August 18, 2007
H&I Fires* 18 AUG 2007
Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.
You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...
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I've got an all-day Rotary gig today, so I'm just gonna toss this up here so's you guys can get to work on it. Since the Whatziss was a 3" mortar round, how about a pic of the Stokes round with a WWII-era 3" round - this particular one being Australian. That's a sight for the Aussie 4.2" mortar at the bottom of the pic. Someday - I'm going to have a mortar to stick that on...
-the Armorer
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Bob Calvert has his first set of reports on his Iraq embed: the stateside USO, arrival in Kuwait, and finally, The Green Zone (no, he won't be spending his entire time in The Green Zone; that's just where he's starting).
Valour-IT's MEGEN is on the road again. This time, she's got a Naval Whatziss for you. - FbL
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The Whatziss, revealed!
A Laurel, and Hearty Handshake to Old Fat Sailor and Mongo for getting it right. It is, indeed, a round for the WWI 3" Stokes mortar.
This woulda been your next clue if we'd needed one.
But OFS and Mongo took care of it.
Interesting method of fuzing, eh? Right before you hang and drop the round, you pulled the ring, inserted the round, and let it go - the lever flipped free as it cleared the tube, and off it went.
The Stokes mortar is essentially the first modern mortar. I could write a learned treatise here, but heck, real weapons geek Bruce Canfield has already done so - if you'd like to know more about the Stokes - simply click here.
Out O' The Closet
No, not *that* one -- *this* one, from the AKO website.
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Training RequirementALARACT 153-2007 DTG 171457Z JUL 07 directs all Soldiers (AD, USAR, and ARNG) to participate in training on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) by 18 OCT 2007. This chain teaching program will inform leaders and Soldiers of the causes and physical and psychological effects of mTBI/PTSD and provide information on how to seek subsequent treatment of those conditions. In order to remain Army Strong, every leader and Soldier must be capable of identifying symptoms and ensuring that treatment is available to every Soldier who requires or requests it.
In 1976, the Powers That Be in the Joisey Guard declared that Agent Orange exposure and / or PTSD (especially that icky “and” part) rendered the exposee physically and mentally unfit for future combat and thus ineligible for membership in the NJARNG. Translation: We’re gonna get a black eye with the Big Army if anybody signs up for that AO class action suit or freaks out on a weekend drill.
Then somebody did the math -- they’d wind up with a bigger black eye if they tossed out 90% of their helicopter pilots because of politics. The end result was that nobody got bounced and several of my buds made some significant contributions in various aspects of the aviation field.
And we kept the PTB from resurrecting the PTSD issue by keeping our ghosts to ourselves -- or among ourselves.
Nice to see that somebody's finally deciding to take the long view…
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Meanwhile, somebody was busting caps down the block last night; a couple of MP5s and at least one AK-type from the sounds. The Shadows think it was the local cops going after a bunch of dacoits, because they weren't put on alert. Being a cop over here is particularly dangerous -- three were killed in a firefight last week -- since even the bicycle thieves can scrape up significant firepower.
Along the border, ground troops are sweeping the area around Chaghmalai in South Waziristan to recover the survivors of an ambushed convoy. "Militants" are holding them and demanding the release of ten terrs (including three suspected bombers) caught in the sweep following a suicider's attack in Islamabad. Several firefights erupted in Tora Teegha and Ghut Khawa when troops were sweeping the towns -- seven friendly KIA and at least fifteen terrs dead, four more wounded and captured. The "militants" forebade the townsfolk to evacuate, but the "swim in the sea of the people" tactic seems to have backfired -- the locals have started warning the troops about ambush sites and pointing out terr strongpoints.
And, further north, two men were killed when a bomb exploded in a house in Swabi. Both were in close proximity to the bomb when it went off, which could lead one to speculate along certain lines...
News of Fort Riley and the 1st Division.
PATROLLING MANSOURPhoto by Spc. L.B. Edgar, 7th MPAD
Pfc. Brandon Tripp, an artilleryman with Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, keeps a watchful eye while Soldiers speak with residents of Hateen, a neighborhood in Baghdad's Mansour District. The joint operation between coalition forces and Iraqi security forces disrupted insurgent activities in the area with a search of residents' homes.
Okay, this next bit is for Maggie - Sailors at Fort Riley - about as far away from salt water as you can get in this country...
Hey - they're sure going to be "joint" when it's all over... and I think Lieutenant Del Carpio is *really* going to appreciate being in the Navy, based on how she's found Army life so far...
