March 1, 2010
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
09:44
Today I was waiting in line to do another weigh-in. I weighed 164 lbs this time, by the way. I guess I gained ten pounds last month? Okay...
Anyway, while I was walking back after finishing, I started thinking about how the military is changing and how it used to be. A few things came to mind. There's this new tattoo policy. Apparently, no one is allowed to have tattoos that show while in PT clothing (shorts/t-shirt, etc.). If you already have them, they're "grandfathered" so they're ok, but a Sgt. today had to sign a page 11 because of his tattoos. A page 11 is a record of some type of counseling that goes in your service record book. Everyone had to get checked with their tattoos last month to make sure of...something...I'm not really sure. To see if they need counseling for the new policy I guess.
Hmm...the Marine Corps is now only accepting the good looking people. If they go back to taking people with high school diplomas then they'll be accepting only the good looking and the "smart" people. I guess it doesn't matter how badly you want to serve your country. If you're really a fascist, then you'll sacrifice your desire to get tattoos to join the USMC. That's what I thought about today. If you find that offensive, sorry, but every time I see a Marine now I get this image of a Nazi. Not to mention the people who are weak/short/ugly are constantly berated by others, no matter how proficient they are at their job. The fact remains: they just don't look perfect, so why let them forget it? That's our new mindset, and I guess it travelled all the way up the chain of command.
If you're only taking this with a grain of salt, then hear this:
I was watching AFN (Armed Forces Network, the most obnoxiously annoying TV channel I've ever had the displeasure of watching) and this commercial popped up. I didn't really catch the message, because I couldn't hear anything. All my senses gave way to sight when I saw that in the commercial, there were young children prancing around in Army digital camouflage uniforms.
My jaw dropped, and the only two words that came to mind?
Hitler Youth
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
More Stupidity Part 3
February 26, 2010
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
01:25
Did I ever mention that my battalion's t-shirt, which was supposed to represent each company in the deployment, had a spelling error on it? Instead of saying "ALPHA/BRAVO/H&S/ENGINEERS," alpha was spelled "APLHA." And they wanted $11 for it, which I didn't waste. I spent $10 on a VMGR-352 t-shirt instead, the C-130 squadron I work with. Don't worry, I'm not revealing anything classified, you can look up on wikipedia where they are right now.
I bring up the CLB-6 shirt because they've really pissed me off again. Aside from the fact that there's an ENORMOUS rumor spreading about us all going to Delaram, a FOB in the middle of nowhere, and absolutely no one in the chain of command clearing any of this up for us, more stupid stuff is happening. The normal bus to work didn't go this morning...and no one...told...anyone...
Once again, LS Marines: Fuck you.
You've said it before 2nd MLG, and I'm sure you'll say it again during my next two and a half years.
And...there's been some kind of pink-eye breakout in my tent of well over one-hundred individuals. Something like six people have it, so to somehow cut down on the spread of it, everyone decided to take out everything in the tent and sweep out the dust. See...because dust and dirt is what gives you pink-eye. It's got nothing to do with not washing your hands and then touching your eyes, oh no no no, not at all. So, let me get this straight one more time Bravo Company. You decided...to sweep the dust...in Afghanistan...and to do so...you had to move my shit and make me re-arrange it all over again? I think this is More Stupidity Part 3 going on 4 already.
There was another angel flight today. I was pretty upset because there were less than 20 of us out there. It was an ANA soldier in a body bag with the Afghan flag hanging over him. Why didn't he deserve a full ceremony conducted by mortuary affairs? Why in the hell weren't there any Afghans there? Why did no one seem to care at all except a few of us?
He didn't die for the U.S., so I guess it doesn't matter. I mean, we're only doing all this for Afghanistan, right? At least some shiny collars could go through the motions and make it look like they care when one of their allies dies in their war.
Don't worry, shiny collars, I'll salute him for you. I only leave the operations desk without anyone to answer the phones, anyone to answer the radio, or anyone to answer the other radio that the planes call in on every time I go outside for an angel flight. Sorry, company commanders/battalion commanders/regimental commanders; I'm probably out of line here. I know you're probably too busy to come out of your offices to salute one of our friends who died for his country that we're trying to save. Oh yeah, you weren't in your office anyway. Someone was answering your phone for you while you strolled around with your entourage "inspecting" places of work under your command.
"Looks squared away, Marines," you say? I know it does, sir. I swept it five minutes before you walked in the door, and I threw away my empty water bottle to make it look like I'm not a shit bag and I actually care, or is that what my NCOs want you to think?
