War Poetry Book Review: Kim Garcia's 'Drone'

Poetry Book Review: "Drone" by Kim Garcia

In 46 poems, across five sections and 86 pages, poet Kim Garcia offers a panoply of perspectives on how we conduct modern war at a distance. There are poems written in the voices, minds, and tongues of pilots, wives, and targets—something for everyone. And, in the midst of desert images and intellectual constructions, there are also birds and bees and honeycomb. There are slow, meticulous observations of character and terrain, followed by quick strikes of eye-opening invention.

The book was published late 2016 by The Backwaters Press. The collection, on first readings, may feel a little atmospheric, distant, or aloof. Perhaps this is due to the subject matter, or to the book's origins in a 2014 interdisciplinary conference on drones and remote warfare held at Boston College.

Garcia's titles are often presented in clipped, militaristic syntax. Consider, for example, labels such as "Kevlar, Carbon, Quartz" and "Blue Early Morning Snow, Home Front." The cover image seems a similar blend of warm welcome and cold efficiency. The soft, matte photograph reproduces an Afghan rug depicting bird's eye views of various U.S.-style drones, similar in shape to MQ-1 "Predator" or MQ-9 "Reaper." Each has a tail propeller, and bears missiles under each wing.

Mixed messages. Perhaps this is an example of "Beware Trojan birds bearing gifts"?

Careful readers will be rewarded with a more-human, less-abstracted experience of war than what may be spray-painted on the fuselage, however. Garcia infuses her language with disparate vocabularies, creating inspired moments of cross-pollenated synthesis, such as the Psalm-like "Night Flight, Night Vision." In it, what might be otherwise presented as cold technical descriptions ("white hot parts of the map") are lased with double-meaning, and even punny word-play. (Consider, for example, the dark soldier humor of "toward a corps" mispronounced as "toward a corpse.")

[…] Flying to the white hot parts of the map in mountain dark. Lidless eye

mimicking a god's trick of seeing sinners
          everywhere from nowhere, raining fire.

We are sovereign sight's living hands, dreaming drone-like
          in infrared, grids and pixel-prisons.

Tunneling toward a corps, a vector mapped
          of human warmth, pattern only. […]

Garcia's closer observations of human interconnectedness are wonderfully warm and grounded, even when her subjects are alienation and death. While her contemplations on technology are intellectually engaging, it is her depiction of human experience that lands with the most emotional punch. From a backyard porch, for example, she launches "Talking About the War" […]

while a vet under the Blue Ridge with a red
neck, red arms,takes a battered lawnmower
from his truck and mows the back lawn.

We're foreigners—we know nothing about the land,
where hornets live, the bog near the ferns,
the root run bald on one side from years of mowing. […]

And, in "Old Friends," Garcia relates the loss of Omar, a young Turkish man the poet once knew.

"[…] He would be a father now, not the young boy bowing

and touching his heart, his mouth, his forehead, when he saw me.
He loved the mystics. He had all an idealist's weaknesses, purer

than mind. I would get in a boat and sail across the Bosporus if
my friends could come back to me, still friends, still undecided

about our future.

Garcia's "Drone" is an essential addition to the growing number of 21st century war poetry collections, and delivers a truth-seeking payload to a target located smack between technological tools and human tolls.

"Drone" is available in trade paperback via Amazon and other booksellers.

'War Stories' Comic Now Tracks '73 Israeli Tank Crew

"War Stories" No. 4 from Avatar Press, wrap-around cover variant

In addition to more fantastic stories featuring such characters as Nick Furyand The Punisher, comic-book writer Garth Ennis has a long personal history of telling gritty, realistic, and fact-filled tales of war.

There are, for example, two four-issue mini-series with the title "War Stories," published by Vertigo in 2001 and 2003. And there are more than eight collected volumes of his "Battlefields" series, published by Dynamite Entertainment starting in 2008—each comprising quirky, fact-filled stories about lesser-known aspects of history, driven by memorable characters.

In three of those "Battlefields" volumes, for example, appeared stories of British tank crews, each headed by a veteran sergeant whose Tyneside dialect was thicker than the armor that protected them.

Seriously, Sgt. Stiles's dialogue is harder to interpret than reading Shakespeare. But much more fun.

The crew appears in three series or volumes, each written by Ennis and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra:

• "The Tankies" (Battlefields, Vol. 1): Cpl. Stiles and his crew man a British Churchill tank during the battle for Normandy.

• "The Firefly and His Majesty" (Battlefields, Vol. 5): Sgt. Stiles and a new crew man a new Sherman Firefly—no longer always outgunned, but still not a match for the German King Tiger that lies in wait for the Allied advance.

• "The Green Fields Beyond" (Battlefields, Vol. 10): World War II veteran Stiles continues fights on in the Korean War, as part of a Centurion tank crew assigned to the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars.

