HAT YAO, Thailand (Feb. 4, 2010) Republic of Korea amphibious assault vehicles release a smoke screen before hitting the beach during a Cobra Gold 2010 amphibious landing demonstration at Hat Yao Beach during. Cobra Gold is a joint and coalition multinational exercise hosted annually by the Kingdom of Thailand. (US Navy photo by Lt. Cmdr. Denver Applehans/Released)

Sgt. Jesse Hertzog, a medic with the 1/73 CAV, uses a DLI Haitian-English Basic language survival guide to look up a phrase so he could help a Haitian man who was injured in the Jan. 12 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. According to the guide, "Mwen pwal ede" translates to "I am going to help."

Snow is seen on a statute at the Korean War Memorial in Washington on Saturday, Feb. 6, as a historic snow storm hit the nation’s capital with snow amounts ranging from 22 to 37 inches. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, U.S. Division-Center, swiftly departs the flight line Jan. 11 at Camp Taji, Iraq, as day turns to night. The 1st ACB conducts aviation operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in support of U.S. and Iraqi forces. (Army photo)

Rainbow Sideboys render honors to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead as he comes aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz last month while Nimitz was underway in the North Arabian Sea. When a distinguished visitor arrives aboard an aircraft capable ship, it is customary to muster the “Rainbow Sideboys.” Sailors who work on flight decks wear brightly colored jerseys to identify the job they perform. Yellow jerseys identify aircraft handlers and shooters, purple jerseys identify aircraft refuelers, blue jerseys identify elevator operators, green jerseys identify catapult/arresting crew, and white jerseys identify safety and landing signall crew members. When mustered, sailors wearing these colored jerseys line up opposite one another at the entrance to the ship to render honors to the arriving distinguished visitor. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class James Mitchell/Released)

Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, replace the right windshield on a Humvee after a Haitian child threw a rock at it. The Soldiers are in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to help provide earthquake relief.

Some young children use the plastic bags that contain humanitarian meals as makeshift boots at a survivor camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 21, 2010. Officials estimate that there are as many as 10,000 families living in the camp just below a relief distribution point set up by the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment. DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III

Pvt. 2 Zachariah Thompson, of Saukcentre, Minn., belonging to 2nd Battalion 12th Infantry, recovers from a bloody nose between rounds during a recent boxing match at Command Outpost Michigan near the village of Kandigal, in the Pech river valley, Kunar province, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

An airman from the 169th Fight Squadron of the South Carolina Air National Guard participates in the Scramble competition Oct. 21, 2009, at Mwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan, during Falcon Air Meet 2009.  The Falcon Air Meet is a friendly competition centered on the F-16 Fighting Falcon. F-16 units from Jordan, Belgium and the 169th competed in this fourth annual event hosted in Jordan.  (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Wolfram M. Stumpf)

For as long as there have been wars, there have been good-luck charms carried by soldiers to protect them from harm. Some carry religious medals, while others might try a lucky rabbit’s foot. In this 2008 photo from the  Korengal Valley of Afghanistan, U.S. Army Spc. Kyle Stephenson, 21, shows a four-leaf clover he carries as his “lucky charm” after climbing a mountain with fellow soldiers in eastern Afghanistan. American forces from 2nd Platoon, Viper Company, of the 1-26 Infantry occupied a strategic mountaintop and were attacked by Taliban insurgents. No Americans were injured in the ensuing firefight and Taliban casualties were unknown. The luck of the Irish was with them.  (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Taina, a 12-year-old Haitian girl, screams in pain as Sgt. Jesse Hertzog and other medics from the 1-73rd, 82nd Airborne Division, pour a peroxide solution on her wounded arm at a one-doctor clinic in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Saturday, Jan. 23. The medics were at the clinic on a "tailgate medicine" mission when Taina was brought in. The young girl had bandages on three of her limbs, and as the medics unwrapped each one, the wounds revealed were more and more severe, culminating in the largest on her left arm. The medics used the peroxide solution to moisten the bandages, which had dried up and adhered to Taina's wounds, and thought that her arm and left leg may have been broken. As they were losing light, all they could do was clean the wound, rewrap it, and ask the doctor at the clinic to get Taina to a hospital as soon as possible.

