Foxholes and Dogtags

I Will Be Mobilizing Soon - Milblog Status

I got a comment today, and I thought I would need to clarify exactly where this blog is going and what it is about, and mostly, what to expect from it.

For one, you may note that I'm not a blogger much these days, I just blog every now and then about information that I find interesting of a military persuasion. Sometimes it may be better to keep my mouth shut, but I have a chronic condition of foot in mouth so I just need to be aware of that. I will blog from time to time while I'm on the trail, but I probably won't be blogging a lot for several reasons.

1) I will be on the trail as a drill sergeant, which means I won't have a lot of free time and will likely not have a lot of time allocated toward doing things like blogging.

2) I will be on the trail as a drill sergeant, I need to be mindful of the things I post and what I say, as Drill Sergeants are a whole new breed of sergeant in the army. I'm not the best drill sergeant in the world, not by a long shot, but I do need to be mindful of the level of professionalism I portray. The things I like to write about are often not conducive to an appearance of professionalism. Which brings me to my next point.

3) I have grown quite a bit since my experiences in Kosovo. I used blogging as a form of release in what was sometimes a very frustrating experience due to a variety of reasons. I do not require this form of release anymore, and since I started blogging as a form of a ranting board (one of the reasons why my main blog is called 'incoherant ramblings and things better left unsaid'), I have long gone past that form of expression, as a public forum such as this is not the best method of talking about what I want to talk about. You the reader may be interested to see things in the army viewed from my perspective, and I may still relay a story from time to time, but if I have any doubts about whether or not to post something, I prefer not to post it.

4) Operational Security. Sure, there are some things that are common sense about my mission, and it isn't the level of OPSEC one would expect from a mission to Iraq or Afganistan, but OPSEC still needs to be maintained and I'm not always the best at maintaining it. That said, you know I am a drill sergeant. I'm going to Fort Knox to augment the summer surge, because most people attend basic combat training during their summer break for school. Because I am a female, I will not be training an OSUT (One station unit training) Company, but I will still be training an all male unit. That said, you might get time frames out of me, but I will try to refrain from mentioning specific dates. If I do post stories or pictures (most will likely be of me, as I don't want to post pictures of others without their permission if I can help it), I will try to leave them in the level of something you might find on the GoArmy Website, specifically what can be found about basic training. I will not mention names, of my soldiers or my fellow drill sergeants. I have made an effort to keep the confidentiality of the fellow soldiers in my units in the past, and I will try to maintain this. Because of this, most of what I may want to post might not be suitable for blogging.

5) I have a very self depreciating sense of humor. This comes out in my blog. I'm blunt and honest, especially about myself. That is something that I need to work on as a drill sergeant, and my humor comes out in my blog quite a bit. Blogging about what a goober I can be sometimes doesn't help me in this matter. I'm supposed to be a drill sergeant. My soldiers find this blog and read it, it might do something for my power base. Especially if they have read this blog before they entered Basic Training.

6) I like my hat and badge. I'm not the best drill sergeant in the army by any means, but I'm willing to learn to be the best I can be, and I don't want to give anybody any reason to take it away.

What I write on this blog will be dependent on what I face, I wish to be respectful and mindful of my fellow peers, and yes, they know this blog exists. I had issues with this blog before while I was in Kosovo, I will do my best to make sure it remains a non-issue on this mobilization. There is a great possibility it might remain dead. Or I might choose to discuss other army issues, like commentaries on policies in the military and my take on them rather then mission specific items. We'll see how the blogging goes when I get to Knox.

Defending Drill Sergeants

One trick to being a Drill Sergeant is winging it. You see something, you correct it instantly. You snap at a moment's notice.

Sometimes you don't think things through. This can be a problem, indeed.

I made a mistake this weekend. It wasn't something I was going to lose my hat over, but it did have the first sergeant coming up to me and asking me 'did you do this?' I won't go into detail on what I did, but it was something I should have thought a little more through, especially considering I'm a Preventive Medicine Specialist. I did take credit for what happened though, I'm a firm believer in taking responsibility for my actions and when I screw up, I screw up.

