Work Area and a taste of home

Here is me at work. I have a desk in the “cans” showed in one of the first posts. It is not glamorous, but it is big enough. The only drag is that there is a formaldehyde smell that we assume is off gassing from the glue. There is a/c, however we have to open the window to allow the smell to dissipate. It is certainly better than outside though.

Here is a picture of the subway sign at the boardwalk - I haven't had a chance to eat there but it is a nice reminder of home. Below is activity at the boardwalk. They actually set up a mini golf course for a few days and if you look in the distance you can see people playing hockey.

My work days are long right now while we are getting things figured out ( 0730-2030 on average). Not that there is anything else really to do but I have not hung out at the boardwalk or taken advantage of other activities. I am hoping once I figure out my job and am able to do some time management that I will be able to take advantage of activities. I do get up at 0515 and go to the gym which is right across the road from where I live.

Living Area and Base Pics

Here is my living arrangements. I am in a room with 5 others. It is modular housing and has a/c and the bathroom is down the hall - so that is a bonus.


View from my living arrangements. The mountain has served me well as a point of reference. You can get a sense of the dust, maybe the heat but don't forget about the smell :)

Another view of where I live.

C-17 Trip

Here is a pic of my C-17 trip. We rode in a large plane with all our bags in the back. You wore your battle gear and wore ear plugs because it was loud. The take off was steep but the landing was steeper. In a combat landing I was literally leaning on the person next to me.

Previous E-mail

Hello all. This is a note to let you know that I have made it safely to theater. The blog is on hold until I can figure out if or how to access the site from here. Until then, I will send updates via e-mail.

The environment here is challenging. It is hot, dusty, crowded and stinky. The septic system is broken due to lack of maintenance by NATO and it smells like it everywhere. The food is also different because it is NATO run which means that the food sometimes looks like american food, but doesn't taste like it.

It is an international base. I have already had business conversations with the Brits, the Canadians, Australians and I have seen the Dutch around. My job as Master Planner for the base means that I get to meet some very important people. Yesterday, I met Brig General Nicholson in his office to discuss the master plan - he walked in with his body armor on because he had just returned by helicopter from the Helmland Province (where all the Marine battles are happening) and watching them destroy a poppy field. He walked in calmly, told the story, offered us water and talked with us about the plan. Once again, the military allows me to meet impressive individuals that I otherwise would not have access to. Though that experience was cool, it has its downfall in that the work I am trying to learn to do is highly visible - that is a little overwhelming and intimidating. Luckily, all of the senior staff that I have met have tried to ease my concern by telling me that it will take months to learn the base - I hope to be successful.

Otherwise, I am doing fine. I am in a safer part of the base and have what I need. Just pray that I can maintain my clarity and concentration over the next month to be able to learn and understand what I need to know to get the job done.

I will update when I can. I didn't think it possible, but I am busier now then I was at CST.

Thanks for your support. Until next time......

Made it to Kyrgyz Republic

Well I made to Manas which is in the former Soviet Union and now the Kyrgyz Republic. The flight is always long and tough. We left Baltimore in the middle of the night, landed in Germany, then to a base in Turkey and finally here where we await further transport. The flight crew was nice enough and they tried to feed you every 4-6 hrs but the 24 hr journey is rough. As we were flying in I was struck by some of the desolate and uninhabited land we were flying over...then out of no where came a view of the snow capped Himalaya Mountain range. As experiences go, I'm not sure I will ever have a chance to see that again. The computers here at this base are still generous with websites, so I figured I would take advantage and make another post. Until next time.....

Final Exercise

Well, it is finished. Today we completed our final training exercise. We arose for an early breakfast and then convoyed in our humvees out to the training area. We completed two passes on the convoy training site. The first pass was done with blanks in our weapons and the second was done with live rounds. The pass consisted of enemy forces in the form of pop up targets to one side of the convoy that were engaged by the gunner who has his head out of the top of the vehicle. The next part required us to tactically dismount the vehicle and all return fire. We practiced this many times - we got pretty good at the choreography. The key to the drill is to make sure the muzzle of your weapon does not "flag" (point at and potentially hurt) one of your teammates. The next phase was an IED that disabled a vehicle requiring us to react by moving our vehicles into a good security position, treat the casualty, give him an IV, move to a safe point, call for medevac, set up a landing zone and then move out. The remainder of the lane was the gunner engaging a few more targets from his position. The whole lane took about 70 minutes. We had an after action review and then did the same thing with live rounds. There were three groups going through so it took a while. Thanks to the person who decided to put air conditioning into the new up armored humvees - it sure made my last two days here alot more bearable - and I'm sure the troops in the theater happier as well. Again, this does not really match my projected mission, but it was a good familiarization.

