TheTraining Continues...

Good Day to All!!

Welcome to Post #2. When we last visited our "camouflaged crusader", we were doing some convoy ops training, and I forgot to post a picture of LCDR Stanley, my trusty sidekick (office manager) at Annapolis. She is doing quite well, and I got a good picture of her on "point" during the exercise. She loves playing with the weapons (not), but does not mind the plastic ones. Next to her in this picture is our Command Chaplain. He is a great guy from Pensacola. We have had limited access to Catholic services, but I suspect that will change once we are settled in Kuwait. He is a protestant (Nazarean), and has held a few Interfaith services which I have attended.

On Saturday, we got to play with our MOPP gear. MOPP is some acronym which I cannot recall right now, but suffice it to say that we use it when there are BAD things in the air. Chem, bio, or nuke attacks. The gear is hot, heavy, lined with charcoal and other things. I recommend putting it on only in an air conditioned room or in a stand-up freezer. Despite these recommendations, the training Wizards making the decisions thought it best to put it on in the early afternoon of a hot day. They also thought it was good sport to take a 10 minute walk in the gear just so we could experience the joy of walking around in ill fitting galoshes, an airtight hood, gas mask, and portable body oven. Here I am in the suit, before putting on the heavy rubber gloves on the ground. And no, I cannot get you a pair of the boots OR a gasmask...

On Sunday, we did NOT get to go to church, because we had more training to do. This was the M9 weapons training day. I could call it gun day, but now that I have been through the training, I will call it weapons day because we don't use the word "gun". It was a BLAST (pardon the pun). We spent the morning getting comfortable with our weapons, then before lunch we went into the simulator. Basically a high speed video game, complete with real "weapons" hooked up to some hydraulics to give the proper recoil and also a laser targeting system to simulate the real targets and you real shots. The trick to the qualification is the timing. You get a seemingly short interval of time to draw, aim, and fire the weapon. In some sequences, you need to draw, fire, change hands, then fire again - or draw, aim, fire, reload, then fire again. Anyway, until you get used to it, it seems like you are really rushed. Some folks never got more than 1/2 of their rounds off before the time limit expired. This happened during both the simulator and the actual range qualification. This was clearly the highlight of the training thus far.

The range was hot, and of course we had to wear those heavy kevlar vests during the live fire portion. We shot through the scenarios at 3, 7, and 15 meters from the target. Again, very fun. I qualified as "Sharpshooter", missed "Expert" by 10 points. Not a great score for Greg, Tom, or Kevin. Even Healy probably shoots the weapon well. But, for Doc T whose only weapons experience was three rounds from an M-16 ten years ago, I was delighted. I plan to get to the range in Kuwait on a regular basis, and will likely take the boys shooting (firing) when I return. (Really, Kath...)

On Monday, we spent the morning training for "patient operations", which means moving patients onto ambulances and ambulance busses (school busses fitted to carry litters (stretchers).

Now, if I am carrying patients to ambulances as part of my regular job, there is something very wrong with the situation. However, I will know how my staff should load patients on these vehicles, so I suppose the training was worthwhile. We ran through various scenarios, had a few more classes, then went to lunch.

After lunch, it was time for the "Confidence Course". This golden slice of training is designed for you to get confidence in the ability of your gas mask to prevent you from getting gassed. (We will pause while Parith and her family finish laughing). So we get to go into a small brick building (in 100 degree heat), then the Wizards check our gear and light up some tear gas. We then jump around the building and we make sure the mask is working correctly. One of my teammates had a mask that was NOT working correctly, and of course his eyes started to water, snots came pouring out his nose, and he developed a violent coughing spell. The Wizards got his mask to seal, and he got better.

This is me with the "thumbs up" sign prior to heading into the building behind me (gas chamber). I thought about running and screaming out of the building when we exited, to freak out the folks who had yet to go in, but, instead, I just left quietly. Such fun!

For the final adventure, we did the land navigation course on Tuesday. We were led into the surrounding hillside with a compass, map, and a set of instructions for finding four markers in the brush. It was fun watching other docs and nurses not familar with the "outdoors" try to find their way around. I had a motivated group with lots of experience. We finished the course in 43 minutes, besting the record by nine minutes. Our reward, you ask? Waiting on the bleachers in the sun for another two hours while the other teams finished.

Here is a pic of the team. Joe on the top left is actually a good-looking dentist from Pensacola. Will is next to him, he is a psychiatrist from San Diego that went with me through medical school. "Obi" is next to me on the right; he is an ER doc from Okinawa, and then Bill on the left is a radiologist from Bethesda. The good thing about this trip thus far has been the cameraderie. Most of the folks are good people, fun to be around. A few complainers here and there, and some quirky personalities. We have had a good time. They say Pendleton is the lowpoint. If so, I should be all set.

Okay. It is Wednesday and we are finishing things up. We leave in the next several days.

Hope all is well with you and yours...

More to follow

Kris