Currently lying on my sleeping bag on the floor. All of us are in the middle of the desert in Kuwait. Wind is blowing over everything however, the temps. should "only" be in the high 80s and low 90s. In the summer, this place can get up to 140 degrees! so I guess we're pretty lucky. Tonight, I'll be rooming with 30 people in a 24 x 36 white paneled building which overall, gives us about 18 inches of space between each other. Everyone sleeps on the floor in their sleeping bags.
Our berthing is also our classroom during the day. We arrived here about 2 p.m. 31 March after a very SLOW bus ride. All of us helped unload each other's gear, water and MRE's. At 3 p.m., we had a two-hour briefing on convoy training for Afghanistan. I'll be really happy to start training on the actual job I'll be doing in Afghanistan instead of all these Army related jobs. That training should start around 4/5 April when I arrive in Bagram.
It is really tough being here with a class who just spent almost three weeks together at Ft. Jackson and know each other really well. LT Alex Schraut (who was with me at Ft. Jackson and is also here) talk to each other but when not I'm doing that, I ssit by myself and feel really stupid.
I have to look at these times as temporary and try to capture all the memories of this year including the people I'll eventually meet. At Camp Virginia, I sleep next to a cardiovascular surgeon who sleeps next to a anstheseologist who sleeps next to another surgeon. We also have a lawyer (LT Adams) in the group as well as lots of other professionals.
Tomorrow morning, we do a CQM where four people with loaded weapons move together and fire at a certain target. More on this later.
LT Schraut and I had to borrow sleeping bags for this trip because we were not issued any at Ft. Jackson due to attending a class in Tampa. Truth be told, I probably could have forced the issue but at the time, it seemed nice not to haul around and store extra gear. This worked out well, though. We'll borrow them and turn them in at the end of the Udari training.
Bottom line up to this point: There have been ups and downs but both will produce lifetime memories. I should have brought my MP3 player or book because i think it's going to be really tough falling asleep sleeping so close to these folks! Thank goodness I brought my earplugs. Speaking of which, not too many guys snore loudly in our barracks. No way near as bad as at Ft. Jackson (LTJG Zander). However, I still wear earplug which makes my hearing a little muffled in the morning. If I have to ear these for a year, I'll have partial hearing loss and be able to leave a war zone with a war related disability!
My Udari bunkmate next to me tonight is LCDR Kidney who says he's going to Bagram and work with detainees.
Hopefully, I won't have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night because it will really cut down on my sleep and risk injury to someone by me trying to step over them when I return to the room. The porta potties are about 100 yards from our room.
As I laid down and checked my watch, it read 7:15 p.m. I found it weird to think I'm going to bed in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert and Taylor just finished lunch at school.
Personality Spotlight - CAPT Brew. A Navy lawyer who has a gray hair via a Marine haircut. The guy has such a massive chest, it seems like it would explode if penetrated with a pin!
1 April
Very long day today. After very little sleep, we got up around 0430 and left for CQM from about 0630 to 1100. While shooting at various targets in four-man teams, we were about a few feet from each other so it was very loud. We finished CQM, had lunch via MRE's (I brought Powerbars, raisins, etc. to eat) and then piled into seven Humvees and went to the desert for convoy practice. It was very windy out there and sand got into everything including nose, ears, eyes (despite wearing sunglasses) and other places. Not taking a shower for two days (and brushing my teeth because I forgot my toothbrush and toothpaste) will be interesting. Can't wait to get back to Camp Virginia and my Army cot!
While at the desert, we practiced lots of scenarios including looking for IED's, using the radios, medical evacuations, etc. We're doing this because on 2 April, we do an actual exercise where the instructor will throw all kinds of different things at us to see how we respond. While on the range, the instructor (Mr. Poore) would explain something to us, then five of us would get in our Humvees (four in the seats plus a gunner who sticks his head through the middle of the vehicle's ceiling and uses a large gun) and go over what he told. We would then go through another scenario and he would halt us and provide feedback. Although the wind was wicked out there, it did keep the heat down.
After practicing in our convoys from about 1330 to 1700, we had a briefing on we were going to do the actual scenario tomorrow (2 April) At the end of the day, everyone was really tired, hungry and anxious to roll out their sleeping bags and try and get some sleep. Lights were out around 8 p.m.
2 April
Got up at 0315 (!) and got ready for the convoy exercise. Our seven-truck convoy (Team 1) left around 0515. I was in truck four with four other people. Throughout the simulation, we encountered various IED's, small arms fire, a medical evacuation (complete with a Navy Seahawk helicopter), "hostile" villagers doing role playing and other scenarios. The helicopter was pretty cool watching coming in and blowing sand and other debris all over the place. The exercise took about 4 1/2 hours and made me realize a few things: I'm glad I didn't join the Army and doing an actual convoy must be mentally exhausting because you have to constantly look out for things that could kill you. It requires a lot of starting, stopping, talking on the radio, etc. Plus, when the temp. heats up, that body armor you're wearing gets really heavy and darn hot!
After the exercise, we had a 90-minute briefing on what we felt we did right/wrong. I must say that yesterday, I ate my first full MRE meal. It was a No. 10 with Starkist tuna in a pouch, crackers, peanut M&M's and some other stuff I can't remember.
Didn't get much sleep last night eaither (about four hours I'm guessing due to tossing and turning, snoring and three bathroom breaks). I'll be happy to back to Camp Virginia and take a shower plus, eat some real food. However, something I'm slowly realizing is this: There are no good or bad memories...only memories that will last a lifetime. I'm sure I'll talk about the Udari Range for many years to come in many future discussions. One last thing: The buses took forever to pick us up so we had to wait in the blazing sun. We arrived back at Camp Virginia around 2 p.m. Shower here I come!
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