We returned to the barracks and now all that remains is to turn in some equipment and pack up to move to the airport to fly to theater next week.

This will be the last post from here. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and following along. I am hoping that my friends and family enjoyed the information and that follow on teams from my unit can benefit from the daily descriptions of activities.

Once downrange, I will research ways to maintain communication. If I can access this site, I will continue to blog from here. The posts will be generic due to operational and security reasons, but I will try to paint a picture of my living rather than specific schedule or projects. If this site is not available, I believe that facebook is. This would require some of you to join facebook to participate - I will let you know. Either way, I can be reached at todd.hirneisen@us.army.mil and my mailing address is:

Major Todd Hirneisen
R-5 Department
25 NCR (Det 1)
FPO AA 34099-4922

Thanks again and I look forward to keeping you posted in the future.

Practice Battle Drills

Today we had our practice drills for the final exercise tomorrow. The exercise took place on a 1 mile stretch of the training area. We drove in a convoy of 8 humvees and encountered different scenarios in a mock town about midway. We were in full battle gear, but it was pretty bearable because there is some a/c in the vehicle and we were sitting most of the time. The scenarios ranged from actors playing locals simply waving at us, to rifle fire, to IED's that disabled vehicle where we had to return fire - pull security - hook up a tow strap - move to a safe area - stick the casualty with a needle and IV - request medivac - set up a landing zone - move out. We completed 8 different scenarios successfully. I was fortunate to successfully lead 2 of them. Unlike many of the recent familiarization training exercises that I have muddled through - this experience was actually a success and ended up improving my confidence tactically (though I will most likely never do this again).

Today I got to interact with alot of folks from the team going to Iraq. They are a great group and I was happy that I got the chance to work with them. It just reminds me again that my military experience overall has benefited me most by the people that you get to meet, talk with and know. Our team has really bonded with the the FET team headed to Bagram Afghanistan. It amazes me how well we all got along just a few days after meeting each other. My friend Pete attributes it to the fact that we are all quality people with commonality as far as the military and mission goes. Whatever it is, I count myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to get to know them over the past 3 weeks.

Tomorrow is the final exercise. We are told that it will be the most nightmarish 2 mile convoy ever. We will drive along a stretch of road and be hit with all 8 scenarios. I feel more confident that we will be successful after today. Saturday I turn in my IBA (individual body armor) and a few other things that I will be happy to part with until I arrive in theater.

Team is still doing well and looking forward to being done with this phase.

Until next time........

More IED Training and Firing the BIG Weapons

We continued our training and preparation for our final exercises on Thursday and Friday. Tuesday's training was interesting, however it was made a bit miserable by the set up of the training. The most interesting part was looking at sample IED's made by the Army to simulate what the insurgents are doing. We then took a short convoy in vehicles and had to look for signs of a planted IED at 10 mph. The other training included sniper awareness, setting up a landing zone, and setting up what amounts to a combat road block. The material was good, but standing in the sun in full battle gear for 6 hours receiving instruction was a little rough.

Today we went to a range and fired the big guns. We fired the MK19 ( Grenade Launcher), the M240B machine gun and the M2 .50 cal machine gun. I'm not someone who gets excited about firing guns, but it was a good familiarization. We all fired the M2 (see below) and some of us got to fire the MK19.

The training is winding down. We are ready to be done and move on. We are trying to keep our attitudes positive even though much of this weeks tactical training will not be utilized by us downrange. We turn in our equipment on Saturday and "graduate" on Sunday. We are finalizing our plans to fly to theater for the next week.

Until next time....

