Geoff at NTC continued

Here is the update from California. He hasn't been able to write as often because of not having service on his phone. Just about one more week left and he will be home. YAH!!! Don't forget 

- = P.

If anything happens with Ellie and I and I don't have the ability to call. This is how you get in touch with Geoff (if he doesn't answer his cell phone): 

Call the Red Cross and tell them the situation and tell them you need Geoffrey Miller and this is where he is:  B troop 1st squadron 108 RSTA roster number mil6619 FOB Dallas NV470982 FT Irwin CA

5-26-2008 

The -ast few days have been interesting. First we had medical training on the 23rd. We learned a new way to control bleeding that was discovered by s-ecial o-erations forces. Its cool to know something that big Army hasn't found out about. We also watched videos on the royal marines in afghanistan which was neat. We've gotton several briefs on Afghanistan and what to ex-ect in real cobat. Some of the SF guys have had 3 tours in afghanistan so they have a lot of knowledge we really want to hear.  On the 24th we went to our convoy livefire area. We did a cou-le of dry runs. We then went to a mortor range and fired mortors, 240b, and .50 cal machine guns. It was a great feeling to just get out of the truck and start shooting. Normally when we are not with SF we have to go through a ton of useless safety stuff.  This is when Dusty and I climbed the mountain to call you. Yesterday, the 24th we went to our convoy livefire range. My SF team let me run the livefire mission which was great. We waited for the night mission for five hours and then the range got canceled. We got a helment camcorder from our SF Commander. We tried to film our livefire but had tech difficulties. We have it figured out now so we should be able to get some cool footage. I want to get some footage of a direct action hit on an enemy com-ound. We'll see. The highlight of my day was talking to the SF sni-ers about shooting and reloading. These are the only guys in the Army that actually know what they are talking about. Right now we're growing beards and wearing desert camo uniforms to start getting into our roles of host-nation forces that are getting trained by SF. On our FTX we will fight with SF just like host nation forces. Today was a recovery day and we drove HMMWVs to the Commisary and -X. I got yelled at by a LTC with a bad attitide for -arking our vehicles in the wrong area. What a tool bag. Like we maliciously -arked in the wrong area. Anyway, maybe we can get some cool video footage. That's what's going on. Ho-e you're having a good time and I'll talk to you soon.

5-30-2008

Hello! Here's the lowdown. We arrived at our forward o-erating base yesterday just afternoon. We moved in 26 vehicle convoy for about an hour. It's very dusty. When I check my G-S I have to clear the dust off so I can read it. Everybody was mad when we got here because of the conditions but it's no worse than anywhere else. It's another tent but just a little smaller. The cow at the fob is better than it was in the other area but still army food. We got out of bed this morning at 4am to hel- an active duty unit. We were ther security element in a city called four corners. They have hired 250 actual iraqi contractors to live there. When we rolled in there was a huge mass casualty situation. There were real am-utees acting as the wounded soldiers and civilians. It was a little disturbing but realistic. I sent my HMMWV and another one to the front of the city and the other two to the back. All of the gunners were shooting bad guys and I took a stack of dudes into a house and killed two dudes. Josh Lasley got shot by a sni-er and one of our vehicles got hit by an IED. Everyone reacted well and we out-erformed the active duty guys by far. The SF team was im-ressed and Mays got the two back vehicles on helmet-cam. Tomorrow we have a quick reaction force mission so it should be chill unless Danny gets lit u-. Dusty is at a different fob so we haven't seen him in a few days. Our new commander wants me to stay here in B troo-. The commander of the 48th BDE came by looking for me today to talk to me about it but I was out on a mission. I've never had an 0-6 trying to find me. Ho-efully this will set me u- for a com-any command. I want to command an embedded training team when we de-loy if we don't go as a com-any. If I did that I would only have 16 dudes but we would get an Afghani Batallion to train and fight with. Anyway, more about that later. I'll try to find some service tomorrow and give you a call.

Geoff at NTC

Here are some e-mails that Geoff has sent me from NTC in California. If your interested they are pretty detailed about what all they have been up to out there.  P.S. the P key on his blackberry is stuck so anytime you see a - it is in the place of the letter P. 

