GRENADE SIMULATOR IV

Some of the information given here may seem choppy or inconclusive.This is a “running blog” and a continuation of a much greater story.You are encouraged to go to the main web-site to catch-up or read previous blogs.These blogs tell the story of Christian I(100% DAV, homeschooling pastor-dad with M.S.)and Christian II (son 3 years old-T1 diabetic)-BOTH TRYING TO RAISE MONEY FOR SERVICE DOGS!
 

Thank you for coming! If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know :-)

BigCarlsonFamily@gmail.com

Christian II – Today has been a pleasant nightmare, if there can be such a thing. PLEASANT-Christian has been very happy and playful (Please see pictures below, playing with his little sister). NIGHTMARE-One minute his blood sugar level was down to 39, which is the level where seizures and comas appear. Half an hour after that his blood sugar was at 110, which is fine.

Then an hour after that… it was back down to 41. Then an hour after that… it was back up to near 100, only to go down again over the next hour. We know what we are doing! We gave him the proper insulin and here again… diabetes makes absolutely no sense.

When Simon gets here (the service dog) he will be worth his weight in diamonds! Besides the madness going on in my mind, Christian is very happy and cool. Today it took him about 10 seconds to learn four different shapes. Very proud of my child prodigy – LOL.

Christian I – I’ve gotta be quick today. It’s very hot out, and I have been writing my blog outside, by the fire, for the past few days. Nuts, right? Can’t stand the heat, sitting by the fire, and it’s a very hot day – LOL. Well, I’m a creature of habit –trying to form one! Good training!

I left our story with SSG X and I hiding in the bushes from 2000 soldiers who were looking for us. We laid in the bushes for only about an hour, and everything became very very quiet. So… we seized the opportunity! And, while we were creeping through the enemy camp, everything was going well. Until BOOM!-  you remember those latrines we booby trapped before? Well, let’s just say someone did not just have a very nice experience! In retrospect, I hope they were able to relieve themselves after being scared by an extremely loud bomb (A grenade simulator)-LOL.

Just then, it was like disturbing a hornet’s nest. People were jumping all over the place. So, instead of hiding in some bushes again, our hero, SSG X, took off running (just like before)! Here we go again! But thankfully it didn’t take long and we were jumping back over the wire.

Now, I need to add some details at this point. Those same “gun happy POGIE troopers” that we ran into before, started shooting at us again and we had to double time it- or risk getting killed or captured. The last time we went through this clearing, we noticed that the terrain wasn’t flat. There were some trenches dug, some big rocks, and other natural obstacles.

You need to take in the description all at once. We’re sweating bullets, bounding forward, trying to get back to our base camp. Shockingly, while I’m firing and we’re running, our hero (SSG X) pulls out a flare. He had the idea to pop one off so we could see where we were going. Basically, you snap the end off; put the cap on the other side, slam the stick into the ground with both hands, and the flare shoots off over your shoulder into the air. Good training!

What our hero did not realize was that those soldiers firing at us, were a part of a fueling detail. Their duty would have been to manage a gigantic fuel bladder (about the size of a large garage) with several fuel trucks beside it. Get the picture?  Our hero shot the flare over his shoulder and it flew through the air TOWARDS THE GIANT FUEL BLADDER!

Ultimately, the flare could have melted through the bladder and ignited it AND the fuel trucks, and we could have had one enormous explosion on our hands (Not to mention death, courts martial, etc.). Hold on! I’M NOT DONE YET! With no notice at all, our hero starts running in the other direction -towards the fuel bladder (Because he realized what he just did) …Running, running, running!

Now ding dong is running the other way, towards the enemy, clearly out of desperation! So…what was he going to do? Thankfully, the flare landed about twenty feet away from the bladder, and there was no explosion that night. When we saw the flare hit the ground, we were almost already completely on top of their position!

We kept firing at them and began running backwards (GOING AWAY FROM THE ENEMY AGAIN- FINALLY). We were tripping over everything, falling in holes, “I was so incredibly embarrassed”. Now I know why we didn’t get shot. They must have been laughing their butts off. Good training! Thank you for the memories, hero.

Well, I ‘ve gotta stop here because you have to get back to work, and I’m already taking up too much time. I’ m actually exhausted in the heat, thinking about that night. We’ll talk more about it tomorrow.

