Bored on FOB Raider

This evening marks the 1/3 of the way through point here on FOB Raider. There are two more weeks of fun left in this great field exercise. I am once again a fobit, save for when I go with my platoon on a patrol to the TUAS launch and recovery site during the day. The days are long, average at least 14-16 hours of work every day, but not jammed packed, which makes the days feel even longer. Life on the FOB is not too bad, just boring. I am trying to keep my platoon occupied with training on the Raider Big 10 and the 40 Warrior Tasks, but my soldiers would rather be flying and are rather bored most of the time with life here. We are not providing anything of value to BDE since our equipment has not returned and 3rd ACR , so instead my soldiers end up being tasked out to do details such as KP.

Adam just called. I haven't talked to him in awhile.

Heading to the Field

Tomorrow I head out to the field for three weeks.  I keep trying to tell myself that it's like going camping, but I have yet to convince myself.  Besides, I will most likely be spending most of my time in the brigade TOC trying to pretend like my platoon actually has equipment and is a useful asset for this training exercise.  Too bad we won't get any of our equipment back from reset until after we return from the field, so my soldiers and I who are stationed up in the TOC may be twiddling our thumbs for a bit while being yelled at for not providing any UAV coverage with the equipment we don't have.  The next few weeks should be an interesting experience to say the least. 

15 Months

15 month deployments are the new standard as of yesterday.  That's a long time to be deployed.   

 

Over there now:

Rachel

Charlie

Jordan

Phil

Ben

Brian

Austin

Dan

Leah

 

Headed over in the next few months:

Jim

Mike

Celio

 

Just to name a few off the top of my head.

 

Tired...

Be Thou At Peace

I found out today that another classmate, 1LT Phil Neel, '05, was killed in Iraq on 08 April 07.  I remember him most from the OCF Rocky Mountain High trip a few weeks after graduation.  He was a great guy. 

 

Well done; Be thou at peace.

http://www.west-point.org/users/usma2005/61896/

Too Much

Numb...

Hits Closer to Home

This evening I received a distro email update from the father one of my friends from West Point informing everyone that a few days ago my friend was out with her MP team and her team was hit by an IED (roadside bomb).  The IED killed four of her soldiers.  Even though I spent a year in Iraq and my brigade suffered losses like that at times, I didn't know any of the platoon leaders of the soldiers who died, and I didn't have a platoon of my own at the time.  What I am trying to say is that the news always hit me hard, but it wasn't as personal.  Now, I don't even want to think about what it would be like to lose one of my soldiers, let alone four.  Please pray for my friend Jordan and her platoon. 

The Ghostly Assemblage

On March 31st a third classmate joined the Ghostly Assemblage.

http://www.west-point.org/users/usma2005/62039/

Rest in peace
1LT Neale Shank '05.