Dobie's final training at Atterbury...

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Well everybody I am finally done with training at Camp Atterbury! This has been an absolute blast and I am so thankful for the opportunity to train with these soldiers going to Kosovo.

After Davina left for Germany I only had one last training event. It was probably my favorite because it was all about being sneaky. We would form these 6-8 person teams and practice creeping around buildings, peering around corners and quietly tip toeing around so that we would not be noticed by anyone. I always like it when I get to wear all my cool army gear, especially those oakley sunglasses that nobody can see your eyes. My boots are finally broke in so now I have no blisters, my flak jacket is real weighty and hopefully I will get used to it over time, and of course the helmet is a tad heavy so if I don't pay attention my head will bobble around just from the sheer weight on my neck.

As we went through that last iteration of training I couldn't help reflecting on the past few weeks and the special moments that we all experienced. When I first arrived at Camp Atterbury is was hot, humid and the weather pattern was crazy with the spur of the moment storms. I was initially shocked by some of the army standards. For instance, I really didn't know that toilet paper could be made so thin that if you held it up I could see right thru it. Needless to say, all military contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder!

I won't really miss the crickets in the barracks. Some of my funnest moments were watching Davina try to sneak up on them. She would become obsessed with trying to quiet their annoying chirping songs. Of course, they only sang at night when everyone was trying to sleep.

Trying to get into a routine with exercise and diet was challenging. The first few weeks we were as good as you could imagine. Salads for lunch, no dessert, lots of vege's and somehow I managed to walk early in the mornings before anyone else woke up. But after that, my self discipline went to pot. I was so busy training that I would miss meals and then snack for hours on end. I even saw Davina wake up in the middle of the night and go to town on a box of wheat thins and some twinkies! Needless to say, the only exercise we would get was out at the training areas. We were too tired to do anything extra after our 14-16 hour days, so it just got to the point were we would get up, go to training and then come home and crash on our bunks.

When I was out and about I noticed that most everybody had fun doing most anything. People were always laughing and playing jokes. I once visited Davina and her friends where she was training. It was much different than the stuff I was doing out in the field. She was stuck behind a computer reading and making powerpoint presentations for the General and staff. When her group of friends weren't on the computers they would be reading giant mounds of paper work and doing analysis on these big binders of information. It doesn't seem to fit her personality but she told me that she could do anything for a few months and that when she gets to Kosovo she will have more things to do that will take her out of the office environment. I'm glad for that because I know she really wants to experience the Kosovo people and environment.

Her office was quite the visual place to visit. It was a small corner in a big auditorium building. They were set away from the big group of soldiers. Apparently they needed to be away from all the noise and commotion. But I suppose that was good for that group she hung out with. They were very playful and seemed to draw many visitors to their area because of the well stocked snack area. Plus they had very fun senses of humor. They had this saying about "getting thrown under the bus". Kinda like they would take the heat or jokingly get blamed for things that didn't quite go so well. Her friends took it to the next level and one of them had a play bus mailed from her children toy set back home and we hung it on the ceiling above our heads. Then they would always laugh about "always" being under the bus. From what I could tell, even the extreme hours couldn't break their spirits!

The rest of the building was seperated into work stations for all the different staff team. The operations team had the biggest area with big screens, TV's, bunches of computers and people from all the different specialty teams had to have someone sit in their area so that everyone knew what was going on at all times and the operations people could assign tasks and have a good knowledge of things that were happening on the battlefield. The communications people did a really great job of stringing cable all over the entire building, looked like a bunch of miles worth, but after all said and done, all the computers could talk to each other and some soldiers even had internet access!

So I would say that being out in the field with soldiers doing real army training was probably much more exciting, but I also saw that it takes all kinds of jobs to make everything work well. So even though I know she had an okay job, she didn't get to do what I did today. When me and those soldiers were walking ever so quietly along the cement wall, knees bent, ears perked up and eyes dodging wildly looking for any people who may interupt our mission. My heart was racing with excitement, little trickles of sweat was running off my brow and then it was just like clock work. We stopped and put out our little security team and then it was my turn to go over the wall. Two soldiers stood and faced each other and made a hand ladder for me and boosted me up so I could scurry over the top. It was quite the fall for me but I jumped up and was ready to catch the next soldier coming over the wall. I did it, I didn't let anyone down. I finally did my job and I did it like a real soldier! I passed all my training hurdles, the soldiers really like me and I am so motivate that I can hardly sit still. I sure wish I could be a real soldier!

I am going to Germany for more training. I hear it will be quite the training exercise and I know I am up to the task! So I'm off and should arrive tomorrow. Maybe I will get some sleep on the plane?

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Photos

Secure area
Courtesy ND PAO

Up!
Courtesy ND PAO

and...Over!
Courtesy ND PAO

The puzzle palace of headquarters
Courtesy ND PAO

The Planners little corner of the world
Courtesy ND PAO