Subtitle: And has to get rescued by the EXFOR. Double ouch!
Let me translate the title in case you're already lost with the call signs and abbreviations: The One Where I Get A Truck Stuck (today driven by our Australian Army "exchange" coyote, call sign 44-Dingo), and has to be rescued by the Marines who are there to do the training. Ouch, and double-ouch. Title a la Friends because I like how it sounds and because I love my sister, who introduced me to Friends. Not that I watch it much. Or at all, really, I just find the episode titles amusing. So warning: this post is not about the great things I am doing for the Marine Corps, it's a story about something embarrassing I did at work today, and I'm telling it to you because I think it's funny.
Today we were out assessing the second Motorized Operations Course, and it was fun aside from the fact that I didn't get lunch until 1330 (after eating breakfast at 0400--no snacks either). Near the end, the Captain I was shadowing for the day asked me to go get the truck (a dodge extended cab pick-up) and bring it around while he observed the rest of the exercise. By the time I had brought the truck up, I was behind tactical vehicles that the EXFOR was using, so first I tried to drive down a side street. Well, I failed to notice that there was some deep sand right at the turn, didn't take enough momentum going into the turn, and soon found myself without any more forward progress.
I got out of the truck, got back in, tried reverse, got out, noticed that the wheels were turned and that they might be negatively affecting my ability to get out of the sand, turn the wheel, and got myself un-stuck. This time I went around the EXFOR vehicle right in front of me, only to encounter EXFOR vehicle #2. Well, all the other trucks were up on an elevated flat section just off to the right, so I decided to park there. There were a couple sets of tire tracks up the hill onto the berm, so I chose to follow the less steep ones. Utterly failing to notice that the tracks went through soft sand. Fail.
This time I was really stuck. Dug one of the rear tires in, and knew I wasn't getting out of there. I turned the truck off, put my bright orange coyote camelbak on, and looked around. Just then, my boss drove over in his truck, safely up on the berm. I started walking towards him.
"No, no," he said, laughing, "stay there." I did, and he pulled out his iphone and aimed the camera at me. I just laughed, then stood there next to the truck while he took the picture. He had been escorting the exercise force's Battalion Commander and Sergeant Major around for the day, so while he was taking the picture, the CO was getting out of the truck. He held his hand out for the key and told me to get in the other side.
"You see this knob here?" he asked, pointing to a wheel on the dash.
"Yes, sir."
"You see how it says "4wd lo"?"
"Yes, sir." He turned the knob.
Sigh. Double fail. I hadn't even realized the truck had 4 wheel drive, much less how to get it there. It did take him a minute to get the truck un-stuck, as it didn't go into 4wd the first time he turned the knob. One of the other coyotes came over and told him how to do it, and we were soon also safely up on the berm.
We got out, he handed the keys back, I parked the truck, and walked back over to my boss, who was still sitting in his truck where he had watched the whole process.
"You realize that's a beer foul, right?" he asked. My first day on the range, some two weeks ago, beer fouls were explained to me. Basically, when a coyote does something wrong, they're assigned a beer foul, and must buy a beer for every coyote on the range that day at the end of the training evolution, which is a month long. These are announced over the radio as "Bravo Foxtrots" and must be called by another coyote to be valid. Typically they're for things like forgetting to put your kevlar on while driving in a golf cart, forgetting your camelbak while running around on the range (both of which happened today), saying over the radio something to the effect of "this run is going well", or any similar offense decided upon by a quorum of coyotes on the range. So today was my first beer foul. If I get the picture from my boss, I'll post it, and you all can stand witness to my complete inability to drive.
Side note. One of the things I'm enjoying the most about being down here is my ability to cook again. I finally have a kitchen, and I don't have a lot of free time, but eating healthy food is a priority for me, so a lot of my free time is spent cooking. I made a dish this past weekend that consisted of chicken in a cream cheese sauce over red cabbage that was (1) a complete experiment, and (2) actually quite good and thought that some of you might enjoy reading about my kitchen experiments, even though cooking is none of building, writing, biking, or leading Marines. So consider this an informal poll whether y'all want to read about cooking or no. Feel free to answer by comment, e-mail, text, facebook, or whatever method suits your fancy.
