Henry's Web Log

Range qualification day. First we went to the Zero range: get our M16s to fire in a nice, tight shot group, plus adjust the sights for our own zero at 25 meters. Then we fired our 9mm pistols from 4 different stances- I hit the bad guy (paper target) 37 out of 40. Maybe more, but who cares- he got the message!
For the M16 qualification, we were on a pop-up target range. Sillhouettes popped up from 25 meters to 300 meters away. In two very quick run-throughs, we shot from the prone and kneeling positions. First time was 22 out of 40 for me, second time was 32. I don't think anyone got higher than 32 out of the 16 of us in the firing order, so I was happy. But in the past, I've gotten 38 out of 40 without difficulty, so I go back to blaming the "loose" weapons mentioned last week and perhaps some range irregularities. Same message, though: lots of lethality coming from Henry if it comes down to it.

The weekend started off with our first successful two-way video call from me to home. Eric was the genius that rebooted the computer and suggested I reboot mine, then Voila, it all came together. Very nice.

A Lieutenant Colonel and I drove into Charleston on Saturday. Initially, we had understood that there would not be time off, but we're keeping up with everything, and the government doesn't like to work on Columbus Day. So we visited many of the historical sites like Fort Sumter-- Dale manages our materials database website, MatWeb, and challanged me to devise a defensive plan for Ft. Sumter! We also saw the first submarine to sink a ship in combat, the Hunley (did you know she sank twice before her final, successful voyage where she sunk the Housatonic, but sank mysteriously just after that?). The events wrapped up with a thorough walk over the grounds of historic Charles Towne Landing, the first South Carolina settlement dating to 1670. They certainly had defensive issues as well. Fortunately, the local indians befriended them, partly because this local tribe needed the new settlers guns to ward off another tribe that had allied itself with the Spanish. It's all who you know, right? Those original settlers weren't religious pilgrims so much as profiteers: they journeyed 6 weeks from England to Barbados, and stopped there to study the slave-intensive sugar farming process for a couple of months. Then, off to South Carolina...except they had heavy storms enroute, lost a ship, broke a ship, and took something like 3 months to just get from Barbados to South Carolina. But they brought a culture of slave-intensive profiteering and were mighty disappointed to find that sugar didn't grow well here. So this ties together with Fort Sumter because the slave-focused labor practices led SC to be one of the loudest advocates of slavery. Abraham Lincoln's election sealed the deal, SC seceded, other states followed suit, and Colonel Anderson moved his forces from a weak nearby fort to Sumter. Beauregard, a West Point student of Anderson, was sent to negotiate the return of Sumter but was forced to deliver an ultimatum. Which he backed up with 30 hours of artillery until SC forces captured Sumter. The Confederates held Sumter amidst the Union siege and blockades longer than any other siege. And when the Union did finally get it back, they invited Lincoln to come to the official ceremony. But he had tickets to the Ford theater and couldn't make it! Really!
So anyway, my conclusion to this tour was that South Carolina, from its roots in 1670, had a culture of greedy exploitation of slave labor, with two very separate classes of society. I also learned that Charleston is a beautiful city, with lots to do and see. And some delicious seafood!

Here's a quick overview of the accommodations at Camp McCrady, my two-week home during my preparation for deployment.

Yesterday's events included heavy weapons training. That is, training on weapons of large mass and firepower. Not heavy like intensive. Unless you're on the receiving end of the weapon. We worked with the M2 (50 caliber, in use since WWI), and the Mark 19 (in use by the Navy since Vietnam, adopted by the Army in the late 1990's). The Mark 19 is a medium-velocity grenade launcher, practically hitting anything you can see. l After a lunch of bbq ribs, corn, lima beans and apple cobbler (nice!), we received our flak vests with insert plates, designed to stop ammunition up to 7.62mm (squad-level machine gun caliber). The new helmets are a little tougher, and lighter, than the Kevlar I had with Va Tech ROTC.
I would have been signing for weapons this morning, but 7 of us needed to head back for our over-40 physicals. Officers get the 9mm pistol, plus the M-16. My understanding from the class ahead of us that the weapons are mighty old and very loose- meaning they're not very accurate. That's OK though: we want the accurate ones to be in theater, not here in training. This isn't a long-term issue: just for the remaining 8 days we're here at at Camp McCrady.

