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#151
11-16-2010, 09:19 PM
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__________________
My Twilight claim to fame: I ran "Allegheny Uprising" at Allegheny College, spring of 1988. 
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#152
11-17-2010, 08:44 AM
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When I enlisted in 1977, there was a large percentage of the pre Vietnam War officer corps in place who were more concerned with their next posting than taking care of the troops they were responible for. It was so bad, that many officers choose to take staff assignments rather than go for command. What really saved the Army were the NCOs, many of whom had 2-3 combat tours under their belts and a large cadre of officers who had served in Vietnam and were now getting into the O3-O6 slots. Then there were those special officers like Colin Powell and Tommy Franks. I had the privilage of serving under General Franks and I still remember the first time he I attended one of his NCO conferences after I had made Corporal, he simply is one of the finest officers of his generation, a true combat leader tempered with a wicked dry wit. "General Tommy" was loved and respected by his troopers. Then you had officers like Norman Schwarzkopf, who may have been brave on the battlefield, but firmly believed that rank had its privilages and had the leadership ability of, well, in spite of all the press hoopla about "Stormin Norman" and "The Bear", his service nickname perhaps expresses the opinion of those who served under him "Fucking Pimple".
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#153
11-18-2010, 09:56 PM
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When the XM-1 Battalion was undergoing its field trails at Fort Hood in 1981 there was a rather amusing accident that took place. One of the tests of the new tank was to run it couple of times around Ft Hood. On the main tank trail there was a small switchback that climbed a small limestone cliff of about 15 feet...
During a night road march, under simulated NBC conditions, one driver got a little too comfortable and went to sleep. He awoke to his TC screaming at him to stop, a little too late and the tank ran right into the cliff. The loader of the tank lost a few teeth when he was slammed into his machinegun mount and the tank commander, wasn't holding on tight enough, he was thrown from the tank and impacted the cliff face and fell down, breaking both legs. By the time my tank had pulled up, the TC had managed to crawl back up on the tank, had gotten the driver by the throat and was punching him. 
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#154
11-18-2010, 10:16 PM
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Going through my journals, it seems that I was nearby waaaayy too many accidents during my time...this is one of the more odd ones.
Night maneuver training at Hohenfels, my troop was roaming an area of broken gullies and washes on the east side of the maneuver area, our squadron commander was following the troop in his M-113. Night vision is a wonderful thing, but let's just say that the depth perception, especially on older vehicles like the 113 wasn't that great. My tank was on the right flank of the troop and my gunner and I were taking turns on the thermal sight when we were suddenly dazzled by IR lights shining right at us. I popped up into my hatch and was illuminated by a pair of headlights on high beam, right before the 113 dropped into a medium-sized gully and rolled over. I had my driver kill the IR headlights and switch to white light and called the accident in over the platoon net and headed towards the 113. In only a few moments, four IPM-1s were pulled up onto the edge of the gully illuminating the 113 lying on its side. By the time the first of us had made our way down the side, a dozen more tanks and 113s had pulled up. Our squadron commander was riding with a light crew, himself, the S-2 and S-3, our FAC officer and the normal TC and driver. Of this mob, there were two dislocated shoulders, a broken arm, a broken leg, a concussion and the at least 4 broken ribs. The driver was the worse off, his hatch had popped free from its lock and slammed onto his head as the vehicle rolled over, he had a concussion, broken ribs and a broken leg. Our squadron commander had cut his head and was dazed and confused, he kept climbing up and down each side of the gully, trailed by at least four different officers, each with a first aid kit....finally our Platoon Sergeant stopped him with a "Sit the fuck down sir! You're bleeding like a stuck pig!" By this time, we had stabilized the driver and evac'd him from the vehicle, when the medics showed, they strapped him into a litter and then tried to walk him up the slope, where they promptly dropped him, still strapped to the litter. There was a comment "fucking medics are more used to treating the fucking clap!" and a dozen tankers grabbed the litter and took it up the wall, passing him from man to man. Still can't get over the medics dropping that man...
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#155
11-29-2010, 08:31 PM
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For my first post I just have to pick this thread... Two good ones that no one can ever prove I had anything to do with relates back to my time in the sandbox.
