Foxholes and Dogtags

Kosovo Websites

I've been busy looking up various websites in regards to Kosovo that kind of gives you another feel from another perspective about what's going on. Some of these I stumbled upon by accident, others I actively searched for.

Mail Call - This website belongs to another soldier located somewhere on Bondsteel, and his letters home. Since it appears he is taking the same journey I am, from Ft Lewis to Hohenfels to Bondsteel, it is kind of interesting to see how his experiences have been. And they have been very similar to mine. I think I should search this guy out.

One Lap of Kosovo - This is actually one article out of a website about Kosovo Driving. It is rather accurate. If you want to know the real danger of being in Kosovo, it isn't the threat of being fired upon. It is the threat of being run off the road.

Kosovo Photo Album - Just a series of random snapshots in regards to the province of Kosovo.

A Kosovo Log - This is actually an old website, I just kind of peaked at it and found it interesting.

Kosovo Weblog - A current blog updated by Kushtrim Xhakli, not necessarily a Milblog, but it's a blog by a guy who is actually Kosovar and lives in Pristina. He appears to be a techno nut.

Gimpy Knees and Harleys

I did something amazing this morning.

I woke up at 530 and went for a run. Even more amazing because of the time change (yeah, Europe is a week earlier then America). So I was actually up and about EARLY this morning.

But I also discovered that I have a gimpy knee. It was ok when I ran this morning, but I'm worried that it will start to fester and give me some problems down the road. That's frustrating. I have plans for that knee.

And then I was greeted this morning by Eminem. I don't know about you, but I don't mind Eminem when I'm in the mood for him. And seeing that I am not a morning person, in the morning is not the time to listen to Eminem.

Apparently my roommate thinks so. But that's another rant.

Meanwhile, today was a day where we got to drive to Monteith. I observed a lot on the way there and found an honest to goodness Kosovo Harley Repair Shop!

I should ask Dad if he wants a Harley from here, I bet I could get one really cheap. He always wanted a Harley, but I'm not exactly certain if this is the kind he wants.

But I should probably put up a picture.

Hmm. . . Pictures to follow tomorrow. Along with descriptions. Yeah, that would be cool.

Town Hall

Every once in a great while, the army gives lower ranking soldiers such as myself an opportunity to participate in a forum with senior ranking enlisted personnel, sometimes it is within the unit, battalion level, or even a brigade. Today, we had one of these 'town hall meetings' involving Task Force Falcon, allowing any enlisted soldier who wanted to share their thoughts or hear what was going on in the army to attend. But this was unique to most Town Hall meetings. This involved the Command Sergeant Major of the Army.

He's here in Kosovo for a few days and gave us some information in regards to what was happening with the army and what kind of transition it will be going through within the next 5 years. It gave me a lot of insight in my own career with the army, as I'm at a crossroad now as to whether or not I want to reenlist this November or get out.

My grandmother keeps telling me to get out, but she's old fashioned that way. I still love her to death.

Anyway, I've got a lot to think about, and I've given myself until November to make a decision. If I'm still undecided by that point, I'll have to extend regardless. But I think I can only reenlist for the reserves while I'm in country, and a part of me wants to go active duty. Another part wants to get out and explore other avenues of my life, as well go back to school.

I'll admit that I didn't really want to go to this meeting, it is after all Saturday. But I'm glad I did now. Besides, it was a photo op! Now I can show people pictures and say 'look who I met!'

Command Sergeant Major of the Army (SMA) Preston, the highest ranking enlisted person in the entire Army. Shaking my hand.

Command Sergeant Major of the Army Reserve Jones, the highest ranking enlisted person in the Army Reserve.

And me having a bad hair day. 2nd and 3rd respectfully CSMA's I have ever met. I was also priveleged to meet SMA Jone's predecessor in 2001, I even got a photo op with him as well, I was wearing my Class A's and he was in Dress Blues.

