Next stop in our tour around the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers – 270 Days in Afghanistan, a production by Captain Mark Martin, a Minnesotan whose subject matter should be pretty obvious from the title; it’s a story of a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

The blog started last June – and from the beginning, has been a fascinating look at the life of a typical soldier going off to a modern war; the bureaucracy, the lingo, the mission.

I thought packing my kids for a vacation was a job; Cpt. Martin describes the job of packing up his company for nine months back in the Stone Age:

For those of you who have never been in the United States Armed Forces, and the Army in particular, there are plenty of anachronisms, acronyms, lingo, and generally huge explanations for what can be the simplest of things. I once saw a sign that read, “Ft. Lee, Virginia! Home of USALMC-G4LOGPACCOM!” That was Army-ese for “United States Army Logistics Management College – General Staff 4 Logistics Packaging Command”. These guys are the dudes that come up with how supplies should be routed around the world. Pretty impressive….I’ll give them that. But does their acronym really have to be that convoluted. Seriously?

Anyhoo….fast forward to this particular installment of my fantastic voyage. The Pre-Combat Check/Pre Combat Inspection. You see….the Army doesn’t walk out the door, get into the vehicle, and drive off into the fray. No no no….the Army has Checklists and Inspections! Mostly this is to keep unimaginative people like me from packing irrelevant minutiae. Things such as the latest installment of Homes and Gardens magazine have no place in the Army rucksack! I mean c’mon! There are STANDARDS dude!

So the PCC/PCI has been around for as long as the United States Army has been in business. Way back in the colonial days, Samuel Smith might have shown up with his musket on time and in the right place, but the battlefield was minutes from his house, right? These days we pack truckloads of stuff halfway around the world. Small wonder that we need to check and re-check what we plan on bringing to the fight.

Today was a day for PCCs/PCIs. Loadplans, vehicle setup, rucksack configuration, packing lists, ammo loads, pyrotechnic storage. You get the idea. Anything and everything a soldier would need to close with and destroy the enemy on the friendly highways and byways of Afghanistan. Besides…I have always found that the best way to get soldiers who have never been in combat more comfortable with the idea is to inundate them with preparation. That way, when it come time to actually pull the trigger, it is yet another thing that they have practiced. Soldiering is a dangerous business.

It’s not hard to catch up on the entire history of the blog; Cpt. Martin’s had some other priorities than writing this past seven months, so a few posts go a long way.  But it’s well worth the read.

Stop by, say “hi”, and by all means tell the Captain the MOB thanks him for his service.

As, indeed, I am right now.