Rained Out or is it Shorted Out at the Range??

Yesterday it took a while to get going again after that short but enjoyable weekend. After picking up our weapons from the arms room we moved out to our language lab where we continued to learn Iraqi especially the tactical iraqi with scenarios that we will be using in Iraq. The lab is one where you listen to what is being said and then you get to use the head microphone and repeat the phrase and after several phrases you get a practical exercise where you get to use all of those phrases. The soldiers enjoy it and there are several in our group who are able to learn Iraqi quickly and are constantly letting us know what is the word or phrase of the day. After language training we had some downtime to work on our weapons and then in the afternoon we moved out to the DARWARS training that was being offered to us. DARWARS is a computer based training that uses real life scenarios from Iraq and allows us to train on convoy training and other aspects of patrolling. There is interaction between all four of the soldiers in a HMMWV and other HMMWV's, so that the vehicle commander could communicate with the gunner or other vehicles via radio as to what is happening and what needs to be done next. The exercises are filmed and you can see what happened and learn what we did right or wrong. We did three scenarios and lost a vehicle on one of them when it was hit by RPG's. Another scenario one of our convoys was hit by a VBIED (Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device). Unfortunately time flew by too quickly and it was 1630 hrs before you knew it and it was time to head back to the barracks. We will be able to get onto these again with our soldiers later this week and next week, and the soldiers really want to do this again!

This morning we had about 2 hours of combatives (hand to hand) combat and I can truly say is that this afternoon I feel all of my 47 years old! We reviewed some of the holds previously taught to us, the four choke holds and then did a 90 second hand to hand with each soldier in our group, and then rotated and fought another one, this went on until each of us took on the 6 other members of our team. Being one of the lighter ones in the group it was interesting to be rolling around the floor with guys that weigh 50-60 pounds more than I. We continued changing groups and learning new holds and evasive manuevers. By the end of the session we were sweating big time but at least we had smiles on our faces.

Later this morning we had classroom and then handson urban training, where we learn how to clear out rooms, how to properly hold our weapons, move trying to engage our targets and how to transition between our M-4 to our M9 pistol. Outside we practiced clearing these rooms in so called glass houses and it was an eye opener as to what each of us has to do and how much in sync all four of us have to be in order to properly clear out a room. We will be doing more of this tomorrow and then will be able to put these lessons learned at the MOUT Mobile Operations Urban Terrain. This afternoon we were supposed to go to the M240B machine gun range, but there were power issues at the range just like last week when we were at the same range for the 50 Cal. This time they were unable to get the power back on and decided to cancel the range so we did various whitespace training and cleaned our weapons again, since most were wet from the rain this morning. Although I am sore I will be heading out to the gym tonite to lift and get my 45 minutes of cardio, which keeps me in a good mood!