Until next time...
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
01:25
Did I ever mention that my battalion's t-shirt, which was supposed to represent each company in the deployment, had a spelling error on it? Instead of saying "ALPHA/BRAVO/H&S/ENGINEERS," alpha was spelled "APLHA." And they wanted $11 for it, which I didn't waste. I spent $10 on a VMGR-352 t-shirt instead, the C-130 squadron I work with. Don't worry, I'm not revealing anything classified, you can look up on wikipedia where they are right now.
I bring up the CLB-6 shirt because they've really pissed me off again. Aside from the fact that there's an ENORMOUS rumor spreading about us all going to Delaram, a FOB in the middle of nowhere, and absolutely no one in the chain of command clearing any of this up for us, more stupid stuff is happening. The normal bus to work didn't go this morning...and no one...told...anyone...
Once again, LS Marines: Fuck you.
You've said it before 2nd MLG, and I'm sure you'll say it again during my next two and a half years.
And...there's been some kind of pink-eye breakout in my tent of well over one-hundred individuals. Something like six people have it, so to somehow cut down on the spread of it, everyone decided to take out everything in the tent and sweep out the dust. See...because dust and dirt is what gives you pink-eye. It's got nothing to do with not washing your hands and then touching your eyes, oh no no no, not at all. So, let me get this straight one more time Bravo Company. You decided...to sweep the dust...in Afghanistan...and to do so...you had to move my shit and make me re-arrange it all over again? I think this is More Stupidity Part 3 going on 4 already.
There was another angel flight today. I was pretty upset because there were less than 20 of us out there. It was an ANA soldier in a body bag with the Afghan flag hanging over him. Why didn't he deserve a full ceremony conducted by mortuary affairs? Why in the hell weren't there any Afghans there? Why did no one seem to care at all except a few of us?
He didn't die for the U.S., so I guess it doesn't matter. I mean, we're only doing all this for Afghanistan, right? At least some shiny collars could go through the motions and make it look like they care when one of their allies dies in their war.
Don't worry, shiny collars, I'll salute him for you. I only leave the operations desk without anyone to answer the phones, anyone to answer the radio, or anyone to answer the other radio that the planes call in on every time I go outside for an angel flight. Sorry, company commanders/battalion commanders/regimental commanders; I'm probably out of line here. I know you're probably too busy to come out of your offices to salute one of our friends who died for his country that we're trying to save. Oh yeah, you weren't in your office anyway. Someone was answering your phone for you while you strolled around with your entourage "inspecting" places of work under your command.
"Looks squared away, Marines," you say? I know it does, sir. I swept it five minutes before you walked in the door, and I threw away my empty water bottle to make it look like I'm not a shit bag and I actually care, or is that what my NCOs want you to think?
Until next time...
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Angels
February 25, 2010
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
01:31
Communications were just restored yesterday after at least twelve days. I got in an argument with some of my "co-workers" yesterday because I thought it was only a week or so, but they wouldn't budge. I have to admit, time does go by fast. When you've only got 12 hours off of work (and at least 7 of them are spent sleeping) there's not much time to do anything else but work.
The reasoning behind us being cut off from the outside world is the Marjeh or Marjah offensive. I have no idea what the actual spelling of that city is, whether it's an A or an E before the H. I keep seeing it spelled both ways in newspapers; I guess the press doesn't know either. We get cut off either before a large operation, or when someone is killed in action. The communications are stopped until the deceased's family is notified, or at least that's what people say. No one ever officially gave any type of brief on these cut-offs which we refer to as "being in River City" which confuses people who don't know what it means.
I'd say on average, every other day this week someone has died. They've either blown up, been shot, or died from their injuries afterwards. I can see every report of this throughout the day online with the computer that I work on. When the word "Angel" pops up in the report, you know someone is dead. "KIA" is pretty much never used in the reports that pop up.
The day after someone has died, their body has been sent up to us from Dwyer (a FOB south of here). Their body is brought in a humvee ambulance, taken to the flight line, and loaded onto a C-130 to Kandahar. I leave my office and go out to the flight line where a lot of other Marines gather for these ramp ceremonies. The last one, I was the lowest rank, and the next lowest before me was a Gunnery Sergeant. There were mainly senior enlisted and high ranking officers. We get in two columns and walk out to the plane, which is landed with its engines off. The humvees drive over after we get in formation on both sides of the plane's ramp and wait for the MEB General to get in formation. The chaplain says a prayer. We go to attention. After that, a detail of Marines walks through the middle of the two formations while we salute. The body is draped in the same flag they stood up for and pledged allegiance to in elementary school as a kid. Now they're dead.
