thedrifter
12-17-07, 03:17 AM
A walk in his boots
A Milwaukee Marine dodges snipers, learns Arabic and helps the wounded as he prepares for deployment
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 16, 2007
Twentynine Palms, Calif. - Cpl. Ryan Lackey sits up in his sleeping bag and switches on the red light of his headlamp.
It is 0500 in a drafty, unheated tent in the Mojave Desert. Outside, the temperature is in the 30s; inside Lackey's tent, not much warmer. He blinks his eyes open and tries to rub away the sleep as around him his fellow Marines cough, snort, groan, gripe and complain.
Lackey, 22, of Milwaukee, pulls on his uniform pants, T-shirt, fleece shirt and uniform shirt, ties his boot laces, grabs his electric shaver and M-16 rifle and walks out of the tent toward an area where "Hygiene" has been spray-painted on plywood. Marines stand in open-air stalls to brush their teeth with water from a water tanker parked nearby.
Lackey stands off to the side shaving in the semi-darkness, his breath forming small white clouds. Close by, plastic doors of portable toilets slam. Lackey didn't bring his toothbrush - he cleaned his teeth the night before. Done shaving, Lackey blows out the hairs from his shaver and trudges back to his tent.
He has just finished the hardest part of his day.
Although he will spend the rest of it running through the streets of a small city designed to look like an Iraqi village - administering aid to a role player screaming about his blown-off foot, taking cover from snipers and explosions, learning Arabic and instructing others in his unit about what to expect in Iraq - it is all cake compared to getting out of his warm sleeping bag.
"The hardest part is the morning. The rest of the day is all down from here," Lackey says.
Lackey and the rest of Milwaukee-based Fox Company of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines have been at the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command center since Sept. 17 training for the battalion's second deployment to Iraq.
Training has been grueling, mentally challenging and physically demanding. Since Monday, Fox Company has been staying at a small camp near a training facility designed to simulate Iraq. They'll finish training with a 72-hour combat scenario this week before they get time off for the holidays and ship out to Iraq in January.
One day
What's it like to prepare for the violence, danger and constantly changing situation in Iraq? Here's one day in the life of a Milwaukee Marine training for his next mission.
As a team leader, Lackey is responsible for making sure everyone in Fox Company's 3rd Platoon, 2nd Squad has their weapons at the start of the day. After supplying the weapons count to another Marine, he tidies his cot and pulls out the brown Meals, Ready to Eat (MRE) bag that doubles as his pillow.
"I'll probably try to choke this down later today," Lackey says of the beef patty MRE.
It's 0555. Sgt. Billy Harris, the squad commander, tells his Marines to fall out.
There's no hot breakfast because they're in intensive training now, so the Marines line up for cake, Pop-Tarts and what they call "wet hots" - coffee and chicken broth. Because the lowest-ranking Marines get to eat first, Lackey goes to the end of the line.
He drinks a cup of broth before Fox Company forms in two lines and marches the three-quarters of a mile from the camp to the training site as the sky starts to turn lemon yellow. It's 0615.
Lackey grew up in Milwaukee, where his mother is a nurse and his father works for the county. A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee anthropology major, Lackey would have graduated last May had his studies not been delayed by deployments. He joined a Marine Reserves infantry unit because he wanted to be a combat veteran.
"I wanted to be a grunt," he said. "I wanted to fight."
On this day - last Thursday - Fox Company is training with tanks and amphibious assault vehicles.
By 0700, Lackey and his platoon are listening to an instructor drill them on how to make a radio report of a medical evacuation or location of a bomb. They clamber around an Abrams tank and squeeze into an amphibious assault vehicle.
Third Platoon splits off into squads, and Lackey's group heads to an area where the Marines learn how to use an amphibious assault vehicle to enter a building from the second floor. At 0830, they're standing outside another building when a loud explosive is detonated and they run in to find two severely wounded people.
Matt Carter, a civilian, is sitting on the floor covered in fake blood. He's screaming. "(Expletive) take care of my Marines first. You (expletive) understand me?"
As the Marines crowd around Carter and another role player with a chest wound, Lackey kicks away the blood-soaked boot and severed ankle and puts pressure on the wound.
"C'mon, buddy, we'll get you out of here," Lackey says.