Fortunately, the one private who complained appeared to exaggerate on what I did, where as some of the other privates who were present stepped up and set the record straight, explaining that indeed, I was doing my job in trying to get the soldiers to hurry, and I was being a drill sergeant. What I made them do probably caused them to be a little more miserable then necessary, and if I hadn't gone on the fly and had thought through it a little more, I wouldn't have done what I did.

This had me thinking about a circumstance with a DS M and a PVT C, names abbreviated, that I knew when I went through Basic Training. DS M, who I could tell once you got him out of his hat was a really nice guy, but a very effective drill sergeant, was coaching PVT C (who was in my Platoon) on weapons training. He had her in the prone unsupported position and was talking to her, and I remember watching from the stands as I was on a brief break and I observed from my stance what was happening. DS M was trying to get PVT C's attention and when it appeared she wasn't looking at him, he gave her a light thump on the Kevlar with his palm.

She put in a complaint against him because he hit her. Granted, as a Drill Sergeant, you are not allowed to touch a private, and when you do, it is generally to correct a uniform issue or for training purposes, and you have to make them aware that you are going to touch them to make sure it is ok. DS M probably shouldn't have given PVT C a slight thump on the kevlar. He was reacting, and Drill Sergeants react best. PVT C wasn't listening to him and he gave her a light smack on the kevlar.

PVT C will not suffer permanent damage for what DS M did. But DS M was under investigation for that little act, and fortunately for him, I observed the whole thing because I wrote a statement and though PVT C was one of my battle buddies, I defended his actions. Drill Sergeants are human, and DS M didn't hit her, he gave her a light thump on the Kevlar. He was still there when we graduated. I look back and I realize that I would have defended most of my drill sergeants for their actions over other privates, especially PVT C who followed me for Fire Guard and holy hell would that girl not wake up for her shift. Once I smacked her on the arm because I was tired and wanted to go back to bed and I wanted her to hurry and wake up (because I had already come around to wake her up before) she threw a fit on me that I hit her. Well, I smacked her because she was sleeping into her shift.

Strangely enough, she was cool most of the time, but hell, what did she think she just joined, the girl scouts?

A light tap on the Kevlar or a smack on the arm is not going to kill you. I wish more people had a greater sense of Common Sense. Hell, DS W came up to me while I was waiting to get on the range and smacked me on the kevlar with the rodding iron for no good reason and walked off. I just thought it was funny as hell. After all, he hit me on the kevlar, it wasn't as if he hit me on the head with the thing.

Some Privates get it. Some are too sensitive.

Montana Recruit Training

To prepare us for mobilization, we drill sergeants in Alpha Co were given the opportunity to participate in a training exercise with the Montana National Guard Recruiter Training Battalion. They have 8 companies in the whole of Montana where recruits who have just sworn in can go, drill, get paid for it, and get a little experience before they head to Basic Training. Each RTC (recruiter training company) has their own drills once a quarter or so, but they brought all 8 to Helena this weekend, giving us just shy of 200 young troops to train.

I take any opportunity I can get to train soldiers, and it seems like it is becoming tradition to find myself in Helena Montana in April. Last two years we participated in an exercise called Helena Handbasket, where we qualify, weapons familiarization, MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain) and Land Navigation. Well, this year, we were doing round robin training with a bunch of recruits doing MOUT, Confidence Course, Hand Grenades, IMT (Individual Movement Tactics) and the Simulations Center. Oh, and a PT test.

At least, that was the agenda. But, as it happens in the army, the weather proved uncooperative and it snowed on us. I wasn't prepared for this myself, though I knew better, and left most of my cold weather gear at home.

I didn't forget my PTs and got to lead the 'Warriors' (which is what they are calling new recruits these days) and warm them up with PT. Unfortunately, the warm up is not the most effective when it is sub freezing outside, and with me wearing PTs, most privates weren't aware that I was a Drill Sergeant and of course, being a Drill Sergeant, I yelled at them as if they should know better. Hey, now they know!

The trick with being a Drill Sergeant, or being a Private dealing with Drill Sergeants, is to always yell as if they should know better. This is a corrective action, and it generally sticks with the private so they don't make the mistake again. It's all a total mind game.