The armored pedigree is important, insofar that it demonstrates not only that Ennis knows his way around a story, but that he knows his way around a tank as well. This is fiction, but fiction with a point—and the point is to illuminate history. Ennis aims toward realism, not sensationalism. These are not books for children.

"War Stories" No. 4, standard cover

Now arrives from Ennis a newly launched "War Stories" series, this time published by Avatar Press. In issue No. 4, on stands Jan. 7, starts "Children of Israel," a 3-part story of an Israeli tank crew on the Golan Heights in early October, 1973. The artist is Tomas Aira, who delivers serviceably expressive characters, along with technically appropriate military equipment. Nothing kills a war comic like in inaccurately rendered weapons.

The tank is again a Centurion, but its commander is a yet-unnamed sergeant who was a boy during World War II. The character remembers seeing the inside of a German tank—most likely a Panzer III—while living the Warsaw Ghetto, as well as being liberated by Soviet T-34s in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The first issue is heavy with exposition, but Ennis makes it all clank together nicely. The sergeant talks with his captain about the current strategic and political terrain. The latter has helpfully drawn a map in the sand for some visiting journalists. "You shouldn't talk to reporters, Captain," the sergeant advises. "It only encourages them."

The sergeant also talks about his crew, made up of reservists with no previous experience of war. In NCO staccato, he observes:

Chaim's the driver, a little bullet of a man from Nazareth. Not much seems to shake him [...] Gunner Daniel is a lethal shot, but lacks imagination. Independent action is beyond him. He'll never be promoted, never wonder why. The loader, Shlomo, is a nervous wreck.

Given the approachable ways that Ennis communicates military history, one hopes that he continues his armored march toward present day.

The "War Stories" series is currently only available in monthly issues. Check your local comic store, or on-line retailers. or digitally via Comixology. Note that there are multiple variant covers.

Contest: Write a 'Pearl Harbor Speech' for Year 2041

In a short-fuze writing contest, the Atlantic Council's "Art of Future War" project is soliciting short, speculative creative writing that presents a future U.S. president's message after the country has experienced a Pearl Harbor-like attack, circa 2041. Deadline is Mon., Dec. 15, 2014.

The title of the contest is: "What Will The Next Pearl Harbor Be?" The submissions call reads, in part:

What would a Pearl Harbor-like surprise for the United States look like in the 2040s? This seven-day Art of Future Warfare challenge seeks a futuristic interpretation of the opening of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s "Day of Infamy" address to Congress on December 8, 1941—a day after Japanese forces struck Pearl Harbor with an unexpected attack that would draw America into a global conflict the likes of which the world had never seen. The setting for this challenge is 30 years in the future, but the geography, events and actors included in this presidential address are up to you.

For details and writing prompts, click here.

The purpose of the council's series of "war-art" challenges is to showcase the value of creative thinking in the national security realm and gain insight into the future of warfare. In summer 2015, the organization's Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security plans to publish an electronic compilation of the best of these and other national security themed art and writing.

Other submissions guidelines include:

• Entries should, at a minimum, re-imagine the content of the first four paragraphs of the speech.

• A panel of Atlantic Council experts and War On The Rocks editors will select the winner, who will be announced by Dec. 22, 2015.

• The creator of the best entry will receive a copy of Atlantic Council Strategic Foresight Initiative Director Mat Burrows' new book, "The Future, Declassified: Megatrends That Will Undo the World Unless We Take Action" and an Atlantic Council coffee mug. The best entry and the creative process will be featured on the Art of Future Warfare project website.

• Entries must be the creator's original work.

• Select runner-up entries will be featured on the project's website.

• While authors may publish under a pseudonym, a C.V. or biography is required.

The Atlantic Council project has also issued a "war-art" challenge for longer-form, fictionalized journalistic accounts of events leading to a larger-scale conflict among nations. Stories written for "The Next Great War" challenge should be between 1,500 to 2,500 words. Deadline is Dec. 31, 2014.

The call reads, in part:

It has been said that journalists write the first rough draft of history. Through the rise of radio and television, written accounts still define how the enduring narratives around how we come to understand the historic points at which everything changes. A century ago, an angry nationalist in Sarajevo opportunistically aimed his pistol at the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. What followed was "the war to end all wars." Yet it was not the end. The tank, the machine gun and the warplane wracked Europe’s battlefields for the first time as the conflict set the stage for further tragedy in the 20th Century.

For more details and creative cues, click here.

Iowa Cav Snipers Take 2nd Place in Joint Competition

A Texas Army National Guard sniper team engages targets during the 2014 Winston P.
Wilson Sniper Championship conducted at Fort Chaffee, Ark. April 19-26. PHOTO:
National Guard Marksmanship Training Center (NGMTC).

A 2-soldier sniper team from the Iowa National Guard's Charlie Troop, 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment (1-113th Cav.) achieved second place in the 43th Annual Winston P. Wilson Sniper Championship conducted April 19-26 at Fort Chaffee, Ark.