On the helo ride from the Port-au-Prince airport to the Petionville Country Club, where the 1-73rd was in control, we circled a few times, and this aircrewman waved and gave the thumbs-up ... he turned and saw me watching, smiled, shouted "MY HOUSE!" and pointed at the side of his helmet. I never got his name, but I will remember the size of this Haitian sailor's smile.

Sgt. Michael Frink, HHT, 1-73rd, 82nd Airborne Division, washes his blouse for the first time in a week at the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Sunday, Jan. 24. Human showers were much harder to come by. Some of the soldiers said they felt that the living conditions in Haiti were more austere than those in Kuwait or Afghanistan.

Soldiers from the 1-73rd, 82nd Airborne Division, play their version of handball using a found tennis ball at the Petionville Country Club in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Sunday, January 24, 2010. The Soldiers were on stand-by to offload helicopters that would fly in unexpectedly with supplies like food and water. Shortly after the photo was taken, the Soldiers were informed that they were no longer allowed to play games while waiting.

A Navy helicopter hovers over the landing zone at FOB Gray, run by the 1-73rd, 82nd Airborne Division, at the Petionville Country Club in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Saturday, January 23, 2010.

Capt. Mark Poirier, an internist assigned to Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, N.C., checks a Haitian man for neck and spinal injury at the home/clinic of a doctor in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010. The man was complaining of a stiff neck and sore chest muscles after extracting himself from beneath his home, which collapsed during the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Women carry five-gallon jugs of water in cardboard boxes back to the tent city they are living in on a golf course at the Petionville Country Club in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010.

A soldier from the 1-73rd, 82nd Airborne Division, attempts to get some sleep in the middle of a tennis court at the Petionville Country Club in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Friday, Jan. 22, 2010. The soldiers had just received the cots that day after a week of sleeping on the ground.

One of many Navy helos on the airfield at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Thursday, January 21, 2010, but the only one with a painted tail.

A boy holds the hand of a Soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, as they walk through a survivor camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 21, 2010. The soldiers are visiting the camps to locate and help people who are injured but cannot make it to the medical station at the temporary forward operating base nearby. The number of U.S. troops in the country is expected to swell to 20,000 in the coming days. (Photo by Fred W. Baker III)

Provincial Reconstruction Team-Kunar security forces members from the Nevada National Guard’s 1st Squadron, 221st Calvary Regiment currently assigned to Camp Wright in Asadabad, Afghanistan, move along the camp’s exterior during a night patrol of the perimeter, Jan. 24. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Brian Boisvert, Kunar Provincial Reconstruction Team Public Affairs)

A member of the Los Angeles County Fire Department Search and Rescue team uses a heavy-duty saw to cut debris away from a collapsed building in downtown Port-au-Prince. Part-au-Prince was hit by a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake Jan. 12, 2010. (Photo by MC2 Justin Stumberg)

Jean Gerber, 11, center, grimaces as medic Buddy Davis removes a bandage to check on the boy’s wound at a country club used as a fort operating base for the 82nd Airborne Division in Port-au-Prince, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010. Relief groups and officials are focused on moving aid flowing into Haiti to survivors of the powerful earthquake that hit the country on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Petty Officer 3rd Class Cameron Croteau, a Damage Controlman aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Oak, carries an injured Haitian girl to an awaiting Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010. Coast Guard and Navy helicopters airlifted injured Haitians to a private hospital in Milot, Haiti. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Brandyn Hill.)

