Team
I had to part ways with Chris, Ryan and the rest of the CRC gang this morning and join my official “team” for deployment. This involved another room change, which is a lot easier to do now that I’m growing more accustomed to the gypsy lifestyle of the IRR, and a whole new schedule to try and juggle. I’m sure I’ll see the gang around as most of us are deploying to the same location with the same unit, but I’ll miss hanging out with them and reminiscing of the good old days when we were civilians at Benning CRC.
The new team I’m on is small, with only 8 officers and a handful of NCOs. I am probably the youngest person on the team, although I’m fairing better than some of the other IRR captains who have a span of 15 years between them and next oldest person on their team. We are top heavy, having mostly field grades and E8s and E9s. Did I mention that the Task Force commander is also a member of my team? That could be a really good thing, or a really bad thing and I’m sure time will tell one from the other. We had a sit down with him yesterday and he briefed us IRR folk on what we will be doing and what his vision is for the deployment. I won’t go into the whole spiel, but the gist of it is that we are jumping the big pond to help the Iraqi military and police force by training their mid-level leaders and help bolster the logistics system for those forces. My job is geared more towards the infrastructure of those organizations, particularly with the police force and working with the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior. My engineering and management background is what made my “resume” stand out, so they tell me. Personally, I think I’m just a warm body with the right MOS that they are sticking into a staff job that no one really wanted. There is plenty of time for them to prove me wrong, and in this case, I hope they do. I really can’t complain too much because I don’t really know what I’ll be doing from day to day. They can’t even tell me if the job I’m slotted for will be the actual job I do in country. It goes back to “being flexible” which is something you have to do unless you want your frustration to get the best of you, which isn’t good seeing as how we are all going to be carrying weapons from now until we get home from deployment.
Speaking of weapons, after 3 attempts, I finally received my weapons. Yes, weapons, plural, as in a pistol and a rifle. I think they would give us more if we had more hands to fire them with, but for now, two will suffice. I knew that I would be getting them both so it wasn’t a big surprise. What did surprise me is that they are issuing two weapons to EVERYONE in the task force. Some are even equipped with grenade launchers, which in my opinion is a little overkill for a high end staff. Regardless, they gave us some pretty high speed stuff, although some of it is wasted on this kind of staff. I would be distraught at the fact that they are giving us IR aiming lasers for our weapons if I knew that the regular army units deployed right now didn’t have them (they in fact do have them). We are an important task force however, and we will be supporting ourselves in most every way, especially when it comes to security. Now I’m sure you’ve heard talk about the “green zone” in Baghdad (where I will be a majority of the time) and how safe it is, and while it is mostly true, there is no completely safe area in a war zone (sorry Mom). Some are frequented less than others by insurgents and IED wielding crazies, but there is no completely safe area, only areas that are less dangerous than others. Since we will be doing our own convoys, guard shifts and patrols (not so many patrols), we need to be ready for that, hence the large amount of fire power that they are giving to the average soldier. Let’s just hope for everyone’s sake that we don’t have to unleash any of that firepower unnecessarily.
Oh, I took some pics of the new room. Not much to show though, but to give the folks at home of the living arrangements of your average IRR soldiers stuck in a deploying reserve unit...
I had to part ways with Chris, Ryan and the rest of the CRC gang this morning and join my official “team” for deployment. This involved another room change, which is a lot easier to do now that I’m growing more accustomed to the gypsy lifestyle of the IRR, and a whole new schedule to try and juggle. I’m sure I’ll see the gang around as most of us are deploying to the same location with the same unit, but I’ll miss hanging out with them and reminiscing of the good old days when we were civilians at Benning CRC.
The new team I’m on is small, with only 8 officers and a handful of NCOs. I am probably the youngest person on the team, although I’m fairing better than some of the other IRR captains who have a span of 15 years between them and next oldest person on their team. We are top heavy, having mostly field grades and E8s and E9s. Did I mention that the Task Force commander is also a member of my team? That could be a really good thing, or a really bad thing and I’m sure time will tell one from the other. We had a sit down with him yesterday and he briefed us IRR folk on what we will be doing and what his vision is for the deployment. I won’t go into the whole spiel, but the gist of it is that we are jumping the big pond to help the Iraqi military and police force by training their mid-level leaders and help bolster the logistics system for those forces. My job is geared more towards the infrastructure of those organizations, particularly with the police force and working with the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior. My engineering and management background is what made my “resume” stand out, so they tell me. Personally, I think I’m just a warm body with the right MOS that they are sticking into a staff job that no one really wanted. There is plenty of time for them to prove me wrong, and in this case, I hope they do. I really can’t complain too much because I don’t really know what I’ll be doing from day to day. They can’t even tell me if the job I’m slotted for will be the actual job I do in country. It goes back to “being flexible” which is something you have to do unless you want your frustration to get the best of you, which isn’t good seeing as how we are all going to be carrying weapons from now until we get home from deployment.
Speaking of weapons, after 3 attempts, I finally received my weapons. Yes, weapons, plural, as in a pistol and a rifle. I think they would give us more if we had more hands to fire them with, but for now, two will suffice. I knew that I would be getting them both so it wasn’t a big surprise. What did surprise me is that they are issuing two weapons to EVERYONE in the task force. Some are even equipped with grenade launchers, which in my opinion is a little overkill for a high end staff. Regardless, they gave us some pretty high speed stuff, although some of it is wasted on this kind of staff. I would be distraught at the fact that they are giving us IR aiming lasers for our weapons if I knew that the regular army units deployed right now didn’t have them (they in fact do have them). We are an important task force however, and we will be supporting ourselves in most every way, especially when it comes to security. Now I’m sure you’ve heard talk about the “green zone” in Baghdad (where I will be a majority of the time) and how safe it is, and while it is mostly true, there is no completely safe area in a war zone (sorry Mom). Some are frequented less than others by insurgents and IED wielding crazies, but there is no completely safe area, only areas that are less dangerous than others. Since we will be doing our own convoys, guard shifts and patrols (not so many patrols), we need to be ready for that, hence the large amount of fire power that they are giving to the average soldier. Let’s just hope for everyone’s sake that we don’t have to unleash any of that firepower unnecessarily.
Oh, I took some pics of the new room. Not much to show though, but to give the folks at home of the living arrangements of your average IRR soldiers stuck in a deploying reserve unit...
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