Sour Swinger Predominantly follows my Army & Iraq Deployment. Also has some Geek, School, and other talk.

More videos have arrived. Believe or not, but I still have a bunch more to upload. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to get them all up. Which means I won’t get them up until the end of deployment. Enjoy!

This is a quick dry rehearsal for our air assault mission. We used a CH47 Chinook. Once we dismounted the bird, we’d bound our squad up to the objective.

In the air, waiting to reach our destination.

Following the box, came boredom. Following boredom, came horseplay.

This was suppose to be a vid of us lifting a +600 lbs ramp door however the LT was slow in getting the camera going. The after action was still funny.

No surprise, one of the ATGM strykers broke again. We had to tow it back to the FOB. Despite me recording from atop a stryker, you can still hear my music playing from inside. Thats right, I have surround sound with a sub blaring. Oh Yeah!

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This should be the last of the photos. I had pictures spread across two different computers, several flash drives, and on my external hard drive. Hopefully I found everything. The first set is mostly from being in the box.

The second set is of our Air Assault mission. Unfortunately do to the type of training at JRTC, I wasn’t able to snap as many pictures as I wanted to.

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First set of videos have been uploaded. Enjoy!

Having arrived to Fort Polk, we are greeted by a large 200 man tent that will be our home for the next month.

A quick test fire to ensure a working weapon before heading out on mission.

This robot is used to investigate IEDs. If the bomb ends up going off, no harm done to any people.

While on mission, a gun shot wound was sustained by one of the soldiers. This helicopter was called in to medivac the individual out.

Having loaded up the wounded soldier, the chopper takes off.

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After 10 grueling days, the box has finally finished. The training was realistic, the work was hard, and simple luxuries such as sleep were nonexistent. Immediately following the box, I moved to a new FOB and lost all cell and Internet reception. Hence the delay in this post. Worse, my computer broke and I needed to borrow someone else’s laptop to type this up.  Water dripped into the keyboard and fried it.

As I mentioned before, my platoon was attached to B Troop of the 104th Cav. Together we traveled down to our JSS/JCOB(Joint Contingency Operations Base) for use during the box. The JCOB was an incredibly tiny base setup right next to an Iraq village. That village and surrounding area was considered our territory in which we were to help make safer, more secure, and ultimately bring stability too.

The amount of realism and complexity involved in making the box seem real was staggering. There was a permanent set of Iraqi civilians and IPs (Iraqi Police) that lived in the town. Some of the buildings had electricity and many times you could smell the food they were cooking. They even had goats that lived in the town. A few times, the goats wondered over to our JCOB and one even managed to break in through the gate.

There were also a set number of people who played the Iraqi Army, news journalists, insurgents, etc. Everyday the journalists released an exaggerated newspaper of the events happening for the entire brigade. Of course there were many fuck ups reported. That’s too be expected.

Life on the JCOB had worse living conditions then back at our FOB. There weren’t enough cots so most everyone slept in their strykers. Fuel was always low so many times we couldn’t even turn on the heat. It didn’t bother us too much since sleep was something we didn’t get. In fact, not once was anyone ever scheduled for sleep. For the first few days our schedule was do a mission for several hours, take an hour break, do another mission, take an hour break, etc. As time went on, the missions became more demanding. Our shifts become 24 hours long with maybe an hour break before starting another 24 hour shift. The 10 days seemed more like one long day sustained by a series of naps. Only twice did we get more then 2 hours of consecutive sleep. Once we got 3 hours and the other was 4 hours. Boy did that ever feel great. My platoon sergeant kept a tally and for 10 days, we got about 30 hours of sleep!

In addition to the lack of sleep, we also lacked any showers and hot meals. We did manage to get one hot meal delivered to us but just as we broke open the thermal cases our base came under attack. We scattered to our positions and a couple hours later came back to find our once hot food ice cold. Snafu. LoL.

On day one, my squad leader made a mistake. Too make a long story short, he lead a team in clearing a mosque. A big no no that resulted in a full scale investigation. He was taken away and sent back to the rear. Didn’t see him again for 6 days. During then, we had to rebuild relations with the pissed off town which included a press conference.

Our missions were very diversified. Being anti-armor in a country where tanks aren’t found puts us in an odd situation. Though we were never used as a main assault element, there were plenty of other uses for us. About 50% of the time we conducted dismounted operations while the rest was mounted. Some of the missions we did: PSD, leaders reconnaissance, QRF, casevac, medivac escort, EOD escort, base security, roving patrol, TCP, ECP, blockades, and OPs. Luckily we hardly did tower guard (my worst nightmare).

In all, this training was amazing. Though it sucked during, its the satisfaction afterwards that makes it all worthwhile. Looking back knowing I did that, survived it, and still maintained good combat effectiveness despite my zombie like state of mind from sleep deprivation brings a smile to my face. I’m hoping Iraq will not be as demanding. I believe they are setting the bar high so as to prepare us for worse case scenario. One thing sure, I now feel prepared for Iraq.

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Having spent almost 2 weeks here, my mind has been blown away. In all my +8 years of service, this is the best training I’ve ever received. Camp Shelby is a joke in comparison. We’ve basically been doing a two day cycle. Day one, we prep for and receive an Op Order for a mission. Day two, we execute that mission and then repeat. Its kept everyone quite busy.

