Inputs from Iraq by a US soldier
Subject: Info from Iraq
Hello to all my fellow gunners, military buffs,
veterans and interested guys. A couple of weekends ago
I got to spend time with my son Jordan, who was on his
first leave since returning from Iraq. He is well (a
little thin), and already bored. He will be returning
to Iraq for a second tour in early '06 and has already
re-enlisted early for 4 more years. He loves the
Marine Corps and is actually looking forward to
returning to Iraq. Jordan spent 7 months at “Camp
Blue Diamond" in Ramadi, Aka: Fort Apache. He saw and
did a lot and the following is what he told me about
weapons, equipment, tactics and other miscellaneous
info which may be of interest to you. Nothing is by
any means classified. No politics here, just a Marine
with a bird's eye view's opinions:
1) The M-16 rifle : Thumbs down. Chronic jamming
problems with the talcum powder like sand over there.
The sand is everywhere. Jordan says you feel filthy 2
minutes after coming out of the shower. The M-4
carbine version is more popular because it's lighter
and shorter, but it has jamming problems also. They
like the ability to mount the various optical
gunsights and weapons lights on the picattiny rails,
but the weapon itself is not great in a desert
environment. They all hate the 5.56mm (.223) round.
Poor penetration on the cinderblock structure common
over there and even torso hits cant be reliably
counted on to put the enemy down. Fun fact: Random
autopsies on dead insurgents shows a high level of
opiate use.
2) The M243 SAW (squad assault weapon): .223 cal. Drum
fed light machine gun. Big thumbs down. Universally
considered a piece of shit. Chronic jamming problems,
most of which require partial disassembly. (that's fun
in the middle of a firefight).
3) The M9 Beretta 9mm: Mixed bag. Good gun, performs
well in desert environment; but they all hate the 9mm
cartridge. The use of handguns for self-defense is
actually fairly common. Same old story on the 9mm: Bad
guys hit multiple times and still in the fight.
4) Mossberg 12ga. Military shotgun: Works well, used
frequently for clearing houses to good effect.
5) The M240 Machine Gun: 7.62 Nato (.308) cal. belt
fed machine gun, developed to replace the old M-60
(what a beautiful weapon that was!!). Thumbs up.
Accurate, reliable, and the 7.62 round puts 'em down.
Originally developed as a vehicle mounted weapon, more
and more are being dismounted and taken into the field
by infantry. The 7.62 round chews up the structure
over there.
6) The M2 .50 cal heavy machine gun: Thumbs way, way
up. "Ma deuce" is still worth her considerable weight
in gold. The ultimate fight stopper, puts their dicks
in the dirt every time. The most coveted weapon
in-theater.
7) The .45 pistol: Thumbs up. Still the best pistol
round out there. Everybody authorized to carry a
sidearm is trying to get their hands on one. With few
exceptions, can reliably be expected to put 'em down
with a torso hit. The special ops guys (who are doing
most of the pistol work) use the HK military model and
supposedly love it. The old government model .45's are
being re-issued en masse.
8) The M-14: Thumbs up. They are being re-issued in
bulk, mostly in a modified version to special ops
guys. Modifications include lightweight Kevlar stocks
and low power red dot or ACOG sights. Very reliable in
the sandy environment, and they love the 7.62 round.
9) The Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle: Thumbs way up.
Spectacular range and accuracy and hits like a freight
train. Used frequently to take out vehicle suicide
bombers ( we actually stop a lot of them) and
barricaded enemy. Definitely here to stay.
10) The M24 sniper rifle: Thumbs up. Mostly in .308
but some in 300 win mag. Heavily modified Remington
700's. Great performance. Snipers have been used
heavily to great effect. Rumor has it that a marine
sniper on his third tour in Anbar province has
actually exceeded Carlos Hathcock's record for
confirmed kills with OVER 100.
11) The new body armor: Thumbs up. Relatively light at
approx. 6 lbs. and can reliably be expected to soak up
small shrapnel and even will stop an AK-47 round. The
bad news: Hot as shit to wear, almost unbearable in
the summer heat (which averages over 120 degrees).
Also, the enemy now goes for head shots whenever
possible. All the bullshit about the "old" body armor
making our guys vulnerable to the IED's was a
non-starter. The IED explosions are enormous and body
armor doesn't make any difference at all in most
cases.
