Sunday, June 05, 2005
Urban/Convoy ops.
After all that fun with the PFT, sickness, and other nonsense, we got to head out to our Urban warfare/Convoy operations FEX. It started with convoy operations. The company split up with half going into MOUT town to do urban and the other half staying on the outskirts to do convoy ops. We had convoy first.
The guy picked to be the convoy commander is less than stellar, so we were a little concerned that the operation would turn into a real mess. He is a nice guy, but he is timid and doesn't think on his feet well. This could definitely become a problem during convoy ops. When a convoy is hit, lots of things happen at once and the convoy commander has to act quickly to make things happen.
I was fortunate enough to be picked to ride on one of the security vehicles; a HMMWV with a .50cal machine gun mounted on it. The convoy consisted of: Two HMMWVs with .50s, one HMMWV with a TOW missile launcher, a HMMWV ambulance, a MRC-145 command and control HMMWV, and two 7 ton trucks. Each HMMWV had three lieutenants and a driver in it; a vehicle commander in the passenger seat, a lieutenant in the seat behind the driver for sniper watch, and a lieutenant on the turret with the gun. The convoy commander with an instructor and another lieutenant for security was riding in the MRC-145, and the remaining poor bastards had to ride in the 7 tons.
The reason it sucks to ride in the 7 tons is that whenever the convoy is hit, they have to jump down the seven feet from the bed of the truck and rush forward to attack the enemy. While they are doing this, I am providing security for my gunner, remaining with the vehicle. Easy street.
Our driver had to be the most disgruntled corporal I have met here at The Basic School. For the enlisted here, this can be a great duty station or a terrible one. Apparently for him it was a terrible one. He was lazy, rude, disrespectful as hell, and generally a pain in the ass. He told us several times that our commander's plan was "dumb" and that the vehicle commander he had in the previous convoy was a "dork." If I was a lieutenant in his chain of command, I would have busted his ass. I decided that it was not my place as a student to try and change his attitude, so I cautioned him about his tone and let it go. He was also "getting out soon", so I figured no big deal right? His interpretation of soon? June 2008. We just let that one go.
The other annoying thing about this driver is that he felt like he knew it all. He insisted on telling us everything that we were doing wrong with a tone and attitude which was, once again, disrespectful. Our vehicle commander, Lt. Kirsch finally said "Well why don't you tell us the right way and make us better fucking officers?" The driver was silent for a while and was more respectful the rest of the ride.
One last little anecdote about this guy. There is a tendency amongst the junior enlisted in any military service to spread bum gouge. They think they know the truth about something; usually a truth they got from another misinformed junior enlisted man, and they continue to spread this. Usually it is about those mysterious and prestigious schools that everyone wants to go to but few get a chance to attend. Sometimes it is about the current theater of operations, sometimes about strange Marine Corps tradition. Most enlisted, however, choose to keep their mouth shut around those who are likely to know more about it. This guy was not as smart as most enlisted. He took great pride in telling us that if he wanted to do what we were doing (become officers in the Marine Corps) he would not have to do OCS and would only have to go to TBS for three months because of his prior service. The truck was silent for a few moments because everyone in the truck knew that I had prior service and they were waiting for my response. After telling him that he was quite wrong, he went silent for the rest of the ride. Thank goodness, I couldn't take much more of his crap.
The convoy itself was fairly uneventful, on the first convoy we only made contact once and it was a sniper. We didn't really know what to do and our .50 gunner just fired indiscriminately into the shrubs in the field to our right. Eventually the poor bastards in the 7 tons assaulted through, cleared the area, and we were back on the move.
On our second convoy we had an ambush which was initiated by an improvised explosive device. Our lead HMMWV was disabled by the bomb and we took fire from the right side. Once again, the 7 ton crew assaulted through and I provided security for my vehicle. My vehicle commander, in a stroke of genius, ordered me to assault the enemy position by myself as the two squads from the 7 tons were approaching from the right. "I'm going to get shot by my own guys!" I yelled, but he didn't want to hear any of it, he insisted I press forward. Thank god this guy is an air contract.
Our .50 gunners were more than a little disappointed in the fact that they hadn't seen much action by the time the second convoy was almost over, so the lead gunner opened up on a 'suspected' sniper position to our left as we rolled home. The gunner in my HMMWV didn't see any reason to ask questions so he opened up too. Just for good measure we popped smoke too, you don't get to throw smoke grenades that often. We were just like a bunch of kids playing with our overgrown cap guns. We take this training seriously, but you have to have fun when you can. The .50 cal is probably the biggest and loudest cap gun any of us have ever had the opportunity to play with, so what the hell, fire out all rounds.
So ended the first day of Urban FEX, we had hot chow and moved into the concrete buildings of MOUT town. We were not allowed outside the buildings because the other half of the company was doing night urban ops, so we played spades by red lens flashlight. I've determined that I am not very good at spades. One brutal loss and I hit the rack. By the rack, I mean the section of concrete floor that I called home that night.
