The United Kingdom

Its was and Saturday evening when I started this jaunt to a foreign land to train, and drink with the Brits.

We report to the Armory and prepare to hop a flight to UK. We report in around 2000 and have formation. A few were late, but not my guys. I was the NCOIC(Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge) of the medical detachment for this expedition. Furthermore since there was really no medical aid otherwise, I was the man when it came down to medical knowledge. All my guys did what I asked of them the entire trip and they performed their duties well. Anyway back to the task at hand. After the late guys show up we load the bags and prepare to move to the airport some ways away. So we loaded the buses in the wee hours of the morning and took out. We didn't fly out until Sunday morning around 0700. Some would see this gap in time and ask why were we kept so long before the flight. Because true to the stereotype of the Army soldier, some of these guys aren't the brightest crayons in the box. If I had to pick a color it would be brown, shit brown.

We fly out not getting much sleep for the better part of two days and arrive in the wee hours of Monday morning. We get gear issued and get our gear to the barracks. We finally bed down around 0330, but chow is at 0630, you can chose wether to go or not as long as you're in formation at 0700. We rush through chow and get in formation to do what, draw weapons and have familiarization classes all morning. If you handed me the weapon and said explore I could have found out how to operate, tear down, and maintian it in about half an hour. But again the Crayon Effect comes into play. I link up with my British equivalents and ask for meds, where the aid station is, and other useful information. They have no meds, the medical ward isn't manned because there is no Medical Officer in their unit, which also precludes them from doin any medical duties except for transport, and if we can't handle the medical situation we evac them to the closest civilian hospital.

I can understand why they are in the position they are, with no medical officer they are not allowed to give meds, OK. They can only transport and care for patients if needed, again the medical officer thing, OK. But take the soldiers I'm supposed to be caring for to civilians, in a foreign country, and away from the base, Doc don't like that. It turned out to be quite alright. The Brits civilians really took care of my soldiers.

All hiccups aside the trip was great. Got to fire the SA80, the British assault rifle. We spent a couple of days out in the field and the countryside was beautiful. So now I'm back getting ready to go PCB for Thunder Beach.