All quiet...

Well, things have been fairly quiet around here, which is a good thing!
Folks are settling in and learning their roles and the lay of the land.
You can see quite an interesting dynamic between the incoming and
outgoing guys. The outgoing guys seem to have pretty good spirits for
the most part, but are incredibly bitter. Many of them will say it's
due to their Battalion Commander's leadership style of demoralizing and
degrading his staff. Thankfully, I do not have that problem. Another
reason they seem bitter of course, is due to the year that they've been
over here fighting. When I say fighting, I mean just that...this
battalion has seen it's fair share of contact with the enemy. It's been
interesting listening to the various stories.

With the new guys, you can sense the excitement and nervousness of those
who haven't deployed before. While we were on our way here, before we
got to this FOB, I sat next to a random Soldier in the DFAC. He was
telling his team leader that he was really nervous, and you could tell
what he really meant was that he was scared. He sat there picking at
his food with a lost look on his face. I tried to talk to him about it.
I asked him what he was nervous about. He said he was nervous about
getting to the FOB. I knew what he was really nervous about, but
believe that it's important that people admit to themselves what they're
afraid of in order to face it, so I asked what about going there made
him nervous. His simple response, "Getting shot at, Sir." I told him
that it was healthy to be nervous about it because there's not much fun
about getting shot at. I added to that by asking him if he had gone
through the platoon live fire exercises and training we did at Ft. Knox
before we left. He said that he had. I asked him if he qualified with
his weapon (which happens to be a SAW) and he said he had. I said,
"Okay, then you know you can hit what you're aiming at, and you know how
to maneuver and close with the enemy with your unit. The only thing you
have to do, is follow your training and if you get shot at, remember to
breathe for a second and then aim. They don't call that machine gun
you're carrying a casualty producing weapon because it sounds cool!"
That got him laughing a little bit and he finished eating his food and
chatting with his team leader.

It is good to see Soldiers like him. Soldiers who have a healthy fear
of the enemy, but still go forward and do their duty. There are
occasionally Soldiers and leaders who may be a little too overzealous,
and it is a challenge to keep them focused on the mission, but for most
of the Soldiers, they are scared of getting hurt or killed and just want
to do the best they can and get through a yearlong deployment over here.
There are other Soldiers who's overzealousness is a result of ignorance,
or unwillingness to face the reality that the enemy has a vote and they
are not invincible. Those Soldiers will go on missions to places they
aren't required and take unnecessary risks with themselves and
potentially those around them. Only when something tragic happens and
it affects them directly will those types of Soldiers learn their
fragility.

This is what you get when I write a blog at 0030 in the morning after
working all day. I'll try to be more chipper and add pictures another
time. For now, know that I appreciate all your support and I'm glad to
be doing what I am with the great folks I'm doing it with. Hopefully,
in a year I'll be able to say that our unit has made this place better
and we are closer to allowing the GIRoA to take over their own country
so we no longer have to have such a presence.

Goodnight,

Joe