The Basement Diaries 42

[b]Somewhere in Ukraine - 14 February 2023 23:30[/b]

[i]St Valentine's Day[/i]

Back to base camp. After a pretty fucked up weekend in Kyiv and a tortuous journey that finally got underway at about 07:30 today.

We were scheduled to be in Kyiv Saturday and Sunday, returning to camp Sunday evening. It was a schedule packed with special training sessions, including with some new multi-source data collection and analysis equipment for dynamic battlespace planning (sorry if this is a bit vague).

The Colonel who was due to deliver this part of the training, on Saturday afternoon, was held up someplace else, due to enemy action. His session was rescheduled for Monday, and transport booked to take us back to camp late Monday afternoon.

The training went well. The Colonel was able to give us a couple of extra hours tuition and familiarisation, so that was a bonus.

All our kit was packed. We settled down to eat while we waited for our transport.

The rations we have right now are what the British Army calls MREs - Meals Ready to Eat. As I told an old friend on SW last night, the only one of those words that is even vaguely true is the "to". I had a sort of curry dish, which seemed to have been made from man-made curry powder rather than natural spices and herbs. It was orangey red in colour and contained lumps of what I must presume were some sort of dead animal. The texture overall was ever so slightly gritty. The flavour was industrial.

The best thing about it was that the portion was not over generous.

And at least there was some half decent coffee to wash it down.

Throughout the evening we received regular updates on the state of our transport - an hour, thirty minutes, another hour - until, around midnight, we were told to settle down for the night. Transport would arrive at 07:00. So, a night trying to find a comfortable corner on the floor of a teaching facility. I didn't sleep much.

We were up at 06:00, used the limited washing facilities, made some coffee and were ready to go on time. The transport turned up at about 07:30 and we departed soon after that. The journey back to camp took just over two hours, with a couple of holdups.

This might all seem very inefficient, but our military transport assets are running full time to move ammo and other supplies to where they are needed. Once our training was delayed, the vehicles allocated to our return journey were redeployed for more important work. Basically, we could wait. To the logistics people looking after the front line, it makes perfect sense. We had a shit night and a few wasted hours. Some soldiers on the front line got ammo and food and medical supplies. Can't argue with that.

Once we were back in camp, with our kit stowed, it was straight into simulations to integrate our new learning. In the afternoon, the drill Sergeants took us for a hard run, no need to get too comfortable, and then a session on the firing range. Just how good are you with a gun when you are cold and wet and physically stressed? Interesting...

After that, we were allowed to shower. Then dinner, which was at least natural cooked food rather than something produced and bagged in a factory.

Back to the classroom for some more simulations and a briefing on tomorrow's field exercise.

I must try to get some sleep tonight.

And, by the way, I shoot pretty well under stress. Apparently, I am a cold bitch... although no drill Sergeant would ever refer to an officer as a bitch.