2nd PLT, 832nd ENGR CO
“Reapers”
Today is a very special day. Nine years ago, our country was attacked by terrorists. As a result, our country vowed to combat Terrorism across the world and keep our domestic soil safe. Many of the soldiers in our platoon, including me, were not in the military when this happened. The soldiers that were, have willingly reenlisted since the events of that day. I am beyond proud to be the platoon leader for this group of men who continue to willingly place themselves in harm’s way to protect the way of life we all have grown to cherish.
Our platoon has a very different face from when I came to the unit, just over a year ago. I received a new counterpart, SFC Todd Sackman, my Platoon Sergeant. SFC Sackman and I’s relationship has strengthened as we both grow and learn to lead as a team. We have taught each other a lot and have the same mission, “Train our boys and bring them all home.” I couldn’t ask for a better complement as a Platoon Sergeant, except maybe a Cyclone fan! Our junior non-commissioned officers (NCOs) have all grown leaps and bounds in the last year of deployment preparation as well. I am most impressed by how much our juniors enlisted have grown. Our privates and specialists are taking initiative and making decisions in the absence of leadership, making our NCO’s job much easier. We also have two specialists in team leader slots, and they are both mature beyond their current rank.
What we have been doing for the last six weeks has been preparing us for our departure to Afghanistan. Training has included individual, squad, platoon and company level training. Our soldiers have been pushed to their limits during many of the training events. One of our training tenants is “Train as you Fight.” What does that tenant mean? It means that our trainers work to create as much realism in our training to prepare us for the real situations in the not so distant future. Our training utilizes a building-block mentality. We started by training soldiers on Individual weapon qualification which builds into other training to include Short-range marksmanship and reflexive fire. We are getting many opportunities to use live ammunition as well. The purpose behind using live ammo in training is it builds trust in your battle buddy moving beside you, your equipment, and your personal skill. We have conducted a dismounted squad live fire, a live-fire “shoot house” for room clearance and a vehicle-mounted live fire range that we utilized our “big guns” to engage targets as far away as 1500 meters. This training will continue to build with platoon live fire exercises next week and a company live fire exercise at NTC, Ft. Irwin, California.
Our new watch-words for the current mission in Afghanistan are “Trust and Confidence.” We want to build trust and confidence of the Afghan government within the people of Afghanistan. To train for this mission, we have been training with many foreign language speakers flown in from as far as Pakistan and Afghanistan. We train utilizing interpreters to communicate between our forces and “villagers” and “elders” in mock-towns. We have also had classes on Afghanistan culture and customs. All of our soldiers will be prepared to be “Ambassadors of Freedom” and work to solidify the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA).
Off-duty time is a luxury that all our soldiers make the most of. In the evenings you will find our soldiers preparing for upcoming training, exercising, doing laundry, talking with loved ones back home, or bonding with our battle buddies. Some of the more popular bonding activities have become good games of rummy and Euchre, watching movies, or trying to best each other in a “death match” on one of the various video game consoles we have in our living area. Moral is high and we are excited to continue with our training in preparation for our combat mission.
I speak on behalf of everyone in my platoon by saying “Thank you” to everyone for the love, prayers and support we have been receiving from friends, family and the FRG. You are the reason we joined the military and we are proud to be here. For anyone that may have stumbled across this newsletter that doesn’t have a service member in their family or household, please look around and help families that do. Doing something as simple as mowing the yard for a spouse with a deployed soldier will brighten their day and is a huge help.
I will wrap this up thinking about the other important event occurring today. As an Iowa State graduate, I will proudly go against the majority of our company and sound off with a resolute “GO CYCLONES”.
“Reapers”
Today is a very special day. Nine years ago, our country was attacked by terrorists. As a result, our country vowed to combat Terrorism across the world and keep our domestic soil safe. Many of the soldiers in our platoon, including me, were not in the military when this happened. The soldiers that were, have willingly reenlisted since the events of that day. I am beyond proud to be the platoon leader for this group of men who continue to willingly place themselves in harm’s way to protect the way of life we all have grown to cherish.
Our platoon has a very different face from when I came to the unit, just over a year ago. I received a new counterpart, SFC Todd Sackman, my Platoon Sergeant. SFC Sackman and I’s relationship has strengthened as we both grow and learn to lead as a team. We have taught each other a lot and have the same mission, “Train our boys and bring them all home.” I couldn’t ask for a better complement as a Platoon Sergeant, except maybe a Cyclone fan! Our junior non-commissioned officers (NCOs) have all grown leaps and bounds in the last year of deployment preparation as well. I am most impressed by how much our juniors enlisted have grown. Our privates and specialists are taking initiative and making decisions in the absence of leadership, making our NCO’s job much easier. We also have two specialists in team leader slots, and they are both mature beyond their current rank.
What we have been doing for the last six weeks has been preparing us for our departure to Afghanistan. Training has included individual, squad, platoon and company level training. Our soldiers have been pushed to their limits during many of the training events. One of our training tenants is “Train as you Fight.” What does that tenant mean? It means that our trainers work to create as much realism in our training to prepare us for the real situations in the not so distant future. Our training utilizes a building-block mentality. We started by training soldiers on Individual weapon qualification which builds into other training to include Short-range marksmanship and reflexive fire. We are getting many opportunities to use live ammunition as well. The purpose behind using live ammo in training is it builds trust in your battle buddy moving beside you, your equipment, and your personal skill. We have conducted a dismounted squad live fire, a live-fire “shoot house” for room clearance and a vehicle-mounted live fire range that we utilized our “big guns” to engage targets as far away as 1500 meters. This training will continue to build with platoon live fire exercises next week and a company live fire exercise at NTC, Ft. Irwin, California.
Our new watch-words for the current mission in Afghanistan are “Trust and Confidence.” We want to build trust and confidence of the Afghan government within the people of Afghanistan. To train for this mission, we have been training with many foreign language speakers flown in from as far as Pakistan and Afghanistan. We train utilizing interpreters to communicate between our forces and “villagers” and “elders” in mock-towns. We have also had classes on Afghanistan culture and customs. All of our soldiers will be prepared to be “Ambassadors of Freedom” and work to solidify the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA).
Off-duty time is a luxury that all our soldiers make the most of. In the evenings you will find our soldiers preparing for upcoming training, exercising, doing laundry, talking with loved ones back home, or bonding with our battle buddies. Some of the more popular bonding activities have become good games of rummy and Euchre, watching movies, or trying to best each other in a “death match” on one of the various video game consoles we have in our living area. Moral is high and we are excited to continue with our training in preparation for our combat mission.
I speak on behalf of everyone in my platoon by saying “Thank you” to everyone for the love, prayers and support we have been receiving from friends, family and the FRG. You are the reason we joined the military and we are proud to be here. For anyone that may have stumbled across this newsletter that doesn’t have a service member in their family or household, please look around and help families that do. Doing something as simple as mowing the yard for a spouse with a deployed soldier will brighten their day and is a huge help.
I will wrap this up thinking about the other important event occurring today. As an Iowa State graduate, I will proudly go against the majority of our company and sound off with a resolute “GO CYCLONES”.
