Infantrymen and iPods
So the past few days have been crazy. I mentioned that I'm a Chemical Soldier (complete with a Dragon tattoo) and maybe one day I'll tell the story of how I ended up in the Chemical Corps, but for now suffice it to say that I am a platoon leader in the 92nd Chemical Company, 92nd Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division out of Fort Stewart, GA.
The Army is divided into three types of soldiers: combat, combat support (which is what the chemical corps is classified as) and combat SERVICE support (medical & supply chains). The Powers That Be have restructured the unit organization so that all the combat (AKA "maneuver") elements are together under one commander, and all the support guys are together under one commander. The brigade my unit is in is called a maneuver enhancement brigade, which is just a fancy way of saying that we help the trigger-pullers do their jobs better. To that end, we're made up of intelligence units, a chemical unit and combat engineers. Combat Engineers normally clear minefields and breach any obstacles in the paths of the maneuver units, and are called "sappers". Our group of engineers, however, is what's called a Combat Heavy Battalion, which means they are really just a group of glorified construction workers. They BUILD things, they don't blow them up. Practically this means that there aren't any COMBAT oriented guys in the entire battalion. Why is that a bad thing? Because they keep making mistakes that the infantry guys wouldn't make. For example, infantry and armor guys are concerned with two things: their vehicles and their firepower. While philosophically I support the idea of rebuilding Iraq, particularly their medical and educational infrastructures, I was also concerned about how well the builders were going to be able to take care of the chemical company.
A chemical company doesn't usually deploy together. Usually each platoon is assigned to a different brigade (1st platoon to 1st Brigade, 2nd to 2nd, etc) and we work directly for the Brigade commander. This deployment, they decided to deploy the Chemical Company together, under a single battalion. Philosophically this was supposed to keep us together so we could better accomplish our missions, do maintenance, support each other as Chemical Soldiers, etc. Practically, this means we are the Engineer battalion's bitch. Any time some random ass tasking comes down, my company gets stuck with it. Guarding the PX (think mini-mall)? Damn skippy. Guarding the Transload (construction) site and directing traffic? Yessiree, that's us. Then, a really COOL tasking came down the pipe. An infantry unit needed 20 extra people to take care of base security.
MY platoon got the job. Now we are attached to a light infantry company out of Hawaii. What's hilarious about this situation is myself and SGT Julie Konvalinka are the only two females in the entire BATTALION...the company we're attached to is attached itself to a Special Forces unit. So you can imagine how popular we are up at battalion headquarters. ;)
So my platoon's job is to guard three towers along the West Wall of the Victory Base Complex. It's a pretty sweet deal, we have to guard the towers 24 hours a day in three rotating shifts of 8 hours each, but we have our own command post with a telephone line, a computer, a printer, etc. I have my own humvee to drive around in, "trooping the line" (checking on my soldiers) and heading up to the company headquarters to get briefings from my new infantry commander, who treats me just like one of his male platoon leaders. He's even trying to convince his battalion commander to let us go on patrols with one of the other platoons. That has about as much chance of happening as I have of making Colonel, but it's a nice thought nonetheless.
I apologize for my last extremely angsty post...I just had a hilarious conversation with a couple of my best friends and I am feeling 100% better (okay, 85%, but still, huge improvement).
Now, I might have to kill someone because some testicle-less asshole stole my iPod. It's really my fault, I left it in the bathroom on accident after my shower...I ran back about a half hour later and the bitch was gone. Well, the batteries were almost dead, so I hope whoever took it is enjoying their new paperweight. *grrr*
Ordered a new one, should be here in about a week. This one I'll handcuff to myself.
The Army is divided into three types of soldiers: combat, combat support (which is what the chemical corps is classified as) and combat SERVICE support (medical & supply chains). The Powers That Be have restructured the unit organization so that all the combat (AKA "maneuver") elements are together under one commander, and all the support guys are together under one commander. The brigade my unit is in is called a maneuver enhancement brigade, which is just a fancy way of saying that we help the trigger-pullers do their jobs better. To that end, we're made up of intelligence units, a chemical unit and combat engineers. Combat Engineers normally clear minefields and breach any obstacles in the paths of the maneuver units, and are called "sappers". Our group of engineers, however, is what's called a Combat Heavy Battalion, which means they are really just a group of glorified construction workers. They BUILD things, they don't blow them up. Practically this means that there aren't any COMBAT oriented guys in the entire battalion. Why is that a bad thing? Because they keep making mistakes that the infantry guys wouldn't make. For example, infantry and armor guys are concerned with two things: their vehicles and their firepower. While philosophically I support the idea of rebuilding Iraq, particularly their medical and educational infrastructures, I was also concerned about how well the builders were going to be able to take care of the chemical company.
A chemical company doesn't usually deploy together. Usually each platoon is assigned to a different brigade (1st platoon to 1st Brigade, 2nd to 2nd, etc) and we work directly for the Brigade commander. This deployment, they decided to deploy the Chemical Company together, under a single battalion. Philosophically this was supposed to keep us together so we could better accomplish our missions, do maintenance, support each other as Chemical Soldiers, etc. Practically, this means we are the Engineer battalion's bitch. Any time some random ass tasking comes down, my company gets stuck with it. Guarding the PX (think mini-mall)? Damn skippy. Guarding the Transload (construction) site and directing traffic? Yessiree, that's us. Then, a really COOL tasking came down the pipe. An infantry unit needed 20 extra people to take care of base security.
MY platoon got the job. Now we are attached to a light infantry company out of Hawaii. What's hilarious about this situation is myself and SGT Julie Konvalinka are the only two females in the entire BATTALION...the company we're attached to is attached itself to a Special Forces unit. So you can imagine how popular we are up at battalion headquarters. ;)
So my platoon's job is to guard three towers along the West Wall of the Victory Base Complex. It's a pretty sweet deal, we have to guard the towers 24 hours a day in three rotating shifts of 8 hours each, but we have our own command post with a telephone line, a computer, a printer, etc. I have my own humvee to drive around in, "trooping the line" (checking on my soldiers) and heading up to the company headquarters to get briefings from my new infantry commander, who treats me just like one of his male platoon leaders. He's even trying to convince his battalion commander to let us go on patrols with one of the other platoons. That has about as much chance of happening as I have of making Colonel, but it's a nice thought nonetheless.
I apologize for my last extremely angsty post...I just had a hilarious conversation with a couple of my best friends and I am feeling 100% better (okay, 85%, but still, huge improvement).
Now, I might have to kill someone because some testicle-less asshole stole my iPod. It's really my fault, I left it in the bathroom on accident after my shower...I ran back about a half hour later and the bitch was gone. Well, the batteries were almost dead, so I hope whoever took it is enjoying their new paperweight. *grrr*
Ordered a new one, should be here in about a week. This one I'll handcuff to myself.
posted by Sunny @ 10:40 AM
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