sororitysoldier.com » Fort Dix

The Army Game

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:20:04 +0000

Fort Dix is boring. We’ve been outprocessing since we got here, which is just a game of hurry up and wait. We’re going through the demob center with a few other units, so there are lots of people backed up at one station which makes for good reading time (my current choice is Chronicles of Narnia). I finished all my paperwork, so now the hold up is reading my TB results which is tomorrow afternoon (takes 48 hours). After that, they’ll book me a flight home. Can’t wait!

Water+Ibuprofin = problems solved

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:33:17 +0000

I found out today that we’ll be spending two nights in the “FOB” starting tomorrow. I was really dreading it before getting to New Jersey, but now I really don’t care what we do these next 13 days (but who’s counting?), I just want to go home for my Christmas and not think about going to Iraq. We got our hands on our new M-4s today and mine is sooo pretty. I’d tell you that I don’t want to shoot it, because I don’t want to get it dirty…but I really can’t wait to fire that thing. It’s much smaller than the M16 we trained with last time…lighter, easier to carry and much easier for me to shoot from the kneeling position since I’m such a weakling. We’ll be outside most of the day tomorrow, qualifying on our new weapons including shooting with our gas masks on and shooting again after dark for night qualification.

After night qualification, we’ll head to the FOB and I’m not sure what training consists of from there. Today it was in the 60s, but I have a feeling tomorrow’s qualification will be in freezing temperature, possibly wet. I think I’d take 10 degrees and snow over 30 degrees with freezing rain. As the forecast goes, it’ll be between 40-60 degrees with a 100% chance of rain. I’m amused…. seriously, at this point I can only laugh.

A few days ago we went through SRP, the same type of thing I did in September that consists of a bunch of stations for paperwork, shots, and physicals. Before I left I visited a dentist, an appointment that the Army set up for me. However, when I saw dental on Monday I was told the x-rays didn’t make it and that was becoming an ongoing theme with FedsHeal. FedsHeal is the system used to set up appointments for reservists with civilian doctors.. at least that’s my experience with it. I’ve never had problems with them in the past, but I was pretty aggravated when I had to get that x-ray thing shoved in my mouth again because my other x-rays didn’t get put in the system. I passed through hearing and vision just fine (Thanks Dr. Lusk) and I was poked with anthrax #3 in immunizations. I also took the tuberculosis test (I passed) and the flu mist. I was thankful to not get another flu shot. The briefings before SRP are really the worst part. This is the time when people come in from Legal, Finance, etc and give you ideas of what they’ll help you with… it’s also the time when soldiers choose to ask all their questions. I get so irritated, because the briefings aren’t for your personal questions; Save those for when you’re actually at that station and sitting face to face with the person. The briefings are only to let you know what they can do for you. Stone touched on this a little in his latest blog. By the way, Stone is now Flinstone. I came up with it… I know, very creative.

I haven’t finished my SRP because I’m a pending case. Since I told the good Lieutenant Colonel about my knee and back problems, he referred me to an orthopedic doctor. My knees constantly pop back and forth and I wake up every morning with lower back pain. I had these problems before my last deployment, but my wardrobe addition known as body armor just aggrivated the pain and now it’s worse. I had x-rays yesterday and on Friday I’ll visit the ortho to go over my x-rays. Then, I’ll go to my assigned case manager and she’ll let me know if the doctor says I’m deployable. Don’t get your hopes up at home – I highly doubt I would become nondeployable because of this. Afterall, I told them about these problems last time and was told Ibuprofin is the answer to all ailments. The Army’s answer is always the same: drink water, change your socks, and take ibuprofin.

Back to Ar-Kansas

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:29:00 +0000

I started this blog for family and friends, but it seems Big Brother is an avid reader as well. After the post about our unit not getting paid, my blog fell in the laps of people at my headquarters, the 90^th, and then traveled up to USARC (US Army Reserve Command). The Big Dogs checked into the situation and wanted to know why they had a unit not getting paid and why SGT King was blogging about it. This SGT King could be trouble. Apparently they weren’t too angry, because I said good things about my command and stressed it was out of their control. To give you worried readers an update, I got paid yesterday and will get another check tomorrow. We’re so psyched to be caught up on pay that we went to eat at TGI Fridays last night and you’d have thought it was the last supper. Almost everyone at the table ordered an appetizer and a meal. We were miserably stuffed, and very happy.

