Michael Dunn's Blog

Well, I’m a few weeks into AIT now.  It’s been mostly classroom stuff so far.  We are currently learning all garrison related stuff.  Regular police work kind of stuff.  We get back to the combat related training after Christmas.  One of the highlights of AIT so far was the Hummer training.  I got to drive a Hummer on an on-road course, an off road course, and in a convoy.  It was probably one of the funnest things I have done since I have been here.  I mean, how many people get to drive a military hummer?  Especially off road.  It was an experience.  We also fired and qualified with the Beretta M9 9 mm handgun.  I qualified expert.  That’s one more badge I get to add to my uniform.  AIT has proven quite different from Basic.  Personal time every night, somtimes for 2 or more hours.  I get to use and keep my cell phone and Ipod.  We get a pass every Sunday as long as we don’t lose it during the week.  The passes get kind of repetitive but it’s better than hanging around the barracks all day.  It does seem like the drill sgts. are making us a little more accountable for our mistakes, but it’s a good thing.  Keeps me on my toes.  We had our first exam this morning.  I passed pretty easily.  I can’t believe I only have 9 more days until I get to go home.  You have no idea how excited I am to get a break from this place.  The weather here continues to go downhill.  It has been miserably cold for the past week.  Hopefully the weather in Georgia will be a little more forgiving when I come home next week.  We got to go to a performance put on by the Army band last night.  It was pretty neat.  I took my new camera that I just bought and took a couple of pictures.  I’ll have to post them when I get home.  I’m snapping pictures here and there as the days go by just so I can have something to show people and give them an idea of my daily life.  It will be nice to be able to go back and look at them some day later on down the road too, kind of like this blog.  I haven’t been writing as much since I have been in AIT.  You guys haven’t been missing too much though.  It’s just hard to sit down and write when you have your phone, Ipod, etc.  It is just not as necessary as it was in Basic.  I will try to keep ya’ll updated periodically though.  By the time ya’ll read this I could very well be on my way home.  That is an exciting thought.  I will have plenty of stories to share with you guys.  I found out my plane is going to land in Atlanta around 9:30 am.  That means I’ll have that whole day at home.  The quicker I get out of here the better.  We all need a break from this place.  You can tell it is really wearing on everybody.  Even though 9 days isn’t that long it seems like forever away still.  All we talk about is going home right now.  All I can do is count the days.  Can’t wait to see everybody, hope ya’ll have been doing good.  See ya’ll soon.

So it’s official, I’ve graduated Army Basic Training.  Tomorrow starts AIT which is my Military Police Training.  We went through the night infilltration course which was miserable but it is a tradition and a right of passage kind of thing.  Low crawling in 30 degree weather at night, going through freezing cold puddles, guns firing over your head, mortars going off, barbed wire inches from your face while you squeeze underneath it.  Sounds fun right?  Afterwards was a ceremony where we were congratulated by our drill sgts. and the commanders.  It was an honor.  Today we had our PT test and Warrior dinner.  It feels so good to have Basic behind me.  I have my phone back, I can read books and magazines, and I only have 29 days left till Christmas break.  Life here is good now.  Since I have my phone back, my blogs might be dying off a bit.  I will keep ya’ll posted every now and then still though.  Thanks for all the support, and give me a call.  Haha.  That feels so weird to say.

