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Posted: 1/19/2016 11:18:36 AM EDT
[#1]
While driving to Kuwait from Balad.
I was crossing a thousand miles of nothing, sand dunes as far as the eye could see, and had just commented that nothing could survive out here. Then out of nowhere a little girl crosses the road and disappears over another dune. Was eerie to say the least. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 11:21:35 AM EDT
[#2]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Mosul 2004 
http://i.imgur.com/WB3WUgX.jpg Here's a neat arch I climbed up on top of way out in the country. I didn't know until years later it was part of a friggin' Roman bridge. And here my stupid ass is walking on top of it. I loved the history of Northern Iraq. I wish I could go back and just visit all the ancient sites. Link to more information http://i.imgur.com/uBussRs.jpg?1 [/url] Quote HistoryQuoted:
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Once, for about 10 minutes, it snowed in Balad, Iraq. Didn't stick because it was too warm, and it changed back to rain after, but it kind of blew my mind. Mosul 2004
http://i.imgur.com/WB3WUgX.jpg Here's a neat arch I climbed up on top of way out in the country. I didn't know until years later it was part of a friggin' Roman bridge. And here my stupid ass is walking on top of it. I loved the history of Northern Iraq. I wish I could go back and just visit all the ancient sites. Link to more information http://i.imgur.com/uBussRs.jpg?1 [/url] was the snow pic taken in the woods in the north part of town near the university? There was a lot of biblical ruins in Northern Iraq, but from what the news said, ISIS blew most of them up. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 11:37:46 AM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
was the snow pic taken in the woods in the north part of town near the university? There was a lot of biblical ruins in Northern Iraq, but from what the news said, ISIS blew most of them up. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
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Once, for about 10 minutes, it snowed in Balad, Iraq. Didn't stick because it was too warm, and it changed back to rain after, but it kind of blew my mind. Mosul 2004
http://i.imgur.com/WB3WUgX.jpg Here's a neat arch I climbed up on top of way out in the country. I didn't know until years later it was part of a friggin' Roman bridge. And here my stupid ass is walking on top of it. I loved the history of Northern Iraq. I wish I could go back and just visit all the ancient sites. Link to more information http://i.imgur.com/uBussRs.jpg?1 [/url] was the snow pic taken in the woods in the north part of town near the university? There was a lot of biblical ruins in Northern Iraq, but from what the news said, ISIS blew most of them up. looks like the Ninevah woods or the north end of FOB Freedom |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 11:39:58 AM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Suicide bombers, for some reason, seemed to shed their facial skin intact. Gives a new meaning to the word "face mask" August 2005, Firm Base 1 in Hit, Iraq came under a complex attack that was kicked off by two SVBIEDs. The first SVBIED (the one that was supposed to blow up the ECP) was pretty small, and that guy's remains were EVERYWHERE. Thankfully he blew himself up early, and the second, larger SVBIED didn't make it past the ECP when it blew. That one was huge, and that guy was pretty much vaporized. Anyway, walking around the small firm base after the ensuing firefight, there were pieces of that first guy all over the place. I'm walking along, and there's the guy's face, scalp, and hair, looking at me, perfectly removed from his skull. A few feet later, and there's the guy's perfectly in tact johnson. That's something you don't forget. Second most bizarre / surreal thing was Camp Baharia / Dreamland outside of Fallajuh. What a weird place, and to think of the awful stuff that Uday and Qusay did there.  |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 12:09:17 PM EDT
[#5]
Quote HistoryQuoted: This. August 2005, Firm Base 1 in Hit, Iraq came under a complex attack that was kicked off by two SVBIEDs. The first SVBIED (the one that was supposed to blow up the ECP) was pretty small, and that guy's remains were EVERYWHERE. Thankfully he blew himself up early, and the second, larger SVBIED didn't make it past the ECP when it blew. That one was huge, and that guy was pretty much vaporized. Anyway, walking around the small firm base after the ensuing firefight, there were pieces of that first guy all over the place. I'm walking along, and there's the guy's face, scalp, and hair, looking at me, perfectly removed from his skull. A few feet later, and there's the guy's perfectly in tact johnson. That's something you don't forget. Second most bizarre / surreal thing was Camp Baharia / Dreamland outside of Fallajuh. What a weird place, and to think of the awful stuff that Uday Qusay did there. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Suicide bombers, for some reason, seemed to shed their facial skin intact. Gives a new meaning to the word "face mask" August 2005, Firm Base 1 in Hit, Iraq came under a complex attack that was kicked off by two SVBIEDs. The first SVBIED (the one that was supposed to blow up the ECP) was pretty small, and that guy's remains were EVERYWHERE. Thankfully he blew himself up early, and the second, larger SVBIED didn't make it past the ECP when it blew. That one was huge, and that guy was pretty much vaporized. Anyway, walking around the small firm base after the ensuing firefight, there were pieces of that first guy all over the place. I'm walking along, and there's the guy's face, scalp, and hair, looking at me, perfectly removed from his skull. A few feet later, and there's the guy's perfectly in tact johnson. That's something you don't forget. Second most bizarre / surreal thing was Camp Baharia / Dreamland outside of Fallajuh. What a weird place, and to think of the awful stuff that Uday Qusay did there. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 12:30:44 PM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
So just before the invasion our BC gets the bright idea to do a battalion level sand table in the desert in Kuwait. He has his staff working on this thing for like 2 days beforehand. Calls the companies together, has this huge detailed sand table laid out, probably 100'x100'. Tons of work, obviously. Calls the companies to attention, has us fall out around the sand table. As we're falling out, one of them dust devil tornadoes rips through and levels the whole damn thing. I laughed until I thought I would be sick. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Anyone else remember the fucking HUGE (Like tornado huge) "Dust Devils" over there? I used to do the 'Leatherneck-Camp Dwyer run about 3 times a month (Total "Moonscape") and it seemed that we got caught in those every time. They looked scary as hell but didn't do much damage. 'Leatherneck-Dwyer terrain: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/treadhead/CIMG0196-1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/treadhead/CIMG0195.jpg 'took this pic' the first month I was there (It was a "You gotta be fuckin' kidding" moment  ).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/treadhead/Leatherneck2210.jpg 
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Posted: 1/19/2016 12:33:53 PM EDT
[#7]
I saw a transvestite once that looked like that "Divine" character.
