The CRC

Time to start catching up on things. So, last week was our trip through the CRC -- the CONUS (Continental US) Replacement Center. This is where individuals and small groups that are going to join units already over in Iraq are in-processed, equipped, and provided minimal training to meet whatever standard(s) exist. We (that's me, one officer, three pilots, a couple of operations officers, and five other enlisted soldiers that make up our current round of troops going to join our task force) went through the CRC at Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

We got there Sunday after a long day of travel from Pennsylvania (where we did some preparation with the Army Reserve Aviation unit that is tasked to provide people to our task force). There was a briefing to provide us information and to let us provide them some of our paperwork, then we got issued some of the new uniforms, known as the ACU (Army Combat Uniform). It's got a digital pattern of light greens and browns. Unfortunately, we did not get boots or nametags, so wed could not start wearing them. Later, we went to a series of briefings on a variety of topics, from orientation to sexual harassment prevention. Finally, we got to go to bed -- well, sort of. We were all housed in open-bay barracks, and a lot of the younger soldiers made a lot of racket well into the night, even though the formation in the morning would be at 0430.

You got it, we were out in formation a 0430 to start the next day (Monday). Between the racket, the anxiety from knowing what sort of hassles were to come, and being in a strange place, I got about 3 hours of sleep (in small chunks). But today we went through what is called an SRP (a series of stations to ensure we have all our paperwork and shots in order -- known as the Soldier readiness Process or something like that). We got a bunch of briefs, then went through the stations. Some had short lines, some had long lines. This took from about 0600 until about 1430. I ended up getting a few shots and some blood taken, and being given a test to see if I have been exposed to TB. Then we went to first-aid training. This wasn't bad, but about 2 hours' worth of training doesn't make me confident I will remember much should the need arise. But, it lets someone check off a box and tell someone else that yes, our soldiers have received that training.

Tuesday -- After another short night, some of us went to address dental issues, while others started in on getting their equipment issued. I had to go to dental and have a pantograph shot (it's a panoramic x-ray of your entire mouth, shot with a moving camera). This put me behind for the rest of the day. I got to the Central Issue Facility (CIF) and received things like canteens, a pistol belt, boots, flight suits (remember, I will be aircrew), a sleeping bag, a rucksack, body armor, a pistol, a holster, and a gas mask. I am sure I left something out, but no big deal. Next, we went off to another site known as RFI (for Rapid Fielding Initiative). This is where we get some of the high-tech items based on technology others have used for a long time, and that the Army has finally realized actually works better than a lot of our outdated gear. We got new, lighter helmets with a better suspension, some nice Oakley ballistic sunglasses and goggles, some moisture-wicking shirts and underwear, some polarfleece items, and so on. We were supposed to go to get first-aid testing and IED training, but our group fell between the cracks because of the timing of our trip through CIF. This raised my anxiety level, but cadre assured me there would be make-up testing later. After dinner, we took our weapons and got some instruction in maintenance and marksmanship. To top it all, we had to stay up late and set up a bunch of our new gear to be ready to go to the ranges (pistol range, a movement training range, and an electronic rifle range).

Wednesday -- Range day. We went to the pistol range first. This was pop-up targets ranging from 7 to 30 meters away from our starting line. Pop-ups are roughly human-shaped plastic targets that are raised automatically in various combinations and time intervals for a given firing scheme. If you shoot them, they get knocked over and you get a point for that target. We shot five scenarios, some with reloading, and one with us moving towards the targets. I qualified on the first try, hitting 25 of 30 targets. Better than I thought I would do. Next we went to the IMT (Individual Movement Training) Range, where we got to practice high and low crawls, rushing a target, moving as a small unit, and moving under barbed wire and over walls. We had a lot of older officers in our group, and there were some struggling individuals. Made me feel young and fit (relatively!). After this, we went to an indoor range with M-16A2 rifles that shot laser beams instead of bullets at short-range targets on a screen. There were hydraulics to simulate the actual firing of the weapon. This was to get us used to facing targets (so our body armor plates face the enemy fire) and acquire and hit targets quickly. This was pretty fun, and I did well. This ended our training day. We were lucky to be in the first group through all three ranges, so we had some free time to get haircuts and arrange our gear. I would have liked to get my IED training or first-aid testing done, but cadre were occupied at the ranges.

Thursday was an easy day also. We got our TB tests read (no positives, from what we heard), then caught a couple of briefings (Law of War and Prevention of Sexual Assault), then we got to go do our IED training while others got more briefings. We were lucky enough to be informed that we could get on-line training beforehand and so we escaped a bunch of long-dry briefings. IED training was interesting, and enought to make me glad I will be a FOBbit (one who stays on a base the whole time). I spent a bunch of the afternoon and early evening trying to cram my gear into the right number of duffle bags, while setting aside enough gear to take to our aircrew training in Maryland. We were released and allowed to go off-post, so my group went to a steakhouse for a nice dinner and a few drinks, and to say farewell to three of the group who would be going straight to Iraq with the rest of this weeks' CRC rotation.

Friday, I got my first-aid test taken care of (which calmed me down), and all our paperwork was in order, and we were cleared by the CRC cadre to leave. We threw a bunch of our gear in storage, then rushed off to the airport for our trip to Maryland. We ended up flying to DC (Reagan National Airport), then drove up to Hagerstown, arriving around 1:30 AM. We are in a nice hotel, with our own rooms. A very nice change from the CRC!

More on our training here later . . .