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!