News from the "Front"...

GA_Longhorn · Nov 15, 2005

A friend on another forum posted this from a Marine stationed in IRAQ along with my friend's Nephew. His letter home gives some interesting insight into to war in the Middle East. The post is a bit lenghty, but I hope you will find it as interesting as I did. Here's the letter, in it's slightly edited form. I wanted to get as much of the full content as possible......Enjoy, and don't forget to pray for our troops.
Hello to all my fellow gunners, military buffs, veterans
and interested guys. A couple of weekends ago I got to spend
time with XXXX, who was on his first leave since returning from
ffice:smarttags" />Iraq</ST1

lace>. He is well (a little thin), and already bored. He will be returning to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com /><st1:country-region><ST1<IMG class=inlineimg title=lace><st1:country-region><ST1

lace>Iraq</ST1

lace></st1:country-region> for a second tour in early '06 and has already reenlisted early for 4 more years. He loves the Marine Corps and is
actually looking forward to returning to I<st1:country-region>raq</st1:country-region>. 

XXXX spent 7 months at "Camp Blue Diamond" in Ramadi. AKA: <ST1

<st1

laceType>Fort</st1

laceType><st1

laceName>Apache</st1

laceName></ST1

lace>. He saw and did a lot and the following iswhat 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. XXXX 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 gun sights 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 cinder block structure common 
over there and even torso hits cant be reliably counted on to put the enemy down.
<O

Fun fact: Random autopsies on dead insurgents shows a high level of opiate use. 

2) The M 243 SAW (squad assault weapon): .223 cal. Drum fed light
machine gun. Big thumbs down. Universally considered a piece of *beep*.
Chronic jamming problems, most of which require partial disassembly.
(That's fun in the middle of a firefight.)

3) The M 9 Beretta 9 mm: Mixed bag. Good gun, performs well in 
desert environment; but they all hate the 9 mm cartridge. The use of
handguns for self-defense is actually fairly common. Same old story on
the 9 mm: 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 M 240 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 M 2 .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 puds 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 reissued en masse. The M-14: Thumbs up.They are being reissued 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 M 24 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 *beep* 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
*beep* about the "old" body armor making our guys vulnerable to the
IED's (Improvised Explosive Device) was a nonstarter.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. XXXX carried a $34 Surefire G 2 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 <st1:country-region><ST1

lace>Vietnam</ST1

lace></st1:country-region> 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 AK 47's The entire country is an arsenal. Works better in
the desert than the M 16 and the .308 Russian round kills reliably. PKM
belt fed light machine guns are also common and effective. Luckily, the
enemy mostly shoots like *beep*. 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 easilybeaten 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 *beep*. 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 XXX's area were in abandoned cars. The enemy would take 2 or 3
155 mm 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 M 1 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.

papagil · Nov 16, 2005

Good Post

News from the "Front"...

GA_Longhorn

Senior Member

papagil

Senior Member

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