They're Everywhere

The Tuesday after drill I walked into the tech center where I take auto tech and ran into two of my sergeants. Drill Sergeant Stace and Sgt Walls. They were doing a little recruiting thing because the #88 NASCAR racecar that Dale Earnheart Jr drives for the National Guard's team. I'm not a big NASCAR guy but it was really cool to see the car. They look pretty simple watching them on TV but up close you can really tell how complicated they are. They have more scoops, ducts, switches and dials then any other car I've seen. It was kinda funny too because the motor they race with is an 800hp monster but it's too expensive and too much of a pain to use on anything other than race day. The motor they had in it was just to pull the thing on and off the trailer and putt around a bit but it was still a 350hp small block chevy v-8. Kinda overkill in a car that light but it was pretty cool. It was nice seeing my sergeants and talking with them in a more casual environment. In the picture I'm kind of in an odd pose because I still felt like I needed to be at parade rest but felt like I'd look like a showoff and an idiot doing it so I'm fighting myself and it looks a bit weird. The jacket I'm wearing by the way is our PT jacket, we were issued PT uniforms last drill before doing PT and they're pretty sweet. That jacket is really nice. It'll be too warm to wear it soon but as it is now I really like it and I do like showing off a little bit since as I've said before, enlisting is one of the things I'm most proud of.

April Drill Sunday

Again, sorry this took so long, we didn't have a computer for the first three weeks after drill due to a bad RAM card and this last week has been really busy. However, tomorrow's senior skip day so I have no homework and have time to finish tonight.
So Sunday morning I had an alarm set for 0345 since our wake up time was 0430. However, I found myself so anxious that I woke up 3 times between 0100 and 0230 and could not fall back to sleep after 0230 and instead just lay in bed trying to rest until it wast time for me to wake up. At 0345 I hopped out of bed, showered, shaved and quietly started dressing and had my bed stripped and was halfway in ACUs by 0430. This made the morning go very smooth. I was able to have spots set for each of the linens before anyone had stripped their beds and I was able to get my bay's linens squared away very quickly and efficiently and we were able to move on to helping the other bays. We were among the first people to have our bay swept and cleaned up and my squad was one of the first out despite being split between two bays. I believe that part of my leadership went very well and I hope the other men in my bay agreed.
After we formed up outside and our leadership arrived we moved out to chow. I have to mention that at the beginning of our march we performed what I believed was a very successful counter column especially for having our packs on. I had never led one before so it was a new experience and I was relieved to have pulled it off.
We then moved into our final stations of the weekend. My group had a very good class on setting up hasty checkpoints and searching detainees and cars. One thing that I didn't realize was how little equipment and how few troops you actually need to make a checkpoint. I hadn't realized they would leave one humvee as a checkpoint. The detainee searching class was cool as well. We learned the proper way to search and how to find things hidden on someone without putting yourself at risk although the butt and crotch searches were a little awkward to perform. The car search was entertaining to me. We used Drill Sergeant Zupancic's truck to search which was cool. It's a sweet truck. It kinda made me laugh though because PFC Schreiber had bet Sgt Lammers 50 pushups that he could find everything that Sgt Lammers put in the car since he goes to the tech school like me and knows what a car should look like. However, I knew he was hosed from the beginning, he works on diesels all day and this was a 4 cylinder Toyota and it's impossible to find everything in all of the nooks and crannies in a car if the person is smart. I'd bet money that I could build a car bomb nobody could pick out if I had a desire to. It was still good training though since it gives you the best chance possible of finding a problem.
After our last classes we cleaned up the drill hall and the halls and offices so that we could be presentable for an officer that came and spoke to us. He was a Lieutenant Colonel and was talking to us about college programs through the Guard and specifically the ROTC program and the benefits of becoming an officer. He was very cool and gave a good speech. I think that could be a good route to go for me as it is a very promising and obviously honorable route in general but I still believe I would be best off as a warrant officer instead of a commissioned officer. Nonetheless it was good to hear from him and it gave us a chance to practice how to behave around a commissioned officer.
After this we went and had the opportunity to do PT for the first time as a group at drill. We were a couple of hours ahead of schedule so we had time to do organized PT which was great. Some of us really needed it as we're not as fit as a unit as we should be. We started out be getting smoked because there was trash left in the barracks. We had to touch our arms above our heads and bring them back to level with our shoulders while keeping our arms straight and then he would have us hold them there as long as he felt like it. I believe we did 75 of these and if anyone had dropped we would have started over. One of the guys next to me was struggling and I was sure he would so I had my hand a few inches below his to catch it if he did but everyone was able to stay up which was good.
After being smoked we moved into what Drill Sergeant Stace referred to as muscle failure training. This simply meant lots of pushups and lots of situps and was not bad at all. I've found I need to work on strengthening my chest because I can do more tricep pushups than most of the guys in our battalion but I'm terrible at wide grip pushups.
After our strength training Drill Sergeant Stace gave us a quick lesson on loyalty then we moved into cardio training. We did a run that I really liked where we walked for 40 seconds and then sprinted for 20. We did this four times and I found it to be a pretty good run although rather mild as it was tailored to be doable by all of us. It was good though because the sprint was something where we could be competitive and work ourselves to our maximum for that time.
We still had time after this and decided to have some fun. We played ultimate frisbee which is always a good time. It was pretty windy which made it interesting. Unfortunately I've never been an amazing catch and I've always been even worse with a frisbee than with a ball. This time was even worse than normal. I missed a few catches and my only redemption was ripping it way from a guy when we both got it at the same time and had to fight it down to the ground. It was kind of a sad game for me though and I felt better when I played it the next weekend for MORP and did outstanding. I don't know if it's better to have my good game in front of my girlfriend or in front of my battalion and my Drill Sergeant.
After our PT session we went back to the drill hall and had our AAR and went home. I hurried out much faster than normal as I was still a bit embarrassed by my less than spectacular performance. I soon wished I hadn't though because I was reminded of one of the reasons I love drill. You're so pumped the whole time that nothing hurts and everything feels far better than normal. My arm felt great all of drill but as soon as I got off post and cooled down a bit it began to throb like crazy and my sinus headache at least doubled. Then I got home to a dead computer as well. I also only managed 8 pullups in a pullup contest some marines were doing before the vein structure in my left arm literally felt like it was going to explode. I wish I could keep that drill feeling all the time and I'm super excited to go back.

