Battalion-Level training

Most of the company is out on battalion level training, called ARTEP. The mortar section is staying in the barracks for another couple of days to do mortar-specific training called a MORTEP. Then we will go fire live rounds on a range somewhere. A lot of this training is repeating stuff that we learned in 11-Charlie school, but there are some people in the mortar sections who went through 11-C school back in November or earlier, and have had a chance to forget it all.

Of course, now that we're preparing to go out to the field, and the company is out living in tents, it has started to rain. The Lord works in mysterious ways indeed! But Mississippi definitely needs the rain, so I do not begrudge them the weather. And my wife says the rain is needed at home as well, to clear the pollen from the air.

It is always surprising to me that I can allow myself to forget the most basic facts of military life. For example, I routinely manage to disremember that the Army plays to the lowest common denominator. In other words, leadership tends to treat everyone as if they were all as stupid as the least intelligent soldier. The nail that sticks up gets hammered down, and all that. I also manage to forget that some people can't tell the difference between genuine curiousity, simple lack of intelligence, and willful laziness. So if you have a question about something you genuinely didn't understand, some military leaders will assume that you're either being lazy for not doing it immediately, or that you're so stupid you don't understand anything about what you're doing. Either way, it really tends to get in the way of learning. LOL

Also it has been remarked upon a lot by people in this unit, and Rick Atkinson mentions that General David Petraeus (now in charge of US troops in Baghdad) also noted the high value of the combat patch. IE, the patch worn on the right shoulder, to indicate that you have served with that unit in combat. In the National Guard, that patch seems to accrue you a remarkable amount of respect and leeway. In some ways, this is entirely understandable, since someone with a combat patch has, to use the Civil War parlance, "seen the elephant."

Earlier this evening I ran into a 1st Lieutenant I had known back in 1997. He was an E-6 when I joined the Guard, and is now an ADC for the Division commander. In addition, he has 21 years in the guard and is already elegible for retirement. Funny old thing, life.