SGT Tharaldsen: Manchu Mile from IRON BDE on Vimeo.

The 2nd Bn, 9th Infantry Manchu’s conducted the Manchu Mile today – a 25-mile roadmarch with rucksack that commemorates the 85-mile march that the regiment did in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion. SGT Tharaldsen of Demon Company carried a video camera and got us these clips.

Manchu Spouse Challenge from IRON BDE on Vimeo.

Almost thirty spouses reported for PT formation at 05:45. We marched to Carey Fitness Center for Tae Kwon Do PT where Grand Master Yi guided us through a light workout. Next, a quick run around Carey Field and combat drills: lifting an ammunition canister, an obstacle course, grenade toss and high crawling. We ate a hot breakfast and were fitted with NVGs. Our job was to navigate a maze and complete a recon mission. After the maze, we were able to get up close and personal with static displays.

The afternoon was spent preparing to fire M4s on the live fire range. Instructors taught us about the M4 and weapon safety. We ate MREs for lunch and took a bus to the live fire range. At the range, we donned body armor and each had an opportunity to shoot 20 rounds from the M4. Last was a two-mile road march back to 2-9 HQs carrying weapons and assault packs. All the Battalion Soldiers were waiting for us, cheering us on.
At the end of the day, we were exhausted and sore.

We went home with a sense of camaraderie, feelings of accomplishment, and pride in ourselves and our Soldiers.

Lisa West

So far during the 2009 KTC gunnery I have participated in the HMMWV qualification tables where I shot top gun on my Mk.19 in my troop. The days seemed long and the nights way to short! We slept on our vehicles,or napped I should say when we wernt on the fireing line.

The HMMWV gunnery lasted a total of 4 days and then we moved onto the M-4 zeroing range and qualifications. Daily wake ups are finally starting to regulate again back to the good ole’ 0500  work calls. Since my gunnery is over with ive been helping a lot in supporting the Bradley gunnery and preparing for a newly added on “table 9” of the Bradley gunnery.Normal gunnery would only consist of 8 tables but this year an extra has been added on to help us scouts keep our skills sharp on dismounted Ops. We have been using the  Army adopted “crawl,walk,run” idea by doing multiple dry runs before being issued live rounds. Overall im pretty excited about doing dismounted Ops and actually engaging targets while moving in tactical formations en-route to the the ultimate objective, which is a call for fire mission on enemy forces located on the side of a mountain where live rounds will actually be called in to give our mortars training also.

Overall, this gunnery of the 3 I have been to while stationed in Korea has been the most successful,fast paced and properly ran ones of all and theres not to many complaints I have, overcoming the bouncy balls called  “eggs” in the dfac is about as hard as it gets out here! Haha.

Pfc Ingle,Kyle
Apache Trp. 4-7 Cav
19D Cav. Scout
South Bend, Indiana

SPC Mesner: English Camp from IRON BDE on Vimeo.

**This post has the below text and photos on Flickr by 2LT Thompson, and the above video was shot by SPC Mesner. Great job by all

Today I was witness to a truly unique and important day at the motor pool of 2-9 Infantry. We had civilian guests in our motorpool and those guests were children from a local national school. We had the privilege of presenting the equipment of our Combined Arms battalion to a collective group of over 20 Korean students and a select group of USO personnel. What made the day both unique and important was how the students interacted with their trainers. Many of these children have never seen an M1A1 tank, or a Bradley fighting vehicle. This in of itself is a privilege to see up close. What made this day important was summed up by Mr. James Allen, Manager of the USO at Camp Casey. Most of these children have never even been inside the post and most only saw Camp Casey as a brick wall and wire. The smiles and laughter, coupled with the interaction our soldiers had with these children showed how our relationship with our host nation has and continues to be an important and vital piece to our service here in Korea. As a Manchu, I was happy to have been selected to record a side of the Army some never get to see. At 2-9 Infantry our motto is “keep up the fire”. This applies to everything we do whether in combat, training, or in our relationship with the Korean people we must always keep working hard to be a strong partner and friend to this great nation.

2LT Jonathan Thompson
B CO FSO/2-9 Infantry
Minneapolis, MN