Just got back from NTC (pics)

[Drew]

Hey guys,
I just got back from my first NTC rotation and man am I glad to be out of that dust bowl. Figured I would share a few pictures of my fellow Infantry buddies doing what we do best.... sleeping, posing for pictures, and acting retarded.

Excuse the crappy hummers, those were the ones we signed out from NTC. Also, I'm the short white guy in the army issue shades in picture 2 with the huge musket like m16a4 (got stuck doing the new guy job of being a bradley driver so i get the POGstick for the time being)

[Woodman in MO]

Great pics!!! That 3rd one is awsome!!!

[drine]

Been there and done it twice. Once with 1stCAV and again with the Natl. Guard. Second trip was a lot more enjoyable albeit not near as "mils-spec".
Good job! Stay Safe!

[cetme]

so whats the quote for the 3rd pic?

[Darkwatch]

I'm guessing "SNAKE!!!" or "SCORPION!!!" :eek: Nice pics, and glad you're back safe.

[Woodman in MO]

I was thinking it reminded me of Lavergne and Shirley.

[SteelCore]

Thx for sharing, thanks for your service.

Laverne and Shirley...LMAO!

[jlpskydive]

Man do those pics bring back memories. Ahh sometimes I hate that I wasted my youth.......

[wandering_ronin]

Ah yes...the dustbowl! Went once, back in '97 or '98.

[pigpen]

I went there in 97 IIRC. The Army could not find an Army infantry unit to play with in thier sandbox so they had to call in the Marines. It was the 1st time I got to work with the Army, good people & good training. Back then, the Army was getting a hell of a lot more money to train with than the Marine Corps. We never were issue miles gear unless it was a regimental ex.

[rustypirate]

Nice photos.

Man, I HATED miles gear.

Give me real bullets any day, it teaches the grunts to keep their heads down.

[Norton]

Nice photos.

Man, I HATED miles gear.

.

Me too..Did that stuff really ever work right?
Anyway great photos bud.. My nephew is down there with the 3nd ACR right now. ARMY!

[Drew]

Me too..Did that stuff really ever work right?
Anyway great photos bud.. My nephew is down there with the 2nd ACR right now. ARMY!

Miles gear... ugh.... We had to all get issued the stuff, zero the lasers, get the crap put on the Bradleys and make sure it all worked and.... WE NEVER USED IT. The OC's just went around and told people they were hit and handed them a casualty card so we could play out their scenarios.

We passed the 3rd ACR on our way out of there. They are okay in my book now because their cooks had to take care of us for a few days and that was the best Army chow I've ever had.

[Norton]

Sorry I typed in a 2 not a 3 he is a Brad crewmen in the 3rd ARC.. He would be pissed had he know I posted that..

[drine]

The Marines were there when we went to NTC.(1986) I got tasked to drive the BN XO for a while(1stCAV) and we had a HUM-V load. A young Marine was getting out of his AM-Trak and snagged a trip flare he had on his web gear. He grabbed it but the pin was out and it popped. Burnt his hand pretty bad. We drove up and happened to have the head of the Medics with us. This Marine didn't want him to look at his hand saying he wanted the corpsman instead. His pride/espirit de corps wouldn't allow it. We all waited for the corpsman and our medic chief assisted. What they didn't realize is our medic had lost his financial aid and had to leave medical school with quite a few years already to his credit. I never found if he was evac'd or stayed. I know he sure didn't want to leave!
Oh yea, it's also the first time I ate rattlesnake. One of scouts(former Ranger) caught the thing and the cooks fried it up. Pretty good!
Nice place to visit but a month is too long!
Used to be lots of "funky" stuff in and around there.

[pfdr22]

If the picture with all the soldiers sleeping under overhead cover is in the catonment area before you go into "the box" they've upgraded the sleeping arrangements quite a bit. I was there in 93 as the operations sergeant major of the 3rd Brigade's S-3 shop of the 101st AIrborne Division (AASLT) and have vivid memories of misery. Did you see a lot of coyotes? They were starting to come onto the main post area and were becoming quite a problem. I wanted to bring one back as a Brigade mascot but was told it was one of my less than stellar ideas. (Damn colonels, no sense of humor.) Now that you're back, replace fluids, drink much beer!

