Oerdin's Iraq thread - Continued

[Pekka]

Army is lucky to have you Oerdin

[Barinthus]

Actually I'd dare to say that the States is lucky to have him and fellows like him. Unfortunately we also have bad apples

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Lonestar


But the Marines hadn't even stormed Fallujah. They just encircled the city until someone decided to throw money at the problem. (i.e. have an "Iraqi brigade" go in)

They (the "Leathernecks") cleared about 2/3 of the city before they were forced to suspend operations. With the small force that they had it was a fair accomplishment, and it's too bad we didn't let them finish the job, as it might have put a real crimp in both the insurgency and the foreign terrorist problem.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Barinthus
Actually I'd dare to say that the States is lucky to have him and fellows like him. Unfortunately we also have bad apples

Word

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Sikander


They (the "Leathernecks") cleared about 2/3 of the city before they were forced to suspend operations. With the small force that they had it was a fair accomplishment, and it's too bad we didn't let them finish the job, as it might have put a real crimp in both the insurgency and the foreign terrorist problem.

Yup

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Oerdin
They added a turbo charger to the engine and you get a standard GM four speed automatic instead of the junky three speed the regular humvees use but that's about it. It doesn't seem like they upgraded the cooling system at all. They did add AC which they didn't have in the regular humvee but the AC unit never seems to get very cold. It can hold the line at 80 but even at night it can't seem to get lower.

Still, the AC is a god send when it's 125 degrees.

Waitaminute...automatic???

[Ted Striker]

GM

We need to start buying Toyota

That sh1t never breaks

[Dinner]

The military Humvees are manufactured by AM General Corporation which is the remains of the old automaker AMC. A few years back AM General sold the civilian rights for the Humvee to GM but AM General continues to make the military version.

[johnj92131]

How does this Humvee compare to the one you had in Kosovo in 2000? Seem to recall you mention the negative affects of all the added armor back then. And how about mechanical reliability compared to 2000 in Kosovo?

Then again Iraq is considerably more harsh an environment than Kosovo was (weather and other things).

Is this still the same Humvee you picked up in May prior to your time in al Kut? Or are their now enough of the new Humvee's so that your unit has all uparmored Humvees?

[Dinner]

The other humvee stayed in Al Kut and this one came from FOB Anaconda in Balad. The current uparmored humvee design has been changed since I was in Kosovo but I'm not sure it's for the better. They did add front air vents for the AC unit while previously the AC only blow from the back seats and there is now an FBCB2 (a computer attached to the GPS so that it provides real time map data including the locations of friendly units who also have FBCB2s and details points of interest such as mine fields) and the turret design has been updated with a new lock. Other then that they are almost the same.

I suppose the over heating could be caused by the extreme temperatures here in Iraq but it really should have been designed to work in any enviroment from the get go. I don't recall my humvee in Kosovo having so many quality problems so the quality may have slipped (not surprising given that factory output has dramatically increased since the Army is replacing regular humvees with uparmored ones) or I might just have a lemon.

[Barinthus]

Set up a desert military hardware testing lab in the Death Valley or something!?!

[Dinner]

That would take effort.

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Went to a town council meeting today here in Tikrit. As usual the council members sat around and *****ed about every little grip that passed their mind yet did absolutely nothing to fix any of those problems. The only thing they could agree on was that the US should give them more free money.

I'm thinking the Iraqis are acting more and more like western politicians each day.

Personally I'd play hard ball with that sort of behaviour. First, they are the leaders. Ask them what they can do about the situation.

After they've thrown up their hands and said "Nothing! It's all in the hands of Allah!" explain to them that, in a democracy, the leaders are accountable. A leader who helps to make a situation better gets more power. But a leader who makes a bad situation worse loses all power.

Of course, Iraq isn't a democracy yet. But if you can convince leaders their arse is on the line, that it's performance related... you MAY just get some ideas back on where that free money might do some good.

Just a thought.

[Barinthus]

Originally posted by Oerdin
That would take effort.

True. But as a taxpayer and a son of a veteran, I want my dollars used to make sure the military hardware we're giving to our troops to use is reliable and will actually help them instead of hindering them.

The way I look at this is that men and women who place their lives on the line for the country and for politicans' whims deserve the best. Yet we repriocrate their bravery and commitment with shoddy equipment and even lack of (not enough Kelvar bodyarmor a while ago) and our government cut on their benefits and so on. It's a disgrace.

[Dinner]

The last few days have seen an increase in mortar attacks at FOB Danger. Most of them haven't caused damage but tonight one of them scored a direct hit on a humvee packed in front of the MWR building where the internet cafe is. I heard the boom and went outside to investigate only to find the mortar went right through the hood of someone's 1025 (no armored humvee). Sucks for him.

All in all their aim doesn't seem to be getting better. One landed on the wrong side of the river, two landed in the river, one over shot the base and hit on the highway west of the base, another landed in the lake on the base. Two have actually hit the base. One hit the humvee and another landed outside of a house damaging the asphalt. The insurgents have also planted two IEDs just south of Tikrit in the last two days and they put one antitank mine in a pot hole in the middle of highway 1. The IEDs and the antitank mine were found before they detonated because the insurgents used the wrong color dirt to bury them with; thus drivers noticed the odd colored fill dirt and called the Explosive Ordinance Disposal team (EOD). Not much damage but a marked increase in activity after a month and a half of relative calm.

We're working with the local city government to get the main highways repaved so that there will be fewer pot holes to hide mines in and we've increased the number of patrols doing anti-IED sweeps on major road ways. That's all for now.