Another Week of Training Down

Well, another week of training in Kansastan is complete. The box has been checked. We stayed fairly busy all week long, a lot of the time was productive, but as usual, we could have done more in the time alotted... Or the same amount of training in less time... or ... never mind. On Monday, I continued with my commo training. We worked on a VHF/SATCOM radio. The best part of that day, was talking over the radio in a Hank Hill voice and cracking everyone up with "Propane 2-6, This is Propane 6, Over... Damn it Bobbie I'm on the radio." Tuesday we had some training (Death by Power Point all day) on how to treat detainees. Apparently, we are supposed to be really nice to anyone we detain... offer them candy, foot rubs and anything else they desire. We also trained on setting up Traffic Control Points and setting up a Cordon and Search. Good info, but boring presentation. Wednesday we did training on the MK19, the M2 and the 240B. Assembly, disassembly, loading, etc. Thursday we hit the range and fired the Mk 19 (it's a machine gun that launches 40mm grenades). ummm... how can I put this.... BIG FUN! Yesterday, I was the convoy leader for heading out to the M2 range. Everything went smoothly. Firing the M2 was fun, but what sucked was the waiting to get your turn. I got a sunburn on my nose. I guess my helmet shaded the rest of my face. I'll be getting some sunscreen today. I had some, but I loaded it into a big box to meet me in Afghanistan. Which reminds me... I heard recently, that our stuff could end up "lost" in Pakistan some place. This is common, so we hear. Anyway, we also fired at night using infrared sights. Fun, but we didn't get done until about 0100. We had other stuff going on this week as well. We did some other kinds of training here and there such as language training and some simulated meetings with our Afghan counterparts. We have some Dari and Pashto speaking Afghan-Americans that help us with this. I have today off... hence my ability to post this. Enjoy your Saturday!