Oh, wait, that was the Combat Zone in Boston when I was in college. Sorry. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 12:35:34 PM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Last SCUD alert of Desert Storm. Several friends and I were sitting by the swimming pool, eating Baskin Robbins double chocolate ice cream and watching the AF women swim. The siren started and we all looked at each other, said fuck it and kept eating. We were supposed to go to MOPP 3 and go inside. That was at Eskan village (PX, Anthony’s Pizza, AAFES burger bar, Baskin Robbins, swimming pool), yep war is hell. I spent some time at Eskan Village in 1993-94. When we were tasked with Patriot Missile Base security, Yeah, you had it rough. That place had the best chowhall I ever ate at. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 12:37:06 PM EDT
[#9]
I love these threads. Please keep em coming....sick of reading about Trump.
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Posted: 1/19/2016 1:06:06 PM EDT
[#10]
Another one: The look on the small shop owner's face when two companies of Marines, who were on day 7 of a weapons sweep along the Euphrates, and had run out of cigarettes / caffeine / dip two days earlier, came upon his shop in a small village. I've never before or since seen a perfect combination of fear and delight on a man's face when he was figuring out the influx of US cash he was about to get for his entire inventory of caffeine and nicotine laced sundries.
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Posted: 1/19/2016 1:10:51 PM EDT
[#11]
Was processing a new load of detainees into Camp Bucca and I did what I usually do, yell "who speaks English?" We always did this so we could supplement our single terp. This guy raises his hand and says "I speak English" in a perfect American accent.
I ended up pulling him aside and talked to him for a bit. I asked where he was from and he starts telling me how he was born and raised in Michigan to Iraqi immigrant parents. Said he came to Iraq to visit family in Baghdad and was stopped at an Iraqi checkpoint. He had American money in his wallet so they arrested him under suspicion of being a terrorist. Sure enough I check his little rap sheet and he was arrested for having American money on him. Contacted CID and they came and got him....not sure what happened to him after that. One time in Baghdad we were looking for a rocket POI and found it on a highway. Saw smoke on the otherside of a T wall right by the POI. Go around to the other side and sure as shit there's a car with a dead Iraqi family in it. 240mm rocket hit the road next to where they were driving and knocked it over a 13 foot wall. Walking back from another POI that hit a blackwater helicopter in Baghdad. Siren went off for more incoming so I start walking towards a bunker. Heard a super loud "woosh" like a jet engine then I woke up on my back. Fucking 107 came in right over my head and hit the ground maybe 10 feet in front of me. SOF medic in the bunker came out and looked at me after the all clear and said all the shrapnel went up and out away from me. He was shocked I didn't have a scratch on me. Was fishing in the Tigris and saw a body go floating past me. Saw all kinds of crazy shit in Iraq. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 1:20:49 PM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted: So just before the invasion our BC gets the bright idea to do a battalion level sand table in the desert in Kuwait. He has his staff working on this thing for like 2 days beforehand. Calls the companies together, has this huge detailed sand table laid out, probably 100'x100'. Tons of work, obviously. Calls the companies to attention, has us fall out around the sand table. As we're falling out, one of them dust devil tornadoes rips through and levels the whole damn thing. I laughed until I thought I would be sick. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Anyone else remember the fucking HUGE (Like tornado huge) "Dust Devils" over there? I used to do the 'Leatherneck-Camp Dwyer run about 3 times a month (Total "Moonscape") and it seemed that we got caught in those every time. They looked scary as hell but didn't do much damage. 'Leatherneck-Dwyer terrain: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/treadhead/CIMG0196-1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/treadhead/CIMG0195.jpg 'took this pic' the first month I was there (It was a "You gotta be fuckin' kidding" moment ).http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/treadhead/Leatherneck2210.jpg |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 1:24:55 PM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
looks like the Ninevah woods or the north end of FOB Freedom Quote HistoryQuoted:
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Once, for about 10 minutes, it snowed in Balad, Iraq. Didn't stick because it was too warm, and it changed back to rain after, but it kind of blew my mind. Mosul 2004
http://i.imgur.com/WB3WUgX.jpg Here's a neat arch I climbed up on top of way out in the country. I didn't know until years later it was part of a friggin' Roman bridge. And here my stupid ass is walking on top of it. I loved the history of Northern Iraq. I wish I could go back and just visit all the ancient sites. Link to more information http://i.imgur.com/uBussRs.jpg?1 [/url] was the snow pic taken in the woods in the north part of town near the university? There was a lot of biblical ruins in Northern Iraq, but from what the news said, ISIS blew most of them up. looks like the Ninevah woods or the north end of FOB Freedom South end of FOB Freedom, or we just called it "The Palace." We had moved into the new hooches they brought in after sleeping in a tent for 8mo. They were white and on a high area. I imagine our little section looked entirely different 6mo after we left. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 1:56:46 PM EDT
[#14]
Father in law served in the USN WW2. When the war ended his ship got orders to head back to California. During trip home, he said the ship started to make a 180 turn and he said their pits of their stomachs turned. They knew something bad was coming.