Our feast was also to celebrate the end of training at RTC-East. The last three weeks has been the best training I’ve ever received from the Army. Our instructors are so passionate about their jobs and they realize the importance of giving us thorough training.. it’s all about saving lives and preparing us for every situation we’ll face in Iraq. We spent two nights in the field, which is basically set up to look like a Forward Operating Base in the desert. It’s lined with tents, Bobs (porta-potties), and shower trailers. There’s an MWR room with workout equipment and TVs, two chow halls lined with tables and more TVs, a Post Exchange set up in an 18-wheeler and a barber shop and laundry drop. We conducted two missions in the field, focusing on convoy operations. The first day we worked on searching vehicles, providing security in a village and reacting to ambushes. When we pulled into the village, I immediately spotted the woman who ended up killing me. I kept my eye on her the whole time, but when a fight broke out between two villagers some of us got distracted and she took the opportunity to detonate herself. I kept running the scenario through my mind, thinking of when I could have shot her according to the rules of engagement. I wanted so badly to do it all over, but I won’t get that chance in Iraq so we don’t get it here.

Our second mission was focused on a meeting with a police chief and we convoyed through a more urban area. I got to be the TC, which basically means I was in the front passenger seat telling the driver where to go and communicating on the radio. It was so much better than being a driver. Everything went smoothly until we started to leave and then all hell broke loose. But, our trainers said we did an awesome job, even better than the military police unit who had come through before us.

We leave for Little Rock tomorrow and I’m so excited. We’re going to have a pretty open weekend, so Craig is coming to visit. It’s been about a month since I saw him and he’s all I can think about here. I never realized how hard it was to leave someone you’re completely in love with… Last time I left I wasn’t in a relationship, and I didn’t know the difference between leaving your family and leaving a significant other. I thought saying bye to my Mom was hard enough, but this is so much harder. It doesn’t help that we’re in that phase where we want to spend every single day together. I can’t wait to see him! I got a little homesick yesterday, missing Craig, Mom and the family, Amanda, my dog… I’m already looking forward to getting this year behind me and coming home. For now, I am Tawanda.

Don't give SGT King grenades

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:29:00 +0000

Today was another range today, except we were working with claymore mines and hand grenades. My weakness was a factor again. If it was a fragmentation grenade and not a practice grenade, I might as well have been on the other team because I could hardly throw it. What a girl! When I got in the prone position, which called for me to lay on my back, then bend a knee and throw it while rolling onto my stomach, I hardly threw it 3 feet!! That’s when the sergeant in charge said “SGT King, Where’s your First Sergeant? You tell him you’re not allowed any grenades in Iraq!” (phew.. I hope not!) We had a hooah army day of running through the woods throwing grenades and were finished in time for me and Adam to get in a run and order Italian food, and still have an early night!

Our unit has a new motto. For a while is was “Givema Check” – sounds like give me my check, because of our pay issues. Now, it’s Rub the buddah. It came about because our 1SG calls his belly “buddah” and says things like “feed the Buddha hooah” or “rub the buddah for luck.” So, every time we’re called to attention we yell “Rub the buddah” and everyone in earshot looks real confused.

Shoot 'Em Up

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:04:00 +0000

The Army pays me to play video games… It’s true. Yesterday we spent time with the Small Arms Readiness Group, shuffling between two trailers with huge screens connecting to .50 cals and SAWs. It was like playing a video game, but using actual weapons as the controllers. I killed about 15 people and had a lot more hits. Craig would have loved it!

The forecast called for snow today, but God smiled on us and gave us blue skies for the range. We were at the range around 8 am this morning. It was windy, cold and my hands were numb in a matter of minutes, but once I got in line to fire the grenade machine gun I suddenly warmed up. The range was lined with 4 humvees, all facing a huge lot full of tanks and armored personnel carriers.

I hopped in the first humvee, grabbed the MK-19, and locked and loaded… sort of. They say to treat the big weapons like they stole your money… get rough with them, yank them and pull them, don’t be gentle. I grabbed that charging handle and pulled as hard as I could… it hardly moved and I threw myself into the back of the turret. Try again… ppppppuuuuuulllllllll…. no luck. I was pretty embarrassed and I blame it on my numb hands… (and weak arms). Around the 4th or 5th try, I put a foot on the radio in the vehicle for leverage and pulled again…Finally! Thank God! I was ready to fire. Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom… 3-5 second bursts and grenades were flying! I’m not really sure where I was aiming… I was just shooting that thing and having a blast. It was over way too soon, but I jumped out and went to the next line – the .50 cal!

