GWOT I - A Day In The Life Of A Guard
Dec. 6th, 2019 08:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drewkitty[I asked one of my guards to write this for the internal newsletter. They agreed on the condition that it be anonymous. Guard Captain Echo 18.]
I wake up to my cell phone alarm, like so many other people do. I share the room with seven other guards; but since half of them are on the opposite shift, I never see them. I just make sure my stuff is in the two plastic crates that are mine before I head out, and my bedding is neatly rolled up inside the carefully folded shrinkwrap cover.
Shower use is timed with an egg timer. Some guards shower after shift; I shower before when I can. Guards who served in the military have taught us tricks about how to use a sliver of soap most efficiently, why you still brush your teeth when there is no toothpaste (because you don't want your teeth to fall out) and various field expedients "where there is no toilet paper."
Our uniforms are washed by the laundry service. I have three. Some guards only have two. As with a lot of other things, it is being worked on.
Putting on the uniform and equipment is one of the most important parts of my day. I've learned that if I rush through this, things will be uncomfortable ... or actually dangerous. Little details like where I keep my pens, or my knife, or how I carry my radio or [REDACTED}, have become really critical.
We are on thirteen hour shifts. This allows for a quick briefing and a little overlap before we go to our positions, or posts. This is also why I never see half my roommates - I am working while they are in the room or asleep.
I have to be vague [and I have helped make this vaguer - Echo 18] but some of our posts are 'static' or fixed, and others are 'mobile' or involve moving from place to place according to [REDACTED]. Sometimes I am a driver, but more often I am guarding the motor pool or [REDACTED].
We have training materials and procedures books to study. Duty supervisors quiz us. Sometimes we have tests. One of the more difficult is a half-day in the 'Kill House' or live fire training range. Poor performance in the Kill House is one of the ways I could become a janitor, a landscaper or worst of all, a general laborer.
The schedule is set up so that there are frequent changes in my duties. I've talked about posts. I also get two meal breaks, a gym 'break' (although not all of us think it is one) and a training break (which definitely isn't). These are all half an hour in length. Meals are eaten at fixed posts in such a way that they usually aren't interrupted. The cafeteria makes them up for us.
Since E18 asked me to say, my first meal today was two peanut butter and honey sandwiches and a paper bag of tortilla chips. My second meal was a burrito containing beans and undefined protein and (a rare treat) a handful of dried fruit. We all know the cafeteria is trying, but it's always a mystery what we'll end up with.
(Breakfast and dinner are catch-as-can before and after shift. We have about a ton of oats, so oatmeal is a popular breakfast.)
The gym break requires that I store my [REDACTED] in one of the lockers provided, then either run on a treadmill (which I like) or use either free weights or a machine under a coach's supervision (which I hate). This is part of my job too, though, and poor performance over time can get me written up or worse.
The training classes are short, intense and fun. Each one is pointed at a specific skill or two out of the four hundred odd skills required of a campus guard.
Today's class is on the mechanics of physical arrest: how to put our hands on someone, take them to the ground, put wrist restraints on them and stand them up safely afterwards. Afterwards my wrists are sore.
Today is not a convoy day. Driving in convoy is very intense. [Rest of paragraph redacted.]
It's about every other day that I go out on convoy. It's dangerous and I hate it but it's very important. We save lives every day.
One of my supervisors, Arturo, says that we save lives every day on campus too, but we just don't know whose or when. He likes to point at the broken windows held in by plastic film in the cafeteria as an example, of what happens if we don't keep the bad people out.
I'm lucky, I haven't gotten hurt yet. There is a big emphasis on safety. The fastest way to get yelled at by one of my supervisors [or by me - E18] is to do something unsafe like jump down from a vehicle unnecessarily or not wear a seat belt. I wear two first aid kits. One is for me to help others. The other I am forbidden to touch except to check the contents. It is for me, if I am hurt.
["Always use the casualty's first aid kit. You may need your own later."]