Also, below I’m including a progress report of where our fundraising is at right now. Please help us if you can. Everyone thinks that SOMEBODY ELSE will help. Well, not many are…. If you can spare a few dollars, please do so we can help my son (and me) to stay alive! 

God bless you friend... :)

 

 

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GRENADE SIMULATOR III

Some of the information given here may seem choppy or inconclusive.This is a “running blog” and a continuation of a much greater story.You are encouraged to go to the main web-site to catch-up or read previous blogs.These blogs tell the story of Christian I(100% DAV, homeschooling pastor-dad with M.S.)and Christian II (son 3 years old-T1 diabetic)-BOTH TRYING TO RAISE MONEY FOR SERVICE DOGS!

 

Thank you for coming! If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know :-)
BigCarlsonFamily@gmail.com

Christian I – I spoke with an awesome friend yesterday, and because of their input I would like to clarify a few things for everybody else. These stories are not fiction. They happened about sixteen years ago. I am also not one of those superheroes from a comic book or something! LOL These missions are all "training"so far.

So far… they are OPFOR (opposing force) missions, where me and my platoon were the teachers trying to instruct non-infantry personal (POGS) on how to be combat soldiers. We did this by always playing the enemy! Good training. We were mainly stationed at Fort Hood Texas for these missions but also traveled abroad to meet other units (FT. Polk, LA, etc.)

If you remember, we left the last story where I just caught up to SSG X after he took off running very wildly – LOL! We just hopped over the POGS’s outer perimeter wire and were being searched for by their whole camp (2000 soldiers), which by this time must have been entirely alerted to our presence.

We marked several vehicles for destruction and booby trapped a few port -a- potty’s. We did this by tying the inner strand of  550 cord (paracord) around the body of the port -a- potty, and attaching the ends to a grenade simulator- so when "Johnny boy POG" opened up the latrine… he got a little bit more for his money than just some relieveiation- LOL!

After we were finished booby trapping the second latrine, we came upon another clearing and some POGS spotted us and started firing. It was funny because, maybe about 100 yards away a couple of them popped up, shot at us, and then ran away. This happened for several minutes and while they shot at us, of course we shot back. This is very important information for you to consider.

I must have shot a whole drum of ammo(about 250 rounds for the S.A.W) by that time. So, THE BARREL OF MY MACHINE GUN WAS VERY HOT – AND ALMOST GLOWING RED! When I stopped to slap the next drum in, I heard an M16 bolt lock forward behind me. CLICK!  Then a voice said, “Drop your weapons!” We were captured.

SSG X threw down his weapon, but I could not. You see, the weapon that I was carrying (S.A.W) was so heavy that it was attached to my body with a sling! I tried to explain this to the young private who now held us hostage! But, he tried to flex his muscles, or show his manhood and shouted, “Take that weapon off now, boy!” I told him, “You’re going to have to come and take it!”

So the poor private, with bare hands, just grabbed my weapon by the barrel. Immediately there was a smell like frying bacon accompanied by a scream “AHHH!”. He ran away, and we never saw him again. But, because the boy screamed, someone else ran up and said, “What was that noise?” He thought that we were POGS just like him!

So ...we played along, “Hey, buddy, do you have a lighter” we tried to be casual. But it didn’t last long. He saw my weapon and said, “Hey, man, where did you get that weapon?” SSG X said something about, “Didn’t you know they are issuing these to us now?” (Because the POGS didn’t have these types of machine guns...) Well, the officer figured out that we were lying, and held us at gunpoint. Here we go again! Then he said, “You boys better come with me”-

SSG X then held his chest and turned around- with his back to the man (LETTING OUT A GROAN). I didn’t know what this wild man was doing now! Then I saw a small flash of light. SSG X pushed me and said, “Run!” So I did! Just then in the darkness there was a tremendous, earth shattering “Boom!” and the flash of light was absolutely blinding.

SSG X just lit off a grenade simulator and that poor officer screamed out, “Ahhh!”... “Which way did they go?” he yelled. But SSG X and I dove into some bushes and stayed there until all was calm.

I absolutely love this story. I couldn’t believe how awesome it was at the time. I have to stop here, but there is one more leg to this mission that you need to hear about. I’m not kidding. We almost destroyed the whole place. Well.. did we? I’ll tell you tomorrow. By the way, I feel great today. Can you come over and have some coffee with me?

