So, I think the test went well Thursday. I'll find out tomorrow, I hope. Drill was excellent this weekend. We didn't stay in our usual Reserve barracks in the main of Ft. Carson, with its "posh" 2-man rooms. Instead we stayed in the "Tent City" barracks, which are a lot like the BCT barracks, with one long room of bunks. Lucky we weren't crowded.
Friday was spent at the Land Navigation course, and we retrained ourselves in navigation using a compass, given bearings and distances. It was really good training, but tiring! Each team walked thru two courses, with each course being roughly 4km once you walk to the starting lot. This is thru varied terrain, flat stretches and steep hills, open fields and thick underbrush, small streams. Not to mention the cacti and yucca plants. Do I ever appreciate those combat boots! All told, I probably walked 6 miles in basic field gear Friday. And it was fun as hell. I slept well.
Saturday was much more interesting. We geared up with MILES gear, the Army's version of laser tag equipment, and drove way back to the MOUT course. We practiced driving a convoy through a simulated town somewhere in the Middle East. It started off that we were just supposed to drive through the town, watching for suspicious persons, IED's by the road, and getting out with as few casualties as possible. After we got a little warmed up, we progressed to clearing buildings. It was a very eye-opening day, to say the least. My unit has never deployed as a whole, so only a handful of our members have ever seriously trained or had to use these skills. As a result, our performance was pretty feeble. Not that it was in any way unproductive; I think everyone learned a lot. Ducking behind an up-armor HMMWV to keep a sniper from taking your head off, and then returning fire, is a sensation you just don't get in civilian life. I really hope we get a lot more training like this before having to ship out.
Our new signal section NCO, SGT Lant, really had to step up his game on Saturday as well. MSG Albin told him about 30 minutes ahead of time that he was going to be a convoy commander, and that's a huge responsibility! MSG Albin was really getting on his ass about things, too. I think MSG Albin is a bit forceful, but that's really what our unit needs in a senior NCO. So anyway, from what I saw, SGT Lant did a bang-up job and took charge after a bit of fumbling. I know how hard it is to be in charge, and to just be thrown into it like that, with zero experience being a convoy commander. It's good knowing that my section sergeant can get things done!
Sunday we packed up and took a quick trip through the dummy grenade range. Throwing little metal bulbs at plastic men sure doesn't look that exciting, but attempting to execute a plan with as much realism as possible does make it a bit better. It was mostly an afterthought in the training, but it did kill some time with a useful refresher. After that, we just headed home and turned in gear and weapons. This was SFC Lindsey's last drill with us, so there was a small party afterward in his honor. I'm really going to miss having him around.
Oh yeah, and my buddy Vaughn just got promoted to Specialist. Apparently, I would have too, if I had passed my PT test. As soon as I do pass it, they're going to promote me. Yet another motivation to keep on working at it. It just seems incredible to me. I was a Private E-2 for three months, and Private First Class for four months, and they're already trying to get me promoted to SPC. The standard progression is 6 months from PV2 to PFC, and a year from PFC to SPC! I must be in a good unit or something! Actually, I really do like my unit.
I'll go ahead and backdate this, and make a separate post for the rest of the weekend.
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