As instructors yell at the Marines to check for vital signs, not to let the wounded man see his severed foot and to keep him warm to prevent shock, Lackey elevates the man's remaining foot. Afterward, Carter tells Lackey's squad that they skillfully handled applying a tourniquet. He also tells them that he hopes they won't have to see something like that.
"These guys are very well prepped," Carter says. "They're in the upper 10 percent of the Marines that I've seen come through. If something happens, they can save each other."
At 0850, Lackey and the Marines fan out around a tank as it rumbles through the streets. Merchants standing in front of stalls speak Arabic to the Marines, hand them apples and try to sell them prayer beads.
As he holds his rifle in front of him, scanning the alleys, second-floor windows and people on the street, Lackey politely tells them in Arabic that he's not interested. Harris yells at one of the Marines for accepting a cup of coffee and holding it in the same hand he would need to fire his weapon.
Lackey and his squad sit down in front of a building to wait for their Arabic lesson. It's 0940. Lackey opens a small can of mixed fruit, tilts his head back and gulps. The Marines share raisins, sunflower seeds and cigarettes.
An Iraqi wearing a white robe, camouflage jacket and Michigan State cap starts the lesson by telling them how to say hello and how to ask for the man of the house when they knock on a door. He tells them not to speak or try to shake hands with women inside the house and to separate the men from the women and children before searching.
Within 10 minutes, 2nd Squad leaves the Arabic class to move through the same streets and market area, but this time, they come under sniper fire. Then they debrief for a few minutes while Lackey eats mango applesauce from an MRE. Before they get word to head back to their base, they talk about how much better-tasting British MREs are, they talk about sex, they tell one of the Marines to dump his girlfriend, and they discuss what it will be like when they get to Iraq.
By 1110, they're back at their camp, cleaning weapons and eating MREs while Lackey and other platoon and squad commanders meet to learn about that afternoon's training mission.
Lackey heats up the MRE he used as a pillow the previous night, using a tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce to give some flavor to his lunch. He gets his gear ready and answers questions from his team members. At 1330, they get the order to pull on their gear. They walk toward three amphibious assault vehicles, which take them to the outskirts of the city.
At 1415, the back doors swing down, and Lackey and the other troops run through the openings and take their positions. They cautiously move through the faux community until shots ring out, explosions erupt and a trainer tells one of the Marines that he's just been shot in the neck.
"Hey, I got one casualty. Lackey, I need support," Harris yells.
Lackey responds, "Support up!" as he directs troops to the fallen man, pops open a canister of green smoke and throws it in front of a building where the wounded Marine has been dragged.
An instructor acting as a sniper shoots at them. Lackey sees him and hollers, "Hey, second-story window," as Marines return fire.
An hour later, the Marines finish the exercise and regroup.
"They definitely hit us with some curveballs. I thought we reacted well," Lackey says. "We killed a sniper and evacuated a casualty without incurring any other casualties. That's a good day in my book, though there's always room for improvement."
Back in the camp, it's 1800 and hot chow has arrived. Lackey goes to the back of the line at the edge of the camp, lighted by the headlights of Humvees. He gets a cardboard tray with spaghetti noodles and ground beef, a scoop of rice, corn niblets, peaches, a cup of fruit punch and a bag of Reese's Pieces.
In the darkness, he searches for a place to eat and finds the hood of a Humvee, where he sets down his steaming tray, leans over and rapidly shovels in the food before it gets cold. Temperatures have fallen back into the 30s.
"Believe it or not, it's really good," says Lance Cpl. Alan Breger, 22, of West Bend as he stands next to Lackey.
"Of course it is, it's hot and it's not out of a (MRE) bag," Lackey replies.
At 1835, they have another Arabic class. By 1900, they're back in the tent, where Lackey quizzes his troops about what to do when they're hit by a sniper.
The other Marines haven't been to Iraq and listen closely to Lackey's advice. During the next 95 minutes, Lackey gives them scenarios and asks them what they would do, he tells them what mortars sound like when they're launched, he explains how snipers operate and the importance of communicating.
"I'm not trying to scare you, but I want you to be aware of this," he tells them.
At 2035, Harris tells the Marines that they must get their pictures taken by 2100. The photos are to be used in case anyone is kidnapped or missing in action. Lackey gets his photo taken. Then he brushes his teeth and goes back to his tent.
He turns off his headlamp.
