Post Ft Jackson and Arrival in Djibouti

I completed the training at Fort Jackson on the 13^th of October and left the following day on a bus back to Norfolk with 18 other Navy personnel from that training class.  The ‘rotator’ that flies to Djibouti would not be available again until the 27^th, so we were placed on liberty for that entire time.  While I was back I was able to go to SUPSHIP NN hail and farewell for the new CO, attend a neighborhood party, go to Busch Garden’s Howl-o-Scream with my mother, and most importantly spend time with my wife before I left.  

In the late afternoon of the 27^th, I boarded a charter Omni Air 767 bound for Djibouti, but with three stops in between.  The first stop was in Rota, Spain which was only supposed to be 2 hours long, but due to the rioting and strikes in France, our flight path was not approved and a new one had to be developed.  During this planning, we exceeded out max one hour inside the plane on the tarmac rule and we were all told to deplane for 10 minutes and then reboard the plane.  This grew to a 1.5 hour extra wait.  

The second stop was in Sigonella, Italy, which ended up in only about an hour and a half on the ground.  Then the plane flew to Bahrain, fortunately by this point the vast majority of people had left the plane and almost everyone had a row to themself.  After about a three hour wait there, we were again airborn for Djibouti.  This final flight was the shortest at just about 2.5 hours.  

One stunning feature of the middle east was the amount of light coming from the ground.  Our plane had maps of the area we were flying over with a GPS location overlay, allowing us to see where we were on our route and what was on the ground around us.  As we traveled over Yemen, the ground glowed bright orange with all the buildings below.  We crossed the water to Djibouti and there was nothing, no light, no towns, nothing.  I had to check the map to ensure we were over land and over towns, which we were per the map.  We then came within sight of Djibouti city proper and they were the only lights to be seen.  

Once we cleared customs, we were bused from the airport to the base and were taken into a warehouse for the initial inbrief and billeting assignments.  Our sponsors met us with trucks to use to transport our seabags to our CLUs and then take us on a tour of the base to understand where everything was.  I had been talking to my sponsor over email for the last three months, so it was good to finally put a face to the person.  

I will post more about my CLU once I can clean it up and get some pictures of it.

The first full week of training at Camp McCrady was exciting and intense.  Most morning would go from 0500 until 1800+ (as late as 2045).  The information in extremely relevant and important for those individuals going to Afghanistan and Iraq, but not as pertinent for us going to Djibouti since it is not as much of a combat zone.  This week really focused on our firearms, most days spent at the range becoming familiar with the M-9 pistol and M-16 rifle. 

One of the days we spent learning about convoy operations and the down and dirty information about the HUMVEE.

That day also included lessons about HUMVEE rollover, which is a serious and fairly frequent occurrence in country.  This rollover is made even more difficult considering the body armor you are wearing and the gear rolling around with you inside the HUMVEE.  The exit from the overturned vehicle is extremely graceful, with some people flopping out of the door like an overturned turtle.

 

Saturday morning was spent on a range where a computer is able to give you feedback on how you are shooting.  Shots include both a fellow officer going to Djibouti and me shooting on this range.

Saturday  evening was the Navy Ball.  Wenonah drove down that morning and met me after I finished on the range.  Good old NARMY scheduling gave me just over an hour to drive to the hotel, shower, change and get down for the Ball.  The night was fun, especially since the CAPT gave up permission to drink that night, and me and a group of officers upheld the fine Navy tradition.

The fun begins...

Early Saturday morning all the service members loaded onto three coach buses and began the long trip down to FT Jackson.  Mid afternoon we arrived and began the basic in-processing and were told the schedule for the next couple of days.  We were assigned barracks, so all O-1 to O-5 males are in an open bay barracks, as seen in the pictures.  The guys on my neighboring racks and I have become friends, so its going pretty well.  One of the guys is also bound for Djibouti to be a physician at the clinic there. 

Last night was our last night of drinking for the next 19 days, so the club was packed.  This class is nearly 300 in size, and everyone wanted to get their last beers/drinks.  Everyone partied hard, so I was one of only a handful in my barracks to be up for some breakfast.  During my morning run, I found a couple of obstacle courses, the repelling wall, and other confidence courses in the surrounding forests, so I hope we get to go train on them. 

This is a picture of my neighbors.

I will post more updates while I am here as allowed.  I am not sure about their rules about camera around the post, but I will try to get some pictures of the ranges. 

Goodbye to much of my family and friends

On Saturday, 11 September, my mother hosted a welcome home to Virginia party that many of my family and friends were able to attend.  The party was catered by my favorite BBQ restaurant, Andy Nelsons, serving pulled pork and BBQ'd chicken.  At this party many people found out about my deployment to Djibouti and wished me farewell and the best of luck while over there.  My nephew, Matt, made a poster board about Djibouti with maps and fun facts about the country.  I would like to thank my mother for putting this party together and hope that everyone enjoyed the food and drink. 

I would like to thank everyone for their very gracious gifts to Wenonah and me.  The wine and spirits will especially come in handy both before and after this deployment.  We hope to have a bottle a night at dinner until I deploy. 

I enjoyed this long weekend spending time with my mother, brother, close friends, and in-laws before leaving.  Now its time to start making piles and  packing everything I will need over in Africa.

Creation of the Blog

This blog is intended to keep my friends and family in touch with both me and Wenonah while I am serving an Individual Augmentee (IA) tour in Djibouti, Africa. This IA will be approximately 14 months long, beginning in September of 2010. My first stop will be in FT Jackson, SC for 4 weeks of combat training. I will then leave, with no real idea where I will go; either straight to Djibouti or possibly to Kuwait.


I will utilize this blog to post updates on what I am doing, as well as post pictures and possibly links to videos. All information will be slightly delayed and lacking much detail to meet OPSEC requirements.