Tales from the Sandbox (Sun 5/31_ Part 2)

Things are going reasonably well here, as far as the training exercise goes. The night before last, though, after the evening shift-change briefing, the Deputy Commanding General kept all the Staff Principals (the senior officer in each section of the staff) and many of the other senior officers until 1:45 AM to review the cycle of planning meetings and decision-making boards (which we call the “Battle Rhythm”) because the current battle rhythm – he said – wasn’t working.

The ranking chaplain had already gone before anyone in the chaplain section knew this was going on, so I had to be there in his place. I don’t have any significant input into the battle rhythm, as I don’t chair any of those meetings or boards, but every staff section had to be represented, so I couldn’t go off to bed.

However, as far as the training itself goes, and the Unit Ministry Team’s participation in it, I think things are going pretty well. The main working group I participate in is pretty pleased with some suggestions I made and is working them into their plans. Eventually they’ll be included in a FRAGO (Fragmentary Order) to subordinate units – which is as far as things go for this exercise, because there are no real, subordinate units in this exercise.

This is what we call a Command Post Exercise (CPX) – meaning the point of the exercise is to work the people and the procedures of the Command Post. Each of the major subordinate units is represented by a single role player whose function is to receive the orders, and report information as if there were a real unit there. The actual information he reports is made up, based on a combination of computer simulations of what might happen in a real, military operation, and also what the training objectives of our commander and staff principals are. In other words, the information is made up that will drive specific staff processes on which our bosses want us to be trained.

Our higher headquarters (US Central Command) is also represented by a role player, as are other organizations that influence our operational environment. For example, non-governmental organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross/Red Crescent can have significant impact on our operations. So can US governmental agencies like the Department of State, the governments of allied nations or the host nation (where our operation is supposed to be happening), and the mass media. All of these are represented by role-players.

In CPXs, computer simulations provide inputs that represent information from intelligence gathering systems. For example, the computer can be programmed with the location and activities of enemy units, friendly units, and various neutral aspects of the battlefield (such as the shape of the terrain around us), and with the capabilities of various intelligence systems, then you can ask the computer (for example), “If I fly an airplane along this particular route, at this particular speed and altitude at this particular time, what will the pilot see?” or, “If I put this particular type of radio intercept equipment at this particular place, and turn it on from this time to that time, what will the operator hear?”

You might well ask, “With all this simulation and role-playing, why do you have to go to Kuwait to do this CPX? Why don’t you just stay in Atlanta?” Good question. The major reason is simply that the equipment to set up and operate the command post is here in Kuwait. We keep it here so that it will be faster to deploy it to a crisis location in the Middle East if we have to do so. There’s too much to easily get it all into airplanes, and sending it by ship can take a long time. Therefore, the closer we can keep it to where we think we might need it, the faster we can respond to a crisis by moving our headquarters.

Apropos of nothing in particular… attached is a photo of the inside of our sleep tents. It’s about a 10-minute walk from the sleep tents to the command post (which can seem a lot more in 115-degree heat). The focus isn’t great – partly because the lights were off on the end where I was standing so the camera wasn’t getting enough light to focus well. But, it gives you the idea. The tent is supposed to accommodate 70 people – but that would feel very crowded. Right now, it has about 45 people in it, I think, and it doesn’t feel crowded, at least not by the standards of someone who has been in the Army for 24 years. “Not crowded” in this case means that we have space between cots that is just about as wide as the cots themselves. Most of the extra cots are set up along the walls, for people to set their rucksacks and duffel bags on. That way we can keep our gear off the floor so the tent doesn’t feel so cluttered, and looks like it has a modicum of organization.


Well, I haven’t managed to connect to the Internet, yet, and it’s about time to put away my computer so I can go to work. Next time I try to go on-line, I guess I’ll go to the wireless hot-spot that’s closer to the network service’s office, and if I can’t get through, I’ll step in there and ask whether there’s something they can do about it.