SMA Jones has the new Army Combat Uniform (ACU) on. I won't be getting some of those until I get back from Kosovo. We also got an in depth description of the ACU and its improvements from the current Battle Dress Uniform (BDU). I'm looking forward to getting it, though it will take me a while to get used to seeing it. For one, we are prohibited from starching the new ACU, and the command is actually going to enforce it. Which I'm all for.

Of course, if I get out, I won't be getting them at all. Mark the new ACU on the checklist encouraging me to reenlist.

Combat Load

Each month we have to inventory our ammunition. Because I frequently go outside the wire, I have a full combat load. As I emptied it out, I looked at how many rounds there were and decided to take a picture.

I think I could do something with this if I really tried, next time we do an inventory I'll be sure to work something out.

I think one of these days I'm going to follow my rifle around and chronicle its journey, where it goes and where I stick it. I kind of put a few items together and took a picture of that as well, mainly showing the combat load all lined up in a row.

And then I tweaked the picture in photoshop. Ah, what am I saying? It's a little cheesey and actually a poor composition. I think I'll work on my photography skills a bit more and see what else I can come up with.

And then I'll take some more pictures.

Kosovo Milblogs

Well, I don't know of a lot of other people with Milblogs in Kosovo other then myself, when I was approached by another soldier who came up to me and said "hey, you're the blogger!" When I confirmed that indeed I was, he told me he had a blog as well.

Jim's All Expenses Paid Trip To Kosovo

He's got a lot of good pictures in there of the area, I have some pictures too but I don't always get an opportunity to post them. That's something I have to rectify, but this is a good source of information about the area. He informed me that he was warned about his blog as well. He does want to set up a task force blog too, I wouldn't mind helping.

I think one of these days I will take a moment to seek out some other bloggers in Kosovo and get a Kosovar Blog Roll going or something. It's something we have in common, a little community and such that defies rank.

Gotta love that.

The Ten Commandments of Milblogging

Ok, so if you checked here over the past couple days, you may have noticed that I temporarily removed the Milblog (my choice, I wasn't ordered to do so by my commander). Well, it's back up, with a word of advice.

Watch what you say.

So in response to this, I have decided to come up with a list of things that I either already obeyed or am going to take extra precautions and make sure I don't slit my own wrists. Because the chain of command is watching.

I - Thou shalt not speak of any sensitive items

Um, basically, anything that is sensitive, it isn't to be discussed here. And I've been pretty good about not discussing sensitive items. For instance.

Don't say anything that's classified. Like talking about weapons systems, unit strength, detailed job descriptions, etc.

II - Thou shalt not discuss anything detailing Guard Duty

Pretty much, this falls under the above, and I broke this commandment. Usually when you are on Guard Duty, you are guarding something important. If you are telling people how you do guard duty and basically

III - Thou shalt not take the name of thy Chain of Command in Vain.

Chain of Command is pretty much off limits. You can't diss them and say things like, "gees, Major So and So is such a moronic doofus, how did he ever get into that position", which is generally just an all around big no go. Because if Major So and So is in your chain of command and he reads that, you're chances of promotion have just been squelched. And chances are, he will read it. eventually. Or somebody else will read it and tell him. And you're still screwed.

IV - Remember that thou art on Salary Pay.

Um, when you are deployed, you are on the Army's time all of the time. A soldier 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Keep your baring and act like a soldier. And that is doubly true for the Weblog, you are still representing the military.

And they can call you to do a detail, guard duty, or heck, a MASCAL at any time so you just better be prepared.

V - Honour thy Unit and don't criticize thy Commander

Yeah, you shouldn't say negative things about the unit. That is kind of a rule in the army in general, don't talk bad about your unit. Besides, they are the ones that hold your career in the palm of their hand.

Sometimes they do things that don't make sense and drive you stark raving insane, but that's for you to discuss in private letters, not exploting the weaknesses for all to read.

