Another day in the Life of an Army Dentist Deployed to Afghanistan

     Today started like any other day.  I woke up around 0730 hours and started thinking about getting up and what things I needed to gather for the day.  Then I remembered, today was the day.  However that didn’t change much.  I got up, gathered my things, went out to the bathroom, brushed my teeth and returned for my assault pack (think backpack with camo pattern).  When I got to my office it was business as usual.  One prepackaged cup of Raisin Bran Crunch with box milk (from my mini fridge), check email while eating.  Read a chapter from the Doctrine and Covenants (I finished reading the Book of Mormon on my birthday).  Check facebook.  Pretty normal so far except that today was the day.  So to pass the morning I worked on a project (I’m carving a wooden pistol for my commander as a joke), looked online at stuff, read some news articles and went to lunch.  All of which is not abnormal for me here and very routine.
      
     After lunch I had to quickly change because today was the day!  I put on a silky under layer, then a waffle top zip up layer then my regular uniform top, put on my ACH (Advanced Combat Helmet) and IOTV (Individual Outer Tactical Vest-think bullet proof) and grabbed my rifle from the TAC (Tactical Activities Control).  Today is the day I am going to the range!! Finally after three months I got the opportunity to go.  I have been in withdraw for two months and needed a shooting outing.  Every year on my birthday I go to the range and shoot.  This year I was not able to, but a friend made it work out to go with his platoon.  WHOOOHOOOOOO!

      So I’m all tacticalled up and ready to go in my full battle rattle (ACH, IOTV, knee and elbow pads, eye pro, ear pro and weapons).  I walk up to the Motor Pool and meet up with my friend Staff Sergeant McAvoy who directs me to which truck I’m riding in.  I say truck because I can’t remember the actual name of it.  Some kind of MRAP (can’t remember what that stands for and there are several kinds) with lots of heavy armor plate, cool features (like a drop down staircase to climb into the back), lots of antennas and a gunner with his weapon on top.  Weapons are either 50 cal Browning machine guns, .308 machine guns (M240) or the Mark 19 (automatic grenade launcher).  So I climb in after a few minutes of standing around meeting SSGT McAvoy’s platoon.  We start driving and soon stop in formation at the gate.

    The “gate” consists of several barricades called Hescos (something about the guy that invented them) which are basically giant cardboard (paper bag shaped) boxes wrapped in steel wire filled with dirt.  They are placed such to create lanes of traffic and tight twisting turns that trucks can only navigate at slow speeds to keep anyone from driving through barriers and blowing up a bomb or something.  So we navigate the turns following the five trucks.  Then we are on the open Afghan road, this one is the only paved one around.

   The windows in the back of the MRAP are about 15 inches by 10 inches, two to a side.  My seat faces the middle of the truck, so my back is to one set of windows.  I start scanning the terrain, villages, people, and animals and such as we drive.  This is my first time “outside the wire” as we call it.  Fascinated by what I see, the drive is over very quickly.

     I am amazed by the houses.  Mud and stone mostly are built into walls surrounding houses, forming little yards with little houses.  Some places the mud has eroded showing the native stones piled on top of each other.  A few places have been damaged by untold disasters both manmade and natural made; bombs, RPG (rocket propelled grenades), rifle bullets, wind, rain, snow.  Some of these have been left, other repaired with more modern cinder blocks.  Between these walls small streets are formed, mostly mud, rutted by trucks, ridden on by bikes and walked on.  Some places even had bright colored paint, but very few.  Most of the roofs consisted of sheet metal, or timber topped with mud with drainage pipes hanging off the edges.

      People were everywhere going about their lives.  Some carries large packs, some wrapped in traditional robes, others with western coats but traditional pants, all travelled through a wasteland.  Barren dirt, snow, and rock extended in all directions, rising up the steep slopes of the mountains that formed the walls of our valley.  The few trees and vegetation centered along a small waterway that wound down one side of the valley.  At one point I caught a glimpse through the small window of several children sledding down a small incline formed by a mound of dirt.  Then a herdsman passed with his goats, heading I guess to find forage for them.  Where that is, I cannot imagine.