Haitian citizens watch as Sailors and Marines assigned to the Bataan Amphibious Relief Mission begin to come ashore to set up an operating base at the New Hope Mission at Bonel, Haiti. The multi-purpose amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) is on station in Haiti with the amphibious dock landing ships USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43), USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44), and USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) supporting Operation Unified Response, a joint humanitarian assistance mission to Haiti following a 7.0 magnitude on Jan. 12. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kristopher Wilson)

Marines dig pits, which will serve as their living spaces and fill sandbags at Observation Post Huskars in Helmand province, Jan. 14, 2010. The Marines and sailors of Alpha and Weapons Companies, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment and attachments from 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, have moved deeper into Helmand province in order to limit the Taliban’s control over the area, by having a more prominent coalition force presence in the region. (Photo by Lance Cpl. James Clark)

Air Force Tech Sgt. Nicholas Wentworth hangs an intravenous solution inside an MH-60S Sea Hawk prior to flying an earthquake victim to the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson for medical treatment Jan. 17. ( MC2 Joel Carlson / Navy via AP)

Soldiers with Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, attend the re-enlistment of Army Sgt. Aaron Ivory Teutsch, a native of Bloomington, Ill., at the top of Baba Shaba Ghar Mountain, Afghanistan on Jan. 11. (Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Christine Jones)

Members of Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue conduct a rescue operation at the Montana Hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 14. The all-volunteer service partnered with U.S. Agency for International Development and multi-national relief agencies to support relief efforts in the aftermath of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred earlier in the week. ( Navy photo by MC1 Joshua Lee Kelsey)

Marines from the 22nd MEU load onto the amphibious assault ship Bataan in Morehead City, N.C., on Jan. 15 preparing to depart for Haiti in support of earthquake relief efforts.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Daniel Wilburn, an aviation maintenance technician from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Fla., guides U.S. personnel affected by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, to a waiting HC-130 Hercules aircraft, Jan. 13 as part of the U.S. government’s humanitarian assistance and disaster response efforts. Coast Guard personnel from Air Station Clearwater, Fla., worked to evacuate nearly 140 U.S. personnel from Haiti on Jan. 13. (Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Mariana O’Leary.)

South Korean special warfare forces train in the snow during a winter field drill in Pyeonchang, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul on January 8, 2010. The Korean peninsula is the world’s last Cold War frontier as Stalinst North Korea and pro-Western South Korea have been technically at war since the 1950-53 conflict. AFP PHOTO/JUNG YEON-JE

U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Keith Baxter documents soldiers from B Flight, 27 Squadron, Royal Air Force Regiment, during a dismounted patrol near Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, Jan. 2. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Efren Lopez)

Wearing a blast suit, an Iraqi police officer from the Iraqi explosives unit hangs on the side of a vehicle during a show of force parade honoring Iraqi police day Jan. 10 at the Iraqi police academy in Baghdad. On the vehicle, at right, is a remote robot used to help locate and defuse a bomb. (49TH MILITARY POLICE BRIGADE/Photo by Spc. Edward Siguenza)

U.S. Army Soldiers of Regimental Higher Headquarters Troop, 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, Tennessee Army National Guard participate in training, Dec. 12, 2009, in preparation for a scheduled deployment to Iraq at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center, Hattiesburg, Miss. This will be the unit's second tour in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in five years; it is the largest unit in the state. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Klika )

U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Michael Fort, with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, crosses a stream during a security patrol through the Nawa district of Helmand province, Afghanistan, on Oct. 20, 2009. U.S. Marines conduct security patrols to decrease insurgent activity and gain the trust of the Afghan people. The Marines are deployed with Regimental Combat Team 3 to conduct counterinsurgency operations in partnership with Afghan National Security Forces in southern Afghanistan. DoD photo by Cpl. Artur Shvartsberg, U.S. Marine Corps.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Abraham Jara hands out first aid kits to Afghan locals during a first aid class at a school in the Dara district of Panjshir province, Afghanistan, on Jan. 3, 2010. Jara is a medic assigned to the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team. DoD photo by Sgt. Teddy Wade, U.S. Army.

Jon Stewart interviews Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, U.S. Navy, during an airing of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart in New York City on Jan. 6, 2010. DoD photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, U.S. Navy.

