Do you smell something?
3rd day of fighting: Here is my loader, PFC Langford, catching some Z's up against the ammo ready-rack door. We slept very little the first week; 15 mins here, 20 mins there, after 60 hours of continuous combat. Of the 4 stations, the loader's is by far the roomiest and the second-most comfortable.
On a separate note, today a funny thing happened. We headed out on a mission using M113s...PCs. Man those things are ridiculous. Big metal boxes with magnesium walls riding on tracks. These things are turbo-charged, diesel-powered, 1960s technology.
"Hey Sir, doesn't that smell like ammunition burning?" Langford said from the driver's hole of the PC.
"Yeah I smell it." It smelled like plastic burning to me. Everything in Iraq smelled like burning though. Some sort of trash was always burning and it always smelled bad.
We drove on. Suddenly, SGT Gwekoh, one of my NCOs, grabbed my shoulder.
"FIRE! FIRE!"
I looked back at SSG Terry in the PC behind me. He looked fine. I didn't see any flames. That's when the smoke started billowing out of the passenger compartment of MY PC.
"HOLY SHIT! FIRE! LANGFORD, FIRE! Get out! Get out!"
He stopped the PC and we all got the hell out of dodge.
"Grab my kevlar, SGT Gwekoh. And grab my rifle. Let's go!" I hollered from the top of the PC. I watched Langford get out of the driver's hole and we leaped off the PC.
"What the fuck are they doing?" SSG Terry asked his driver.
"Maybe there's a fire" SPC Lewis replied.
I hollered for SFC Kennedy to get the fire extinguisher out of his PC and motioned for SSG Terry to pull in front of us to pull forward security. I went to the back of the PC and helped SGT Gwekoh get the rifles, the bags and other sensitive items out. He pulled out a few assault packs in flames. Shit, there goes my soldiers' nice assault packs, gortexes and other crap. I stomped the flames with my boots and when I finished, they were covered in black molten plastic from the assault pack.
"Where's our extinguisher?" I hollered.
"In there." SGT Gwekoh replied. I peeked in the PC. There are two compartments running on both sides of the PC. One holds the radios and other equipment. The other side held M240 ammo, .50cal ammo, flares, grenades, and our assault packs...OH and the extinguisher. Guess which side was on fire? Exactly. We used SFC Kennedy's fire extinguisher and put out the fire.
Apparently the commo cords and antenna wire started arcing pretty bad and started a pretty sweet fire. It was hilarious. Of all the places to have a fire, having one where all of our ordances and explosives, and personal gear AND fire extinguisher was stored is just too funny.
We used the tow cables and towed my PC back to the FOB with SSG Terry's PC. After dropping it off with the mechanics, we grabbed our 4th PC and took back off on mission. That was my first vehicle fire. I hope they are all that funny
posted by REDSIX at 7:21 AM
15 Comments:
So here's the latest poop. We should be heading back to Germany by the end of February. 2nd and 3rd BDE of 1ID will leave Schweinfurt and Vilseck, respectively around the summer of 2006 and head for the States. To Ft Lewis or Ft. Riley perhaps? A Stryker brigade will be heading to Germany to replace us.
Hey man,
So glad to hear that you and your men are safe. Whenever I pray, I do pray for you guys over there.
Also, nice to know you will returning soon. Godspeed, my friend.
As a fellow brown guy, and long time lurker, I also just want to say that I am really glad to have discovered your blog. You are a great writer, plus you kick ass, literally!
Nice to know that there are brown guys fighting for out freedom too, considering the fact that all the brown people at my University are lefties and, well, not very brown, in other ways, by my definition.
Take care.
Heh. He called you brown. No fair -- that's my term of endearment for you.
glad you are safe. But Geeze, have the driver INSPECT the track before starting it up.
Game Guy.
Sarah,
Yeah, I just said that because I too am brown, and well, I just do not get meet any cool brown people at university, so it is just good to know that there are some. =D
But we all have to remember the important thing is that our troops are safe, and the bad guys die.
Gawd! Rearrange that interior! :))) I swear, it's like putting the head of the bed against the door! Glad you all got out okay and changed vehicles. Don't like the idea of black plastic anything all melted down. Especially when the stuff melted is mine. Leaves a lot to be desired. Hate to tell you, but your running mates aren't gonna let you forget this one for a long time..:)
Dear Anonymous Brown Guy,
Neil is one of the coolest guys you'll meet, brown or any other color. Me, I'm a very pale shade of white, and I've always been a sucker for Indians. My friend in high school used to call me a "wasian" (a joke on the term "wigger").
Hey Sarah,
Yeah, I do believe that Neil's coolness has nothing to do with skin color, and I would be a crass, ethnocentric, POS of a human being to think so.
The reason I even brought up the brown thing, was the fact that coolest young brown person I know is my sister (who is a lefty feminista). :( That and the fact that since entering university, I have taken a better look at my own culture, something I did not do in high school. And since I moved from the US to Canada, and I could never in a million years feel like a Canadian, the "brownness" is all I have to rely on. But I can assure you that the reason I read Neil's blog or support the US(PRESIDENT+MILITARY+PEOPLE) is because I am human being, and that being brown or conservative has nothing to do with it. :p
And BTW, the way you have a thing for brown people, I have developed one, for a while now, for Eastern Europe. It is funny really, in more ways than one.
Not that any of this anything to do with how great this blog is.
So today I got more awards kicked back from 2-2IN for the fighting in Fallujah. This will be my 4th time writing these same awards. (Infantrymen stop reading here) Just because you are a grunt who doesn't know what a sponson box is, DOES NOT make it a TYPO. GOOD LORD. Look it up. To be a smart ass, I was going to turn it right back with a xeroxed page from the -10 TM showing a picture and the spelling of the sponson box, but the stupid S-1 Adjutant scribbled in red ink on it. I'll still do that, but I have to re-print the award. All of this is just delaying the process of getting my soldiers the awards they deserve. Sorry to piss off any crunchies. I love you guys. I'm just venting out because of this S-1 officer who is the bane of my existence.
REDSIX,
I thought you'd like to read a quote from an interview with David Zucchino, the guy who wrote "Thunder Run":
>I’m not an expert on the military by any means, so I can’t judge whether the military has the hardware, etc. to fight in cities. I can only say that in Baghdad the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd ID turned military doctrine on its head by sending tanks and Bradleys into the heart of Baghdad, where the crews fought gunmen firing from bunkers, trenches, windows, rooftops and alleys. The brigade proved not only that tanks could fight inside cities, but that they could prevail.
Looks like much of the same happened in Fallujah, but also with lots of coordination with boots on the ground.
Thanks.
*
REDSIX,
Here's a link to that interview with Zucchino, if you'd like to read it.
*
Thanks for the link gentlemen. Sounds similar in nature to the fight in Fallujah. I think the sole difference was the nature of the enemy.
Tanks in the house! OMG OMG!
Red6,
Jeffrey from Iraqi Bloggers Central linked to your site and I am glad I took time to read through every post.
As a fellow serviceman and officer, I commend you on your wisdom and zeal.
Keep those NCOs close.
Jimmy
Man, I am proud of my heritage but I am an American 1st and foremost.
That's the beauty of it. Americans come in all shapes, creeds, and colors.
Land of the Free. Home of the BRAVE.
Ooh Rah!
We had been blogging trying to find how our world sees computers and PCs. Computer has been a lifeline for us. Your site provides some of the best examples of this sort and we will bookmark yours. Another one we found was and appears to be related to yours is online computer game site/blog. It pretty much covers online computer game related stuff.
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