Mounted Combat Patrol Out In The Middle of God Knows Where!!

I am hot and sweaty and I must reek pretty bad because even the flies are staying away from me here in the computer trailer! We just got back not too long ago from our final day of Mounted Combat Patrol (MCP) and I like the rest of the team are glad it's over. These past two days have been long and hot but the training has made up for the climate. Yesterday after doing several rehearsals and crew drills as to what we would do during various scenarios and conducting a rehearsal ride we finally got to go live and conduct our MCP. I was just a HRGIB (High Ranking Guy In Back) riding in the back seat of a HMMWV as part of the aid and litter team. The course was fairly long and it took well over two hours to complete. What made this course much better than the one at Ft Riley is that there was actual interaction with Arabs so we had to use our knowledge of Arab language and some of the cheat cheats and charts to help communicate with the locals that we had to encounter on our way.

The course had been set up with houses made our of wood and mannequins dressed, junk cars etc and throw in the real people and vehicles driving along the course and it gave most of the Soldiers who have not been our here before a taste of what to expect. As one can imagine they hit us with IED's, there were some casualties that us in the aid and litter team had to go out and give first aid, and move them to helo landing area for them to be medevac'd out. One of the Soldiers that we had to put on the litter and move under a sunny hot Kuwaiti sun was a big guy with all his gear on and although I have been working out a lot and uping the weights I had to drop the litter and ask for assistance on my end! I got to use my limited Arabic on a person who was role playing someone taking pictures of the convoy at one of our halts and supposedly was a reporter from Al Jazeera but without any creditionals etc. I thought my English was bad but my Arabic or what ever I was muttering didn't work too well, before I finally confiscated the camera and gave him a receipt from Uncle Sam for it. We succeeded to engage and destroy the bad guys and complete our mission only to have the vehicle I was in get hit with an IED at the end.

Today we actually went out to another course and this time used real ammo as part of the live fire. The course was long and the crew served weapon systems got plenty of targets and rounds to shoot with. Once again we were aid and litter and one of the Sergeants in the vehicle got plenty of exercise carry Soldiers and providing first aid. After that MSG Munoz and I were Range Safety officers who had to ensure camels and vehicles didn't get onto the course so as not to get shot at. Must have seen a couple of hundred camels while we were out there baking in the hot sun, thank God the HMMWV's have AC but it was still very hot.

Tomorrow we get what is most likely our last chance to bake and lay in the sand while we are here as we have our zero range where we get to fire some rounds to ensure our sights on our M4's is still good so if and when we need to fire at someone while in Iraq we know we'll hit our targets.

All in all the support here for the troops in terms of places to eat, the PX, Morale Welfare and Rec facilities makes it easier for the Soldiers to relax when they are done with training fo the day. For our team we just want to get out of here go to Iraq and get started with the jobs that we have been selected to do for the upcoming deployment period. After almost 90 days of training we are chomping at the bit.

Gotta run and go to the training meeting tonite, and after that looks like tonite might be cigar night for some of us guys after I squeeze in run.