It's 2115. He's got seven hours before reveille.
Ellie
A Milwaukee Marine dodges snipers, learns Arabic and helps the wounded as he prepares for deployment
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 16, 2007
Twentynine Palms, Calif. - Cpl. Ryan Lackey sits up in his sleeping bag and switches on the red light of his headlamp.
It is 0500 in a drafty, unheated tent in the Mojave Desert. Outside, the temperature is in the 30s; inside Lackey's tent, not much warmer. He blinks his eyes open and tries to rub away the sleep as around him his fellow Marines cough, snort, groan, gripe and complain.
Lackey, 22, of Milwaukee, pulls on his uniform pants, T-shirt, fleece shirt and uniform shirt, ties his boot laces, grabs his electric shaver and M-16 rifle and walks out of the tent toward an area where "Hygiene" has been spray-painted on plywood. Marines stand in open-air stalls to brush their teeth with water from a water tanker parked nearby.
Lackey stands off to the side shaving in the semi-darkness, his breath forming small white clouds. Close by, plastic doors of portable toilets slam. Lackey didn't bring his toothbrush - he cleaned his teeth the night before. Done shaving, Lackey blows out the hairs from his shaver and trudges back to his tent.
He has just finished the hardest part of his day.
Although he will spend the rest of it running through the streets of a small city designed to look like an Iraqi village - administering aid to a role player screaming about his blown-off foot, taking cover from snipers and explosions, learning Arabic and instructing others in his unit about what to expect in Iraq - it is all cake compared to getting out of his warm sleeping bag.
"The hardest part is the morning. The rest of the day is all down from here," Lackey says.
Lackey and the rest of Milwaukee-based Fox Company of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines have been at the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command center since Sept. 17 training for the battalion's second deployment to Iraq.
Training has been grueling, mentally challenging and physically demanding. Since Monday, Fox Company has been staying at a small camp near a training facility designed to simulate Iraq. They'll finish training with a 72-hour combat scenario this week before they get time off for the holidays and ship out to Iraq in January.
One day
What's it like to prepare for the violence, danger and constantly changing situation in Iraq? Here's one day in the life of a Milwaukee Marine training for his next mission.
As a team leader, Lackey is responsible for making sure everyone in Fox Company's 3rd Platoon, 2nd Squad has their weapons at the start of the day. After supplying the weapons count to another Marine, he tidies his cot and pulls out the brown Meals, Ready to Eat (MRE) bag that doubles as his pillow.
"I'll probably try to choke this down later today," Lackey says of the beef patty MRE.
It's 0555. Sgt. Billy Harris, the squad commander, tells his Marines to fall out.
There's no hot breakfast because they're in intensive training now, so the Marines line up for cake, Pop-Tarts and what they call "wet hots" - coffee and chicken broth. Because the lowest-ranking Marines get to eat first, Lackey goes to the end of the line.
He drinks a cup of broth before Fox Company forms in two lines and marches the three-quarters of a mile from the camp to the training site as the sky starts to turn lemon yellow. It's 0615.
Lackey grew up in Milwaukee, where his mother is a nurse and his father works for the county. A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee anthropology major, Lackey would have graduated last May had his studies not been delayed by deployments. He joined a Marine Reserves infantry unit because he wanted to be a combat veteran.
"I wanted to be a grunt," he said. "I wanted to fight."
On this day - last Thursday - Fox Company is training with tanks and amphibious assault vehicles.
By 0700, Lackey and his platoon are listening to an instructor drill them on how to make a radio report of a medical evacuation or location of a bomb. They clamber around an Abrams tank and squeeze into an amphibious assault vehicle.
Third Platoon splits off into squads, and Lackey's group heads to an area where the Marines learn how to use an amphibious assault vehicle to enter a building from the second floor. At 0830, they're standing outside another building when a loud explosive is detonated and they run in to find two severely wounded people.
Matt Carter, a civilian, is sitting on the floor covered in fake blood. He's screaming. "(Expletive) take care of my Marines first. You (expletive) understand me?"
As the Marines crowd around Carter and another role player with a chest wound, Lackey kicks away the blood-soaked boot and severed ankle and puts pressure on the wound.
"C'mon, buddy, we'll get you out of here," Lackey says.
