Friday, April 22, 2005
Update
After WFEX II, the next thing we did was our machine gun FEX. We hopped on a bus out to range 6 and fired a couple of machine guns. Good fun, but they never give us enough ammo. They did fire several AT-4s (shoulder fired anti-armor rockets) and a TOW (anti-tank missile). The AT-4s were quite impressive, big booms with a six foot flame when they launch and big booms when they hit. It is a short range weapon, so the tank hulks they were shooting at were only 200m in front of us. The TOW is a long range guided missile which never misses, but the enlisted guy shooting it for us missed. It took off across the range and was streakign towards the target 3,000m away, but about 500m from the target it unexplicably turned left and up. I'm sure he is going to get some crap for that from his buddies.
We went on to fire the Mk 19 40mm grenade launcer, the M2 .50cal machine gun and the M240G light machine gun. Of course, they didn't give us enough ammo and there was only enough to fire off a few bursts. Everybody liked the Mk 19, it lobs these fist sized grenades out about 1,000m which explode on impact. It makes a good show. The .50 cal makes a hell of a lot of noise and the M240G is a fast, powerful machine gun. Good times.
After that was the endurance course final test. The e-course is 4-5 miles of running on trails and obstacles. On top of this, we are running it in full uniform (boots and utes) with a 15-20lb pack, rifle and helmet. By the end of the course, you really hate that pack. Unfortunately I was not feeling well at all and had to watch my peers run the course from the sideline. There is no worse feeling than standing there and watching your platoon go through this thing and not being with them. I had to make a decision, it was either go to medical and get some help or risk beign sick for WFEX III. Considering that WFEX III is a five day op in the field, I felt like I should be healthy for it so I went to medical and they told me I could not run the e-course.
The platoon needed someone to time them, so I was the one. I stood there at the start with a clipboard and my stopwatch as they took off and met them at the end and recorded their times. I have always avoided medical, so this was a new thing for me, being on light duty. I didn't even want to look them in the eyes. Even though they knew that I was very sick, I felt like a shitbag for sitting out of training. Pretty effective thing, that feeling of responsibility to your unit that they instill in you. Despite the fact that I had been coughing for about three weeks, had developed a fever in the past week, and likely would have been a casualty had I attempted the e-course, I regretted having gone to sick call. That would burn me a few weeks later.
I did make up the e-course this week and posted a pretty respectable time: 66 minutes and 48 seconds. It was about middle of the pack for the platoon.
WFEX III was so much nicer than WFEXII. The weather was gorgeous. Lows in the high 30s and low 40s at night and highs reaching the low 70s with sun during the day. We almost didn't know what to do, Alpha company is not used to nice weather.
It did become frustrating, however, being Joe the rifleman for another FEX. I got my chance to be a tactical commander on FEX I and won't get another chance, so I just play one of the PFCs or Lance Corporals in the platoon for the guy who is in command. It becomes frustrating because you see things he/she is screwing up that you want to change but you are not in command. It's also just frustrating to be in that role as a lieutenant. I was a corporal before I got here, so I am not accustomed to being treated as a private; taking orders without questioning why. I did it once, I don't want to do it again. I fully realize the benefits for myself as an officer and for these officers who are new to the military, so don't bombard me with comments, I'm just setting the stage, describing the background friction that comes into play on a FEX.
I honestly don't remember much about FEX III. I remember we had two days in the defense and two days in the offense, but I can't remember any details. This stuff tends to blend together, becomes a blur.
We went on to fire the Mk 19 40mm grenade launcer, the M2 .50cal machine gun and the M240G light machine gun. Of course, they didn't give us enough ammo and there was only enough to fire off a few bursts. Everybody liked the Mk 19, it lobs these fist sized grenades out about 1,000m which explode on impact. It makes a good show. The .50 cal makes a hell of a lot of noise and the M240G is a fast, powerful machine gun. Good times.
After that was the endurance course final test. The e-course is 4-5 miles of running on trails and obstacles. On top of this, we are running it in full uniform (boots and utes) with a 15-20lb pack, rifle and helmet. By the end of the course, you really hate that pack. Unfortunately I was not feeling well at all and had to watch my peers run the course from the sideline. There is no worse feeling than standing there and watching your platoon go through this thing and not being with them. I had to make a decision, it was either go to medical and get some help or risk beign sick for WFEX III. Considering that WFEX III is a five day op in the field, I felt like I should be healthy for it so I went to medical and they told me I could not run the e-course.
The platoon needed someone to time them, so I was the one. I stood there at the start with a clipboard and my stopwatch as they took off and met them at the end and recorded their times. I have always avoided medical, so this was a new thing for me, being on light duty. I didn't even want to look them in the eyes. Even though they knew that I was very sick, I felt like a shitbag for sitting out of training. Pretty effective thing, that feeling of responsibility to your unit that they instill in you. Despite the fact that I had been coughing for about three weeks, had developed a fever in the past week, and likely would have been a casualty had I attempted the e-course, I regretted having gone to sick call. That would burn me a few weeks later.
I did make up the e-course this week and posted a pretty respectable time: 66 minutes and 48 seconds. It was about middle of the pack for the platoon.
WFEX III was so much nicer than WFEXII. The weather was gorgeous. Lows in the high 30s and low 40s at night and highs reaching the low 70s with sun during the day. We almost didn't know what to do, Alpha company is not used to nice weather.
It did become frustrating, however, being Joe the rifleman for another FEX. I got my chance to be a tactical commander on FEX I and won't get another chance, so I just play one of the PFCs or Lance Corporals in the platoon for the guy who is in command. It becomes frustrating because you see things he/she is screwing up that you want to change but you are not in command. It's also just frustrating to be in that role as a lieutenant. I was a corporal before I got here, so I am not accustomed to being treated as a private; taking orders without questioning why. I did it once, I don't want to do it again. I fully realize the benefits for myself as an officer and for these officers who are new to the military, so don't bombard me with comments, I'm just setting the stage, describing the background friction that comes into play on a FEX.
I honestly don't remember much about FEX III. I remember we had two days in the defense and two days in the offense, but I can't remember any details. This stuff tends to blend together, becomes a blur.
// posted by Josh @ 4/22/2005 12:13:00 AM 
