Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Tom Glennon has posted installment 3 in his series of letters from Nephew Keith describing his training in the lead up to Keith's deplyment to Afghanistan: LETTERS FROM A SOLDIER #3 It's quite heartening to read about the good preparation these guys are getting before they get sent overseas. A snip:
...We were split into 4 platoons and luckily the 11 of us were able to stay together, something that has been rare during our training. On day 2 our first task was to man the CCP for this blank fire exercise. Everybody took their positions, the ECP was opened and the fun began. After the main gate dealt with some role players, explosives were detonated to simulate a VBIED, or Vehicle Born Improvised Explosive Device attack. After that, more explosives to simulate RPG and Indirect Fire, followed by the appearance of targets down range and the “fight” was on. It wasn’t long before the calls poured into the CCP for litter teams down range. The “fight” lasted approximately an hour and we had to recover 16 casualties with only 3 litter teams. Needless to say, we were exhausted...