According to a proud command sergeant major, Sergeants Jeremy Henrich and Jaime Koopman scored 1083 out of 2040 possible points, just 24 points under the team comprising Marine Corps Scout School Instructors Sgt. Daniel Ramos and Sgt. Shaun Garvey.

Seventeen teams competed in this year's event, which tested 16 skills involved in the tactical employment of the bolt-action M40 rifle, the semi-automatic M110 sniper rifle, and the M9 Beretta pistol.

The annual even, conducted by the National Guard Marksmanship Training Center (N.G.M.T.C.) to promote sniper training, brings together competitors from both U.S. active-duty and reserve services, as well as those of foreign allies. According to rules, "all competitors must provide proof of current or previous assignment in a TOE/TDA position with an Army Additional Skill Identifier (A.S.I.) of B4 or completion of a service equivalent formal sniper training i.e., the Air Force Close Precision Engagement Course (C.P.E.C.), U.S. Marine Corps Scout Sniper Course, or the Special Operations Tactical Interdiction Course (S.O.T.I.C.)." Competitors must be rank of E3 or above.

Third and fourth places went to sniper teams from the Marine infantry school and the Army's 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.

Iowa National Guard snipers Jeremy Henrich and Jaime Koopman,
both sergeants in the Charlie Troop, 1st Squadron, 113th Cavelry
Regiment (1-133th Cav.), finished first in fieldcraft events. PHOTO:
1-113th Cav.

Henrich and Koopman finished first in fieldcraft events, which included range estimate, stalk, land navigation, observation, and target detection events.

"This is a remarkable accomplishment for a couple of Iowa National Guardsmen and we couldn't be prouder of them. This team has won multiple sniper competitions and were awarded the Meritorious Service Medal a few months ago for being the best damn sniper team in the National Guard," writes Command Sgt. Major Matthew Strasser on his organization's Facebook page.

A Southwest Times-Record news report includes video taken of the event.

For a PDF reference manual on the 2014 Winston P. Wilson Sniper Championship, click here.

Never Bring a Flashlight to a Knife Fight

On a recent dark and stormy afternoon in mil-contracting Cubistan, the electricity started going on the fritz. The few operable overhead lights suddenly flicked out, and everyone's Uninterruptible Power Supplies (U.P.S.) chirped on. Someone yelled: "Save early, save often!" After a couple of minutes, the power came back up.

Five minutes later, we ran through the same cycle. Then again. "My dad used to say that the third time the power goes off, it goes off for a long time," another co-worker said, out there in the darkness. Dad turned out to be right.

Once again, my cushy stateside office job echoes working in a Tactical Operations Center ("TOC") downrange. The comparison is particularly appropriate, given the number of fellow 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division veterans with whom I now work daily. The only difference now is, we don't play rock-paper-scissors to see who gets to fuel up the generators.

I took the opportunity to take a powder, finding my way using small L.E.D. flashlight I carry in my satchel of tricks. A fellow Red Bull veteran was conducting a similar operation, illuminated in his task using a similar device. "Why is it that only the Army guys bring headlamps to work," one of us asked.

Out of the darkness came the disembodied voice of another Red Bull, a current member of 1st Battalion, 194th Field Artillery (1-194th F.A.): "I only have a knife," he said, "but I'm pretty sure I could use it to get at least two flashlights pretty quick ..."

Point taken!

'Ironman' Gunners Invent Ammo-Carrier

A team of Iowa Army National Guard "Red Bull" soldiers was recently credited with inventing a system that allows an individual to carry 500 rounds of belt-fed Mark 48 machine gun ammunition on his back, allowing him to provide sustained and deadly fire while on foot. Without it, a dismounted machine-gunner must be assisted by another soldier, who helps to carry equipment and ammunition, and to feed the weapon belts of bullets.

"When we first arrived in theater in late October [2010], we were issued the Mk 48 7.62 mm machine guns," said Staff Sgt. Vincent Winkowski in a recent Army news article. "This was a new piece of equipment for us, and we struggled to come up with a solution for carrying and employing ammunition for it, due to our small size and the inability to have a designated ammo bearer [...]

"The ammunition sacks that came with it made it too cumbersome and heavy to carry over long, dismounted patrols and especially when climbing mountains. Initially, we came up with using 50-round belts and just reloading constantly, which led to lulls of fire and inefficiency."

Winkowski, Spc. Derick Morgan, and Spc. Aaron McNew got the idea from the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "Predator," in which actor, wrestler, and former Minnesota governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura wields a manpackable Minigun. McNew first employed the system in combat in February 2011.

The design is a mash-up of previously issued equipment: A rucksack frame, a couple of modified ammo cases, and a 27-inch feed-chute assembly (cost: $1,710) borrowed from a Common Remotely Operated Weapons System ("CROWS") vehicle mount. (A CROWS allows soldiers to aim and operate machine guns and other weapons with a videogame-like interface, while seated safely inside an armored vehicle.)

