Entry #1: August 14, 2005
Hohenfels, Germany (somewhere near the Czech Republic border)
CMTC (Combat Maneuvers Training Center) Rotation
Tomorrow begins the platoon situation exercise. I’ve put together through my own brilliance and coordination with my colleagues a fairly realistic exercise. I just hope it goes off without higher getting too involved and tasking my key guys out. Some of my key players will be out on convoy exercises so I’m a bit worried as too how much training I can actually get done, but we’ll see.
I also got word from the brigade S-2, a major, that I’ll be working out on a FOB (forward operations base) working as an intelligence coordinator for my SIGINT team and the THT (tactical HUMINT team)—SIGINT stands for signals intelligence and HUMINT stands for human intelligence. Basically, it’ll be my job to be the collection manager for the brigade with the forward boots on the ground element. I’ll be closer to the actual front-line stuff, which will be great experience and enable me to provide a real hand to the mission at hand. It helps that the S-2 finds me a more than competent lieutenant and trusts me with this front-line role.
Well, it is now late and I’ve got a long day tomorrow. So the Soldier’s life continues…
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.