SAILORS GET USED TO ARMY LIFE AT FUNSTONBy Gary Skidmore
1st BrigadeNavy Cmdr. Phil Blaine is a pharmacist. He's also a member of a transition team destined for Afghanistan. He and the other members of his team will be standing up a hospital when they deploy, but first, they have to get through their training at Fort Riley.
The equipment they wear weighs between 50 and 70 pounds and for someone who isn't used to wearing it, it doesn't take long to get worn down. That was the hardest thing Navy Lt. Priscilla Del Carpio had to deal with. "Never in a million years did I think I'd be doing all this Army stuff," Del Carpio said. "I knew I'd be deploying sooner or later, but I always thought it would have been with the Navy.
'The body armor is something you get used to eventually," Del Carpio said. "But when I first put it on I thought, 'holy moly,' and then add your weapons and all your other gear; it wears you down. "It doesn't hurt nearly as bad as it did the first two days I wore it," she said. "The first day I wore it, I really thought I was going to cry,"
Another thing Del Carpio said she had to get used to were the terms the Army uses. "They speak a different language then we do," she said. "Sometimes we have them slow down and explain what they just said. But we're getting used to it and it's become second nature to us now."
Blaine, Del Caprio and the rest of their team were learning building clearing techniques, one of the most dangerous jobs there is, said Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Walder, the first sergeant for Battery G, 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment. "We're showing them the basic stack procedures, sectors of fire and entry techniques," Walder said.
The training is progressive, Walder said. "It's the crawl, walk, run method of teaching. We're starting everyone off in 'glass houses,'" said Walder, explaining a glass house as a taped-off area symbolizing a building with rooms. The next level for the teams to master is a closed building.
"It's basically the same thing as the glass house but we've added walls and have them work in a dimly-lighted area," Walder said. From there, the last step is a blank-fire assault on a building. "We've added pictures of the enemy and of friendly bystanders," Walder said. "As they make their way through the building they have to pick and choose where they fire.
"Knowing how to do this is a great basic skill to have," Walder said. "No matter what type of unit they belong to, if you get told you have to do this, there's no such thing as an administrative move. You will have to do it, and knowing how will save their lives."
"This is like drinking water through a fire hose," Blaine said of the training. "There's so much to do, so much to learn. We're like sponges and taking it all in." Blaine said since he and his team have been training, they've done a lot of marksmanship, convoy movements, classroom work and language training. "We've had a lot of classroom work in the Dari language," Blaine said.
"Hopefully, we'll be able to converse with our counterparts when we get there. At least we'll be able to say 'hello' and 'goodbye.'"
Army Spouses offer advice on coping with a deployment.
From my personal experience of dealing with being in the family of a deployed soldier when my father went to Vietnam, I wish we had done things differently, and stayed at a military installation vice moving to be with family - and we possibly could have done both - gone to Fort Carson, which would have been close to the family in Denver anyway. Of course, Vietnam was a very different war, from the Army's perspective. We did deploy divisions over as units - but once in-theater, they stayed and were fed by individual rotation and replacement.
The current approach, deploying and returning as a unit, is so many orders of magnitude better than that system I don't have space to describe it. The movie We Were Soldiers does a good job of covering the impact of combat on a unit deployed as a unit - and with the families staying together at Fort Benning. What it doesn't show is the isolation and complete lack of support after a unit had been deployed for over a year and the rotation cycle broke up the support arrangements back home. I'm pretty sure that was the loneliest gnawing-at-your-vitals year in my mother's life, far worse than Dad's tour in Korea, where they were newlyweds with no kids.
The stuff in here is pretty good, but it's missing something (which I've told the Fort Riley PAO about) - the other way for military spouses to get connected, whether they stayed on post or went somewhere else - SpouseBuzz.
What's missing from this piece? Technically, nothing. But Some Soldier's Mom would argue that similar services might be nice for... parents of deployed warriors, too.
SPOUSES OFFER TIPS TO SURVIVE DEPLOYMENTBy Anna Staatz
Staff writerWhen Army wives talked about what they rely on the most to get them through a deployment, the reoccurring theme was each other. So it's not too surprising that their advice for deployment survival included getting a job, becoming involved with your family readiness group, find a community group to be a part of - do whatever you need to do to make new friends and meet new people at whatever post you find yourself at.