      Finally we arrived at the range, the back door/stairs lowered and I climbed down.  The wind off the mountains wrapped cold fingers around my face and tried to pry up the edges of my fleece cap and under the collar of my uniform.  I was glad that I put on the layers.  Pretty quickly the gunners fired up their weapons, after all that’s why we came, I was just along for the ride and to get my time in shooting.  The platoon leader, a young lieutenant, opened fire with his M4 rifle at one end of the parked trucks.  With little encouragement needed I joined him on the dirt mound and started targeting rocks, old tires, and an old burned out truck and whatever else I could see.  A switch of a lever on the side of my rifle and I was flinging bullets as fast as my full auto would go.   “Brrrrrrrraaaaat, Brrrrrrraaaaaat” I finished my first magazine of 30 rounds in no time flat.

                My buddy then asks if I want to shoot the 50 cal CROW machine gun.  OF COURSE IDO!!  So back I climb up the stairs and sit next to the gunner.  This one is special because the gunner sits inside the truck and uses a joystick to control a camera mounted on top, which controls the 50 cal Browning machine gun.  So where ever the camera points, the gunner can pull a trigger and off she goes.  Amazing technology developed to protect gunners from enemy fire.  Normally they have to stand (some still do) with their heads and shoulders exposed to operate the machine guns.  The soldier shows me the buttons and what they all do, does some firing to demonstrate its accuracy then asks, “Wanna give it a go?”  OF COURSE I DO!  I manage to step over the ammo cans and get into the shooters seat.  With a twist of my wrist I pan the system back and forth, target the burnt out truck and let go with a burst of rounds, “DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON”!  Amazing! Dirt flies as the rounds impact the ground in front of the truck and walk their way up and into it.  Direct hit! 

       I fire a couple more bursts then turn the weapon system back to its operator and climb out of the truck.  My friend sees my grin and says, “Wanna try the open turret 50 cal?”  OF COURSE I DO!  So climbing the stairs again in a different truck I find myself standing on the gunners platform, head and shoulders sticking out the top of the truck.  Another soldier walks me through the functions of the 50 cal Browning machine gun.  This one is a classic.  Designed by John Moses Browning back in the early 1900’s it has been in service a very long time.  It shoots a 50 caliber bullet, basically ½ inch in diameter and weighing 10 times the rifle rounds we shoot out of the M4 rifle.  It has two vertical grips on the back with a butterfly trigger between them, controlled by the thumbs of both hands.  I fire it up with two rounds, “DOON, DOON”.  That is fun.  “DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON,”  Even more fun!!  I target another frame of an unidentified vehicle left out on the range and watch the rounds kick dirt up all over it.  Then I hear from the ground below, “Sir, let off a long burst. Like 5 or 8 seconds.”  I oblige.   “DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON, DOON. “ AWESOME!

     Now my grin has tripled in size and I thank the gunner and my buddy.  I go back to shooting my M4 at long range targets and happily see my rounds find their intended targets.  Then my buddy says, “Wanna try the Mark 19?”  OF COURSE I DO!! The Mark 19 is another weapon mounted on the roof of a truck to provide protect in case of a TIC (troops in contact).  It fires a 40mm round and does it automatically, meaning you just hold down the trigger and its keeps firing until you let go or the belt of ammo runs out.  The round is about the size in diameter of a golf ball and explodes on impact, hence the name automatic grenade launcher.  After receiving similar instructions I fire off three rounds, “FFFFOOOMP, FFFFOOOMP, FFFFOOOMP,” and wait a few seconds for….  “KABOOM, KABOOM, KABOOM”!  Amazing.  I was not so accurate with that one, but I could see how with some practice it makes a great weapon to stop enemy fire.  So I fire a couple more bursts (kinda slow bursts), “FFFFOOOMP, FFFFOOOMP, FFFFOOOMP”.  Now the grin has become a permagrin.  Oh yeah, “KABOOM KABOOM KABOOM”!

      Soon everyone had finished test firing or zeroing their weapons, and we hear over the radio, “Fire in the hole”, as our EOD (explosive ordinance demolition) blows up some stuff on a neighboring mountainside.  The dirt and smoke billow into the air and then we feel the “KAAAAABOOOOOOOOOM” of the explosion.  With that job done, it’s time to return to FOB Gardez, our home FOB (Forward Operating Base).  We climb up the stair door and buckle in for the quick ride home.  What a great afternoon.  If I have to be in Afghanistan, at least every now and then I get to do something very new and exciting.  A great end to THE DAY, and a good way to change up the routine.