If a guard is hurt, they see the infirmary and get what is called a 'profile.' The profile says what they can and cannot do while their injuries are healing.
One guard, [REDACTED], has a profile that says "Sit or stand, no running or field activity, physical therapy three times a day." They took his leg off because it was infected and antibiotics were not helping. He's a dispatcher now and he's learning to use a not very good prosthetic.
We also do drills. There are specific procedures about the difference between a drill and the real thing so we don't shoot someone for no reason. But when there is any doubt, we are to treat the drill as absolutely real.
I know most of the Employees by now. I mostly like them. There are a few who are jerks, but that is true everywhere you go. Even in the guard force.
If you want to get along with Security, or for that matter if you're a guard and you want to get along with Employees, I'll tell you the magic trick. Listen. That's it. Just listen. People tell you what they need.
I try not to think too much about what is going on in the world. It's a taboo to talk about family or friends, especially asking about other people's. A lot of us have lost people we love.
The long term goal is for us to get one day a week off. That's not happening, too much to do. So far I've gotten one day this month. I did nothing. All day. Well, except gym. It felt truly wicked. Eating a real meal in the cafeteria, taking a nap in the rec room, just going for a walk. Although we had an alert and I started to respond instead of taking cover with my head down and hands stuck out like noncoms [noncombatants - E18] are supposed to, and got yelled at by Reaction Team.
At end of shift I turn in my [REDACTED], keep my [REDACTED] and sign out. I then have an hour or two of 'free' time to do errands. Sometimes I watch part of a movie, but more often I study. Some of the guards are studying for the jobs open on the CLIENT side, hoping to transfer when they are no longer needed as guards. A few have little side tasks, such as working on motorcycles or a personal project. One guard just plays her guitar. Sometimes I take a moment and just listen.
The worst part about lying down in one of the two bunk beds in my room is that they are usually still warm from the previous shift, even though they have packed away their bedding and I am using my own.
Well, that's my day. I like it when my days are easy and not much happens. I would say another word, that starts with Q and is the opposite of loud, but we don't use that word anymore. It's one of Security's taboos.
Have a safe day and thanks for reading.
I wake up to my cell phone alarm, like so many other people do. I share the room with seven other guards; but since half of them are on the opposite shift, I never see them. I just make sure my stuff is in the two plastic crates that are mine before I head out, and my bedding is neatly rolled up inside the carefully folded shrinkwrap cover.
Shower use is timed with an egg timer. Some guards shower after shift; I shower before when I can. Guards who served in the military have taught us tricks about how to use a sliver of soap most efficiently, why you still brush your teeth when there is no toothpaste (because you don't want your teeth to fall out) and various field expedients "where there is no toilet paper."
Our uniforms are washed by the laundry service. I have three. Some guards only have two. As with a lot of other things, it is being worked on.
Putting on the uniform and equipment is one of the most important parts of my day. I've learned that if I rush through this, things will be uncomfortable ... or actually dangerous. Little details like where I keep my pens, or my knife, or how I carry my radio or [REDACTED}, have become really critical.
We are on thirteen hour shifts. This allows for a quick briefing and a little overlap before we go to our positions, or posts. This is also why I never see half my roommates - I am working while they are in the room or asleep.
I have to be vague [and I have helped make this vaguer - Echo 18] but some of our posts are 'static' or fixed, and others are 'mobile' or involve moving from place to place according to [REDACTED]. Sometimes I am a driver, but more often I am guarding the motor pool or [REDACTED].
We have training materials and procedures books to study. Duty supervisors quiz us. Sometimes we have tests. One of the more difficult is a half-day in the 'Kill House' or live fire training range. Poor performance in the Kill House is one of the ways I could become a janitor, a landscaper or worst of all, a general laborer.
The schedule is set up so that there are frequent changes in my duties. I've talked about posts. I also get two meal breaks, a gym 'break' (although not all of us think it is one) and a training break (which definitely isn't). These are all half an hour in length. Meals are eaten at fixed posts in such a way that they usually aren't interrupted. The cafeteria makes them up for us.
