Currently I am at FOB Victory, part of the BIAP complex of FOBs to take a class on a robot called PackBot and an explosives detector called Fido. Both pieces of equipment are extremely neat and useful, and you can hook them up to send the robot to suspected bombs instead of getting close yourself! Very kewl. This is also a nice break from the slave ( Read more... )

OK, so yesterday I was planning to hit the gym as well as call the JAG/FLEP recruiters as well as some law schools to get some further info. Just like any day I make plans, a patrol was sent out that had me in it! There was an incident a few days ago involving helicopters, another unit, and some misidentification. You may see reports about this ( Read more... )

Well, it looks like I'll be able to take leave in June instead of July after all! The other night one guy found out his leave was in May, and he had been saying he wanted July all along. So I jumped at the opportunity; I offered to give him my July if he gave a 3rd guy his May, and the 3rd guy would give me his June. It looks like a go, although ( Read more... )

Well, the job switch is almost complete. My replacement is slowly taking over all my old tasks and duties, and I am moving into and learning my new ones ( Read more... )

Well, I had 2 separate missions canceled in the last 24 hours. The first one, we woke up at 1am last night to do an air assault at like 2:30am. As we were getting dressed and gathering our gear, our platoon sergeant entered our tent and told us it was canceled. As we went back to sleep, he popped in again and said, "hey! I was just kidding! Get ( Read more... )

Well, I finally called a JAG recruiter the other night, and I was given the phone number to reach the director of FLEP. Yes, this is the same director of FLEP I emailed back in October/November and who never replied to me. Well, the rumor that they were granting exceptions/waivers to the 6-year time in service cap due to the many deployments was ( Read more... )

It seemed bad at the time, because it was told to me immediately following a mistake I had made. However, since then, my leadership has been nothing but completely cool with me. I think they realized that I was burned out on radio stuff and needed to move into something else. I also think they were planning on moving my replacement in there pretty ( Read more... )

I went on a fairly long (about 7 miles or so total) dismounted patrol today. Someone shot at us at one point, but they did the usual Arab spray-and-pray method and disappeared after firing only like 8 shots max. We couldn't even tell exactly where it came from b/c it was so far away. We did see a pretty wacky freak occurrence, though: 2 huge power ( Read more... )

We went on an air assault and caught a very, very bad guy. He's a known VBIED (Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device- fancy way to say "car bomb") maker. No one on the objective put up a fight, and the local villagers we inconvenienced so badly in trying to figure out who it was were very cooperative. Maybe there is hope for this country after ( Read more... )

OK, my mother and my wife were both wondering why we had to stay at the PB for so long over Christmas time. The main reason was that it turned out the platoon on refit at the FOB would have to be chow-running all day on Christmas day, as well as other stuff. My platoon sergeant wasn't thrilled with that idea, so he volunteered us to stay at the PB ( Read more... )