Mindless Musings Vol. I Issue III

Apologies, everyone, I’m a little behind on this update. I can’t make any excuses; it’s the usual combination of busy and lazy on my part.

I’m now publishing my weekly(ish) updates here, rather than sending them out via email. It just seems like a more logical format.

Last week, we finished our fake Kosovo rotation. The OC-Ts (Observer Controller Trainers) took some geographical liberties with the time-space continuum. For example, one of our patrols wandered over the border from pretend-Kosovo into pretend-Iraq, where they ran into a contingent of Taliban fighters. I was under the impression that the Taliban were primarily active in certain Central Asian countries, but what do I know — I’ve only been to that region twice. Of course, I didn’t realize that Kosovo was adjacent to Iraq, either… (Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t looked at a map lately: it’s not.)

I was able to bring some of my eons-old medical training into play to help the medics with something, and get some photos along the way. I’m what they like to call a “jack of all trades but not really good at anything.”

Things I learned (and continually ignored):

• Don’t argue with the OC-T. Even if you’re right, and quoting directly out of the doctrine he claims to be using.

Despite the anachronisms, it was a productive week. We got some of our SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and TTPs (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures) ironed out, and learned lots of new acronyms. The Army loves acronyms. On a more practical level, I met a lot of my counterparts at upper echelons. Most importantly, I’m going to have a great working relationship with the Brigade Public Affairs Officer, which will open up some doors for additional photography/journalism training and travel. One unfortunate side effect of my public affairs responsibility is that I’m now obligated to maintain a Facebook account, so I can manage the unit page.

Don’t bother looking me up on there; I have zero friends. It’s exclusively for work. I continue to maintain my posture on social media; it’s garbage, and Zuckerberg is quite possibly the most insidious human being of our all time.

This past weekend, we got a 48-hour pass, with authorization to drink alcohol and, for E-6 and above, rent cars. Surprisingly, only one person went to jail. My prediction was 3-5. Regardless, we’re unlikely to get any more passes.

(You know what they say about assumptions…I’m usually right.)

Rather than getting into a drunk bar fight, going to jail, and getting kicked off the deployment, I went on a guided bouldering trip at Hueco Tanks (an apparent Mecca of the bouldering community, and important archaeological site) with some like-minded outdoors enthusiasts. I’ll be writing a separate trip report for that. For now, I’ll say it was awesome, and I didn’t get bit by any stupid snakes.

We’ll be embarking on the next leg of our trip and heading over to Europe (actual Europe, not pretend Europe) sometime in the next week or so. I’m ready to get there and get back to work. Downtime is cool, but I get bored fast.

Now that you’ve taken the time to read this far, I have questions for you. Comments are preferable, but if you’re not comfortable with that, email is also acceptable:

• What else do you want to see here? What questions do I leave you with? Keep in Mind that I keep some things intentionally vague, due to OPSEC (Operational Security — another fun acronym!) considerations.

• Any suggestions for other directions I should be taking the blog? Other things to write about? At this point, I’m just trying to share experiences and get better at writing for an audience. As Kaija pointed out, the only way to get better at writing is…writing.
• How do you feel about the blog format vs. email? Better, worser, or indifferent?

One more thing; if any of you are Neil Gaiman fans, the new Amazon series Good Omens (based on a book of the same name) is well done and worth watching. If you’re not a Neil Gaiman fan, you should consider becoming one. I should really get an Amazon affiliate account and link to it from here, but first I need more than three consistent readers.

Until next time — go to the gym, read lots of books, and be safe. I’ll do the same.