Oerdin's Iraq thread.

[oerdin's sis]

Re: A busy day

[QUOTE] Originally posted by Oerdin
As we were driving we considered going into the shi'a neighborhood to find the three guys but the captain decided engaging in possible urban combat with six men without back up in a shi'a neighborhood wouldn't be wise.


Good decision!!

[Chemical Ollie]

Same shi'it, different day. Just 10 months left, huh? Don't be sloppy with your gear, and let's hope it doesn't turn worse. But I have my doubts about the Iraqi people's attitude.

This morning, there was a terrible terrorist act in Basra, killing about 70 civilians, among them 20 kids on their way to school. The suicide tactics and ruthlessness smells Al-Queda, but the angry crowds on my TV were accusing THE BRITS!

[Auntie H]

Yikes!
Is your humvee uparmoured????

[Duvan]

Just wanted to say thanks for the really intresting reports

[Barinthus]

Oerdin - glad to know you're getting what appears to be at least a competent 1SG and that you folks are alrite despite those mortaring and snipering incidents. Sounds like you have at least a prudent captain.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
When you hit the deck, do you take a flying leap or just drop like a sack of potatoes?

Potatoes baby. It's all about the potatoes.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Auntie H
Yikes!
Is your humvee uparmoured????

No, but supposedly they are working on it. I can only hope the new 1SG does a better job then the old 1SG.

[Cruddy]

Re: A busy day

Originally posted by Oerdin
I actually meet our new 1SG four years ago when I was mobilizing to go to Kosovo. He was the 1SG for the Psyop company that was going to Bosnia and he was in the infantry during Vietnam where he was awarded a Silver Star with V device for bravery under fire. He was stationed with the Brigade HQ in Baghdad but he will now move to our company's HQ in Tikrit. I think he will be a big improvement.

By the sound of it, a baboon would have been just as effective as your original 1SG - so the new incumbent should be a big improvement.

Originally posted by Oerdin
The whole thing took maybe 60 seconds. As we were driving we considered going into the shi'a neighborhood to find the three guys but the captain decided engaging in possible urban combat with six men without back up in a shi'a neighborhood wouldn't be wise. Especially considering what has recently happened in Sadr City, Fallujah, and Najaf. Instead we radioed the location and "report of contact" into the local infantry company and left the ambush site. In Najaf the Shi'a tried to trick soldiers into a bigger ambush by firing a few rounds and getting the soldiers to move down narrow streets.

SMART MOVE! Brit slang for this is a "come on". Losing your head in combat is the last thing many do.

Originally posted by Oerdin
As of right now I don't know if the infantry has acted on our ambush report.

Almost certainly not... if the Northern Ireland experience is anything to go on.

After a contact, the Reaction Force would loose off at anything - trees, farm animals, each other, all too often the poor buggers that had reported the contact.

It got to the stage where most units where asking for the cops (Ulster Royal Constabulary) to back them, simply because they wouldn't go ape**** and hose down the area.

Can't comment on whether the Iraqi cops are up to this yet - probably not, although for chasing down small scale ambushers they might be competent at least.

Take care Oerdin - I think of you and the rest of the folks in Iraq every day.

[East Street Trader]

Very frightening stuff. Maybe you have taken up your allocation of being fired at for a good long time now.

When you think of all the amazing things human beings achieve by co-operating with each other in friendship it is just extraordinary that we still sometimes find ourselves striving to maim and kill fellow human beings.

Your gunners did well not to fire indiscriminately.

Good luck, Oerdin.

[Dinner]

Pchang: He will not be demoted but he will get a letter of reprimand which means he almost certainly will never make E-9. As of right now they are moving him to the Psyop over all HQ in Baghdad's green zone where he will shuffle papers and generally be a waste of space. Sadly, that may mean his living conditions may actually improve.

Everyone else: At my father's suggestion I'm going to tell you all about the 1SG at my old Psyop company in Upland, CA. 1SG Herb was (he's now retired) a one of a kind man. He was born in Germany after WW2 to Lithuanian parents. His father fought in the Lithuanian Army against the Soviets during WW2. That meant the Lithuanians had to ally themselves with Nazi Germany but the Lithuanian people were so enraged by the Soviet invasion and occupation of their country that the decided Germany offered them the only chance they'd get to free themselves from Russian occupation. In any event as the German army retreated his family retreated with it and Herb found himself growing up in post war West Germany where the West German government had tried to resettle several Lithuanian refugees.

In the mid 60's Herb joined the US Army as a way to gain US citizenship and because he proved himself to be an exceptional soldier he applied and was accepted into the famed 3rd Special Forces Group as a Green Beret. Herb completed two combat tours in Vietnam where he was wounded and decorated several times (including a Distinguished Service Medal which is only two steps below a Congressional Medal of honor). In any event Herb rarely talked about his experiences in Vietnam but he earned all of our respect though his great leadership and how he put the soldiers first both as our 1SG and through the unit administrator's position (he held both positions).

In 2000 our unit got activated and sent to Kosovo and one day during the deployment we went to see a speech being made by General Sheffield who had been Herb's SF Captain in Vietnam. I walked with Herb up to the General and the two hugged each other like old friends (FYI NO ONE normally would ever be allowed to show such familiarity with a General). They exchanged greetings and Herb called the General "Captain Sheffield" to which the Sheffield asked if that was the proper way to address a General. Herb responded that "To me you will always be the Captain Sheffield who dressed up in a pink tootoo." and they both laughed. Then the General called to his wife and said "Honey, this is the guy I've been telling you about!" His wife asked him what he was talking about and then General Sheffield said "you know" while making stabbing motions at his crotch. His wifes face immediately lite up with recognition and she began to laugh while Herb began to turn bright red.

To this point I had just been a spectator to the whole conversation but I was now so curious as to what they were talking about that I asked. What they told me I will never forget. During Herbs first combat repell (which was just inside North Vietnam; the 3rd SF Group often went into the north or to Loas & Cambodia) they came under fire while Herb was repelling down. He was 15 ft off of the ground and Herb decided he'd just jump it rather then stick around to be shot at, unfortunately, he hit the ground right on top of a pit filled with pungee sticks (sharpened bamboo rods)! He said that after he fell the first thing he noticed was that his finger was cut but he heard the gunfire all around him so he tried to stand up so he could climb out of the pit. That's when he noticed he'd been stabbed right through the groin by a pungee stick! Dispite having 1.5 feet of bambo stabbed in his nuts herb climbed out of the hole, took part in the combat (saving one friend's life), and was later flown back to Saigon for medical treatment. That's how herb earned his DSM.

I have many other stories about herb but right now I think you all have gotten a feel about what sort of man makes a great 1SG. Herb really was the best.

[chequita guevara]

OW!

[Last Conformist]

That's something to tell the grandchildren!

[Spiffor]

Too... much... information... :Ouch:

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
That's something to tell the grandchildren!

I think something like that might preclude the ability to have grandchildren.

[Barinthus]

Whoa, definitely a kind of man I would want in my unit if I was in one.

Re: Lithuanians - Romanians were the same. A friend's father was a child during WWII in Romania and I enjoyed hearing his stories. He said that Romanians preferred Germans to the Soviets back then due to their different approaches to civilians (other than 'undesirables,' that is).