VI - Thou Shalt Not Discuss Future Missions

Saying things like "yeah, we're going to fly into Bosnia at 1345 on February 31st and set up a perimeter at Grid Coordinates BF 071963 for the purposes of securing so and so" is just plain stupid. Besides, Osama is watching. In hindsight, you can talk about missions that just happened, and I tend to do that after the day is over, but this then goes hand in hand with numero Uno. Don't discuss sensitive stuff, and don't go into to much detail. Likely, if you do it that way one time, you'll do it again, and the enemy now has an idea of how you do things.

VII - Thou Shalt Not Mention Adultry or spread Rumors.

Its a deployment. People are going to screw around and do stupid things. Don't talk about what other people are doing or so on and so forth. Besides, if I were to talk about something stupid I did, my Chain of Command will likely read it. And then what if I say something about somebody else and the hospital reads it? Even if I omit names, which I generally do, they can probably get an idea of who I'm talking about and then the rumor mill starts flying. And we don't want that. The rumor mill is bad enough as it is without the internet helping things out that much more. And then somebody back home reads it and then we're really getting something going.

VIII - Thou Shalt Not Rant

Guilty as charged. Ranting is left mainly to the main blog, but I shouldn't rant about things that are general military. The Command is watching. And Rants tend to be filled with a lot of passion and emotion and generally stupid things can be said in the midst of it all. Its just better to get a clear head and post things in a rational manner.

IX - Thou Shalt watch thy sarcasm.

Let's say, the military doesn't always make sense. being a soldier, I am very much aware of this fact and am often times saying things about it and being a sarcastic person, such things can come out as something it isn't. Sure, I can poke fun at the army from time to time in harmless jest, but I shouldn't be scathing in regards to military proceedings. They do things for a reason, it just so happens that those reasons are usually less then crystal clear.

Besides, if I'm joking around, it might be percieved as something else. And sarcasm can be taken completely for something it isn't.

X - If in Doubt, Don't Post it!

Yeah, if something is nagging you in the back of your mind about something you want to say, it is probably wiser to just not post anything. Besides, we are at war and anything that is posted on a Milblog can be quoted in an article in the newspaper or whatever else. Something you say can be taken entirely out of context.

And that basically just about covers it.

Don't Count Your Days

Lesson learned in today's army. Don't ever count on days off.

My NCOIC has made it a habit of recent to volunteer me for guard duty or whatever else details that happen on Sunday. In return, he has promised me days off in the future. Like two weeks ago, I was told that I was going to pull an 8 hour guard duty shift on my day off. Well, almost day off, because I was already coming in to do Air Sampling. In fact, I still came in and did Air Sampling though most of it got nixed on account of the weather.

I got half the next morning off anyway, just to take into account that I was up until 2 pulling guard duty. But that's beside the point.

Last weekend, I was tasked to do air sampling and go to the Airport to pick up the Hearing Conservation Instructors on what would normally be a half day. I ended up working about 12 hours or so. And on Sunday, my day off, I came in doing Air Sampling still. All this week I had class on Hearing Conservation (and my Air Sampling Mission went to somebody else for this week), and so I was informed that to compensate for the fact that I haven't had a full day off in well over two weeks (well, since February at least), I was going to get this entire weekend off. I asked who was going to take the people back to the airport, I was instructed to not worry about it, as they would take care of it.

Then the notorious good news / bad news. My NCOIC always disperses any news as good news and bad news. The bad news, I was going to have to come in today to do Air Sampling because the soldier that was originally going to do it has to go to the airport to drop the Hearing Conservation instructors off. Alright, the good news is I don't have to go to the Airport, because he has to. Or, well, supposedly I have a choice. Do Air Sampling or go to the Airport.

I chose the Air Sampling. And guess what? I ended up doing both. Yeah, that's right, I got to do both the Airport and Air Sampling. Oh, and I got to PMCS (primary maintenence checks and services) a vehicle TWICE because I supposedly forgot to do something in my hurry to get out to the Air Sampling to get that done. And you know what? The thing I 'forgot' to do was an after action that is usually mistaken as a 'before' action by most reservists, and it was an item I checked After instead of Before.

