Well, its been a long time but I'm finally going to explain my other summer training:
Those of us who had Advanced Medical Training (AMT) during the third block of the summer had to report on the same day as the Buckner run-back. No break. Joy. On the bright side, Meg and Gute from my squad were going to be there with me.
I roomed with a guy from my company and turns out we were right next door to Meg and a few doors down from Gute, always nice to be close to the people you know. The days were 11 hours with one hour off for lunch. If we were lucky the day was split into two parts, half in-class learning (death by power-point) and half practical exercises, if not we had 10 hours of power point slides. At the end of these insane days it was expected that you would go back to your room and study for a good 2-3 hours on top of all that. Yeah right. We went back to the barracks and had fun (head out to the mall, watch movies, etc.). This lead to many nights next door "studying" with friends until 1 or 2 am.
This was also my first real introduction to the political climate of the military when an individual desperately wants to expand his/her power. The barracks we were staying in were controlled by SGR (the Summer Garrison Regiment), but we were not a part of SGR because we were on a MIAD (Military Individual Advanced Development). Unfortunately, the SGR TAC decided that he wanted us to be under his jurisdiction.
The first problem we had with them was when we had to be awake at 0400 to do a 12-hr EMT shift and they decided that it would be important to wake all of our girls up at 0300-0330 to make sure they were in their rooms. As the SGR TAC was a Major and the officer in charge of our training was a LT Col. we soon had the power to check off our own people.
Next came room-standards. The standard for AMT was simply that the room needed to look nice. SGR came around and yelled and screamed that our beds weren't made to standard, our closets weren't set up per SOP, etc. This fight continued through the entire course until one day LT COL Chamberlain checked our rooms and said they looked fine and a certain captain came by later and threw our stuff around because our rooms weren't up to standard. This battle ended with us submitting to SGR standards and waking up earlier for breakfast formation. We never got stuck with their guard shifts or anything but the extra sleep lost and trying to find the time to get our rooms to military standard was not fun at all. C'est la vie.
In the end we all (mostly) passed the exams and got on the national registry. New York State tests came later and I still haven't heard back though it should be coming soon. There are some cool opportunities opening up for the EMS club here such as a high-volume EMT station trying to get their Friday night and Saturday shifts completely covered by cadets, they're trying to give us access to higher levels of training (EMT CC, CPR Instructor, etc.). Should be good!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Camp Buckner
My first training event of the summer was Cadet Field Training at Camp Buckner (AKA Buckner, Bucknam, Buckghanistan). Buckner consists of seven main training events: Intro to Patrolling (ITP), Land Navigation (Land Nav), Water Confidence Obstacle Course (Wet COC), Confidence Obstacle Course (Dry COC), Mounted Maneuver Training (MMT) and the Combat Engineer and Field Artillery (FA) training sites.
ITP is three days of learning basic Infantry skills. Ruck-march out, set up a patrol base and pretty much just pull guard shifts waiting to get ambushed most of the day/night. During the day we did leave the patrol base to learn such tactical skills as setting up and ambush, react to contact, etc. In the end it was useful training but life is no fun when you have spent 3 days standing, laying, sleeping and eating in puddles (it rained most of the time). Marching out the final day consisted of a Mogadishu Mile type scenario except with casualties that had to be carried out. No fun but it felt good in the end to look back and see how much more I am capable of than I thought possible, especially with trench foot that made my feet bleed without running.
Land Nav was another three day excursion into the woods around Camp Buckner to learn how to read a map. Boy Scouts prepared me well and I spent three days getting to know my squad-mates better, pick blueberries and just basically relax. The testing day came and I got my points. Night land nav testing that night was interesting. Meg-Ann, my partner (easy to spot in the squad photo cause she's the only girl), is an amazingly loud person so I never had to worry about us getting split-up and lost, just stop and listen and you'll hear her from miles away (seriously, she admits it too).
The Wet COC is two obstacles designed to make us more comfortable with heights and water at the same time. The first obstacle is two balance beams high above the water. The first beam is stationary but the second is designed to wiggle as people walk across it and has stairs in the middle. As long as you keep your eyes looking forward and keep walking it really isn't that challenging but many people froze and fell off into the water. The second obstacle is the slide for life, a zip-line off a 75 ft. tower into the lake. Such a good day, too bad it wasn't warmer.
The Dry COC is an obstacle course on dry land rather than over the lake, surprising huh? It isn't emphasized as much as the Wet COC because there are a lot of obstacle courses in the Army, its really not that unique.
MMT was a week spent in FT Knox KY. riding/shooting/commanding tanks and tank units. We spent time in simulators, on the firing line, etc. but the funnest day was a force-on-force exercise using MILES gear which is basically just advanced laser-tag. The first iteration I was a dismount in a cav-scout (cavalry) HMMWV that promptly got destroyed when the fighting started. For the second iteration I was a Tank Platoon leader. Though my company lost the fight, I am proud to say that I was in the last tank standing and that we destroyed 5 of the enemy's 16 tanks and my platoon destroyed 8, I think, which is an entire company. Unfortunately, the other platoon got destroyed and my platoon was soon isolated fighting enemy from front and back, not a good situation. Knox was nice though because we had the afternoons off, ate in a DFAC rather than the camp mess hall and had air conditioning in our rooms.
