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.