It's a Wartime Army

I wrote this on 9/1/06, at the end of a three week training exercise in Korea, but before being mobilized for active federal service. I decided to include it here for the sake of continuity:

Well, I've spent a few weeks in active service now - a couple weeks in class in June and nearly three weeks here at this exercise. And despite all the silly stuff I've observed and the complaints I've voiced here, I have to say that I like this Army.

It's not the same Army I left 13 years ago. Sure, it is the same in many ways. In fact, my grandfather would probably recognize many aspects of it from his service in the 1920's. But it's really quite different from when I left, and it's not just the technological and doctrinal changes. It's an attitude change. I began to feel it at CAX, but that was a classroom environment so it was just a hint. Here at this field exercise it's become very clear in many ways.

It's a wartime Army.

When I was in before, it was a peacetime Army. We trained for war, and took things very seriously, but nonetheless, there was a definite garrison mentality that permeated everything, even field exercises. It manifested itself in many ways, but would best be summed up as what we used to call "machts nichts BS". That was from the German for "means nothing", as in trivial stuff that shouldn't really matter, but takes on a distorted importance because people have lost track of the priorities imposed by real wartime conditions.

A few examples will serve to illustrate:

When I was in the Army before, we wore spit-shined black leather boots. Spit-shined black boots look great but don't wear very well in field conditions. So most of us had two sets of boots - our spit shined garrison boots and our field boots. Older men used to talk with nostalgia about the "brown shoe Army". That was a reference to the WWII and post-WWII Army, when they wore rough-surfaced brown boots that were meant for field duty. And the term "brown-shoe Army" came to mean the "less BS, combat-oriented wartime Army". Well, this Army wears rough-surfaced brown boots.

In Germany, when I was issued a holster for my .45, that was the only holster I could use, and it had to be set up "just so" on my web gear. When I bought my own standard military holster and put it on a separate (standard) military pistol belt to wear inside the CP when my gear was grounded, it was frowned upon. Being in uniform was *way* more important to some people than having the pistol at hand when it might be needed.

Now it's like the wild west. People wear all kinds of holsters - every type of military and aftermarket holster you can imagine - shoulder holsters, belt holsters, low-hanging thigh holsters. And nobody cares - what matters is that the weapon is at hand when needed, and then you just get on with your job.

Same thing with personal web gear - there are all kinds of pouches, packs, and add-ons. While at root it's pretty standard, people have their own setups. Whatever works.

Carrying M-16's loaded, even with blanks, was very rare. Even issuing the troops magazines was rare. It was just too much trouble. At this exercise, the troops walk around with loaded M-16's all the time (blanks only). They are required to have full magazines and keep a round chambered at all times when walking around the post. They carry at the "low ready" position and don't salute when under arms, exactly as they would act on combat patrol. When entering a secured building they clear the weapon in the clearing barrel, and they lock and load again when they come out. There's a very good reason for it - we want them to know how to handle their weapons so it's second nature.

These may seem like minor examples, but they illustrate a whole different underlying mentality - we are at war, and we know it. The Army is full of veterans who have seen recent combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can tell who's been there because they wear their combat patches on their right sleeves. And around here, those who have been there outnumber the ones who haven't. An Army full of combat veterans won't put up with as much BS. Certainly not the kind of BS that gets you killed. They do what works, and get on with the job. That fits right in with the way I look at things (and always have).

It's a wartime, brown-shoe Army. And I like it.

More Information

(Friday 9/8/06)

Well, I'm getting information little by little.

Today I got my travel orders and itinerary for next week. I am traveling on Monday (9/11, kind of cool) and spend Tuesday at Ft. Snelling, MN. That is for an "SRP", which is a kind of records review to see if all my stuff is together. After they pronounce me ready to be mobilized, I can get my actual orders and be off. I come home from there on Tuesday evening.

I talked to my gaining unit today about the process once I'm mobilized, and what I'm likely to be doing. Once I get there (Ft. McPherson, GA - in Atlanta), they process me into their unit (3rd Army), and then take me to Ft. Benning to go through my mobilization processing. That's where I draw all my cool high-speed Army stuff like new uniforms, boots, body armor, Camelbak, $200 sunglasses (Soldier's Lexan Impact Resistant Protective Eyewear, a.k.a. SLIRPE), weapon, mask, etc etc. Then I go back up to Ft. McPherson a few days later. That's where they cut my orders to send me to Kuwait. It's pretty certain that's where I'm going. At least, that's where they need someone with my qualifications, until something changes.

(OK, I confess, I made up the acronym for the glasses...) ;-)

They asked me how much time I needed to get ready to leave. They really want me to come right away, because the unit has already been mobilized since August 9th. But I wanted to stay here long enough to visit everyone before I go, so I told them 9/29. That is the date for which they will cut my travel orders. I'll go down Friday, probably head for Ft. Benning Sunday, and begin the process on Monday 10/2.