April Drill

Sorry it took so long to make this posting. I came home from drill to a dead computer and we weren't able to get it fixed until 2 days ago and I have to admit I was unexcited about writing about my failures. (If it seems odd to write everything I was hiding at drill on here it's because this blog is first and foremost a personal journal of what I do at drill and I have to put it honestly.)
So, this drill was IMT (Individual Movement Techniques). It was really well organized and a great time, but it ended up being a very difficult drill for me. I've decided drill is not near as much fun sick. I've had a really bad sinus infection for a few days now that totally screwed up my equilibrium and hearing which made marching really hard and my brain was a bit foggy so my posting might be a bit less detailed this month although it really was good training and I learned a lot.
This drill involved my first and my last ELP meeting. PFC Gluch told me last month to come to ELP because he liked what I did as squad leader. Unfortunately however, ELP ends for the summer so this month was the last meeting. It was good to see what goes on behind the scenes though. It seems our squad leaders do a lot more outside of drill than I realized. Sergeant Seader and Sergeant Lammers were in charge of the meeting and they're both really cool so it was good to get one meeting in with them.
After ELP we divided into squads and formed up to stretch and do PT. We had large (15 person) squads this drill so it was a little sloppier than I had hoped but it was fairly quick for a first formation. PT went better than I expected. I was worried about my push ups since I got thrombophlebitis due to making the mistake of changing tires less than 5 hours after giving blood. This means that I had a group of blood clots in my left arm that caused it to be very stiff and painful and slightly swollen. However, one of the great things about drill is that everything hurts less as a rule and I was still able to get out 42 in my minute which is respectable I guess. I managed 46 sit ups in a minute as well and I'm finally getting them fast enough that I'm starting to run out of steam before running out of time. My mile was terrible though. I gained 43 seconds off my best time which rather infuriated me. Although the sinus infection and phlegm cascading down my throat didn't help, they should not have hurt me that much.
However, more infuriating than my slow mile, was my general ineptitude and the fact that I proved very good at looking like an idiot this drill. While marching over to the track I realized my equilibrium was kinda off. I thought that I was marching straight until I felt PFC Garner pushing me sideways back into my spot. I proceeded to drift left slightly all of drill although I was able to make it better by intently staring at a reference point in front of me. Such a problem is not good while leading fourth squad but Garner did well enough about keeping me in line that I think only those directly behind me noticed.
Then once we reached the track we had to move off the road and ground our gear and since I was fourth squad I assumed the platoon would base off me and grounded my gear where there would be room for everyone. However, they based off of first squad which put me and the soldier who was next to my gear a few feat out of formation and I didn't notice until after Drill Sergeant Zupancic did.
After the PT test we moved over to the barracks where I was given the opportunity to be a bay leader which I haven't done before and was very excited to do. Here I believe I did well. We were able to get linens squared away very quickly and efficiently and we put together fire guard and had it posted far before we were checked on by our leadership. Luckily I also had a PFC Anderson in my bay who is a BCT grad and was able to help me with my hospital corners which was beneficial as well.
We then marched back to 521 where we drove HMMWV (humvee) simulators. Before we started I accidentally called one of the sergeants sir (which for me is something I normally call older men that I don't know well) which we aren't supposed to do but I don't think he noticed.
The simulators were really fun though. For whatever reason mine was faster than all of the other ones so I had to slow myself down the whole time but it was good. It showed how difficult it is to find people when you're being shot at too which was good to see. I also didn't realize how slow those things accelerated. I've heard they're dogs but the simulators made them seem even worse than I imagined. Overall, it was very good though.
