Journal Entry: "All Day Training"
Lots of training going on. Day after day, all day long. Its tiring but nothing compared to AIT's pace.
This is a shot of some of our crew just after we finished the "Presence Patrol" excercise where we practice a dismounted mission in an urban environment. In this case the streets of an Afghan/Iraqi town where we are to meet the local police chief. The team is presented with a series of situations including sniper attack, witnessing and reacting to a human rights violation perpetrated by the local authorities, IEDs (improvised explosives) and trip mines, drive-bys and finally an indirect fire (mortar) attack coupled with small-arms ambush. It was the best day of training I've had since CQB (close quarter battle) at AIT. Some of us got to run through it a few times as OP-FOR (opposing force). The vulnerability to attack is very real and these exercises underscore the need for constant vigilance.
We had NBC (Nuclear/Bio/Chemical) training as well this week. Standard stuff, really. This is just review from basic mostly. Most of everyting we're doing is just review, but my thinking is that you can't practice some of this stuff enough. There's some desention in the ranks about the relevance of NBC training, but I personally believe that we're much more likely to have that kind of weapononry used on us in a counter-insurgent scenario than in a more traditional battlefield. After all, our enemy has stated its intent to aquire WMD and to then use it accordingly. A legitimate nation-state would fear assured reciprocity too much to follow through with an attack of this nature. I think its more likely now than ever.
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There's quite a bit going on and we're training sometimes til late in the evening, but despite the boredom of idle time between events, morale is very high and I have a very good feeling about the team I'm being deployed with. I'm working on some new articles, so stay tuned. The next one should be within the next few days and its my attempt to explain the mission and organization of U.S. Army Civil Affairs to the uninitiated.
This is a shot of some of our crew just after we finished the "Presence Patrol" excercise where we practice a dismounted mission in an urban environment. In this case the streets of an Afghan/Iraqi town where we are to meet the local police chief. The team is presented with a series of situations including sniper attack, witnessing and reacting to a human rights violation perpetrated by the local authorities, IEDs (improvised explosives) and trip mines, drive-bys and finally an indirect fire (mortar) attack coupled with small-arms ambush. It was the best day of training I've had since CQB (close quarter battle) at AIT. Some of us got to run through it a few times as OP-FOR (opposing force). The vulnerability to attack is very real and these exercises underscore the need for constant vigilance.
We had NBC (Nuclear/Bio/Chemical) training as well this week. Standard stuff, really. This is just review from basic mostly. Most of everyting we're doing is just review, but my thinking is that you can't practice some of this stuff enough. There's some desention in the ranks about the relevance of NBC training, but I personally believe that we're much more likely to have that kind of weapononry used on us in a counter-insurgent scenario than in a more traditional battlefield. After all, our enemy has stated its intent to aquire WMD and to then use it accordingly. A legitimate nation-state would fear assured reciprocity too much to follow through with an attack of this nature. I think its more likely now than ever.
There's quite a bit going on and we're training sometimes til late in the evening, but despite the boredom of idle time between events, morale is very high and I have a very good feeling about the team I'm being deployed with. I'm working on some new articles, so stay tuned. The next one should be within the next few days and its my attempt to explain the mission and organization of U.S. Army Civil Affairs to the uninitiated.
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