Base Defense and Short Range Marksmanship

On Sunday we had our first all day exercise. We left for the training area at 0645 - after rising at 05oo, getting breakfast, preparing the humvees and convoy info. There was training in the morning on the different skills and teams used in base defense and an exercise in the afternoon. The weather was sunny and 82, that gets hot after 9 hours or so. I was tasked with leading the group at the ECP - Entry Control Point. We had to address activity in front of the gate, check id's and choose to admit or send away "actors" hired by the Army to impersonate middle eastern nationals who did not speak english. It was challenging because of lack of experience. The most interesting event was a mob coming toward the gate - we were to use escalation of force: First yell, second loud noise (air horn), show weapon pointed at them and then shoot if they kept coming. Warning shots have been eliminated due to unintended injuries in theater. We let the mob get too close and we shot a guy (with blanks of course) just as he detonated a bomb. We were told that we should have shot him sooner. Gives a real perspective on what our guards in theater have to deal with. We were in our gear for most of an 11 hr period. This became very tiring and, needless to say, I was soaked in sweat.

Today we had Short Range Marksmanship. Another training that had been instituted recently due to feedback from theater. We were trained how to use our M-4 rifles in close range. We were taught a good aggressive firing position and then had to engage popup targets at short range (10, 15, 20 meters ) while standing, walking (straight ahead, left and right) and kneeling. The other part of it was that there were two targets - one hostile and one not. You were to make a positive id and fire two shots within three seconds. We also reviewed small tactical squad tactics. Though I will most likely not have to use this in theater, it was an interesting familiarization.

We have less than a week left. Four more training days. Most of these training days will include tactical exercises, so continue to pray for temperate weather. The team is still in good spirits but ready to move on. Graduation is Sunday the 12th.

Until next time......

More Training

Today's most interesting training was practicing clearing a room. Though I will probably never do it, it was interesting to learn about techniques and practice them. I took some pics below of my fellow airman doing the drill.





We were outside in battle gear most of the day. Luckily, the weather held at about 80 degrees and sunny - hot, but not too hot.

The second most interesting class was on defeating IED's. It is encouraging that the military is able to field equipment more quickly than before to react to enemy threats. The pic below shows a tube mounted on the back of a Humvee. This tube emits a frequency jamming signal that can be used to jam terrorist cell phone calls to an IED (Improvised Explosive Device). They have also developed a "Rhino" which is a boom that extends from the front of the vehicle to break the line of any line of sight explosives so they explode in front of the vehicle. The other thing the Rhino has is a heating element that models the signature of the engine in case the trigger has a heat sensor.




We have the 4th "off". Still PT uniform and we are going to have a picnic lunch. On the 5th we head back out to the training site to practice responding to threats and attacks while performing base defense. It promises to be a long, hot day so pray for temperate weather :)

Until next time...

M-9 and M-16 Weapon Qualification

Well, I successfully qualified (army style) on both of my weapons. We began on Tues with basic rifle marksmanship training for both weapons. This included how to assemble, disassemble and correct small malfunctions. That afternoon we went to a simulated range where we shot a laser from the M-16 to practice engaging pop- up targets. This was very depressing because I did not hit very many. My eyewear was fogged up (again due to my sweating all the time issue:) ) and I could not get situated very well with the body armor, helmet and other accessories. That night we went to the M-9 pistol range. This went much better. I was able to stand and engage popup targets which eliminated most of the issues from the previous day. We also did a night fire that was pretty easy. The next morning we arose at 0500 and went to breakfast in all our gear. We reported to the M-16 rifle range right after. The first task is to "zero" your weapon. You have to put 5 out of 6 consecutive rounds in a 2 in diameter circle. This requires a tight shot group of 3 rounds each time and making the proper sight adjustments. I was able to do this in 18 rounds - which is ok. The cool thing that I have this time is a scope with an infrared dot. After you zero your rifle, you align the dot in the scope. This sets the rifle up so that you do not have to use the sights, but simply put the red dot on the target. The qualification range consisted of 6 popup targets set at 50,100,150,200,250 and 300 meters. They would appear for a few seconds and then disappear. You had 20 rounds from the prone (laying down) supported ( you can use a foam block) position, then 10 rounds from the prone unsupported position and then 10 from the kneeling position. With all the gear, the kneeling was the most comfortable to me and I did the best there. You had to hit 23 out of 40 to qualify. I did - not by much, but I will take it. Then we had to return at night for night fire - which only consisted of hitting the 50 m target over and over - this was easy. The best thing was that I used the scope and the dot alone at the night fire and was able to shoot with both eyes open with confidence - that was cool. It was a long 2 days, but one more major training event concluded - yeah!! We are now gearing up for STX's which are situational training exercises on urban warfare and base defense. I will keep you posted - unfortunately, most of these range exercises are not conducive for picture taking :( Thanks, until next time......