Day 11 at NTC

[aadler]

 

I got up at 6:00 AM, simply because that’s what we do any morning we don’t get up earlier. Set my ATL to his morning tasks, took care of mine, had breakfast, did a short bit of writing.

At 8:00 AM I showed up at BSTB TOC for the Plans meeting I was advised about last night. Actually, I was fifteen minutes early … and, as before, was told it had been set back twenty minutes and I should set up a desk and chair for myself while I waited. (More writing.) Abruptly I was informed that I had a mission, and was thrown in with the major of a chemical unit to do a convoy to one of the “villages” in the general vicinity of the FOB.

I got back to the tent and briefed by my team, and we started mission prep. Loaded the truck, studied the briefing sheets, packed a day’s worth of mobile meals (you never know), got ice into one of our water containers. When we got to the line where we were supposed to stage before SP, we were told departure had been put back two hours.

Actually, as I found out when I checked back at BSTB TOC, the mission had been canceled, and a new one (using most of the same people and going to much the same area) set in its place. That gave us time to chill a bit and have some lunch, while still remaining on the board for missions.

We returned to the staging line at 12:30, but with one thing and another, the convoy didn’t leave the gate until almost 2:00 in the afternoon. Then, when we reached our destination, it was the main post at Fort Irwin: there was no “mission” at all, just the chemical unit returning to the site of the previous day’s activities to conduct an AAR (after-action review).

Well, it got us out of the gate. Plus, once we discovered our location, the major running the convoy allowed us to make a fast run to the PX for items we hadn’t known we would need (towels, for instance) when we were told we’d only be out for a few days. After that, we simply waited at the gate where we’d come in, until the chemical unit returned from their review.

And then we had to wait for over another hour, because a truck they’d sent for supplies hadn’t got back yet. When we did start off again, we stuck to a paved road for most of the route (outbound, we’d followed dirt roads for almost the entire trip), and had to re-enter FOB King by a different gate because the regular gate was closed.

I went straight back to the tent to write up the day’s sitrep, which I delivered to my NCOIC. Then I headed for the chow hall, making it through the doors five minutes ahead of the 8:00 PM closing.

Once I’d eaten, I reported to BSTB TOC. Nothing was going on, but I waited to see if any meetings came up that should include me, and worked on “Queen’s Gambit” draft while I waited. Once I reached a stopping point, I counted and found that — working in various occasional opportune moments rather than in any major periods of sustained work — I’d turned out almost 1,100 words during the course of the day. Meaning I’ve done over 5,000 words in the last nine days, while maintaining a rather hectic schedule.

Yay, me.