volkov

It went pretty well. We went up to Quantico, VA. That's where the headquarters of the Marine Corps is, but we were on the far side of the base over where The Basic School for new officers was at. Mostly undeveloped land for us to run around and get lost on. We stayed in Quonset huts on the far end of base. The entire Battalion was there training together, about 400 or so Marines and Naval personnel (this is actually about half strength or even less. All the Marines that have joined the Battalion since we returned from Iraq have been sent to augment another Battalion going to Iraq later this year). Out of the two weeks, I think we slept in a bed maybe twice, but the weather was nice enough that it didn't matter much.

My platoon (really just two teams. we only have 8 guys) is the 0351. Our primary job is as Javelin teams. We also are the demo guys. Since the missiles cost a couple hundred thousand dollars each...we aren't allowed to fire any in training. We did get to blow up some demo though. Spent a whole afternoon out on a range with TNT and C4 working with fused (like the old cartoon bombs, light and run away) and electrical firing systems. wish I could have gotten some photos of that, but when you are hooking up a couple pounds of C4 to an electrical circut, you kinda want to pay a WHOLE lotta attention to that.
My guys did get to fire some SMAW and AT4 rockets down a range at some old tank husks. I wasn't there for it though since I had to administer another range (one of the drawbacks of rank is sometimes you get pulled away from the fun shit).

There was also the obigatory Land Navigation stuff thrown in. I think it's fun, but most guys hate it. The whole map reading, compass direction thing can be a bit overwhelming to people who don't have any practice with it.

We also did the MOUT training package that is pretty much standard for any training in the Marine Corps now. Urban combat sucks and it's pretty much all we're seeing these days, so we have to spend a lot of time on it.
We did get out to some combat towns (cinderblock buildings arranged in little villages) and use simunitions (paint rounds...they sting) for some training.
it rained most of the time we did that.


for the MOUT stuff, my platoon was attached to a regular infantry company. it took some doing to get them to accept what our capabilities were and that we told them, for the most part, how we are employed not the other way around. at the end we did a cool night portion where my guys snuck through the sewer system (thankfully mostly dry) and into the cellar of the tallest building. we were able to set up on top of it with the thermal sights for our missile system and call out all the "enemy" movements to the line company. good stuff.

we also did a lot of driving around in Humvees trying not to get lost on all the dead end trails out in the brush and practicing vehicle stuff.

the highlight of the whole thing was when were attached back with that same line company for a tactical pickup, ride on, and tactical exit of a V22 Osprey. Apparantly we are the first Reservists to ride on one. And we didn't even crash! They had been crashing a lot a couple years back, mostly because of leadership, pushing for deadlines, and falsifying maintenance records to do it. They are deploying to Iraq later this year, so I guess they wanted some practice. It was an awesome ride. They are really great machines. I've got a bunch of videos in my video section. I went with the first stick (landing group) with the Battalion Commander and Sgt Major, so I got to get video of all the subsequent landings. One one of them, I may have been a lil too close to the LZ and when the Osprey flew over it pretty much knocked me backward and almost on my ass with the prop wash.

training wrapped up pretty nicely and there was a minimum of bullshit in getting things ready to go. All in all, things went pretty damn smoothly and I had a good time. I was more than a bit worn out though.

Thankfully, they gave us a couple days off at the end. We got one day/night out in DC. I booked pretty much my entire platoon at a hotel and got us a rental car. we're a fairly tight knit group, minor annoyances and frictions notwithstanding'. We managed to get into DC with just enough time to see some of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum (dinosaurs!) and the national archives. It was neet to get to see the actual Documant of the Constituion. I'm sworn to uphold that thing....kinda nice to see it "in the flesh". Now if we can just those in positions much higher than mine to respect it.
We headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and then tried to get out to find somewhere to drink, carouse, and make asses of ourself. we ended up getting lost and went back to the hotel to get a cab to the Adam's Morgan section in DC. Very busy and very college party. Crowd was a bit young, but everyone had a great time. The Marines even managed to save the obligatory almost-fight for the very end of the evening. I ended up having to herd cats to get my drunken children back to the hotel and into their rooms for a couple hours of sleep before a very hungover next day back on base.
We spent the next afternoon at the Marine Corps Museum. This place is AMAZING. It's a state of the art, fully done museum with a lot of interactive displays and video and in a very recently (last year) built building. We could have spent 5 hours in there easily, but we only had two before we got back on the bus to go to the Marine barracks at 8th and I to see a parade of the Marine Corps band and the Silent Drill Platoon. Being a field Marine, I found it kind of lame. the silent drill platoon was absolutely impressive....but in a ceremonial garrison way. I understand the importance of the ceremonial and PR side of things, but I have a hard time taking it as seriously as the guys who do the fighting. Like every other Marine, I think my job field is the most important one in the Corps.

Since I've been home, I've just been taking it easy. My cat has been lavishing attention on me and refuses to let me sit here without curling up in my lap. which he is currently doing, stretched out in an attemtpt to get his legs on both of my arms to keep me from typing. silly cat.
Katy and I went to see the Harry Potter movie last night at the drafthouse. I liked it. There were a lot of details that I wish hadn't been overlooked, and of course some plot points that deviated. but given the time contraints of cinema....I thought they did well. I wonder if they'll be able to make the last couple movies without falling into the 90210 scenario of having people way too old playing young characters. I hope they manage it. At this point, changing out the actors just wouldn't work very well. (can you imagine someone else stepping in to play Han Solo or Frodo in the last movie of those trilogies?)
I haven't bought the new book yet. I will soon, but right now I am reading two books concurrently (Battle Ready and Baudolino) and am almost done with both. Deathly Hallows will be next.
I did buy some new books of course, the first day I was back. I couldn't help it! I went to pick up Katy from work for her lunch break and somehow walked out with All Tomorrow's Parties by W. Gibson and The City of Fallen Angels by John Berendt (same man who did Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It's a story about the Opera House fire in Venice in 1996)...oh and my girlfriend, though it was a near thing as I had my nose buried in the Gibson liner notes.