By Chris Boggiano - 12 November: Neil Gets Burned
This is Chris's entry from his notes. I thought his perspective was interesting. This is where I wanted readers to get caught up. - Red 6.
After driving out of the minefield area we turned south and worked our way along the outside of the city. Once we got to a good spot, we turned back into the minefield and pulled up to a spot near the big hole in the ground that I’d taken a crap in the day before. There were some big piles of dirt there, so we pulled our trucks up behind them as an added layer of protection and started looking into the city.
Peew
“Great, more snipers. These guys just don’t give up.”
After a few more minutes of bullets whizzing by my trucks, I decided to pull back into the desert several hundred more meters away from the city. There wasn’t much of a point in sitting that close anyway.
After carefully following our tracks back outside all of the suspected minefields, we parked behind a big sand berm that ran through the middle of the dessert for no reason. The city was quite a ways off, but at least we didn’t have to deal with any sniper fire. In fact, we were about as safe as someone can get in Fallujah.
We then linked up with some of the marines that were a few hundred meters off of our flank. It had worked out pretty well for us last time we’d done that since the guys in the LAV-25’s had helped us out big time.
My last words to those guys were, “Hey, make sure you guys are watching out for mines around here, we had one of the trucks in our troop destroyed not to far from here.”
Sure enough, not five minutes after I left them I watched a Bradley Fighting Vehicle get blown up by an anti-tank mine only a few feet from where I had just been standing. Fortunately, it looked like no one was hurt and the Bradley had its track blown off.
By now, it was midday, and things had heated up inside the city. The rest of our task force has stopped its advance so they could drop some artillery to soften the insurgents up before pushing south again.
”Red 6, Phantom 6. I want you to move to a position where you can observe the city. Ramrod 6 wants you to call for indirect. Adjust your first round. After that, it’s ‘Fire for effect. Drop 50, fire for effect. Drop 50, fire for effect. And just keep doing that until someone tells you to stop, Got it?”
It looked like Neil was going to get to have some fun. He was going to get to level a big chunk of the city. One of the other companies had already started firing rounds into the area they had just come from. Normally, higher up automatically cancels a mission that is too close to friendly forces, but for some reason they were dropping rounds even though all of A 2-2 hadn’t pulled out.
In the distance between me and the city I could see Neil’s tanks pulling out to get a good view. He was sitting out in the open.
BOOM!!!
One of the incoming artillery rounds screamed overhead and landed on the edge of the city.
“Who’s calling that?”
“I think the tank company.”
BOOM!!!
Another round landed, and this time it was pretty close to Neil’s tank.
“Phantom 6, Red 6. Tell whoever is calling indirect to check their fires. They are walking their rounds right towards us.”
I jumped over to the battalion net on my radio to see who was calling it and I caught “Ramrod18, Avenger6, right 200 fire for effect.”
I relaxed. It was CPT Fowler. From where he was sitting, the adjustment would move the rounds away from Neil and into the city.
BOOM!!!
Or not. A round landed maybe 35 meters from the side of his tank. Everyone in my platoon started yelling at our forward observer since he had a radio to talk directly to the guns and could stop the incoming rounds at their source. In the distance, I could see Neil’s tank backing up farther from the city to get away from the fires.
“Check Fire!! Check Fire!!”
“It’s not my mission. I’m in no position to stop it.”
“Goddamit, check that fire or I will kill you myself if those guys get hurt out there.” SSG Amyett yelled at him. It was convincing enough to make him pick up his radio but he was too late.
BOOM!!!
I couldn’t see Neil’s tank anymore. It was obscured in black smoke.
“Holy shit! Get on the trucks. That round just landed right on top of them. Let’s get out there.”
By now my platoon was scrambling. We had just watched our own artillery move 200 meters in the wrong direction and land right on his tank. I hopped in my seat and grabbed the radio.
“Red6, Outlaw1, are you guys alright.”
I got no response.
“Red6, Outlaw1”
By now we were pulling out and starting to race toward the tank. Minefields or not, there was no way I was going to sit there if they were injured.
“RED6, OUTLAW1!”
Still nothing.
Jesus Christ. They’re all dead. I thought to myself.
Back to Life
“Outlaw1, Red6”
I could feel everyone in my platoon simultaneously breath a collective sigh of relief when we heard those words come over the radio.
“We’re all ok, I got tangled up in my spaghetti cord when that round landed off the side of the tank.”
What a crazy 30 seconds that had been. Thank god they were alright is all I can say.