His ship ended up supplying a USMC unit in Shanghai with ammo, food that was supporting the Nationalist troops under Chiang Kai-shek. 1) Since labor was cheap in port, they had 'coolies' come on board to scrape rust/paint/etc. One day a LT states that someone stole something from his cabin. They get the harbor police and they line up the Chinese men near the rail. He stated the Chinese men started dropping bolts, pieces of brass, etc out of their pockets. The police proceed to start shooting them in the head and dropping them overboard. The LT stops them and asks them to leave. He never complained again. 2) Anchor detail entailed removing bodies from anchor chain. Bodies from the battles between Mao's Communists and Nationalists were being dumped into the Yangtze River. Sharks happily awaited the bodies he said. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 2:26:42 PM EDT
[#15]
My grandfather served in New Guinea in the Army. He was primarily a surveyor and that got him out into the jungle.
He said once he felt like he was being watched and to his shock he was indeed- a group of natives with bows were closely watching his every movement. Nothing came of it, but he said it unnerved him. He later mentioned it to an Aussie Coastalwatcher and the Aussie told him cheerfully that they were probably "just cannibals" and that he probably had been deemed "unfit to eat."
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Posted: 1/19/2016 2:54:56 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Walking back from another POI that hit a blackwater helicopter in Baghdad. Siren went off for more incoming so I start walking towards a bunker. Heard a super loud "woosh" like a jet engine then I woke up on my back. Fucking 107 came in right over my head and hit the ground maybe 10 feet in front of me. SOF medic in the bunker came out and looked at me after the all clear and said all the shrapnel went up and out away from me. He was shocked I didn't have a scratch on me. Username is fitting... 
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Posted: 1/19/2016 3:06:39 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
same thing happened at a steel mill I worked at in college. Trains were operated by drivers via remote control via these big suspender/belt hung remote control boards. one of the techs needed to fix one of the connection switches on the engine, they decoupled the engine from the cargo car and backed it off. The driver had to take a dump, switched his control box off and went to the bathroom, they verified the lockout switch was set. The Maintenance tech was working on the train when the driver went to the bathroom, in the bathroom he took off his remote and set it on the counter and went in the stall, someone came in the bathroom and set down a toolbox and threw a jacket on the box and control box, hitting the lockout switch and engaging the drive. The engine backed into the haul car, smashing the tech in the lock mechanism and pinning him there. Same thing happened, he was awake, and alert, trapped at the stomach. He was remarkably pain free according to the EMT I talked to who was on scene. They shut down the yard and sent cops to get his wife out of school or work, wherever she was. They kept him alive until they got her to his side. They were able to say goodbye, they got a surgeon on site for when they unhooked him, ran a bunch of fluid into him to try and keep his BP up for when they separated the train. I think he said they put a load strap around him to try and tighten down to keep him alive for the tirp to the hospital. As soon as they uncoupled the car he passed out and never recovered, said he was dead in a few seconds and they never could get him back. He was alive almost an hour I think after the initial accident. Sad.... Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
While this didn't occur in a combat zone, I had been a firefighter for around 15 years when it happened. Got a call for a rollover on the highway with entrapment. No big deal, been to a hundred calls like this. Roll up on scene and find a full size Chevy van on its side up against a bridge support post. I think this ought to be an easy one. As I am walking up, see the medic there with his coat, covering the victims head, while the rest of his body is pinned under the van. He had been ejected during the accident and ended up underneath. Most of his intestines and innards were...outside of the van, yet he was talking normally and relating to us the circumstances of the accident. It was completely surreal. We finally decided to lift the truck with airbags and just pull him out, as we did he immediately lost consciousness and although we tried our best and got him in the ambulance, he eventually succumbed to his injuries. It was by far the strangest call I had been on, and I wonder to this day, how long he could have went under that van. It was explained to me by the medic that it was a phenomenon called "compressive shock" that allowed him the ability to communicate and last as long as he did with us on that day, but ultimately he would die, as he did. I had been to many other fatal accidents, but his one was un-believable. same thing happened at a steel mill I worked at in college. Trains were operated by drivers via remote control via these big suspender/belt hung remote control boards. one of the techs needed to fix one of the connection switches on the engine, they decoupled the engine from the cargo car and backed it off. The driver had to take a dump, switched his control box off and went to the bathroom, they verified the lockout switch was set. The Maintenance