Final Days of CST

Short Range Marksman Course

We made it.  Finally done with CST, and ready to roll out on Monday.  It's been a good few weeks, learned alot about the Army and general ground warfighting tactics that I only knew the basics of prior to this class.  It was so much fun to have hands on training, to be able to work hard, sweat, and test your limits.  I also learned that I appreciate the Army for what they do and what they've been through, even more so after going through this training.  The past decade of war has been hell on these guys - never knowing when they'll be ambushed with some home made IED stuck in a culvert pipe, or wondering if the next local national you talk to has a bomb strapped under their shirt.  It's a different war, its dirty, and the enemy fights with no rules. 

Short Range - Switching from M4 to M9

And although noone ever comes home the same person as when they left, every soldier we met here has a true passion for what they do, and they dutifully continue to fight in whatever conflict their country asks them to fight in, regardless of their political views.  Its moving to be around so many people who share such a bond, and who would do anything to help the person next to them. We have become a solid team here, which is what happens when you live, eat, and train together 24/7.  It is now our job to continue that motivation after we leave...at least for the next six months! 

We finished up our training with short range marksmanship, which is a close range with targets between 5-15 meters, and we had to switch between using the rifle and the pistol.  We also had to learn how to shoot and walk at the same time, which was a completely new concept for most of us.  I felt like we were on a SWAT team or something, it was awesome.

Our next to last training course was the Fundamentals of Patrol, which was a two day exercise that consisted of convoy training (mounted patrol) and foot patrols (dismounted patrol).  I was the convoy commander for the mounted patrol and had to opportunity to lead a nine vehicle convoy with about 45 people.  It was a good time, and stressful - I had radios held up to both ears while getting mortared and having suspicious vehicles chase us down and blow itself up, and we also had to deal with IEDs along our route the entire way.  We actually did well and got alot of positive feedback from the instructors. 

The last training we did was mounted land navigation, which basically consisted of being trained on a military handheld GPS system, and then we used military grid maps and the GPS to locate different points on base using Humvees.  We welcomed the low key training course to wrap up our classes here.  Oh, and I also got to take a familiarization course on a program called Blue Force Tracker - its this really high speed system used on the battlefield to track all of the friendly forces on the ground and air, and it also tracks enemy movement, recent attacks, etc. It was awesome and supposedly works great to get real-time info to key leaders on what's going on out there.



Last class at CST!



Mounted Land Nav Training

  

Convoy Training

  

That's all for now, the next post will be from a few thousand miles east when we get to Bagram.  Fingers crossed for an unventful trip - via Maine, Germany, and Kyrgyzstan.  Thanks to everyone for all of their emails, letters, packages and love over the last few weeks.  Even though we were only in TX, it is still heart warming to hear from you and stay in touch.  And finally, we are ready to get this thing started.

911 CES