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qualification course consists of 7 rounds from the standing position, 13 rounds
from the kneeling position, 10 rounds from the crouching position and 10 rounds
from the prone position, for a total of 10 rounds. 23 shots in the siluette is
qualifying, sharpshooter is 30 and expert is 36. I shot 35, just missed expert by 1
shot! (This is the third weapons qualification in a row that I missed expert by 1
point.) Then we had to zero our M16 rifles. This means making sure that the sights
are set to your particular shooting style, so when you aim at the target, the
weapon will put the round where you aim. Then we had a reflexsive fire course.
Here we practice using the M16 in close quarters (inside 25 meters) where you
don't really aim, you just bring it up and fire quickly. There was no qualification, just
a shooting series from 25 meters, 15 meters and 10 meters. Then we went to the
M16 range. Here, a series of silhouettes pop up at 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300
meters at random. We shot 20 rounds from the foxhole supported position from
inside a foxhole and 20 rounds in the prone unsupported position, just laying on the
sand. Again, qualification is 23 (marksman), sharpshooter is 30 and expert is 36.
Despite having a weapons malfunction on the first qualification attempt and being
unable to fire any of my foxhole shots, I came back and shot expert on the course
the second time through!
It was a long day and we didn't get back to the barracks until 2000 (they kept the
dining hall open late for us so we didn't have to eat MREs!!) and I'll probably hit the
rack early.
Lieutentant Commander
U.S. N., C.E.C.
the training the Army provided was outstanding. There were some administrative
and logistical trip ups (we're only the second Navy class through, so they're still
ironing out some issues) but the Drill Sergeants were very good at teaching us the
basics. We qualified on both the 9mm and M-16 on the Army's qualification
courses (the M-16 range was pop-up targets ranging from 50m to 300m). We then
received training on First Aid, Convoy operations, land navigation, communications,
urban ops, squad tactics, FOB ops, etc. The training was set up so we had the
"crawl" phase in the classroom, the "walk" phase in the field and the "run" phase
during a 1-1/2 day simulation.
The most interesting part of the entire class was that we were issued Army ACU
(Army Combat Uniform), not DCUs. It's an extremely comfortable uniform (diagonal
pockets, lots of velcro, lightweight material, very functional). Unfortunately there is
no place for staff corps symbols or SCWS (Seabee Combat Warfare qualification)
on the uniform, so, except for the "U.S. Navy" name tape, we will look exactly like
the Army guys. As I understand it, we are the very first Navy personnel to wear
this uniform and the Navy has not really approved it, however, the shortage of
common sizes of DCUs necessitated the change. The other interesting part of the
gear issue is that the IBA (individual body armor) and Kevlar helmet are
phenomenally comfortable. Many days we were wearing full battle rattle in the
field all day and barely noticed we were wearing the gear. A massive
improvement over the gear they're still using in the Bees!!!
We depart early tomorrow morning to bus up to BWI and then on to Kuwait on a
contract flight. In Kuwait we have a 3-day field convoy live fire exercise before
we can go into country. There may be some other required training in Kuwait,
we're just not sure. There are 3 of us LCDRs that are all going to work for GRD
and we will convoy in to our final destinations.
on a bus headed for BWI, each of us with 4 full seabags of gear the Army issued
us. The bus arrived at BWI around 1500, just in time to wait 3 hours until we could
check in for our flight. When we finally got checked in, we had about a 5-1/2 hour
wait for the plane to take off. Luckily, the USO at BWI has a great facility, with a
big screen TV, a place to put your bags, free snacks and drinks, free wireless
internet access, free phones to call the US, a sleep room and plenty of space to
spread out. The flight to Kuwait took approximately 17 hours and we arrived at
1230 am this morning (the 18th.) After a 2 hour wait while our bags were
unloaded, we took an hour and a half bus ride to Ali Al Salem air base where we
arrived sometime after 0300. After in-processing, searching for our bags and
dragging them several hundred meters to our tents, if was almost time for chow.
The cow hall here is much better than the one in FT Jackson. Lots of different
kinds of fresh fruit at all the meals and better variety of salad vegetables and hot
vegetables. After chow, most of us tried to stay awake until night time, in order to
eliminate the effects of jetlag, however, since we had absolutely nothing to do all
day and there's not much on the base, we inevitably fell asleep waiting. I woke up
around 1100, just in time for lunch, and have been able to stay awake since then,
but I'm definitely ready to hit the rack! Tomorrow we leave for 3 days of convoy
training in the field (MREs and sleeping on the ground) and then it's off to Iraq. I'll
let you know when something interesting happens!
The jump seats they put in the back of a C-130 are not really known for their
comfort. Plus, when you fly into country you have to wear your Kevlar helmet and
your flack jacket with 40 pounds of hard ceramic plates in the front and back, so it’s
not the most comfortable plane ride in the world. We (me, Dale and Damon)
checked into GRC (Gulf Region Central) together and were in Camp Victory for
about 3 days. The Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has their own compound on
Camp Victory with permanent buildings for office space and berthing. It was
almost like a regular hotel room, except the bed was a bunk bed (thankfully we didn’
t have to have roommates, it was the only privacy we’ve had since reporting to Fort
Jackson 3 weeks ago) and the latrine (that’s Army for head) was down the
hallway. At Camp Victory we were issued our laptops and our cell phones
(although the cell phones in Ramadi don’t work since the insurgents blew up all the
cell phone towers!) and had a day long brief with all the headquarters departments:
operations, security, IT, the Colonel, the Command Sergeant Major, logistics, etc)
Then we convoyed out to our sites. All 3 of us left from Camp Victory and went to
Fallujah where we met our boss in the Fallujah Area Office, which covers Fallujah,
Al Asad and Ramadi. We spent most of the day there learning about our jobs and
who we’ll be working with. Dale stayed in Fallujah while Damon and I continued on
to Ramadi. We stayed over night there and Damon left the next morning to go to Al
Asad, which I understand is a pretty rough trip. I’ve been turning over with Mike,
the outgoing OIC, for the last 3 days and will officially take over the office tomorrow
morning. The accommodations here are great. We have our own trailers, both
work and sleeping trailers, inside our own little USACE compound. Our sleeping
trailers all have satellite TV (mostly Arab channels, but there are a couple English
channels) we have a TV in the office with a DVD player and both satellite and DSN
channels and every once in a while we’ll have movie night in the office. We even
have VOIP phones, so we can call the US or receive calls from the US just like a
regular long distance call. Camp Blue Diamond is very small and you can walk to
everything. It’s about a 10 minute walk to the dining facility and the whole office
usually goes to chow together, with the exception of breakfast, when folks go at
their own time. There’s a small post office, and MWR building with a big screen TV
(they show movies every night), a pool table, books, games and movies that you
can check out. There’s a small gym with weights and cardio equipment. Tha's all
for now. I'll write more when I can.