As instructors yell at the Marines to check for vital signs, not to let the wounded man see his severed foot and to keep him warm to prevent shock, Lackey elevates the man's remaining foot. Afterward, Carter tells Lackey's squad that they skillfully handled applying a tourniquet. He also tells them that he hopes they won't have to see something like that.
"These guys are very well prepped," Carter says. "They're in the upper 10 percent of the Marines that I've seen come through. If something happens, they can save each other."
At 0850, Lackey and the Marines fan out around a tank as it rumbles through the streets. Merchants standing in front of stalls speak Arabic to the Marines, hand them apples and try to sell them prayer beads.
As he holds his rifle in front of him, scanning the alleys, second-floor windows and people on the street, Lackey politely tells them in Arabic that he's not interested. Harris yells at one of the Marines for accepting a cup of coffee and holding it in the same hand he would need to fire his weapon.
Lackey and his squad sit down in front of a building to wait for their Arabic lesson. It's 0940. Lackey opens a small can of mixed fruit, tilts his head back and gulps. The Marines share raisins, sunflower seeds and cigarettes.
An Iraqi wearing a white robe, camouflage jacket and Michigan State cap starts the lesson by telling them how to say hello and how to ask for the man of the house when they knock on a door. He tells them not to speak or try to shake hands with women inside the house and to separate the men from the women and children before searching.
Within 10 minutes, 2nd Squad leaves the Arabic class to move through the same streets and market area, but this time, they come under sniper fire. Then they debrief for a few minutes while Lackey eats mango applesauce from an MRE. Before they get word to head back to their base, they talk about how much better-tasting British MREs are, they talk about sex, they tell one of the Marines to dump his girlfriend, and they discuss what it will be like when they get to Iraq.
By 1110, they're back at their camp, cleaning weapons and eating MREs while Lackey and other platoon and squad commanders meet to learn about that afternoon's training mission.
Lackey heats up the MRE he used as a pillow the previous night, using a tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce to give some flavor to his lunch. He gets his gear ready and answers questions from his team members. At 1330, they get the order to pull on their gear. They walk toward three amphibious assault vehicles, which take them to the outskirts of the city.
At 1415, the back doors swing down, and Lackey and the other troops run through the openings and take their positions. They cautiously move through the faux community until shots ring out, explosions erupt and a trainer tells one of the Marines that he's just been shot in the neck.
"Hey, I got one casualty. Lackey, I need support," Harris yells.
Lackey responds, "Support up!" as he directs troops to the fallen man, pops open a canister of green smoke and throws it in front of a building where the wounded Marine has been dragged.
An instructor acting as a sniper shoots at them. Lackey sees him and hollers, "Hey, second-story window," as Marines return fire.
An hour later, the Marines finish the exercise and regroup.
"They definitely hit us with some curveballs. I thought we reacted well," Lackey says. "We killed a sniper and evacuated a casualty without incurring any other casualties. That's a good day in my book, though there's always room for improvement."
Back in the camp, it's 1800 and hot chow has arrived. Lackey goes to the back of the line at the edge of the camp, lighted by the headlights of Humvees. He gets a cardboard tray with spaghetti noodles and ground beef, a scoop of rice, corn niblets, peaches, a cup of fruit punch and a bag of Reese's Pieces.
In the darkness, he searches for a place to eat and finds the hood of a Humvee, where he sets down his steaming tray, leans over and rapidly shovels in the food before it gets cold. Temperatures have fallen back into the 30s.
"Believe it or not, it's really good," says Lance Cpl. Alan Breger, 22, of West Bend as he stands next to Lackey.
"Of course it is, it's hot and it's not out of a (MRE) bag," Lackey replies.
At 1835, they have another Arabic class. By 1900, they're back in the tent, where Lackey quizzes his troops about what to do when they're hit by a sniper.
The other Marines haven't been to Iraq and listen closely to Lackey's advice. During the next 95 minutes, Lackey gives them scenarios and asks them what they would do, he tells them what mortars sound like when they're launched, he explains how snipers operate and the importance of communicating.
"I'm not trying to scare you, but I want you to be aware of this," he tells them.
At 2035, Harris tells the Marines that they must get their pictures taken by 2100. The photos are to be used in case anyone is kidnapped or missing in action. Lackey gets his photo taken. Then he brushes his teeth and goes back to his tent.
He turns off his headlamp.
It's 2115. He's got seven hours before reveille.
Ellie