This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Pathfinder

  • React to Contact and Break Contact

    I thought I would share this with y’all. When I was in Afghanistan I was attached to my current unit which was 1/221 cav for a few months and when they left, the SecFor that replaced them was an arty unit from PA National Guard. At that time I had picked up my E5 and when the new SecFor arrived I suggested we use every Friday (that was our down day between mission weeks and going up on the OPs) to go train behind Camp Wright on the range. My reasoning behind that was because the guys that replaced the prior unit were Arty and they were being tasked out to serve an Infantry roll and they should know how to maneuver like grunts. It was also a great opportunity to burn off rounds and get some trigger time that you would not normally be able to do in a garrison environment. Especially if you’re in the National Guard.

    So myself and my other recall buddy from 1st Ranger Battalion set up a training plan that consisted of weapons manipulation, reflexive fire, stress shoots, barricade shooting, buddy team rushes etc. So one of our first training exercises was how to move in a squad wedge, react to contact and then break contact back to our vehicles. First I taught it on a white board, then rock drills, then we did dry runs (with no rounds) to make sure they executed it correctly, and were also safe (ie. going from safe to semi and not flagging their buddies). Then finally we went live.

    When we did the live portion of the training I always initiated the contact by shooting a star cluster at the mountain or firing on burst so they would have positive identification and also give the three Ds (distance, direction, description). Then to simulate what it’s like maneuvering under fire and how loud and chaotic fire fights are I had them bound back under fire from our crew serves mounted on the MRAPs which were M2s, Mk19s, and 240Bs. We also had them employ smoke for concealment, had the 203s gunners get used to shooting HEDP, and our SAW gunners maneuvering with their belt fed weapons.

    The training ended up paying off because the couple dismounted fights we got into the guys reacted to their training and were able to fire and maneuver.

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  • Amateur Hour on O’Reilly Factor

    I was at home this evening and saw this segment from The O’Reilly Factor. Needless to say Bill needs to be educated because he kept yelling that people can buy fully auto weapons and there’s no database tracking. Even though there was the full auto ban in the 80s and you have to have a class III license in order to get a fully automatic weapon. His ignorance is pretty blatant and it made me feel like I was watching MSNBC.
    Here’s the video:

  • “Standards”

    I wanted to apologize for not posting since last week but I had drill this weekend (we went to Irwin and shot crew serves all weekend) and I’ve been trying to get summer school knocked out.

    For a few months now I’ve heard the SMA Chandler, numerous brass, and other guys with a ton of stripes and rockers talk about getting the Army back to having discipline and standards. New hair standards, tattoo enforcement (fyi I’m in favor of no tattoos on hands or neck but if somebody wants to have sleeves so be it. It’s part of the culture), if you make one mistake your gone, bringing back old traditions etc.

    I just want to point out that all this nonsense that has been said by “higher” is a bunch of bullshit and it’s insulting. The Army has muscled through 11 years of constant combat and deployments. This is just typical of guys who have never served in combat or done some mickey mouse deployment coming up with stupid ideas because they have nothing better to do. Unfortunately the CSMs and Generals with a lot of stars on their chests are guys who served in the 80s and 90s military. Unfortunately these stupid ways of thinking won’t change for probably another 15-20 years when we start getting officers who were PLs in Afghanistan in 01 or were on the invasion of iraq in 03 as Corps commanders. We also won’t see future E9s for another few years who were Team Leaders in Ramadi in 04 for example.
    The reason I find it insulting is I believe we have fielded the most professional and disciplined army this world has ever seen. Have mistakes been made? Of course but we fix it and drive on. I’ve seen young E5 convoy commaders, E3s running marine rifle squads at the battle of fallujah, young men deploying multiple times, whole brigades getting extended and still driving on, men living in shit outposts surrounded by taliban for 15 months etc. Not to mention our military dealing with the bullshit that has happened in these wars like a shitty ROE, the media, incoherent plans from theater commanders, retaking areas after we just pulled out and the list goes on and on. We’ve all executed the tasks given to us. Yet these POGs want to say the army isn’t disciplined and wants to go back to the “old way.” Well those old POGs can keep their old ways. Let the officers, NCOs, and enlisted soldiers who have been stacking bodies for the past 11 years walk point for a while and carry the guidon.

  • Gunner COAX Troops!

    I thought you guys would appreciate this but my Troop did gunnery in January and my squad leader (M1A1TrkTrror) put together a flicker account of our time out at NTC. During the whole train up I was skeptical of the brad but I’m not going to lie shooting the 25 and the coax gave me a hard on.

    We had instructors from Ft. Benning come down every month for about 6 months and get us prepared for gunnery. We did disassembly and assembly of the 25mm, vehicle ID, crew drills, and the COFT (which is a giant video game essentially.) When we went to Irwin we essentially did a typical dry, blank live scenario. Our iterations consisted shooting targets on the move, in an NBC environment, using the hand wheels (in the event the gunners hand station fails), night shoots and shooting moving targets etc. All in all it was a pretty enjoyable experience even though we had to deal with the typical maintenance issues that are involved with the Bradley.

    Just an FYI… Bring the Heat Bring the Stupid also posted the flicker account a few months ago but I thought you guys would enjoy it.
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  • Introduction

    Jonn was nice enough let me post. Some of you guys maybe familiar as I post under the handle DirtyMick and if you read Captainsjournal.com I’ve been quoted on there numerous times on subjects involving COIN and Kunar province. I also went to high school with Operator Dan so that’s another connection I have here.

    I’m going to go ahead and give y’all my background. I grew up the son of an Infantry officer. My dad was in Vietnam and was a company commander at 502nd Infantry. So it was kind of in my blood to be a grunt. When I enlisted at 19 January 2005 I did OSUT and airborne school. Then when I arrived at the 101st Airborne Division I volunteered to be part of one of the Pathfinder Companies. I did a deployment with the company to Iraq from August 2005 to August 2006. I was in Tikrit for 3 months and then Mosul for 9 months. It was a good company to be part of because we conducted airborne ops, pathfinder ops, fast roping, R/S, Direct Action, and various light infantry tasks. When I ETSd June 2008 I moved back home to Phoenix and worked for USAA as a loan officer for about 13 months. Then during the end of August 2009 I got a nice manila envelope from the Army saying I had been recalled to active duty to Afghanistan. After a couple a month train up at Ft. Benning and Camp Shelby myself and my other recall buddies went to Afghanistan December 2009. I was in Kunar Province from Dec 09 to September 2010. I was part of the SecFor for PRT Kunar. During that time I picked up E5 and my duties were TC, Convoy Commander, OP NCOIC and Squad Leader/Team Leader during Dismount patrols. When we got back stateside and I ETSd again I moved to Las Vegas and joined a Cav unit in the Nevada National Guard. I moved there because earlier in the deployment I was attached to NV Guard and I liked the guys I worked with and I’m pretty much in the same platoon I was in when I was in Kunar. It’s also therapeutic for me to put the uniform on once a month. I’m currently a Bradley Gunner (for you mech guys I have done a gunnery) and a team leader. So my infantry background is very diverse and I’m jack of trades pretty much. I also go to UNLV full time and I’m a finance major. Lastly I like long walks on the beach and I listen to Slayer

    I’m going to primarily blog about being in the infantry, COIN, Afghanistan and as usual stolen valor asshats. I hope you guys enjoy my posts and I’m happy to be able to blog on this site.