Posted: 3/7/2005 1:08:09 AM EDT
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Well, I'm nursing a fractured shoulder blade and torn shoulder ligaments back to health, which I managed to do playing frisbee of all things. Ok, so it was full contact frisbee played on a concrete chopper pad. I went over one soldier's back, landed on my chest, and all 230 lbs of him landed on my shoulder. Then the rest of the gaggle that was near by landed on top of him. As my wife said, "Boys will be boys." Unfortuanately my request for convalesence leave to Qutar where I could lay on the beach and self medicate myself with liberal doses of Jim Beam was declined. But at least I got a bottle of percocets. Worst part is I'm stuck on office duty. I miss being on the road. As a .50 cal gunner on a gun truck it's about as close to seeing Iraq on motorcycle as you can get. Wind in the face, sand and rain stinging the skin, waving at little haji kids who are either begging for food or yelling "Fuck you!" What a lovely little shithole this place is. Had a near incident my last time on the road. I was letting my driver get some sling time in the hatch while I got some wheel time. The convoy was stopped and we dismounted to pull security. As the rear gun truck, we pulled sideways across Tampa to block the road. Where we were at, however, Tampa is a 6 lane divided highway. When cars want to pass, we let them go to the other side of the highway and pass there. Well, this one newer model minivan came creeping up on our convoy, apparently trying to pass on the left shoulder as the humvee isn't long enough to block the whole road. I'm waving the car to the other side of the highway with my flashlight. Nothing doing, the car keeps rolling towards us. At about 100 meters out I pulse my surefire at the car. Still no response, he rolls some more and I burned him with the surefire. He kept rolling. I dropped into a fighting stance, yelled "STAAAAHHHHP!" (we're supposed to yell "cough" as that means "stop" in haji-speak but when the adrenaline flows I only do the english thing) put the ACOG dot on the grill and clicked off the safety. Just as my finger starts to press on the trigger he jumps on the brakes. I sweep around to the driver side of the car so I wouldn't be between the car and the .50 to my 7 o'clock. I've got the front of my M16 supported with the back of my wrist of my support hand while I illuminate the driver and occupants with the surefire in that hand. Finally the driver figgures out he needs to back the hell up. I wonder if he knew just how close he came to having a very bad day. What gave me a laugh though, was while this was going on, the vehicle T/C had been busy relieving himself on the other side of the humvee cooling off the wheel and didn't quite know what was going on but my yelling "Stop" got his attention and he saw me in a position about ready to start shooting. His statement was priceless when he told me he was sitting there thinking, "Oh shit! Morgon's gonna shoot somebody and I'm sitting here with my dick in my hand!" So far I've leared a few things on the road here: - A surefire is handy as hell. The 6P rocks, although the finish doesn't hold up too well, the lockout tail cap is very handy to ensure the button doesn't get accidentally pressed. I started with a Nitrolon, but got tired of having to twist the tailcap so much to keep from accidentally triggering it and then having to re-twist it that many times to get it to function. The Aviator may be a better model yet. I've been looking at it as the added LED light would be just dandy for using inside the vehicle without the excess brightness of the main bulb. The extra brightness comes in handy when you are sweeping for IEDs near where the convoy is stopped, for signaling, or when you just need to really en"lighten" someone. - When you're in the sling of the rear gun truck (my favorite place), nothing says "Back the hell away from my convoy" like pulling the charging handle of an M16 if somebody gets within the 100 meter threshold and ignores being waved back. If they happen to miss seeing that, aiming the rifle at them usually works. If they miss that becuase it happens to be dark, the muzzle flash of said M16 will really get their attention. - Civilian contract truck drivers (most are a bunch of third country nationals--TCNs--from places like India, Phillipines, and other wonderful 3rd world nations) are a blessing and a burden. While they fill the gaps of a much needed role here, their convoy procedures generally stink and they tend to leave large gaps. An easy way to remedy this is to put them in the back of the convoy and tell them if they don't keep up they get left behind. It's amazing how fast they can get their trucks to move when they see the rear gun truck passing them by when they start to dawddle. |
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Thanks for the update Glenn.....stay safe. We now have a "deployed" forum.... www.ar15.com/forums/forum.html?b=1&f=132 |
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Is there anything we can send you from over here? I'd love to send a care package to some of our Homestate heroes. Seriously, if you can think of anything you need or want, lemme know. email me at [email protected] with requests. |
+1 [email protected] |