Training, Training, Training!

From Laura:

Here I am listening to the instructor on NBC ops (Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical). He is explaining the new chemical detection alarm. I am hoping we will never have to use it :)


We get hours upon hours of Army briefings before we leave. More commonly called "death by Power Point."



Back to the field:
Checking claymore wire for damage. Claymore's are ground set explosive devices. Been in the Army forever! The guy on the right is the Battalion Commander.


Here is the Claymore mine. It is the skinny blue thing in front of MAJ Temple. You have to set it so the curve is away from you, or it blows you up instead of the enemy.


Setting up a hasty checkpoint. The wire channels the vehicles to the armed guards. We then do an initial screening/check. Then back to a more detailed check.



Here is the vehicles after the initial check. At this point, a more thorough check is done. We had soldiers in the unit pretend to be Iraqis. They would try to kill us, and we would have to subdue or kill them.
It was during this, when our CW4 Safety Officer, playing the role of the Iraqi, broke a finger in two places.
Another, a Master Sergeant, had to get five stitches in his face.




Of course, there is a proper way to get into the house, too, including code words, assigned firing sectors, etc.



Here is how to enter a back door, if you are not welcome. (The guy in the soft cap is an evaluator.)



Here we go room to room, clearing it of all enemy before we get killed first.
This is the same house we were throwing grenades in the day before.




More house cleaning, the Army way.
(all these are taken by my cell phone. It was a bit dark in this room for my cell phone to do a good job)


That's all folks!