One of our mort guys was moaning about going out on patrol and wish that they could get out of it. Some helpful soul helped out by - just before dusk mind - poured water all over his front slope. So what you might ask? Well it seems that if you slice open enough active chemlights, say 2 cases, you get the haunted 1064. Not a lot of glow, but it was noticeable. Other incident of note: Never piss off your TC. For if you do and you are some poor annoying sort that no one can take pity on you, he may apply icyhot to your relief bottle prior to sticking you in the gunners hole for a very long road march. And that idea was taken from when he tried to do the same to me! Remember: The Cav isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread. Its impossible: We invented it.
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#157
11-29-2010, 09:51 PM
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Heh. Not sure that they count as stupid tricks or not but I have a few I could share..
About a month and half into Iraq we ran out of 556 and could not get any for love of anything (a story there as well for another time). So we started using what ever we could, such as a 12 man patrol with 8 240's. Anyways, about this time my gunner and loader joined the German Army. 1hat this you might ask? Well we found a trio of weapons we decided to use and furthermore decided that we could do without our helmet covers. The trio? A 8mm MG42, a very beat up but good running MP40, and to my own surprise, a MP44. Not much ammo for it, true, but fun till they took them away.
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#158
11-29-2010, 10:19 PM
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And we'll have fun, fun, fun till daddy takes the machineguns away...
__________________
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons...First We Take Manhattan, Jennifer Warnes Entirely too much T2K stuff here: www.pmulcahy.com
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#159
11-30-2010, 10:48 AM
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My dad tells a story out of Vietnam, his platoon had engaged a detachment of VC and had requested a resupply of ammo, water and C-rats, they got the C-rats and the water, but the S-4 sent forward several cases of 7.62mm, ammo for M-14s, wouldn't have been a problem, but they had turned in their M-14s over a year ago....
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The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
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#160
11-30-2010, 09:53 PM
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Maybe he was waiting for emergency such as this to push the ammo on someone...Ugh...
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#161
11-30-2010, 09:56 PM
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#162
11-30-2010, 10:14 PM
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__________________
Member of the Bofors fan club! The M1911 of automatic cannon. Proud fan(atic) of the CV90 Series.
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#163
11-30-2010, 11:20 PM
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I can believe it for armoured troops. Back in the day our armoured crew fired their personal weapons on exercise about once a year - they'd be throwing their issued blanks at us infantry. Mind you, we were very glad to get it as there seemed to be a serious shortage of blanks for training for some unknown reason - we'd go for days with only 1 mag while supposed to be conducting offensive actions (which chew through the ammo if done right). Most of the time we were reduced to yelling "bang".
__________________
If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives. Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect" Mors ante pudorem
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#164
12-01-2010, 03:33 AM
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I've also seen a Nat'l Guard unit that was still equipped with M16A1s try to zero and qualify with M855 green tip ammo. Official DOD guidance on that combo is "war time only, and then only within 100 meters" -- from what I saw with rounds keyholing on the 25 meter zero range I'd venture to guess DOD was being generous saying you could use it effectively in combat at 100 meters. And was on a sniper course where someone at Ft Bragg dug very deep into the very back of some ammo bunkers and issued a mess of M118 Special Ball instead of the newer and better M118 Long Range ammo -- a lot of it with some ancient red white and blue eagle logo packaging from when 118SB was competition ammo.
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#165
12-01-2010, 04:16 AM
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__________________
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons...First We Take Manhattan, Jennifer Warnes Entirely too much T2K stuff here: www.pmulcahy.com
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#166
12-01-2010, 04:20 AM
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I remember the times on ranges where we were told to burn (i.e., waste) ammo just so we would not get a lesser allotment the next fiscal year. Though I did get to do fun things like fire at pop-up targets on automatic, fire M16s on M60 ranges, and fire extra M202 rockets. Fun, but wasteful.
__________________
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons...First We Take Manhattan, Jennifer Warnes Entirely too much T2K stuff here: www.pmulcahy.com
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#167
12-01-2010, 05:28 AM
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The once a year qualify for your personal weapons was also a rather stupid idea, once a quarter would have been a lot better, but that would never fly.
It always amazes that the military, an organization that exisits for only one purpose, always seems to never have the money to do anything that would improve its war fighting capability... Too many shell games being played with funds being diverted for the latest R&D, for that new construction in a certain congressman's district, that new, totally useless uniform change...you know, life as usual in Wonderland on the Potomac!
__________________
The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
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#168
12-01-2010, 05:31 AM
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We had a similar system to MILES called IWIS (can't for the life of me remember what it stands for). It was trotted out fairly regularly from about 1992 onward and while it was ok, it had it's drawbacks.