Where do I even start.  It’s Thursday morning and I am unpacking all my gear from being in the field the last few days.  We marched off early Monday morning.  After almost 4 hours we arrived at our Bivouac site where we would conduct our phase 3 FTX (field training exercise).  Our FTX site was way out in the middle of nowhere down a long dirt road.  It was set up like a FOB (forward operating base), would be set up in Iraq or something.  Gates, guard towers around the whole perimeter, c-wire surrounding the entire complex, about 15 small buildings, and flood lights.  It had the feel of a real operation.  When we arrived we unloaded all our gear, set up the TOC (tactical operation command), and set up radio communications.  After we set up everything we started our chemical biological attack training.  We had to put on all our MOP gear including the gas masks, gloves, boots, pants, and jacket.  The suit is incredibly clausterphobic and hot.  Breating in a gas mask is hard enough but when they make you run around in it you feel like you are suffocating.  A lot of people panic and rip their mask off.  I stayed calm and controlled my breathing and made it out alright.  The training ended with all of us getting a lecture from the commander and then getting a surprise attack with CS gas.  Picture this, over 200 of us are sitting in the field, the commander is talking to us about the Fort Hood shootings.  We have a moment of silence and all have our heads bowed and eyes closed.  Out of nowhere I here this pssshhhhhhh sound coming from all around me.  I open myeyes to see clouds of white smoke billowing up from CS grenades that the drill sgts. threw in the middle of us.  We were surrounded by it.  People got up and scattered everywhere.  A huge bang went off, like a bomb, and everyone hit the ground (well most of us did, others were too confused in the chaos to comprehend everything that was going on). It was a simulated chemical/artillery attack.  I was able to grab my mask, put it on, and hit the ground before I felt the affects of the CS gas.  Something I never want to do again after that experience in the gas chamber.  It was a pretty cool experience after it was all done.  The adrenaline you felt in the midst of the chaos is hard to explain.  One of the highlights of my time here so far.  That was pretty much it for day one. 

Day 2 started early in the morning with breakfast, then our mission brief.  We were going to leave the FOB and be out performing missions all day long.  I was a team leader and the compass man.  It felt good to have some responsibilities.  I had to lead the whole squad through the woods using a compass and a map.  Our first mission was to meet up with a convoy that had been ambushed.  We were to treat the wounded, provide support, and clear the nearby village.  We traveled in a squad made up of 5 teams.  When we arrived at the convoy they were under fire.  One thing I didn’t explain is that we faced real enemies.  Other soldiers dressed up in Iraqi clothing with weapons and everything.  We were wearing MILES gear on ourselves and our weapons.  It’s kind of like laser tag, except we shot blanks and used our own M16’s.  It is made to be as realistic as possible.  We arrived and the medical team started treating casualties while everyone else set up a perimeter.  My team(Delta Team), moved into the village and started clearing buildings.  We took heavy fire moving in and I lost one guy.  My drill sgt. complimented how my team moved into the village though.  We tactically cleared each building one by one.  I was team leader so I was first in each time.  The highlight was when I busted in one door, two guys were in there and I shot both before they got me.  I felt on top of the world at that moment.  I think I will do good at this tactical stuff when I have to do it for real down range.  I can move effectively, and keep my wits about me when stuff gets chaotic.  After we cleared the village we moved to the extraction point and had our AAR (after action report).  We immediately moved onto our next mission.   This time the mission was supposed to be a little more simple but of course they had a surprise for us.  Our mission was to locate a weapons cache.  We plotted the coordinates on the map and I lead the way with the compass.  Along the way we were supposed to be ambushed but we spotted it ahead of time, flanked them, and took out all 20 or so of the enemy.  They had rigged some booby traps and the guy in front of me ran into a trip wire and set one off.  It was ridiculosly loud and sent a plume of smoke and debris straight up in the air.  It must of scared the crap our of him.  Haha.  Our last mission was to investigate a hummer that had crashed on a supply route.  That mission didn’t go so well.  We made a few mistakes and the enemy capitalized.  I died on that one.  It was alright though.  We had a good plan, theirs was just better. 

Day 3 of FTX was a lot of fun too.  I got to be the enemy.  That means I got to wear an Iraqi outfit, man dress and all.  I made a pretty good insurgent.  Lol.  It was all my same team from the day before, we just all played Op 4 instead of the American forces.  We gave everyone that came through our scenario some serious headaches, killing off most of them everytime.  I was set up in a building one of the times that was rigged up with 6 trip wires.  It was cool because the drill sgt. taught me how to set them up and stuff and I got to do a couple of them.  When the American team came running into that building and set off all the trip mines, it was deafening.  My ears were ringing for a while.  It was fun though.  We did that all day and since we got done with all the training ahead of schedule, we got to leave that night.  Packed up all our gear and rucked out in the pitch black on the 4 hour trip home.  It was fun at night though.  No lights so you could see all the stars.  We got back pretty late so we got to sleep in this morning and now we are just cleaning our gear, doing laundry, etc.  It was a fun few days.  I will write more later tonight or tomorrow.  For now I’ve got some work to do.