Staying or leaving
When facing a deployment, one of the questions a Family must answer is whether or not to stay near the post the spouse is deploying from or move away to a hometown or closer to Family. Stacie Belt, family readiness group coordinator, said the decision is a personal one that only can be made by the people in a military Family. Belt said about 50 percent of Families choose to stay on or near a post during deployment, while others choose to move closer to Family. Mostly, Belt said, it is a wash between what support a Family has available elsewhere and how well they've become acquainted with the Fort Riley area. "If they've been able to get in with the community and find projects to do, a lot of them won't go home because they've found enough to keep them busy during the deployment," Belt said.
Personally, Belt said, she has had both experiences. During her husband's deployment to Korea, she moved the Family near her parents. During his Operation Iraqi Freedom deployment, she stayed put near post. "It was wonderful being with my parents for a year and they were very supportive, but I missed that military connection," she said. "We were in an area that did not have any military Families and I truly missed being with other Families."
Lindsey Savant is married to Sgt. Robert Savant, Company D, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. The couple has two children, Julie, 8, and Cadence, 3. They opted to stay put at Fort Riley during the deployment of 4th IBCT mostly for the sake of keeping Julie and Cadence in the same environment and for the sake of Lindsey keeping her employment as a family child care provider stable.
"We chose to stay here for the stabilization of our children and the stabilization of my job," Lindsey said. "Julie had already been in school here for one year and had made friends and I didn't want to transfer and then have to move her back here after a year in a strange school ... At the time of the deployment, I had Cadence enrolled here at CDC and she had friends there as well. I did not want to uproot either one of them."
Keeping the children as stable as possible also factored in to Sgt. 1st Class Antonio Diaz, and his wife, Wendy's decision to stay at Fort Riley. Wendy also was able to find a job working at the Fort Riley Middle School Teen Center as the Homework Tech only days prior to her husband's deployment, which factored into her decision to stay. Antonio is currently deployed with Company D, 1st Bn., 28th Inf. Regt. Wendy said work, a routine for her children and an atmosphere in which others could easily relate to what she and her Family were going through were important reasons to stay at Fort Riley. The Diaz's have two children, Antonio, 10, and Gabrielle, 2. This is the family's first combat deployment.
"Past deployments, I had always returned home," she said. "I was younger, with only one child. I was immature and very dependent upon my husband as well as my family. Now I am older and educated and understand the importance of being an independent and self-reliant woman."
Wendy said in the past, when she moved closer to immediate family during a deployment, they were supportive, but beyond them she had no other form of support such as she receives from post organizations and activities. "They can never understand or relate to the heart break that my family and I experience," she said.
FRGs
Many wives said they were very thankful for the support of their family readiness groups during a deployment and they have found friends they will keep for a lifetime through their FRG. "I have three amazing friends who have been there every step of the way," Diaz said. "We have created a bond that only women who are enduring the same situation can create."
Alisha Torres has been able to find both support and information through her FRG. It is the first deployment for Torres and her husband, Alex, who is a first lieutenant in 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 4th IBCT, 1st Inf. Div. "The people I've met through FRG and at work have been my best support," she said. "The other wives can relate to my situation and you're never
alone."Savant echoed similar sentiments about the 1st Bn., 28th Inf. Regt., FRG. "We at the 1-28 have an awesome FRG," she said. "All of the wives are great and will do anything to help you out." Most FRGs have social events, meetings to help inform members of the latest news about their unit, as well as informal gatherings for movie night or a spouse's night out.
Keeping your Sanity
Switching to being a single parent or dealing with the absence of a husband during a deployment is difficult. Many wives said the same thing Soldiers often say when dealing with deployment: stay busy. "Working in general is a great outlet," Torres said. "I stay busy and the days seem to fly by." Torres also said it helps to keep a sense of humor about things.
"We use the karaoke machine in my home," she said. "We may not sound like stars, but we have a great time." Dealing with the loneliness also is key to making it through a deployment without hurting yourself or worrying a husband thousands of miles away many of the spouses said. "Loneliness is very difficult because everyone experiences it at different rates and might show it differently," Savant said. "All I can say about that is not to sit around and think about it. Stay busy and focused on the tasks at hand." Diaz said the best way she has found to deal with deployment doesn't even really involve her husband.
"Learn how to define yourself and not depend on him," she said. "Get a job or go back to school. Behind every strong man is a strong woman." Belt said spouses should take time to educate themselves on the many programs and activities on post by contacting Army Community Services, the Soldier and Family Support Center, the Armed Services YMCA and other groups such as the rear detachment desks. "Learn what's out there and what it can do for you," she said.