The PT test had the recruiters grading the privates, because they thought we would grade them to hard (ie- to standard) and some of those recruiters were counting pushups that shouldn't have counted, in other words, a little to lenient. This actually sets the soldier up for failure because when they get to basic, the Drill Sergeants will grade a lot harder and they will arrive thinking they are in good shape and discover they aren't there yet. The recruiters mentality is they don't want to chase the recruits away (they haven't shipped yet!) but as a Drill Sergeant, which is the opposite mentality of a recruiter, you have to make sure these soldiers are ready and know what to expect when they get to their post.

But for an April PT test, damn it was quite chilly!

So we moved onto Plan B (an abbreviated version of plan A) when it started snowing, marching the troops out to the range where I called cadence, including the Baby Seals (asking the privates before hand if anybody was offended if we killed some baby seals) and the 'Hole at the Bottom of the Sea' Cadence, which usually leaves me out of breath.

Good times. Good fun.

Snow started coming down harder, flurries really going, icing over the obstacles, and it was decided that we would move onto the tentative plan C, which was make due with what we could.

We got some rubber ducks (fake M16s) and did some MOUT in the barracks with some of the soldiers, when the recruiters pulled out a blow up obstacle course that looked like it belonged at a four year old's birthday party in Chucky Cheese. That's not to diss the obstacle course, you run soldiers through that a few dozen times and its a lot of fun, plus gives soldiers a bit of a work out. Recruiters have all the fun toys.

Eventually, it got to the drill sergeants doing Hat's Off for the recruits, meaning we take off our hats, let the soldiers chill for a bit and we answer any questions they might have, as long as they aren't about our personal life. I have to watch Hat's Off, because though I don't lose my military baring (I hope), I get extra chatty and I have twenty or thirty people listening to what I have to say, it gets to my head and i might volunteer more information then I need too. Because I love to talk when everyone's attention is on me. Maybe that's why I'm a drill sergeant?

I had one soldier fall asleep on me so we did a little mass punishment PT, more for motivation as I got down with them. I hate flutter kicks, but when it comes to me smoking myself with the soldiers, its my best bet. The soldiers will have me smoked if we do Pushups. Though I did do over head arm claps and so on as well. Although they aren't technically part of FM 21-20 (Field Manual for PT), we can do certain things to troops if we are doing it with them. I ended up doing flutter kicks and exercises with the arms a couple of times with two different groups of soldiers.

And of course, I pimped me some RvB.

A lot of the soldiers saw my nice side, especially those who were with me during hats off. I think they got a feel for my normal, somewhat hyperactive personality. This was important, because these soldiers have not gone through BCT yet. We can't go all Red Phase Drill Sergeant on these privates because it might scare them away. Some of them are there anticipating us going psychotic on them and anticipating getting smoked all the time, but we had to tone it down because, well, some of these privates might never show up again if that were to happen. And the recruiters will get mad at us. So the hats off was a good chance for them to see a more human side of the Drill Sergeants and learn we aren't complete assholes. All of the time at least.

Well, the rumors were apparently flying that Drill Sergeants were going to wake up the troops at six the next morning. Some of them were expected to be woken up at any time. I, being the lone female drill sergeant, was in charge of waking up the females. They were talking about me waking them up, so we woke them up at 0530. And I was yelling at them full fledge.

I have to watch myself when I go on a tirade, I'm really good at not cursing normally, but putting on that hat and sometimes obscenities pop out. So I was yelling at these privates to get up, put their crap away, get their personal hygiene done (a couple jumped in the shower, and so I made all of them hop in the shower, er, more on that later) and get dressed, and of course, they can't do it fast enough. They can never do it fast enough. When they don't do it fast enough, I drop them. When a drill sergeant is on a tirade, they don't drop with the troops, and of course they are recovering from a PT test so I know their joints are killing them and they feel sluggish and yes, I was a private at one time too so I know how they feel. I think I had a couple doubting their decision to join the army, but as I got them motivated to clean the barracks (of course, there wasn't any paper towels, which they nor I could help, dad gum it) I started to cool off a little, wasn't yelling so much but making them think about what they were doing and getting themselves into.