tech was working on the train when the driver went to the bathroom, in the bathroom he took off his remote and set it on the counter and went in the stall, someone came in the bathroom and set down a toolbox and threw a jacket on the box and control box, hitting the lockout switch and engaging the drive. The engine backed into the haul car, smashing the tech in the lock mechanism and pinning him there. Same thing happened, he was awake, and alert, trapped at the stomach. He was remarkably pain free according to the EMT I talked to who was on scene. They shut down the yard and sent cops to get his wife out of school or work, wherever she was. They kept him alive until they got her to his side. They were able to say goodbye, they got a surgeon on site for when they unhooked him, ran a bunch of fluid into him to try and keep his BP up for when they separated the train. I think he said they put a load strap around him to try and tighten down to keep him alive for the tirp to the hospital. As soon as they uncoupled the car he passed out and never recovered, said he was dead in a few seconds and they never could get him back. He was alive almost an hour I think after the initial accident. Sad.... Saw an episode of the TV Show 'Emergency', similar story line. Truck driver was pinned by a trailer against a loading dock, nobody could believe how calm he was. One of the EMT's said that the crushing trailer was like a giant tourniquet, that he'd be 'BAD' once he was freed. Can't remember if he 'made it.' was Long Ago. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 3:20:42 PM EDT
[#18]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Last SCUD alert of Desert Storm. Several friends and I were sitting by the swimming pool, eating Baskin Robbins double chocolate ice cream and watching the AF women swim. The siren started and we all looked at each other, said fuck it and kept eating. We were supposed to go to MOPP 3 and go inside. That was at Eskan village (PX, Anthony’s Pizza, AAFES burger bar, Baskin Robbins, swimming pool), yep war is hell. Were we in the same war???? The only women we saw were at KKMC just before we flew out. Ice Cream??? |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 3:29:48 PM EDT
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted: An ass cheek laying on the ground after a vbied detonated. Same incident, working dog snagged some tango bits on the ground and ate them. I think everybody that saw a dead body outside the wire saw a dog take at least a nibble. It definitely changed the way I look at dogs. Not value judging, just that they are way closer to a wolf than our human conceit regarding "domestication" will allow for. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 3:30:03 PM EDT
[#20]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Father in law served in the USN WW2. When the war ended his ship got orders to head back to California. During trip home, he said the ship started to make a 180 turn and he said their pits of their stomachs turned. They knew something bad was coming. His ship ended up supplying a USMC unit in Shanghai with ammo, food that was supporting the Nationalist troops under Chiang Kai-shek. 1) Since labor was cheap in port, they had 'coolies' come on board to scrape rust/paint/etc. One day a LT states that someone stole something from his cabin. They get the harbor police and they line up the Chinese men near the rail. He stated the Chinese men started dropping bolts, pieces of brass, etc out of their pockets. The police proceed to start shooting them in the head and dropping them overboard. The LT stops them and asks them to leave. He never complained again. 2) Anchor detail entailed removing bodies from anchor chain. Bodies from the battles between Mao's Communists and Nationalists were being dumped into the Yangtze River. Sharks happily awaited the bodies he said. Weirdly enough, my grandfather spoke very little about his time in the USN in WW2. One of my relatives recently found a book with some details in it. He had Shanghai listed as a place he was stationed for a time and he came back to the states by way of California. I'm sure a bunch of folks did, but it was interesting the post and having just learned about this over the weekend. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 3:47:35 PM EDT
[#21]
Plenty of nasty and sad Somalia stories to share but my favorites are the time Charleton Heston strolled into our hooch and our pet monkey threw a handful of shit at the intruder or the pack of baboons that figured out our patrol route and time and readied piles of rocks on the side of the trail. When we came rolling up, the pack came down from the trees and rained hell on us. They really did a number on our squad but we learned a painful lesson about changing up our patterns.
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Posted: 1/19/2016 4:02:17 PM EDT
[#22]
+ Iraqi compound (forget which Camp) - late night we saw a large Hyena jump (paws to shoulder) on one of my buddies right as he exited a shitter.
+ Group of Iraqi's were pulled in for "interviews" with their gear. One dude had a crap-ton of DVDs of the movie Titanic; terp said they were selling it as porn. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 4:13:48 PM EDT
[#23]
Traffic jam in Saigon. Guy in a truck tries to proceed through the intersection after one of the White Mice gives him the stop sign. Mouse pulls the guy out of the truck, sticks an M1 carbine under the driver's chin, and starts screaming at him. I really thought he was going to have his head blown off but they let him go after hitting him a few times.
