Originally posted by Paintslinger16
View Post
-
Don’t recall spending any time there. I spent most of my free time in my kayak on the river and in the sound, with the occasional weekend paintball trip. -
August '05 to August '06, LSA Anaconda (Mortar-ritaville), Balad Air Base, Iraq. Worked in the contracting office, and because my unit was an inverted pyramid with more officers and senior enlisted than junior enlisted due to our particular mission, and since I was just an E4 Specialist (proud member of the Sham Shield Mafia), I spent almost as much time on a guard tower as I did in the office. How often did we get shelled? Averaged 1.3 times a day, and I'm not exaggerating, my unit ran everything on post and we pulled the JOC incident reports to confirm. How often was I in semi-direct danger? Once - was out at the north ECP and they started shelling the gravel pit (I don't know why, it was a pit, filled with gravel, not men or materiel) about 100 yards to our east. Beyond that, nope. Interrupted our sleep a lot, but the helos coming into the CSH (combat support hospital) did that more often. Especially the Marines and their CH47 Chinooks at under 500 feet off the deck, they have some serious rotor wash.
Best story from deployment - I almost earned a Bronze Star with V for Valor based on a rumor. We had spent extra long at Riley in pre-mobilization as they kept pushing our flight date back, so we spent extra time at the ranges and in the various simulators on base. Every time we qualified or did a familiarization shoot or a simulator with any weapon system, I was in the top 3 to 5 in the company ("damn Specialist, how many did you hit? do I owe you any money?"), and I showed a serious affinity for the SAW. A few months into our deployment, my squad's SAW gunner had to go home on family emergency leave and hands me, his A-gunner, the SAW. I'm on guard tower not long after and someone (insurgents possibly, but more likely locals just trying to set off our alarms) drops a few mortar rounds just over our perimeter fence. An average day at Mortar-ritaville, and I thought nothing more of it. I mean, counterbattery lit up a chunk of real estate 2 kilometers out and the Apaches and QRF went to check it out, but no fireworks after counterbattery got done. About a week later, one of my unit's Colonels comes by to see my boss but stops to say "heard what you did on the tower!" Now, we had seen a bunch of incidents at the guard towers - negligent discharges, troops having sex while on duty, sleeping Soldiers, you name it - so I thought I had messed up. Nope, our JOC personnel had recorded the attack, noted it had come from the sector our tower overlooked, noted I was on duty and had the SAW, and suddenly, according to their fertile minds, had not just witnessed the attack, I had killed the bad guys dead with the SAW! Rumor went right around the company and our Commander instructed HR to write me up for a Bronze Star. Fortunately, this other full bird couldn't contain his excitement and spilled the beans to me and my boss, and I got to run over to headquarters and tell them that nothing happened and they could stop all proceedings on the award. That was the oddest conversation I ever had in the military - hey, you know that high level award you're making for me? well, scrap all of that, none of it happened, I didn't even pull trigger - but I still giggle about it to this day. Oh, they'd eventually have gotten around to getting an eyewitness statement from my battle buddy on the tower that day (she heard the launch signature of the first round while I missed it, but we're they talking about writing her up for a Bronze Star? no) as it's a requirement for the award, and learned the truth of the matter, but still, so close!Former Prophet of Velcor
Don't confuse your emotional event for logic or reason.Comment
-
We were there at the same time, I was with a fighter strike package that was doing Arial surveillance, air to ground work, and CAS. Trading their mortar rounds for 500 pounders.
Had a couple tours in afghan as well most recently, spent part of last year closing down BAF. Figure it's about time for me to hang it up.
-
-
I only did two deployments. 1) Operation Uphold Democracy. This was conducted between 94’-96’ in Haiti. 2) Was preforming a rotation for the MFO. 6 month time span in The Sinai peninsula with other nations military.Comment
-
2007 thru 2008 COB APACHE and Camp Taji...3rd ID 2nd BCT 3/7 Cav...
2013 through 2014 Camp Clark AFG
101st ABNASSLT 3rb BCT 1/33 CavComment
Comment