I ran into the same problem with the .50 cal. My little arms just couldn’t yank that charging handle back and again, I was embarrassed. I finally got it locked and loaded, aimed down range at a tank and let it loose. I felt like Al Pacino or something… (Say Hello to my little Friend). When I was done, I turned around to wave at the camera and the sergeant who was helping me called me Hollywood… (Well, Yes Sergeant… I am a broadcaster). From there, I went to the 240 Bravo Machine Gun and the M249 Machine Gun (the SAW). I hate firing in the prone position (on your belly with the weapon in your shoulder), because when I turn my head to look through the sights my helmet inches down a little bit and blocks my vision. It takes me forever to get adjusted and I didn’t feel like dealing with it, so I just started firing… then I got yelled at for firing over the wood line… oops. I saw a little better when I got to the SAW and actually hit the tank a few times… who knew?

We were done in time to come back for a hot lunch, then we cleaned the weapons and now we’re sitting here…. just sitting, waiting to find out what we need for our mobilization packets. An admin specialist from our headquarters flew in to help us put these packets together, but everything is very disorganized. She really needs to get with everyone one-on-one and let us know what to do. We all thought we were done a few days ago, and now we’re finding out we’re not. I think it would have been better if she found out exactly what the packet lacked, then made a list and handed it out so we could complete it… now, here we sit, wasting time, waiting on her to come tell us and if anyone has a question, there might be some attitude thrown their way. THIS JUST IN: She’s giving everyone stuff on a thumb drive later, so we’ve been sitting here for nothing. Amazing. I’m praying for patience.

The Garden State, where you'll learn enough to get your butt kicked

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:28:00 +0000

It’s Monday night, our fourth night in the Garden State, aka New Jersey. We got here pretty late Friday night and we had the day off on Saturday. I guess they knew we were going to need the rest, because we’re still feeling the effects of yesterday’s combatives class. For the next three weeks, we’re training with another public affairs unit who will head over around the same time we do. They’ve got a few more females, so the estrogen levels are at an all time high for us. YAY!

We had a formation yesterday at 0630 and were at combatives (basically, hand to hand combat) by 0745. We started by learning the basics of standing and sitting like the killers we are, and then we moved onto some basic holds and learned the technique of shrimping, which is basically weaseling your way out of your opponent’s hold. I had a lot of fun the entire day and paired up with a girl from the other unit to practice the holds and the techniques used to get out of them. Towards the end of the day, each unit formed a separate circle to pair up and practice. The instructor paired me and PFC (private first class) Maulding together. He’s the smallest guy in the unit and we like to call him McLovin, because of his “Superbad” looks. I definitely underestimated his skinny-ness, because he had me from the start. I put up a good fight, but it didn’t help. I even tried to get myself in a backbend to release his grip when he had me on my back on top of him. But, I still came out on the losing team. So, I sat on the side of the circle and rested up for the next bout. After the units sparred individually, we formed one big circle together and we were able to challenge the other unit. The guys really got into it, and although I wanted to try again, I didn’t really want to “challenge” anybody. Basically, I was scared and intimidated. Lucky Me, I didn’t have to challenge anyone… The instructor picked me out of the group and put me against the girl I’d been practicing with all day. The instructors told us at the beginning of the day that we would learn enough to get our butts kicked, and I did. I put up another good fight and even got out of the bent arm bar and a couple of good chokes, but she had the dominant fighting position most of the time and at the end of our 2 minutes, she was in control. My pride was bruised, but I’m determined to spend the next year working on these techniques and getting better… I let my whole unit know that by the time we got home, I was going to have the skills to kick everyone’s butts.

Today was definitely an easier day. We formed up at 0715 and marched over to start learning the basics of the M9 pistol and the M203 grenade launcher. Last time I was in Iraq, I was issued the M9 so I was familiar with it, but I’ve never fired the grenade launcher and am so looking forward to playing with that this week. After talking about weapons, we had a long class on CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear – or as our instructor calls it “nook-yoo-ler“). We went over types of chemical agents and then watched Alvarado (Rizzo) decontaminate herself, which consists of rubbing a charcoal like substance on any exposed skin. Classic.