Army fabricators have dubbed the design for a high-capacity ammunition carriage system the "Ironman"--the traditional nickname of the Iowa Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment (1-133rd Inf.). The unit, as part of the larger 2010-2011 deployment of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division (2-34th BCT), returned to Iowa earlier this summer. Between October 2010 and July 2011, the 1-133rd Inf. operated in Eastern Afghanistan's Laghman and parts of Nuristan provinces.

According to the Army news release, improved prototypes were shipped downrange approximately 48 days after Army technicians inspected the Iowans' work. And, if budgets and manufacturing contracts allow, the Ironman system could be more-widely delivered to troops sometime in 2012.

"We've already gotten e-mail traffic from [one of] our science advisers that everybody in theater wants one of these--and by in theater, he means his specific area of operation, Regional Command East in Afghanistan--because word has spread," said Dave Roy, an operations analyst with Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (N.S.R.D.E.C.). "That [Iowa National Guard] unit [was] not the only unit on [Forward Operating Base Mehtar-Lam]. As they're walking around the FOB with that piece of kit, very senior people are taking a look at it. They recognize it as a game-changer."

News of the Ironman ammo-carrier design was recently published on the Military.com website, as well as Wired's "Danger Room" blog.

Shooting the Pass: The Wrap-up

This week's Red Bull Rising narrative of a Combined Live-Fire Exercise ("CALFEX") conducted by Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment (A/1/133rd Inf.) in late September while the unit was at National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif., was a bit of an experiment.

First off, it was serialized--distributed across a couple of days. I did this both to help digest a blog post that was originally 2,500 words long, but also to give readers the sense of how much time the soldiers spent focused on this one event. A 3-day training event turned into three days' worth of blog-posts.

Second, there were supplemental videos, which were intended to help illustrate some of the scenes described in the text. Some of these were, I'll admit, kind of quirky. Then again, so was the training.

I'd look forward to comments about what readers thought worked and didn't work in this coverage specifically, as I make plans for 2011 coverage of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division.

To assist readers who may have been confused by the episodic presentation of the story, I have taken the liberty of presenting links below:

• Shooting the Pass: Part 1 of 3
• Shooting the Pass: Part 2 of 3
• Shooting the Pass: Part 3 of 3

• Video No. 1: "Occupying FOB Reno"
• Video No. 2: "Air-assault rehearsal"
• Video No. 3: "Test fire with live ammunition"
• Video No. 4: "No chalkboard? Use a windshield!"

As always, thank you for your continued support and attention to the Red Bull Rising blog.

"Attack!"

Shooting the Pass, Part 3 of 3

FORT IRWIN, Calif., Sept. 30--At approximately 1115 hours on Day Three of Combined Arms Live Fire Exercise ("CALFEX") for Alpha Company, 1/133rd Inf., a high-winds advisory comes across the real-world radio net: Potential winds in excess of 40 knots. The helicopter crews—who minutes before were smoking and joking and waiting around with the ground troops—start spinning their blades almost immediately, in an effort to return to their hangars before the winds hit.

Company Fire Support Officer (F.S.O.) 2nd Lt. Bill Stratford would later liken the experience to prom night, when you’re hoping to get lucky, and your date up and leaves with the limo driver.

Alpha Company has just lost its rotary-wing air support, minutes before the big dance. Rather than ride into battle in a helicopter, Alpha’s 1st Platoon will now travel to the objective riding in the back of a 5-ton truck.

“That’s all a Blackhawk really is, I guess,” says Capt. Jason Merchant, commander of Alpha Company. “An [Army truck] with wings.”

*****

While the company mortars section of 60 mm tubes, augmented by the battalion-level 120 mm guns, positions to support the attack, Alpha Company sits in a staging are with engines idling. On command, soldiers test their vehicle-mounted weapons, including .50-cal. machine guns, by firing into the side of a mountain.

Third platoon, led by 2nd Lt. Rob Labios of Sacramento, Calif., assaults the first objective—a target that the Apaches would have softened up first. Labios quickly loses radio communications with his commander, Capt. Merchant, who is waiting to order shifting the directions of his mortars and to launch the 1st and 2nd Platoons’ assaults.

Despite two days of preparations and planning, of dry-fire followed by blank-fire run-throughs, of repeated rehearsals and refinements, Alpha Company is now living the maxim that no plan survives contact with the enemy.

Asked for the position of the 3rd Platoon soldiers, a fire-support soldier calls first the coordinates of his own position, then the position of FOB Reno itself. Merchant catches the error easily. Given the confusion and lack of communications, Merchant calmly but repeatedly calls to his mortars, reminding them that they are not to fire without his OK. He realizes too late that his previously tested communications workaround—-asking the helicopters to relay messages over the hills—blew away with his rotary-wing air-support.

Merchant directs 2nd Platoon to start moving toward their objective, and his driver follows. At the designated fork in the road, Bone breaks away to speed up a 30-degree slope to the crest of a hill overlooking the 2nd Platoon objective. The Joint Tactical Air Controllers (JTAC, pronounced "jay-tacks") follow in their own vehicle, a two-and-a-half seat Humvee laden with radio gear.