Our first mission set the standard. We had three objectives to take (towns to raid) and each one assigned to a platoon. I was part of the assault on the third and last objective. This entire exercise used live ammo. As we drove past the second objective, a rather large fire was burning it down. If brush is dry and enough rounds are put down range, you’ll eventually start a fire. Simultaneously mortars were raining down hell. Even though I was in the stryker, you could feel the impact of the rounds. A helicopter flying over head provided visual recon for us before rolling in on our objectives. Once at our objective we all dismounted and assaulted the entire town. AT4s, M240Bs, and 50 Cal machine guns provided cover. We even had an engineer to blow open a court yard wall. I was able to use the M249 machine gun. To burst into houses and light up targets with that puppy is an amazing feeling. At one point my squad leader did a superman. He jumped head first into a fish market kiosk, effectively tackling a target in the process. Haha. He got yelled at for that one but damn was that funny. I think he was having a flash back.

The rest of our missions used blanks and miles gear. Miles is the Army equivalent of laser tag. Everyone wears sensors and attach lasers to their weapons. If you shoot and hit someone they beep. You’re then handed a causality card stating your injury or if your dead. Everything is fully simulated with medics coming in and hooking up an IV and all. If a medivac is required, they fly in a chopper and transport you out of there. There’s also a ton of actors playing the terrorists, civilians, ISF, Iraqi Police, etc. They wear the miles gear too. Our engagements can get pretty intense even though everything is either blanks or simulators going off. Hell, they even have a RPG simulator. Pretty neat to see it fly 50 meters through the air and “hit” your vehicle. Btw, even our vehicles have the miles gear on them. That way you know when your vehicle is destroyed. For one of the missions, I was able to air assault in. Basically its what they did in the movie We Were Soldiers. We all loaded up in a Chinook and flew into a town. Made a quick 10 second touch town, dismounted, let the chopper fly off, and assaulted the town. That was my first helicopter ride ever and was probably spoiled a bit. Funny bit to that. My Lieutenant was the first man off the chopper. We were to set up a security perimeter where ever he stopped. While dismounting, he accidentally tripped and rolled head first on the ground. Haha. The security was set up where he fell.

All this training was to prepare us for going into the box. The box will be about 10 days long and will simulate being in Iraq. We’ll need to run base security, route security, conduct missions, etc 24/7. No one will be allowed to use their cell phone and I doubt I’ll even get time to go on my computer. I’m anticipating only 4 hours of sleep a night. Basically, I and everyone will vanish from the rest of the world for 10 days. Thus far, I’ve managed to never get shot. At one point, a sniper almost got me though one my soldiers unintentionally took the “bullet” for me. Will see if I can avoid being killed for the box.

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Hard to believe I’m already at JRTC. It is here at Fort Polk, Louisiana where the mission critical training happens. The training that actually prepares us for Iraq. From what I hear Camp Shelby is a joke in comparison.

Weather here at Fort Polk is just a bit colder then Camp Shelby, Mississippi but otherwise all the same. Freezing temperatures through the night, cold during the dusk/dawn, and warm during the afternoon. The surrounding land is more swampy and the roads are not quite as dusty. Our ATGM vehicles keep getting stuck in the mud so we are no longer allowed to go off road. This is because the ATGM strykers are several tons heavier then the other stryker variants.

There are 6 FOBs surrounding the main cantonment area. My platoon (2^nd) is on FOB Spirit. All the other platoons are on other FOBs except for 1^st platoon. Though my platoon will not be training with them, we’ll see 1^st in the chow hall and/or drop in on their barracks for a visit.

Speaking of barracks, boy did we get downgraded from Camp Shelby. I’m staying in a giant circus tent which houses about 200 soldiers. It’s a very tight squeeze. We have no wall lockers, no shelf space, no wall dividers, no beds. Only a small cot with about 3×6 foot area of personal floor space. Jamming all our gear in and around our area is a bitch. The only heating is what’s generated off everyone’s own body heat. Electrical outlets are slim so a ton of surge protectors and extension cords were used to distribute power. Fire hazard anyone? Since we can only use our bags to store our items theft is on the back of everyone’s mind, especially considering the number of people in the area.

The rest of the FOB is just as down and dirty. We have 4 conexes that act as showers. Not all of them supply warm water though one of those Rubber Ducky Mobile Showers trailers rolled in. Those are pretty nice. The only toilets are Porta Johns. There’s a couple more large tents and a bunch of wooden buildings that act has our chow hall, arms room, and other smaller barracks. Two squadrons (battalions) are squeezed onto this tiny FOB. Our vehicles barely fit. We have to park the strykers so tight that you can’t walk in between them. A large continuous mound of earth also surrounds the FOB, acting as a sort of wall.

The food is alright. We get two hot meals (breakfast and dinner) served to us via mermites (a thermal container used to transport food). In terms of food diversity…well lets just say dinner meals seem to repeat every 7 days. Breakfast is always the same. That’s typical even at Shelby. Since we get mermites, there’s only a set portion of food allowed to be served. Its almost never enough and I (and many others) leave still hungry. No PX runs for food or delivery exists out here so its hard to come by additional food. Well there’s always MREs but one gets sick of those quickly.

Cell phone service is spotty. My Verizon cell only works in certain spots and my Sprint internet doesn’t even show any bars. By some miracle, I am able to connect however my speed is only about 1.5 kb down. That’s slower then dial up. I easily get disconnected and find myself timing out when trying to load websites. Simply checking my email is quite the time consuming process.

Though the word comfort doesn’t exist down here, the high speed training will hopefully make up for it. For the next month, this shall be home.

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