The other thing was a guy standing butt-naked, holding a pillow over his junk, in a trench line during an o-dark-thirty rocket attack. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 4:17:02 PM EDT
[#24]
Some lady in Somalia tried to give me her daughter over triple strand wire. Actually tossed her over the wire. We broke up the crowd and got the kid back to her Mom. I spent a few minutes talking to Mom about how there was NO WAY I could get her kid back to the US. She spoke very good English. She told me she went to college in the US.
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Posted: 1/19/2016 4:30:55 PM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Human Remains everywhere. ETA: Dog walking down a road with a femur in its mouth this. charred bodies still smoking with packs of dogs chowing down. the smell... 
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Posted: 1/19/2016 4:34:42 PM EDT
[#26]
double tap
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Posted: 1/19/2016 4:47:28 PM EDT
[#27]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Some lady in Somalia tried to give me her daughter over triple strand wire. Actually tossed her over the wire. We broke up the crowd and got the kid back to her Mom. I spent a few minutes talking to Mom about how there was NO WAY I could get her kid back to the US. She spoke very good English. She told me she went to college in the US. Heartbreaking. I had a lady in Bardera plop her baby into my arms to take to the US. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 4:54:03 PM EDT
[#28]
After Desert Storm, we stayed in the gulf area in case shit went hot again. Ended up making liberty port calls in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. All of the one-hour-photo shops had pictures of dead Iraqi soldiers and blown up tanks and stuff taped up in their windows. They asked every one of who walked in to get our film developed if we had any pictures of dead Iraqis. They really wanted them and would pay for them...
Accidentally robbed a gas station of diesel at the port of Al Jubail in Saudi. We were off loading our rolling stock at the port and the 5 ton wrecker needed fuel. Some LSB guy gave us directions to the fuel farm. Well, we could not find it and ended up at a little gas station manned by two scrawny Arab dudes. We figured it must be the place since there was nothing else around. The only word we all knew was "diesel". They indicated "no diesel". Well, when Corporal Mitchell, a HUGE black guy, got out of the driver's seat and I got out of the passenger side with my M-60, they suddenly had diesel... We filled up and left, later finding out we in fact had gone to the wrong place. Mitch and I got a good laugh over our "armed robbery"! 1DD |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 5:12:14 PM EDT
[#29]
Back in 2006 I was contracting in Iraq. I was down at G6 Camp Echo, (Diwaniyah).
One Saturday afternoon about 4pm me and another IT tech were just chilling in the office when all of a sudden "BOOM"! It sounded fucking close, too. We scrambled over by this large steel cage that our dept had build to keep all the laptops in for people who were on R&R. We heard a few more explosions over the next couple of minutes and people were running all over camp to get into the bunkers. After a while things settled down and we began looking around outside. The DFAC was hit and so was the KBR property offices. I remember looking over at the DFAC with it on fire and smoking like crazy. It the attack would have occurred 30 minutes later it would have been full of people lining up for dinner. As it turns out not a single person was hurt that day. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 5:16:08 PM EDT
[#30]
Might have been said, but bizarre was always seeing a family of 4 or 5 on a little 250 sized motorcycle....
Surreal... Watching one of our MRAPs take a hit from buried ordnance... They walked away somehow.. But damnit I won't forget it... |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 5:16:44 PM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
After Desert Storm, we stayed in the gulf area in case shit went hot again. Ended up making liberty port calls in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. All of the one-hour-photo shops had pictures of dead Iraqi soldiers and blown up tanks and stuff taped up in their windows. They asked every one of who walked in to get our film developed if we had any pictures of dead Iraqis. They really wanted them and would pay for them... Accidentally robbed a gas station of diesel at the port of Al Jubail in Saudi. We were off loading our rolling stock at the port and the 5 ton wrecker needed fuel. Some LSB guy gave us directions to the fuel farm. Well, we could not find it and ended up at a little gas station manned by two scrawny Arab dudes. We figured it must be the place since there was nothing else around. The only word we all knew was "diesel". They indicated "no diesel". Well, when Corporal Mitchell, a HUGE black guy, got out of the driver's seat and I got out of the passenger side with my M-60, they suddenly had diesel... We filled up and left, later finding out we in fact had gone to the wrong place. Mitch and I got a good laugh over our "armed robbery"! 1DD When I was on R&R from Afghanistan, I went to a convenience store to get beer. They had cases of water stacked up near the entrance so I put the beer in my truck and went back for two cases of water. Threw them in the back of the truck and drove off. I didn't give it a second thought till I got pulled over down the street. There was a cop in the store and saw me do it but thought I had paid for it until the clerk told him otherwise. I explained the situation and he escorted me back to the store and I told the clerk I was on R&R and was used to getting bottled water by the case for free at watering points. Luckily the cop was an OIF veteran and backed me up. The clerk just made me pay for the water and I was let go. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 5:23:38 PM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
this. charred bodies still smoking with packs of dogs chowing down. the smell...
