Random tidbits from my stint as an...

1MAR2021; 1920, MON

It's been a New York minute since my last post in the designated military community of this site, and like the living legend NaS (sic) said on "N.Y. State of Mind", off of his debut album from '94, "It's time...I don't know how to start this s**t" tho." I was the designated radio guy for my platoon for a hot minute and I suppose that that's as decent as any intro to a fairly random piece.

First and foremost, those radios were definitely contracted by the lowest bidder and/or produced by the Chinese for some reason unbeknownst to all but God. It was like having an expensive anvil strapped to my back just because I wanted to get out of tower guard duty!

Looking back, I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to basically be my LT (Lieutenant)'s PSD (Personal Security Detail) and photographer. I would have never got so many awesome still shots and whatnot if it weren't for his foresight to appoint me to the position.

It was pure serendipity that I happened to get sent back to Attack (aka Alpha) Company right after I bought that very pricey, waterproof camera with 12x zoom. Actually, that was my very first digital camera purchase, save a few smartphones.

We weren't allowed to use smartphones on my one and only deployment to the best of my recollection. Regular phones were hard enough to come by actually.

And don't let someone get hit while "Down Range". Two words: Comms (aka communication devices) blackout.

It's the US military's preference that family members of servicemen and women don't find out about casualties and/or MIA (Missing In Action)'s via the "Private News Network" (PNN). I know for a fact had my younger brother got hit while he was "Over There" and we found out from some 19 year old PVT (Private) in his unit via fbook, we would have gone completely ballistic.

Thankfully, neither one of us got so much as a scratch during our deployments. Although, he does tell the most hilarious war stories (and Basic Training [aka bootcamp] ones) after you buy him a couple of brewskis or what have you.

Back to the radios. Not only was I in charge of making sure that The Fighting Cocks, as 1st platoon was colloquially known, had at least two working radios per each of our four trucks, but I had to make sure that the squad leaders; the LT; and his right hand man, the platoon Sgt (sergeant), had working MBITRs (fancy walkie talkies).

Making sure that everything stayed encrypted and that the LT got decent pics was annoying as all hell, to say the least; but it definitely beat having to lug around those ridiculously heavy machine guns, or being stuck in "the driver's hole." Encryption filling most def ate away at my personal time when we were "In Theater" tho.

It was seemingly a matter of pure luck as to whether or not the radio would accept the fill; especially with the walkies. If there's any guessing as to why my predecessor was so eager to take my machine gun and give me his rifle and radio, along with the encryption device...

Bear in mind that the radio I carried on many of those asininely pointless patrols was an ASIP (Advanced System Improvement Program [according to Google]); i.e. the same ones that were in the trucks and the headquarters of our FOBs (Forward Operating Bases) as well as the COPs (Combat Outposts). The undeniably cumbersome device had me convinced that its weight would take me out well before the enemy figured out that once my radio gets shot, the airstrikes would feasibly come to an all but immediate end; and that reinforcements/QRF (Quick Reaction Force) would be that much harder to call for.

Well, it's now midday on a Taco TUE and I'm just awakening from a seemingly very long stretch of grave shift work that's very new to me. Thankfully I have tonight off too tho.

In any event, I believe that last radio anecdote to be a more or less decent point to end on. Please don't forget to hit the Like button if you learned something and/or check out some of my other posts.

TIA (Thanks In Advance). Peaceful Tidings.

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Addendum: I just realized that I used many of my pics from my deployment to Iraq as designs for my new tee shirt biz that I keep neglecting to promote here for some reason. At any rate, I like to believe that they're all reasonably priced and there's even a small discount automatically applied to orders of two or more.

Here's the link:

PeacefulTidings.com

Please and thanks!