Below, in the valley, the platoon comes on line, and engages targets as they pop up. Just behind them, 1st Platoon arrives in its notional aircraft, dismounts and assaults into the compound.

Now dismounted and on higher ground, FSO Stratford talks to the battalion mortars via radio. The JTACs establish communications with a U.S. Marine AV-A8 “Hawker” aircraft. The bad news comes first: Rather than about an hour of on-station time, the pilot says he has only 15 minutes. The good news comes next: Rather than the 500-pound bombs for which the JTACs had hoped, “Dwarf-46”—a U.S. Marine is packing two 1,000-pounders.

Dwarf-46 suddenly has everyone’s full attention.

There’s a catch, however. Rather than more-than-60-minutes of on-station aircraft time for which they’d planned, they have Dwarf-46 for only 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes to mark the target with mortar fire, and get bombs dropped. On a good day, each of the mortars should be able to drop one or two rounds per minute. Today, due to bad communications and delays caused by exercise controllers on the mortars' hilltop location, it’s taking more like 10 minutes.

Stratford, the artillery officer, talks to the battalion mortars. The first call-for-fire lands way off target. Along with Fire Support NCO Clint Shannon of Waterloo, Iowa, Stratford calls in a second fire-mission. One nearby Air Force exercise observer-controller says the pilot should be able to adjust off the dust cloud, but a second says that's not good enough, that the marking round has to hit within 200 meters of the intended target.

Three days of Alpha Company’s CALFEX preparation and rehearsal comes down to 5 minutes of remaining aircraft time, and two 1,000-pound bombs. Each mortar strike and aircraft pass is an adrenalin-fueled roller coaster of anticipation. Finally, Dwarf-46 drops a bomb, which wobbles out of the clouds to take out the intended target.

He has loitered on station well beyond his 15-minute mark, but sticks around to drop his second bomb. "F---ing pilots," says one of the JTACs, as the plane positions for a second pass. "They never tell you the truth about how much fuel they have."

The second 1,000-pound bomb thuds into the desert floor, and fails to detonate. It’s a dud.

“I guess someone just closed the Granite Mountain Pass,” says a nearby exercise observer-controller. “There’s no way that EOD [Explosive Ordnance Disposal] is coming out tonight.”

Low on fuel and long on tired, Alpha Company will have to take the long way home to FOB Seattle.

Shooting the Pass, Part 2 of 3

FORT IRWIN, Calif., Sept. 29--It is mid-morning on Day Two of "Combined Arms Live Fire" ("CALFEX") for Alpha Company, 1/133rd Inf., and both heat and anticipation are building. Under Staff Sgt. Ricky Ayala’s direction, Alpha Company’s 1st Squad, 1st Platoon races in a line toward two parallel cots set out in the middle of FOB Reno. The squad splits and sits facing inward, just like the previous night’s games of poker and grab-ass. Ayala counts down, both by calling out and holding up fingers. Squad members echo the calls and copy the gestures: “5 minutes.” Then “2 minutes.” Then “1 minute.”

At the end of the count, the squad explodes out of the cots, arranging itself prone on the ground with M4 rifles pointing outward in a circle. The soldiers are providing “360-degree security” as their imaginary helicopter takes off and leaves them behind.

Ayala’s squad is one of two that will conduct an “air assault”—movement via UH-60 “Blackhawk” helicopters onto an objective. Transport by helicopter is faster than by ground, and surprise is a key tool in Afghanistan. During the live-fire exercise, two Blackhawks will land to drop 1st Platoon outside a small compound, through which it will then assault. The other platoons will arrive by truck. “It’s pretty much a reward for how well we’ve been doing,” Ayala says, not too boastfully.

After repeated rehearsals, the squad expresses its eagerness to move on to from Fort Irwin to the real war in Afghanistan.

“Living conditions aren’t the greatest, but the training has been really great,” says Ayala. Afghanistan will be the 9-year veteran’s third deployment, and his second to Afghanistan.

Spc. Robert “Combat Bob” Kimler, who seems to have as many nicknames as he does opinions, put it into perspective: “We’ve been training for this for two years.”

Spc. Adam Eilers of Gutenburg says, “If there a plane tomorrow, I’d be on it.”

That’s not to say they’re not also looking forward to more-immediate gratifications of CALFEX. In the afternoon, they’ll go through the motions twice. Once, as a “dry-fire” exercise without ammunition. The second time, with “blank” ammunition: All the bang, but none of the bite.

Finally, tomorrow, it will be the real deal. “This will be the first time I’ve ever seen stuff explode,” says Pvt. Nathan Smith of Ida Grove.

*****

Any time soldiers use live ammunition is an opportunity for caution, hence the care and repetition with which the company practices the live-fire scenario. Capt. Merchant gathers all participants around a scale-model terrain map constructed out of rocks, cardboard, spray paint, and more rocks. White "engineer" tape marks out phase and grid lines, corresponding to soldiers' maps.

