[N8 v2.0]

..not fun...

MY WAR - Fear And Loathing In Iraq
http://cbftw.blogspot.com/

This is what CNN wrote on their website about what happened yesterday here in Mosul:

Mosul clashes leave 12 dead

Clashes between police and insurgents in the northern city of Mosul left 12 Iraqis dead and 26 wounded, hospital and police sources said Wednesday.

Rifle and rocket-propelled grenade fire as well as explosions were heard in the streets of the city.

The provincial governor imposed a curfew that began at 3 p.m. local time (7 a.m. EDT), and two hours later, provincial forces, police and Iraqi National Guard took control, according to Hazem Gelawi, head of the governor's press office in the Nineveh province. Gelawi said the city is stable and expects the curfew to be lifted Thursday.


Now here's what really happened:

I was in my room reading a book (Thin Red Line) when the mortars started coming down. Usually when we get mortared it'll only one, maybe two mortars. But this mortar attack went on for almost 20 minutes. Each one impacting the FOB every couple minutes. Something was up. My roommate ripped open the door and yelled "Get your guys, Go to the motor pool! The whole BATTALION is rolling out!"

This was only my second day as a T.C. Sitting right next to me out the hatch was my Plt Sgt.. Shortly as we were driving down the main street leaving our FOB, a man, dressed in all black, jumped out from the side corner of a building, pointed his AK47 right at me. Right at my f**king head and all I saw was the fire from his muzzle flash leaving the end of his barrel as he was shooting at me. I heard and felt the bullets whiz literally inches from my head, hitting all around my hatch and 50 cal mount making a "Ping" "Ping" "Ping" sound. I ducked the f**ked down in the hatch. I yelled "We're taking fire! 3 O'clock!!! Turned the gun around towards where the guy was and fired a burst. I fired a burst right over our back air guard hatch where our First Sgt was sticking out of and shooting. He yelled "Tell him to stop f**king shooting over my head!!!" Sh*t. My bad. I looked over and my PLT Sgt who was sticking out the hatch next to me a couple seconds ago was now dropped down from the hatch and now on his back. He was yelling, "I'm Hit! I'm hit!" I looked at his helmet and a bullet went right through his helmet and exited through the other side. Holy sh*t! I didn't see any blood on him. He looked completely dazed though. He took his Helmet off and observed the holes in his helmet. No f**king sh*t, the bullet entered his helmet, and exited through the other side, missing his upper forehead by like 1-100th of an inch. A f**kin miricale. He was standing right next to me, that's how close the bullets were from hitting us. We continued driving.

Link to the blog: http://cbftw.blogspot.com/

 

[dante]

wow, great stuff, really gives an insight into what's going on out there...

am kinda disturbed by this, though:

Those psychopaths that attacked us the other day wearing all black were all members of Al Qaeda.
Today we had a Company formation and our C.O. came out and talked to us. We told us we all did an incredible job and was proud of all of us. He said we all executed our jobs perfectly. He also informed us that the people that were wearing all black were actually insurgents from Iran, members of Al Qaeda.

How was the CO able to determine that they were Al Qaeda or that they were Iranian? Iranian I could understand if they were speaking Farsi or something of the sort, but last I heard Al Qaeda didn't wear uniforms or carry ID cards or anything of the sort. Wonder if it's just a case of trying to bring up the morale by tying everything to terrorism and 9/11.

Still an amazing blog, thanks for the link.

 

[N8 v2.0]

The military has heaps of intel as to who's who over there.
They were probably identified by equipment/tatics/clothing/ID/associates etc...

Yeah... this is a good blog to read.

 

[golgiaparatus]

Awesome blog... best I have read ever.

Today's entry is kind of a bummer... says he might not write any more entries.

 

[Silver]

How was the CO able to determine that they were Al Qaeda or that they were Iranian? Iranian I could understand if they were speaking Farsi or something of the sort, but last I heard Al Qaeda didn't wear uniforms or carry ID cards or anything of the sort. Wonder if it's just a case of trying to bring up the morale by tying everything to terrorism and 9/11.

That's easy. If they aren't wearing Bush/Cheney 04 buttons, they are obviously al Queda terrorists.

 

[N8 v2.0]

That's easy. If they aren't wearing Bush/Cheney 04 buttons, they are obviously al Queda terrorists.

yeah that's it.

 

[Dingus McGee]

~~~Sounds like a good ol S.F. boy:

About Me

male
San Francisco : California : Iraq
30 recent posts (63 total)
Interests: drinking, skateboarding, reading, music, anti social behavior, film, culture, politics, San Francisco, 80's music, Charles Bukowski, whiskey, Military History, cult movies, photography, art, me, punk rock, abandoned buildings, Your Mom, dive bars, dark alleys, beatniks, slacking, beer, smoking, fighting, SLAYER, crime, fun, tattoos, poetry, film, politics, photography, middle eastern history, iraq,

~~~This is more like the S.F. people I've known here than the, uh, 'stereotypes'

 

[MikeD]

That's a great link. I'm amazed he's got the talent to put out such a refined site in the middle of Iraq. Guy reminds me of all the good Marines I had...

As an LAR guy, I hope the Stryker's working OK for the army, too. Seems like kind of a halfass vehicle with only a .50 on it. I like the letter from "Carol" which parrots the Army's paranoia about wheeled vehicles. Wheels are great for light cavalry-type vehicles. It's cool to read firsthand Stryker accounts...

MD

 

[N8 v2.0]

That's a great link. I'm amazed he's got the talent to put out such a refined site in the middle of Iraq. Guy reminds me of all the good Marines I had...