Christian II – Little Christian was all ready to write this military blog with me this morning. I don’t know what happened! He stated out well, but just ended up falling out – LOL (Please see pictures below). I hope the same thing doesn’t happen to you as you read this blog. LOL. Today Little Christian is doing just fine. I hope that you are doing the same!

 

God bless you friend... :)

 

READY FOR DAD'S BLOG....

 

 

GETTING TIRED...BUT STILL WITH YOU DAD!!

 

GOOD TRAINING !! - LOL

 

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GRENADE SIMULATOR II

Some of the information given here may seem choppy or inconclusive.This is a “running blog” and a continuation of a much greater story.You are encouraged to go to the main web-site to catch-up or read previous blogs.These blogs tell the story of Christian I(100% DAV, homeschooling pastor-dad with M.S.)and Christian II (son 3 years old-T1 diabetic)-BOTH TRYING TO RAISE MONEY FOR SERVICE DOGS!

Thank you for coming! If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know :-)

BigCarlsonFamily@gmail.com

Christian II – As usual, I’m starting with the little man today, and alternating between he and I. So please hang on if you’re here for the Army story! In my opinion, little Christian’s story is always the best part. I think Christian is “hung-over” today. I hate to put it like that but I don’t know how better to explain it!

Yesterday was my daughter Grace’s birthday and we had the grandparents over and so Christian was amped up all night because they were here- and we put on Toy Story 2- and my three year old Buzz Lightyear was jumping off of everything in the house! LOL.  So, today he’s exhausted and his numbers are high (I believe it’s because of the pizza, pie, and ice cream)! Good training!

That will be another cool thing about having a service dog – the dog will be able to sense what Christian’s blood sugar is GOING toward.  And so, here again life won’t be such of a guessing game.

Christian I - …..SSG X and I were moving out. I had several concerns as I mentioned I couldn’t stand this guy. It was very dark and even though there was a full moon, your eyes are still playing tricks on you in the forest, and this guy was a ding dong. Was he going to run off and do something stupid? Or was he going to save the day.

After about a half hour of walking, and moving tactically (no talking), I was about to shoot myself because this guy was walking smack dab in the middle of the road, remember he also had a speech impediment that drove me bananas (when he did speak), and he was also moving so slowly which drew out the minutes to seem like hours. Thankfully no vehicles came barreling down the road that night! (Side note – NOW I appreciate how God brings special “Teachers” into your life… THEN I didn’t-lol.)

We arrived at the edge of the wood line with the enemy camp in sight. There was about 250 yards of plain clearing before we got to their perimeter. So just when I was thinking , “Are we going to low crawl the whole way?” (Like the last mission in the blog FLASHBACK??)…. SSG X takes off running without a word! He just…took off running…and I’m thinking to myself, “What in the world?” But, before I could think about it too much- obviously I had to run after him! It was ridiculous.  Good training- Lol.

Just then, we saw the silhouettes of two POGS on the edge of their perimeter, quite a ways down the wire (maybe 300 yards away now) and they opened fire on us! Now when you’re firing AT THAT RANGE, using blanks with lasers attached to your rifles (MILES- gear) - the likelihood of you hitting anything is very, very low.

Being that we didn’t discuss anything prior to this excursion, I had no idea what the big picture was! So… my training took over. I hit the ground and returned fire. So where was SSG X? He kept running! You know how the Rangers say, “Never leave a man behind”? Not today! SSG X just kept running. I had about half a second to pop up and try to follow the mad man, all the while expending ammunition as I was still being fired upon.

Finally I caught up with the dude. Thankfully they only had one level of Constantino wire, so we just jumped into their perimeter (I wanted to butt stroke this guy with the end of my rifle  – but I didn’t say a word). By this time, all the little POGIES were awake, or at least a lot of them were, and we were in “big time” danger of being caught now. Thankfully, we destroyed several vehicles (Remember, by drawing big stars and circles on them with paint) BEFORE WE WERE CAUGHT! But I have to stop here. My son says this blog is getting too long.

So where’s the injury that I talked about in the last blog? Where do the grenade simulators come into play? And – an extra tidbit- How did we almost destroy the whole camp? I’ll come back Monday and get as far as I can. (Remember, we don’t blog on Sundays- The Lord’s Day.)

God bless you friend... :)

HERE IS A PICTURE OF THE "COMING" GRENADE SIMULATOR....

 

 

Who says 3yr old diabetics don't have fun??

 

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GRENADE SIMULATOR (the beginning)

Some of the information given here may seem choppy or inconclusive. This is a “running blog” and a continuation of a much greater story. You are encouraged to go to the main web-site to catch-up or read previous blogs. These blogs tell the story of Christian I (100% DAV, homeschooling pastor-dad with M.S.) and Christian II (son 3 years old-T1 diabetic)-BOTH TRYING TO RAISE MONEY FOR SERVICE DOGS!

Thank you for coming! If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know :-)

BigCarlsonFamily@gmail.com

Christian I – Good morning. I’m led to write about SSG (Staff Sergeant) X again. As I mentioned before “I bear him no malice now”. However in the field I couldn’t stand him. I just can’t stop thinking about those famous words “Kawsn kept cha head dawn” (Translated, “Carlson, keep your head down”) every time a vehicle passed by.

Part of me also feels bad because I can remember several missions where the platoon was on the move and he tried that “punchy” business you know; that foolish micro managing, and everybody and the platoon sergeant came down hard on him in front of everyone. I can remember one time the movement was actually stopped in the middle of the forest, and everyone was called to circle around, and SSSG X was yelled at and “smoked up” for being such a bonehead.

However, there was another  time where he actually was my hero. The platoon sergeant was trying to get rid of him for a while, so he came up with a mission for me and SSG X. It was crazy, we could have been captured, but it turned out to be very, very cool. Good training!

The objective was simple. SSG X and I were to sneak through the wire at a weak point, destroy as many vehicles as possible (by taking a camouflage paint stick and drawing a very big star with a circle around it – sometimes five feet wide), to booby trap as many port a potties as we could, tie up some people, and cause any other type of trouble possible. Really good training!

This was an OPFOR mission, and the “enemy” were POGS again, this time communications soldiers, about 2000 of them; all intense, buried behind Constantino wire and our job was to teach them to fortify- by acting as the enemy-  and defend their camp. I believe a little description is in order of the surrounding environment.

The time is about 2300 hours, and I can’t believe they paired me off alone with this man. It was a full on again and basically no cloud cover. SSG X and I were all camouflaged up and were ready to go, but we left the capots (helmets) on and put our uniforms on so that they were not inside out (you will recall from our last blogs that the POGS complained that they “could not see us” so we had to reverse our uniform tops-we cheated- there were only two of us against 2000. I was wrong- I caved. LOL. ), so that we could blend in with the enemy.

The only other difference from the last mission was that I had a rather large machine gun with me (S.A.W – squad assault weapon).  It’s important for you to remember that we had many grenade simulators and that my machine gun had a 250 round drum and I had a spare with me also.  And….. I’m going to have to stop there, because this blog is getting too long.

It’s another really cool mission. I will tell you that at least one person is physically marked for life because of me! Stay tuned. Was it me? Come back tomorrow to find out.

Today is my daughter’s birthday! We have several things planned to celebrate, and I have to go so that I can get to them! LOL. I will not say anything more about my health today, except that it is a good training day! LOL.

Christian II – It’s also a good training day for little Christian. His numbers were very high and he required a site change. You see, the site is where the insulin is delivered for his pump, through a tube, and into a needle in his backside. This is his site, sometimes however (for a million reasons) it doesn’t work either the site was bumped and the needle bent, inhibiting the insulin for getting delivered, or his body creates an abscess which blocks the insulin from getting through.

I don’t think so many of my friends understand this whole diabetic healthcare system is a “house of cards” – just waiting to fall. We need that dog! I know you’ll help us. Just pray that others would help too because sadly there are too few.

God bless you friend... :)

HERE IS A COPY OF A FAIR BANNER THAT WE MADE LAST MONTH...(MIXED EMOTIONS)...

 

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Busy Day

Some of the information given here may seem choppy or inconclusive. This is a “running blog” and a continuation of a much greater story. You are encouraged to go to the main web-site to catch-up or read previous blogs. These blogs tell the story of Christian I (100% DAV, homeschooling pastor-dad with M.S.) and Christian II (son 3 years old-T1 diabetic)-BOTH TRYING TO RAISE MONEY FOR SERVICE DOGS - TO SAVE OUR LIVES!

 

Thank you for coming! If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know :-)

(BigCarlsonFamily@gmail.com)

Christian II -  Little man is fine!  His blood sugar and keytones are back to normal.  Please don't get tired of the "roller coaster" of numbers. This Ts the life that we live! Hopefully, it's not too much of a roller coaster. Otherwise, my son will be an excellent candidate for heart disease, organ failure, or an early death in his mid-too-late 20s. A service dog will definitely help us to prolong Christian's life and greatly enhance its quality.

Christian is doing this new thing now! As you know, Christian sits on my lap in the wheelchair…alot.  Today, while I was whizzing back around the block from my office… he put out his little arms and said, “Weee….”!  Lol    I almost cried.  Then he said, “To the Trinity….and beyond!” (remember the Buzzlightyear blog?).  It was a special moment for me as well when I realized that this old chair could bring somebody some happiness! Thank you God for letting me see that…  If you see me with Christian II on my lap….zooming around the neighborhood,and you see his little arms out…you’ll know what he’s saying…….and also that I am near to tears.  Haha

Christian I - today is a very busy day. We just started our home schooling year this week, tomorrow is my daughter Grace’s birthday, and we had about 40 books to package up and send out for our eBay store! Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining at all! I love it, but you would be a little freaked out! All these children are running around with school materials, packaging supplies, dirty diapers, coffee for dad, and the list goes on and on – LOL. Please pray for my wife! That poor woman deserves a medal! Ha ha…

I didn't receive any feedback regarding stories that you want me to write about. I know that some people are reading this blog. Please let me know what you want me to write about – just pick any topic! I know that it's difficult to get any response, but I am just trying to give you what you like - if you're interested LOL!

The mystery veteran guest who joined us last night for dinner was a very cool dude! This was his first day off in two weeks, and he decided to come over and cook gourmet pasta for the whole family! He also played the guitar around the outdoor fireplace for me and my children while we sang together.

I know that some might thinking “who cares”. But it was such a blessing, I had to share it with you. I can't mention his name. But in Vietnam, this soldier saved the lives of 15 or so Marines that would have been annihilated by the enemy. He received several bullet wounds. Very outstanding story.  Good training! Remember, I was feeling miserable yesterday! I asked God, "why should I press on with the day?", And He answered me with in Vietnam veteran. I love it when He does that!

If you are the praying type (and I know many of you are) please say a little prayer for my veteran guest. We will just say that he would like to sleep through the night more than two hours at a time. I've also told him about Jesus quite a bit, and there seems to be something good happening there.

And IF you are saying to yourself, "Man, this blog is boring" then tell me what to write about! I would rather be a blessing to you and put a smile on your face!

God bless you friend... :)

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Finale !!

Some of the information given here may seem choppy or inconclusive.  This is a “running blog” and a continuation of a much greater story.  You are encouraged to go to the main web-site to catch-up or read previous blogs.  These blogs tell the story of Christian I  (100% DAV, homeschooling pastor-dad with M.S.)  and Christian II (son 3 years old -T1 diabetic)-BOTH TRYING TO RAISE MONEY FOR SERVICE DOGS!

 

Thank you for coming! If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know :-)

BigCarlsonFamily@gmail.com

Christian I - (This Army narrative began back in the “flashback??” Blog from last week.) Presently, we were being held captive by the POGS, and we had them going for quite some time with a completely fabricated story about how "my buddy -needed his pills to survive". If you remember, we were there for the purpose of training these non-infantrymen (POGS) to handle a real-time combat situation! We were lying (acting), but this was the standard operating procedure during this type of training scenario.

So did they let us go? I remember that for about 2 min. they seriously thought about it -LOL. Now here is where our second character comes in.  SPC Ackley could not contain himself any longer! When he saw the command sergeant major scratching his head, and believing this nonsense – he just lost it. He started chuckling with this belly laugh, where his whole body jiggled. That set off a chain reaction, and SSG X and myself (also on the verge of laughing) completely lost it!

I wish you could've seen how embarrassed they all were! A skinny little command sergeant major got so angry that he walked up to SPC Ackley (who was a 225 pound gorilla – but still tied up), flipped him over and put his combat boot on the back of Ackley’s neck! I remember him saying something like, "you think that's funny white boy?". Good training!

I also remember, when that little man turned around and saw the rest of us infantrymen glaring at him, he quickly -but uprightly- left the area. After "the show" was over, I think they just wanted to show how strong they were by keeping this there for a few more hours – dirty pool man. Soon, those guards that were trying so hard to keep us as prisoners – opened the gates, and just walked away leaving us there. "I guess that means we can go", I said.