Last night, a buddy and I drove into Columbia for dinner. At a wifi hotspot in the historic downtown, I attempted a video call with Lisa, Eric and Ethan. They could see me, and we could talk well enough, but I couldn't see them. We'll troubleshoot that, but the news was pretty good: both boys are doing great in school. Special praise to Eric for straight A's this first grading period!!! And Ethan's grades will come out in about 3 more weeks. On the other hand, Ethan's recovering from a fever, and Eric is coming down with something.
It sounds like their weekend is just packed with activities: Cub Scout spookeree, paintball, and a Boy Scout popcorn sale at Walmart. I miss them already. The video call is going to be a great way for us to stay close once I'm overseas.

Lights were out at 10pm last night, and lots of snoring was happening in our open-bay barracks. UGH! Suddenly, we're woken up at 4am. There are three Lieutenant Colonels in our group, so as a Major, I dodged the bullet of being class leader. That means I'm not the guy who has to turn on the barracks lights at 4am and deliver the pleasant news that our urine will now be tested for illegal drugs.

Everybody forms up, and really has to pee. But 3 are missing, and we can't start till everyone's present. So we wait and 20 minutes later, we're only missing 1, and we proceed anyway. A few soldiers have paid $10/night for separate quarters, and they were supposed to know to be at our little event. It's an observed pee in the Army: nothing up your sleeve.

Next, the schedule said we'd have Physical Training (PT). Our class leader said, "Do it on your own" and we went our different directions. I found a gym and worked up a good sweat, mixing up from my aerobic run yesterday. Breakfast was relaxed, done by 6:30am, and not much to do until our first 8:30 appointment. I start to open up my PC, but there's a bus headed to the inprocessing stations, 1.5 hours early. Why not? It's better than sitting around, even for a chance of getting more stuff done.

We'll stop to let the enlisted soldiers begin receiving their uniforms. Officers have to buy theirs, and they'll give us time for that this afternoon. Most folks have been in civilian clothes thus far. I believe we're down to 45 of us- only one was sent home so far.

One Captain with us has an interesting job: he supervises inmate cooking at a federal prison. Good pay. He told me over dinner that it's all about image on the inside. You never want to be embarrassed, or put down in front of others. Status is king. So the Captain told me he was called up, went through the family good-bye process and took a leave of absence from his prison job. But here's the deal: he's got something going on medically and the VA has already awarded him 30% disability. The first doctor here said he could deploy, just see one more station. But not until Friday. He's very serious about ensuring he deploys, because to return to his prison job would be a complete loss of respect for his authority. I can see his point: it's one thing to come back to friends and family and say, "guess what? I'm back." That would take some adjustment and explaining, but would pass quickly. Not the case for him: it'd pretty much be the end of his civilian job.
Yet for him, his disability would have been on file, so why mobilize him if it's likely he wouldn't be deployable? The answer may be that the military has so many different positions, that a 30% disability as an infantryman may be only a 10% disability as a medical support person. I saw him on the PT track last night. He's serious about making it work.
The prison climate is not unlike what I was reading in one of the CALL books (see my 9/15/08 post) highlighting the importance of respect and saving face among Arabic cultures. You should never put down someone in view of others, and really, only suggest small changes when in America you might otherwise cuss up a storm. The leadership axim that "you praise in public, correct in private" touches on the idea. Since leadership is about influencing the behavior of others, this highlights the importance of being culturally sensitive whether it's in a Federal prison or the sands of Iraq.