Lasers, Tumbling Humvees, Night Vision Goggles, and Machine Guns

So, in the last week I've:

- Fired hundreds of rounds out of a medium sized machine gun;
- Shot targets at night using an infrared targeting laser and night vision goggles; and
- Used a giant, expensive simulator to practice getting out of a Humvee after a rollover accident.

It's actually a lot less fun and exciting than I would have imagined as a ten year old kid playing GI Joe. What does this have to do with the actual PRT mission I described a week ago? Good question.

FOB Patriot

As if Fort Bragg itself were not enough, they've decided to build a camp in the middle of the woods, barely 5 minutes outside of the built up regular base, and train us there. It's called Forward Operating Base (FOB) Patriot, and it's meant to simulate deployment. All I know is that it adds insult to injury to actually still be in the US but have to live like we were in Afghanistan. In fact, I bet the bases in AG are better. The only benefit of this awful place is that it makes me actually look forward to going overseas.

One of these days I'll post something more upbeat. Really. Just looking for something good to say.

We waste more time before 9am than most people waste all day

Got up at 530am today, to be outside our decrepit old building at 6am to stretch. No exercise today. Just stretching. Had breakfast, showered, dressed, put on my 50 pounds of gear and walked a half mile to catch a 730 bus that would take us one mile to our 8am appointment.

We've been here for two weeks now, doing a whole bunch of nothing. But today sounded cool. We were gonna do some weapons training, using simulators that are essentially big arcade games. We were also gonna do some humvee training, learned how to escape from a rollover over using a big simulator that is essentially an amusement park ride. Should have been a day of good, fun training.

Problem was, about 200 people showed up for the same training. With three weapons simulators that accommodate 5 people at a time, and one rollover simulator that takes 5 people, we essentially spent 8 hours in line for about 1 hour of training. I get a better fun/ waiting ratio at Disneyland.

They didn't know we were coming? They couldn't have staggered us through here, bring small groups on different days? They didn't realize that putting 200 people, 5 at a time, through a 30 minute training would take a while? Don't they do math here?

Frustrating day.

My Mission: Provincial Reconstruction Team Sergeant

In writing about our actual mission, I always feel like I need to err on the side of caution, for fear of revealing any sensitive information. So, here, to explain to you all what it is I'll be doing for the next year, I've compiled a few unclassified, open-source links that can say it for me.

I'll be working in Afghanistan as part of a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT). The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has a great description posted here. My team will be relieving a unit currently working North of Kabul. They've got got a website up, which you can see here. The Naval Post Graduate School's got a great research program in Culture and Conflict studies. They've done great analyses of the provinces where my team and I will be working, which you can see here and here.

Finally, for the extremely curious among you, the Army has actually produced two documents that define the scope of our work. The Army Center for Lessons Learned Provincial Reconstruction Team Playbook is a typical Army publication- long on the acronyms, short on the usable advice. But it's what we got. In contrast, the Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual is a page turner. Really. I'm not kidding. I actually bought a hard copy at Barnes and Noble. You wanna know what the damn shame is? The guy who was instrumental in writing it, John Nagl, has since left the Army. Hooah.

Groundhog Day

Here I am again. Same WWII era barracks. Same long lines to get my pay straightened out and my Anthrax booster shot. Same hot summertime in the South. Last time I was here doing this was in 2004, before heading off to Iraq, and the feeling of suddenly waking up 4 years ago is hard to shake...

I'm back in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The Army doesn't just send us to war. They mobilize us. I'd rather just go already. If I'm gonna leave loved ones, a great house, and a fun job for year, at least send me off to work somewhere. But this? This is just boring. And it will be boring for a while.

Ontario Airport USO

I'm using their computer, eating their cookies, and waiting (along with 100 other soldiers in my unit) for my 7am flight to Fort Bragg. Reported in to my unit at 430am this morning with my groggy family in tow. I need to start getting used to doing everything way too early.