If you personally know anyone in 1/6, 3/6, or 2/2, those are the units I've seen casualties from. Someone wrote me a letter asking if I could find out about a Marine who was in a convoy that was hit. In all honesty, that person's family would have found out long before I even would've saluted the body.
Honestly, I cried a little the first couple times the bodies went by me. It was hard to hear the names; people with the same rank as me, probably the same age or younger than me. Now their families have to somehow cope with the loss of their son because the U.S. couldn't dedicate a substantial enough force to this country for eight years. Almost nine years...
I don't even know why we're here anymore. It was for 9/11...and now it's to get rid of the Taliban. It seems like we're doing a good job, but if it's taken this long to do a "good job" than I don't really feel that it's been worth it. We're trying to win the hearts and minds of these people, but we're not trying to win the war.
I saluted the body of an Afghanistan National Army soldier the other day as it was loaded before the bodies of the Americans. Their chaplain was there; he sange a prayer before the body was moved. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. I've heard men sing before, but never like that. And I have no idea what it meant. We all saluted that man. There were four other ANA guys in our formation with us. I'm glad they were there, and I was honored to be in the presence of that soldier. I think it's too late though when there are more of us dying for his country than Afghans. I just feel it's an unfortunate situation. Most people at my level are pretty much here for the money. They don't care about the conflict. That's how far we are from 9/11 now. People go to war for the money, not for their country.
What does the casualty assistance officer say to the family?
"Your son/husband/father/daughter/mother/wife died for freedom..."
And Marines are going to Haiti to pick up garbage and give food to people while other Marines are getting their legs blown off, surviving that, and dying a painful prolonged death later.
I was reading some article about General McChrystal who's in charge of the strategy here. It was all about how wise he was and how important the hearts and minds strategy was to him. It's not my place to comment on official policy, but he's an idiot. HE was the one who requested all the extra manpower here, and why? Apparently, his strategy is to do nothing with it. All anyone does around here is go on convoys, drive around a dirt road for possibly days on end, get blown up, maybe not, come back, sleep, eat, and do it again.
There's my two cents for the week.
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
01:31
Communications were just restored yesterday after at least twelve days. I got in an argument with some of my "co-workers" yesterday because I thought it was only a week or so, but they wouldn't budge. I have to admit, time does go by fast. When you've only got 12 hours off of work (and at least 7 of them are spent sleeping) there's not much time to do anything else but work.
The reasoning behind us being cut off from the outside world is the Marjeh or Marjah offensive. I have no idea what the actual spelling of that city is, whether it's an A or an E before the H. I keep seeing it spelled both ways in newspapers; I guess the press doesn't know either. We get cut off either before a large operation, or when someone is killed in action. The communications are stopped until the deceased's family is notified, or at least that's what people say. No one ever officially gave any type of brief on these cut-offs which we refer to as "being in River City" which confuses people who don't know what it means.
I'd say on average, every other day this week someone has died. They've either blown up, been shot, or died from their injuries afterwards. I can see every report of this throughout the day online with the computer that I work on. When the word "Angel" pops up in the report, you know someone is dead. "KIA" is pretty much never used in the reports that pop up.
The day after someone has died, their body has been sent up to us from Dwyer (a FOB south of here). Their body is brought in a humvee ambulance, taken to the flight line, and loaded onto a C-130 to Kandahar. I leave my office and go out to the flight line where a lot of other Marines gather for these ramp ceremonies. The last one, I was the lowest rank, and the next lowest before me was a Gunnery Sergeant. There were mainly senior enlisted and high ranking officers. We get in two columns and walk out to the plane, which is landed with its engines off. The humvees drive over after we get in formation on both sides of the plane's ramp and wait for the MEB General to get in formation. The chaplain says a prayer. We go to attention. After that, a detail of Marines walks through the middle of the two formations while we salute. The body is draped in the same flag they stood up for and pledged allegiance to in elementary school as a kid. Now they're dead.
If you personally know anyone in 1/6, 3/6, or 2/2, those are the units I've seen casualties from. Someone wrote me a letter asking if I could find out about a Marine who was in a convoy that was hit. In all honesty, that person's family would have found out long before I even would've saluted the body.