Fog rises over the Atlantic Ocean as the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower conducts flight operations. Eisenhower is deployed as part of an on-going rotation of forward-deployed forces to support maritime security operations in the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of responsibility. (Photo by Seaman Bradley Evans)

U.S. Army Pfc. Brent Dawkins (left) and U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Efren Lopez sleep on the ground beside a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle while snow falls in Wam Valley, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, on Dec. 22, 2009. (Photo by Tech. Sgt. Efren Lopez, U.S. Air Force)

It wouldn't be a Marine Christmas in Afghanistan without a show of bravado, as a Marine with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, accepts a dare to drink hot sauce as his squad members look on in awe at a patrol base in Now Zad, Afghanistan, Dec. 25. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Luis Agostini)

Marines use shovels to attempt to dig out a Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected vehicle in the rain Dec. 19 after it sunk into the soft mud flats near Observation Post "ManBearPig." The MRAP was freed with the help of a recovery vehicle. Marines say thick, deep mud like this is typical in the arid farming area in northwestern Nawa district. (Photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill/ DoD)

]]> http://militarytimes.com/blogs/line-of-sight/2009/12/31/from-the-ranks-123109/feed/ 0 http://militarytimes.com/blogs/line-of-sight/2009/12/30/checking-in/ http://militarytimes.com/blogs/line-of-sight/2009/12/30/checking-in/#comments Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:10:11 +0000 M. Scott Mahaskey http://militarytimes.com/blogs/line-of-sight/?p=1227

Capt. Mike Hobson performs preflight checks in the cockpit of an A-10 Thunderbolt II before taxiing out to the runway for take-off Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, Dec. 24, 2009. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Timothy Taylor)

No, Wile E. Coyote was not involved in the making of this image, nor was Photoshop.  A contestant in the first USASOC Sniper competition held last week at Fort Bragg had some sort of mechanical malfunction and shortly after he pulled the trigger to shoot, his barrel split right down the middle.  No one knows for sure why the barrel split like it did but I was told that the Armorer is looking into it.

The Dahla Dam on the Argandab River, which was built with help from the West in the 50’s, feeds a long network of canals, irrigating the former breadbasket of the country. Eighty percent of Kandahar’s population near some aspect of this system – and after years of war, the irrigation system works a significantly reduced capacity. ISAF officials say it will be at least five years until the dam and waterways are working fully again.

A dog sleeps in a soldier’s cot after he left during the night for a patrol. A brief note about dogs – although command may often try to clamp down on having said mascots on bases, many soldiers sing the praises of having one around. Aside from morale issues, I have heard several accounts from various troops who say that their untrained, locally found dogs have found IEDs, arms caches, and warned them about Afghan ambushes while on patrol.

Soldiers clutch a newly arrived mail shipment as a helicopter takes off for its return leg to Kandahar airfield. Those cookies mom sent? That’s why they ended up like that.

A Kuchi herder – Pashto nomads – tends to his flock of sheep outside of Rajan Kala, near the Argandab valley, during the closing night of Eid Al-Adha, the Muslim holiday that marks Abraham’s sacrifice – and ends up being a kind of Thanksgiving feast.

Staff Sgt. Jason Hughes, Squad Leader, 1st Platoon, Charlie Co., 1-17 Infantry, writes a letter home to his grandmother at the Baba Saheb district center in Kandahar. He often takes up to three days to write a letter, taking his time to figure out what he wants to say.

I’d suggest he could let her know that the unit has the finest coffee I’ve ever had in the military, made with a truly mind-boggling piece of equipment, too. Can you tell these guys are based near Seattle?

After scouting some new desolate hills about 1000 yards away from the last compound, Staff Sgt. Matthew Sanders, Charlie Co., 1-17 Infantry, takes in his newly assigned patrol base, an empty hilltop outside of town. Who needed walls or buildings anyway for the winter? C-wire is just as good.