So I worked all day. Again. My fellow soldiers both worked half days.

Now, there is a moral to this story, besides the fact that yes indeed this is a rant. It is a fact of the army that most people work about 5 days a week. Hours are very flexible, and sometimes, in a deployment situation, you have to work more then your five days. I understand that. That's part of the job, you work until you get the job done.

I am deployed. As I see it, I am working seven days a week with an occaisional day off now and again. If I get the day off, then I'm lucky. If not, then oh well.

Now what I need to get through my NCOIC's head is that he should discontinue promising me days off. Because as illustrated, if you promise me a day off, it won't happen.

And I wouldn't have been as upset if I hadn't counted on having this day off. See, I was going to use the day to do some research for a talk I'm giving in church tomorrow. I would have used the entire week to prepare it, except for the small fact that I was in a Hearing Conservation Class all week and have been busy with that. Then on Friday, I found out about my Air Sampling Task, and 5 minutes before going to the airport I found out I was going. Yeah, that's right, it was a last minute thing. I guess I could have started on my talk yesterday, except for that MASCAL excercise that took two hours of my evening.

And so, the lesson is learned. I can't count on having a day off. I'm deployed, and I shouldn't expect it. Supposedly, I'm supposed to now take Sunday and Monday off.

I think I'll just take Sunday. Because if I count on Monday, I'll find myself in the office anyway. When I'm sure he's done and has no further use for me, then I'll retire to my room early.

At least, that's what would make sense, don't you think?

Hearing Conservation

Well, in class all this week, learning all about Hearing Conservation and the US Army. To put it all in perspective, today we watched a video, which happens to be one of my favorite war movies of all time (and that is beside the fact that they got some of the hottest actors today working in it). Black Hawk Down, yes, the movie where the Brits all have Texas accents. They were trying to draw into the fact where the one soldier has the SAW going off right above his head and loses his hearing for the rest of the movie.

Well, apparently, my instructor met the guy that character is based off of in real life. His hearing to this day is still shot. He has to wear hearing aids, and he's still in the military.

Kind of drives it home, doesn't it? Hearing loss is one of the biggest things in the military today that people get conpensation for from the VA. Its all that weapons fire that blows out your hearing.

My job that I'm learning is how to run the Hearing Test, and then reinforce to all the grunts out there that if they want to still hear by the time they are fifty, they need to keep their hearing protection in. Its important! And that means not enclosing yourself in your car with the base all the way up pounding out your ear drums. Despite popular belief, it isn't your ear drums you need to be worrying about anyway. Its your inner ear. You lose that, your hearing is shot, and you aren't going to get it back.

This class really helped me understand a lot about the ear, and hearing in general. A lot of this I really didn't know before. I don't know why, but I always enjoyed being in the learning environment, such as I am right now. I love to learn, and despite the dryness of this class, I'm actually finding it to be very fascinating.

As I sat and watched Black Hawk Down, I also started to remember why I loved being in the army as well. Call me crazy, but though the beurocracy of this institution drives me stark raving mad at times, I'm proud to be a member of the armed forces. And although I really don't make my living shooting other people up, I can do my own part in helping keep our soldiers healthy, so THEY can shoot other people up.

And they can hear each other while they do it.

Starching, Continued. . .

Well, well, well, what do you know? I was just reintroduced to another reason why I don't like starched uniforms.

We turned in a vehicle today. Which means before we turn it in, you top the gas tank off and wash it.

The wash rack, well, I get down and dirty and I made sure that vehicle was clean. In fact, I was focusing mainly on cleaning the vehicle that my BDUs suffered the consequences.

That nice little starch I had in them this morning? It is now splattered with mud all along the front of my pants. And the back? Well, just walking to the chow hall will get a streak of mud running down the length of your Boot.

And I had just polished those as well. Ok, so I guess this starch job lasted one day. And those boots? Guess I better polish them again. Good thing they're Matterhorns, thats a brand you don't spit shine. They just need to be black.