The Air Force Comes Out to Play
“Outlaw1, Phantom6, I want you to level the southeast portion of the city.”
Hearing that, my forward observer and air force guys went into action.
“Hey sir, I’ve got a fighter overhead that wants to drop some bombs on the city if you’re got somewhere to put them. All I need is someone’s initials.”
“Well, mine are CB if that counts for anything. Have them drop it on the very corner of the city there.”
Everyone knew that there was trouble in the last sector of the city to clear, so we’d be given the go ahead to pummel it good before any friendlies went in there.
“60 seconds!!!” I heard the Air Force guys yell. My platoon was out and about with their cameras to take pictures of us dropping a 500 lb bomb. Unfortunately, from where we were sitting we wouldn’t see too much detail, just a real big cloud of smoke.
Two minutes later I got “30 seconds!!!”
No one thinks of the Air Force as the service with guys that are involved in ground combat, but we’d had one of their humvees attached to us the entire time in Fallujah. They’d sampled some pretty good fights and by now were sitting next to me with two bullet riddled windshields among other things.
“Here he comes. Ten seconds!!!”
Just then I could see a little speck dipping down from way up high. He seemed like he was only a few hundred meters above the ground. We couldn’t hear anything yet though because of the jet’s speed and distance from our location. Still, everyone saw the little speck drop out from under its belly and nose dive toward the target house.
A second later there was a giant mushroom cloud followed a couple of seconds later by a really big boom.
“Outlaw1, Phantom6, what the hell are you doing!!! We’ve had enough friendly artillery dropped on Red6 today.”
“What is he talking about? That was over 1000 meters from where they’re at?”
My CO was still out in the minefield getting Neil’s tank ready to tow back to Camp Fallujah. Even though they were plenty far away, they were spooked about getting blown up, so I had gotten yelled at.
“Alright, let’s drop another one, this time move it 50 meters farther into the city.”
For a 500 pound bomb, 50 meters is nothing, but at least I could say that I was moving away from my CO if he asked me about it. Either way, I was still having them drop it plenty far away from their position.
Since we had the jets on station, it didn’t take long to get the next bomb dropped. After it hit, I watched an insurgent fly about 100 feet in the air flailing and then back into the city. Things probably didn’t end too well for that one.
“Outlaw1, Phantom6, much better. I want more of that. Bring it north now.”So let me get this straight. I drop one bomb and get yelled at for it being dangerously close, but then I drop another right next to it and that one’s perfect. Not only that, but I get told to bring it closer to my boss’s position for the third bomb.
After waiting a little while longer they dropped another one followed by the same giant explosion and mushroom cloud.
“Outlaw1, Phantom6, what the hell are you doing? Are you trying to get us killed? That one was way too close.”
Alright, I give up. I can’t make anyone happy. Oh well.
So I had them drop two more bombs just for good measure. Fortunately, I didn’t get any more complaints.
“Hey sir, want them to do a strafing run?”
“They do that? Like with one of the machine guns inside the jet?”
“Yea sure, all you have to do is ask”
“Yea let's do some of that”
Now we were back to screwing around. A strafing run was going to accomplish next to nothing, but they were willing to do it and we got to say it was another weapon that we had some experience with.
It was true, the strafing run did nothing, but it did sound cool. The jet swooped in real low and then pulled up. With the sound delay, we heard what sounded like a big fart as it was pulling back up to a high altitude. I couldn’t complain, it was just another weapon that everyone got to use in Fallujah.
After driving out of the minefield area we turned south and worked our way along the outside of the city. Once we got to a good spot, we turned back into the minefield and pulled up to a spot near the big hole in the ground that I’d taken a crap in the day before. There were some big piles of dirt there, so we pulled our trucks up behind them as an added layer of protection and started looking into the city.
Peew
“Great, more snipers. These guys just don’t give up.”
After a few more minutes of bullets whizzing by my trucks, I decided to pull back into the desert several hundred more meters away from the city. There wasn’t much of a point in sitting that close anyway.
After carefully following our tracks back outside all of the suspected minefields, we parked behind a big sand berm that ran through the middle of the dessert for no reason. The city was quite a ways off, but at least we didn’t have to deal with any sniper fire. In fact, we were about as safe as someone can get in Fallujah.
We then linked up with some of the marines that were a few hundred meters off of our flank. It had worked out pretty well for us last time we’d done that since the guys in the LAV-25’s had helped us out big time.
