptt stands for,... ummm..... really good question. police...training.. tactics? or techniques? heck i dont know.. what it means though is US Army soldiers training Iraqi (or now Afghani) Police. so the last couple of days were actually really good days and very very important for our current mission. we got to learn how to use an interpretor (sp?), and speak to an afghani chief of police, and actually train the police using the terp, how to recruit for the police, and then we had to secure the police station while our squad leader went into the building to talk to the chief. it was a really good mission because they had COBs (civilians on the battlefield) walking around coming up to the trucks and talking to us and stuff. Makes you realize how much will actually be going on because you have to pay attention to everything, people walking around, people in buildings, windows, doors, all sorts of different things. and the COBs would walk up and start asking for food or water and then just start up a conversation with us. were trying to be diplomatic and talk to them because we want them to like and trust us but we also had to stay focused on our security. it was cool, but this was jsut the walk phase and we didnt have anyone try and atack us, later in our training we will do the run phase where there will be a lot more going on. looking forward to that. we just got told theres a formation in a couple of minutes but that is most of whats been going on. pretty good couple of days which helps make the days go by faster. this place stinks but i guess its better than afghanistan!

sooo welcome to the army process! we are now deploying to afghanistan instead of iraq. our new president has decided to start a surge into afghanistan of about 30,000 troops that were originally headed for iraq. we are the first mp company who will be part of that surge. should be doing about the same type of mission as we were originally scheduled to. we dont know where in afghanistan we will be, it hasnt been decided because we are the first company. we will not be replacing another company, we will be branching out and starting something new. spearheading this surge. there is very little info about what will be different and such so far. we will be in new jersey for about an extra month more than originally and we will get a pass in march to comehome. so i should make it home before we leave, should b e pretty close to my birthday too wooh wooh.

the asv.. pretty awesome vehicle. look at how small those windows are, the whole back of the truck is the engine so it makes it huge. 20 x 8.5 x8.5. it is a bad mamajama. i wish i could show you the inside but all that is Classified or needs some kinda clearance that none of you have! .. sorry! haha