Robin had drill Saturday and Sunday. Her unit, Army Reserve Element (ARE) Detachment 2 would leave Fort Sheridan for Fort McCoy mid-day Sunday. I rode the motorcycle separately and arrived at Fort McCoy shortly before her bus. I followed the bus to the barracks and took this picture before anyone got off.

Finally. After working all week and then working all weekend and then a long bus ride, these soldiers must be tired. I figured that, after we got settled into the barracks, we would find some dinner and then rest.

I was right about the dinner at least, but the day was far from over. When we emerged from the barracks, the highway bus had gone and was replaced by a yellow school bus. ARE 3, ARE 5 and ARE HQ were here too, but they came from other states and had arranged their own transportation. ARE 2 used the two busses.

The school bus took us to the cafeteria that was as nice as could be found on any college campus. The facility was bright and clean. I would look forward to the food all week.

The school bus moved us to Building 905 that would be our base for the week. It is a building of large rooms and exposed roof trusses. The first business we would address was our battle rattle.

We sat in the vast central room and were taken five-at-a-time into an adjoining room. There, each soldier was issued a canteen, Kevlar (which is what they call the helmet) and body armor. Those last two were available in various sizes and the last one consisted of a bulky, cumbersome vest supplemented with neck, throat and groin protectors that would have weighed more than 26 pounds if the four ceramic plates had been inserted in its pockets around the chest.

SSG Flythe issued the one-size-fits-all canteens to each soldier as he enters the room. Shown below, SGM Robinson receives his issue. The SSG is not in the photo because he issued the canteen from across the room.

So I positioned myself better to get both passer and receiver in my field of view. The next five were headed by LTC Coates, however. So here is a photo of SSG Flythe politely handing her a canteen.

After the gear was stowed on the school bus, we returned to the central room were LTC Coates began the briefing on Operation Warrior Ethos. We were each given a credit-card sized lamination. On one side was printed the Seven Army Values, with which Robin had acquainted me years ago. On the other side was printed the 13-line Soldiers’ Creed of which lines 4, 5, 6 and 7 constitute the Warrior Ethos:

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

Appropriate to their work, Robin’s unit has a lot of rank and maturity. Accordingly, the LTC did not belabor the meaning of those words. Everyone in the room, except probably me, understood and accepted the full weight of those four commandments.

Then MAJ Harbaugh and MAJ Snider continued the briefing. It seems that we learned at 1400 on Wednesday, 4 days earlier, that the 420^th Engineer Brigade required facilities that had been planned of us. These 2600 reservists were being mobilized. “On this base, mobe trumps everything.”

I had moved to the front of the room and was looking out at the assembled soldiers when MAJ Harbaugh said those words. I saw most heads quietly nod. They knew what those engineers were doing, and what they would soon be doing.

We then went upstairs to another wonderful room.

Presentations were displayed on four screens. We all sat. Without any preliminaries, a video was played. “Welcome to Kuwait.”

It was instruction on how to pass through the processing centers in Kuwait as soldiers move on into Iraq. Maybe a younger outfit would be spooked by the possibility that they were all about to be deployed, but this group knew that was not what it was about.

The main message that I go from it was to enter the processing center with no less than five copies of your orders. Soldiers of the 420^th had been working at their civilian jobs in Texas and nearby states. Then they were notified that they were going to war. They reported to their regular drill locations. They were transported to Fort McCoy. They will receive additional special training and then they will be transported to Kuwait where each soldier will need five copies of his orders. Then they will move into Iraq.

When it was over, MSG Pecoraro explained that it was a reminder of what we are all about.

He then went on to discuss the materials that had been placed on our desks.

A soldier with a good army map, a good army compass and a view of the surrounding terrain should know exactly where he is and exactly how to move to reach any other point on the map. (He should also know that to convert a magnetic azimuth to a grid azimuth he must add the G-M angle.) A written test was used to confirm their understanding.

“What is the eight-digit grid of the church located in EG0703?”

“What is the terrain feature located at grid EG11807885?”

“What is the magnetic azimuth from the water tower in grid square EG1088 to the Church of God in grid square EG0385?”

“What is the straight line distance, in meters, from the water tower in grid square EG0985 to the mine in grid square EG1582?”

“What is the road distance in meters from the intersection in grid square EG1884 to the intersection in grid square EG1586?”

“What feature is located on a magnetic azimuth of 5 degrees from the southern water tower in grid square EG0982 and a magnetic azimuth of 314 degrees from the spot elevation 155 in grid square EG1479?”

“What object is located on a magnetic azimuth of 21.5 degrees from benchmark 66 in grid square EG0795 and a magnetic azimuth of 51 degrees from benchmark 60 in grid square EG0798?”

“You are on hill 83 in grid EG0591. Your recon team is located at EG06319265 when you both see an enemy patrol. You shoot an azimuth of 59 degrees and your recon team shoots an azimuth of 106.5 degrees. What is the eight digit grid coordinates of the enemy?”

“You are located between a creek and an unimproved road. From your location you can see the water tower in grid square EG1088 on a magnetic azimuth of 40 degrees. You can also see the water tower in grid square EG0985 on a magnetic azimuth of 90.5 degrees. What is the six-digit grid to your location?”

“You are located somewhere on the secondary all-weather road between EG0083 and EG1088. From your location, you shoot an azimuth of 123 degrees to hill 197 in grid square EG0483. What is the eight digit grid coordinate to your location?”

“A patrol leader determines the magnetic azimuth from his position to the road junction in grid square EG0196 to be 285 degrees and the magnetic azimuth from his position to the road junction at EG049973 to be 353 degrees. What is the terrain feature at his location?”

Remember the old recruiting slogan, “We do more before breakfast than most people do all day.”?

Well it’s true. They also do more between breakfast and dinner than most all day. And more after dinner than most all day.

And then the school bus took us to the barracks where we had to get quickly to sleep because tomorrow would be an early day.

In telling the story above, I used 22 of the 95 photos I took that day. All 95 are posted to an album here.

(Note that the pictures above are lower resolution than those in the album. To get the full resolution image so that you can save it to your own computer, follow the link to the album and click on the picture. A larger image will be presented but that is not yet the biggest. Find the words “Full size” on the right and click on them. That will produce the image with the most pixels and is the best one to have.)

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