(no subject)
2 weeks left, one of which is just a mound of paperwork to outprocess from BOLC II before I go to BOLC III for 4 months, where I at least get to live in my own place and hopefully shorter days.
We had our first semi-serious heat casualty last week. A guy became dizzy and started throwing up and being incapable of walking more than 250 meters or so without help. On that same day I drank more than 3 gallons of water in about 16 hours.
It was simmunition round day, where we shoot these pellets out of our weapons at each other that mark you with blue powder. They hurt quite a bit if you aren't hit in your ballistic plates, bruising you or even drawing blood even through clothes. I tagged my roommate a few times, nearly hitting him in the groin, but I managed to escape without ever being shot. One of the instructors broke the goggles of a student when he shot her in the face from about 10 feet away.
The heat was a huge factor because it was already about 95 degrees out, with zero shade around. When you were inside the 3 story "building" which were made mostly out of the giant metal containers you'll see on transport ships, it was often hotter than it was outside. Add to this that you're covered from head to toe in something, whether it be your uniform, bulletproof vest, ammo vest, knee/elbow pads, goggles, facemask, helmet, etc, and you have a perfect recipe for overheating. When you're in full gear there is no way to drink water, so they try to limit the missions to 30 minutes or so, but ours went long at over an hour. Regardless, it was the funnest day we've had yet.
In the evening, we did a night mission with blanks instead of sim rounds. We learned through a few hilarious shootings that in any given fire team of 4 people, at least one of them has no clue how to hold their fire when an unarmed person with their hands up says "don't shoot me" as the Americans bust the door down and move in to clear the room. Hooray, target identification!
Oklahoma has a lot of really cool little scrub birds with hilariously long tails who are constantly spreading their mouths wide open panting so they don't overheat. There are also these little scorpions about an inch long we find every now and then. More common are the rather large black and yellow garden spiders. Crickets live here in larger numbers than I've seen anywhere else in the U.S. Oklahoma itself may be more densely populated with crickets than a bait shop. Dozens of crushed crickets occupy the area under the streetlights at the grocery store on post. I've run into an elk (very nearly literally) and seen a ton of birds of prey as well as a few lizards measuring nearly 9 or 10 inches long.
We also find snakes pretty regularly, which results in a gaggle of half-retarded lieutenants standing around prodding at it while exasperated sergeants tell us over and over again that we are to leave the wildlife alone.
Anyway, just 2 more weeks here and one more paycheck here before I head south.
Hey, Zane, good luck on that wedding thing. I'd be there if it wasn't a 26 hour round trip plus gas. Somehow that seems not so worth it when I get about 53 hours off for the weekend.
We had our first semi-serious heat casualty last week. A guy became dizzy and started throwing up and being incapable of walking more than 250 meters or so without help. On that same day I drank more than 3 gallons of water in about 16 hours.
It was simmunition round day, where we shoot these pellets out of our weapons at each other that mark you with blue powder. They hurt quite a bit if you aren't hit in your ballistic plates, bruising you or even drawing blood even through clothes. I tagged my roommate a few times, nearly hitting him in the groin, but I managed to escape without ever being shot. One of the instructors broke the goggles of a student when he shot her in the face from about 10 feet away.
The heat was a huge factor because it was already about 95 degrees out, with zero shade around. When you were inside the 3 story "building" which were made mostly out of the giant metal containers you'll see on transport ships, it was often hotter than it was outside. Add to this that you're covered from head to toe in something, whether it be your uniform, bulletproof vest, ammo vest, knee/elbow pads, goggles, facemask, helmet, etc, and you have a perfect recipe for overheating. When you're in full gear there is no way to drink water, so they try to limit the missions to 30 minutes or so, but ours went long at over an hour. Regardless, it was the funnest day we've had yet.
In the evening, we did a night mission with blanks instead of sim rounds. We learned through a few hilarious shootings that in any given fire team of 4 people, at least one of them has no clue how to hold their fire when an unarmed person with their hands up says "don't shoot me" as the Americans bust the door down and move in to clear the room. Hooray, target identification!
Oklahoma has a lot of really cool little scrub birds with hilariously long tails who are constantly spreading their mouths wide open panting so they don't overheat. There are also these little scorpions about an inch long we find every now and then. More common are the rather large black and yellow garden spiders. Crickets live here in larger numbers than I've seen anywhere else in the U.S. Oklahoma itself may be more densely populated with crickets than a bait shop. Dozens of crushed crickets occupy the area under the streetlights at the grocery store on post. I've run into an elk (very nearly literally) and seen a ton of birds of prey as well as a few lizards measuring nearly 9 or 10 inches long.
We also find snakes pretty regularly, which results in a gaggle of half-retarded lieutenants standing around prodding at it while exasperated sergeants tell us over and over again that we are to leave the wildlife alone.
Anyway, just 2 more weeks here and one more paycheck here before I head south.
Hey, Zane, good luck on that wedding thing. I'd be there if it wasn't a 26 hour round trip plus gas. Somehow that seems not so worth it when I get about 53 hours off for the weekend.