Day 1

We left the armory this morning at 0730 and got to the air-ort around 0930.  We went to a cargo bay near the air-ort and boarded a 737.  Our two units filled u- the whole aircraft. We landed in Dalla TX around 1200.  We took off again and flew into nowhere CA, drove 2hrs across the desert and arrived here at NTC.  Our bus had no AC which was interesting in the 100+ degree heat.  We un-acked our stuff and the meetings began.  Five meetings later it's time to walk half a mile to the latrine and shave. It looks like we'll be here in a big tent for a week, in the all-out combat area for a week and then back here. I met my s-ecial forces guy and he seems cool.  They have lots of technology that we'll get before we mobilize so I can't wait to learn how to use it to it's full ca-ability. We had a guy forget his helmet but other than that we are so far so good.  More tomorrow, lots of sni-er training so that will be cool.  Take care of yourself and ellie! 
Love Geoff

 

 Day 2

Our tents have dro- cords where we can charge stuff.  We have air conditioning in our o-erations center so for our big meeting each day at 1800 we get AC..  We're going to the field for our second week so we'll be moving.  Right now we get two hot meals of yum army food and an MRE for lunch.  The showers and the outdoor chow hall are literally a half mile from our tent so this adds a degree of difficulty and need for time management. It looks like a shower every few days will have to work. It seems like I have brought everything I need so that is good. Right now we are going to mandatory briefings for our training area and getting our vehicles equi--ed with miles gear, which is like high-tech laser tag. Tomorrow we start on ranges so we're very anxious to get out and actually do something. On the way in yesterday I saw a dust devil, which is a dust tornado. Evidently these are common but I had never heard of one. It turns out that our bus from the air-ort was the only one withot AC. I ho-e you are right about it cooling off. We're ready for it. Dusty, Danny and I had a bible study this morning on James cha-ter 1 and 2. Ho-efully we can maintain this throughout but we'll see. We're all somewhat miserable right now but our bodies will adjust. I love you and I will call you later.

 Day 4

We did medical training most of the day today. It was still 99 but it felt a lot better than yesterday's 105. Ihaven't been slee-ing very well I assume because of the full moon. Maybe tonight will be better. We're doing urban stuff tomorrow so it should be really good training. The SF guys are fun but they like -lanning as they go which causes huge issues for us. Their command doesn't have to re-ort to higher like we do. Our commander is freaking out because we have 2 SM- cadets here with us. He said if they got hurt we could go to jail. I told him he was wrong but he doesn't understand. This will cause heated discussion tomorrow for sure. I may have to break out the regs on him. He also works for recruiting and retention command so he should know better. My guys are doing well with aquisitioning our missing items. We were missing wea-ons mounts and antennas for our HMMWVs but after it got dark they majically found their way to our vehicles. We're ready to roll in the morning now with no issues. I'm more than ready for the livefire we have coming soon. Ammo allocation is always a nightmare but it will be woth it. There's nothing like seeing the results of years of training all at one time with real bullets and real holes in targets. It turns out we will be fighting with SF during our FTX like we are afghan nation army soldiers. They're asking us to grow beards and wear different uniforms. This should increase morale if our command will -lay along. I miss you and ellie belly. Stay busy and I will be home before you know it. I love you and will try to call tomorrow.

Quiet Monday

Today was a good day. I went to work and helped with cheerleading tryouts. I really like the idea of being able to help when I feel like it and not having to be there all the time. Then I thought I was going to have to stay for the 5th grade open house but the other teachers told me to go home since I wasn't going to be at Davis next year. I had an IEP today that the parents weren't able to come to so I just sent the paperwork home. I also got a really nice compliment from our assistant principal. She said she really wished I wasn't leaving Davis and that if I wasn't she would have offered me the head of the SPED department job. I would not want that job but I was definitely stunned by what that meant. I have only been a teacher for a year and a half and she wants to promote me to department head already. I felt like that was really saying a lot. I just hope I can make as good of an impression at Chestatee next year. So I got to come home early and spend a quiet evening with Geoff. We had some Moe's for dinner and just hung out some. He made me waffles for breakfast on our new waffle maker. We learned that even though the waffle maker is non-stick you really should still use cooking spray. The first waffle did not come out so good but the second was very yummy. A couple of weeks ago he decided he wanted to make breakfast for us everyday before work and I have absolutely loved it. We get to spend some time together in the morning and it starts my day of great. He is so sweet for doing that for me. This past weekend was great too. It was a drill weekend and usually I hate them but this one wasn't' bad.  I worked and then went to meet Geoff at John and Jen's house where we stayed and dog sat Saturday night. John and Jen were really nice for letting us stay at their house. It really helped Geoff out not to have to drive but still be able to spend some time with me, Hailey, and Holly. We also went to a Guard bonfire. It was fun and very interesting as usually (those guys are really different from what I am use too). Sunday I slept late. I missed church and that makes me sad but I just couldn't swing it this week. Then I picked Geoff up from drill (early amazingly enough). We headed home and since are AC isn't working our wonderful friends Pat and Mel let us come eat dinner with them in their cool house. They even cooked our food for us so our house wouldn't get hot, aren't they awesome. I am excited about tomorrow night because we get to watch baby Shay while Pat and Mel go out for an evening. I really truly love Shay and he makes me so excited about Ellie. Well that's enough about my boring life. I am sure everyone gets tired of hearing about how great my friends and husband are.