After every mission, we have what's called an AAR (After Action Report). During this time there is no more role-playing. The leaders of the soldiers that we are training up assemble together with our platoon, and we go over every movement, observation, and make all sorts of prescriptive remarks. It only took about an hour. But, I remember the part that had everybody rocking was when Mabry and I reported on the activities from the night before. Honestly, it was so much fun as they called the soldiers in charge of those 50 caliber machine guns, and reamed them out! (The POGS were all so clueless!) Good training!

After everything was finished, and we were free to go, we walked back about 300 yards, over the area where Mabry and I crawled through just the night before (really cool feeling) – and the platoon disappeared into the wood line…

 WEAPONS MAINTENANCE  ... DOWN TIME ...

 

This mission was very special to me because there were many things I learned that changed the way I operated as a soldier but, there are many more noteworthy things from the Infantry that I could I write about (as I’m sure most veterans could) - Please give me feedback on this blog, even one word showing the topic about what you want me to write about (military, childhood, city, Trinity, sales, Jesus…you pick). FYI- I feel miserable today and have a military friend coming over for dinner (who will not let me cancel). GOOD TRAINING! Sixteen years later and I’m still training! Praise God! I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Christian II – Little man is sitting on my lap again, but today he’s miserable also. He’s still smiling and playing but he was screaming through the night with high blood sugar and moderate keytones. Simon (the service dog) definitely could have helped. Please pray for my son.

God bless you friend... :)

IT IS A "THUMBS DOWN" DAY ...

 

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Captured !!

Thank you for coming! If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know :-)

BigCarlsonFamily@gmail.com

Christian II – Today is Christian’s birthday! Hold your horses lol!  August 5^th is his real birthday, but in the diabetic world, today is considered his “other” special birthday. Two years ago, Christian was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. He was 1 year old! Please thank God with us! We made it through the most difficult and challenging age to have the disease. This doesn’t mean that it isn’t difficult and challenging now LOL ! It just means that this age group is viewed as being the most problematic because the child is so young.

This morning Christian is doing well, and this after a night of high blood sugar and high keytones. He’s’ sitting on my lap again as I write this blog (Actually as Ethan types this blog for me) and he is the coolest three year old ever! We snapped off a couple of pictures this morning that just made me smile. Hopefully they will make you smile as well.

 

Christian I - (This Army narrative began back in the FLASHBACK?? BLOG)…..As I mentioned last time, we were captured, and this was totally expected. It’s pretty standard to separate the officers from the enlisted men, but these POGS had some other strange, ridiculous way of separating all of us that I couldn’t understand (and neither could they when we had the review of their performance). Good training!

They lumped me together with Spc. (Specialist) Ackley. (Who was a rather large awesome individual who may end up reading this blog- so I better be nice or he’ll kick my butt – LOL) Another key individual in this story will remain nameless. We will call him Staff Sergeant (SSG) X. There were a smattering of other individuals with us, but for the most part they were just onlookers.

SSG. X and I were thrown into the holding area together. I could not stand SSG. X.  I trained with this man all week.  He was a good soldier and a good leader, but where he was leading I’m not sure! The most irritating thing about this man was an obvious speech impediment.

This combined with the fact that he was punchy, inexperienced, and my superior didn’t make things any easier. One particular thing I will never forget is what he would say during every mission when we would see a vehicle on a road somewhere. It sounded like, “Kaawsen…kept cha head dawn!”. Translated – “Carlson, keep your head down”.

I’m not playing! I was plagued with this man, and those words continue to show up even now in my dreams sometimes. But I was a very different man back then, and being the loving individual that I am now, I bear the old fellow no malice… LOL. GET OUT OF MY DREAMS! LOL

I gained a new appreciation for SSG X on that day. SSG X and I were tied up next to each other, but we were able to speak. Pay close attention to this account- It was awesome.

I hated this guy, right? Suddenly SSG X says, “Just play along,” and starts choking and moaning! “What’s going on with this guy?” I thought. SSG X motioned towards the POG guard and it was like ESP or something. I knew he was faking it! So I played along as best I could.

“His pills,” I shouted. “His pills! He needs his pills!” So over came several POGS trying to figure out what to do. After like ten minutes of playing this game and lying through my teeth, (Remember, for the purpose of training!) … this short skinny black man comes over… I had no idea of what to expect.