After the simulators we went to drill and ceremony training. This was something that we drastically needed and something that I needed far more than I realized. We first worked with the four rest positions: parade rest, stand at ease, at ease, and rest. The difference in these positions involve where you place your hands and your freedom of movement from not moving at all to only having to have your base (right) foot in place. For this section Drill Sergeant Stace used me as the example and I believe I showed that I knew these well overall. However, I did not realize that my hands were slightly too far forward in parade rest so that was a very helpful thing for me. We then moved into facing movements which is the military's way of turning troops. Those I have no problem with at all while at a halt. However, I found that I actually had my timing very off while marching. I screwed that up multiple times before getting it right. It was very good for us to go over though and we had a much smoother drill because of it.
After D&C we went to a field to do Individual Movement Tactics (IMT) training. This involved the stuff you always see in movies- the crawling under wire type stuff in the form of low and high crawls. It's very simple and took very little time to do this portion. We also learned how to do what's called "scrolling a road." This is the proper way to cross a road when you run the risk of ending up under fire. The first man goes to whatever cover is available at the close side of the road to get a view of what's at the end of the road. After receiving a signal from the first man, a second man runs across the road and covers the direction down the road that the first man is not covering. After signals from the two men covering the road the rest of the team moves as quickly as possible across the road under the cover of the two men on the sides. The two men then rejoin the team and the team recounts to get accountability before continuing their mission.
After learning the basic techniques of movement we performed a basic exercise where we had to take a "machine gun nest" in a field where we had to move around a church, under some wire and across an irrigation stream. This was a fun but useful exercise and helped teach a great deal about teamwork and proper movement. It was kind of funny though; after we finished I asked Sgt Cole how he would have taken care of the nest if it was his fire team. He replied that he would stand about where we were (a few hundred yards away), note its position, and call in an artillery strike. I think that sounded like a good plan.
From IMT we moved into learning how to set up Claymore mines and throw grenades after a quick but very tasty sack dinner. The Claymores were very simple and we were informed they aren't really used anymore because of their crudeness. Very impressive destructive power though. They are every light and very simple put create a wall of BBs about 7 feet tall and 160 feet wide 100 feet. However, according to Sgt Goodman the simplicity of the Claymore often resulted in complacency and the Claymore caused a lot of friendly casualties.
The grenades were a good time to throw. They were also very simple and surprised me with the size of they're blast radius. The grenades we threw were practice dummies of M67 grenades and we threw them at orange dummy-people. We went over how to throw them, how to take cover, the importance of warning the other troops of the throw and taking cover and the basic characteristics of the grenade. An M67 can throw projectiles 230 meters and the average soldier can throw one 40 meters so taking cover is vastly important. At this station I failed again though. Our instructor asked us a question and I'm guessing I completely misheard him because when I answered the look he gave me told me I must have been way off base.
We returned to our barracks after this station and got everything there squared away. At this point I was rather disappointed with the way my leadership was going so I tried to think of what SPC McKenna had always done to be an effective bay leader since I had always liked him as bay leader. One thing that I could remember he did was he was always up and in ACUs already when he woke the rest of the bay up so I decided that I would do that so I was ready to help my guys instead of just worrying about myself. So I set one alarm for 0000 when I had fireguard and another for 0345 when I would wake up to shower and start getting ready.
During my fireguard shift I also decided I definitely need to get new running shoes. Our uniform for fireguard was our PT uniforms so I was in my running shoes while doing fireguard. One of the things that I do when I'm fireguard, which is probably unnecessary but feels right to me, is I cross the bay and recount my guys every 10 minutes. Since we're just on post and people very rarely leave the bay in the middle of the night this probably isn't needed but it helps to keep me awake and I like knowing that if asked I can give a very confident answer of who's in my bay. The only bad thing about this is that my running shoes squeak terribly. Even walking on my toes it sounded like I was walking on bubble wrap. Luckily we had three rather heavy snorers in our bay so I was decently covered up but I need to take care of that before next drill. Well, that's all for Saturday, I'll try to get a Sunday and a couple of other things up this afternoon or tomorrow.