My last words to those guys were, “Hey, make sure you guys are watching out for mines around here, we had one of the trucks in our troop destroyed not to far from here.”
Sure enough, not five minutes after I left them I watched a Bradley Fighting Vehicle get blown up by an anti-tank mine only a few feet from where I had just been standing. Fortunately, it looked like no one was hurt and the Bradley had its track blown off.
By now, it was midday, and things had heated up inside the city. The rest of our task force has stopped its advance so they could drop some artillery to soften the insurgents up before pushing south again.
”Red 6, Phantom 6. I want you to move to a position where you can observe the city. Ramrod 6 wants you to call for indirect. Adjust your first round. After that, it’s ‘Fire for effect. Drop 50, fire for effect. Drop 50, fire for effect. And just keep doing that until someone tells you to stop, Got it?”
It looked like Neil was going to get to have some fun. He was going to get to level a big chunk of the city. One of the other companies had already started firing rounds into the area they had just come from. Normally, higher up automatically cancels a mission that is too close to friendly forces, but for some reason they were dropping rounds even though all of A 2-2 hadn’t pulled out.
In the distance between me and the city I could see Neil’s tanks pulling out to get a good view. He was sitting out in the open.
BOOM!!!
One of the incoming artillery rounds screamed overhead and landed on the edge of the city.
“Who’s calling that?”
“I think the tank company.”
BOOM!!!
Another round landed, and this time it was pretty close to Neil’s tank.
“Phantom 6, Red 6. Tell whoever is calling indirect to check their fires. They are walking their rounds right towards us.”
I jumped over to the battalion net on my radio to see who was calling it and I caught “Ramrod18, Avenger6, right 200 fire for effect.”
I relaxed. It was CPT Fowler. From where he was sitting, the adjustment would move the rounds away from Neil and into the city.
BOOM!!!
Or not. A round landed maybe 35 meters from the side of his tank. Everyone in my platoon started yelling at our forward observer since he had a radio to talk directly to the guns and could stop the incoming rounds at their source. In the distance, I could see Neil’s tank backing up farther from the city to get away from the fires.
“Check Fire!! Check Fire!!”
“It’s not my mission. I’m in no position to stop it.”
“Goddamit, check that fire or I will kill you myself if those guys get hurt out there.” SSG Amyett yelled at him. It was convincing enough to make him pick up his radio but he was too late.
BOOM!!!
I couldn’t see Neil’s tank anymore. It was obscured in black smoke.
“Holy shit! Get on the trucks. That round just landed right on top of them. Let’s get out there.”
By now my platoon was scrambling. We had just watched our own artillery move 200 meters in the wrong direction and land right on his tank. I hopped in my seat and grabbed the radio.
“Red6, Outlaw1, are you guys alright.”
I got no response.
“Red6, Outlaw1”
By now we were pulling out and starting to race toward the tank. Minefields or not, there was no way I was going to sit there if they were injured.
“RED6, OUTLAW1!”
Still nothing.
Jesus Christ. They’re all dead. I thought to myself.
Back to Life
“Outlaw1, Red6”
I could feel everyone in my platoon simultaneously breath a collective sigh of relief when we heard those words come over the radio.
“We’re all ok, I got tangled up in my spaghetti cord when that round landed off the side of the tank.”
What a crazy 30 seconds that had been. Thank god they were alright is all I can say.
The Air Force Comes Out to Play
“Outlaw1, Phantom6, I want you to level the southeast portion of the city.”
Hearing that, my forward observer and air force guys went into action.
“Hey sir, I’ve got a fighter overhead that wants to drop some bombs on the city if you’re got somewhere to put them. All I need is someone’s initials.”
“Well, mine are CB if that counts for anything. Have them drop it on the very corner of the city there.”
Everyone knew that there was trouble in the last sector of the city to clear, so we’d be given the go ahead to pummel it good before any friendlies went in there.
“60 seconds!!!” I heard the Air Force guys yell. My platoon was out and about with their cameras to take pictures of us dropping a 500 lb bomb. Unfortunately, from where we were sitting we wouldn’t see too much detail, just a real big cloud of smoke.
Two minutes later I got “30 seconds!!!”
No one thinks of the Air Force as the service with guys that are involved in ground combat, but we’d had one of their humvees attached to us the entire time in Fallujah. They’d sampled some pretty good fights and by now were sitting next to me with two bullet riddled windshields among other things.
“Here he comes. Ten seconds!!!”
