Today's news and Convoy Exercise

Well,
I'm back already with the news that I won't be leaving SC today, I'll be leaving some time on Monday. BIG BUMMER! So I'll have another weekend here at exciting Fort Jackson.

On to today's activities. We had our Convoy exercise which was short, but none the less very draining, just waiting to come under enemy fire or Improvised explosive device (IED). One of the Majors here took some photos that I'll put up here and explain them as I go along. The photos are uploaded to Pictiger.com so if you click on one of the thumbnails it will take you to the larger image on that site.

Lets get this photo out of the way since it has nothing to do with the convoy stuff. This is us at the M-16 range getting ready to qualify on our rifles. If you look really hard I am the last person to the left.


Here we are getting our pre-convoy briefing (me on left side)


Same here


Our vehicles all lined up


I was the driver of vehicle number 2 (the Commander's vehicle), I'm standing next to SPC Bramble (he is a Broadcast Journalist too and will be deploying with me)


Vehicle 2 with SPC Schmalfuss (my turret gunner)


We were almost ready to move out (right after I readjusting my side mirror)


Ready to roll


Convoy moving into danger area


My vehicle in convoy rolling out


And last but not least SPC Newby with the Squad Automatic Weapon (S.A.W., an automatic machine gun)


This last photo comes with a funny story. As a convoy, nothing should come within 100ft of the convoy (human or vehicle). If it does you warn them, then if they don't listen you open fire on them. Keep in mind this training is for our benefit before deploying into a war zone, so it is to be taken seriously. Contracted employees are out there simulating the enemy that we must engage. SPC Newby and his S.A.W. are in the lead vehicle as we move through the convoy route. Towards the end of the route we turn a corner and there is a man standing on the trail in front of a bus (not schoolbus) talking on his cell phone. So the lead vehicle stops and SPC newby shouts for the man to back away from the convoy. The man starts to step towards the convoy so SPC Newby rotated the Machine Gun, pointing directly at the man and yells again for him to get away from the convoy. Well, with a machine gun pointed at you you do what you're told. So he turns and runs away. Meanwhile when the machine gun turns the bus starts to back up, clearing the road. With the road now clear the convoy continues to the end of our route. Well, it turns out that the man was lost and calling to get directions, and the bus is full of Navy students. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time (but the whole time we thought that this was a part of our exercise. Well the man now has a story to tell about the time he got lost and had a machine gun pointed at him. I should point out though that we were using blank rounds, so other than a lot of noise no one could be hurt by the weapons. That was our morning, which was followed by cleaning our rifles and getting ready to get out of this place. So now you know everything I know that happened today.