Back in one piece

Well we just returned from a five day excursion to the middle of nowhere. The last week has probably been the best training we have received since we arrived in good ol' Texas. Essentially we practiced entering a small village of insurgence and taking it over one building at a time, with some soldiers covering from vehicles and other on foot clearing rooms. This is all stuff we have practiced before, but this time we used life rounds instead of blanks. Most of the time the we only use bullets when we are at a firing range with a thousand different rules and controls to ensure that we don't accidentally shoot one another. This is all fine and well (I'd rather not be shot by some idiot in my unit) it just isn't realistic. When we arrive in Iraq I guarantee there won't be any blank rounds. The bad guys will certainly be using real bullets. We are all very use to carrying weapons at this point. To be honest, after so long with the damn M16 around my neck I feel naked without it, like I'm so light I could float away. I know that this stuff must seem really strange to those who know me. You can compare it to the feeling of not wearing your seatbelt, you just don't quite feel as secure. Where we really need to do from here, however, is get really comfortable have them loaded all of the time. I need to be confidant that I can trust the guys in back of me not to put this bullet proof vest of mine to the test. That's really what I got out of the last five days. All of the urban combat stuff is already i the data banks. We know how to do it and we know how to do it really well. I'm just glad that we finally started taking what we have been practicing and made it more realistic. I now have a better idea of what myself and my fellow soldiers are capable of, and I feel safer because of that knowledge. To be honest, I was a little nervous about the whole "live weapons" thing. A unit that was trained a few months before us had a few incidents at the same range we just trained on. Two soldiers were shot by their own guys while they practiced clearing rooms. It really hit close to home when we found out the third day of training that another group, only about a mile or two up the road, had a similar accident. Some guy charged into a room and didn't realize that he hadn't put his weapon on safe. He accidentally pulled the trigger and shot himself in the knee. The last we heard he might lose his leg. Very serious stuff. It would definitely make my family feel better if we only used blanks, but Iraq is a serious place too. The more realistic our training here, the better we'll fare when we finally get where ever it is we're going Don’t worry, we’re being safe and we’re being smart. I am relieved that we got through it without any problems. I feel strongly that my unit is very capable and well trained and is far less likely to make such mistakes. I've got to go get ready for a practice run for our up coming mission. I'll be posting some more about my action packed week, along with several pictures. We've been having a lot of fun lately, and I have several stories to tell, many of which my embarrassed buddies would rather I keep to myself. Stay tuned.