Honestly, I cried a little the first couple times the bodies went by me. It was hard to hear the names; people with the same rank as me, probably the same age or younger than me. Now their families have to somehow cope with the loss of their son because the U.S. couldn't dedicate a substantial enough force to this country for eight years. Almost nine years...
I don't even know why we're here anymore. It was for 9/11...and now it's to get rid of the Taliban. It seems like we're doing a good job, but if it's taken this long to do a "good job" than I don't really feel that it's been worth it. We're trying to win the hearts and minds of these people, but we're not trying to win the war.
I saluted the body of an Afghanistan National Army soldier the other day as it was loaded before the bodies of the Americans. Their chaplain was there; he sange a prayer before the body was moved. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. I've heard men sing before, but never like that. And I have no idea what it meant. We all saluted that man. There were four other ANA guys in our formation with us. I'm glad they were there, and I was honored to be in the presence of that soldier. I think it's too late though when there are more of us dying for his country than Afghans. I just feel it's an unfortunate situation. Most people at my level are pretty much here for the money. They don't care about the conflict. That's how far we are from 9/11 now. People go to war for the money, not for their country.
What does the casualty assistance officer say to the family?
"Your son/husband/father/daughter/mother/wife died for freedom..."
And Marines are going to Haiti to pick up garbage and give food to people while other Marines are getting their legs blown off, surviving that, and dying a painful prolonged death later.
I was reading some article about General McChrystal who's in charge of the strategy here. It was all about how wise he was and how important the hearts and minds strategy was to him. It's not my place to comment on official policy, but he's an idiot. HE was the one who requested all the extra manpower here, and why? Apparently, his strategy is to do nothing with it. All anyone does around here is go on convoys, drive around a dirt road for possibly days on end, get blown up, maybe not, come back, sleep, eat, and do it again.
There's my two cents for the week.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
More Stupidity Part 2
February 8, 2010
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
00:43
Welcome to another episode of:
HOW DOES JOHN MILAS REACT IN THAT SITUATION!?
Yesterday it rained...a lot. And after it had been raining a lot for a long time, it started to hail...a lot. And after it started to hail a lot for a long time it kept going for a long time.
When we did our shift change over the other guys said "Good luck getting back to the tent. There's water everywhere." And I thought well, this should be interesting. It was. I got off work, got on the internet for about 15 minutes and began walking back. Of course, since it had rained so ridiculously hard, and the ground is made of rocks, not a lot of the water sunk into the ground. Needless to say, it was above ground. It was basically in my way the entire walk back to the tent at about 01:30.
So, I waded through a large portion of it, which almost came to the top of my boots. I took a piss on the way back, and continued walking. Then it got awesome. The water came about an inch over my boots and filled in over the tops a little, soaking my socks.
"Awesome," I think I muttered. "Exactly what I need right before I go to sleep."
Episode 2
The power goes off at work around...oh...let's say 14:30. It comes back on probably forty-five minutes later. The power goes off again around...18:30...and doesn't come back on. Well...when you work in an office and you have no power, and the lights are all off, what to you become? Basically a waste of oxygen in the immediate area.
Johnny tried to go to sleep in the dark, but he couldn't. Then two Staff Sergeants showed up asking him a bunch of questions about a box that was supposed to come off of a flight that morning that they'd already asked him about on the phone and he couldn't answer them at that time either and they said the box had mission critical items inside and they wouldn't be able to shoot things the same way without the items in the box!
*takes a deep breath*
So they left and fifteen minutes later they found the box around the side of the building. Don't ask me why it was there...I don't know. I will never know why it was there.
Good night, and good luck.
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
00:43
Welcome to another episode of:
HOW DOES JOHN MILAS REACT IN THAT SITUATION!?
Yesterday it rained...a lot. And after it had been raining a lot for a long time, it started to hail...a lot. And after it started to hail a lot for a long time it kept going for a long time.
When we did our shift change over the other guys said "Good luck getting back to the tent. There's water everywhere." And I thought well, this should be interesting. It was. I got off work, got on the internet for about 15 minutes and began walking back. Of course, since it had rained so ridiculously hard, and the ground is made of rocks, not a lot of the water sunk into the ground. Needless to say, it was above ground. It was basically in my way the entire walk back to the tent at about 01:30.