Using green “hundred-mile-an-hour” tape and some cardboard boxes, some artistic soldier has even created two model helicopters to help illustrate the air assault. Chief Warrant Officer Jenice “Widowmaker-34” Skelly, the tobacco-chewing pilot AH-64 “Apache” attack helicopter, enthusiastically declares the helicopters “cute.”

“Now you’ve done it,” says one of her fellow aviators of 4th Combat Aviation Brigade (“CAB”), 101st Airborne Division. “You’ve gone and used the ‘C’ word!”

*****

To help coordinate its Close Air Support (“CAS”), Alpha Company is joined by two Air National Guard Joint Tactical Air Controllers (“JTAC,” pronounced "jay-tack"). Staff Sgt. Jake Torgerson is from the Washington Air National Guard’s 116th Air Support Operations Squadron, or “ASOS” (pronounced “ay-sauce”). Tech Sgt. Damon Girot is from the Indiana Air National Guard’s 113th ASOS. Each will travel to Afghanistan of different rotations during the next 12 months, and will likely support the 2-34th BCT operations there.

“I’m a moderately proficient Infantryman, but I’m a subject-matter expert in my JTAC stuff,” says Torgerson, who was a Marine mortarman before he joined the Air Guard. “I get to do all the fun infantry stuff—shoot rifles, get dirty—but I don’t have to put up with any of the bull----.”

“No pun intended, but we’re the red-headed step children of the U.S. Air Force,” says Torgerson. (Both he and Girot have red hair.) “The Air Force loves the capability we bring to the effort, but hates dealing with us. Mostly, we try to avoid each other.”

Girot stops by the JTACs’ two-seater Humvee, the one that’s filled with radio-communications equipment. He offers Torgerson a bottle of sunscreen. “Ginger sauce?” he asks.

*****

Company commander Capt. Jason Merchant knows that the months to come could get a little gritty. He doesn’t talk about specifics, but drops hints like mortar shells around the perimeter of truth. “There are probably 75 villages in our future Area of Operations,” he says, using the Army’s usual color-coding system for describing loyalty to the Afghan national government. “One is ‘green,’ two are ‘amber,’ and the rest are ‘red.'” He jokes that, at the end of his company’s deployment, all they’ll have to do is turn one village “green,” and they’ll be able to claim a 100-percent improvement.

His driver, Sgt. David "Bone" Tielbur, describes how older soldiers with combat deployments are talking more about upcoming realities. “That’s gotten the attention of some of the younger guys, but you can’t always lead a horse to water …” he says. “Besides, you don’t want to scare people unnecessarily.”

First Sgt. Chris Harrison of Cedar Rapids is the highest-ranking non-commissioned officer in Alpha Company, and is responsible for the safety and care of soldiers. He’s proud of the fighting spirit and skills that Alpha Company has already demonstrated at the National Training Center. “When we did a [Combat Outpost, or “COP”] exercise, we had 300 people come at us. The [exercise observer-controllers] said that most units last 15 minutes,” he says. “We lasted an hour.”

Merchant puts his soldiers to bed early, and gives them an unusually late 0800 wake-up order for the final day of the exercise. There will be a leisurely final walk-through briefing at the terrain model, and the exercise will begin at 1300 hours.

Nearly nothing will go as planned.

Shooting the Pass, Part 1 of 3

Fort Irwin, Calif., Sept. 28--The soldiers of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment (A/1/133rd Inf.) are preparing for more than three days of “CALFEX”—“Combined Arms Live Fire Exercise.” In many ways, the training event is the culmination of months of both pre-and post-mobilization training, first at Camp Ripley, Minn.; then at Camp Shelby, Miss.; and now here at the National Training Center in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Alpha Company will assault multiple objectives simultaneously, coordinating mortar fires, movements by ground and helicopter, and even overhead Close Air Support (CAS, which soldiers pronounce “kaz”).

In two days, the bullets and bombs will be real. So, too, will the helicopters and jet planes. In preparations for its deployment to Afghanistan along with the rest of the Iowa Army National Guard’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry “Red Bull” Division (2-34th BCT), Alpha Company’s training time is almost over.

First, however, the company must travel a couple of hours from the battalion’s headquarters at Forward Operating Base (“FOB”) Seattle, to the even more remote location of FOB Reno. Conditions at FOB Reno will be Spartan at best. Company commander Capt. Jason Merchant orders each soldier to bring a folding Army cot. Sleeping on the vehicles is bad business, he says, and other units have returned from CALFEX with stories about rats and snakes. No sleeping on the ground this time around.

Merchant’s driver is Sgt. David “Bone” Tielbur of Guttenberg, Iowa. A 20-year veteran of the Iowa National Guard, Afghanistan will be his fourth deployment with the unit. First, there was Kuwait, then Egypt, then Iraq. Now, it’s Afghanistan. “I prayed on it a lot. My wife told me, ‘If you don’t go, you won’t be worth a crap to me, because you’ll be worried about the guys,’” the baritone-voiced Tielbur says gently, smiling and shaking his head. “That’s Mamma-Bone for you!”