Quote HistoryQuoted:
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Human Remains everywhere. ETA: Dog walking down a road with a femur in its mouth this. charred bodies still smoking with packs of dogs chowing down. the smell...
Iraq, walked into a mass grave. Post-invasion, lots of people shot and buried in shallow graves or left in piles on the ground during that time period. Not to get too descriptive, but bodies sorta liquify when left in certain types of terrain. The smell and the bones give it away. Then Afghanistan, walked into a "mass grave", basically an above-ground septic... area. I know of at least one other dude on this site that this has happened to. You're going to want to burn your clothing after those events. And the smell sorta stays with you. The worst smell I ever came across was a decapitated head that was left under a cardboard box. The combination of time, darkness, heat, and local vegetation... it made some sort of mold or fungus form on parts of this head. It was the worst sight and smell I had experienced up to that point. The smell was so close to chicken stock, it took years before I could eat anything that had it as an ingredient. My wife even had to warn me when she cooked it, it just brought me straight back to staring at that rancid, fungus-and-mold-covered skull. Just rancid, mold-ridden flesh hanging off and half-eaten by bugs and small animals. To make it a little less dark in here, one of the funnier things I saw was a dude that looked and dressed like an Iraqi version of Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch. He was disfigured from I dunno... something, and he walked funny. But he looked like a pimp. The way he looked, dressed, and walked. He looked like a 1970's street pimp. Anyhow, we had a compound overlooking where this guy walked across the street every week on a regular basis. We'd sit on the roof with some precision rifles and do early morning overwatch, patterns-of-life work, that sort of thing. And like clockwork, this dude would walk down the street, accidentally awesome and just like a pimp. One morning while doing overwatch someone put the song "Staying Alive" by the BeeGees out over the PA system just as that guy was walking out onto the street. It was glorious. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 5:37:50 PM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I was expecting a banana rat. Little ninja mother fuckers Not bad tasting either  . I got there mid '96. Windward, S6Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Not a war zone, but I did get freaked out in GTMO (RSC/L) one time. It was in late 94 or early 95 and our new captain (Gurfein, who later went on to some fame in Iraq...apparently recovering from some infamy in GTMO) was all moto and shit and didn't like the idea of grunts just predictably sitting up in fence line towers, so he had us doing a lot more patrolling and other odd-ball shit. Sometimes we would man towers that we rarely did...stuff like that. Well, one night me and a couple other guys were sent up to MOP Tango. For those that haven't been there, there is a rudimentary trench/bunker system built on that hill and a tower / comm bldg on top. Some NCO sticks me in a bunker and puts other guys in their own fighting positions and we're supposed to hang out and watch for the horde of Cubans that wasn't going to come. Anyway, in GTMO you spend a LOT of time out on the fenceline at night, so you get pretty good at knowing the difference between "the sounds of the night" and actual people approaching. So there I am, I've been sitting (couple stacked ammo crates) in this bunker staring out the gun port thingy for hours with not a peep from other grunts or anything else. Then I hear it. It sounds like something moving between my bunker and the fence. As tends to happen at a time like that, you're not 100% sure you heard something....so you focus and get reeeal quiet and stay super still. Then I heard it again, and it was closer. The hill had some grass on it. Something was out there. I turned my head a bit to see if it would help determine the direction it was coming from to make sure it wasn't a friendly coming up the trench system behind/next to me. Heard it a third time, and it was CLOSE. I thought, 'holy fuck...this is it'. I stand up a bit (you couldn't stand completely straight up and down in this bunker, you kind of had to bend at the knees a bit...but I got up and got my M16A2 at the low ready. Though the mid 90s was 'peace time', security forces type gigs carried an appropriate load out of 175 rounds of 556. I heard the sound one last time. Safety flicks off. Right after that, and I mean right after the safety clicks, a fucking CAT jumps through the opening of the bunker, almost hits me, and goes hauling ass down the trench system behind me. Just about fucking shit myself. If I could have reacted fast enough, I probably would have shot the stupid thing, but the little feline bastard jumped through the gap like a damn ninja. Stupid thing was, I never saw a cat at any other time during my entire tour...and we had thermal cameras, good NVGs, and a shitload of night time boredom, so it's not like you couldn't spot them hunting at night if they had been common. Dunno if it was a stray from our base or if the little bastard was a Cuban cat that had crossed the minefield to terrify me... I was expecting a banana rat. Little ninja mother fuckers Not bad tasting either . I got there mid '96. Windward, S6I generally only saw banana rats down by the gtmo river (MOP 13 area), though I'm sure the we're scurrying all over that base. I never did eat one... how'd it taste? Interesting fauna there for sure. Lots of iguanas, crabs, small deer, and banana rats... and at least 1 cat... Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 5:38:09 PM EDT
[#34]
Dbl tap post, sorry!
Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 6:36:53 PM EDT
[#35]
04, Camp Anaconda.