Fr. Jonathan Landon +

Tales from the Sandbox (Sun 5/31)

Well, we’ve reached the half-way point on the training exercise. Tomorrow morning we have “stand down” and mid-course AAR. I don’t have to go to work until after lunch – which is a good thing, I guess, because I forgot to pick up my laundry from the laundry point this afternoon. :-( However, I do still have a couple of days of clean underwear and socks, so fear not!

Anyway, I think that things are going pretty well, on the whole. Not as well as some exercises I’ve been on, but not too badly, either. Yesterday, I was surprised to hear that the Commanding General wanted to give me a commander’s coin, after the morning briefing. Someone had told him about an incident I was involved in right before I left Atlanta for this exercise in Kuwait.

A Soldier in Afghanistan was feeling upset – suicidal, actually – and for some reason he didn’t trust the leadership of his own unit to take care of his problems. So, he phoned back to Carlysle Barracks, Pensylvania – his permanent duty station – and vented his feelings to the mental health counselor he had been to for treatment in the past. When you have someone on the phone that you think is suicidal, you do your very best to keep him or her on the phone, while getting a helper to them. You never want to break contact with such a person.

This counselor, kept the Soldier on the phone, but he didn’t know how to get in contact with anyone who might be able to get to the Soldier in Afghanistan. However, he knew that Headquarters, US Army Central is the supporting Army headquarters for all Army forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and pretty much the whole of the Middle East and Southwest Asia. So, he kept the Soldier on the phone on one line, and on a different line, he phoned the Office of the Commanding General, US Army Central. That’s kind of like phoning the Governor of New York because someone in Queens is suicidal… sort of. The big difference is that pretty much ALL Army leadership takes the danger of suicide VERY seriously.

When the call came in, the Commanding General’s secretary – naturally – forwarded it to the Office of the Command Chaplain. My boss, the Deputy Command Chaplain, and the Current Operations Chaplain and I were still in the office when the call came (though we were pretty much on the way out the door). I went to the Operations Center of US Army Central to get a phone number for the young Soldier’s Brigade Headquarters. The Deputy Command Chaplain and the Current Operations Chaplain kept the mental health counselor on the phone and somehow found a phone number to a Master Sergeant in Afghanistan who knew this particular Soldier personally.

So, by the time I got back with the phone number of the unit headquarters, the Current Operations Chaplain had already launched this Master Sergeant in the direction of the young Soldier to get him the help he needed. For chaplains – as much as for the mental health counselor – we just considered it our duty to do what we could to help this Soldier. That’s especially true since his life was in danger. Apparently, though, the Commanding General’s secretary was impressed, and told the CG about it.

So, he sent notes thanking and commending me and my fellow chaplains, and after the morning operations brief, called for us to meet him by his “office” (a tent which is part of the command post complex of linked tents) and presented a commander’s coin to me and to the Deputy Command Chaplain. The Current Operations Chaplain didn’t come on this exercise. He has a badly sprained ankle, and besides, is getting ready to leave our unit so he has some administrative out-processing to do. I assume he’ll get his coin from the Commander when we get back to Atlanta.

The General said he didn’t want to make too big a fuss over it, because he knows chaplains “aren’t in it for the glory,” but it would have been very easy to say, “It’s just too hard to do,” and he wanted us to know he was pleased that we would go the extra mile for a Soldier’s well-being.

For those who don’t know, military commanders (battalion level and above) traditionally have unit coins made with distinctive designs that they give out as awards for special performance that they want to recognize, but which they don’t consider to be at a level that deserves a medal.

There several traditions that have arisen around those coins, such as – when Soldiers are in the club, they can challenge one another by pulling a unit coin out of their pockets and tossing it on the bar. A Soldier who doesn’t have a coin to respond with buys a round for the Soldier who challenged him. For that reason, the coins are also called “challenge coins”.