March Drill (Sunday)

So Sunday was our big hands on day. We did tons of classes on Saturday (see Saturday posting) so that we could just do hands on and get out as early as possible on Sunday. Our goal Sunday was to practice all of our bleeding control techniques, put IVs in each other and completer our AARs.

We woke up at 0445 and cleaned up the barracks. This went decently smoothly although I had to count our sheets three times because I found a pillowcase in one of the bundles during my first recount. That kinda sucked but it didn't take too much longer and we still were able to get our barracks totally squared away and had accountability for everyone a good half hour before the drill sergeants showed up.

After a quick breakfast in the chow hall we marched back to building 521 to begin practicing. We started with going over evaluating casualties and treating hemorrhaging, flail chests, etc. Then we had a long time to ask questions and go over mock situations which was very helpful. We also got to hear some more crazy stories from the medic which was cool.

We then had a pretty intense demonstration from the medics on how to put in an IV. They did it with a 14 gauge needle (which is big enough to fit an 18ga inside which is what they use when you give blood) so that we could see better. It bled a lot simply because it was so big and was dripping all down his arm. It was kinda gross and one kid started having problems due to seeing so much of it. Then, to illustrate the importance of taping down your IV line properly, she taped it to his arm and then started to throw the bag. Luckily it just bounced from the tape instead of yanking catheter out of his arm. It made one kid pass out though.

I asked Private Ware to stick me since she seems to be a very stable, steady person and I thought she'd be good at figuring it out. We were the second pair at our table and I ended up being right. She stuck me perfectly and barely made me bleed at all. It was pretty cool. She hooked me up to a 500mL bag of some Sodium Phosphate fluid or something that they use to rehydrate people. It was cool because it all just kinda drips in and you have to keep the bag held up high to keep enough pressure to put fluids into your vein instead of having the line and bag fill with blood. I don't know if it's a bad thing at all but I kinda thought it was fun to bring it up and down and watch the blood flow in and out of my arm. Kinda cool for some reason.

