All,

After reviewing some of my Korea blogs, I realized I had neglected to post the explanation for the title of this edition.

"Blazing Skies" is a term used in Air Defense to begin an Operational Readiness Evaluation. Imagine a PATRIOT site in a relatively degraded state of alert. Launchers and radars off, crews at minimum manning, maybe someone on the radio. Next thing you know, the evaluator hit team comes screaming up to the site in a .gov vehicle and announcing "Blazing Skies!" (typically followed with an expletive in the plural).

At this point it's game on. Imagine a firehouse that just got a call, or a bunch of SWAT guys at dinner with their pagers going off at the same time. A flurry of activity ensues to bring the site to the specified state of alert. The actual amount of time we have is classified, but the end-state is a hot radar, hot launchers with hot missiles, and a fully manned site all pointed in the right direction, ready for war. In the purest sense of the concept, this is what we do.

As opposed to the Air Battle training side, this is the no-shit operational part that the crews must master to be proficient at their jobs. A monkey can be trained to do some of the tasks to complete an air battle, but it takes a truly proficient officer with a great breadth and depth of knowledge of his/her weapons system to truly understand what is happening during an ORE. Stuff breaks, crews forget to turn something on, radios take a dump. All of these things have to be dealt with in a decisive, calm manner because when its finally time to run the drill at 3 in the morning because we are going to war, you have to be able to figure it out.

3 paragraphs later, thats why the title is "Blazing Skies."

-D

Friends....Countrymen....

It's that time again...

The blog I maintained while in Korea was a great tool to document my exploits and adventures while keeping family and friends up to date. I have decided to start a new one because "RiceNrockets" is no longer fitting....

In the comings months I will find myself yet again forward deployed, manning the ramparts of America's primary vehicle of tactical ballistic missile defense. However, this time we will be monitoring the skies of the Middle East, not Korea. The exact country is classified information, held at the Secret level, so I can't say where I am going. I can say that it is NOT Iraq or Afghanistan, but in the neighborhood. Recently General Petraeus acknowledged a buildup of missile defenses in a few countries in that area.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/world/middleeast/31missile.html

Our original timeline had 3-2 deploying in late 2010, but it was accelerated for a number of reasons. All of which have to do with our people doing their jobs extremely well.

"So Derek.....what exactly do you DO?"

My current position is Fire Direction Section Officer in Charge (FDS OIC). I am a Tactical Director in the ICC during deployed operations, but I also direct the Air and Missile Defense training for all of the fire unit crews. In Korea I did this at the Battery level, and now I am in charge of training for all of the crews in the battalion. I am responsible for a small section of soldiers who will pull shift work in country in the ICC, functioning as the primary interface between the fire units and the Army personnel located with the Air Force bubbas. Another piece of my job is conducting briefings for all kinds of VIPs. My counterpart in the unit we are replacing has done over 30 briefings in less than a year. Host nation Generals, our Generals, various civilian VIPs, embassy officials...all kinds of people. Since I love getting up in front of folks and briefing, I am looking forward to this portion of my job. Lastly, the defense design for the region is always being scrutinized and altered to achieve maximum effectiveness for the defended assets. As such, I will be playing an active role in symposiums and briefings to discuss the effectiveness of the current setup, and how we can make it better.

We are currently in the "Do everything all at the same time" phase of unit preparedness. Crew certifications, Soldier readiness, equipment readiness....all somehow getting done concurrently.

The exact date is not known for our deployment, but for those in the know, I probably will miss the baby's birth this summer.

That's all the news for now....I'm sure there will be more to follow.

-D