So, I waded through a large portion of it, which almost came to the top of my boots. I took a piss on the way back, and continued walking. Then it got awesome. The water came about an inch over my boots and filled in over the tops a little, soaking my socks.
"Awesome," I think I muttered. "Exactly what I need right before I go to sleep."
Episode 2
The power goes off at work around...oh...let's say 14:30. It comes back on probably forty-five minutes later. The power goes off again around...18:30...and doesn't come back on. Well...when you work in an office and you have no power, and the lights are all off, what to you become? Basically a waste of oxygen in the immediate area.
Johnny tried to go to sleep in the dark, but he couldn't. Then two Staff Sergeants showed up asking him a bunch of questions about a box that was supposed to come off of a flight that morning that they'd already asked him about on the phone and he couldn't answer them at that time either and they said the box had mission critical items inside and they wouldn't be able to shoot things the same way without the items in the box!
*takes a deep breath*
So they left and fifteen minutes later they found the box around the side of the building. Don't ask me why it was there...I don't know. I will never know why it was there.
Good night, and good luck.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Turnover
February 6, 2010
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
01:14
Yesterday (or today, depending on how I look at it) was technically the first day that my unit owned the A/DACG on Camp Bastion, except for the British of course. The Marines who've been hanging around training us and working along side of us are going to be leaving. Not all at once, but they started filtering out today, or yesterday. Whatever it is.
In one way, I'm kind of excited about this. It means that I actually will be in charge to a certain degree. There are not going to be any NCOs on my shift. That means that the only person above me will be a 2nd Lieutenant, which doesn't really mean much. I don't say that to be disrespectful, but in my experience, the unnamed platoon commander usually lets us do our own thing. On the other hand, it is going to be hard without an NCO, and we're probably not going to have one until one of us gets promoted. There's only going to be four of us Lance Corporals running around, or rather, there WAS only going to be four. I was informed by my platoon commander today that two other Marines from Alpha Company (I'm in Bravo) are going to be jumping in with us on the next shift to lend an extra hand.
I have some mixed feelings about this. There's a HUGE lack of respect for me and others in my 0481 Landing Support Specialist MOS because, quite honestly, no one really knows what we do. We get a lot of shit from the Motor T and Security Marines in Bravo Company because they think we don't work hard enough, or at all. So, first of all, I'm going to flip out if I hear any of these two talking shit about my job. I understand that they didn't have a choice in getting sent to us, and to be frank, I don't want them there. But, their job is to do what they're told, just like me. And I hate my MOS anyway; I didn't choose it. Second, I'm nervous about how well they're going to adapt to the work. I only know that one of them is a Combat Engineer, I'm not sure exactly what kind he is. The other, I have no idea, but if he's Motor T I'm probably going to be in a bad mood around him until I get to know him. I don't hold a grudge, but I've learned to hold a grudge against Motor T.
On a more positive note, I've gotten a decent amount of work done on my new writing project for the free time that I'm allowed. To give you an idea of the preparations I've taken, here's an example. Half of this story is about a high school student, well maybe 65-70% of the story. I spent about two days creating almost every character in his first semester classes (seven classes) and their personalities as well as his reaction to their behavior. It sounds tedious, but I enjoyed it, and it gave me a better idea of the world the story would take place in. I also went through and came up with most of the other characters in the story. One of them I've taken from a short story that has been a WIP for probably over two years now. For once, I'm excited to work on this story and I don't feel like it's a chore. That's how I've felt for almost everything I've written. I feel like it's been work since the first time I get an idea out of my head and into a text form it feels like I'm hooking something in my brain with a fishing line and yanking it out. So far, the work I've done on this new project has come very easily and naturally. That's a good sign. I just wish I had more free time during the day.
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
01:14
Yesterday (or today, depending on how I look at it) was technically the first day that my unit owned the A/DACG on Camp Bastion, except for the British of course. The Marines who've been hanging around training us and working along side of us are going to be leaving. Not all at once, but they started filtering out today, or yesterday. Whatever it is.
In one way, I'm kind of excited about this. It means that I actually will be in charge to a certain degree. There are not going to be any NCOs on my shift. That means that the only person above me will be a 2nd Lieutenant, which doesn't really mean much. I don't say that to be disrespectful, but in my experience, the unnamed platoon commander usually lets us do our own thing. On the other hand, it is going to be hard without an NCO, and we're probably not going to have one until one of us gets promoted. There's only going to be four of us Lance Corporals running around, or rather, there WAS only going to be four. I was informed by my platoon commander today that two other Marines from Alpha Company (I'm in Bravo) are going to be jumping in with us on the next shift to lend an extra hand.
