Texas Nights - Book 13 of the Damned of the 2/19th

...It Ain't Training (Rough Draft)

"So what do you recommend?" Captain Jane asked me.

"All right. Ten man teams. Four on ropes, four on raising," I said, remembering how we'd done it in 2/19th and how good we got at setting up tents during REFORGER 88. I rubbed my hands together, "Some of you will show skill at this, other will be incompetent or just won't have the knock for it. Those who aren't good at setting up tents, there will be other things to do, so you won't be getting out of work. We'll be putting up radiation shielding, running cables, setting up the positive pressure lining.

"Let's get to work," I smiled.

15th FSB Area
Fort Hood
Texas, United States of America
10 October, 1991
1120

I walked with Captain Jane through the encampment the company had put up. Radiation shielding between the tents and the building. The generator powering the air compressor as well as providing lights.

"Opinion, Chief?" She asked me as we left the second positive pressure tent through the airlock and into the cold rainy Texas day.

"They're doing good," I told her, "They can set this up in an hour, break it down in half that time. Mobility is an integral part of US Army doctrine since the end of Vietnam. Our mobility was key to victory in Iraq and Panama, is key to special operations doctrine, and is what the new Rapid Deployment system relies on. It's a key part of Third Generation Warfare. Some analysts believe we're entering Fourth Generation Warfare, which maneuverability will be even more critical."

She frowned. "I'm not familiar with those terms," she said. "Did they teach you that in Warrant School?"

I chuckled. "No, my old crew leader insisted we read a lot of stuff on warfare. Military history, analysis of current, past, and future warfare," I chuckled again as I lit a cigarette. "In 1988 my crew leader got invited to the Future Weapons Symposium in DC, me and a few others got to attend. I got to attend a panel given by Niven and Clarke."

She stared at me. "They sent enlisted to something like that?"

"This is the part where I whip out my penis and impress you with it," I chuckled, blowing smoke into the morning air. "I've written several papers about the future of military medical care, potential medical advancements, and application of then current technological advancements being tested by DARPA. A few of my papers are in use by the DARPA testing going on right here at Fort Hood."

She looked impressed and I chuckled. "Not that any of it matters. If you want, I'll hook you up with some reading material that explains the generations of warfare and how they apply to modern military conflicts."

She nodded at that. "Last one was slow. We'll tear it down, set it up again, see if we can bring the time back to where it was," she said.

"No, Ma'am," I told her. She looked at me, raising one eyebrow. I shook my head. "We've been working them since we woke them at zero three. They're tired, have only eaten MRE's three hours ago, and are on the edge of muscle failure."

I stopped, pointing at to where the enlisted were leaning against things, not chatting, just standing. "They haven't had the PT to harden their muscles, build endurance. They haven't been doing this for months on end together. They're tired. Tired people make mistakes, we have them do it again, we'll end up with someone getting seriously hurt. We need to have them tear it down, then teach them how to inspect all this equipment for wear."

She nodded at that. "I didn't notice how tired they are."

"One of the beams gave a pop that last lift, we need to inspect it when we bring it down," I told her.