After departing my parents' house on August 22nd I flew to El Paso, Texas. That's the home of Fort Bliss, which is the host installation for the CONUS Replacement Center (CRC). Soldiers who are deploying anywhere in the CENTCOM Area of Responsibility have to spend a week at this place in order to complete administrative inprocessing, medical screening, and theater-specific training. Even though I just went through the CRC one year prior (and had spent the past year IN the CENTCOM AOR) I was still required to do it all over again. But, fortunately, I would get a mild break in the action because I also had to spend a week on temporary duty for additional training requirements at Fort Sam Houston. This meant that I checked in with CRC to ensure my pay was properly processed and then on August 24th I flew to San Antonio. My Command Sergeant Major (CSM), who reported to CRC on the same day, accompanied me to San Antonio.
The folks at Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM) had made reservations for us to stay right on the famed San Antonio Riverwalk. This was quite a nice touch, as it offered us the opportunity to enjoy life in a great atmosphere. The training at nearby Fort Sam Houston was low-stress and dealt mainly with some of the nuances of being a garrison command team. It was primarily conducted in a classroom environment and the hours were short. This meant we had time to enjoy San Antonio. I even had the chance to pay a visit to the Alamo, which was a place I had always wanted to see. Essentially, I spent the week enjoying good food, live music, and a festive environment. While the Riverwalk is a bit touristy, I will admit that I enjoyed the place and will visit again. The training was, essentially, just a familiarization event but worthwile given the location. CSM and I enjoyed the week. But it ended rather quickly and on August 30th we returned to Fort Bliss.
CRC can't ever figure out the best way to do anything. Even after twelve years of war a Soldier reporting to CRC has no idea what to expect. Some things about CRC are constant - medical screening, administrative processing, and weapons qualification. But some aspects change as often as the wind blows. For this iteration of CRC, we would be treated like children who required adult supervision. We were immediately informed that we could not drink alcohol, were not permitted to have a rental car or personal vehicle, were not authorized to go off-post for any reason, and that we could not have any off-duty fun of any kind. Those are such encouraging rules to slap on men and women who are a few days short of spending the next year in a combat zone. But regardless of what protests any of us may have had, those were the rules and we would have to abide by them.
As for the training, much of it is nothing more than a haze requirement to keep us busy for the whole week. A prime example is that everyone is required to complete around 15 or so online courses just so you can get the training certificates. Never mind that only one or two of these courses are an Army annual requirement, we still have to complete them. So for the third (or more) time in the past few years I found myself spending hours in front of a computer terminal completing courses I had already done multiple times. The sad thing is that nobody in the computer lab was really learning anything. We were just going through the motions so we could get the certificates checked off our training paperwork. Some of the Soldiers in my latest iteration of CRC were still completing these course as late as the day prior to our flight. The rest of CRC was like a broken record for me. I think this was the fourth or fifth time I'd gone through the process at Fort Bliss. In the process I got my annual anthrax booster shot, which hurts like hell. This time around the joy of a typhoid and smallpox booster joined in on the fun. I can't say CRC is a fun place. The best part of the week is when it's over. CRC is always best in the rear-view mirror. But I will say that Fort Bliss has the nicest PX I've ever seen. That's the one positive I can put on the week.
On the morning of September 6th we loaded up our dufflebags, drew our weapons from the arms room, and boarded the bus for the airfield. It was time to say goodbye to the United States again. An arduous marathon of travel awaited us that would find CSM and me arriving in Bagram, Afghanistan.
No comments:
Post a Comment