Desert training: Who exactly is Mr. E?
6:07 p.m. Monday, July 14, 2008
Day 2
Photographers need food, too
We are about to eat lunch with some Ft. Riley area people. I'm not exactly sure who we are eating with, but I'm pretty sure I heard something about MREs, yet another fun acronym, gotta love em. I'm looking forward to trying an MRE. So far, the food from the DFAC (no idea what that acronym is for) hasn't been too bad. You can tell it's not made-from-scratch fare, but it's not high school cafeteria bad, either.
Ben and Justin take time to sit down with a few soldiers to discuss Army lingo, an alphabet soup of acronyms, and the meaning of “Hooah!” Learn something new here.
We just returned from a meeting between the leader of FOB Seattle, Col. Vermeesch and the leaders of Al Jaaf. In the simulation, the incoming leaders must go through the process of meeting the local government and figuring out how to work with them. There is a priority of helping the government and military to move towards independence. Simply being here for a day, I can see why the process is so drawn out. It has taken several hours to get this meeting off the ground. The amount of manpower and resources to accomplish these tasks seems extraordinary. We were in a convoy of several humvees stocked with plenty of soldiers to provide security. These simple trips are for one purpose only, getting to know the locals. Establishing relationships seems to be the greatest goal here.
Justin shoots meeting with the Al Jaaf mayor and council
I can see the vastness of the simulation. Going into the meeting, background reports on each of the Iraqi government officials were given to the U.S. soldiers. This allows the occupying forces to gauge the Iraqis’ perception of having the troops here. Vermeesch spoke with us about the importance of this and how he is required to change the way he interacts with each of them based upon their stance towards him and his forces. All of the meetings are done with the help of a translator to be as realistic as possible. This being the case, these interactions are made even more difficult.
All of the soldiers we've had contact with seem to be glad to be here. They know the importance of the duties they will be assigned to when actually deployed later this summer. Many of them have previous deployments in Iraq, but most of them agree that the training they receive here is far superior to what they had during previous tours.
Read more
Read what Ben Bauman's second day was like in his travelogue.
Side note:
My sleeping bag is woefully inadequate for the cool desert nights. Due to space limitations I was unable to pack a normal sleeping bag and came with only a thin fleece bag. Our tent is heated, but strong winds blew through all night. I was glad to see the sun.
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)