Last couple days have been pretty fun.  Yesterday we had convoy live fire.  That’s where we got broken up into groups of three, get in a hummer, go flying through the woods down a narrow road, jump out of the hummer, engage targets with your M16, get attacked by a simulated artillery strike, jump back in the hummers and drive back to the “base”.  It was a blast.  It was my first time inside a military hummer.  Those things are beasts.  We were flying down these narrow dirt roads hitting pot holes, power sliding in the rocks, going through mud, the whole experience.  We traveled in a convoy of about 8 other hummers so when you jumped out to fire there are over 20 other rifles going off.  It was a pretty realistic simulation of responding to an attack.  I loved it.  Today we did combatives.  It was fun but all pretty basic.  Most of the stuff I already knew from when I did BJJ in high school.  I got to roll with a few guys and didn’t get submitted the whole time.  Actually, I was never really in danger at all the whole time so I guess I retained some stuff from all that training in high school.  It actually made me want to start doing it again when I get back home.  That really sums up the last couple of days.  Tomorrow and Sunday we will be getting ready for FTX which is all next week.  That’s where we go out to the field, sleep outside, get tested and run exercises on all the stuff we have learned, and all that good stuff.  It’s supposed to be quite the challenge.  I’m ready to go and get it over with.  I found out tonight that I am going to be a team leader during the FTX.  That should be interesting.  It might be a while until ya’ll hear from me again.  I’m sure I will have a lot to say when I get back next week.  Write again then.  Later guys.

Hey everyone, it’s been a few days.  I’ve been pretty busy.  I think the last time I talked to ya’ll I had just finished stuffing my face with junkfood.  Unless I wrote ya’ll since then but I don’t think I did.  Anyways, on Monday we got fitted for our class A’s.  Those are the Army dress uniforms.  It was pretty cool.   I’m looking forward to getting to wear that thing around.  I looked good.  Haha.  Tuesday we had grenade training all day.  Including smoke, riot, and frag grenades.  Throwing a real grenade and feeling the ground shake was a rush.  I scored expert on the hand grenade course which felt good.  That’s just one more thing I don’t have to think about anymore.  Today was another fun day.  I was on range detail which means I got to eat breakfast without a drill sgt. around.   Got to take my time and eat a huge breakfast, including a big bowl of cinnamon toast crunch.  We did buddy team live fire.  That’s where you and a battle buddy go through a course together, laying down cover fire for each other, ducking behind cars and buildings.  It was fun.  I will try not to go like 4 days without writing again but I’ve just been busy.  I think it might slow down the next couple days so I will try to catch ya’ll up on some of the details later.  I’m gonna get to bed, write again when I can.

