Convoy.

Following our rifle qualifications, the last graded hurdle between our NIACT class graduating and marksmanship remediation-or worse, being rolled back to repeat the class again until standards can be met; we've now moved headlong into the more distinctive nuances of Afghan military operations and our likely missions, rather than the more general curriculum all students here must take. Our company of 70 sailors is mostly headed to Afghanistan; some were going to Iraq initially, but within the last week, many have gotten word their orders have been shifted, canceled, or re-assigned with the deadline for the drawdown of US forces. The requirements driving the orders to send sailors through this program are anywhere from 6-12 months old, so funding and necessity may have shifted since. The other company in our class is made up of those headed for Individual Augmentee assignments to places like Qatar, Kuwait, Germany, Tampa (yes, Tampa, Florida-home of MacDill Air Force Base and US Central Command, known warmly as "Tampastan").

We've been discussing basics of convoy operations; everything from mission planning, equipment, tactics, threats, and emergency procedures like medevacs, ambushes, and IEDs. We've been introduced on the up-armored humvee as well as the newer MRAP (mine resistant, ambush protected) vehicles and the pros and cons of each vehicle.

Yesterday, after some time on the rifle range, we stopped by the mobile IED exhibit trailers they have at Fort Jackson provided by the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), an inter-service task force chartered to lessen IED damages from attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan. The trailers had displays of examples of different types of IED components, and the three most common suicide explosive vest examples-even a complete mock up of what one would expect to see in the kitchen, living room and workshop of a bomb maker in Iraq/Afghanistan to help visually identify what the tools of the trade of the home-made explosives maker are: pressure cookers, gloves, chemicals, timers, wires, saws, mixers, etc.

Location:Camp McCrady, Fort Jackson, SC