12) Night Vision and Infrared Equipment: Thumbs way
up. Spectacular performance. Our guys see in the dark
and own the night, period. Very little enemy action
after evening prayers. More and more enemy being
whacked at night during movement by our hunter-killer
teams. We've all seen the videos.
13) Lights: Thumbs up. Most of the weapon mounted and
personal lights are Surefire's, and the troops love
‘em. Invaluable for night urban operations. Jordan
carried a $34 Surefire G2 on a neck lanyard and loved
it.
I cant help but notice that most of the good fighting
weapons and ordnance are 50 or more years old!!!!!!!!!
With all our technology, it's the WWII and Vietnam era
weapons that everybody wants!!!! The infantry fighting
is frequent, up close and brutal. No quarter is given
or shown.
Bad guy weapons:
1) Mostly AK47's . The entire country is an arsenal.
Works better in the desert than the M16 and the .308
Russian round kills reliably. PKM belt fed light
machine guns are also common and effective. Luckily,
the enemy mostly shoots like shit. Undisciplined
"spray and pray" type fire. However, they are seeing
more and more precision weapons, especially sniper
rifles. (Iran, again) Fun fact: Captured enemy have
apparently marveled at the marksmanship of our guys
and how hard they fight. They are apparently told in
Jihad school that the Americans rely solely on
technology, and can be easily beaten in close quarters
combat for their lack of toughness. Let's just say
they know better now.
2) The RPG: Probably the infantry weapon most feared
by our guys. Simple, reliable and as common as
dogshit. The enemy responded to our up-armored humvees
by aiming at the windshields, often at point blank
range. Still killing a lot of our guys.
3) The IED: The biggest killer of all. Can be anything
from old Soviet anti-armor mines to jury rigged
artillery shells. A lot found in Jordan's area were in
abandoned cars. The enemy would take 2 or 3 155mm
artillery shells and wire them together. Most were
detonated by cell phone, and the explosions are
enormous. You're not safe in any vehicle, even an M1
tank. Driving is by far the most dangerous thing our
guys do over there. Lately, they are much more
sophisticated "shape charges" (Iranian) specifically
designed to penetrate armor. Fact: Most of the ready
made IED's are supplied by Iran, who is also providing
terrorists (Hezbollah types) to train the insurgents
in their use and tactics. That's why the attacks have
been so deadly lately. Their concealment methods are
ingenious, the latest being shape charges in Styrofoam
containers spray painted to look like the cinderblocks
that litter all Iraqi roads. We find about 40% before
they detonate, and the bomb disposal guys are unsung
heroes of this war.
4) Mortars and rockets: Very prevalent. The soviet era
122mm rockets (with an 18km range) are becoming more
prevalent. One of Jordan's NCO's lost a leg to one.
These weapons cause a lot of damage "inside the wire".
Jordan's base was hit almost daily his entire time
there by mortar and rocket fire, often at night to
disrupt sleep patterns and cause fatigue (It did).
More of a psychological weapon than anything else. The
enemy mortar teams would jump out of vehicles, fire a
few rounds, and then haul ass in a matter of seconds.
5) Bad guy technology: Simple yet effective. Most
communication is by cell and satellite phones, and
also by email on laptops. They use handheld GPS units
for navigation and "Google earth" for overhead views
of our positions. Their weapons are good, if not
fancy, and prevalent. Their explosives and bomb
technology is TOP OF THE LINE. Night vision is rare.
They are very careless with their equipment and the
captured GPS units and laptops are treasure troves of
Intel when captured.