Just then I could see a little speck dipping down from way up high. He seemed like he was only a few hundred meters above the ground. We couldn’t hear anything yet though because of the jet’s speed and distance from our location. Still, everyone saw the little speck drop out from under its belly and nose dive toward the target house.
A second later there was a giant mushroom cloud followed a couple of seconds later by a really big boom.
“Outlaw1, Phantom6, what the hell are you doing!!! We’ve had enough friendly artillery dropped on Red6 today.”
“What is he talking about? That was over 1000 meters from where they’re at?”
My CO was still out in the minefield getting Neil’s tank ready to tow back to Camp Fallujah. Even though they were plenty far away, they were spooked about getting blown up, so I had gotten yelled at.
“Alright, let’s drop another one, this time move it 50 meters farther into the city.”
For a 500 pound bomb, 50 meters is nothing, but at least I could say that I was moving away from my CO if he asked me about it. Either way, I was still having them drop it plenty far away from their position.
Since we had the jets on station, it didn’t take long to get the next bomb dropped. After it hit, I watched an insurgent fly about 100 feet in the air flailing and then back into the city. Things probably didn’t end too well for that one.
“Outlaw1, Phantom6, much better. I want more of that. Bring it north now.”So let me get this straight. I drop one bomb and get yelled at for it being dangerously close, but then I drop another right next to it and that one’s perfect. Not only that, but I get told to bring it closer to my boss’s position for the third bomb.
After waiting a little while longer they dropped another one followed by the same giant explosion and mushroom cloud.
“Outlaw1, Phantom6, what the hell are you doing? Are you trying to get us killed? That one was way too close.”
Alright, I give up. I can’t make anyone happy. Oh well.
So I had them drop two more bombs just for good measure. Fortunately, I didn’t get any more complaints.
“Hey sir, want them to do a strafing run?”
“They do that? Like with one of the machine guns inside the jet?”
“Yea sure, all you have to do is ask”
“Yea let's do some of that”
Now we were back to screwing around. A strafing run was going to accomplish next to nothing, but they were willing to do it and we got to say it was another weapon that we had some experience with.
It was true, the strafing run did nothing, but it did sound cool. The jet swooped in real low and then pulled up. With the sound delay, we heard what sounded like a big fart as it was pulling back up to a high altitude. I couldn’t complain, it was just another weapon that everyone got to use in Fallujah.
posted by REDSIX at 10:39 AM
7 Comments:
Yeah, a "big fart" or a low-register chainsaw :)
I'm not so sure those strafing runs don't do anything. Were you able to see the impact area? I used to love calling in "nape and scrape" air support missions. Jet flies in nape of the earth, inverts for a couple seconds to gte a visual on the target and gain a bit of altitude, hits the guns, then drops a napalm cannister out of his ass and as he flies over, the whole area behind him is nothing but flame. I used to have nightmares about being on the recieving end.
But, anyway, about the guns... I used to wonder why they even put cannons on jets... because they use missiles for dogfighting and bombs for attack runs, right? What they need guns for?
But if you can see the impact area when they do a strafing run, it's not like the "sequential" fire you gte with a machinegun. It's like an area the size of a football field just is instantaneosly covered with thousands of rounds... and those 40mm rounds are BIG. I picked up a few that weren't too badly deformed once, and they must weigh a good half a pound each.
Thanks for all your commentary... very interesting! I was in the Marines and had very little contact with the Army or the Air Force. Your blog is very educational for me :)
Thanks Chris! Your additions to the "Fallujah Chronicles" are terrific.
Remember the Laws of Land Warfare:
1. It is better to give than to receive.
2. The last thing you expect is the first thing you find.
3 Friendly fire---isn't.
Have you posted the Baqubah stories elsewhere? I have looked, and I am re-reading the Fallujah stories--no links I can find.
Chris, you and Neil remind me of the LTs I had as a company commander. Damned good at their jobs, and having a lot of fun while doing them.
Garry Owen!
waw that was awesome :) never gets tirering to hear that story :)
Do you Know if domestic leave has been canceled effective this Sept 7th? Maybe a internet rumour?
Wow, some impressive stories here! I am going to link this as I've come by quite a few times and am always in awe as I read.
The largest ordinace aon any U.S. A/C is the GAU-8 on the A-10 but other including f-16 and f-15 are 20mm. And yes guns are needed in dogfights as ecen closr range I/R missiles AIM9 need a separation of a mile or so so not usefull in close air combat. Which was why the gun was added to later genreations of F-4's as someone already pointed out
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