Fresh from Christopher in Iraq:

Oz, Thought you might find these photos interesting.  Three days before we graduated the first battalion of the New Iraqi Army, an OH-58 was patrolling several kilometers out from out compound.  They use a pulsar flare to look not only into the night, but also down into the earth.  They spotted a large object under what appeared to be a new digging of the earth. What the MPs found was a cache of about 80 rounds for the 120mm mortar.  With the troops massing together with trainers and media from around the world, this was just the sort of catastrophy we were hoping to avoid.  Obviously, a tense mood set in for graduation. The photos show French-made copies of the Russian 120mm round.  They look like US munitions because the French use English and US-style markings for their exported munitions.  The green rounds are actually Russian, and I believe the gray rounds are Hungarian. The Fedayeen MO is to drive out in a pickup just before sunset and drop a mortar tube and baseplate onto the ground.  They fire about half a dozen or so rounds, throw the whole mortar into the back--if time permits, and drive off into a populated area.  Mostly they drop 60mm or 82mm rounds.  A 120mm with this many rounds would have put us in quite a bit of hurt.  Nice catch, huh? The other photo is one of the "door guns" for the back two windows of the hummer.  Pretty standard stuff for convoys. Christopher

Soooo .... the Frogs .. er, I mean the French has some explaining to do.  Why would they make 120mm mortar round to look like US munition??  And, second, why the f**k did they sell it to Saddam in the first place ???

In the last pictures, Chris is holding the Type56 AKM as a "door gun" when out with a Humbee convoy.  Notice the buttstock is missing ... several MODCC members have expressed their support to a project to send an OD or Desert Tan synthetic AK stock set either from KVAR or RobArms (if they have it) to Chris in Iraq as part of the care package.  Anyone else wish to participate pls post here www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=8&f=32&t=174797 or IM me.  I just need to know how many members will support this idea.

Note the AT4 bazooka thing on the humvee behind the .50 gunner.

I emailed Chris today and told him his boys owe a certain Kiowa crew a case of beer.  Chris actually doesn't look too sunburned.

Also a barrel of a SAW peeking out behind the 50 gunner.

MP's

Did you notice the guy on the M2 has an AT-4, M-249, and an M-16 type weapon up there with him?

MP stands for multiple projectiles.

You know a Hummer isn't the same without an M2 mounted on it.

My nephew is with the V corp, he repairs night
vision goggles but also drives with some of the convoys. He is on a compound around the Baghdad airport. We hear from him periodically
and think of him all the time.

I hope all of our troops make it through their tours safely.

Jim

They should have booby-trapped the rounds to explode when impacting the firing pin in the mortar, and left them in place for the fedayeen.  Of course, I'm just evil that way

Still prayin' hard for Chris and everyone else over there.