I have some mixed feelings about this. There's a HUGE lack of respect for me and others in my 0481 Landing Support Specialist MOS because, quite honestly, no one really knows what we do. We get a lot of shit from the Motor T and Security Marines in Bravo Company because they think we don't work hard enough, or at all. So, first of all, I'm going to flip out if I hear any of these two talking shit about my job. I understand that they didn't have a choice in getting sent to us, and to be frank, I don't want them there. But, their job is to do what they're told, just like me. And I hate my MOS anyway; I didn't choose it. Second, I'm nervous about how well they're going to adapt to the work. I only know that one of them is a Combat Engineer, I'm not sure exactly what kind he is. The other, I have no idea, but if he's Motor T I'm probably going to be in a bad mood around him until I get to know him. I don't hold a grudge, but I've learned to hold a grudge against Motor T.
On a more positive note, I've gotten a decent amount of work done on my new writing project for the free time that I'm allowed. To give you an idea of the preparations I've taken, here's an example. Half of this story is about a high school student, well maybe 65-70% of the story. I spent about two days creating almost every character in his first semester classes (seven classes) and their personalities as well as his reaction to their behavior. It sounds tedious, but I enjoyed it, and it gave me a better idea of the world the story would take place in. I also went through and came up with most of the other characters in the story. One of them I've taken from a short story that has been a WIP for probably over two years now. For once, I'm excited to work on this story and I don't feel like it's a chore. That's how I've felt for almost everything I've written. I feel like it's been work since the first time I get an idea out of my head and into a text form it feels like I'm hooking something in my brain with a fishing line and yanking it out. So far, the work I've done on this new project has come very easily and naturally. That's a good sign. I just wish I had more free time during the day.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
My Job
February 5, 2010
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
09:25
I know it's been a while, sorry. I've just been trying to get adjusted to my 12 on 12 off schedule. What that means is I work for 12 hours, and then I come back for 12 hours, then go back after those 12 hours. This cycle will repeat itself over and over and over again until I come home with no days off and no breaks. Sound monotonous? It is. Especially when you have to be at the bus stop at 11:15 (when I start work at 12) and the bus picks you up from work at about 12:30 AM. So really, it's 13 on, 11 off. Take into account the fact that I usually get on a computer for 30 minutes after work and get into my sleeping back around 1:00 or 1:30, and there's even less time to sleep. So of course I wake up late around 10:00 or so and have only an hour to eat and shower in the morning. Needless to say, it feels like I'm always at work.
So, what do I do?
I am the "Operations Chief" for the Camp Bastion (the British base we're connected to) A/DACG. Don't ask me what that stands for, I only remember a couple of the letters. It's basically just an airport terminal though. I work there in the office from 12 PM to 12 AM. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I've got it down pretty well now. My job entails answering two different phones, talking to everyone else I work with on a handheld radio, talking to the pilots of C-130s when they're landing, updating times for new flights coming in, keeping track of what's on those flights, and then answering questions that people are constantly asking.
It was pretty daunting at first. It took me a while to get used to all the different people that I would be talking to on the phone, and anticipating the information they'd be wanting. I can talk directly to the squadron that the C-130s are a part of, or I can go straight to the Captain who's in charge of everything that goes on the planes. I can't exactly make most decisions on my own, but my billet acts as a sort of hub for everyone to go through. It's important for me to know everything that's going on so I can make sure everyone else does as well.
I thought it'd take me a while to learn everything, but since I'm used to everything sucking the first time I do it, I was able to anticipate that and things came easier.
I'll give you an example of what happens when one of these C-130s land.
About 5 minutes before one of the Marine flights is scheduled to land, the pilot (or crew chief) calls into me on a radio. I answer him and he says he's ten minutes away. He tells me how many passengers and pallets of cargo are going to be offloaded from the plane. I tell him how many passengers and pallets are going to load onto the plane. The plane lands about thirty seconds later (negating the whole five minute/ten minute thing I mentioned) and the cargo Marine goes and offloads and onloads everything with forklifts and whatnot.
Of course sometimes the planes are late. Sometimes they won't take pallets that are scheduled to load onto the plane because their crew chief is a douchebag. In that case I have to call the Fixed Wing Tasker who is usually a really cool Captain. He'll say "That's bullshit, those pallets are going and that's it. Tell that plane's commander to call me," and I radio in to the plane again.
