Posted: 4/4/2008 12:43:04 PM EDT
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Can anyone tell me how bad or how good PRT deployments can be? |
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you must be national guard, right? it will depend on a few differnet things theater- iraq or afghanistan? commander- army, navy, airforce, DOS? and your CA unit composition IE are they IRR shake and bakes that got the two week course, airforce and navy CA, marine corp CA or army CA with at least one deployment? chances are you wont know till you get there. BUT what you can expect is to stand in a tower A LOT! or if youre an NCO or officer to supervise troops standing in a tower A LOT. you will also pull security, A LOT while the CA team meets with officals and has lunch. plus youll do all the other stuff like presence patrols, IED sweeps (or what i liked to call easter egg hunts!) and going on tons of missions where youll stand around and get annoyed by the indiginous persons while, again, CA goes and does crazy shit you wont care about or understand. like why a village of 200 needs a damn hydroelectric dam! you wont, or very rarely will perform direct action missions, snatch and grabs, sniper ops or just generaly chasing down anyone who takes pot shots at you. or any of the cool shit. generals will frequent your AO and do stupid shit like want to walk around town and take pictures, and youll have a higher concentration of civilians. best thing to do is get friendly with your CA unit, they can do all kinds of cool stuff if they have even half a brain and get you things off the economy you wouldnt normaly have access to. there will be friction between your two units. your men will get tired of playing cheffuer (sp?) and want to kick ass, and CA will constantly remind you thats not a PRTs job. i was on a prt as the "goddamn CA asshole" as the texas guard liked to refer to us. i had a good relation with one squad and went out with them a lot. rotate your guys in with the CA unit so they dont have to sit outside all day and can get some haji pepsi and flat bread too! if you have other questions you can PM or post em here. sorry to be so blunt but i didnt like being on a prt, i prefered the direct support CA ops. damn that was long................. |
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PRT(if you mean Provisional Reconstruction Team) deployments are gay. For the last month here we have been doing it. You will be a taxi service for fat civilians who don't give a fuck about you or your fellow marines/soldiers. Make sure you bring lots of snacks because while they will be sitting inside cool buildings eating lunch and dinner with iraqi's you will be sitting outside sweating your ass off in a turret or vehicle often missing both lunch and dinner. You have to constantly be on their ass about wearing their body armor and helmets properly (they wont wear their helmet out in town, or wont have their SAPI plates in, their IBA will be open, etc.) A couple of the guys we take out are good to go, but most are clueless. If your guys are douche bags don't be afraid to hook them up, this is easy if you have MRAP's. Tank tracks are dime a dozen here and Cougars don't take bumps well. |
Since I will be one of those "fat civilians" assigned to an ePRT, what clues can you give me so my presence won't be a burden on the PRT's military members. Thanks. |
Don't second guess the military guys on military matters. When they are moving you, you are cargo. Do your best to stay out of the way. Wear your body armor and gear like they do...the right way. Most of all, be considerate. These guys may be tasked with moving you to point A and point B, but when planning missions keep in mind how many meals they will miss, how things are difficult for them to work with, and what they need. Your day may begin when you roll out and end when you roll back in, but they will still have hours of vehicle, weapons, and other maintenance to do before the next mission... do your planning taking that into consideration. Don't think you can roll in at 20:00 and if want to roll back out at 08:00 the guys will get more than 4 hours sleep between. Involve the military leaders in your planning and decision process. Don't be an ass and act like you are better than anyone else there. |
a smoke and a joke with the troops goes a long way. you need them to come back alive, dont forget that and youll be fine |