On the way out

I head out first thing in the morning.  Sorry to anyone that I didn’t get to call and say goodbye to again.  The last few days have been a little hectic trying to see everyone.  Please keep my family in your prayers.  I think that me leaving is harder on them than it is on me.

I will know in the next week what my address will be if anyone needs it.

I should have daily access to the internet so send me messages on Facebook, Twitter, E-mail, or on here.

I will keep everyone up to date on what I am up to as much as I can.

Love you all

Going Away Party

I had a great time tonight at my party.  Seeing everyone was awesome.  Several people came from out of town to see me.  It is a great feeling to know that so many people care about me.  Telling everyone goodbye and knowing I won’t see them for a long time is very sad.

Thanks to everyone that made the trip out and to everyone that helped organize it.  I had a great time and I love all of you.

CAST over!!

Finished our final day of training today.  Not as bad as I thought it would be.  We did a round robin thru four training stations.  The weather today was horrible.  37 and a light snow.  Not exactly ideal training conditions for a team deploying to the desert in the summer.

Started with Mounted Ops.  We had to react to IED’s/insurgents as we made our way to a small village.  Once we got to the town our vehicles were disabled and we had to move thru the streets of the village.  While moving thru the town we came under attack and several people were wounded.  We had to secure a build in the village so that we could tend to the wounded.  After securing the building we had to call for a Medivac.  Since there wasn’t anywhere to safely land a Medivac helicopter we had to move to a LZ.

They gave us the coordinates and we had to navigate our way thru the woods to the LZ.  Coming under fire while traveling thru the woods multiple times.  Once we made it to the LZ we secured a 360 degree security perimeter and waited for the chopper.

The final scenario was that we had to rescue some US military members that had been severely wounded during a convoy.  We had to make it to their position under fire.  Apply the Combat First Aid that we learned last week.  Neutralize the threat and get them to a safe LZ to be Medivaced.

It has been a great two weeks of training.  Probably some of the best training I have had in my 10 years in the military.  I got to know some of the guys in my unit that I didn’t know very well.  Also made some friends from other units across the world.  It has been a good two weeks but I am ready to go home (for now at least).

CAST Land/Nav

Land navigation class today was great.  Pretty good training on navigating without a GPS.  Mostly just basic knowledge on using a compass to navigate a topographical map.  I enjoyed the class because I think I will use a lot of the knowledge camping and hiking.

I never knew how to do a reverse azimuth to find your exact coordinates on a map.  Also I never really understood all of the coordinates that a map or GPS gives you.

After the class they sent us out into the woods with a compass, map, and 4 coordinates.  Each squad had to find the coordinates in order and radio back the information on the posts at each site.  I was never very good with a compass, but now I fell pretty confident.

The weather sucked pretty bad.  A little bit of rain/sleet mix and 38 degrees.  All in all a pretty good day though.

Tomorrow is the final day of training.  The FTX (Field Training Excercise).  It is supposed to be everything that we learned the last two weeks all combined together.  I have this crazy feeling that it is going to go something like Mogadishu.  The will take out the front and rear HUMMWV’s then as we try to gather the wounded they will hit us with RPG’s and pick us off one by one.  I plan on being a gunner so that I can use my amazing sniper skills to eliminate as many insurgents as possible.  I am nervous about it and I know it isn’t real. All of the instructors are former Marines, Army, and Special Forces.  One of the Air Force guys is a TACP (my dream job).  One is a Marine Corps sniper.  One was Marine Corps Force Recon. Oh well.  Wish me luck.  We will need it.

CAST day 8

I have been without Internet for a few days.  It’s amazing how bored you get without a TV or internet.  Here is un update on my school.

Friday was “Care under fire”.  Nothing real exciting.  Combat First-aid in a simulated hostile environment.  We were trained on how to properly call for a Medivac.  Learned the newest first-aid info for gunshot and shrapnel wounds.  Pretty much it.

Saturday we did the marksmanship course.  They taught us some techniques to make our rate of fire and accuracy better.  We shot on a 300 meter range that had pop-up targets at 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300. Obviously you start with the closest targets and go out from there.  Trying to keep a firing rate of 12-15 rounds a minute. The Marine sniper that taught the class said that 12-15 per minute is the ideal rate of fire. At the end of the volleys we did “double taps” to the chest of the 50 and 100 meter targets.  He explained how a single 5.56 round, even if well placed, won’t usually take someone down from that close.  Two simultaneous rounds causes your body to go into shock almost immediately.  The guys we are fighting get hyped up on drugs before they go out and don’t go down easy.

Monday was the first of the two days of ” Mounted Ops/C-IED” training.  Basically a course that teaches the basics of convoying and what to do when encountering IED’s. Lots of good information and at the end of the day we did the HMMWV and MRAP egress simulators.  Pretty awesome.  You strap into the vehicle shells that are hooked to a motor that spins them around. Once it stops spinning you have to get yourself and your crew out.  Getting out is pretty tough.  I can imagine it wouldn’t be a very easy task in an up-armored HMMWV with doors that weigh almost 400 lbs.

Today was the second day of Mounted Ops/C-IED. We did the hands-on part of the class.  There is about a half mile course constructed that has IED’s along the road and thru the town.  We have to drive down the road and thru the town reacting to different scenarios that the instructors come up with. They set off IED’s and then coordinate attacks from “insurgents”. We have to react to the contact while transporting the wounded out of the damaged HMMWV.

I had never thought about the responsibilities that everyone in a convoy has.  As a gunner you have sectors of fire that you have to watch. If your sector is the left side and the convoy comes under attack from the right, you have to keep your gun on your sector and not turn around.  Your instincts tell you to turn around.  If you turn around and you receive contact from the left, you have compromised everyone in your convoy.  It takes a lot of self discipline to accomplish you duties in a high stress environment.  Our training is in a controlled environment and it is still very intense when IED’s are going off, people are shooting at you, and the local population is screaming at you.  You start to get Tunnel vision.