The guy picked to be the convoy commander is less than stellar, so we were a little concerned that the operation would turn into a real mess. He is a nice guy, but he is timid and doesn't think on his feet well. This could definitely become a problem during convoy ops. When a convoy is hit, lots of things happen at once and the convoy commander has to act quickly to make things happen.
I was fortunate enough to be picked to ride on one of the security vehicles; a HMMWV with a .50cal machine gun mounted on it. The convoy consisted of: Two HMMWVs with .50s, one HMMWV with a TOW missile launcher, a HMMWV ambulance, a MRC-145 command and control HMMWV, and two 7 ton trucks. Each HMMWV had three lieutenants and a driver in it; a vehicle commander in the passenger seat, a lieutenant in the seat behind the driver for sniper watch, and a lieutenant on the turret with the gun. The convoy commander with an instructor and another lieutenant for security was riding in the MRC-145, and the remaining poor bastards had to ride in the 7 tons.
The reason it sucks to ride in the 7 tons is that whenever the convoy is hit, they have to jump down the seven feet from the bed of the truck and rush forward to attack the enemy. While they are doing this, I am providing security for my gunner, remaining with the vehicle. Easy street.
Our driver had to be the most disgruntled corporal I have met here at The Basic School. For the enlisted here, this can be a great duty station or a terrible one. Apparently for him it was a terrible one. He was lazy, rude, disrespectful as hell, and generally a pain in the ass. He told us several times that our commander's plan was "dumb" and that the vehicle commander he had in the previous convoy was a "dork." If I was a lieutenant in his chain of command, I would have busted his ass. I decided that it was not my place as a student to try and change his attitude, so I cautioned him about his tone and let it go. He was also "getting out soon", so I figured no big deal right? His interpretation of soon? June 2008. We just let that one go.
The other annoying thing about this driver is that he felt like he knew it all. He insisted on telling us everything that we were doing wrong with a tone and attitude which was, once again, disrespectful. Our vehicle commander, Lt. Kirsch finally said "Well why don't you tell us the right way and make us better fucking officers?" The driver was silent for a while and was more respectful the rest of the ride.
One last little anecdote about this guy. There is a tendency amongst the junior enlisted in any military service to spread bum gouge. They think they know the truth about something; usually a truth they got from another misinformed junior enlisted man, and they continue to spread this. Usually it is about those mysterious and prestigious schools that everyone wants to go to but few get a chance to attend. Sometimes it is about the current theater of operations, sometimes about strange Marine Corps tradition. Most enlisted, however, choose to keep their mouth shut around those who are likely to know more about it. This guy was not as smart as most enlisted. He took great pride in telling us that if he wanted to do what we were doing (become officers in the Marine Corps) he would not have to do OCS and would only have to go to TBS for three months because of his prior service. The truck was silent for a few moments because everyone in the truck knew that I had prior service and they were waiting for my response. After telling him that he was quite wrong, he went silent for the rest of the ride. Thank goodness, I couldn't take much more of his crap.
The convoy itself was fairly uneventful, on the first convoy we only made contact once and it was a sniper. We didn't really know what to do and our .50 gunner just fired indiscriminately into the shrubs in the field to our right. Eventually the poor bastards in the 7 tons assaulted through, cleared the area, and we were back on the move.
On our second convoy we had an ambush which was initiated by an improvised explosive device. Our lead HMMWV was disabled by the bomb and we took fire from the right side. Once again, the 7 ton crew assaulted through and I provided security for my vehicle. My vehicle commander, in a stroke of genius, ordered me to assault the enemy position by myself as the two squads from the 7 tons were approaching from the right. "I'm going to get shot by my own guys!" I yelled, but he didn't want to hear any of it, he insisted I press forward. Thank god this guy is an air contract.
Our .50 gunners were more than a little disappointed in the fact that they hadn't seen much action by the time the second convoy was almost over, so the lead gunner opened up on a 'suspected' sniper position to our left as we rolled home. The gunner in my HMMWV didn't see any reason to ask questions so he opened up too. Just for good measure we popped smoke too, you don't get to throw smoke grenades that often. We were just like a bunch of kids playing with our overgrown cap guns. We take this training seriously, but you have to have fun when you can. The .50 cal is probably the biggest and loudest cap gun any of us have ever had the opportunity to play with, so what the hell, fire out all rounds.
So ended the first day of Urban FEX, we had hot chow and moved into the concrete buildings of MOUT town. We were not allowed outside the buildings because the other half of the company was doing night urban ops, so we played spades by red lens flashlight. I've determined that I am not very good at spades. One brutal loss and I hit the rack. By the rack, I mean the section of concrete floor that I called home that night.
// posted by Josh @ 6/05/2005 06:11:00 PM 