As an LAR guy, I hope the Stryker's working OK for the army, too. Seems like kind of a halfass vehicle with only a .50 on it. I like the letter from "Carol" which parrots the Army's paranoia about wheeled vehicles. Wheels are great for light cavalry-type vehicles. It's cool to read firsthand Stryker accounts...

MD

The Stryker would be totally badass with a 20mm chaingun on it.

 

[MikeD]

20mm? Nah, 25 or 30mm...unless you're talking a vulcan. That'd be badass. The 25mm vulcan on the LAV-AD is astounding. Truly jaw-dropping. The new 30mm on the AAV is cool, too...loose rounds, not belt-fed. Coca-cola apparently designed the feed system.

MD

 

[N8 v2.0]

20mm? Nah, 25 or 30mm...unless you're talking a vulcan. That'd be badass. The 25mm vulcan on the LAV-AD is astounding. Truly jaw-dropping. The new 30mm on the AAV is cool, too...loose rounds, not belt-fed. Coca-cola apparently designed the feed system.

MD

Ahhh.... that kind of firepower would make it kind of an A-10 on wheels..

 

[MikeD]

Apparently, the original concept for the Stryker was an automatic-cannon variant (25mm or 30mm, Bradley or LAV25-style turret) with a 105mm heavy variant in a sister-platoon backup role, like the current heavy armored cav organization (M3 bradleys and M1s). And somehow it ended up as an armored car with a .50.

MD

 

[N8 v2.0]

Apparently, the original concept for the Stryker was an automatic-cannon variant (25mm or 30mm, Bradley or LAV25-style turret) with a 105mm heavy variant in a sister-platoon backup role, like the current heavy armored cav organization (M3 bradleys and M1s). And somehow it ended up as an armored car with a .50.

MD

That's a huge step down...

 

[N8 v2.0]

Seems he's added MI to his list of acknowledged readers following his Oh F*uck blog entry...

 

[valve bouncer]

That's a great link. I'm amazed he's got the talent to put out such a refined site in the middle of Iraq. Guy reminds me of all the good Marines I had...



MD

I guess you're out now mate? What are you doing now?

 

[MikeD]

Nah, still in till February...I just don't have Marines in my current job as I did when I was 'on the line.' I did just get put on the hire list for diplomatic security special agents, tho... maybe I'll end up in Nippon one day yet...

 

[genpowell71]

20mm? Nah, 25 or 30mm...unless you're talking a vulcan. That'd be badass. The 25mm vulcan on the LAV-AD is astounding. Truly jaw-dropping. The new 30mm on the AAV is cool, too...loose rounds, not belt-fed. Coca-cola apparently designed the feed system.

MD

The freakin striker has enough issues with rollovers and not enough armor. You put a 25mm chain gun on there and the recoil from the barrel buffers will flip that thing end over end.

 

[MikeD]

Yet, somehow, our Gen-II LAVs can fire one with no problem, and while they're top-heavy, it hasn't been a source of problems if the vehicle commanders are trained and competent...lower and wider might be more stable, but you're increasing footprint at that point, too, which can limit mobility just the same,

They can mount a chain gun on there, no problem. It was just too expensive to do so. It was the 105mm variant that was truly causing engineering problems.

The typical Army complaints about need for more armored protection and hatred of wheels vice tracks haven't caused the Marine light armored recon community any heartache. I think Army thought is waaaay too entrenched in itself, plus it tends to esteem the machine over crew training and intelligent employment of the assets.

MD

 

[genpowell71]

I agree with you on that. We place WAAAYYY too much emphasis on technology, and not enough on training. I've said that since about 98. The quality of soldiers coming in is slipping beyond acceptable rates. But still recruiters are more worried about quotas instead of quality.

Funny thing is before I left Iraq in february, there were 4 accidents with rollovers and 3 people got killed. Personally, I think the army needs to rethink the striker thing. The world is moving on past the open field tank battles and on to Urban fighting. Who really needs armor in a city? You get close to a tank or fighting vehicle, and it can't lower it's guns far enought o defend it's self. Dont have alot of use for tanks and armored vehicles in the city other than to draw fire.

 

[MikeD]

Go read up on Hue city, then tell me armor's useless in cities.

Geez, go read accounts from Mogadishu and tell me it's useless..you just have to do it right. The strykers would fare better than armored Humvees, in any case.

Plus, it's a light cav type vehicle, which isn't of the most decisive import in open-area armor battles anyhow, aside from the recon and security role (which is my bread and butter, so I won't bash it, but in the open, even an M1 can perform that job, so all the Stryker is doing is allowing combat power to remain as concentrated as possible).

MD

I'll also add that the Marines place too much emphasis on talking about realistic training and how valuable it is, rather than actually doing it...

 

[genpowell71]

AH HA!!! There's the key phrase, "USE IT RIGHT"

 

[MikeD]

Well, that's as true of infantry, artillery, air, combat service support, erotic massage...whatever asset it is you want to discuss, using it right is obviously key to your success.

Recall Patton's famous parable comparing the military to a marching band (naturally...)

MD

 

[genpowell71]

Its the military acadamy and the brainwashing that goes on there. They take a normal person and lobotomize them into a "say nothing but yes" man. When they get higher ranking, then the brainwashing really kicks in. Common sense goes out the window and arsekissing comes into play. Company leaders want to please the battalion leaders, battalion leaders want to please the brigade leaders, brigade to division, etc, etc, etc. Its a vicious circle that not alot of people see.

I can say that one of the most over looked assets in the special ops soldier. The think that they are a group of unprofessional idiots and that they cant do alot right. Just watch Blackhawk Down. Cpt Steele is the epitome of how the regular army views special ops...

 

[N8 v2.0]

This is a great blog but now the writer is taking heat from he Army. Even the name of the blog has changed... he's dropped the Fear and Loathing part...