Week 5 (May 4-May 11): Weapons

Weapons, weapons, weapons… This was the theme of the week. After the three-day weekend, this was a great way to get back into training. On Tuesday, we loaded into our HMMWVs drove to the armory and picked up our crew-served weapons to include our 50-caliber machine gun, M240 machine gun, and M249 machine gun. Later during the day we received primary military instruction on the weapons. This was in a clamshell tent located a couple blocks away from where we were staying. The instruction also included familiarization with foreign weapons.

This is picture is of me sitting in the HMMWV truck commander position. The person in this position is responsible for the radios and communicating with the overall convoy commander. They are responsible for the truck.

HM1 Gann is sitting in the right rear dismount position. Both rear positions are the dismounted positions. They are responsible for exiting the vehicle when required. Travis Gann is a pharmacy technologist going to Mazar-i-Sharif. He is carrying the M249 machine gun.

HM1 Cantorna is our driver. He is a MRI technologist from National Naval Medical Center (NNMC). Jerry is also carrying a M249 machine gun, which fires the 7.62mm round.

LCDR Becker is a anesthesiologist from Naval Medical Center San Diego. He is sitting in the left rear dismount position. He also doubled as our medic for our entire convoy.

The mandatory ‘Soldier of Fortune’ photo op. From left to right, HM1 Webber, HM1 Wolfe, and HM1 Cantorna. These were some of the sharpest HM1s I’ve had an opportunity to work with. All three of them are up for HMC this year and I would not be surprised to see them all get picked up. HM1 Webb was actually the sailor of the year at Jacksonville Naval Hospital this year.

The team picture of our HMMWV. Left to right: myself, HM1 Travis Gann, HM1 Jerry Cantorna, and LT DJ Becker. We actually didn’t have an uparmored HMMWV to drive. The uparmored M1151s were limited and each team only have one available to them.

This is a picture of the M249 machine gun. It shoots the 7.62mm NATO round. It’s larger than the 5.56mm US M4/M16 round. We had to learn how to disassemble, assemble, and perform a function check on this weapon.

The were multiple AK47s that we became familiar with during our familiarization to foreign weapons course.

These are examples of 7.62mm sniper rifles.

This is the 50 caliber machine gun used by NATO forces. Large machine gun. Had to learn how to assemble, disassemble, time and space, and perform function checks on this weapon.

The next day we received PMI (primary military instruction) on our personal weapons: the M9 handgun and the M4 rifle. This was the electronic range were we used laser to practice basic marksmanship skills.

This is me attempting to demonstrating basic marksman ship skills.

Later that afternoon, we went to the electronic simulator range to practice shooting the 50 caliber machine gun and the M240 machine gun.

I put in the above screen shot from my iPhone to show where the range was located. You can see the wedge shape that the range carves out in the Kansas countryside.

DJ and me looking tough as we carry our ammo from the depot to the 50 caliber machine guns. We ended up loading this ammo into a metal case where it is fed into the machine gun.

VIDEO OF THE 50 CALIBER SHOOTING.

Because there were over 100 people trying to qualify on the M240, M249, and 50-cal for both day and night. We were shooting from 0800 through 0400 the next morning. Over 20 hours of shooting in one day. However, a lot of it was spent waiting for our turn on the range. ‘Hurry up and wait’ is the army term for this. See the above photo and you’ll understand.

After spending all day on Thursday shooting the machine guns, we spend all day on Friday cleaning the weapons. It was a tedious process, which included using everything from brushes, cloths, and dental appliances to remove every last speck of carbon on the weapons. Above CDR Beth Harbison demonstrates how how to clean the 50 cal. Beth is actually an ED doctor from Jacksonville, Florida.

One of the benefits of flying my Cessna 182 out to Ft. Riley was the ability to visit my cousin Schenley in St. Louis, Missouri. I was also able to spend some time with my cute nephew Nathan and Schenley’s beautiful wife Susan. We played hockey and baseball. Nathan by the end of my stay became quite good at swinging the bat. I see a future in him…

Schenley and me in historic downtown St Charles.

Our carriage ride in St. Charles. Schenley’s parents came down to celebrate Mother’s Day with Susan.

Schenly, Susan, Nathan and me right before I took off to go back to Ft. Riley. Unfortunately, the weekend had to end.

This is LCDR Tim Thompson who is our pharmacist from Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton. Tim is heading to Afghanistan with us as the pharmacy mentor. His grandmother and girlfriend both live in St. Louis, so it was a perfect opportunity for us to get some flying in. Tim was a quick learner and a natural at the stick.

Week 4 (Apr 27-May 3): Blue Force Tracker, Biometrics, and Easter Long Weekend

This was a short week with our team on Monday and Tuesday being split into two groups. Half of us took a biometrics and blue force tracker course. And the other half of us took an advance medical course. Being that all of us were docs, nurses, and corpsman. They originally set us up to all take the course. Some of us felt this would not be safe since we will be leading our own convoys and would need to learn how the blue force tracker worked. I volunteered to help take the biometrics and blue force tracker course.

The camera above is what we use to ID potential suspects. Basically, it’s a fancy camera that is capable of facial recognition and finger printing. One model has a satellite link to the FBI database and the other one has a data card with over 10,000 profiles downloaded into it.

In the communications class we learned how to setup the radio frequencies and download all the encryptions that we’ll need to use.

The blue force tracker (BFT) is a device that is great for situational awareness (SA) on the battlefield. Every unit that has the BFT will be displayed in real time on the screen, to include vehicles, aircraft, artillery, and tanks. It’s been documented to have significantly decreased the number of fratricide events. See the above poster for a couple of case reports. Enemy units are displayed by manually entering them on the screen. These manual updates will also display on all the other BFTs in the local area. This device can be used to e-mail each other with urgent messages and also be used to call a medevac with one click of the mouse. It’s a great piece of equipment that significantly increases SA.

