Quote:
Originally Posted by dragoon500ly
The most common spelling is Grafenwhore. Graf had the screwest weather! In one day we started out with fog so thick that you could not see the hand at the end of your arm, by mid morning, the fog had been replaced by dust (a cav squadron running the tank trails), by noon, the ole tropical monsoon had moved in and everything was flooded and by twilight, snow was falling.
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I didn't mind Graf so much. Hohenfels was a craphole though - crap barracks, mud everywhere, and cold. Blah!
Back on-topic - I was in a very unique position for my last year on active duty. Our Brigade Commander (Colonel, O-6) wanted to try a new thing out, so he cross-leveled an M2A2 Bradley to the Brigade HQ, and I got tapped for the crew. I was part Scout/dismount, part gunner. When we were on the move, if the Colonel was on board, he was BC, the BC slid to the gunners slot, and I went to the back. Most of the time he wasn't on board, so I gunned. We gutted the crew compartment, ripped out all of the seats, the TOW racks, etc. On the right side of the crew compartment we installed 2 radios and an msrt satellite phone. On the left side, we installed a giant folding map-board. During the counter-recon phase of the battle the Colonel would take the Bradley out to the front lines where we'd setup in a good vantage point and he'd direct the battle. When things got hot, he'd hop in his humvee and ske-daddle, while we provided overwatch. Then, we'd join in the counter-recon battle. Sometimes, we were tasked with rear-area security (such as the time a recon platoon of BMP's rolled into the medics area
). Other times we focused on counter-recon, hunting down BMPs that the Humvee scouts couldn't handle.
Other times, we'd get special missions. We had one mission where we had to escort some Spanish Army emissaries (Generals, etc.) that were there for a dog and pony show to see how the US Army operated in the field. However, due to the rules of the box they were given full Miles gear, casualty cards, etc, and we played it as if they were really on the battlefield.
Well, the S-3 (a Major who shall remain nameless) was assigned to escort them around, and we were assigned security. This Major was a real head-case. West Point grad, thought he was gods gift to the US Army. So he takes the emissaries in a bunch of humvees to show them the FEBA and to observe the beginning stages of the battle. If any of you remember Hohenfels, there is this terrain feature called 'the peanut' just south of Old Baldy. It's a small hill, that gives a great view of a valley, and the chokepoint that the opfor has to plow through to attack it. So what does the Major do? Drive right up onto the Peanut, skylining us all for anyone with a clue to spot us. We radioed up to him, to alert him to the situation, but he just got very annoyed and told us to clear the airwaves. Wonderful I thought, this is starting our GREAT.
About 20 minutes later, he gets the Spanish setup right on top of the peanut, in plain view of pretty much the entire world. We setup in a bushline, trying to get as much cover as we can, but its useless. So we're scanning the battlefield, and what do we spot? About 1200m away or so, we see an Opfor BMP, with a guy standing on top. Binocs in one hand, a mic in the other, looking right at us. We tried to engage him, but he was too far away for the Miles lasers to register a hit. We radio this over to the Major, saying we need to grab the Spanish and go, as we're about to get bombarded. Of course, he wants NOTHING to do with that, and tells us (again) to get off the airwaves.
Sure enough, about 3 minutes later a whole group of OC's comes up and starts chucking flash-bangs and smoke grenades everywhere. Apparently, there was a bounty on my Bradley with the OC soldiers - they knew the Colonel had a Bradley, and were gunning for it. With 5 antennas on it, it was obvious who we were. They dropped an entire battalion of arty on our heads, and no-one survived, Spanish emissaries and all. I guess they got to see how the graves registration process worked in the US Army though, bu t they didn't see the battle
It was only one of two times in my career I was killed by OpFor forces (the other was the 'wrong place at the wrong time' - our OP was setup, and they happened to randomly drop a nerve gas bombardment right next to us).
After the op, we got back to the Brigade TOC. The Colonel was PISSED! He came over to us, and we told him what happened. Never saw the old man so angry in my life. He LAID INTO the Major, up one side, down the other for what seemed like an eternity. We mostly hid inside the Bradley, but heard such choice quotes as 'how DARE you get my Bradley killed like that' and something about 'gross incompetence'. Apparenltly, the Colonel had a side-bet with the OpFor Colonel that 'his' Bradley wouldn't get killed, and he lost because of the Major
Good times