We were in the classroom until 1800 (6:00) and then I went for a run with the 1SG, Stone, Sully, Patterson and Maulding. We’ve been eating a lot of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) lately, and today they gave us that for lunch and dinner! If you’ve ever had an MRE, you know how awful they taste. Yesterday, I got the chicken noodle MRE and ate about 1/2 of the meal and the bag of peanut M&Ms that came with it (the M&Ms are what I search for when picking out an MRE, because that’s about the only thing I’ll eat). Today at lunch, I grabbed chicken and dumplings. Since I’m used to the chicken and dumplings my Uncle Sammy makes, I didn’t even try to heat up the package and went straight for the wheat bread, apple jelly and pumpkin pound cake. The wheat bread was okay, but the jelly had the consistency of water and the pound cake had an awful after taste. When I found out we were having MREs for dinner, I didn’t even bother to grab one and instead heated up a bag of popcorn I bought from the break room. Adding insult to injury, half the popcorn was burnt. I ate it anyway, and shared some with Alvarado and Frank (Sarratt).

Tomorrow we’ll be back in the classroom going over shooting techniques using the sights we’re taking for our weapons. Later this week, we’ll be going to the range.. FUN! It’s pretty cold here in the mornings and at night and I’m not sleeping well because even with two army blankets, I’m freezing!! I’m hoping we’ll get those high-speed, hooah sleeping bags soon and I’ll be sleeping like a baby.

Love them like Jesus

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:58:00 +0000

We leave for New Jersey tomorrow and I’m working on packing up everything. The real fun starts now… if you can call it that. We’ll be firing every weapon imaginable, practicing convoy operations, busting down doors… all the war stuff you gotta learn. We’ll have to sleep in a faux-fob (forward operating base) for 5 days, which means we’ll be in tents, probably pulling guard duty around the clock and practicing procedures for incoming fire and ambushes. Part of me is looking forward to it, because some of the training can be fun, but the days can be long, tedious and tiresome. At least we’re only there for three weeks, so our “hooah” (a common army word that means yes and everything else) training will be split up between now and three weeks in December.

Drama is already brewing in the unit and I’m trying to bring the cohesion back… not that it was necessarily there before. We all just met each other two weeks ago, so we’re just starting to know each other’s personalities, ticks and peeves. Today, one of the soldiers got “offended” and ended up making everyone else mad. This particular soldier isn’t too popular among the others (words like crazy are associative adjectives), and I’ve tried to be a friend and defend the soldier to others and also help that soldier. Anyway, today was just another reason for the others to have a vendetta against that soldier. I know the soldier can be over the top sometimes and some of my unit thinks a little too much to handle, but some of that soldier’s leadership seem to have personal grudges that need to be resolved before we leave. A few days ago, when I defended said soldier, I was told that I “will learn” and to watch my back. I always watch my back, but at the same time, I hope what I learn is to love everyone like Jesus… that seems to be my mantra the last couple of days. It’s discouraging to hear, “I don’t want to sway your opinion, but you’ll learn SGT King… you’ll learn.” Learn what, know it all? That soldier is a person, and I’m going to love and hopefully help.

That’s not to say that people aren’t pushing my buttons, but they don’t really know it because I just smile and walk away most of the time. For instance, we’re putting together promotion packets and there is a Staff Sergeant who’s had experience putting packets together before. I was trying to position my tabs just right in the folder, so instead of practicing on tabs A-M (which I need for my packet) I decided to pull from the back and punch holes in the XYZ tab. (That way, if I messed up, I didn’t mess up the tabs I actually needed… common sense, amazing) I put the tab in the folder and held it up to ask the staff sergeant how it looked. What I got was a disgusted look and a “First of all, why do you have XYZ in there?” (Well, STAFF SERGEANT, because I didn’t want to mess up the alignment on the tabs I’m actually going to use.. If I make a mistake, I’d rather it be on a tab I can throw away.) Things like that really get under my skin, because there is more than one person with us who seems to always look for the bad things, hoping to use that authority and rank, rather than kindly mentoring and teaching soldiers. I understand this is the Army and it’s not all rainbows and butterflies, but kindness can go a long way anywhere.

My entire point is this: If we’re going to be together for a year, we have to be a cohesive team. We have to work together, put our personal differences aside, bite the bullet and smile and get the job done! My prayer is to love everyone like Jesus, no matter what mistakes they make, no matter how they treat me or what they say.. I need to love these people, I need to forgive them if they hurt my feelings or get on my nerves, and I need to be the light on the darkest of days. Whether I like it or not, this is my family for the next year, and a family should be based in love.