Soldiers value those coins. Many of them value them more than medals and it is a point of pride to them if they can get a coin from every unit where they’ve been assigned. It’s also a common way to give recognition to a Soldier who gives good support to a unit to which they are NOT assigned as well, so many Soldiers end up with coins from units they’ve never served in, as well. The tradition is not unique to the Army, either.

Anyway, all three of us chaplains really felt that we were just doing our duty and I suppose I’m really writing this up to have something to write about, just to keep in touch with my friends and family. Still, I think it gives insight into the General’s character, that he values and goes out of his way to show his respect for people who do what it takes to save the life of a Soldier. Actually, I already knew I like this guy. He hasn’t been in command of US Army Central for very long – it will be a month next week – but I can tell already, he controls his temper, he controls his language, I’ve seen him angry but I’ve never seen him abuse or degrade anyone… and I have seen him go out of his way to show how he values people.

So, … as far as the command climate goes… I think I can look forward to a reasonably good year.

Fr. Jonathan Landon +

Trailer restoration

Jonathan and I bought this trailer shortly before he left for Kuwait. I have been working on replacing all of the dry-rotted wood. I am hoping to have all of the work done so that I can use it for our trip to Oregon next month.

I got all of the rotten wood torn off awhile ago, but then had to wait for the weather to clear before I could get anymore done. I now have the sides built and the floor cut. Now I just have to wait until a friend can drill the bolt holes in the 2x4I need to replace on the framework. He can use the drill press at work on Monday. Then I can put everything together.

I think a lot of progress has been made and it will get done in time. However, I still need to find a place to buy new tires and fenders.

News from the Sandbox (Mon 5/25)

Well, I'm back. Didn't send a message yesterday because I had to devote my free time to preparing for a worship service.

I'm a staff planner, not assigned to a pastoral position right now, but the chaplain responsible for pastoral care to the Headquarters of US Army Central didn't come to this exercise because he's in the process of getting ready to be transferred - it takes some time to get packed and do the administrative out-processing to leave a unit, and he doesn't have any leeway because he's going to a school - the Chaplains Captains Career Course.

His plan for worship services was to provide transportation from the command post to the chapel here at the camp in Kuwait. The staff-planner chaplains didn't think that was a good plan, mostly because all of the Protestant services offered at the chapel fall during the day shift. That means the day shift Soldiers would have to take off nearly two hours in the middle of their shifts (including the length of the service plus round-trip transportation time with a little dawdling built-in. For the night-shift Soldiers it wouldn't be so hard to get to the day-time services though it
might be hard to stay awake.

So, we - the staff-planner- type chaplains - scheduled two worship services actually at the command post. My partner did one at 11:00 am, for the day-shift guys. It was a brief service, and - since there was no travel time involved - only took them from their work for just over a half-hour. Twelve people showed up for his service. I did one at 9:00 pm. Other than the chaplain assistant and I, only one person showed up.

I don't take it personally, though. I'm reasonably certain that the night-shift people who wanted to go to church went during the day. They had 12 hours off, so it's not a hardship for the night shift folk to stay up long enough to go to a service in the morning after the end of their shift, or get up early enough to go to service before they go on duty.

Most people would rather go to a service in the chapel with a small but established congregation, and a good music team than an ad-hoc service at the command post where singing is going to be a capella.

The last of our chaplain team for the command post arrived yesterday afternoon, so we're now full-strength and working the shifts we'll usually end up working. For the time being, I'm scheduled from 3:00 pm to midnight. It's nice that we have enough people in the Unit Ministry Team that we don't have to work 12-hour shifts. The drawback is that most of the command post staff ARE working 12-hour shifts, which means that they're coming and going en masse while those of us who are working non-standard shifts are trying to sleep.

However, I've been getting adequate sleep. The coming and going disturbs my rest, but I have been able - so far - to go back to sleep when that happens ,so I'm doing OK.

The exercise itself hasn't started yet, so we're still doing refresher training on our equipment and rehearsals of command post procedures and schedules. Lacking input from an exercise scenario, I've been spending much of my time setting up ways to exploit technology to make our job easier. For example there's a web page for the Unit Ministry Team where I have posted announcements for the religious programs on the camp and in the command post, and a bunch of links to useful documents that members of the team can study.

