Corporate Culture.

Yesterday, we were issued our weapons and a piece of Army corporate culture very different from the Navy's, for me: a very new M4 carbine and a very old, beat up M9 pistol. I will be returning the M4 to the armory at Camp McCrady at the end of the training, but I will be carrying my M9 with me every day until I am I ready to return home. Now that we've got weapons; we're required to carry them everywhere with the exception of PT and the bathroom; during those times, they've got to be locked up next to our rack and someone else, our "Battle Buddy," is required to watch them at all times. We carry them to class in the morning, we carry them to formation, we carry them to meals, and we carry them to get a haircut or pick something up at small convenience store on base. We load, unload, clear and sling these weapons no less than twenty times a day. I'm familiar with the weapons already and I've already qualified as a Navy expert marksman on each, so I'm not particularly concerned with managing them.


The Army has a bit of a different philosophy on weapons than the Navy. In the Navy, we're taught that weapons are very dangerous and only specific people are allowed to carry, maintain, or use weapons, and even then, only for a very specific reason. The average sailor never gets to put his hands on a weapon other than standing watch, and even then, it never gets un-holstered other than to turn it back into the armory. The Army believes that weapons aren't a burden, nor something to cause fear to the user. Just as a professional carpenter wouldn't leave his hammer locked in his toolbox all day and have to request permission from three people to use it, sign it out, and then have to write a written report about each nail driven with it before signing it back in; the Army allows its personnel to be comfortable and familiar with their personal weapons, and all are not only welcome, but encouraged, and even required to carry while living in a forward operating base. This is a culture change I'm going to get used to as a former Navy weapons and ordnance officer.



This afternoon, we were broken into separate groups for cultural awareness classes for the first time, while there were many in the Afghan class, so far I haven't met anyone else headed to Bagram with me and the Joint Special Operations Task Force (JSOTF). Most seem to be headed to Kabul's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters to work with the NATO mission. Today has been our first official introduction to the weapons culture of the Army and the Pashtunwali code of Afghanis.

Location:Camp McCrady, Fort Jackson, SC