Where do I even start.  I have literally never eaten so much food in a single day, ever.  We were put on our first post pass today from 10am til 4:30pm.  I got a taxi and went straight to Starbucks.  There I ate a cinnamon roll and had the biggest caramel frappuccino I could get.  Amazing!  Starbucks has never tasted so good.  From there I went to a convenience store in the mini mall and ate a Krispy Kreme donut, starburst, twix, and oreos.  After that I went to the PX, got a haircut, and walked around for a while.  The PX is pretty sweet.  I’m gonna have to go back again and look around some more.  After the PX,  I took another cab to Pizza Hut.  This is where the fun began.  I ordered a personal pepperoni pizza, an order of breadsticks, an order of spicy bbq wings, and a Dr. Pepper.  I ate every last bit of it too.  They had an internet cafe connected to Pizza Hut so I jumped on Facebook and stuff while I ate.  After that I headed over to the troop store where I got a few necessities.  After that I went to this place that has computers, pool, arcade, etc.  Several of us hung out in there, listening to music and I spent some more time checking facebook, email, stuff like that.  A bunch of people had extra junk food they couldn’t eat so I couldn’t just let it go to waste.  I ate chocolate chip cookies, skittles, twizzlers, and ice cream.  It’s safe to say I felt (and currently feel) absolutely horrible.  Haha.  It was worth it though.  I won’t be craving junk food for a while though, that’s for sure.   When you go two months without any of that, your body goes into shock when you consume that much junk in such a short period of time.  What made the day that much better was that the drill sgts. decided to do PT as soon as we got back.  Yeah, people threw up, passed out, everything.  It was pretty horrible.  It was kind of expected though.  I heard they smoked us after our first pass.  It was still worth it even after all that.  I’m sure I could sit here and tell you all about today in more detail but I’ll save that for later.  For now, I need to go recooperate from my junk food hangover.  Haha.  Talk to ya’ll soon.

Didn’t get around to writing yesterday.  I went and donated blood and that is about it.  Today has been pretty miserable.   I’m sure you are getting tired of hearing me say that but the weather here is just awful.  Today it has been pouring almost constantly and we have been outside in it all day.  There is literally standing water covering the entire area behind the barracks.  It’s like a river.  The training today was a blast though.  We fired our M16’s on burst (pull the trigger once, 3 rounds come out), and lay down suppresive fire from a bunker.  Then, when night set in, we got to use M4’s.  They are a smaller, light weight version of the M16.  Used more for tactical situations but are becoming the standard as far as issued rifles.  They are pretty cool.  The ones we used tonight had night vision hooked up to them.  We got to fire using the night vision and tracer rounds.  It was quite an experience.  Twenty or so M4’s being fired on burst, all with tracer rounds, flares going off.  All this in the pitch black.  It was like the 4th of July on steroids.  It somewhat made up for the horrible weather.  I wish I could write more but it’s really late, all my gear is soaked, and I have to get ready for training tomorrow.  Talk to ya’ll soon.

Today was pretty miserable.  We did a 10K road march to our training which took about 2 and a half hours.  That part really wasn’t bad.  It gave me time to think and keep to myself.  It was another tactical ruck march which meant we were spread out.  Just like a couple weeks ago.  The bad part was that it was raining the whole time so we were all soaked by the time we got to our training area which was out in the middle of nowhere.  After the march we were all miserably cold since our bodies were cooling down and we were soaked to the bone.  It was horrible, I won’t even lie.  The training wasn’t bad though.  We were out in the middle of the woods learning tactical movements and stuff.  Like first we learned how to make a concealed hasty  fighting position using the terrain, trees, logs, etc.  Then we learned how to move stealthly through the woods using sound and light discipline.  After that we learned some squad movements and how to cross a danger zone and stuff.  It was really good information that I learned today.  I really enjoyed it.  I just hated being soaking wet and cold.  The drill sgts. were really chill with us today.  They joked around a lot and let us ask questions on just about anything we wanted to know.  Even stuff that had nothing to do with the military or what we were doing.  We even talked about football for a little bit.  It was weird, but I wasn’t about to complain.  Now we are all back at the barracks.  Warm and in dry clothes so I couldn’t be happier.  Dinner is in a little bit, and tomorrow is a blood drive so we get to sleep in until 6:00!  It’s like an early Christmas present.  I’ve never given blood before but I plan on it tomorrow.  I’m not a huge fan of needles but I can suck it up for this.  I’m gonna go for now, I might write some more later. 