In the near future, you will probably also end up reading about all the hiking and bouldering I'm planning on doing this spring/summer/fall, but I'm not going to throw up a poll, I'm just going to subject you to it.
Showing posts with label mojave viper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mojave viper. Show all posts
17 March 2010
Rock Star
You thought we didn't have rock stars in the Marine Corps? Let me explain otherwise.
We just returned from two days in the field. Our first night was a quick excursion to a forward operating base. We were up early the next morning and off for a patrol that took the entire day. We covered just shy of 100 miles, going probably 10-15 mph the whole way. The "roads" frequently seemed to me to be more places that a lot of other vehicles had driven then actual roads in the desert. We learned to brace ourselves when our driver told us it was going to get bumpy. There was more than one time when I bounced off the seat, my kevlar bounced off my head, and then we all came crashing back down a second later.
We got "hit" with an IED once the first day. The instructors stopped us as we patrolled, told us what had happened, and then evaluated us as we responded to the event. So the first day was a lot of travel and very little action. We slept out under the stars last night. There weren't enough tents to go around, but it wasn't cold, and the stars were out in force. Both the milky way and the little dipper were easy to pick out; this was the first time since I got here that I've seen the little dipper. Breakfast this morning was an MRE, but I ate it as I watched the sun rise over the desert. There isn't a much better way to start a day.
The day got hectic pretty quick. We had been traveling for about five minutes this morning when one of our vehicles spotted an IED. We responded to the incident, cordoning off the road, setting up security, etc., and called EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) to reduce the device. Our second scenario was a bit harrier--one of our vehicles had been hit by an RPG and had three casualties, the vehicle was blocking our exit from the "kill zone", or the location where the enemy wanted us, and we had a VBIED attack approaching from the rear.
This scenario, more than either of the others, gave me confidence than I'll be an effective leader in country. Frequently, when approach something new and difficult--attending school at Mudd, Cycle Oregon, OCS, etc.--there's always a moment where I realize that I can, indeed, meet the most recent challenge. This scenario was that moment for me today. I didn't always know exactly what was the best thing to do at the moment, and I made some mistakes, but I kept my cool and kept working even when my heart was pounding, and was an asset and not a liability.
The second scenario ended with us calling in a chopper and moving the casualties onto the bird. We mounted up in the vehicles and kept pushing. Our third scenario was a chain IED that hit multiple vehicles at a time and required that hook the vehicles up to tow them out. We also received fire from a tank on the other side of the valley, which required calling for artillery fire to suppress the threat.
One of my Sergeants was in charge of the call for fire, which is a procedure that requires knowledge of both how to locate the target knowledge of the correct radio procedures to request fire from the artillery battery. This Sergeant had never done the call for fire before, but was very close to the target on his first call, and was able to hit the target with only one small correction.
This feat earned him a very enthusiastic label of "Rock Star" from the Major that was observing the exercise, and I have to agree. Sergeant Rock Star was also dealing with comm issues as he was calling in the fire request--our radios have been used by many, many units for training here out at 29 Palms, and they had a tendency to not work at times. His performance was impressive, and one small example of the outstanding performance of all of my NCOs over this field exercise.
I've been here--five?--days now? I've lost track. But I've started to get to know some of my Marines, and they are an outstanding platoon. I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.
We just returned from two days in the field. Our first night was a quick excursion to a forward operating base. We were up early the next morning and off for a patrol that took the entire day. We covered just shy of 100 miles, going probably 10-15 mph the whole way. The "roads" frequently seemed to me to be more places that a lot of other vehicles had driven then actual roads in the desert. We learned to brace ourselves when our driver told us it was going to get bumpy. There was more than one time when I bounced off the seat, my kevlar bounced off my head, and then we all came crashing back down a second later.
