Tuesday 30 September

Hello again from Camp Shelby. Operations are beginning to flow very smoothly here. The mail is coming and going daily and the soldiers receiving both mail and email are very excited to do so. For those who need the addresses here they are again;

B.Co112thINF@gmail.com

or

SGT John Doe

B. Co 1/112th INF SBCT

Bn CQ Bldg 2903

Camp Shelby, MS 39407-1000

The platoons have taken up an area beautification process. First platoon has set up a nice display of rocks surrounding their barracks. Third platoon has also done some rock formations. Third platoons spelled 1/112 and B-3 in the rocks surround their barracks. HQ Plt has set out mums and decorative stones ti make their area feel like home. The platoons are also doing PT daily. Some of the platoons are doing PT as a squad while some are doing it as a whole platoon.

There has been more SGST and SCE training conducted today. SGST is Stryker Gunnery Skills Training and SCE is Stryker Crew Evaluator. The crews leave for Stryker Gunnery on the night of October 4th and will be in the field till October 7th. Tonight at 5:45, 6:45 PA time the men of Bravo Company are going to a brief at the post theater.

Today's soldier of the day is PV2 Dustin Jones. Dustin lives in Fleetville, PA and is 22 years old. Dustin formerly worked at Dick's Sporting Goods in Dixon City. Dustin enjoys playing sports in his free time and is our currently serving as the armorer for Bravo Company. This makes him responsible for all of Bravo Company's weapon systems. Here is what he has to say;

I would just like to thank my friends and family for giving me support in this drastic change in my life. I would like to say hi to my mom and dad and i love them and miss them and to my best friends Buddy and Bri ill be home on x-mas and we will kick it old school style and we will live the dream.

Hello again from Camp Shelby, MS. It is another warm and beautiful southern day. Today is a pretty easy day for the men of B. Co. There was some light training this morning. There have been bus runs all day to Wal-Mart so the troops could get the supplies they needed to be comfortable. Our sniper section and our mortar section both pulled their weapons today and performed maintenance and drills to hone their skills. The squad leaders had a Stryker Crew Evaluator class, and the Stryker Crews went to a refresher in fire commands.

The soldier of the day is PFC Christopher Araujo. He lives in Conneaut Lake, PA. Chris has three little girls and was planning on attending college after deployment. Chris received an Army Achievement Medal while at Annual Training this summer for his outstanding commitment to duty and skills on the M240 machine gun. Here is what he has to say;

Hello this pfc.Araujo I'm a m240 gunner and i am proud be a soldier in US army. i just want to say i love you to my baby girls. i love you all and take care see you at Christmas.

Good afternoon from Mississippi. It was an early start for Bravo Company this morning. The company was up at 0345 to make breakfast chow. Then the men were bussed to SRP, Soldier Readiness Processing.

SRP is a medical, dental, and administraitive check to make sure the troops are good for deployment. The medical part includes a blood test, immunizations, blood pressure check, and doctor's screening. The troops received immunizations for a variety of viruses from anthrax to hepatitis to name a few of them. The men who are on suscription medications received a four month supply of medicine.

The dental portion included x-rays and any dental work that needed done before deployment. Some of the men have to go back to have wisdom teeth removed, while others just need fillings.

During the administrative portion the men were able to update DEERS, which is the system the Army uses to track soldiers families. It is required for family members to be enrolled to ensure things from insurance benefits to dependent ID cards. Also the men who needed to change benefit information, HOR (Home of Record), or anything else in the personal file were able to do that today with personnel.

The soldier of the day is SSG Chris Catlin. SSG Catlin teaches at Meadville High School and is a recent graduate of CUP. He is from the Meadville area originally. This is what he has to say:

Hello from Camp Shelby! My name is SSG Catlin, and I am the 3rd squad leader for 2nd platoon. I would like to thank all of you for checking on our blog, and the support that you have shown all of our soldiers thus far. Today is a very beautiful day in the 80's. The past few days have been busy with administrative tasks and time for myself and the other soldiers to get settled in. All of our gear has arrived and soon the days of training will begin to grow increasingly longer and harder. I am personally looking forward to training with my platoon and squad on the live fire ranges that have been arranged for us, as well as gaining more experience with the mighty-mighty stryker armored combat vehicle! I hope everyone is having an ok time adjusting to life back at home without us. Stay well, and God Bless.

-SSG Catlin

PS
GO STEELERS! Beat the Ravens!

27 Sept 2008 #2

We now have a Bravo Company email address. It will be checked daily. Most of the soldiers have personal email and a means to check it. However, if you would like to email someone in Bravo Company, provide feedback about the blog, or for any other reason please send to this address. If you would like something posted we will do our best to post it as long as it doesn't violate OPSEC regulations.

B.Co112thINF@gmail.com

If you are emailing a soldier please include the soldier's name in the subject line of the email.

Saturday 27 September 2008

There is not much going on today in Mississippi, it should be a relaxing day for the men of Bravo Company. At 1030 this morning we are going to RFI, which stands for Rapid Fielding Initative. Here the troops will get some new gear and any gear that they do not have. We sent SGT Packard and CPL Webb to TSIRT this morning. TSIRT is Theater Specific Individual Required Training.

Today's soldier of the day is PFC Brian Mohney. He is a rifleman from 1st platoon. He is from Youngsville, PA and is 19 years old. Here is what he has to say:

Hello I am in Bco 1/112 Infantry. I am in first platoon and my platoon Sergeant is SFC Whisner, my platoon Leader in LT O'Brien, My squad leader is SGT Fuller, and my team leader is SGT Donaghue. So far we have had a positive introduction to our predeployment at Camp Shelby. We have moved in to our living quarters, and have had access to every thing we need we have enough time to keep in contact with our families and have some personal time to socialize to each other so far moral is relatively high, and the areas such as the latrine are clean. Today we are goin to get all of the gear that we need to achieve a successful deployment.

Thanks for following.

Hello, and thank you for reading the Bravo Company 112th INF web blog. For those of you who don't know us we are a National Guard Infantry Company on active duty orders for Operation Iraqi Freedom. We are currently at train-up, located at Camp Shelby, MS. We will attempt to update this blog daily and each day try to feature a different soldier and give them a space to tell you how they are doing.

As far as whats going on down here. There has been a good amount of downtime for the soldiers to get moved in and accomadated to their new homes in Mississippi. Yesterday, some of the senior NCO's attended a SCE class. SCE stand for Stryker Crew Evaluator. Basically, the soldiers attending were trained on how to evaluate the Stryker Crews. This morning we sent some troops to Al Khut, a mock city, to complete some Urban Ops training. This afternoon the Stryker crews will be signing for their vehicles, and doing an inventory of them to make sure all of their gear is still in them.

For those of you looking to send packages here is the address:
PFC John Doe
B. Co 1/112th INF
BN CQ BLDG #2903
CAMP SHELBY, MS 39407-1000

The featured soldier today will be Sgt. Dan Miller. Sgt Miller, is the vehicle commander for Cpt. Junkin, and the assistant administrative NCO.