Recharged

Since I have been here at Falcon, I almost forgot why I love this job so much... with all the sitting around, not having a mission, not feeling as though I was earning my money- you could let your mind forget why you do what you do.

A couple of days ago, I was given an admin mission to move alot of Humvees to Camp Striker (about 40 min away from FOB Falcon). The mission was pretty simple- drive to Striker, drop off the Humvees, and return to Falcon by Air. As the mission came closer, different issues and addtional tasks were popping up- it is simply the nature of the beast- and I adjusted accordingly. I created a plan, manifest, and coordinated with the other companies in our Battalion. 1400 approached- the engines of a throng of Humvees were rumbling, Radio checks were good, Rhinos (a protective device that sticks out in front of most military vehicles in combat)were down, M240s were ready to rock... the machine was ready to roll... but as SP (Start point- but really an army verb for "go" or "leave") time approched, I received the word from Battalion to push the SP time up another 2 hours...

Let me back track- after I gave my patrol brief (over an hour before SP), a thousand small/ annoying issues popped up. We were to take a bunch of interpreters with us to turn into another unit- the only problem was they had a shit load of stuff- TVs, refrigerators, mircrowaves, etc- There was so much stuff, that it barely fit into our humvees- So, I had a bunch of interpreters bitching about how it sucks to move, and how there refrigerator is the most important thing in their lives- and I had an NCO that just started randomly telling me his life story and how he was so pissed off at Battalion for blah blah blah- all he had to do was say "Do you have room for two more terps?" My Reply would have been "yes, put them in those trucks" and that would have been it. To top it off- one of the interpreters had a infection in his front and needed immediate surgery ( I do feel sorry for this guy)- he kept telling me "I need to get to Striker right away (in a winy type voice)" to which I thought and told him- "well, yea, I'm trying to get you to Striker as fast as I can" but he kept feeling as though he needed to keep telling me the same thing in order to get him to Stiker- but I basically blew him off afterwards. Not that I did not have sympathy, but the purpose of the convoy was to drop off Humvees, and the Terps were their to tag along. I wanted to get him there as soon as possible and I could not do anything to change the external factors that pushed up the SP time. Also, I had not had time to develope any sort of relationship with these terps because we only got them a few weeks ago and we ended up not using them at all. The terps we had at UR though, they were awsome- we had time to work with them and get to know them- I hope most of them get their US Citizenship... I digress

So, SP time was pushed up.. but why? I reported to Battalion, and basically from what I was told- I gathered that they felt that they did not have full control of my movement (it was basically a battallion movement because it invovled multiple companies) and they needed to slow things down to ensure they knew what was going on... OKAY, well, they could have helped us out when we were constatnly trying to get information out of them on POCs (point of contact), L/U points (Link Up), etc... So I basically gathered the information myself with the help of my XO (executive officer)... and now all of a sudden they wanted to be in charge? Well, I guess I am not being entirely fair... the weather was pretty bad- sandstorm- limited visibility. So they wanted to wait a couple of hour for the sand to subside more- but we were going to go either way. That, I gather, was only an afterthought.

Okay- now we were ready to SP, again. The very long line of Humvees started heading out the FOB- rolled onto the highway- and before we knew it, we were at Striker- task 1 complete, still on schedule. Next task- drop off the Interpreters. So, all the information that I was given was that the the person in charge of the TERPS, SGT B, was going to L/U with reps from another Battalion, and hand them over. Okay, no problem... we parked our massive convoy in a motor pool and the Rep showed up, and led the convoy to the the drop off location and we downloaded (army verb for... is it an army verb?... well, basically means unload) the ungodly amount of stuff they had. It took alot longer than I wanted it too, and we also had to sign over some equipment... time was ticking... had a flight to catch in a few hours.

Task 2 complete- now we had to drop off the vehicles into the Brigade Motorpool... too easy? Well, Striker is a big base, part of the even bigger Victory Base complex that encompasses BIAP (Baghdad International Airport).

SIDEBAR event:we just droped off the Interpreters and began heading to the motorpool, but we were stopped by a random E-5 (SGT) in the middle of the road... okay, i was thinking "whats going on". He comes up to my vehicle and starts babbling something about one of our Battalions units had to pick up M-16s and he needs to get rid of them and hand them back... something something... so I was thinking.. What the hell are you talking about... and how the hell did you know we were here ...and ... how fucking random is it that a random person stops a 21 vehicle convoy and asks about the most random thing and expects someone to know about it and expects someone to sign for some weapons?.......then I SAID "what? Can we deal with this shit some other time time, your holding up a fucking 21 vehicle convoy, you didn't coordinate this shit with anyone in my convoy."....

So we kept driving to the Motorpool, and it was alot farther than I thought it was. We reached the entrance to the Motorpool... let me digress again...

One thing the army does alot of is guard duty: whether it is guarding a building, a telephone, weapons, etc- we do alot of it- it is a task that is treated with dislike and little motivation is put forth (I differentiate this from "pulling security"... although disliked as well, it is better enforced if you have good NCOes and leaders- ie, pulling security while on patrol or in a patol base). So, we get up to this motorpool, and I begin to ask a series of questions: Is this the Brigade Assembly Yard (BAY)? (the name of the motorpool I was suppose to drop the vehicles off at) "Where do you want me to park these vehicles at?" These were simple questions... but entirely too complicated for the soldier on duty. He did not know the name of the location he was guarding- it pissed me off, but I thought: hey, this kid was randomly detailed to guard this motorpool... so I calmed down and took their radio from them to find out more information.