If Starch Were Like Steak

I was told to wear a pressed and starched uniform today. Fortunately, I had one in my closet.

I'll let you in on a little secret. I don't like to Starch my Uniforms. Mostly because the Starch irritates the heck out of my skin, but if the Sergeant says 'wear a pressed uniform', I say 'medium or well done?'

Regardless, they have a press shop here on post, where you drop off your uniform and pick it up 24 hours later.

I could have sworn I had asked for a medium rare starch.

When I cracked that thing open this morning, it turned out to be Extra Crispy. No wait, that's chicken. Anyway, I found myself with a wedgy and it was difficult to move. And my joints were starting to feel a chaffing. I didn't wear a jacket this morning because the cold couldn't break the material. The Colonel asked me wear it was when I walked in.

Maybe I should ask for a light starch next time. That might get me a well done starch.

For the Record

In Response to Ed :

Believe it or not, I HAVE attended PLDC. (to you civilians, that's short for Primary Leadership Development Course, AKA Sergeant School) In fact, I was one of those rare reservists that actually attended PLDC while I was still a Specialist. And I did pretty good too, I made the commadant's list and was the first female and, well, heck, I was the first soldier back with all of my points in Land Nav, in which I was gung ho and kicked butt!

And, um, I was the Platoon Sergeant the last four days of 2nd Platoon.

Don't ask me what happened to my motivation since then, because it looked like I was going on the right track and was all high speed gung ho Hoorah.

I'm on the Books to attend BNCOC this May (once again, that's Basic Non-Commissioned Officer Course, AKA Sergeant School Take TWO) So maybe I can pick up a couple pointers from them.

I think maybe afterwards, if I'm comfortable enough, I'll put in a packet for Staff Sergeant. I need to be ready for it though. Hopefully, I'll know when I'm ready.

Stripes

I got locked up today, at the position of attention, and was then 'counseled' on various things of military persuasion. It didn't feel very good, and I really didn't appreciate being belittled in that way. I guess that's the army. But I thought I was past the whole basic training environ.

Maybe they had a point, but I ceased seeing the point a few years back. I guess I'll focus on being here to do my job as a glorified Private. I always believed I made a better specialist then a Sergeant, mostly because I prefer taking orders then giving them.

An incident happened in my room that I shouldn't talk about, especially online, but it was brought to my attention of how I should have handled the situation as the ranking person in the room instead of how I ended up handling it, by trying to ignore it. Believe it or not, I'm not very confrontational in the real world, I'm much more elequent (yes, I know I mispelled that) on paper and in writing, I'm not good at saying what's on my mind under pressure. I need time to think about it, clear it up in my head what I am going to say. Meaning I'm a good debater online, but a sucky one in the real world.

The problem with the Stripes is that sometimes you have to take the initiative to make the hard choices, to confront issues that need to be confronted and be firm in those decisions. That's sometimes easier said then done, especially if you don't get along with your roommates.

There are a few things that my roommates do that drive me nuts, and I know there are some things that I do that drive them nuts. I try to be as non-intrusive as possible, by putting on my headphones or earplugs when they played their music or talked a little loudly for my liking or what not. If I did something that bothered them, I made an extra effort not to do it anymore (like my love affair with the Snooze Button on my alarm clock). It annoys me that when they do the same thing, it is ok, but if I do it suddenly I'm disrespecting them.

So something serious happened, I talked about it, and now I'm the knark. Because I didn't do it properly. I didn't know how to handle it. I should have voiced my opinions on the matter a long time ago and I didn't.

This is going to be a rough year if I can't get along with this other girl in my room. And I don't think I'm willing to give any more on the matter.

I guess I need to stop taking the crap and start acting like an NCO. Problem is, I'd rather ignore the problem.

