Day 24

Hazy, hot, and humid...today's words. It cracked the 90F mark again and the humidity was way up there. Today, we did convoy ops and more IED familiarization. The dry run for the convoy operation happened today and the real deal with explosions and the works is tomorrow. Being inside a metal Humvee with these temps is not exactly a walk in the park and let me tell you, these vehicles are not made for guys like me who are 6'2" tall. Add on the body armor and you should see me just try and get my seatbelt on. Most of the simulations today were of roadside bombs. The real deal tomorrow will include that plus suicide bombers and who knows what else.

We also spent a good deal of time going over base security at forward operating bases and how that's conducted, mainly at the entrance. Later, we were trained on entering a building and "clearing" it. It involved 4 of us, lined up outside the building, kicking the door in and taking control of it. That was a nice little adrenaline rush. I think I did it about 4 or 5 times. I doubt I'll ever do this but it's nice to know the procedure just in case.  Lastly, we did a few exercises on how to pat people down to search them for contraband, etc. prior to letting them inside the gate of any of our installations.

Later on after lunch (bag lunches, thank goodness!!!), we did some training on how to move injured personnel. From drags to the fireman carry, we were havin' a good 'ol time with each other...of course, getting some good training value at the same time. :-) Afterwards, we went back to convoy training but this time, virtual training. Inside a trailer, we sat in mock Humvees and went on a convoy operation...sorta like a video game. We even had a gunner up top. What we didn't know was that the group who went before us were playing the bad guys (insurgents) at the front of the trailer using gaming controllers. They picked the IEDs to plant, where to plant them, and had guys with AK-47s firing at us! It was a lot of fun and even more fun when WE got to play the insurgents and attack the next group...who didn't know WE were up front. In the end, it was good training, especially to see it from both angles of attack...the offensive and defensive.

This evening, I was spray-painting different markings on my seabags with white spray paint. When I leave here to travel forward along the Yellow Brick Road, there will be over 400 seabags. They are all green so if I make some unique, easy-to-see markings, I won't be searching in the sea of bags like everyone else. Smart, eh?! A friend of mine gave me the idea.  I also re-packed a few of them with things I won't likely ever need but are still required to take. My goal is to never open them...ever.

That's about it for today. I'm up a bit later than normal tonight so it's time to call it a night. Another day in body armor tomorrow and some truly rockin' explosions await.

Goodnight, everyone.