Firstly the laser unit on the end of the barrel made the weapon EXTREMELY front heavy (much more than an M203) and you'd get rather tired after a while trying to keep the barrel up out of the dirt. The biggest problem with it though was you could be on a flat featureless plain with only one blade of grass on it - that single blade would stop the laser beam cold every time! But the most annoying feature was the "god guns" the DS (Directing Staff) carried about. You could be crawling along in good cover unknown to the enemy and then beeeeeeeeeeeeep, a DS would take it upon themselves to turn you into a casualty. On the other hand, as a casualty you got to roll over on your back and take a rest for a while....
__________________
If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives. Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect" Mors ante pudorem
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#169
12-01-2010, 05:37 AM
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 The vehicle system always drove you nuts, especially when you got "near-missed", the early MILES had a software issue so that this happened, your own laser would not cycle for a minute or so...plenty of time for that other crew to nail you with their second round.
__________________
The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
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#170
12-01-2010, 06:06 AM
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__________________
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons...First We Take Manhattan, Jennifer Warnes Entirely too much T2K stuff here: www.pmulcahy.com
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#171
12-01-2010, 09:20 AM
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#172
12-01-2010, 12:11 PM
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During my time in the 2ACR, we always seemed to get extra funds for maneuvers whenever we were posted to the border. Our training area happened to be near an area were the French were having an FTX. One day, my tank was trail on a reaction force alert and we happened to drive past a company of AMX-30s doing an admin halt and all of the French tankers were standing in a group, smoking and joking. When they saw that we were Americans, we got the "universal sign of peace and love" and a couple decided that mooning was a funnier greeting.
I was cool, simply bowing in my hatch and giving a half-assed salute...and told my driver to fire up the smoke jenny....and left them hacking as we did our part for global warming! 
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The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
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#173
12-01-2010, 01:40 PM
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Last exercise I was on, I got given 3 mags. They felt suspiciously light so on closer inspection I found I had a grand total of nine blanks per mag. The novelty wore off when on the second day I was told to provide fire support. Nothing worse then watching regular observers from the PDF piss themselves laughing at several of us imitating recoil and yelling "BANG!".
Range work, we usually only get a mag or two, for a couple of days, a couple of times.... I fondly remember my day when I got two full Steyr mags and told to use the automatic function on it. That same day, we all had to qualify on the GPMG Having carried it for three months, I was over the moon about getting to fire it!I'll definetely push for my Corporals course in a couple of years, be sweet to use the USP, 203 and different versions of the Steyr! That MILES thing does sound pretty cool though(shortcomings aside!). Scarily close to one of our training suggestions that we use paintball and airsofting to supplement our training :O! Last edited by Rapparee; 12-01-2010 at 01:48 PM.
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#174
12-01-2010, 04:59 PM
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You got three mags of nine rounds each! Luxury!
I was on one exercise where we had an average of 11 rounds total per man which were to last 5 days! The same exercise some brain back in the kitchens had forgotten to place the meat order. 400 hungry young men had just 10 lbs to last them all a week! As a "sorry" one morning they send out hot porridge which would have been great it being the middle of winter. Problem was it was absolutely riddled with weevils! I suppose they had to give us our protein somehow...
__________________
If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives. Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect" Mors ante pudorem
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#175
12-01-2010, 05:27 PM
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How about getting C-Rats stamped "1945" and this was in 1978...
I still swear that the when the egg loaf can was opened that a green fog appeared!
__________________
The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
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#176
12-01-2010, 06:12 PM
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#177
12-01-2010, 07:25 PM
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Nope, it was a definate stuff up.
A few days before the "porridge incident" we were served tv dinner trays full of salad for lunch. Nice and fresh, yes, but it was the middle of winter and absolutely BUCKETING down with rain. The rain was coming down so hard that even on top of the hills there was something like two inches of cold water laying about (sleeping was soooo much fun). The "salad" was mainly lettuce and with the rain so heavy the trays filled up in about 30 seconds. Such an insubstantial and cold meal didn't do much for morale, soaked to the bone, and shivering as we were. A week later and the place was a dust bowl...
__________________
If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives. Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect" Mors ante pudorem
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#178
12-03-2010, 08:56 PM
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#179
12-04-2010, 12:08 AM
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#180
12-04-2010, 10:03 AM
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__________________
Member of the Bofors fan club! The M1911 of automatic cannon. Proud fan(atic) of the CV90 Series.
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