The mobilization is for 480 days, so I'll be gone through about next December. (They're not sure whether my clock will start ticking when my orders are cut, or if they'll go by when the unit was first mobilized).

If they send me where they currently think they are going to send me, I will be a facilities engineer on the largest logistics base in Kuwait. Like I told Anna, it sounds boring and safe. I guess we'll see. It's probably not a bad thing that I won't be riding horses around the mountains of Afghanistan, since I have to finish my internet-based Army school by the end of this deployment or else risk not getting promoted to LTC. So most likely I'll sit in an air-conditioned office pushing paperwork trying not to be a REMF, and work on my Army education in my free time.

I suppose I'm a bit past the stage of chasing around in the mountains or kicking in doors in Baghdad, anyway...

Mobilized!

(Thursday 9/7/06)

Today at 9:34 AM I got a phone call from someone in the 88th RRC (Regional Readiness Command). They need an engineer officer and asked if I could go. I said yes. So the wheels started turning.

Monday I travel to Ft. Snelling, Minnesota, to start the SRP (Soldier Readiness Process). This is some kind of a records check, and probably a physical exam, to make sure I am deployable. Apparently they started doing this because too many people were showing up at their mobilization stations not ready to go. After that I come home, and wait for orders. They tell me the orders will probably come quickly.

I don't know where I'm going, how long I'll be there, or what I'll be doing.

Apparently this unit has been mobilized since August 9th, right before I went to Korea. They have come up short an engineer officer, and have this high-priority, short-notice backfill. I was next on the "Hey, You! roster", as they say.

So far nobody I've talked to can tell me exactly what to expect, although I found out that I'll be part of 3rd Army and I'll start out by reporting to Ft. McPherson, Georgia. From there I'll be sent wherever they need me. One person speculated that it would be to Kuwait, where she knows they need a facilities engineer at a major logistics base. But she said there's no way to really know because things change every day.

So I may end up in charge of some buildings in the desert someplace. Not quite what I had in mind, but I guess somebody has to make sure the air conditioners are working and the camel drivers don't walk off with the walls. I told Anna it sounds very boring and safe. :-)

At first when they told me I had to travel Monday and report Tuesday, I thought that was it - that I had to take all my stuff and I wasn't coming back. I didn't find out otherwise until later in the afternoon. But I'm still going to pack all my stuff this weekend, just in case. My guess is that they will cut orders for me to report on very short notice, and I'd rather be packed now than have to come home and jump through hoops to get ready in time.

I told Malinda and the kids, and asked the kids if they wanted to come over and hang out some this weekend. I'll be talking to them some more tomorrow - we're going to get them dependent ID cards so they can use the medical benefits (which are very good). They can also use all the other military facilities, but are unlikely to do so since they are all so far away from us. We're going after school tomorrow.

So Korea turned out to be a shakedown cruise, and a very good one at that. I feel pretty ready to go - just a few things to iron out, and I was already in the process of doing so. I thought I'd have a little more time to prepare, but I guess not. I don't suppose anyone's ever completely ready. The exact moment when I said "yes" was an interesting one - I felt a whole surge of mixed emotions. Mainly it's excitement and pride to get to be a part of it, mixed with regret and apprehension about being away from my children. I hope they are able to understand, but I'm kind of afraid they won't, not really. I don't know that there's any way to avoid that - they'll just have their own perspectives on it, and I'll have to do my best to make sure they understand why it's important for me to do this. Anyway, I'll miss them. I hope we'll succeed in maintaining some kind of regular contact.

Well, there's a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. Better get to work...

Brad's Excellent Adventure

The purpose of this blog will be to keep my friends, family, and whoever else wants to read it informed about what is going on with me during my military deployment to the Middle East. I plan for this to be kind of a journal or diary, in which I’ll talking to my family, my friends, and my future self, as well as whoever else out there cares to follow along.

It may be that the title of this blog seems frivolous to some people, and maybe it is. But I have an idea that there will be a lot of ups and downs for me over the next few months, and that I will have a hard time being separated from my family. It is also possible that I may see some things that will be depressing or distressing. I want to make sure I keep my sense of humor, and keep a positive attitude about what I as an individual and what we as a country are doing over there.

Besides, I think it *will* be an excellent adventure! I doubt if George Carlin will drop in to give me advice, and I definitely don’t have a magic telephone booth to whisk me around, but I do think it will be an adventure, and I do think that in some small way I will be helping to make the world a better place in the future.

I plan to post a couple of earlier entries that I have sent to people as emails, but I don't know if it will let me pre-date them as I am new to this blog software. So we'll see how it evolves.