The 1^st Division command during the Easter three day weekend had no DUIs and authorized the command another three day weekend on the 1^st of May. Most of us, flew back home on that three day weekend. Mike, DJ and I, (the three from San Diego) chose to fly out late on Thursday and return Sunday night for three days and three nights back at home. Not to bad. However, because the two hour drive from Ft. Riley to Kansas City it took almost 9 hours each way to get home.

On Thursday night, Thuy and I stayed downtown at our Wyndham timeshare in San Diego. And the rest of the weekend, the focuse was on food. Especially, anything that I couldn’t get in Ft. Riley, Kansas. Friday, my parents, Anselm, Joy were able to come down and bring down some of my favorite foods from a restaurant near Irvine called Taiwan Little Restaurant. My favorites from this restaurant include the steamed dumplings and fatty pork. Saturday night we had to make a stop at Onami, all you can eat seafood restaurant in Mission Valley. On Sunday, because Thuy had to spend most of the day at work, I decided to fly back a little bit early in my Cessna 182 Skylane. Although a bit reluctant at first, Thuy convinced me by saying, “This will be your last opportunity to fly in the next seven months and this will also allow you an opportunity to fly out to St. Louis to visit Schenly and Mike.” I ended up flying over 40 hours in the next three weeks.

The picture above is the Grand Canyon, you can see the battleship in the center of the picture. Beautiful even at 11,500 feet! I actually made it back over eights hours earlier than Mike and DJ, because their flights ended up being delayed out of San Diego. But most importantly, I had my airplane.

Week 3 (Apr 19-25): IEDs, HMMWVs, and CLS

Week 3 (Apr 19-25): After an uneventful Sunday of eating, running, and lifting, we began week 3 with the improvised explosive devices (IED) course. This was a sobering one day course where they showed all the latest technologies that the enemy are currently using against us. They also demonstrated some of the electronic, mechanical, and thermal countermeasures that NATO forces were employing to defeat these threats. Thank goodness many of these countermeasures are very effective against most of these IEDs. God bless the EOD units who continue to risk their lives to keep us safe.



The first picture above is an example of one of the countermeasure devices that are currently employed by NATO forces. It’s called the crusader and is built into the new HMMWVs. It includes the antenna on the far right, the actual box on the left which is located in the trunk and remote which is located within the cabin. The actual device is not classified only the frequencies that it jams.



The practical exercise from the IED course included locating the IEDs in the simulated Afghan town. Can you locate where the IED is in the picture above? Find it? It’s actually the flat rock on the bottom right of the picture. There was a small pressure plate that the instructors placed there to get us when we stepped on that rock. Fortunately none of us stepped on it, but sadly, none of us were able to locate it either. The said the best way to find these IEDs is to notice what doesn’t belong there. They said if it had rained and it was muddy, someone for sure would have stepped on it, to keep their boots from getting muddy. Sometimes I guess it’s better to be lucky than good…


On Tuesday and Wednesday, we took the HMMWV driver’s course. With this course we all became qualified to drive the HMMWVs day and night (with and without NVGs. The driver’s training also included how to tow the trucks using the hasty and the regular method. The hasty tow is used under fire where you just run out there and quickly attach a thick rope to the disabled vehicle to get it out of the kill zone, see the yellow rope on the hood in front of the driver’s side hood? The regular tow is when you have more time and can attach a stiff metal towbar from one vehicle to the disabled vehicle.



One of the trainers we had to pass was the HMMWV rollover egress machine. It’s similar to the helodunk from flight school., we were completely flipped over 180 degrees and told to egress with our complete body armor on and our M4 rifle. It’s really quite tricky. Apparently, with all of the new armor that these HMMWVs got it made them very top heavy and susceptible to rollovers. The Army found that by using this trainer that they noticed a decrease in the number of deaths from these rollover accidents.



This video is an example of the rollover egress machine in action. The critical angle for the trainer is 28 degrees. At this angle, we were taught to yell ‘roll over’ so that the other passengers and especially the gunner will know to get down into the cabin and brace themselves.



Here’s a picture of me in the gunner’s turret in the brand new uparmored HMMWVs, the M1151 model. These vehicles were brand new even with the new car smell. At of these vehicles were over 6,000 pounds, 6.0L turbocharged engines. Because of the weight these ‘trucks’ they accelerated very slowly but had tons of torque and once you got them moving they could really move.



For the course and anytime we drove the HMMWVs we had to have our complete body armor on for safety. As you see, this armor is very bulky and difficult to move around in. There are four ceramic plates (front, back, and two sides) that are designed to stop the larger 7.62mm round. This armor with everything attached weighs over 40 pounds. One of the things we found out throughout our time in Ft. Riley was that we had to continue to adjust the body armor to make it more and more comfortable. In this picture here, you can see my arms to not come down completely and I ended up adjusting my side plates down an inch allow my arms to rest more comfortably.

The other two guys in the picture are DJ Becker and Mike Feightner. All of us are from San Diego. DJ is an anesthesiologist and Mike is a radiologist at NMCSD. DJ grew up in Montana. Mike is from Chicago and played some pretty high level rugby at Penn State and for the Super League team Chicago Lions.



The last three days we completed the Combat Lifesavers Course. This is a course that the army has all their soldiers take. Its goal is to reduce number of preventable deaths. They found that if the common soldier is able to treat the four main preventable injuries it would reduce the number of deaths. These four skills are applying pressure to stop bleeding, treating a tension pneumothorax, using an occlusive dressing to stop a sucking chest wound, and applying a tourniquet. In the above photo they demonstrate how to transport a patient with just a blanket and two poles.