Task 3 complete. Mission complete? well... no. We were about a 10 minute drive from the main part of Striker and the vehicles we took we going to be turned in... no ride back to try to catch our flight... Now, I forsaw this when I was planning the mission- basically I planned to shuttle people back and forth with our own humvees, and make the remaining people walk back to Striker- worst case scenario, since you needed two to operate the humvee and only 3 more could fit into the Humvee, and we had 60 people...

So, I went on the radio and badgered my way to eventually get 5 SUVs to come down and pick us up- we had to carry all our crew served weapons systems and any other organic equipment we had with us, making it a tight fit- it took a few trips...

Right before this time, I was also trying to figure out the status on our flight back to Falcon- what two different sources told me was that the Air was "red" (cannot fly) and that flights were cancled. Based off of this, I told all the SUVs to head to Striker Stables (the transient living quarters for all personnel comming into BIAP).

By the time I got to Stiker stables, one of my NCOes told me he called flight ops and said the air was NOT red, and that the flights were still a go. I called to confirm, and sure enough, the flight was still on. We only had 20 minutes to flight time (you are suppose to show up an hour before the flight) and we were a good 10 minutes away from the terminal. We kept good control of our men, so it was not difficult to round them up- except for one company which shall remain nameless... I was able to hijak an extra bus to get 2 of our groups to the terminal, but the last group failed to get on the bus- the NCOIC told me he was going to round up his men and tell them to get to the terminal. Now, is this technically my fault? absolutely- I was in charge of this group overall- but it sucks when the leaders under you are not as strong a leader as you thought (I never worked with the guy before, so if I did, I would have held his hand and made sure he did the right thing).

So, we got to the terminal way after the scheduled flight time- luckily- it was late... but inbound! We were able to stage near the flight line- but still no sign of our last element- WTF were they doing? I began calling my superiors, telling them about the situation- it was embarrassing. I decided to stay behind to ensure the last element would get a flight out at another date... However, right when the Chinooks landed, out appears our last element. I began to scream for about 30 straight seconds... "Get your fucking men over here now" "Move!" "Hurry the fuck up!" "We ain't got time for this shit" "Lets fucking move!"

Task 4 complete.

Mission Complete.


Okay, so this wasn't a combat patrol like some of my previous entries, but it worked my planning skills, coordination skills, be gangster to get shit done skills, and light the fire under some muthafucker's ass skills. (Am I cursing too much?) This is my job, and although it drains the energy right out of me, the feeling of success or mission completion after an ordeal is an awsome sensation.

OUT

Closing time

My deployment experience has been pretty interesting... I arrived in the middle of a deployment to a unit that has accomplished great things before I even arrived, I did alot of administrative type duties before I even became a platoon leader, I took over the best platoon in the Battalion from the most senior platoon leader in the Battaltion in combat, and i spent the last month and a half of the deployment sitting on a FOB, playing softball.

I do wish my time as a PL in combat was longer, but I realized that many platoon leaders do not even get the chance to experience that, and even more will not experience taking over a platoon in comabt. However, I am looking forward to the future of my platoon... many people will be leaving and I will also be getting a new platoon seargent. I will be able to basically start from scratch, and begin building the platoon from the ground up- building SOPs, building new Jr. leaders, train the new enlisted soldiers comming into the platoon, etc. Unfourtunately, about 3 months of my time left as a platoon leader will be block leave periods (June, August, December), 1-2 months will be a transition period where half my platoon will be leaving and a bunch of new people will be comming in, and the unit is going to change to 170th Mech. Infantry Brigade in (July/ September), so that basically leaves October, November, January, and February for actual time to train... it is just the nature of the beast I guess.

Well, the future is looking bright... and I am going to make the best with the time I have as a platoon leader.

The End...

That is what everyone is thinking... but we still have some time left over here. The hardest part of combat, is defintely not the combat... It is the nothingness in between... and even harder, the nothingness at the end of a deployment. The longer we stick around here, the edge keeps wearing away... leaders have to work twice as hard to keep soldiers in line and I find that I have to keep tabs on myself as well...

I missed a meeting the other day... simple mistake, but just made me realize that it is extremely important to insure that I am straight before I start setting a bad example... It is hard to focus when there is not much to focus on. That is where i need to step it up as a leader- create a focus, create something to keep moving forward too- and at the same time, I must ensure that my soldiers believe in this focus...

The easiest and most often used answer is training. Nothing keeps a soldier more occupied than that. Now, making your soldiers and leaders believe in that training and put forth a decent amount of effort is the hardest part. This is where i realized that I need some more work as a leader and here in Iraq, on a FOB, close to the end of deployment is probably the best place to learn because it is probably one of the toughest situations (soldier mentality wise) to try to put together good training. (maybe I'm wrong, haven't seen the other side yet)

I've been thinking too much...