Life at Camp McCrady (Fort Jackson)

First, let start off answering some questions you may have

about my deployment.

Question: What is a Navy Officer doing in a landlocked country that has few lakes and no real bodies of water?

Answer: We are augmenting the Army so they can send more people to the front and they do not get too comfortable in air conditioned offices.

Question: Why did I volunteer to do this when I have 18 years in the Navy and can just retire in two years?

Answer: I was tired of planning and planning for things that were probably never going to happen and wanted to do some real operations and make a difference, not just write volumes of plans that would never be read.

Well it has been two weeks and I only have two more training days left here at Camp McCrady! I wanted to give everyone an Idea as to what it is like here and how the Army training is going so...

Camp McCrady is an instillation attached to Fort Jackson where the Navy training occurs along with some Army Reserve and National Guard training. We do use Fort Jackson for all of our weapons qualification shoots as well as other parts of training, but all classroom and all of our living accommodations are at Camp McCrady. We have been busy here learning how the Army does things and different aspects we may need in our time in theater such as:

Marksmanship
Convoy operations
Land Navigation
Combat First Aid
IED identification and mitigation
Law of War
Cultural Awareness
Army culture
Eating the Army way
"Organizing" the Army way
"Thinking" the Army way

“Living” the Army way
Speaking the Army way
Basically, it is Army boot camp condensed to three weeks...

I must say, I have a new appreciation for the job the Army does, but I still don't completely understand the Army mentality and culture. Maybe because it is a training command but there seems to be little regard for rank. The senior Navy enlisted seem to be leading the Company and the senior officers are sort of staying in the shadows. Everyone is treated the same way by the staff, from the most junior E-3 (Enlisted) to the most senior O-5 (Officer). The officers do have their own barracks, but the enlisted barracks has newer and much nicer furnature. I am living in open bay barracks with about 30 other officers all living in the same big room and sharing the same bathroom. We are wearing our IBAs (Body Armor) quite a bit and are somewhat getting used to it, but still, 65 extra pounds is 65 extra pounds. The food is O.K. breakfasts and dinners are usually at the dining facility (D-FAC) which at least has fresh salads and gravy at every meal. Lunches are mixed between Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) and sack lunches since most of the lunches are eaten in the various training areas away from Camp McCrady. The MREs are the old style with little variety and not very good. As I understand it, the MREs in theater (Afghanistan/Iraq/Kuwait) have much more variety and are self heating. The bag lunches consist of a sandwich, chips, and cookie and are not that bad.

Training takes place Monday through Saturday and is usually in the field. It has been in the 100s with very high humidity so I am usually drenched in sweat, dirty, and very smelly by the end of the day. We work from 6am to about 6pm most days. They really push hydration here and we go through 3-4 3liter camelbacks a day. It has been interesting training and most of it has actually been fun, but very tiring and somewhat painful.

As far as my plans go for the next few weeks, I am not sure of exact times, but I should be leaving for Kuwait sometime around the 14^th or 15^th. I will spend about 10 days in Kuwait living in tents and eating MREs (not the “Hilton” where Spencer stayed) before I continue on to Afghanistan around the 25^th. I do not know what kind of internet will be available in Kuwait so I may not be able to update my blog while there, but I will take pictures and write about it the first chance I get. I am supposed to be in Afghanistan until late February or early March and then I will return back to Key West where I will continue doing real operations fighting a real war against drug smugglers and terrorists (Narco-terrorism).

I did not want to be outdone by my little brother changing his look with a mustache when he deployed, so I decided to try the Gudgell look. Let me know what you think, although I probably will not be keeping it this way for fear that it may not grow back.

I am excited about actually getting to theater and doing what I was sent here to do! I miss you all and hope everyone is doing well! Love to all!!