Day 10 at NTC

[aadler]

 

Up at 6:00, got basic morning tasks out of the way while my ATL prepped our vehicle and turned in the report for that. The expectation of crowd control issues is no longer as guaranteed now as it purported to be yesterday, but we’re still ready. Meanwhile, we’re supposed to perform support functions when the (notional) provincial governor visits today, so — following breakfast — my ATL and I prepped and tested the equipment, finding everything in proper operating order.

The prospect of my NCOIC and officers moving elsewhere is also beginning to look like an idea that was floated hopefully but now appears unlikely. I’m fine with that. Operating independently would have been good training, but I can also learn a lot with close support available to explain things.

Yesterday I learned the cell-phone ban had been lifted (except inside the TOC), but my own phone is all but drained of power and the charger packed away in locked gear out in the storage yard back at the main post. My ATL let me borrow his phone to try and call Susan, but her number rang five times and then went to voice mail. I’ll make another attempt later.

*           *          *

Another day with lots of motion but not much accomplished. As of today, my team is no longer working directly for the brigade, but has been attached to a battalion (BSTB) at this same FOB. However, we were still holding ready to provide music for the visit of the Iraqi “governor”.

The music part was eventually canceled, but we still played a support role in receiving the governor. Which role (waiting, doing, finishing the follow-up) kept us occupied until time for evening chow. I had my supper, tried to report to the S-3 (personnel officer) for BSTB, learned that he was elsewhere, wrote and turned in a sitrep to my NCOIC, and returned to BSTB TOC (as distinct from brigade TOC, which is the one I’ve dealt with till now) to try again for the S-3.

He still wasn’t there, and I waited for a considerable time before I was finally referred to another officer: a major (I could see that much, but his name tape was obscured by the MILES harness) who I later learned was the battalion executive officer (XO). I was fortunate in that he understood something of how my MOS operates and what it has to offer and how it’s best utilized, and further in that he has the resources and inclination to get us outside the wire on a regular basis. He took me over to a laptop, told me there would be a TOC meeting at 10:00 PM, and left me to read the original warning order for this operation (the preliminary plan in advance for what they think the overall mission will be) plus the battle plan revised since our arrival.

Folks, this stuff is way above my head. I’ll have to run like crazy just to try to keep up.

On my last try, I was able to reach Susan by borrowed cell phone. It was not a happy conversation. According to her latest visit with her doctor, her overall health has improved (predictably, most of the problems she’s been having were side effects of the prednisone), but her mood has plummeted. Among other things, one of her dogs ran away today: not the ugly, stupid, treacherous one who’ll sneak around to pee on our carpets, but the frantic, uncontrollable one who pees more often and more copiously. (Also on our carpets.) I can’t be sad about one less dispenser of canine urine, but I can’t be happy about Susan’s distress. Both of us are worried about how she’ll handle my being gone for a year, and the trouble she’s had in facing an absence of a few weeks is not an encouraging harbinger.

I showed up at the 10:00 meeting fifteen minutes early. By a quarter after, I got the word that it had been moved to 10:30. It didn’t actually begin till 11:00, meaning I had waited for over an hour. The meeting itself took another hour, during which nobody spoke to me or paid me the least attention.

Okay. So I’ll need to make my own place at battalion.

Meanwhile, that meant past midnight for bedtime.

In the hour before the meeting, I managed to turn out a page of “Queen’s Gambit”. Not much over 300 words, but it’s something.