Halfway There

(RETRO POSTED - 02 Feb 2008)

It has been a while since I last sent out an email update at the beginning of January. It is now Feb 2, Groundhog Day, and I’m thinking about all I have to share about the month of January. I began with coming back from a nice Christmas break at home. We were immediately thrust into our first field exercise (FEX I) which focused on squad sized offensive and defensive operations. The pictures are from FEX I. The one is me digging in my defensive fighting hole. The other is my squad on the last day of the exercise taking a picture at our base camp. We also got to call in an air strike and artillery on targets at a demo range. I had the opportunity to fire a 155mm artillery cannon which has to be one of the coolest things I’ve done. Additionally, we had a live fire (this means we were using real bullets) exercise at the end of the week where we assaulted an objective at night. During this week and the second week back I was the squad leader and that allowed me to lead my peers and get some experience with that. Following the FEX I we came back for a week in the classroom preparing for the Patrol FEX. The patrol FEX was the most fun I’ve had up to this point. This is primarily because of two reasons. One, I got to call in helicopters for insert into the hostile territory and extract out. The helicopter ride was awesome. Secondly, we had three patrols during the week and the last one was a night ambush patrol. I was the patrol leader for this ambush. I got to set up my peers in position and then wait for the enemy to come walking down the road and I initiated the ambush. It was cool because it was the first time our squad had really looked cohesive and a little refined in an operation. After the Patrol FEX we have been in the classroom mostly, again preparing and learning about our next FEX (FEX II) which goes from 17 man squad operations to 50 man platoon operations. Everything gets a little more complicated. One of the events we’ve been doing while not in the field is Land Navigation. We just finished our last day land navigation test and we have one more night land navigation test next Wednesday. I love Land Nav because it affords me time by myself out in the woods, and I happen to be pretty good at it. One more thing I’ve done recently is the gas chamber. As part of learning how to use our gas masks we have to enter a gas chamber filled with a mild skin irritant gas called CS gas. It really burned when they made us take off the masks in the chamber, put them back on, and clear them (similar to scuba diving). Well those are the ramblings of what I’ve been up to. We’re halfway done with the training. That’s encouraging, but most of the hard stuff is still ahead. February and March are particularly full of Field Exercises, tests, and other events. I might not get another email out until the end of February.

I have made it a custom to not just fill you in on my activities but also my engaged readings. I have recently read a book I believe everyone needs to read. It is only 32 pages long and something that even the slowest readers could finish in 15 minutes standing in the bookstore line. It is called “A Message to Garcia” by Elbert Hubbard. It revolves around the onset of the Spanish-American War in 1898. As the American army prepared to invade the Spanish colony of Cuba, they wished to contact the leader of the Cuban insurgents to coordinate or at least prevent conflicting strategies. The essay celebrates the initiative of the soldier who is assigned and accomplishes the daunting mission of contacting the rebel leader and giving him the message from the president. He asks no questions, makes no objections, requests no help, but accomplishes the mission. The book is an essay that celebrates the attitude of the messenger. The messenger had a bias for action. He didn’t question why, he didn’t pawn off the responsibility on someone else. He simply did what he was asked. Similarly I then think am I doing what I am being asked to do? Do I pass the buck? Do I shy away from responsibility? Is there something God is telling me to do and I am not listening? These are penetrating questions for you to answer personally. But I challenge you to read the book and see if you are capable of delivering the message to Garcia.

Embracing the Passion,
J