[Drew]

If the picture with all the soldiers sleeping under overhead cover is in the catonment area before you go into "the box" they've upgraded the sleeping arrangements quite a bit. I was there in 93 as the operations sergeant major of the 3rd Brigade's S-3 shop of the 101st AIrborne Division (AASLT) and have vivid memories of misery. Did you see a lot of coyotes? They were starting to come onto the main post area and were becoming quite a problem. I wanted to bring one back as a Brigade mascot but was told it was one of my less than stellar ideas. (Damn colonels, no sense of humor.) Now that you're back, replace fluids, drink much beer!

[parade rest]
That tent is where we slept when we were back on the FOB where we operated out of when we were lucky to actually get back to it. We spent most of the time doing 36 hour patrols and what not. When we were back at the dust bowl we slept outside under those lovely metal porch like roofs, which was actually nicer than the tent... at least we could catch a breeze outside!

They have NTC setup now to be as much like Iraq as they can make it. Its not so much about the High Intensity Conflict force-on-force stuff anymore. We did tons of patrols, raids, escorts... etc... and everywhere we went we had to deal with the threat of IED's and complex attacks.

They have a bunch of villages setup where they have real Iraqis living for the rotation participating in each of the scenarios. Makes for some realistic rather realistic training as far as dealing with a language barrier and totally different train of thought.
I got a kick out of the radio chatter I heard when one squad raided a house and all you heard when they keyed up was a woman screaming bloody murder in Arabic.
We also had an IA platoon attached with us at times which was made up of actual Kurds that we had to work with. From a new guy perspective that was pretty neat to experience.

As far as Coyotes, They were everywhere! On more than one occasion they came within 10m of us. They definitely didn't seem bothered by our presence.

We've got a four day coming up this weekend, can't wait to get home and put some rounds through my PTR91!
[/parade rest]

:wink:

[drine]

"As far as Coyotes, They were everywhere! On more than one occasion they came within 10m of us. They definitely didn't seem bothered by our presence."

At the Graf range in Germany, the 1SG was a LRRP from NAM.(RANGER tab but no wings) Crazy/fun as hell! The wild boars are a nuisance there. He took an M16, a blank, and a section of cleaning rod and managed to bring one down....after a lot of running and screaming on both fronts. He had some of us start to clean it when we were told they were usually diseased.

I think I miss these "war stories" most of all!

[G]

Drew glad you are back, thank you so much, and all you guys for your service

[Cavalryman]

Damn colonels, no sense of humor.

Hey, I resemble that, you maggot! :dabird:

[Phirebug]

couldn't help but notice all those 4th ID patches...If you ain't Cav, you ain't...hehe, j/k...are you guys all moved into Carson now? how do you like it?

Nice pics! I've never been to NTC but everybody here sure has some interesting stories about it.

[Drew]

This is my first duty station and as fas as I'm aware they have been up here for a while. The other two Brigades in Hood are still preparing to make the move up here, should still be a few more years.
I've been in San Antonio the last ten years so being up in the Mountains is quite a change. The scenery is definitely worth being up here on its own.

The only downside is the elevation, doing PT at 6200ft changes things a bit. You don't realize how big of a difference it is until you get back down and notice you aren't sucking for air.

NTC wasn't too bad and we got some good training out of it. The worst thing was the sand... Its a fine powder that blows around all day and gets into everything!

[gunbunny]

A tent at NTC!!??!! Next thing you're gonna tell me is that they now have running water! Back in '85 or '86 we went from the dust bowl, to the field, and back to the dust bowl.

Sounds like some GREAT, highly-realistic training for Iraq.

[Rampager]

Thanks for the pics and thank you for your service. :America: