Augustine's Last Stand

Unfortunately this will be the last post from this Army of One. My time here playing soldier has been pre-maturely cut short due to hypertension.

This also means that I am not deployable to the Middle East. I will be returning to Japan tomorrow.

Cicely and I will pick up the blog again from the Far East....

Dealin' Death.....

As Cicely stated below, the Wi-Fi has been down all weekend, but God Bless the Army MWR guys who were here working on the problem the whole time - it's back up and now I have some catching up to do.

We started our M-16 shooting on Thursday, with an initial 'zero-ing' of our rifle sights relative to our personal sight picture. We were given 4 magazines of 5 shots each to zero in our sights on the target.



Here is the Drill Seargent scoring my target. At 25 yards, the small target simulated a 300 meter target. To zero, you had to get 4 consecutive rounds within a 4 cm square. In case you were wondering, I zeroed on the first magazine - the first time I've ever shot an M-16. No bragging, just fact. All that X-box 360 training DID do some good!

After the precision shooting, we trained on the 'quick, aim, shoot' tactic. This is used when on patrol, and there's no time for obtaining a sight picture - it's pretty much point at shoot within a second or two of spotting an insurgent.












Here are two other JO's from my platoon - Kent and Ian. We had MRE's for lunch and the pic on the right shows the post cards that were cut out from the box of pears that came with lunch - conveniently enough, it was Valentine's Day - so I now I had a card for Cicely! What great timing!

Back on the range, time to get familiar with the Beretta 9mm pistol; we use these extensively in the Navy, so nothing new to this trained killer!

The kneeling position was new to me, but pretty simple to master. Even my kid sister could shoot this gun well.











That's all for now folks! I have class all day today, but will post an update on Friday's shooting events this evening.

The Lonely Hearts Club

Mike's internet has been down for the past couple days, so I thought I'd fill in for the meantime.

Valentine's Day came and went, and I realized that Mike and I have never had the chance to spend Valentine's Day together. But this year, I didn't spend it alone. A few of my friends, whose husbands were also out of town, decided to form a 'Lonely Hearts Club' and go out to dinner and be each other's dates. Including the kids, I ended up with 11 dates!

HOOAH!!!!

...as opposed to the USMC's 'HOORAH' or the Navy SEAL 'HOOYAH'; 'HOOAH' is the Army's simple word that can be used for anything - but most importantly, a motivational response from us trainees to anything the Drill Seargents ask of us. This is a picture of myself and a couple of my fellow LT's in our full 'Battle Rattle', which include's our IBA (Improved Body Armor) and ACH (Advanced Combat Helmet) - although it's an extra thirty lbs of stuff, its protection is well worth the extra effort to move and breathe!


I know I said that we were going to shoot today, but that's another thing I'm getting used to here in the Army - the constant change and general lack of concrete decisions. Today consisted of M-16 firing position training (seen here) and firing electronic M-16's on a simulator - kinda like an adult version of the old Nintendo game 'Duck Hunt'.


Here is one of the Drill Seargents giving pistol training. Tomorrow is the day that we all get to actually put rounds downrange - finally!




Sorry ladies - this sexy sailor-soldier's taken; yes, I do make the Army look good!

BRM

That's Basic Rifle Marksmanship, for you non-Army types. Today we got our M-16's issued to us, we learned how to disassemble, clean and of course re-assemble them. I must say, I got pretty good at it. I'm hoping to talk my wife into letting me buy my own when we get back to the States!

We begin actual shooting tomorrow - stand by for more!

Band of Bloggers

Ok all, since my wife started me off by posting the pics of me and the family, here's the first deployment blog entry by yours truly. I arrived here at Camp McCrady in Ft Jackson, SC on Saturday and have settled in a bit. We've been briefed on Army terminology, and a couple of key differences in procedures between the Army and the Navy.

Here's the entrance to my barracks - the first big shift in paradigm for me was the open bay living. We're all officers in here, though.

Here's the inside of the barracks. It's pretty convenient; decent rack to sleep in, desks at the foot of every rack, a lounge area, and even Wi-Fi! That's probably the best thing here - everyone has a laptop. A bunch of them have seen Cicely's and my blog, and are starting their own!

Well, the day's over, and it's time for us sailors to do what we do best - hit the rack!

New Uniform

Mike's been in Norfolk this past week getting all kinds of administrative stuff done before he heads to Africa, one of which was getting fitted for a new uniform. He was also able to spend some time with his family.

Snow!!

Hi All...I'm supposed to be on hiatus while Mike takes over the blog for awhile, but I needed to do just one more because an amazing thing has happened today...SNOW- lots and lots of snow!!

It's a shame Mike left yesterday and missed all this. I was desperate to go out and play, but I had no one to play with! So I just bundled up, went for a walk, and watched all the little children enjoy the snow.





This is the first snow for the season this year, and apparently, it's been two years since this area has had any kind of snow. Snow in Ikego, what a beautiful thing!

Gone Fishin'...

Yes, that's my beautiful wife trying in vain to accompany me on my upcoming deployment to the Middle East (Djibouti, Africa to be more specific)...unfortunately, Cicely will stay behind and hold down the fort here in Japan.

I will be doing some Army training back in the States for a month or so, and will be in Djibouti sometime in March; I will pick up the Blog while I'm there, hopefully with some more interesting stories for you all.