Was standing outside of the PX waiting on the bus when the sirens went off. Turned and started running back to the PX when a mortar round fell right on a soldiers head who had just came out of the PX. Picked me up and threw me about 10 feet. I got cut up pretty good and was deaf for about a day. But there was nothing left of the soldier. Had nightmares for a few years where I would see it happen in slow motion. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 7:07:07 PM EDT
[#36]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I think everybody that saw a dead body outside the wire saw a dog take at least a nibble. It definitely changed the way I look at dogs. Not value judging, just that they are way closer to a wolf than our human conceit regarding "domestication" will allow for. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
An ass cheek laying on the ground after a vbied detonated. Same incident, working dog snagged some tango bits on the ground and ate them. I think everybody that saw a dead body outside the wire saw a dog take at least a nibble. It definitely changed the way I look at dogs. Not value judging, just that they are way closer to a wolf than our human conceit regarding "domestication" will allow for. The part that was awesome was the EOD handler was trying to hit at a female MP. The dog just starts munching. Much to their horror. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 7:17:53 PM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The part that was awesome was the EOD handler was trying to hit at a female MP. The dog just starts munching. Much to their horror. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Quoted: An ass cheek laying on the ground after a vbied detonated. Same incident, working dog snagged some tango bits on the ground and ate them. I think everybody that saw a dead body outside the wire saw a dog take at least a nibble. It definitely changed the way I look at dogs. Not value judging, just that they are way closer to a wolf than our human conceit regarding "domestication" will allow for. The part that was awesome was the EOD handler was trying to hit at a female MP. The dog just starts munching. Much to their horror. I would have turned that to my advantage. So speaking of ass, what you doing after chow tonight? |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 7:44:32 PM EDT
[#38]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
After Desert Storm, we stayed in the gulf area in case shit went hot again. Ended up making liberty port calls in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. All of the one-hour-photo shops had pictures of dead Iraqi soldiers and blown up tanks and stuff taped up in their windows. They asked every one of who walked in to get our film developed if we had any pictures of dead Iraqis. They really wanted them and would pay for them... Accidentally robbed a gas station of diesel at the port of Al Jubail in Saudi. We were off loading our rolling stock at the port and the 5 ton wrecker needed fuel. Some LSB guy gave us directions to the fuel farm. Well, we could not find it and ended up at a little gas station manned by two scrawny Arab dudes. We figured it must be the place since there was nothing else around. The only word we all knew was "diesel". They indicated "no diesel". Well, when Corporal Mitchell, a HUGE black guy, got out of the driver's seat and I got out of the passenger side with my M-60, they suddenly had diesel... We filled up and left, later finding out we in fact had gone to the wrong place. Mitch and I got a good laugh over our "armed robbery"! 1DD Dude you had to be in the 5th MEB. I hit all those spots! 5th Marines? I clearly remember the photo shops selling photos of dead Iraqis. All the guys who didn't see much were lining up to buy them. I remember Dubai...there was a shopping mall. People were backward, men holding hands, etc, but the mall was modern. Dubai was at the very beginning of what it was to ultimately become today. Not quite there yet at the time. I remember drinking in some western hotel, the only place to get alcohol. There were some English girls in prom dresses, evening gowns or some shit, accompanied by older relatives...I remember getting very fucked up and really wanting to bang them...I was barely older than them at the time of course. Then of course there was The PI on the way back... |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 7:56:06 PM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Plenty of nasty and sad Somalia stories to share but my favorites are the time Charleton Heston strolled into our hooch and our pet monkey threw a handful of shit at the intruder or the pack of baboons that figured out our patrol route and time and readied piles of rocks on the side of the trail. When we came rolling up, the pack came down from the trees and rained hell on us. They really did a number on our squad but we learned a painful lesson about changing up our patterns. Awesome story, haven't seen many stories from somalia in this thread. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 8:16:56 PM EDT
[#40]
I saw I ton of just awful shit...but here are two funny ones.
First one, I was lead gunner of a 4 truck convoy doing a presence patrol of the rural area south of Baghdad. Come around a blind overgrown corner...to some sort of dual barreled 23mm AA cannon in the bed of a pickup about 30 yards ahead, pointed right at me.  Once that situation was resolved, we found a fucking meth lab and a HUGE cache (booby trapped to all hell though) before going home for the night. Second was rolling into the IP station we were living in, and having a mortar round hit 5 feet from my truck, fail to detonate, and roooooooolllllllllls under my truck. My driver started to get pissed off when I kicked him in the back of the head and told him to GO! |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 8:20:30 PM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Seeing a woman run out of her makeshift tent trying to flag our convoy down, a baby in one arm, and a bunch of bootleg dvds in the other. A 5 year old Iraqi boy riding his bicycle on MSR Tampa outside Nasiriyah, giving us the peace sign as we drove by. A line of military personnel inside Al Faw palace, waiting to take photos of themselves on Saddam's throne. Air Force One parked on a runway in Tallil, being hidden from view in a large sandstorm. The strange Fred Flintstone village/ children's park consisting of graffiti marked "caves" outside Camp Slayer/Perfume Palace. Very weird place (not my photos) http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/1444155.jpg The 4k+ year old Ziggurat of Ur, and having Easter Service on top of it with Charlie Daniels. http://www.humanjourney.us/images/Ziggurat-of-Ur.jpg The flintstone house 
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Posted: 1/19/2016 8:55:18 PM EDT
[#42]
2006, "getting" to inspect the Baghdad Morgue.
