Ammo

Ammo

The chain of command has issued us ammo today. Granted, it’s only about 3 magazines of blanks, but it is suppose to help us get use to walking around with live rounds in our weapons. In some respects, it is more trouble than its worth as we have to worry about inexperienced soldiers doing stupid things with ammunition, plus we have to keep accountability of the rounds. On the other hand it helps us to “train to fight”. That means that we need to practice here stateside exactly what we are going to do overseas in theater, and blanks are kind of “baby steps” to going to war with live ammo. Chambering rounds for movement between areas and clearing our weapons at every checkpoint is suppose to get us in the habit of being safe with our rifles and pistols, and while we might think it is a pain, I think it’s a good idea. Plus, if someone was to “accidentally” shoot their weapon at me, I’d much rather it be a blank than the real thing.

I found out today that my position for the task force has changed (again). I’m tempted not to even post what it is because there is part of me that is sure it will jinx me and it will change again. I’m still sticking to my original plan of “preparing for the worse, hoping for the best” but hope can be a fading thing at times, especially when I’m not really sure what kind of job I’m preparing for.

I saw something tonight that disturbed me on someone else’s blog. This individual is apparently deployed to Iraq right now doing a similar job to what the Task Force is training to do. They were blogging about the life over there and what they are doing day to day, much like you’d find in any blog. The disturbing part was that this individual started talking about the security of his FOB (forward operations base) and how they don’t pull security on one area because they don’t think that the will be hit from that area. What in the heck is he thinking? I group this guy in with the likes of Geraldo who stood in front of a camera on national TV and told the world what unit he was with and where they were at right before a major battle. People, don’t put things on the internet that could get you or your buddies killed. That just doesn’t make sense!

On a good note to end today’s short blog, I did receive a box of goodies and became instantly popular with my team and with the folks on my floor. Most of them probably could go without the cookies or candy, but I’m glad that they could share in my little box of sunshine, because there’s no way in the world I’d be able to eat that much food! If I keep getting boxes like this, I’m liable to have to get a bigger ACU size to grow into before I deploy!