Another Day at Fort Ding-a-Ling

Yes, I have to wear an Army uniform for this assignment. It says US NAVY on it, but is an Army Combat Uniform. Comfortable but we're not allowed to put our Seabee on it, our warfare devices, or our Staff Corps insignia.

En route to the FOB (Forward Operating Base) for church services. The services were cancelled for some reason but there were three of us still interested in going. We're inside an old HMMWV (Hum-V) riding out before dawn. That's Brother Brown (CAPT) next to me (on right), photo was taken by Brother Gonzalez (1Sgt). The other people were riding out for other services.

Sunrise in the FOB next to our chariot, and a kind Chaplain's assistant to drive us around!

This training pipeline makes no recognition of the Sabbath. We sat idle on Thursday and Friday waiting for something to do, but then had 8 hours of training on Sunday to conduct.
So we spent 8 hours learning how to treat for combat first aid. It focused on the 3 most preventable causes of death...bleeding out, compromised airway, and tension pneumothorax. It's where the space around your lungs fill up with air, usually caused by a sucking chest wound or an opening into the chest cavity. The treatment is to decompress the space by punching a small hole into your intercostal space...as seen on ER many times. It's scary to think that every Army guy is now running around with a 14 gauge needle just waiting to pop it into my lung!!! This training was useful but made everyone just knowledgeable enough to be dangerous.

Training goes on...

Today we had an hour long class called Leadership Decision Making Skills...I decided not to go! Sorry no pictures!

Here's a link to the Public Info about AL ASAD, or at least the general area. It is a sanitized, public affairs page, so it will be all the good stuff we're doing. I'll try to keep you posted on the things that are interesting.

http://www.mnfwest.usmc.mil/MNF/mnfw_public.nsf/unitSites/3dmawfwd