Henry's Web Log

The war stories are always better, and if you’re in a good bunch, they’re funnier, than the real thing. At least in training. Our culminating exercise at Ft Lewis was a HMMWV convoy through about a 6 mile loop, supposedly a recon to keep the main supply route safe, to meet a local farmer who had some intel, and meet with the mayor of a local village in order to improve relationships and offer an American medical assistance visit in appreciation for their support of our operations. 30 minutes before we departed, our convoy commander, a lieutenant, got pulled away for another mission! Mark Jadrich stepped in and did a great job briefing us all. Then Murphy took over, as he is want to do in war… Murphy of the “can go wrong, will go wrong” ilk.
On the way to the farmer, we were hit with an IED. While the first vehicle reacted, we spotted what we thought was a 2nd IED at the convoy tail (not a long convoy, just 4 HMMWVs!). So we couldn’t go forward to help. The lead vehicle’s radio went out, so they didn’t know what happened, the 2nd vehicle had been “hit” by the IED simulator, and the 3rd vehicle really froze because they knew our 4th vehicle had the recovery tow-strap…but we were separated by the 2nd IED. So we got gigged for not taking faster action. Turns out, the 2nd IED was really the 1st IED…just that it looked pristine because the simulated “boom” happened 10 yards away from it!
We got our act together, moved up, rescued the hit vehicle, fired up a sniper, and started moving out when the OC’s (Observer-Controllers) called a halt and we did a quick AAR (After Action Review, see my last entry). Mark had us switch out vehicles 1 (bad radio) with 3 (flakey vehicle commander) so that we could have good commo on our most important vehicle. The commander’s vehicle was #2, and I was in #4 for rear security and vehicle recovery.
We learned later that vehicle #1, in addition to bad commo, had an inexperienced gunner. She had worked out a few kinks with the machine gun during the live-fire, so we thought, “Surely she has figured it out now.” Nope. Every time she pulled the trigger, she jammed it up. And she didn’t have the strength or experience to clear the jam. Vehicle #1’s commander, Billy, has four years infantry officer experience and he did not tolerate this well, to put it mildly. On top of that, the gunner doubted herself. “Should I fire?... I see the sniper. I just don’t know if I should fire…”
Billy’s response, along the lines of “YES G## D##MIT! Waste the Mother F&&#%#!!!” was an attempt to motivate some action. Then he heard once again the “Bang! Click.” Yet another ammunition jam. He absolutely went ape, yanked the gunner down, and put a staff sergeant up in the gunner’s hatch. Then he had to listen to a barrage of “but I’m trained on the SAW [Squad Assault Weapon]. I passed the training course…the weapon kept jamming…”
After the gunner substitution, the weapon miraculously never jammed again. That was just the first of five little scenarios yesterday, and made for some hilarious stories last night. Our four vehicles were the last of 4 groups that went through the course, and it turns out that our little FUBAR wasn’t nearly as bad as the first group’s!