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Had a rather long weekend.
Hopped on the bus to Irwin Friday evening, we got there at about 3am. The advance party had done relatively well, all the vehicles were lined up, all we needed to do was sign for our individual weapons and ammo.
We also picked up a few attachments from other units who were assigned to us. One of these attachments was a medic, E-4 type. He got assigned to one of the recon platoons, and was told he was riding in a Hummer.
He took objection to this. Irwin Hummers are kindof short on creature comforts such as 'roof' or 'door', and given the weather in winter, it's not the cosiest of rides. He'd prefer the M113 ambulance, please.
Well, no. He's going with the platoon. So he gripes a bit, throws his gear in the back of the truck, complaining.
About 0330, it's time for the platoon to move out, but they can't find the medic. After a few minutes, we dispatch the platoon anyway, we'll just bring him along with the main body.
Eventually, however, we figure out that we can't find him in the main body either. This becomes an issue. We can't leave with a man missing. Cue a large search of the immediate area, including in or under various vehicles. We realise that nobody has seen him since he threw his gear in the truck in a huff. At this point, we're starting to think that it's not simple a case of 'we can't find him', but of 'he doesn't want to be found'. We continue looking, as time ticks on. Note that we have a full day's training ahead of us, the idea was to drive out, get to where we were going, catch a nap, and then start training. The longer we wait, the less sleep we're going to get.
All work stops. We get everyone out of the vehicles and in one place. He's not around. We call up to the platoon which left some time ago, they all get our of their vehicles and stand in one place. He's not around. It's now about 6am.
At this point, nothing for it but to report him AWOL. Call the Sergeant-Major, the Squadron Commander (Who's been staying up until we get going) now knows, and so people start getting dispatched to search the base. We have no idea what he could be thinking: Irwin is in the middle of the desert 30 miles from civilisation, he's not going anywhere.
Shortly afterwards, I get a call from the platoon in the box.
"Guess what, sir?"
"Where was he?"
"In the truck"
Apparently, he decided he didn't want to play, got in the back of a HMMWV, into a sleeping bag, and went to sleep (While everyone else was still prepping to move) Oh, and to ensure he wasn't disturbed, he covered himself with everyone else's bags. He then, somehow, managed to stay asleep as the HMMWV careened cross-country for 45 minutes and didn't hear people calling for him. (Yeah, right). He was only discovered when the platoon sergeant stood on him.
In the meantime, we finally set off, but our sleep time is now down to 'zero'. We set off on our day's training, but by the time we hit 19:00, the troops are utterly burned out. Including the 90 minutes of travel time to march the vehicles back to the yard, it's just too dangerous to keep the troops out any longer. As a result, our mandatory night training simply didn't happen, for the entire fricking 65-man (on the ground) troop. All because some E-4 sulked.
The only consolation is that within 12 hours, he was busted down to Private.
NTM
Hopped on the bus to Irwin Friday evening, we got there at about 3am. The advance party had done relatively well, all the vehicles were lined up, all we needed to do was sign for our individual weapons and ammo.
We also picked up a few attachments from other units who were assigned to us. One of these attachments was a medic, E-4 type. He got assigned to one of the recon platoons, and was told he was riding in a Hummer.
He took objection to this. Irwin Hummers are kindof short on creature comforts such as 'roof' or 'door', and given the weather in winter, it's not the cosiest of rides. He'd prefer the M113 ambulance, please.
Well, no. He's going with the platoon. So he gripes a bit, throws his gear in the back of the truck, complaining.
About 0330, it's time for the platoon to move out, but they can't find the medic. After a few minutes, we dispatch the platoon anyway, we'll just bring him along with the main body.
Eventually, however, we figure out that we can't find him in the main body either. This becomes an issue. We can't leave with a man missing. Cue a large search of the immediate area, including in or under various vehicles. We realise that nobody has seen him since he threw his gear in the truck in a huff. At this point, we're starting to think that it's not simple a case of 'we can't find him', but of 'he doesn't want to be found'. We continue looking, as time ticks on. Note that we have a full day's training ahead of us, the idea was to drive out, get to where we were going, catch a nap, and then start training. The longer we wait, the less sleep we're going to get.
All work stops. We get everyone out of the vehicles and in one place. He's not around. We call up to the platoon which left some time ago, they all get our of their vehicles and stand in one place. He's not around. It's now about 6am.
At this point, nothing for it but to report him AWOL. Call the Sergeant-Major, the Squadron Commander (Who's been staying up until we get going) now knows, and so people start getting dispatched to search the base. We have no idea what he could be thinking: Irwin is in the middle of the desert 30 miles from civilisation, he's not going anywhere.
Shortly afterwards, I get a call from the platoon in the box.
"Guess what, sir?"
"Where was he?"
"In the truck"
Apparently, he decided he didn't want to play, got in the back of a HMMWV, into a sleeping bag, and went to sleep (While everyone else was still prepping to move) Oh, and to ensure he wasn't disturbed, he covered himself with everyone else's bags. He then, somehow, managed to stay asleep as the HMMWV careened cross-country for 45 minutes and didn't hear people calling for him. (Yeah, right). He was only discovered when the platoon sergeant stood on him.
In the meantime, we finally set off, but our sleep time is now down to 'zero'. We set off on our day's training, but by the time we hit 19:00, the troops are utterly burned out. Including the 90 minutes of travel time to march the vehicles back to the yard, it's just too dangerous to keep the troops out any longer. As a result, our mandatory night training simply didn't happen, for the entire fricking 65-man (on the ground) troop. All because some E-4 sulked.
The only consolation is that within 12 hours, he was busted down to Private.
NTM
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