Since E18 asked me to say, my first meal today was two peanut butter and honey sandwiches and a paper bag of tortilla chips. My second meal was a burrito containing beans and undefined protein and (a rare treat) a handful of dried fruit. We all know the cafeteria is trying, but it's always a mystery what we'll end up with.
(Breakfast and dinner are catch-as-can before and after shift. We have about a ton of oats, so oatmeal is a popular breakfast.)
The gym break requires that I store my [REDACTED] in one of the lockers provided, then either run on a treadmill (which I like) or use either free weights or a machine under a coach's supervision (which I hate). This is part of my job too, though, and poor performance over time can get me written up or worse.
The training classes are short, intense and fun. Each one is pointed at a specific skill or two out of the four hundred odd skills required of a campus guard.
Today's class is on the mechanics of physical arrest: how to put our hands on someone, take them to the ground, put wrist restraints on them and stand them up safely afterwards. Afterwards my wrists are sore.
Today is not a convoy day. Driving in convoy is very intense. [Rest of paragraph redacted.]
It's about every other day that I go out on convoy. It's dangerous and I hate it but it's very important. We save lives every day.
One of my supervisors, Arturo, says that we save lives every day on campus too, but we just don't know whose or when. He likes to point at the broken windows held in by plastic film in the cafeteria as an example, of what happens if we don't keep the bad people out.
I'm lucky, I haven't gotten hurt yet. There is a big emphasis on safety. The fastest way to get yelled at by one of my supervisors [or by me - E18] is to do something unsafe like jump down from a vehicle unnecessarily or not wear a seat belt. I wear two first aid kits. One is for me to help others. The other I am forbidden to touch except to check the contents. It is for me, if I am hurt.
["Always use the casualty's first aid kit. You may need your own later."]
If a guard is hurt, they see the infirmary and get what is called a 'profile.' The profile says what they can and cannot do while their injuries are healing.
One guard, [REDACTED], has a profile that says "Sit or stand, no running or field activity, physical therapy three times a day." They took his leg off because it was infected and antibiotics were not helping. He's a dispatcher now and he's learning to use a not very good prosthetic.
We also do drills. There are specific procedures about the difference between a drill and the real thing so we don't shoot someone for no reason. But when there is any doubt, we are to treat the drill as absolutely real.
I know most of the Employees by now. I mostly like them. There are a few who are jerks, but that is true everywhere you go. Even in the guard force.
If you want to get along with Security, or for that matter if you're a guard and you want to get along with Employees, I'll tell you the magic trick. Listen. That's it. Just listen. People tell you what they need.
I try not to think too much about what is going on in the world. It's a taboo to talk about family or friends, especially asking about other people's. A lot of us have lost people we love.
The long term goal is for us to get one day a week off. That's not happening, too much to do. So far I've gotten one day this month. I did nothing. All day. Well, except gym. It felt truly wicked. Eating a real meal in the cafeteria, taking a nap in the rec room, just going for a walk. Although we had an alert and I started to respond instead of taking cover with my head down and hands stuck out like noncoms [noncombatants - E18] are supposed to, and got yelled at by Reaction Team.
At end of shift I turn in my [REDACTED], keep my [REDACTED] and sign out. I then have an hour or two of 'free' time to do errands. Sometimes I watch part of a movie, but more often I study. Some of the guards are studying for the jobs open on the CLIENT side, hoping to transfer when they are no longer needed as guards. A few have little side tasks, such as working on motorcycles or a personal project. One guard just plays her guitar. Sometimes I take a moment and just listen.
The worst part about lying down in one of the two bunk beds in my room is that they are usually still warm from the previous shift, even though they have packed away their bedding and I am using my own.
Well, that's my day. I like it when my days are easy and not much happens. I would say another word, that starts with Q and is the opposite of loud, but we don't use that word anymore. It's one of Security's taboos.
Have a safe day and thanks for reading.