Who are the bad guys?:
Most of the carnage is caused by the Zarqawi Al Qaeda
group. They operate mostly in Anbar province (Fallujah
and Ramadi). These are mostly "foreigners", non-Iraqi
Sunni Arab Jihadists from all over the Muslim world
(and Europe). Most enter Iraq through Syria (with, of
course, the knowledge and complicity of the Syrian
govt.) , and then travel down the “rat line” which is
the trail of towns along the Euphrates River that
we've been hitting hard for the last few months. Some
are virtually untrained young Jihadists that often end
up as suicide bombers or in ”sacrifice squads”. Most,
however, are hard core terrorists from all the usual
suspects (Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas etc.) These are
the guys running around murdering civilians en masse
and cutting heads off. The Chechens (many of whom are
Caucasian), are supposedly the most ruthless and the
best fighters. (they have been fighting the Russians
for years). In the Baghdad area and south, most of
the insurgents are Iranian inspired (and led) Iraqi
Shiites. The Iranian Shiia have been very adept at
infiltrating the Iraqi local govt.'s, the police
forces and the Army. The have had a massive spy and
agitator network there since the Iran-Iraq war in the
early 80's. Most of the Saddam loyalists were killed,
captured or gave up long ago.
Bad Guy Tactics:
When they are engaged on an infantry level they get
their asses kicked every time. Brave, but stupid.
Suicidal Banzai-type charges were very common earlier
in the war and still occur. They will literally
sacrifice 8-10 man teams in suicide squads by sending
them screaming and firing Ak's and RPG's directly at
our bases just to probe the defenses. They get mowed
down like grass every time. (see the M2 and M240
above). Jordan's base was hit like this often. When
engaged, they have a tendency to flee to the same
building, probably for what they think will be a
glorious last stand. Instead, we call in air and
that's the end of that more often than not. These
hole-ups are referred to as Alpha Whiskey Romeo's
(Allah's Waiting Room). We have the laser guided
ground-air thing down to a science. The fast mover's,
mostly Marine F-18's, are taking an ever increasing
toll on the enemy. When caught out in the open, the
helicopter gunships and AC-130 Spectre gunships cut
them to ribbons with cannon and rocket fire,
especially at night. Interestingly, artillery is
hardly used at all. Fun fact: The enemy death toll is
supposedly between 45-50 thousand. That is why we're
seeing less and less infantry attacks and more IED,
suicide bomber shit. The new strategy is simple:
attrition. The insurgent tactic most frustrating is
their use of civilian non-combatants as cover. They
know we do all we can to avoid civilian casualties and
therefore schools, hospitals and (especially) Mosques
are locations where they meet, stage for attacks,
cache weapons and ammo and flee to when engaged. They
have absolutely no regard whatsoever for civilian
casualties. They will terrorize locals and murder
without hesitation anyone believed to be sympathetic
to the Americans or the new Iraqi govt. Kidnapping of
family members (especially children) is common to
influence people they are trying to influence but cant
reach, such as local govt. officials, clerics, tribal
leaders, etc.). The first thing our guys are told is
“don't get captured”. They know that if captured they
will be tortured and beheaded on the internet.
Zarqawi openly offers bounties for anyone who brings
him a live American serviceman. This motivates the
criminal element who otherwise don't give a shit about
the war. A lot of the beheading victims were actually
kidnapped by common criminals and sold to Zarqawi. As
such, for our guys, every fight is to the death.
Surrender is not an option.
The Iraqi's are a mixed bag. Some fight well, others
aren't worth a shit. Most do okay with American
support. Finding leaders is hard, but they are getting
better. It is widely viewed that Zarqawi's use of
suicide bombers, en masse, against the civilian
population was a serious tactical mistake. Many
Iraqi's were galvanized and the caliber of recruits in
the Army and the police forces went up, along with
their motivation. It also led to an exponential
increase in good intel because the Iraqi's are sick of
the insurgent attacks against civilians. The Kurds are
solidly pro-American and fearless fighters. According
to Jordan, morale among our guys is very high. They
not only believe they are winning, but that they are
winning decisively. They are stunned and dismayed by
what they see in the American press, whom they almost
universally view as against them. The embedded
reporters are despised and distrusted. They are
inflicting casualties at a rate of 20-1 and then see
shit like “Are we losing in Iraq?” on TV and the print
media. For the most part, they are satisfied with
their equipment, food and leadership. Bottom line
though, and they all say this, there are not enough
guys there to drive the final stake through the heart
of the insurgency, primarily because there aren't
enough troops in-theater to shut down the borders with
Iran and Syria. The Iranians and the Syrians just cant
stand the thought of Iraq being an American ally
(with, of course, permanent US bases there).
Anyway guys, that's it, hope you found it interesting,
I sure did. |
