On the other foot

A couple of years ago, when I was in the US and my brother was in Mosul (NB: ironic, isn’t it), I would read his blog and think, “Why in the world doesn’t this guy update more often?? Doesn’t he realize we want to know what’s going on??” Strangely enough, I find myself thinking, “Why in the world don’t I update more often?? Don’t I realize that people want to know what’s going on??” Two excellent questions, which I hope to answer satisfactorily, if not succinctly. First, the flow of my day can tend to prevent more frequent updates. I shall elaborate. I crawl out of bed around 0515, start coffee, get on Yahoo (cheaper than Skype) and talk to my wife. She, for whom I have forsaken all others, gets that exclusively (to quote Westley the Farm Boy, once I start making exceptions and calling other people in the morning, word gets out then it’s work, work, work all day long). Around 0600, I go hit the gym. Usually. Then, clean up, eat and head to the 0800 update briefing. This is every day. Sunday through Saturday. Every. Day. I can’t even borrow the gag from When Harry Met Sally and change what I wear. After the update, I might have other things to do around the ops center (“BDOC”) or not. Once I get done at the BDOC, I walk to badging. There I spend the morning, do lunch sometime middle of the day, then dinner around 1800. All that time in between might be spent doing personal stuff (ie, sneaking off to the PX), badging issues (ie, explaining to yet another Iraqi Army officer why his kingly rank of captain doesn’t qualify him for the same badge I give general officers), addressing staff issues (ie, listen to US Army folks voice concerns I may or may not be able to fix), going to meetings (ie, sticking pencils in my eye) or working on badging projects. Once I get done with dinner, say, 1900, I’m anywhere between medium rare and well done, depending on what the day held for me. Usually, if I’m anywhere more cooked than medium, it’s movie and/or computer gaming. Sometimes I’ll start a post in the office, save it to Google docs (don’t tell the Army their firewalls don’t catch blogs or documents sent through Google…it’ll ruin the access I have to Small Wars Journal, oddly enough) and post it the next morning. Oh, there’s another reason. EVERYBODY is online in the evenings, which means very limited bandwidth. So I’ll likely post in the morning while I talk to my bride.

Folks ask Kim, who relays to me, that folks wonder what goes on here. Those who go outside the wire spend a lot of time preparing to do so, and well they should. Folks like me spend as much time as possible keeping the inside the wire safe for them. That’s what I do, I help keep the wire safe by making sure the wrong people don’t have access inside. Outside the wire, well, some folks patrol, some will do civil affairs stuff (build schools, hand out humanitarian supplies, things of that nature), just depends. Sometimes the enemy will get energetic and actually launch rockets or mortars, but usually they’re quiet. When they’re not, it’s typically VBIEDs in town, which is off the base. Personally, my spidey sense is tingling about some of that, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Not yet.

So last week, I had this thing which reminded me of another thing. Another guy and I were setting up a biometrics system at a gate (I think I mentioned this in a previous post). We discuss this with the sergeant in charge of the area, he decides and we set it up. One of his troops was kind of upset and says, “But sir, once the hajis get here, they’re inside the wire, what if they make a break and run into the FOB?” I just looked at him like he spoke Chinese. I just didn’t get it and walked off. Now I know why - ROE, or Rules Of Engagement. See, in my book, someone running onto the FOB in an uncontrolled manner constitutes a hostile act, which means I can shoot him. Each of the guards has a rifle with a close combat optic on it, there is absolutely no way they could miss. What if, indeed! So here’s my rant that this inspired - we have become so concerned about the ROE that we have, in my opinion, trained our soldiers to not consider deadly force. That my friends, is a problem. Now, I don’t think we need to be rampant killers, the environment doesn’t call for that. What it does, however, call for, is for us to be prepared to kill when needed. Like when some crazy haji tries to run through the gate without stopping. In our mobilization training, we received plenty of ROE training, at least plenty of briefings. We also received some decent training on establishing PID, or Positive Identification. Can’t shoot unless we have PID. For all that, we need more hands on training with deadly force engagements. More controlled environments and exercises that force soldiers to engage targets, even with blanks, in order to force them to come to that conclusion and KNOW that when they do pull that trigger, it’s a righteous shoot. Troops must have absolutely no doubt about when they must engage with deadly force and why, and all of that MUST be trained into us until the correct choice and subsequent engagement is a reflex action. When we were at Airborne School, they taught us the five points of contact. It was constantly drilled into us, so when we stepped out of the aircraft at 1850 feet, we knew that we knew how, when and why to hit so we walked (ran…) away from the landing. I have no doubt the instructors spent far more energy on drilling that stuff into us than we did at learning it. The point here is simple - we as an institution MUST spend more time and effort drilling this into soldiers, not in briefings, but in every single exercise we do from the time we hit the mobilization station. None of us should have left that place if we had any doubts about using deadly force. The last doubt a Soldier should ever have is when he or she is allowed to engage the enemy. Ever.

Let me make one thing clear, before the pundits start - I believe in ROE. I think, no I know, they are necessary. Note I’m not commenting on the rules themselves, and I won’t. We are professionals. ROE and adherence to them is one of the many qualities, which set us apart from thugs with guns (among other things - Harrington has a book about why the military is considered as much a group of professionals as doctors and lawyers…which we are).

*ahem* So much for the soapbox. Hey, thanks go out to a ton of you!! Mom & Dad, thanks TONS for the box!! Dave, Cinda & Shanna, thanks TONS!! I’m starting to hand out cleaning products to folks, who give me odd looks, realize what I gave them and then they thank me a day later. It’s kind of funny. Mom & Dad, I will have to give you a email or call or something soon. Have a special request to talk to you about this week. Dave & Cinda, the New Yorkers are awesome, thank you!! Strangely enough, I can’t get that periodical here anywhere. Go figure.

Yes Sarah, it does sound like you that Jake has to take the oldest to Kindergarten round-up…good to know you guys are all still doing well. How’s Jake doing on mission? Blue taking care of him?

Enjoy!