Guard Duty. . . again

The snow really hasn't let up, but that didn't really stop the necessity of guard duty.
In this case, we were guarding a CONNEX left by our predecessors which had some sensitive items in them. The army was even brilliant enough to advertise this fact by placing these CONNEXs right in front of a sign that stated "Sensitive Items". Hey, why don't you put some strobe lights up with a neon sign to advertise this fact as well? Then everyone can know that what is in those CONNEXs is EXTRA SPECIAL.

Hey, who ever said the army made any sense?
We got to make camp in a heated guardshack that had windows that opened up to view the CONNEXs in question, so we had our eye on them. That left us with eight hours of keeping ourselves occupied.

This turned out to be easy. We watched back to back episodes of Red VS Blue. Though we had to take breaks from time to time to get the heat going again, as we couldn't hear it to well over the heater and kept turning it off to get the full affects of the jokes.

Myself and the Sergeant I was with decided that these guys had to have had some military experience because they are some times brutally accurate. It only took us five hours to watch all fifty episodes.

Ah, who am I kidding? Just set me up for guard duty when ever you need me! Between reading my collection of Books I have on backorder and watching my collection of DVDs (or heck, I can just watch RvB all over again, for some reason it never gets old) and I can sit in a heated guard shack watching a bunch of CONNEXs any time you need me too!

Don't go Shopping On Sundays

Well, so far this day has gone by the way the snow falls. Snow can't decide whether to come or go, it will pour one day, and the next day it all melts away.

Even though its sunday, I had to be at work. Air Sampling today. Which includes me putting out the Air Sampling equipment bright and early so I can pick it up while the sun is still out later today.

I could already see the snow coming down, but it wasn't coming down to hard, so I went ahead and put out the TO-17s anyway. My NCOIC volunteered me to do a guardshift at 5 this evening so I had to put out the TO-17s in regards to that. I was pushing it too, as I have to pick them up 8 hours after I put them out.

The PM10s I pick up 24 hours later. So I was giving myself a little time to put those out due to the fact that I didn't want to wake up tomorrow and get here early to go get them on account of the fact that my guard shift ends at One in the Morning.

Well, the snow came down, and before I could do anything more, I was told to scrap air sampling today because of the risk. The roads are slippery. So the TO-17s are going to stay out all night.

Hey, that's one less thing I have to worry about! Considering they blocked all of the roads off today and I had to go the back way and ended up following somebody who was going 10 MPH in a 15MPH zone! You know how infuriating that is?

I guess that means I got the day off until about Five. A word to the weary, Camp Bondsteel is not the place to be on Sundays. Well, I take that back, apparently Camp Bondsteel IS the place to be on Sundays, all of the Foreign Nationals come here on Sunday to Shop at our PX and eat at our Chow Hall. The American Camp is the place to come, the Euro is strong against the Dollar and Hey! No sales tax!

Our PX is the second highest grossing PX in the chain. Its because of the quantity of electronics we sell. And on Sundays, that place is a mad house. I had one thing to buy last week and I was in line for 15 minutes.

I think I'll go back to my room and wait for lunch there.

Regulation Army Pictures

I got pictures. So now if something happens to me, this picture will be flashed throughout the media.

I feel like a dork, but at least it beats the heck out of the basic training picture where I'm wearing a garrison cap.

That just barely beats out the Beret in dorkiness.

Mailin' Stuff

Ah, life in the army.

To ship anything overnight you have to wait outside the gate. They give you a time frame, give or take a few minutes on how accurate they are in getting there at that time.

So I take a HMMW-V, grab lunch, drive outside the gate and park, and eat while I listen to MP3s on my computer with my rifle at my side, just chillin' and waiting for the mail man.

Days are tough. But only when they don't let you back inside the gate (I had to drive around today)

March Madness

Ok, I've been neglecting this thing for to long, and so I declare the month of March OFFICIAL DOGTAGS MONTH! Throughout the month of March I will post to my Milblog at least once a day, whether it be a thought in retrospect, a highlight of that day, or even a picture and leave it at that. This month, I am going to post to this blog DAILY!

Let's see how long this lasts.

Update It doesn't appear to be going to well.

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