You Tear Me Down!

Well, it's been an interesting two weeks. We did tearown, and build-up, practice. Something that I am used to occuring in less than two days, total. With this unit, it took almost two, full weeks. To me, that is entirely unacceptable. I'm used to much faster times. But, then again, not everyone is up to Nightstalker standards. The entire process was bullshit, from the get go. I'm told the day before, at around 1800 actually, that I am to teach teardown and build up procedures for CH-47 for aircraft movement. First of all, if you want me to teach something, don't you think you should give me a little bit more of a head's up before expecting me to teach it? (They said it had been on the training schedules for the past two weeks. Hey! Dumb ass! I've been in JRTC for the past three, at least.) I started out, Monday morning, with around 25 people, including three people from shops. (This is way too many people.) I ask who has done an aircraft teardown before. Guess how many I had? Two, two that have done this in the last five years! OMFG! I literally have to teach everything! And most of these people are Privates to boot!

Not only are all of the people inexperianced, but the unit doesn't have the equipment to properly execute the mission. So, I had to improvise some things. (At least I know I'm good at that!) We didn't have any Aft Pylon Templates, Hydraulic cross-over lines, "Scotty-Blocks" or proper transmission stands. This is a complete and total nightmare. Anyways, it takes three days to get the aircraft to transport status. Three days!!!! Well, considering that noone but myself has done this before recently, and noone, or anything, got hurt, or damaged, in the process, while it did drive me crazy, is considered a success. Oh, also, during this process, I lost all of my back shops support and about half of my Chinook mechanics, to other things going on, and them not returning when that task was over.

Next was the aircraft loadout by C-5. I thought that I would finally have a chance to teach these guys right. But, no! The Air Force crew was more interested in getting back to the hotel and getting some beers, than proper load out procedures. We wait 4 1/2 hours for the Blackhawks to do their training, and then the crew only wants to bring our aircraft in just enough to throw some chains on it. And then down load it. We don't even load the pylon. What a F***ing waste! But, something funny happened on the way back.

We were crossing the active, about half way across, the tug, (towing the aircraft) runs out of gas. So we have to hook up the aircraft (Formerly towed by the tug) to one of the other vehicles while I hook up the tug and the aicraft's pylon to the my SCAMP (wheeled 7.5 ton capacity crane). We made quite a site when we pulled up to the hanger.

Well, this was all on a Friday, and build-up was scheduled to begin on Monday. I tried to enjoy my weekend, but it didn't work too well. Everyone decided to call me during the weekend. And all for miscelaneous (SP?) bullshit. Nothing that couldn't have waited until Monday. (Yea, the joys of being a section sergeant.) Anyway, on Monday, we start out strong, hanging the Pylon and forward transmission. All we have left is the aft transmission and blades. OMFG! Guess what? Those take another 4 days. 4 DAYS! For some extremely stupid, and simple, crap. But then again, these are not Nightstalker material. (At least not the majority of them. Some on the other hand....)

And during this whole process, I kept losing people to other tasks. As I said, I started out with over 20 people. But, I ended up with only five. Five people! If they were NIghtstalkers, no problem. But these Big Army guys, are completly untrained, and have no idea what to do. I literally, had to be everywhere at once. And, being only human, failed each and every time.

Oh, did I mention that we just started using the computerized aircraft logbook system? Again, something that I'm the only one who knows about. JUST SHOOT ME, PLEASE!

Well, that just about covers the lst two weeks. Now for what might happen in the future, among other things. It seems that the Army has gone to 15 month deployments in Iraq, and Afghanistan. Which, if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly, will push our deployment back by three months! This is a good thing, it means that I could submit my retirement paperwork before the unit comes under the Stop Loss program. Which, in turn, means that I might not have to deploy again! Great news, right? Maybe.

Can I really send my Soldiers into harm's way without me? Can I deprive the unit of all of my experience? At this time, I've come up with a comprimise. I will submit my retirement paperwork only if the following condidtion is met. We are due for a new Platoon Sergeant in the near future. If this person demonstrates (to my satisfaction) that he/she know their job, and takes care of the soldiers. Then, I will (most likely. Yeah, I know, a cop out.) submit for retirement. If we don't get a new SFC, I need to stick around and help SSG V run the platoon. I WILL NOT LEAVE MY GUYS DEFENSLESS! (I hate to say this, and yes it's probably just an excuse, but, at this time it looks like I deploy again.)

On a happier note, I have a couple of pics to put up. First is a pic of the new F model Chinooks. (Yes, I know I said I would post a lot earlier. So sue me! :})

And the next one is of my dog, Nikki. She's half Beagle and half English Setter. (Twice as tall as a Beagle, but as friendly as a Setter.) She's a great dog.

And one more, a pic that my oldest took of me drinking some Meh Kong and Dr. Pepper while writing this entry.

I'll see ya'll later.