We got "hit" with an IED once the first day. The instructors stopped us as we patrolled, told us what had happened, and then evaluated us as we responded to the event. So the first day was a lot of travel and very little action. We slept out under the stars last night. There weren't enough tents to go around, but it wasn't cold, and the stars were out in force. Both the milky way and the little dipper were easy to pick out; this was the first time since I got here that I've seen the little dipper. Breakfast this morning was an MRE, but I ate it as I watched the sun rise over the desert. There isn't a much better way to start a day.
The day got hectic pretty quick. We had been traveling for about five minutes this morning when one of our vehicles spotted an IED. We responded to the incident, cordoning off the road, setting up security, etc., and called EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) to reduce the device. Our second scenario was a bit harrier--one of our vehicles had been hit by an RPG and had three casualties, the vehicle was blocking our exit from the "kill zone", or the location where the enemy wanted us, and we had a VBIED attack approaching from the rear.
This scenario, more than either of the others, gave me confidence than I'll be an effective leader in country. Frequently, when approach something new and difficult--attending school at Mudd, Cycle Oregon, OCS, etc.--there's always a moment where I realize that I can, indeed, meet the most recent challenge. This scenario was that moment for me today. I didn't always know exactly what was the best thing to do at the moment, and I made some mistakes, but I kept my cool and kept working even when my heart was pounding, and was an asset and not a liability.
The second scenario ended with us calling in a chopper and moving the casualties onto the bird. We mounted up in the vehicles and kept pushing. Our third scenario was a chain IED that hit multiple vehicles at a time and required that hook the vehicles up to tow them out. We also received fire from a tank on the other side of the valley, which required calling for artillery fire to suppress the threat.
One of my Sergeants was in charge of the call for fire, which is a procedure that requires knowledge of both how to locate the target knowledge of the correct radio procedures to request fire from the artillery battery. This Sergeant had never done the call for fire before, but was very close to the target on his first call, and was able to hit the target with only one small correction.
This feat earned him a very enthusiastic label of "Rock Star" from the Major that was observing the exercise, and I have to agree. Sergeant Rock Star was also dealing with comm issues as he was calling in the fire request--our radios have been used by many, many units for training here out at 29 Palms, and they had a tendency to not work at times. His performance was impressive, and one small example of the outstanding performance of all of my NCOs over this field exercise.
I've been here--five?--days now? I've lost track. But I've started to get to know some of my Marines, and they are an outstanding platoon. I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.
15 March 2010
Outside the Wire
My company wasted no time in getting me in training. My first day, Saturday, was a little slow; I did a lot of reading, talked to the platoon, and tried to get myself oriented to the training environment. I felt a little useless, as my fellow platoon commanders and my platoon sergeant were spending all of their time planning for our next exercise. I'm not familiar with the training environment, the platoon, or the exercise, so my ability to contribute to the planning is fairly limited. I received a little friendly harassment from our company staff--typical practical joke on a new Lt--so I'll have to do a little thinking over the next couple days and figure out an appropriate way to return fire.
Fortunately, yesterday was not slow. I was tasked with writing my own plan for the exercise, I went over the training I'd gotten at TBS with our ops chief to see what training I still need, and my platoon sergeant spun me up on the vehicles we have and their characteristics and capabilities. Our ops chief interrupted us to give me a brief on the training areas so that I could head out with the mission my platoon ran last night.
Our mission last night was not complicated: we provided a security escort for a road improvement mission. I shadowed my fellow platoon commander, trying to learn the details of the coordination required to successfully run a mission and get an idea of the difficulties that could come up and how to handle them. We did not expect to receive (simulated) enemy contact, so it was a good preparation for the next mission we'll do.
During the mission I spent time manning the radio for our vehicle. I somehow managed to make it through both TBS and engineer school without ever talking over a radio, so yesterday was the first time I'd ever made a radio transmission. The procedures take a little getting used to--I think there were several times when I spoke to soon after hitting the mike button, and my transmissions got cut off--but overall I didn't mess anything up too badly.
