HEADLINE: Training life brings change, challenge
By Ryan Seals

Tennessee Army National Guard

Greetings from Camp Shelby, Miss., where soldiers from Morristown and Monteagle's 190th Engineer Company are training for deployment in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

We arrived here on June 30 and immediately were ambushed. There were no shots fired, bombs detonated or biological weapons released, but the hostile heat of a southern Mississippi summer crept in to drive down morale and send dozens of troops to the post medical center.

Average temperatures here have been in the 90-degree range with high humidity levels.

Our company has been impacted significantly through either heat cramps or exhaustion. And once someone has one heat injury, the chances of having another double. Early on a few soldiers went down each day from not properly hydrating their bodies, thus leaving other members of their platoon to pick up the workload in their absence.

But the humidity is just one of the many challenges we are striving to overcome in this new environment where we are no longer weekend warriors, but full-time soldiers.

Restrooms are now latrines, dining rooms are mess halls and lunch is nothing more than a simple MRE -- a meal ready to eat.

A 9 to 5 schedule is now 4:30 a.m. to whenever the job is done for the day. Often that means working 2-hour-plus days, seven days a week. But training is adapted to weather conditions when we are given long breaks to cool off from the scorching sun.

That training mostly has consisted of refresher lessons on the tasks of a combat engineer. Our primary job is to obstruct, disable or alter enemy combatants. This includes laying minefields, building wire obstacles, using demolitions or becoming engaged in combat.

We spent a week in the field reviewing how to build wire obstacles and working to occupy a tactical assembly area. We also learned some new skills that will be very useful in Iraq, such as how to operate in a vehicle convoy and how to conduct patrols looking for improvised explosive devices.

The Army has hired Iraqis to serve as the civilians and enemies we encounter on our missions -- making training even more realistic.

We also have had to spend time getting reunited with the very weapons we trust to protect us. That included a week on the firing ranges shooting the M-16 assault rifle and various machine guns.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

Camp Shelby is one of the most unusual training facilities that I have been to in my three years in the Army. It has a lot of land for soldiers to use for training, but it lacks the basic necessities that should come with housing more than 8,000 troops.

It also lacks a large mall-like post exchange that you find on large Army bases. Here we only have a small three-room, poorly stocked store. The line at the checkout counter is stretched to the back of the store every night. Shelby also doesn't have the restaurant variety of larger posts. There are only two, and choices are limited to burgers and not much else.

We live in a typical 36-man, open-bay barracks, and it is very hard to get any privacy at all. The barracks are very hot, but the post is working to fix the problem by installing large air conditioning units in each building. It is taking weeks to get so many installed and working properly.

The shining light is the love and support I have received from my family and friends back home. It has been a true blessing to be able to talk to them on the phone daily and to receive numerous letters and packages.

It is scary to think we are training to head into a war zone, and it is hard to keep sanity when I think about the overall picture of our mission. But as many other soldiers will tell you, we are trying to take the challenge one day at a time. I find comfort in knowing each day that passes brings us one day closer to returning home.

E-mail Spc. Ryan Seals at news@timesfreepress.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: Spc. Ryan Seals is deployed with the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment's 190th Engineer Company. Today the Chattanooga Times Free Press offers his second monthly column.

From: Chattanooga Times Free Press Link

1. Unexpected deployment to Iraq was 'like a punch in the gut'

2. Back to Ryan's Experience Link

3. Training simulates Iraq combat Link