James’ Ranting Blog

Monday we jumped right back into our Tactical Operations Cell staff training with a 8 hour operations planning exercise.  It was great stuff.  Being such a military guru was awesome; I think I may have surprised our Army brethren a bit by being able to quote the Principles of War and tactics.  We had to plan the mission, wargame it, and develop operational orders for our subordinate units.  Really great stuff!

Tuesday saw more operations training with lessons on how to develop map overlays and army graphic symbols.  Again, I scared my Army teammates since I knew how to read a map. When one asked me how I learned to read and orientate a map I told them I was an Eagle Scout.  They laughed and said it was good as any other training.  In the afternoon we had Army Problem Solving….something we almost laughed at for the hour given our living conditions and disorganized training schedule.  After chow we attended a class on Pre Combat Inspections, Pre-Combat Checks, and Troop Leading Procedures, again, all great stuff to make ourselves and our troops are ready to go outside the wire.

Wednesday was another light day in training.  Everything this week is more focused on preparing for the arrival of our main body.  The infantry who moved in last weekend are becoming a slight nuisance; they are tipping over the port-a-pottys and breaking into the laundry rooms.  In early February we will get our platoon and will begin integrated training with them. 

We awoke on Thursday to an ice encrusted tent.  The temp plummeted and the rain fell, creating sheets of ice on the outside of the tent.  It was cold.  Training was light again, but it focused on my particular duties as an S-1.  I spent the afternoon preparing briefing slides for when our main body arrives on Sunday.  The fourteen of us on the ADVON team are looking forward to their arrival so we can get down to the real nuts and bolts of why we’re here….becoming ground combatants.  I attend a seemingly endless series of meetings each night, usually getting conflicting information from each.  The Army certainly has their own way of doing things, but we’re adapting. 

Wow, another light day.  My commander wanted me to get the tent billets finalized and we’re rearranging bunk assignments for main body.  Our main body is mostly comprised of young enlisted troops so our work is cut out for us.  The night wasn’t as cold, we ran for PT today.  I escaped to Bragg to do some laundry; the next week will be my busiest as I inprocess the new arrivals and get them up to speed on life in FOB Patriot.  Each week we are taking a written test on materials covering Afghanistan and its recovery.  Tonight was our first such test and our team did well.  We have been playing Jeopardy and other games each night to review the material.

Our Commander cancelled PT this weekend as a morale booster.  Saturday morning was also our shower day so I was up early in order to capture a hot shower trailer and hot water, however only 50% came to pass.  Taking a nice hot shower in a very cold trailer is an interesting endeavor, but I am clean.  We’re going to begin moving into our new bunks today.  As part of my duties right now I have to attend a “Mayor’s Meeting” each evening with the Army SNCO who runs the FOB.  Each night we pass on our concerns/complaints/suggestions/gripes, etc and we get updates to the FOBs progress and other Quality of Life issues.  One of the longest running issues has been access to showers.  We have been told that the Army’s standard is one showerhead for every 12 soldiers.  At a recent meeting the Army E8 countered our concerns by stating that he had more than the required showers, by stating that 12 X 12 = 84….we sat in awe at his mathematical abilities and realized the root of our logistical shortcomings.  The next evening we asked about sandbags to anchor our tent walls from the rain and wind.  He reminded us that each tent took approximately 50 sandbags and that he had 500 of them ready for use and that would suffice.  He then stated that he had 90 tents, 50 sandbags per tent, so it came to 450 sandbags…..we once again simply stared at him and I piped up and asked, “Hey Sarge, I think you’re missing a zero in that calculation.”  He stared back, bewildered.  Amazing………..

The big day for the main body’s arrival is here.  We are now ready to fully begin our training.  The following days will be busy with uniform, weapon, and equipment issuing, then its full time ground combat skills training. 

We awoke on Monday after only a few moments of shuteye after what seemed like a hurricane had passed through the night before.  The winds had picked up with the rain all night and gave our tents some real good shakes.  Our tent is on the perimeter of the tent city so we took the winds full force, luckily we remained dry and secure.  After getting settled in our tents over the past 24 hours we immediately jumped back in to training with lessons on establishing a Tactical Operations Cell.  I neglected to pass on our Team’s initial catch phrases last week.  Please bear in mind that we are not politically correct out here, after all, being trained to kill the bad guys and protecting your buddy is not a PC type function.  Our first two Bagram PRT unique phrases were developed by our Intel Officer, F.U.N….Fucking Unbelievable Nonsense and U.A.P….Utter Ass Pain.  So often folks around here might overhear our team exclaiming how much FUN this is.  Keeps our morale up and the others thinking we’re crazy.