August 17, 2007
H&I Fires* 17 AUG 2007
Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.
You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...
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A new, self-employed "embed" heads to Iraq. Bob Calvert, of Talking With Heroes:
Back to Iraq to Talk with HeroesFor those who are hearing about the Talking with Heroes Internet talk show for the very first time I am Bob Calvert, the host. What we do is not about politics. It is all about supporting our men and women in uniform, and their families.
This one is unique - among his sponsors...in fact his *major* sponsor: Soldier's Angels.
A special thanks to Patti and Jeff Bader and Soldiers Angels for being the main sponsor of this upcoming trip to Iraq. And thank you to all those who have been supportive of this project, some for short periods of time and others from the very beginnning back in 2005.
No - not one thin dime of your Project Valour-IT money is involved with this. That money goes to the cause you gave it for. And not surprising, to me - is the Castle's Own Denizenne Fuzzybear Lioness is up to her furry chin in this... [and we mean the furry chin comment in the *best* way, of course] -the Armorer
Oh, and the comments on yesterday's H&I have gotten toothsome and fun, you should go check 'em out. Heck, they're even endorsed by Maggie!
I am still lost in the comments below......my mind trailed off at "Uh, oh - I see Damian demands I erect the Octagon..."-the Armorer
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Dammit. Sometimes life just isn't fair. -the Armorer
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Featured YouTube Smackdown video for August 17:
I.E.D. Attacks in Iraq - Panterapete187
Note: If you aren't familiar with the YouTube Smackdown, please visit the first link above before taking a look at the second. Thanks. - Rickbert
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Update: Forgot to mention, Soldiers Angels is in the KC Star.
Killer Robots and 20 kilowatt lasers that make mortars go "boom"
22. In France, it is forbidden to call a pig Napoleon [ed..but Josephine and Chirac are still open]8. In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon more than six-feet long.[ed...and you would conceal that...where?]
Putin Announces Warsaw Pact 2 (minus Warsaw; he must still be pining for the "good ol' days"). While some folks disavow a new Cold War because they know what Cold War was about:
Both sides know there will be no new Cold War because money binds them so closely, Eduard Radzinsky believes.[snip]Margot Light also believes there cannot be another Cold War.
"You only have to look at how the supply of oil and gas has divided Europe to understand that there isn't that same kind of solidarity on the Western side while Russia has no real allies," she says.
"Nor is there any ideological divide. There is probably more belief in socialism in the West now than there is in Russia."
I always love when people dismiss the economic reasons for war, by far the most prevalent reason that nations have gone to war, for the barely concealing "ideological" reasons. Which, now that that ideology is gone, the reasoning goes, so does the cause for war. That's right after she notes the economic and resource issues. For instance, Putin believes strongly that Russia should be a super power. It has resources, people, land and money. He does long for the good ol' days when the Cold War meant Mother Russia was an economic, military and political power house. Maybe, he's not interested in direct nuclear brinkmanship, but he is certainly interested in creating security tensions with Iranian nuclear plants, arms sells and a proxy, proxy war. It keeps the Caucuses firmly within his grasp and thus, their oil, their money and their territory through which more Russian oil and natural gas can flow. Ergo, money.
Why do people always have to bring ideology into a perfectly good war? Frankly, I think its a good thing. Might remind some folks about how they want to live and who they want to associate with: Freedom or autocracy? Maybe all these nations pine for the good ol' days, too. Might explain, soul stealing, brain eating, Zombie Democracies.
-kat
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A shocking new study shows that Iraq is set to disintegrate!. You know, because all those studies before that said it was about to disintegrate were wrong and this report is right! Particularly because it was done in Berlin and those Berliners know things!
Okay...I don't know how much more sarcasm I can generate. They are basically advocating "federalism" for Iraq. As if that were new, too. Hey! Maybe next week they'll write a new song and call it, "Duetscheland Uber Alas!"
-Kat
Hah! You thought I'd let you off the hook.
Nope. Even though you don't care, based on the number of responses, we're going to keep plugging at this whatziss.
After the whining about size, I gave you a larger size. Now I'll add a touch of context.
With an even larger view of the gizmo available by clicking here.
It *is* a fuze - you've gotten that much. But you've not gotten it quite right, yet.
Update: Perhaps this will help.
Update 2: Mebbe *this* will help. Prolly not, but who knows? Actually, it should, if you can connect the dots.
On remodeling...
