Absolutely No Weapons Cleaning Inside the Laundromat!

Its been a few days since the last update, and there have been plenty of goings on for the men and women of the 485th Engineers as we continue our training at this undisclosed location. Most interestingly for me personally was that the CO found this blog - nothing stays a secret in the army for long, and is using the title graphic on our FRG page - I'm actually pretty pleased about that, and very happy, and very relieved that there is finally an FRG online for our close friends and family. He's already posted a lot of great information on it about services available to troops and their families. I think that I'll take advantage of the free portraits. Might have to get the new Army Service Uniform though - my Class A's (other than being phased out) don't fit. I've put four inches onto my chest since the end of AIT. To use an old Marine/Navy phrase that I've never heard since I stopped wearing the EGA - Bravo Zulu, Sir, on an excellent online resource!


We've been doing plenty of weapons familiarization - some on weapons systems we may not see again for some time, and others that we'll never be far from. We stripped the M2 HBMG down to its component parts - and I never want to do it again. John Browning (the weapon system's designer) was a brilliant man, and it's a serviceable weapon to have in any arsenal, but talk about a lot of itty bitty moving parts!


We also got some more experience on the MK19 - perhaps the most fun system to work with in the arsenal of ground forces. Here are a few pics of the guys in the squad during our familiarization training.





SPC Kuntze ready to rock out on one of these bad boys. I was really pleased at the close attention paid by my squaddies during these segments of training. While not of vital importance this moment, the training may pay large dividends in the future.



I also finally went to the qualification for my position in the platoon as an Automatic Rifleman. Its a pretty neat position, and I was very excited to finally take the qualification. It consisted of three parts. First a zero'ing portion where we shot three rounds at two small targets called 'tombstones' and then a practice qualification where we practiced our three shot bursts (not easy with a machine gun) and then practiced our three shot bursts while wearing our gasmasks. Also not an easy feat. I shot well, and then it was on to the paper qualification where I did quite well! Finally we all began the pop-up qualification portion - engaging targets from 100-400 meters. I did well, but officially not as well as I knew I did as my lane was malfunctioning and taken off-line for the rest of the day after the next two shooters experienced the same problem with hit-counts. It would have been nice to shoot again and score expert, but I'll take sharpshooter.


Military life is generally an easy adjustment; the most difficult part is the first step off of the bus at the reception battalion at your basic training unit and shedding for the first time the protective masks and shells that have been build up during a lifetime spent creating yourself in the image you want to have...from that moment on you are rebuilt in the image that the Army wishes you to be. If you can stomach it past those harsh months of yelling, sweat, blood, exhaustion, and near constant hunger - if you can learn to live the Warrior Ethos and love your battle buddies - you'll make it. It's after a time of living in the civilian world and returning to active duty that there are some things that just make you fall on the ground laughing when you realize how normal the abnormal suddenly appears. The best most recent example I have is the laundromat.

Most of us took only two uniforms with us when we left for here, thinking that we would be receiving a new uniform issue (for most of us, myself included, the first since standing in that line full of scared civilians, for the first time putting on the mantle of adult responsibility and civic duty as soldiers) soon after arriving. Although we have received an awful lot of cool expensive gadgets, uniforms were not among them. Having said that we spend a lot of time at the laundromat. I was feeling introspective after realizing how even just after a few weeks, I feel cut off from friends and family - the familiar sights, sounds, and smells of home, the feel of the wind in my face while riding my motorcycle, the sweet moments of sharing a dinner, a movie, a drink with the one who you spend the nights dreaming of...I was moody, a little homesick, and tired of some of the soldiers' attitudes when the sign hit me. I stopped for a moment and thought, "That makes so much sense - can you imagine losing an extractor spring in here?" and then had to burst out laughing when I thought about seeing a sign like that in the laundromat down the street or in Anytown, USA.

Morale has generally been very good. The few issues that have come up seem to have come up in every platoon and that is of military bearing and the One Team, One Fight, One Mission ethos that was really drilled into most of us in basic training, AIT, and with this unit. Some soldiers just refuse to take what we're doing seriously, and just want to do their own thing - which is not always the right thing. I think that we're all working on them to get with the program, and with the classes that we're engaging in, I think that before long they'll be on the same page as the rest of us. I just have to shake my head and wonder how they made it through basic with those attitudes; and then I think about the stories I've heard about basic from recent graduates, and I'm no longer surprised. Movies and pizza every weekend have no place in basic training.

The military is for sure a different kind of experience, filled with a different sort of people, who ultimately don't mind the hardships when they look at the big picture and realize the sort of life they are securing for their family, loved ones, and country(wo)men back home. And Absolutely No Weapons Cleaning Inside the Laundromat!