My bag finished emptying just in time to pull the catheter as all of the squad leaders left to my first ELP (Emerging Leaders Program) AAR (After Action Review for those who forgot). We went over how we did things and whether or not we did well in leading everyone and figuring out where everyone needed to be. One person who I didn't really know couldn't seem to shut up and made the AAR a bit of a mess but it was cool to be involved in the process. After AAR, PFC Gluch told me that I did well enough as squad leader that they want me coming to ELP from now on which is way cool. I don't know if they have enough spots to have me as a squad leader but PVT Majors was one and he just shipped so maybe I'll get a chance again. Either way, I'll get to go to ELP meetings and learn how they do things.

When we left ELP I got to start trying to stick people myself. The first guy I did already had two holes in him when I got to him and I only managed to stick another hole in him and couldn't get anything. The medic thought I was too nervous so he had me take a break and try again on someone else but I just couldn't see his veins. I also think I need to start eating with chop sticks because the way you have to hold those needles was kinda awkward and I wasn't very steady. I ended up missing on the second guy too but I was finally able to hit PFC Goodman and she said that no one has been able to successfully stick her before since she's so small (5'1" 111lb) PFC Goodman stuck me as well since I have such easy veins and she did really well. It bled quite a bit for some reason but it wasn't a painful stick at all. It actually hurt even less than PVT Ware's did on my other arm. For some reason both arms showed a bruise starting Tuesday or Wednesday but they were both very good sticks.

Once everyone successfully stuck somebody we did a quick AAR and we were able to get out around 1530. It was a great drill overall and I learned a ton about not only CLS duties but how to try to help lead people as well albeit in a limited leadership role. Very fun though and I can't wait to go back.

Drill Hangover

I'm finding that I come home from drill with what I will describe as a drill hangover. On Monday, I had to avoid answering questions to avoid replying hooah to almost everything which sounds really weird if you've never been to drill. I almost snapped to parade rest when talking to my auto tech teacher (who kinda reminds me of a cranky version of Sgt Walls), I nearly yelled, "make a hole" when my friends mom had to squeeze through a group of my other friends, I felt entirely wrong standing in front of doors and defaulted to parade rest while waiting for my girlfriend to come to the door. I'm finding my only wish with the Guard is that I could spend more time on post. And of course, by the time next drill rolls around I'll have to recondition myself to do all those things again although that is becoming easier and easier the more drills I do.

More Reasons I'm Proud to be Part of This

I am constantly given more reasons to be proud of the US military. The stories and attitudes of the men who have been deployed are often awe inspiring.

There is a very obvious difference between us and those we fight and this was illustrated in the stories from the medics who came to drill to teach us. All of our instructors have been deployed to either Iraq and Afghanistan and I'm sure they could sit and tell stories for days. I usually give names but I don't know how to spell some of them so I'll just refer to all of them in general terms to avoid messing them up.

The most striking story was that of one of the guys one of our medics served with. There is a video of him being shot in the butt and scrambling behind a Humvee which I'm sure is simply seen as either sad or comical to most who see it. However, what the video doesn't show is what happened later. Shortly after the medic was shot, the other guys who were with him found and shot his assailant. He was wounded but did not die and the medic who got shot treated the man who had just shot him in an attempt to kill him. If that isn't noble I don't know what is. SFC Stace says he has a picture of the two at their aid station. I don't believe anyone could argue with SFC Stace when he said that although we kick butt, we do it in an honorable way.

On the flip side, one of the other combat medics that came in and taught us told a story about a young (I think he said 10yr old) kid that he worked on over in Afghanistan. The Army was test firing a weapon in a huge open field and an insurgent group decided to take advantage of it and mortared a local village nearby in hopes of blaming it on the Americans. Where we save as many lives as we can while still providing security, they repeatedly show their willingness to slaughter anyone and everyone if they can possibly use it to make a point. If we are unwilling to stand up against that grade of men, I would hate to meet the people who would be a war worth fighting.