We're heading out again tonight for a two-night/two-day mission, which will be a combined patrol and resupply mission. We do expect to receive (simulated) enemy contact on this mission, and the second day of the mission will be a live-fire exercise. I will be going as an observer again, which is good because I'm certainly not ready to run a mission yet. Yesterday's mission gave me a good dose of confidence in the training I've already had, and I'm sure this next mission will do the same.
Fortunately, yesterday was not slow. I was tasked with writing my own plan for the exercise, I went over the training I'd gotten at TBS with our ops chief to see what training I still need, and my platoon sergeant spun me up on the vehicles we have and their characteristics and capabilities. Our ops chief interrupted us to give me a brief on the training areas so that I could head out with the mission my platoon ran last night.
Our mission last night was not complicated: we provided a security escort for a road improvement mission. I shadowed my fellow platoon commander, trying to learn the details of the coordination required to successfully run a mission and get an idea of the difficulties that could come up and how to handle them. We did not expect to receive (simulated) enemy contact, so it was a good preparation for the next mission we'll do.
During the mission I spent time manning the radio for our vehicle. I somehow managed to make it through both TBS and engineer school without ever talking over a radio, so yesterday was the first time I'd ever made a radio transmission. The procedures take a little getting used to--I think there were several times when I spoke to soon after hitting the mike button, and my transmissions got cut off--but overall I didn't mess anything up too badly.
We're heading out again tonight for a two-night/two-day mission, which will be a combined patrol and resupply mission. We do expect to receive (simulated) enemy contact on this mission, and the second day of the mission will be a live-fire exercise. I will be going as an observer again, which is good because I'm certainly not ready to run a mission yet. Yesterday's mission gave me a good dose of confidence in the training I've already had, and I'm sure this next mission will do the same.
13 March 2010
29 Palms
After two and a half years of training and waiting, I am finally a Platoon Commander. Yesterday I spent 13 hours traveling, starting in Eugene and ending when we pulled into Camp Wilson at 29 Palms. Unfortunately, I can't jump into training right away because I don't have the proper briefs for the training areas here. I can't get the proper briefs right now because it's Saturday, but I'll get them Monday morning.
Just a quick description of the camp. Mojave Viper, which is the name for the whole training package that the Battalion is going through, is run out of a permanant camp that's based on K-spans. These look like drainage pipes turned upside-down on concrete pads, maybe twelve feet high and twenty yards long. Last night it was colder inside than it was outside because the concrete sucks all the heat out of the air. The women in my Battalion have one K-span for our barracks, and we're sleeping in sleeping bags on cots. The mess hall and heads are standing buildings, and they've thoughtfully provided other ammenities such as laundry facilities, a PX (post exchange, or convenience store), and an E-club that has (extremely slow) internet access, from which I am posting this.
These living conditions aren't that bad. For our field exercises, we'll be sleeping on foam mats (if we sleep at all), have MREs for chow, and the great outdoors for heads. Or maybe there will be blue rooms provided, but certainly no showers. We'll be here for another week, and then we'll head back to Camp Pendleton, where we'll be in barracks very similar to the ones I lived in at Engineer School. I'm still trying to figure out my routine and how to handle all my stuff. I forgot both my shower shoes and my comb when I went to shower this morning--you can bet I won't forget tomorrow!
Our unit has been put together from multiple separate units. Our company has two platoons from the Eugene unit and a bridge platoon from a unit out in Camp Lejeune. "Bridge platoon" simply means that the unit specializes in bridge construction--they have extra training specific to bridges, and some additional equipment. [Side note to show you how small the Marine Corps is. I met the platoon commander for bridge platoon way back in Dec '07, the day I went through my medical screening to determine if I could even go to OCS. Two years later, we're headed to Afghanistan together.] Our company is attached to a battalion from Okinawa, Japan. And I am by far not the only 2ndLt around here; there are a few other 2ndLts and a few 1stLts as well.