Tielbur takes great pleasure in quietly staying ahead of his commander: Trouble-shooting his radios, getting him water, setting up his cot. Merchant describes Tielbur as his “driver, RTO, and confidante,” and they joke about their working relationship often. “Let’s see if the Vulcan mind-meld is working,” Merchant tells Tielbur at one point, while the armored Humvee is in motion. “Guess where I want to park.”

Today is Bone’s 40th birthday. And he already knows what’s coming.

*****

Alpha Company is fighting the clock. ““Inshallah, that the Granite Mountain Pass will be open,” says Merchant. “If not, we’ll have to take 'Highway 7' all the way around Fort Irwin.”

Almost immediately, however, the convoy encounters obstacles to staying on schedule. A stop for fuel mid-way at FOB King has come up empty. The battalion logistics officer had earlier promised that there was a retail-fuel oasis at FOB King—the logistical hub for the entire brigade—but the fuel trucks are out on other missions. Alpha Company wastes precious time idling, waiting for the word.

Merchant sends one lieutenant to see if he can make a face-to-face deal for fuel, while also text-messaging his battalion's Tactical Operations Center (“TOC”) via Blue Force Tracker (B.F.T.). After an hour, Merchant orders the convoy to leave FOB King and continue movement toward FOB Reno. “Here’s the lesson-learned,” says the 38-year-old commander from Dysart, Iowa. “Operations never fail because of operations—they fail because of logistics.”

The sun is now lower in the desert sky, and the company pushes on toward the Granite Mountain Pass. National Training Center personnel will close the pass because of the next day’s live-fire exercise. (“But we ARE the live-fire exercise,” one soldier mock-complains. “How can they close the door on us?!”) If his trucks don’t move along the direct route, Merchant will have to divert the long way around. He’s still got plenty of fuel for the outbound trip, but doesn’t want to waste any more time. “We’ve got to shoot the pass,” he says.

The motley mix of Humvees, simulated Mine-Resistant Armor-Protected (MRAP, and pronounced “Em-rap”) vehicles, and other trucks creeps northward to the gate to the pass, which is monitored and controlled by Fort Irwin soldiers. Using crossing-arm barriers, the active-duty soldiers shut down the pass just as Alpha Company squeaks past.

FOB Reno turns out to be a wide spot in the desert, a rocky parking lot surrounded by 8-foot walls of mounded sand. Creature comforts? A line of chemical toilets—the Army calls them “latrines”—located a stone’s throw from the convoy’s vehicles, which are now parked side-by-side in a single row, three platoons in sequence. Ankle-twisting rocks are positioned every few steps. Making one’s way to the latrine feels like walking on the moon.

Alpha Company is in high spirits. Awaiting further instructions, a couple of soldiers start passing a football. “Hey,” yells one soldier, and the ball is thrown to him as well. He tosses it back as an underhand pass: “This is how a real man throws a football.” Apparently, he plays rugby. Bone shuffles past, and suddenly, someone calls out that it is his birthday. There’s a scrum. The soldiers tackle him and hold him to the ground. One by one, they lift his shirt to deliver an open-handed smack across his belly. “Red-belly! Red-belly!” The blows are hard enough to leave images of individual fingers.

Even Merchant takes a turn.

The soldiers are told to place their cots on the rocky terrain immediately behind their vehicles. The sky flares orange-and-blue as the sun falls below the mountain ridge, and the dusty ground turns purple-gray in the dusky light. Many troops break out lamps attached to headbands, and the red- and white-lights bob and bounce in the growing darkness. Some read, some eat Army rations, some play cards. Often, five or six soldiers will face each other in little groups, sitting on two cots, playing card games or telling stories infused with exaggeration and profanity. The antics are straight from high-school gym class.

“Hey, smell this,” says one solider to another, holding up a tan combat boot. “Doesn’t this smell like Doritos? Nacho-cheese Doritos?”

“I can beat that,” says the other, taking off his boots ...

The 'Leaning on the Butterfly' Effect

FORT IRWIN, Calif., Sept. 26--It's the second full day in the National Training Center (N.T.C.), and a majority of the battalions comprising 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division has reported at least one negligent discharge of a weapon each.

In other words, in just two-plus days in the desert, a handful of friendly weapons have gone off when they weren't supposed to. A couple have been M4 carbines, the smaller, not-too-distant cousin of the M16 rifle. At least one was an M249 Squad Automatic Weapon ("SAW"), which fires the same pinkie-finger-sized ammunition as used in the M4. Rather than shooting one or three rounds at a time, however, the SAW is a light machine gun. It belches belt-fulls of the stuff.