There's one crew chief who's yelled at me on the radio for asking what the plane was offloading a second time. He was coming in broken and unreadable the first time he called in. "I JUST FRIGGIN' TOLD YOU!" he yelled, and repeated himself. The other day I called into the bird twice because they never radioed into me when they landed. "WHAT!" was my response.
Normally everyone is professional and patient though, it's just those people who think they're having a worse day than everyone else.
If you have any questions about this, feel free to comment here and ask me. I'd be happy to clarify things without revealing classified information.
By the way, I weighed in today at 153 pounds. Either the scale is wrong, or I've lost about 20 pounds since November. Jealous?
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
09:25
I know it's been a while, sorry. I've just been trying to get adjusted to my 12 on 12 off schedule. What that means is I work for 12 hours, and then I come back for 12 hours, then go back after those 12 hours. This cycle will repeat itself over and over and over again until I come home with no days off and no breaks. Sound monotonous? It is. Especially when you have to be at the bus stop at 11:15 (when I start work at 12) and the bus picks you up from work at about 12:30 AM. So really, it's 13 on, 11 off. Take into account the fact that I usually get on a computer for 30 minutes after work and get into my sleeping back around 1:00 or 1:30, and there's even less time to sleep. So of course I wake up late around 10:00 or so and have only an hour to eat and shower in the morning. Needless to say, it feels like I'm always at work.
So, what do I do?
I am the "Operations Chief" for the Camp Bastion (the British base we're connected to) A/DACG. Don't ask me what that stands for, I only remember a couple of the letters. It's basically just an airport terminal though. I work there in the office from 12 PM to 12 AM. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I've got it down pretty well now. My job entails answering two different phones, talking to everyone else I work with on a handheld radio, talking to the pilots of C-130s when they're landing, updating times for new flights coming in, keeping track of what's on those flights, and then answering questions that people are constantly asking.
It was pretty daunting at first. It took me a while to get used to all the different people that I would be talking to on the phone, and anticipating the information they'd be wanting. I can talk directly to the squadron that the C-130s are a part of, or I can go straight to the Captain who's in charge of everything that goes on the planes. I can't exactly make most decisions on my own, but my billet acts as a sort of hub for everyone to go through. It's important for me to know everything that's going on so I can make sure everyone else does as well.
I thought it'd take me a while to learn everything, but since I'm used to everything sucking the first time I do it, I was able to anticipate that and things came easier.
I'll give you an example of what happens when one of these C-130s land.
About 5 minutes before one of the Marine flights is scheduled to land, the pilot (or crew chief) calls into me on a radio. I answer him and he says he's ten minutes away. He tells me how many passengers and pallets of cargo are going to be offloaded from the plane. I tell him how many passengers and pallets are going to load onto the plane. The plane lands about thirty seconds later (negating the whole five minute/ten minute thing I mentioned) and the cargo Marine goes and offloads and onloads everything with forklifts and whatnot.
Of course sometimes the planes are late. Sometimes they won't take pallets that are scheduled to load onto the plane because their crew chief is a douchebag. In that case I have to call the Fixed Wing Tasker who is usually a really cool Captain. He'll say "That's bullshit, those pallets are going and that's it. Tell that plane's commander to call me," and I radio in to the plane again.
There's one crew chief who's yelled at me on the radio for asking what the plane was offloading a second time. He was coming in broken and unreadable the first time he called in. "I JUST FRIGGIN' TOLD YOU!" he yelled, and repeated himself. The other day I called into the bird twice because they never radioed into me when they landed. "WHAT!" was my response.
Normally everyone is professional and patient though, it's just those people who think they're having a worse day than everyone else.
If you have any questions about this, feel free to comment here and ask me. I'd be happy to clarify things without revealing classified information.
By the way, I weighed in today at 153 pounds. Either the scale is wrong, or I've lost about 20 pounds since November. Jealous?
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Checking In
February 3, 2010
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
01:26
I'll try and get something more substantial and job-related in here, but I thought I'd brag for a second.
Out of the blue, a story I wrote several months ago was just featured in the Comedy Newsletter on Writing.com. You'll notice it at the bottom of the listing.
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
01:26
I'll try and get something more substantial and job-related in here, but I thought I'd brag for a second.
Out of the blue, a story I wrote several months ago was just featured in the Comedy Newsletter on Writing.com. You'll notice it at the bottom of the listing.
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