I found myself face to face with their CSM (Command Sergeant Major). This was one of the head honchos! Honestly, this man could of ended my military career and had me thrown in jail!  I would have never done this in the infantry world, but since this was a big show, might as well go all the way, right?

So for about half an hour SSG X was moaning and choking and I was putting on the best show in the world… trying to get them to let us go back to the woods to “get his pills”. “Don’t worry” I said, “we’ll come back” – Good training! LOL

I’ve got to end the blog here. Today was supposed to be the last day, but my son is telling me it is getting too long. So did they let us go back to the wood-line? I’ll tell you tomorrow. Today is our first day of homeschooling all the children – so if you have any conception of what it is like dealing with seven children, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how my day is going! LOL. This Dad-commander is having a great day bossing everyone around in his mobile throne!

God bless you friend... :)

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Capture the Flag

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Christian I – …As you recall, the clouds broke open and the sun shone forth very early in the morning and several black birds (Blackhawks) descended from the sky in all their glory (If you don’t know what’s going on, this is a narrative that began in the FLASHBACK?? blog from last week).

(These blogs are meant to keep you engaged in the lives of Christian I and my three year old son Christian II – who desperately need donations for service dogs!) We had landed, the wire that I cut was thrown aside and the non-infantry men (POGS) were caught completely by surprise. Understandably, a lot of hasty decisions were made at that time! For the record, I remained blameless of all accusations that were made at that time.

As usual, a little description is in order. This was a suicide training mission. There were nearly 20 of us against 5000 POGS. We knew that we would be captured and we would continue to train them up with our role being P.O.W.’s (this will be the final segment - completing the narrative which will be given tomorrow). Being captured was not a good thing at all. Of course, you feel like “You just lost the game”.

But, there’s another reason why I made sure I was never captured before (unless otherwise ordered). When the POGS capture you, it’s like Christmas for them or something. You see, Infantry men carry all sorts of special goodies that they don’t get to play with. When they capture us, they strip our sensitive items (expensive stuff) from us, and they take whatever else they want. Sometimes we get it back and sometimes we don’t.

Seriously, it would be pretty hard for them not to give a rifle back, but many of my boys have had all sorts of stuff taken from them and have never seen it again, especially for these OPFOR missions. We take all sorts of stuff with us, (Personally, I had a twelve inch serrated Bowie, Rambo style survival knife on my hip). Please keep this in mind.

So, as we were bounding forward, remember that most of the POGS were unprepared or in their underwear or something. So those little buzzers that go off when a person gets shot… were not going off! So my boys were yelling “You’re dead! You’re dead! Sit down!” and the POGS would yell back, “No I’m not. You didn’t shoot me!” You could feel the tension building. It was madness! Good training!

There was no respect for rank or for any other reason. People were getting beaten up, butt stroked (Knocked aside with a rifle)… and just mobbed on! BUT, I didn’t do anything wrong LOL. After 1LT Cardone and I grabbed their unit flag and captured their communications tent, we saw that there were about 100 POGGIES waiting outside for us. We very calmly and professionally relinquished our weapons.

The POGS then proceeded to strip us of our materials. One good thing about rolling with the platoon leader (who was Ranger qualified) is that this man had a way of “stopping traffic” and only relinquishing materials to other officers that were present- (If at all). Therefore, I gave my materials to a bright shiny "butter bar" (Second lieutenant) and I didn’t have to worry about anyone stealing my gear! Strangely enough, the Ding Dongs allowed my bowie knife to remain on my hip - big mistake.

We were captured and separated. How can you leave a story there? That’s right. I’m going to stop here, because this blog is getting too long. I think the next blog – the last segment of this narrative – is the best! But I can’t tell you about it until tomorrow. By the way, I’m feeling much better today. I didn’t make it to church yesterday (which is right next door). It was another “clock” day for those of you that are reading my blogs. Good training!  

Christian II – Today little Christian is recovering. He’s all right, but I think he has somewhat of a “hangover” LOL. I allowed the children to watch some movies last night, and Christian was so fired up that he was just on fire (jumping off on furniture, drinking too much milk, etc. ). Don’t tell anybody though! I wouldn’t want people at church knowing that the family pastor was raising his children up to be party animals! LOL Today is a very good day so far, and I hope the same for you my friend.

God bless you friend... :)

 

 I still have the knife from the above mission...good thing they left it on my hip! :)

 

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