Category Archives: Deployments

Preparing for Deployment

(I started this entry on June 19. My computer died that day. It’s taken a month to get a new computer and get back to it. Thank you Bruce and Carol for the computer!!! Much appreciated. Instead of adding to this post all the stuff in between then and now, I will simply finish this one the way I was going to and do a new entry later this week. Enjoy)

It’s been a while since I posted to the blog. I started the blog to fill some time when I had to quit school to prepare for deployment with my reserve unit. I had thought that not going to school would give me too much time on my hands and I wanted something to fill that time. However, since March I have been going non-stop with training, drills, army schools, travel, and just getting ready in general. The time has finally arrived. Our mobilization orders have gone into effect. We have moved to Ft. Hood. We will now finish our training and be deployed in the near future.

As we had our farewell/mobilization ceremony at the unit over the past weekend, a lot of things come to mind for this deployment. First and foremost, I’m so happy my family could join me for the weekend. They were not able to be at the last ceremony I was part of for a deployment. And my younger children were too small to fully comprehend it last time anyway. This time they were there, watched the ceremony, listened to the speakers, and understood what was going on.

The second thing I thought of was how easy I’ll have it compared to my wife. I have long thought this, and it was spoken about by one of the generals at the ceremony, that the spouse of the deployed soldier has the harder job. When I deploy, I’ll be told where to be, when to be there, where to sleep, what to eat, etc. I will have little to worry about most things. My wife on the other hand will now be the mom and the dad; the good guy and the bad guy; the referee, the comforter, the judge and jury. And not that I did a ton of housework, she’ll have to pick up my slack now. Thankfully, we have some awesome children that I know will step up and make things happen. My wife and my kids are my heroes for allowing me to do what I do.

As I look around at my fellow soldiers in my unit I consider them family. There has always been a special bond between people in the military. That bond is multiplied greatly and even more present when a group comes together to go to war. It’s a special feeling to be part of a group like this. And this is a special group to be part of.

Lastly, as far as the blog goes, I’ll finish with this thought. During the ceremony we did the Soldier’s Creed. Within the Soldier’s Creed is the Warrior Ethos, four short lines of the Creed. When doing the Soldier’s Creed in a large group I actually tear up a little. It’s very moving. Even though you can’t get the full effect of 200+ soldiers belting it out, here’s the Soldier’s Creed with the Warrior Ethos in bold:

I am an American Soldier.

I am a warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.

I am an expert and I am a professional.

I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.

I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of Life.

I am an American Soldier.

HOOAH!! Good day and God bless.

Dave

Don’t Panic. It Might Only Be a Drill.

Sometimes things happen and we get flustered. Your heart starts to race, you become unsure of what you need to do next, and sometimes your motor skills fail you. But try not to panic. That never helps.

When I deployed to Iraq, we first stopped in Kuwait. The process was to go to Kuwait for about ten days, get acclimated to the heat, finish up any last-minute training and admin stuff, and get transportation to where we would be doing our jobs. This time was also used for units to practice drills. The siren would blare followed by a voice stating that it was a drill. The voice would indicate which unit was to respond and everyone else would go about their business. Keep in mind we did not receive live rounds until it was time to move north. Only the security forces had live rounds at the transition base. One day at lunch the siren blared followed by a voice: “THIS IS NOT A DRILL. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” It was like kicking an ant pile watching some of the people leaving the dining facility. As I looked around, picked up my lunch tray, started to stand, a young soldier at my table got wide-eyed. I could hear it in her voice when she asked, “Oh my God, what do we do?” I simply answered, “I’m going to hide in the bunker, they didn’t give me any bullets yet.” I stayed calm and it had a calming effect on others.

Sometime after moving into Iraq and settling in at our base, I was pulling a shift at the Community House, a place for Service Members and civilians at the base to hang out, watch movies, read, or do whatever they wanted to do to relax. We had a camcorder set up for people to make videos to send home, most would read a book to their kids and send the DVD to them. At this base, every week, at the same time, they would test the sirens and alarms. If you were new to the base and not paying attention to the voice that followed the alarm, you might find yourself in a state of panic. On this day, there was a guy new to the base sitting in the back room making a video for his kids when the test sirens sounded. I was sitting at the desk out front paying no attention to the test and had even forgotten the guy was back there. He comes flying out of the room, falling all over himself coming around the corner, flailing his weapon, freaking out. “What do we do, where do we go? I gotta go get my helmet and vest!” I couldn’t help but laugh out loud a little. I assured him it was a normal test of the system. I wish I could have seen that video he was making, what his face looked like when the alarm sounded.

It’s easy to panic when something happens that you have no control over. It’s normal to be scared in situations that you think are potentially life threatening; either your life or others. But stay calm. Don’t panic. Be the person that helps someone else get out of the panic. Your attitude and responses to stress can be what makes a difference for the better or makes a situation worse. This lesson goes for most things in life, not just going to war.

Good day and God bless.

Dave