I guess this training is like insurance.  You hope you never need it, but when you do you will be glad you had it.

CAST day 5

Been here at CAST training since Monday night. Lots of great information given here. I have marksmanship tomorrow…pretty excited about that.

Tuesday and Wednesday were just general knowledge/team building information. I have a great team here and we have done really well together. I think the training that we have received will come in very handy some day. I have really enjoyed getting to know a lot of the people who I will be deploying with. The course does a lot to get you to know everyone in your squad/flight better on a personal level.

Thursdays Urban Ops training was one of the most fun things that I have done in a long time. Definitely one of the most fun and intense I have had in the military. We learned how to work as a four man squad. Then how multiple squads work together as a unit in an urban combat situation. The part of the instruction where we move through the streets and come under fire helped me realize how crazy things can get when you recieve enemy contact. I have a lot greater appreciation for the Army and Marines that do that as their job. We trained on clearing rooms/buildings. They constantly train that speed and surprise are your best tactics in that environment. Its crazy to kick in a door not knowing what could be in the room you are entering.

Our instructor was a former Marine Force Recon Sgt. and Blackwater CQC (Close Quarter Combat) trainer. He received two Purple Hearts in 4 days in Fallujah, Iraq. One was given to him after receiving a gunshot wound while trying to retrieve his best friends body after he was killed clearing around a corner. He was shot by a 13-year-old Iraqi boy with an AK-47. His friend hesitated to engage for just a few seconds and lost his life because he wasn’t mentally prepared. He was a very intense instructor and I hope that his training will help me to make quick decisions if needed. He asked us the question “How long will you have to regret the decisions you make on the battlefield?”…the answer was”Hopefully the rest of your life”.

I pray that I am never put into a situation where I would need to make a decision like that. But hope that with good training I will be more mentally prepared to make quick decisions.

CAST pre-deployment training

This is all of the gear that I had to carry with me to New Jersey. I never thought that I would be able to pack it all into my bags.  Sometimes I amaze myself.

154lbs. of gear.  The ballistic vest and helmet weigh about 35lbs. together.  Ballistic vest, helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, Camelback, 4 uniforms, 2 pairs of boots, cold weather gear, PT gear, ammo pouches, web gear, and all of my toiletries.  Lots of gear to be lugging around the airport.

The new pic in my header is one that I took today of the front of my ballistic vest.

Good Intentions

For anyone that didn’t already know, I will be deploying soon.  I have good intentions of keeping up with the blog while I am gone.  I guess we will see how that goes.

I have been at CAST training since Monday.  CAST stands for Combat Airmen Skills Training.  Lots of good to know training if we ever do have any serious enemy contact.  The first few days have been pretty tough but, all in all a good time.

I will try to post information about what I am doing and where I am if I can.  Sometimes I wont be allowed to take or post pics or specific info.

 

Annual Labor Day/Birthday trip to The Johnson’s (Sat.)

Just got back from a long weekend with one of my favorite families.  Our friends Bryan and Stephanie moved to Hattiesburg, MS several years ago and we have made it an annual tradition to go visit them for the long Labor Day weekend, which happens to be my birthday weekend also. Earlier this year they moved to Harrisonburg, VA for Bryan’s new job.  When planning our trip for this year we decided that we should spend a couple of days in Washington D. C.  I haven’t been to D.C. since I was a little kid and was VERY excited to go.

We left late Friday night and didn’t make it to there house until after 1 o’clock in the morning.  We slept in a little Saturday loaded up their three kids (Katelyn, Bryson, and Adalyn) and headed to D.C.  We checked in to the JW Marriot in downtown D.C. around lunch time and headed straight out to start our sightseeing.

Our first stop was in front of the White House to get a couple of pics.

We walked past the Washington Monument on our way to see the war memorials.  The World War II Memorial is the first that you come to.  This memorial is the most elaborate of the war memorials.  With 56 pillars, two huge archways, 246 ft. long pool, and the Freedom Wall.  The Freedom Wall Is at the back of the memorial and is the most interesting part of the memorial to me. Each star on the wall represents 100 American lives that were lost in the war, with the words “Here we mark the price of freedom” engraved in stone in front of them.

After the World War II memorial we walked past the Reflecting Pool on the way to the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, and Korean War Memorial.

Britt taught Katelyn about Lincoln being on the Penny.

The Vietnam Memorial, probably the most well-known, was awesome to see in person.  To see a list of names that large of people who died serving their country is overwhelming.

The Korean War Memorial. The wall has over 2500 images engraved into it.  In the center there are 19 stainless steel statues representing a squad on patrol. Fourteen of the figures are from the Army, three are from the Marine Corps, one is a Navy Corpsman, and one is an Air Force Forward Air Observer, representing all four branches.  When reflected on the wall, there appears to be 38 soldiers, representing the 38th parallel. The quote “Freedom is not Free” is engraved in stone at the front of the memorial.

Football Time!!!

If everyone hasn’t noticed already, I am a little excited about football this year. My Dolphins have had 14 quarterbacks since 1999 when Dan Marino retired. This year our “quarterback of the future” will begin his first year as a starter.  Chad Henne showed a lot of potential last year when Pennington went down.  The Dolphins offseason acquisition of Brandon Marshall improves our mediocre receiving core from last year.  Along with our upgrades on defense, this seasons team looks like it has potential to be the best that I can remember.  In a few weeks, Sundays at my house will be filled with green and orange.  GO FINS!!!!! Jets suck!!!!!