That same medic told a story of a local man who's entire family was killed by the Taliban. He ended up becoming a gate guard at the American base and was fiercely pro-US. He carried around a stick which the Sergeant motioned to be about 5 inches across and would promptly take care of any of the locals who would come to the base and do things they weren't supposed to. He said he often had to go out and treat locals who he had bopped on the head. Stories like that are the reason I believe both these wars were winnable from the start. In general, our soldiers are admirable men and women and our way of life and our ideals are good. I have a hard time believing the Afghan people would rather live under the Taliban or the Iraqis under Saddam.

We had one other experience with another soldier who was there on other business when we were in the chow hall. He came up behind us in line for chow and when told that he was welcome to go ahead of us (there were probably more than 40 of us ahead of him) he responded that he had all the time in the world. He was on post to request another deployment. He has bee on three voluntary deployments thus far and told us that he has another one in him before he retires. He said though, that the army doesn't seem to agree which is "why they game [him] that stupid purple heart." He commented that for some reason, "when your vehicle explodes and you wake up naked in a Blackhawk (I'm guessing MEDEVAC) the army thinks its a bad thing. To me that just sounds like a good Friday night." One deployment is honorable, volunteering for more is admirable, doing so despite being a casualty, shows a level of commitment that few people have to anything.

National Guard Punishment

I have to say, I love the way the Guard does things. The way we do discipline is great. As background our Staff Sergeant, Sgt Walls, is a woman a little unlike any I've ever met. She's incredibly thorough, super dedicated and a she certainly commands respect. She's very helpful to us and in return she asks for four things in a way that only she could. These are 1. Checking our mypay accounts, 2. Checking our GRAP accounts, 3. Checking our AKO accounts and most importantly, keeping her in the loop. Every month she calls us to make sure we're coming out to drill and got our drill letters and leaves the same message every month if we don't answer and tells us to call her back. She also checks the ADA County Sheriff website every day to make sure none of us got arrested and will call us if we didn't call her before she saw our picture on the site. Each drill at AAR we get to here her speech about keeping her in the loop, calling her back, etc. It's really not that hard and she's not a scary person but for some reason people don't do it. I don't get it.

We are also generally able to get out of drill for a while for things like dances and whatnot if we let them know ahead of time because it is understood that many of us are still in school and you can't get those experiences back. However, going along with Sgt. Walls's "keep me in the loop" mantra, we have to let them know ahead of time.

Three of our soldiers, who are referred to as the "Three Amigos" were all going to their school's "Sweetheart's" dance Saturday night during drill. However, they made the mistake of not telling our cadre until Friday. They were still allowed to go but they had the opportunity to pay for it.

Instead of doing something mundane like pushups the three amigos were required to carry around Slagathor (a fake Christmas tree w/lights), the Baseplate (a Christmas tree stand), and the Bombshell (a bowling-ball-sized river rock painted to look like a bomb with a fuse) for all of drill. During our class on tourniquets Slagathor inevitably started bleeding profusely and had to be fixed up, pictures of which will assuredly be in the next drill letter. We had a great time messing with them all of drill as they had to keep accountability of their items.

To cap it off, they had to take said items to the dance and get pictures of themselves and their dates with their items. Unfortunately, Slagathor, the Baseplate, and the Bombshell were not allowed into the dance due to their high schools apparent racism against green, gold, and fused people but they did get photographic evidence as instructed.

During AAR I asked MSG Gordley if their was any chance I could get those pictures for the blog. (I found out last month that they read the blog although I never even told them it existed. They are the government I guess. Luckily I honestly don't have anything bad to say about the Guard or my cadre so I didn't get myself busted in the three months of postings before I knew they read it.) He likes the blog so he made the three amigos get my email address and they were told to email me the picture so I will post that as soon as I get it from them. I'm looking forward to seeing it myself as well.
GOT THE PICTURES