1418 - FTX
Sitting
@ our fire (yeah, due to the cold our SGL's authorized it-- real tactical
I know). A bags loaded up on a Hmmv, waer cans, last bag of garbage...we're
pretty much all just dozing and keeping the fire going. Despite my
fears, it wasn't too cold afterall, or at least I handled it better than
I hoped. Apparently it was @ 25 degrees this morning at 0530 -> wakeup
time.
Things kicked of Friday with the CH 47 jump...it was sweet! Ramp position did get taken from me, some SSGs we're doin a little CH 47 JM refresher so...We all got tapepd out anyways so it didn't matter any...About a five second drop...hair longer than the 3.2 from a C130. There was just enough time to feel a bit of a rush. The CH 47 drops at 90 knots, as compared to the 130 on the C130, so it takes the chute a bit longer to open...also explains the higher AGL of 1500, compared to the normal 1200 to 800 AGL of a C130 drop.
It was a cold cold morning but it warmed up a little, and BOB...dear old Bob, came smilign upon us. Steering with toggles...wow! I took a few pictures -- can't wait to get this roll developed.
After
the jump the whole teaching class loaded up on the Chinook for the Air
Mobile to the Land Nav/Field site. After deloading and moving to
the TOC, we zeroed our Miles gear (I hate this shit -- almost worthless
and the added weight, although not much, sucks after a while--particually
on the helmet piece...) and we "rucked" @ 500 meters (hahahahahh!) to our
patrol base site. The hasty fighting position area I was assigned
to was pretty much already dug out for me (nice!) and the ground was soft
and sandy anyways (Double Nice!). We did night land Nav in groups
of three,and, bonehead me, trusted Garcia and Rodriguez to due the plotting...well
I found plots where they plotted, but they were awfully wrong in the plotting--wrong
points and an extra 3 clicks at least to get there--walking the damn firebreaks
too!
Yesterday morning I was team leader for an ambush
-- our first mission of the day. it was wicked success--we
kicked major ass, even when the OP4 tried to flank us. Poor saps.
the auto mod on my M16A2 worked beautifully, although I learned my lesson
on how carefull I had to be to control my rounds...I ran out FAR too soon...
Reed and Huey helped all of us leaders (2 team ldrs and PLT SGT) out immensely...
The next few missions were a success as far as the class
went, but me, I got deaded early :( We got raided last night and
unlike the raid WE preformed, the OP4 last night was sucking ass.
Both nights we had fires from errant flares to control. Well, in
the middle of the raid 3/4 of our defenders went to the fire, and the raiders
STILL didn't breach our perimeter. Their recon had gotten comprimised--in
fact it sucked hard core--the ysent a PLT out instead of just a few, got
noticed by us, and got kilt. The OP4 was almost out of rounds b4
they eevn saw our site (they assaulted a porta john or something ;P
) OP4, btw, is identifed easily--one faction wears their BDU's inside
out.
During the raid last night, an errant flare burnt up some
of the Abags when it landed in the baggage pit. Some peeps got equipment
damaged, but the school and CIF is taking care of it luckily...
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