Thank you for coming! If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know :-)
(BigCarlsonFamily@gmail.com)
Christian I - All right, so today I'm a part of something called OPFOR (or opposing force). My objective is to train up about 5000 POGS or (non-infantry soldiers). The training obstacle for today is for these soldiers to learn how to set up a perimeter around their base camp that cannot be easily breached. Sounds pretty simple right?
The time is about zero hundred hours (midnight). There are
only about seven of us in the squad. The leader is Sgt. First Class (SFC) Glenn.
We're still in Fort Hood Texas, actually in West Fort Hood out in the middle of
nowhere! There is a completely full moon, and we have just arrived on-site to see
if our trainees (5000 cooks and mechanics) have set up their perimeter properly
for the night.
We've been training these people all week (of course sleeping in the woods all the time). In
Texas, when you're in the field, wearing the old "Woodland" style
camouflage – the pretty green, brown, and black quickly become colored white
with sweat (salt water). Please keep this in mind!
Suddenly, while we are playing “the enemy” for these people,
SFC Glenn calls for me, and also the lowest ranking private in the world (PV2
Mabry). I had no idea what SFC Glenn had on his mind.
Basically, we were to low crawl about 300 yards to their
outer perimeter with wire cutters and cut their triple strand Constantino wire-
in order to prepare for my platoon’s massive attack the following morning. Have
you ever low crawled even a few feet? Well, I'm not taking my hat off to myself,
but that young private that was with me, had his work cut out for him!
Tallgrass, lots of rocks, snakes, bugs and mud – good training :-)
What we did not see (because of the night, and their cover
and concealment from the wood-line) were a pair of 50 caliber machine guns
covering their positions! Now I understand that this is only a training
scenario. Some of you might be laughing, like “who cares?”. Others of you may
be seasoned veterans and realize that even when a 50 caliber machine gun is
firing blanks, if you are 20 feet in front of it, it is going to change your
day. :-)
Obviously, this happened about 16 years ago! I'm in a
wheelchair one hundred percent of the time, and I wouldn't be able to low crawl
300 yards or even 1 foot :-) BUT, I'm trying a different perspective on this
blog - perhaps some of you enjoy these types of stories. Please let me know
your feedback. I would love to finish this story or even write more like them. So please leave feedback!
I'm not in the habit of "leaving people hangin’",
but I would really love to write this to satisfy the readers. So, I would like to know if you want
stories from the past, and if so what kind stories. Or I can simply give you
strictly updates from day to day. Regardless, I will always mention
emergencies or anything imperative!
Christian II- Right now, he is sleeping on the couch in my
office! It seems, that this heat has not only tuckered me out, but is very
exhausting to everyone :-) The highlight of the day, was Christian playing with
his 13-year-old brother! And his BIG brother was actually pretending and
playing more than Christian was! It is absolutely hilarious to me. That's all
I'm going to say about that, because I don't want Ethan to beat me up :-) just
kidding :-)
God bless your friend…