My first field exercise will start Monday evening and last two days. It's a convoy with a live fire range at the end, I'll be shadowing my Platoon Sergeant (PltSgt), who's been the platoon commander for my platoon while I've been gone, and the bridge platoon commander. It sounds pretty intense, so I'm glad I'll have a chance to observe before I'm expected to actually execute. I have been trained on everything we're doing, but I've never actually been the one calling the shots. In all of the field exercises I was on at TBS, someone else was always in charge of the whole platoon. I was occasionally in charge of my squad or my fire team, but it's a very different experience when you're the one in charge of the platoon.
My platoon has been getting some good training while I've been waiting. Yesterday they returned from a 10-day field exercise, so they've been doing a lot of sleeping and weapons maintenance since then. Within that 10-day exercise, which was for the entire company, my platoon participated in a single-day exercise. Each exercise is monitored and graded by permanent personnel, and on the platoon-specific exercise they scored a 98/100, which is phenomenal. I'm very proud of them and have a high degree of confidence in my PltSgt and other NCOs.
I'm very excited to finally be here! I'm catching some flack from the other officers and NCOs for being away for so long, but whatever. It's time to get to work.
Just a quick description of the camp. Mojave Viper, which is the name for the whole training package that the Battalion is going through, is run out of a permanant camp that's based on K-spans. These look like drainage pipes turned upside-down on concrete pads, maybe twelve feet high and twenty yards long. Last night it was colder inside than it was outside because the concrete sucks all the heat out of the air. The women in my Battalion have one K-span for our barracks, and we're sleeping in sleeping bags on cots. The mess hall and heads are standing buildings, and they've thoughtfully provided other ammenities such as laundry facilities, a PX (post exchange, or convenience store), and an E-club that has (extremely slow) internet access, from which I am posting this.
These living conditions aren't that bad. For our field exercises, we'll be sleeping on foam mats (if we sleep at all), have MREs for chow, and the great outdoors for heads. Or maybe there will be blue rooms provided, but certainly no showers. We'll be here for another week, and then we'll head back to Camp Pendleton, where we'll be in barracks very similar to the ones I lived in at Engineer School. I'm still trying to figure out my routine and how to handle all my stuff. I forgot both my shower shoes and my comb when I went to shower this morning--you can bet I won't forget tomorrow!
Our unit has been put together from multiple separate units. Our company has two platoons from the Eugene unit and a bridge platoon from a unit out in Camp Lejeune. "Bridge platoon" simply means that the unit specializes in bridge construction--they have extra training specific to bridges, and some additional equipment. [Side note to show you how small the Marine Corps is. I met the platoon commander for bridge platoon way back in Dec '07, the day I went through my medical screening to determine if I could even go to OCS. Two years later, we're headed to Afghanistan together.] Our company is attached to a battalion from Okinawa, Japan. And I am by far not the only 2ndLt around here; there are a few other 2ndLts and a few 1stLts as well.
My first field exercise will start Monday evening and last two days. It's a convoy with a live fire range at the end, I'll be shadowing my Platoon Sergeant (PltSgt), who's been the platoon commander for my platoon while I've been gone, and the bridge platoon commander. It sounds pretty intense, so I'm glad I'll have a chance to observe before I'm expected to actually execute. I have been trained on everything we're doing, but I've never actually been the one calling the shots. In all of the field exercises I was on at TBS, someone else was always in charge of the whole platoon. I was occasionally in charge of my squad or my fire team, but it's a very different experience when you're the one in charge of the platoon.
My platoon has been getting some good training while I've been waiting. Yesterday they returned from a 10-day field exercise, so they've been doing a lot of sleeping and weapons maintenance since then. Within that 10-day exercise, which was for the entire company, my platoon participated in a single-day exercise. Each exercise is monitored and graded by permanent personnel, and on the platoon-specific exercise they scored a 98/100, which is phenomenal. I'm very proud of them and have a high degree of confidence in my PltSgt and other NCOs.
I'm very excited to finally be here! I'm catching some flack from the other officers and NCOs for being away for so long, but whatever. It's time to get to work.
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