Shields Soldier

21 January 2010

Hey baby. Crappy crappy day but my spirits are still good. It was raining all day while we were at convoy live fire where we shoot from moving vehicles. I feel bad for some people, the weather proofing on their jackets was worn out and they got drenched. This day probably won’t help my cold. Here’s how it went down: sit through long boring class that they told us from the beginning is obsolete and outdated. Then practice getting in the deuce and a halfs (2 ½ ton trucks). They had benches and sides in the cargo area to provide cover behind. We went to the range and fire Blanks, then had to pick up all the shell casings. Did I ever mention that? We have to pick up every Brass ammo casing we fire off, at least all that we can find. Today’s total of live and blank ammo fired off was 41,400 shells. They recycle the shells; refill them to save money. Smart idea. So we picked up the Blanks then got ready for live fire. Half of us did live fire while half ate lunch, then we policed up that Brass and let me emphasize there is no magnet or sifter, your hand pick each casing off of the ground. OK then shake down, sit and wait for the buses, then started pouring rain. We all huddled in the covered bleachers to ride it out. Not 3 minutes after we got in the bleachers, the busses came. So now I sit here writing a letter. We might have mail tonight and I get your letters from home. Separate letter on that later. Sorry folks we still do private letters you can’t see. Maybe we’ll write them up after and post all the back and forth.

Much love, Adam

15 January 2010

Hello my love!

I just got back from sick call and it’s a totally different experience. I explained my situation with my ear, told them it’s history and all way back to before exodus and boom! Antibiotics, ear drops and 800 mg ibuprofen. :Soldiers candy” they call it. I’d just got changed into my ACU’s so they can take us all to the range where we’ll practice urban operations, specifically kicking in doors and clearing rooms. I don’t want you to get worried, my MOS doesn’t do this job but we all have to be trained in it. On the way from the clinic to the pharmacy the bus driver told us it was a training holiday for the regular army; MLK day. She also said that life in the army is easy, even when deployed. Dangerous? Yes, but the job a simple. OK, so we went to this range with plywood houses, “glass wall” houses, brick houses and an alley/city street. The plywood houses were cool because you could kick the doors in. You go in as a team and clear the room a certain way to ensure the best coverage of the enemy while preventing overlapping fields of fire. The “glass house” is this really bad movie where some people kill these kids parents so they can adopt them and make then carry M16’s and enter a house laid out on the ground with 2 x 4s; basically just the outline of the house so you can see in and as a team evaluate each other’s performance. The brick house is just that; a 2 story, multi-room house you go room to room through to practice squad tactics. The street is a street, targets on the roofs, in windows, behind cars, even in the rooms off of the streets. The objective is to move down the street as a tea providing cover and engaging targets. Basically a fun day. While I was at sick call I missed a laser tag session where you have to distinguish between friendly and enemy targets quickly. They waited an hour or more to shoot for 40 seconds total, split between 3 sessions. After we got back today we got permission to go for a run on the PT pad outside (my idea). There were 26 of us. It was a beautiful evening and even better with no DS’s to yell about our pace. I ran a 2-mile in 16:30(ish) and I still had more in me. The White Phase PT test is Monday and the Blue Phase is Friday. Tough week next week looking at the schedule. I have fireguard tomorrow, I’ll get to tell you about operation appreciation and our week next week.