The Observer, April 4, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 23
Off To War: Army trains alum to advise Iraqis
Seventy-two is the number of days I have spent at Fort Riley in Kansas. Sixty is the number of days I've spent training. Six is the number of days a week we would train. During this period, my team has focused on marksmanship, communications training, medical training, Iraqi culture, Arabic language training, and not killing each other after two and a half months of living within 10 feet. After all of that, the Army has now deemed my team ready to join the Coalition Forces in Iraq and help advise Iraqis how to fight.
The marksmanship training we received was pretty fun for the most part. I qualified with automatic rifles, hand guns, and machine guns. I also was able to familiarize myself with the AK-47, the Dragunov sniper rifle, and the Russian-made machine gun (these are the standard foreign arms that the Iraqis and the insurgents use). All of the ranges were colder than Bob Cratchit on Christmas Eve, and as it turns out, all of the awful weather you received in Cleveland this past winter came roaring through Kansas. Since there's nothing to block the wind in the Great Plains, we all froze our noses off no matter how much warm clothing we wore. After all of that cold weather, everybody in my class had positive feelings about global warming.
After the marksmanship training, we all received training on our communications gear. We learned the different dials and switches for five different radios and if you think some of your morning classes are too early and too boring, let me assure you, an 0600 class learning about switches and dials is the hardest I have ever had to concentrate just to stay awake. Do not get me wrong, it is very important information and I am glad that we received training in this area; it was just too early to be learning, as the brain muscles are not quite warmed up at that time.
We then moved on to medical training. During this training, the team focused on care under fire (what to do if someone is shot or hurt during a firefight) and how to administer an IV. This was where I learned who I wanted to give me an IV, and who made people look like a pincushion after attempt number eight to find a vein. The medical portion of the training ended with us running through a series of scenarios that replicated injured personnel. One scenario involved a bombed-out dining facility, when the team went into the building, it was smoky and pitch black. In order to find the casualties, one team member turned on his flashlight and yelled out, "Come to the light, come to the light!" Of course, that just resulted in all of us wasting valuable time as we hit the floor laughing, but it did help us find the simulated casualties, since they all thought it was hilarious and were laughing loudly.
About three days a week we would have language and cultural classes, and various scenario-driven labs to start our familiarization with the Middle East. All of the classes, again, would be at zero-too-early-in-the-morning and we would fall asleep. The instructor would say, "I understand, you are tired, I am tired too, we make break." I cannot count the number of times I heard this, as he said it as each person started to drift off.
Finally, after all of our training at Fort Riley, we were ready to go. The Army gave us five days of leave, where I was able to say goodbye to my family and beautiful fiancée. After that, we received a short talk by our battalion commander and then we were off on the plane. As I finish this article, I'm sitting in the Kuwait, in the middle of a sandstorm, waiting to go up north. I never knew the joys of having sand in your bum crack until this very moment.