All that pales, however, to the damage potentailly caused by the hot-dog-sized round launched by a vehicle-mounted .50-cal. M2 Browning machine gun. The "ma-deuce" fires is classic killer, a design mostly untouched and unrefined since its invention in the 1920s. The machine gun is fired by depressing with two thumbs a wing-shaped switch at the rear of the weapon. The switch is called the "butterfly."

Because the Red Bull units are only using blank ammunition at NTC, no one has yet been injured. That doesn't offer much relief to soldiers and their leaders, however, who treat every incident like the real deal. "Train like you fight, fight like you train."

The Army doesn't talk about "accidents." Rather, it speaks of "incidents." The circumstances surrounding the unplanned or unintentional firing of any weapon are formally investigated by an officer, and reported through safety representatives, to determine the what can be done to prevent similar incidents in the future. Safety is deadly serious business.

The brigade commander--"Ryder-6"--has called in his staff to attend the evening's teleconference with his battalion commanders. Red Bull staff are typically supposed to be seen and not heard, but such sessions are one of the only ways a brigade staffer can hear directly from their customers out in the field. Logistics guys listen out for logistics problems, communications guys listen out for communications problems, and so on. If you hear the same things from more than one commander, you know you've got a problem that potentially affects more than 3,000 of your fellow soldiers.

The brigade has been in the field for three days and nine meals, and battalions are only now beginning to feed on hot "Class-A" rations. There have been problems throughout the supply chain, pushing goods from unit to unit, breaking them down into smaller amounts along the way. The NTC, after all, is a realistic simulation of real-world challenges. "Time and distance is going to be a factor," observes the brigade commander, "and it's going to be that way."

In some cases, however, the lack of hot chow may have been self-inflicted. One unit, recognizing that it required live ammunition in order to conduct live-fire exercises the next day, reprioritized and requested the next supply convoy deliver less food than ammo. With limited cargo space, it's either "guns or butter." This time, the guns won.

Of course, the same listening technique of "three times briefed makes a trend" also works for those in command. And tonight, the brigade commander is hearing the continuation of a couple of trends that date all the way back to June, when the unit was conducting pre-mobilization training at Camp Ripley, Minn.

It's routine and it's basic stuff, but that doesn't make any of it acceptable to the commander: Soldiers are losing stuff, they're getting careless, and they're needlessly getting hurt.

In a few cases, soldiers are losing track of what the Army calls "sensitive items"--high-dollar and low-level-classified equipments. Things like the M68 Close Combat Optic (C.C.O.), an aiming device that attaches to a rail on a soldier's M4 carbine. The device isn't considered "secret," but is supposed to be accounted for on the twice-daily sensitive-item inventories. Once installed, there's little reason to take it off. Soldiers were instructed to safety-wire such equipment to their rifles, months ago.

"What did we say back at Camp Ripley? 'Dummy-cord your stuff,'" says Ryder-6. "Tie your s--- down. No excuses. That's the order." The commander keeps his anger in reserve, but his frustration still heats up the room a little.

He urges his commanders to emphasize the fundamentals--"mission first, but safety always"--and tries to keep the messages positive. One commander reports a soldier has twisted an ankle while walking around in the darkness on a Forward Operating Base ("FOB"). "We're doing some great training out here, and I realize that soldiers are going to get hurt," says Ryder-6. "But walking out of a TOC and into a water drainage ditch? That one hurts."

"Heat injuries are going to be next," he observes, noting the lack of hot meals and the daily desert highs in the 100-plus-degrees Fahrenheit. Troops have to eat, as well as drink, in order to hydrate and stay healthy. Some troops don't like to eat in the heat, however, particularly when it's a never-ending menu of "Meals, Ready-to-Eat." They start skipping meals.

The most troubling trend for commanders, however--indeed, for anyone who works with or around a weapon--are negligent discharges. Each battalion commander takes his turn in the telephonic hot seat, and rattles off the high- and low-points of the day. Four out of six commanders has at least one negligent discharge on which to report.

The commander whose unit had the negligent discharge of the .50-cal. machine gun says that it occurred when a soldier accidentally "leaned on the butterfly." An awfully small action, resulting with in an awfully big mistake with an even bigger bullet.

The Army's own "butterfly effect."

Before walking onto any FOB, each soldier dismounts and points his or her weapon into a sand-filled "clearing barrel." (There are similar procedures for vehicle-mounted weapons, ones that don't use the barrel.) Soldiers pull the charging handles of their individual weapons, and have an observer confirm there is no ammunition present in the chamber. Then, the soldier pulls the trigger of the weapon while it's pointed into the clearing barrel. If the weapon goes off the clearing barrel will catch or direct the round. It still counts as a negligent discharge, but it's arguably safer than having a still-loaded weapon go off in a barracks or dining facility.

"Buddy-clear your weapons," Ryder-6 says, figuratively footstomping his point. "We have hired junior leaders--NCOs and platoon leaders--to make sure that happens. Make sure they do their jobs."

"It's easy," he says. "It's too easy ..."