Installment 9 of my sister's saga:
Subtitle: When your clothes drier becomes a counter top.The tiny flies have mostly died. Many of them committed suicide in our beverages. We would look down at our drinks and find 10 itty-bitty bug bodies floating in them. Not too appetizing, eh? They also had a penchant for flying up noses and into ears. We are not mourning their passing.
I had planned to spend Monday packing up the kitchen in a logical manner. You know, putting things into neatly labeled boxes and placing them in reasonable locations. But nooooo. They wanted to begin demolition on Monday. That meant cramming stuff into boxes and putting it anywhere it would fit. I may never find some of it again. We also moved the dining room furniture into the living room which still contained its own furnishings. The dining room table slid very nicely over the coffee table. During all of this hullabaloo, Dodger came into the kitchen, looked at the workers, and peed a river on the floor. He is such an expressive canine.
We took Erin to Chicago for a few days to see the musical “The Twenty-fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” If you ever have a chance to see this play, absolutely do it! The first laugh comes about 30 seconds into it and you won’t stop laughing until it is done. A word of caution: it is not a show for children due to a small amount of bad language and a hilarious song about unexpected adolescent erections. There were some stunned parents and grandparents in the audience. As Erin said, anybody can check these shows out on the Internet!
We returned home about 10:30 Thursday night. I opened the door and reached out to turn on the light, but the wall was gone. There was no switch. So I walked my fingers along the closet door until I found the hallway and located the light switch. The house was very warm, so we wanted to turn the air conditioner down. The thermostat had been located on the missing wall. We searched and searched to no avail. A worker showed it to me in the morning. It is now taped onto the furnace in the basement. I never would have found it in a million years.
They have created a little kitchen in the utility room. They moved my sink base, dishwasher, and range downstairs. I did not think I would still have the dishwasher, so I am very grateful. There is no prep space, however, so I am using the drier as a counter top. I haven’t tried to cook anything complex yet and may decide that heating things up is about as complex as I want to get.
Oh, I almost forgot. They taped heavy sheets of plastic over the entries into the living room to keep the dust out. That was very thoughtful and we appreciated it. Except the refrigerator was in there, too. It was a little hard to get breakfast.
We put the kitchen table in the family room. It is a little crowded, but it works. Our dishes are being stored in a book case and the coffee maker and toaster are out there, too. This of course meant packing up the things that are normally in those spaces. I love packing, especially in a hurry.
The exterior wall has been removed, as has the wall between the kitchen and dining room. Now we can really see how large the new room will be. It will be so nice when it is done, if we can hold on that long!
Heh. Okay, here's our saga. I drove out, took a picture of the progress on the Boudoir of Argghhh!, clapped people on the back for doing such a good job and being so neat, fed Sergeant S'mudge, Caretaker and Construction Supervisor of the New Castle, and went home. The material was dropped yesterday for the Arsenal Vault of Argghhh!, construction on which starts next Monday!
August 16, 2007
H&I Fires* 16 AUG 2007
Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.
You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...
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As I'm sure you've heard, there has been a devastating earthquake in Peru. The death toll has climbed above 300. This story got some people to thinking.
"Big Earthquake in Peru. Send USNS Comfort. NOW"
Good thinking Springbored!......Maggie
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Armor mentioned the little show case of corporations hoping to sell some nifty products to the military. No video and limited pictures, but an interesting little article about the event here: New Era of Counter Terror Weapons
Also, if you missed it, three wounded warriors were on Fox the other day talking about their experiences. One Cpl Padilla (no relation to the terror suspect) talks about being wounded and his friends braving a hail of fire to rescue him.
With the recent planned designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization I started pulling together some information on the Iranian economic situation and possible effects of this designation. The BBC had written a brief report about the challenges.
After I wrote this review that included information on Ahmedinijad's continued consolidation of power in the presidency, the thought came to me that the recent gasoline rationing can be more than simply a production or economic issue. My two bets are: 1) suspect attacks so they are building reserves to support military operations for more than 30 days; 2) it's main impact is on the "masses"; gasoline rationing means that any opposition cannot freely or even covertly meet. to oppose Ahmedinijad in any way including planning political opposition in the upcoming elections.
-Kat
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Perhaps one of our Canadian readers can explain the logic behind this decision in the context of the others cited? -the Armorer
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Featured YouTube Smackdown video for August 16:
Featured: ISI: IED vs RG31 in Dyala - kateebjihad
Note: If you aren't familiar with the YouTube Smackdown, please visit the first link above before taking a look at the second. Thanks. - Rickbert
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