Of course, some of them got it, some of them probably didn't like me (because I was being a heinous bitch), and some of them just went with the flow. I think I had a few privates close to tears on one occasion, but none of them cried on me (at least not that I saw) so good for them.

Actually I perceived from the Montana group that overall they appeared to be good kids with good heads on their shoulders, they come from conservative backgrounds and strong homes with a respect for authority. I've noticed that by and large from mid western and western states.

All and all, I had a good training weekend, screwed up a couple of times (I generally own up to it if I make a mistake, and for some reason, I couldn't tell my right from left in a couple of instances)

I leave for Knox in a few weeks, have a month train up before we pick up. No females, all male. In all, I don't like females, but I'll get a couple privates here and there that I wouldn't mind training. I wish they were all like that.

Knox vs Jackson

This past week I was involved in an SRP (soldier readiness process) that had me shipped to Oklahoma City where my division headquarters is located because i'm a mobilizing soldier. The trip was in itself interesting, and I met a bunch of the other Drill Sergeants I will be mobilizing with and got to know them a little better, though they will be in a different company and probably a different batallion then I will be.

But what I discovered most is that I think I will enjoy my mobilization to Knox better then i would have liked a Mob to Jackson.

Last fall was my first time in Fort Jackson, and while I was a rookie hat with a grand total of three days since graduating DSS when i set foot on Jackson's soil, I learned a lot from my experience there but often found myself thinking 'is this what the army is coming too?' I was severely dissappointed, and I didn't have a firm idea of what was my lane and what I was allowed to do so I often observed and more often then not didn't do anything when I probably should have stepped up and did something. Like I said, I was leaning on my battle buddies to help me out and tell me what to do.

In my two weeks, I discovered I was under the mentorship of two short timers, meaning they had plenty of time on the trail and were just counting the days where they would hang up their hat. Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to speak bad about my Battle Buddies, but they more often then not set me up for failure by throwing me out there when I wasn't ready to be thrown to the wolves just yet.

I made more then one mistake while I was in Jackson, and looking back, I am realizing how much I flubbed my time there more and more. I think I did some things right, but I wager to bet that my time in Jackson would have been a lot different if I had been there from day one. It didn't help that I was falling in on Week 6 and these soldiers were used to how OTHER drill sergeants did things.

And the trouble makers I was told about turned out to not be trouble makers at all. The soldiers I should have been warned about didn't even get a mention in my incoming briefing. I learned who the dirtbags were on my own, and I didn't get enough time to correct the issues I should have corrected, like a certain Private L.

Furthermore, when you talk to different Drill Sergeants, they will all basically tell you that Fort Jackson just plain sucks. There is no other basic training post quite like Jackson, I'm not sure why because it's supposedly the head of TRADDOC and Drill Sergeant School and what not. Well, the privates in Jackson get more freedoms and priveleges then any other training post.

what's more, you've got females training there. I'm a female, and I can tell you that mixed companies suck, for a variety of reasons. When you got privates writing pornographic letters to each other and all of these distractions, it makes the training more difficult then it has to be.

Knox should be interesting. It still has its reputation for being a 'tough' basic training post, as it's home of the Armor School and has been for who knows how long. It is also not a female friendly post. This will prove interesting to me, which means I've got to keep my head up and work extra hard to earn the recruit's respect, because if I don't get that right away, I won't get it for the full nine weeks I'm there and quite frankly I will have a miserable time.

So it is quite necessary for me to be a heinous bitch for the first three weeks. I'm not there to make any friends, I'm there to be a drill sergeant and shove my boot up these soldier's asses if they don't listen or do what they need to do. I'm sure I'll get my little pet peeves that they will learn about me, like weapons accountability which was big while I was in Jackson and will probably be an issue in Knox as well, but I will literally have to keep a straight face and just be angry for three weeks.

I think I'll have fun regardless, but I have to get my mean on, and I have to work on my physical fitness. I'm dealing with 60 some odd trainees, all male, and I have to lead by example.

It will be interesting, but I'll do my best.

At least its not Fort Jackson.

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