Friday, April 10, 2009

Movement to Camp Funston


Yesterday we drew our assigned personal weapons. The 9mm pistol has not changed much, but the M-4 is new to me. I always envisioned the M-4 carbine as cool gear that the special operations folks used. Not these days. Even a humble physician has this as his weapon. It has all the bells whistles, scopes, laser attachements, none of which I know how to work. Of course I do take solace that there are only a few of us left who can use iron sights. Each person also has a pair of Night vision goggles. Years ago you only got one substandard pair per platoon.

Our movement onto Funston from Custer Hill proves once again and "Cluster" can be a verb. Our Navy teams are spread over 6 different 40 man common rooms. My bunkmate and I are the only two Navy in a field of our sky blue Air Force brethren.


Camp Funston is a large level area with a conglomeration of barracks, prefab buildings and an extensive industrial area on Ft Riley. There is a monument nearby for the 50,000 doughboys who trained here for WWI. Almost 90 years later is our home for the next two months as we learn the basics of being military advisors

Our first classes today were cultural awareness, relationships with your Afghan counterpart and Interpreter. I will need to work extensively on my Dari.
The picture is a view from the second deck barracks common area with the aforementioned monument in the distance. We will drive and use the HMMVS for training.

2 comments:

  1. Great posts! Now YOU should be able to school all of your fellow IAs in vehicle ops. Also, you're going to love the M4. Think back to the good old days at Flatwoods...

    jpp 89

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  2. You know, I got my son a single-shot, bolt action .22 when he turned 9 (almost 2 years ago). I told him that he can get a scope when he gets good with the iron sights on it...

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