Like 300 bodies, 130F outside, and refrigeration for 50....but the power was out. One dude was decapitated and the workers had placed his head face down over his junk. I laughed. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 9:02:45 PM EDT
[#43]
Route clearance had rolled out about thirty minutes before this large convoy of Jingle Fuel trucks with good guys mixed in took off. It was a cold morning and the 4th fuel truck by the guard tower had an open flame going inside the cab!
Best this FOBBIT has got except for the frozen blue water towers of Crap in the porta johns. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 9:10:11 PM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Awesome story, haven't seen many stories from somalia in this thread. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Plenty of nasty and sad Somalia stories to share but my favorites are the time Charleton Heston strolled into our hooch and our pet monkey threw a handful of shit at the intruder or the pack of baboons that figured out our patrol route and time and readied piles of rocks on the side of the trail. When we came rolling up, the pack came down from the trees and rained hell on us. They really did a number on our squad but we learned a painful lesson about changing up our patterns. Awesome story, haven't seen many stories from somalia in this thread. A funny sight from Somalia... I remember at the Mogadishu Airport in 94, seeing a long abandoned portajohn near the south end of the runway, with a sign made from a sheet of plywood and some spraypaint. Mounted above the portajohn was a sign that read: Club Skinny Dancers Wanted |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 9:27:30 PM EDT
[#45]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Were we in the same war???? The only women we saw were at KKMC just before we flew out. Ice Cream??? Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Last SCUD alert of Desert Storm. Several friends and I were sitting by the swimming pool, eating Baskin Robbins double chocolate ice cream and watching the AF women swim. The siren started and we all looked at each other, said fuck it and kept eating. We were supposed to go to MOPP 3 and go inside. That was at Eskan village (PX, Anthony’s Pizza, AAFES burger bar, Baskin Robbins, swimming pool), yep war is hell. Were we in the same war???? The only women we saw were at KKMC just before we flew out. Ice Cream??? Have you seen all the shit in Iraq and Afg. 2004-2013? Cinnabon, BK, Pizza Hut, Subway, etc. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 10:05:49 PM EDT
[#46]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
We carried around a female suicide bombers head in a trash bag for a while ..everyone wanted to see it Got passed Around till the Brits took possession Sorry but I have to ask... What do you mean by passed around? Thank you all for sharing stories. I can't stop reading them, very interesting. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 10:18:53 PM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
One of my teachers in high school was a Vietnam vet and he recounted a time when his unit came across an old, abandoned French plantation in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. The house, while overgrown on the outside, was largely intact. He went inside and found a room with a bed and what he thought was an animal hide used decoratively to top the bed. He decided to lay down for a moment since he hadn't been anywhere near a real bed in some time. When he went to lay down, what he thought was a rug turned out to be alive. It was a tiger. He scrambled to draw his pistol but by the time he drew it the tiger had already jumped out of the window. He considers that one of the most bizarre moments he experienced over there. Never get out of the boat. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 10:54:55 PM EDT
[#48]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Were we in the same war???? The only women we saw were at KKMC just before we flew out. Ice Cream??? Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Last SCUD alert of Desert Storm. Several friends and I were sitting by the swimming pool, eating Baskin Robbins double chocolate ice cream and watching the AF women swim. The siren started and we all looked at each other, said fuck it and kept eating. We were supposed to go to MOPP 3 and go inside. That was at Eskan village (PX, Anthony’s Pizza, AAFES burger bar, Baskin Robbins, swimming pool), yep war is hell. Were we in the same war???? The only women we saw were at KKMC just before we flew out. Ice Cream??? No shit. We built the 1AD cantonment area after the cease-fire and the clearing ops. Ice cream? The only chick I saw (Chikasaw ....  ) was a female 1LT. She was PL for a an MP platoon that was following us and collecting our EPWs.
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Posted: 1/19/2016 10:56:27 PM EDT
[#49]
A 7 year old afghan kid smoke multiple cigarettes in a row.
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Posted: 1/19/2016 11:00:44 PM EDT
[#50]
A long time ago in another time at a place called Elephant Valley. Attached to a 105 towed unit. Sitting around one morning enjoying the quiet. One of the gunners (called him 'Moose' given his size) leaned against a wheel of one of the 105's. Evidently (as near as we could figure out at the time) the thing was set up on a mine/arty shell and his weight coupled with the 105's weight was enough to set it off. Blew the gun up and upside down. We spent the rest of the morning picking up small pieces of Moose to send home ........... 47 years later, I still dream of the incident and the red spray cloud ..........
Many other stories of the time but for those who are in the killing fields, stories are stories .............. |
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