Combat Engineers and FA were both one day training sites. With the combat engineers we learned about IED's, route clearance and breaching operations (blowing up doors). FA was an opportunity to set-up and fire howitzers as well as call for fire and launch mortars (even though that is mostly an infantry thing). At the end of the day all the excess powder from the 105 mm rounds has to be burned off. Videos don't do it justice but here is one anyway.
There is a dance at the end of Buckner and, even though I'm not a dancer and didn't spend much time there I am proud to announce that my class destroyed the dance hall (the support system collapsed and it fell into the lake, 2012 knows how to party) and the Comm and Dean, both 1 star generals, crowd surfed off the stage.
The final day started at about 4 AM and the entire class, our cadre and some of the staff of West Point ran the 6-ish miles back.
ITP is three days of learning basic Infantry skills. Ruck-march out, set up a patrol base and pretty much just pull guard shifts waiting to get ambushed most of the day/night. During the day we did leave the patrol base to learn such tactical skills as setting up and ambush, react to contact, etc. In the end it was useful training but life is no fun when you have spent 3 days standing, laying, sleeping and eating in puddles (it rained most of the time). Marching out the final day consisted of a Mogadishu Mile type scenario except with casualties that had to be carried out. No fun but it felt good in the end to look back and see how much more I am capable of than I thought possible, especially with trench foot that made my feet bleed without running.
Land Nav was another three day excursion into the woods around Camp Buckner to learn how to read a map. Boy Scouts prepared me well and I spent three days getting to know my squad-mates better, pick blueberries and just basically relax. The testing day came and I got my points. Night land nav testing that night was interesting. Meg-Ann, my partner (easy to spot in the squad photo cause she's the only girl), is an amazingly loud person so I never had to worry about us getting split-up and lost, just stop and listen and you'll hear her from miles away (seriously, she admits it too).
The Wet COC is two obstacles designed to make us more comfortable with heights and water at the same time. The first obstacle is two balance beams high above the water. The first beam is stationary but the second is designed to wiggle as people walk across it and has stairs in the middle. As long as you keep your eyes looking forward and keep walking it really isn't that challenging but many people froze and fell off into the water. The second obstacle is the slide for life, a zip-line off a 75 ft. tower into the lake. Such a good day, too bad it wasn't warmer.
The Dry COC is an obstacle course on dry land rather than over the lake, surprising huh? It isn't emphasized as much as the Wet COC because there are a lot of obstacle courses in the Army, its really not that unique.
MMT was a week spent in FT Knox KY. riding/shooting/commanding tanks and tank units. We spent time in simulators, on the firing line, etc. but the funnest day was a force-on-force exercise using MILES gear which is basically just advanced laser-tag. The first iteration I was a dismount in a cav-scout (cavalry) HMMWV that promptly got destroyed when the fighting started. For the second iteration I was a Tank Platoon leader. Though my company lost the fight, I am proud to say that I was in the last tank standing and that we destroyed 5 of the enemy's 16 tanks and my platoon destroyed 8, I think, which is an entire company. Unfortunately, the other platoon got destroyed and my platoon was soon isolated fighting enemy from front and back, not a good situation. Knox was nice though because we had the afternoons off, ate in a DFAC rather than the camp mess hall and had air conditioning in our rooms.
Combat Engineers and FA were both one day training sites. With the combat engineers we learned about IED's, route clearance and breaching operations (blowing up doors). FA was an opportunity to set-up and fire howitzers as well as call for fire and launch mortars (even though that is mostly an infantry thing). At the end of the day all the excess powder from the 105 mm rounds has to be burned off. Videos don't do it justice but here is one anyway.
There is a dance at the end of Buckner and, even though I'm not a dancer and didn't spend much time there I am proud to announce that my class destroyed the dance hall (the support system collapsed and it fell into the lake, 2012 knows how to party) and the Comm and Dean, both 1 star generals, crowd surfed off the stage.
The final day started at about 4 AM and the entire class, our cadre and some of the staff of West Point ran the 6-ish miles back.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Catching Up
Its been a long time since I posted on here and a lot has happened. Leave came to an end all too soon and I returned to the point for another year starting with Camp Buckner, AMT and then the academic year.
Buckner was great. Shooting big guns (howitzers, tanks, etc.), little guns (.50 cals, M4s, etc.), blowing doors off hinges, its all good. It was even better because of our amazing squad and platoon.
Buckner Squad
Buckner was great. Shooting big guns (howitzers, tanks, etc.), little guns (.50 cals, M4s, etc.), blowing doors off hinges, its all good. It was even better because of our amazing squad and platoon.
Buckner SquadThings are quite different this year. Rather than being a plebe I have one to lead. Academics are a bear as always, but the stress is so much lower that my 19.5 credit hours seem like nothing compared to last year (hopefully my gpa will reflect that). AMT has opened many doors and caused some troubles but mostly it has been good. More details on all of these experiences will hopefully be coming soon, if i ever get around to it. . .
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