Okay, I wasn’t going to mention anything about this but the situation has turned into something so comical I couldn’t pass it up.  Last week we had a guy kicked out of our platoon for making some racial remarks towards some of the hispanic guys in our platoon.  Our drill sgt. said that kind of stuff won’t be tolerated and he wanted nothing to do with this guy.  He didn’t say it quite that nicely as I am sure you can imagine.  He went to this guys wall locker, threw everything out, and told him to get the you know what, out of his platoon.  This guy wondered around until somehow he ended up in 2nd platoon.  The funny part is one of 2nd platoon’s drill sgts. is Puerto Rican.  He has been getting smoked constantly since he got  put in 2nd platoon.  Not only that but his battle buddy is now a hispanic guy who they also make act as his translator.  Haha.  To top it all off, they made him take off all his name tapes off his uniforms and his new name is Hernandez.  You have to picture this.  A white, redheaded guy from Michigan, gets in trouble for making racial remarks toward hispanics.  As his punishment, he gets smoked all the time, has a Spanish translator/battle buddy, and is now called Hernandez.  It is just too funny.  The drill sgts. have been making an example out of him.  I had to share that real quick.  I’m off to bed.  Talk to ya’ll tomorrow.

No blog yesterday.  Pretty uneventful day.  Went to church, cleaned the barracks, then had personal time during the evening.  I had my phone for a few hours yesterday, that was nice.  I got to talk to my family and a few friends.

Today has been just about as boring as yesterday was.  We were supposed to do an obstacle course but that was cancelled due to the weather.  So, what did we do?  We came back to the barracks to clean.  If I didn’t know any better I would say that I signed up to be a janitor.  I’ll be honest though, I fell asleep under my bed for over an hour today.  I needed the nap.  Haha.  I actually did the same thing yesterday too.  This afternoon we had some reflexive firing training and we went to the EST again.  After that we did afternoon PT, and then dinner.  After dinner I, of course, got picked to go to brigade on cleaning detail.  It only made sense.  I clean here at the barracks all the time, why not head down to the brigade commander’s office and clean that too (this is me being sarcastic if you couldn’t tell).  It honestly wasn’t that bad though.  It was kind of aggravating because there were vending machines and all the people had snacks and stuff in their office, but I’ll get over it.  It was tempting though, I have to admit.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more exciting.  I guess I will write again tomorrow night if I have time.  Later guys.

I am officially 20 years old.  I have to say, it really doesn’t feel like it.  I can’t believe how fast time has gone by.  It’s really made me realize how short life is.  At least in the big picture of things.  My battle buddy knew today was my birthday so he told some people and they have been coming up to me telling me happy birthday throughout the day.  It was kind of nice.

No birthday presents today but I did get to shoot some freakin awesome stuff today.  What really was icing on the cake was that it was clear and sunny all day.  Perfect weather.

We started off on the 50 cal machine gun.  It was a BEAST!  The whole gun was probably about 6 feet long.  Sitting down behind that thing and firing on full auto is probably one of the coolest feelings in the world.  Next I got to shoot the M249 (SAW, as it is more commonly known).  It is also a full auto weapon.  I was pretty decent with it.  Knocked down some targets at about 300M on a consistent basis.  The last one I shot was the M240B.  This machine gun is ridiculous.  It’s not as big as the 50 cal, but you have to keep in mind, the 50 cal is mounted to vehicles.  Someone actually has to haul the M240B around.  Google it.  This gun is a hoss.  I would hate to have to lug that thing around, but it sure was fun to shoot.  3 machine guns in one day.  What is it, my birthday or something?!  Haha.

I was on range detail today and was put on ammo duty.  That means I had to unpack, sort, etc., all the ammo for todays training.  After we were all done I had to go with some of the other range detail and back to the weapons storage facility.   There I had to clean all the weapons that we fired today.  We were all assigned a weapon.  I was given an M249. It literally took about an hour and a half to clean.  We completely broke all the guns down and had to scrub them spotless.  It was quite the task, but in a way I enjoyed it.  Just because it was something new.  Stuff can get repetitive around here sometimes so a change of pace is always nice.  Tomorrow is Sunday so that means I get to sleep in in the morning.  Church tomorrow as well.  Should be a good day.  A lot of stuff happened today so I am sure I left some stuff out.  Like the fact I got to eat dinner without a drill sgt. around.  Got to take my time and even got some ice cream.  Good end to a good day.  Write again tomorrow guys.  Thanks for reading.