Those of you who have worked in a military headquarters know that every staff section keeps a "Duty Officer's Log" - usually on paper on a form called a Department of the Army Form 1594. One of the things I've done is to set up a web page where we can keep our log and it be viewed by all members of the Command Chaplain's Office. Since we are spread out in three command posts in three locations (two in Kuwait and one in Atlanta) this is useful so that we can all see each other's logs, updated immediately, and all of us in the same command can update the log for that command post at the same time (if we need to) from different computers. We can also attach documents to the log which provide supporting information to the log entries - which lets us keep the log entries brief as they're supposed to be.

The log is on a secure, military website, so we can put classified information on the log without fear of disclosure - and we always use some real, classified information in training environments even when the scenario we're training on is fictional - and the settings on the logs are such that only members of the Command Chaplain's Office can see the logs, and only the members of a particular headquarters can write on the log for that headquarters.

Other than "Tales from the Sandbox" the key activities for the day are dropping off laundry for cleaning, picking up the laundry I dropped off three days ago, and watching some TV via the Internet. Hey, if I'm going to pay for Internet access, while I'm here in Kuwait I might as well get my money's worth out of it.

Besides I can watch skits from one of my favorite shows, which has been out of syndication for quite a while. Here's a hint. Anyone remember this theme song?
"It's time to put in makeup, it's time to light the lights.
It's time to get things get things started on the ...... Show tonight!"

OK, so it's not exactly intellectual stimulation. Still, it's fun and it passes time!

Fr. Jonathan Landon +

News from the Sandbox (Tues 5/19)

Tue May 19, 2009 11:54 am (PDT)

The sandstorms seem to have calmed down. Haven't had one now for a couple of days.

I am now working days for a while. Once all the tents were up and the air conditioners working, we shifted to working days, except for a skeleton crew who are there at night to keep the equipment from wandering away.

The schedule that was worked out by the chaplain who will be in charge of the ministry team in the command post will take effect about May 25, and it will put me on a 3:00 pm-to-midnight shift. We'll see how well that works out. It's a bit of an odd schedule for me, but maybe it will work. At least I won't have 12-hour shifts (which is very common in a deployed headquarters).

When I got to the command post this morning the air conditioner was not working in the tent where I work. The fan was blowing but the air that came out was not cold. Apparently it had not been down for very long, though, because the tent was not terribly hot, just moderately hot. Later, "they" turned off all the air conditioners for maintenance. It's amazing how fast you can feel the difference when that happens.

It definitely makes you appreciate the air conditioning. and the air conditioning is not just luxury for people who are too weak to adapt to harsh climates. If we didn't have the air conditioning, the computers would overheat and stop working, and that would definitely cramp our ability to function. It wouldn't stop us completely, but it would certainly cause lots of problems for us.

Computers in the command post are running very slow today, and they cut in and out of contact with the network. Very frustrating and slows all our work down drastically. Still, I suppose it's better than the bad old days of plastic overlays and alcohol pens on maps. and photocopying pounds and pounds of paper to publish operations orders.

Fr. Jonathan Landon +

Naomi's Award

(If you click on the photo, if will open in another window at an enlarged size.)

Adoption Websites

Adoption Websites
I thought I had already posted these websites, but then I couldn't find them in the archieves list, so here they are again.

http://www.adoptuskids.org/
This is a national clearing house site for kids available for adoption in the US through state agencies (aka Children's Services). To do a search on the children, click on the button that says "Meet the Children" towards the top of the page.

http://www.myturnnow.com/
this is specific to Georgia. To see the children, click on the line that says "photolisting of the children", about 1/2 down the page.

We are hoping for a sibling group of 2-3, at least one boy, 10-16 years old.

NOTE: If you can't get the links to work, you can copy and paste the web address into your browser bar.