Day 7. Marine Week.

02 JUNE 2012
1832

Once again the female 3rd platoon was the first ones in formation after 0500 revile. Breakfast was good, it was french toast this morning! I ate really well because I knew the rest of the day would consist of nothing but MRE's.

We had a couple classes reviewing how the Navy and Marines work as a team, how to pitch a tent, and general first aid before heading out to the field. Our packs were heavy, at least around 40-45 pounds, but fortunately, we didn't have to carry them long. We took the 7 tons out to the field, about a 45 minute ride away from the squad bay, wearing our kevlars and flack jackets. This day ended up being my FAVORITE day because it was so unique and fun. Once at the field, we were split into squads of 12, and within our squads, fire teams of 4. We were assigned a 2 Corporals and 1 Lance Corporal. Literally, coolest guys ever. They too just got back from Afghanistan 2 months ago.

Spending the day in the field is unlike anything else I've done before. It's constantly being on your feet and ready to move in the direct sunlight. It's no bathrooms, only port-a-potties. No washing your hands, or your face, or showering, or brushing your teeth. It's only MRE's and water. It's taking your gun with you EVERYWHERE and keeping it within an arm's reach distance at all times.

Unfortunately, we arrived a couple hours behind schedule, so we missed a few classes that would have cleared up a lot once we got to the simulator. For example, how to clear a room, take a building, stuff like that. So instead, we started out doing the "last 100 yards" where we rushed with our buddies and learned the proper techniques of throwing a grenade. Then we went into the Afghanistan village.

This Afghanistan village BLEW MY MIND. The place is relatively large and incredibly real life. I don't want this to sound naive, but from the few times I've played Call of Duty, I couldn't help but feel like instead of being behind the tv with a controller, I was suddenly in the game with my gun. The village is used for Marines who are in their pre-deployment training. It was built to imitate exactly what an average Afghan village looks like. The buildings were bland with blown up vehicles in the dusty dirt roads. It included a bazaar/market place with shops such as meats, pots and pans, cell phones, flowers, chairs, etc. On the side of one building there was a giant painted picture in tribute to their country, taliban posters posted on the walls and fences and even an Afghan flag flying from the top of the tallest building. There was a cemetery, alley ways, gardens, everything you see in a village in Afghanistan. I was mentally taking pictures of it that I wish I could share with you. We walked through and did an outside simulator where two of the Marines that were working with us shot as us. This is when we were taught in a nutshell, how to take a building and capture the bad guy. The only bad thing about being inside the compound is that we are required to wear paintball looking masks in order to protect us from the cussoms. Cussoms are fake bullets that have a head of soap paint in them. Hurts to get shot with one! and makes it very obvious that you've been hit thanks to the neon blue and pink paint.

After the outside simulator we were given time to eat lunch, before having a simulated real life meeting with an Afghan village elder. We were given a short lesson on customs and courtesies, (never show the bottom of your shoe/foot to an Afghani, as it's equal to flipping them off) before entering his home. We sat on his rug indian style where we had a talk. He told us about his village, it's problems and we made small talk regarding the school system and education and water problems. Then we got down to business discussing the Taliban and if they're in his village and where.

The elder that we talked to, along with the Afghans in the indoor simulator are hired American Afghan actors. By contract, they are not aloud to come out of character. It was so life like, the whole situation, that it was hard to believe that he spoke English and that he was a real American. However, it gave us an idea of what the Marines do and how the treat the elder with respect in order to hopefully gain some knowledge (if he knows any) about the Taliban. The Marines also explained how they befriend the locals in hopes to gain information. They explained that normally and the majority of the people are friendly and want to talk to the Americans, but on the day the regular nice shop keeper suddenly can't talk to them anymore, something is up. We also asked about children. Our corporals explained that normally, the children are constantly at their feet begging for candy. Which is a good thing because that means that the Americans are befriending the Afghans common people, we want them on our side, we don't want them to be swayed into the Taliban's side. Plus, when children are around, no Taliban bad guy is going to strike because they don't want the potential Taliban recruits to think they'd ever hurt their children. On the days where the children aren't around, this is also a warning that something is up. I wish I could explain it as well as the Marines did to me, but I'll never be able to give that good of an explanation without experiencing it myself.

We had some downtime to spend with our team leaders (the assigned Marines to our squad). My fire teams guy, Corp Vanbemden was super chill. Full of knowledge but really down to earth. He taught us how they normally search a building for IED's and other information. He said he's found some crazy amount of IED's, but is still lucky enough to be alive.

Before the indoor simulator, the Colonel wanted to talk to us. He gave us a motivational speech regarding the MAGTAF again and talked about the logistics side of it. He used the ice cold water in Afghanistan as an example how logistics must play into making this happen. Then he surprised us with Gatorade. I have never been so happy to see Gatorade in my life. I'd been drinking water for the past 72 hours so something with flavor on my tongue was heaven.

The indoor simulator was next and not going to lie, I was nervous. It's also an exact replica to an Afghan village, but this time we had a scenario and an objective. The Taliban was in this village recruiting young teenage boys to work for them and it was our job to go in and eliminate the bad guys. I don't want to give too much away, as I would hate to ruin the fun for any future MIDN to do this simulator. So in summary, we went in fully geared and dealt with an RPG explosion, and snipers and live fire in the market place. I got to shoot a full magazine and half of my second one! I might have even killed the sniper myself. I like to think I was the one, since I was directly shooting at him, but there's kind of no telling who it really was...
We dead checked a few guys and I even got shot in the thigh. For instructional purposes only, I was deemed not fatal so I got to keep going. Once I actually got to see my "wound" the next morning, I have two bruises the size of a dime on my right thigh. They're kind of awesome and I've been showing them off. Even though if in real life I would have got shot there, I would be done and it wouldn't be cool. The cussoms didn't really hurt, more of a instantaneous ouch! and shock because of the thought "OMG I'VE BEEN SHOT!" Other than that, we had one KIA (killed in action) but that's it. The indoor simulator went by too fast and I was disappointed there wasn't more bad guys to shoot. Because the simulator is indoors, there were videocameras taping us. We had a debrief afterwards that went over what we did right and our mistakes.

My squad was actually the last ones to go through the simulator, so when we were finished, we met up with the rest of the company, cleaned our guns and policed the grounds for trash. It was getting dark, like not sun setting, but to the point of there was no light left and we still had to pitch our tents. Colleen and I made our tent together and deemed ourselves the tent champions because we were the first ones to have our tent pitched and ready to go. We were even faster than half the guys. We are quite impressive I must say.

The females in 3rd platoon were assigned fire watch that night and we had the 0000-0100 shift. Colleen and I mindlessly walked through the long rows of tents, listening to the boys snore. Wasn't a bad shift though and we knew in the morning, Marine week was over.