Michael Totten joins a search for a weapons cache
Michael Totten has a first-person account of what it's like to look for buried explosives in Iraq.
Some Marine units are more protective of me than others. Lieutenant Schroeder's was particularly so. I was frequently instructed to stay back and, when in town, to only walk within a few inches of a wall.
The lieutenant sent a squad ahead to set up an overwatch on a roof in case we were being led into an ambush. Karmah was only very recently pacified. The war lasted longer there than it did in Fallujah, and every Marine I spoke to said it was a far more dangerous place.
We entered the town and walked past ugly repair shops on the way to the small mosque where the IED was supposed to be.
Read the whole thing.
posted by wretchardthecat at 2/26/2008 03:56:00 AM
4 Comments:
Michael is nice, he tries to see arabs as human beings.
Republicans are nice, they treat liberals with kid gloves.
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MRAPs Ramp Up
When Tommy Pruitt , the communications director of Force Protection, joined the company in 2005, it was making “from one to four vehicles a month,” he said. “Now it’s a hundred plus.”
Force Protection moved into a 550,000-square-foot campus in 2006, once home to a General Electric turbine engine plant. The plant has about 500 workers.
The 4-by-4 Cougar and MaxxPro are Category I, the smallest of three MRAP classifications, while the 6-wheel, 10-passenger models are Category II. The 45,000-pound, six-seat, six-wheel Buffalo occupies Category III by itself.
During construction, the Cougar is turned upside down and bolted to a 330-horsepower Caterpillar C7 turbodiesel and an Allison four- or six-wheel-drive transaxle. Unlike the MaxxPro, the vehicle’s padded seats are mounted to the floor.
Aside from burly windshields, the front third of the Cougar looks remarkably like any International truck, from the raked hood with shark-gill-style air slots to the trademark split grille. The thickness of the ballistic glass is classified, but Sergeant Spurlock’s Cougar was once attacked by insurgents with AK-47’s.
“We just pressed up against the glass and watched the rounds hit,” he said.
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Diesel-Sipping Motorcycle for the Marines
U.S. COIN doctrine meets the Korengal Valley
At the same time Ms. Rubin was at Captain Kearney’s forward operating base researching her story, Colonel Chip Preysler, USA, commanding officer of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, gave an interview by video-conference with the Pentagon press corps.
The transcript of the interview confirms Ms. Rubin’s descriptions of challenging mountainous terrain, a determined enemy, and hard fighting. As to the mental state of his soldiers, Colonel Preysler keeps his own counsel.
Michael is nice, he tries to see arabs as human beings.
Agreed. Too bad he comes perilously close to moonbattery when discussing President Bush and conservatives.
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