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That's some hairy stuff there Andy!

Can't comment on specifics but my son-in-law is an EOD guy in the Marines. He thought the Hurt Locker was ridiculous and told me that the rest of his unit shared that opinion.

stroo wrote:Can't comment on specifics but my son-in-law is an EOD guy in the Marines. He thought the Hurt Locker was ridiculous and told me that the rest of his unit shared that opinion.

Sounds like a smart young man......

Andy, or anyone else that has drove in convoys in Irag/Afghanistan. Did you guys ever have the Road Clearance Package (RCP) guys going ahead of you on particularly sensitive missions? I can recall doing at least two missions with the RCP ahead of us and both times we came across IED's.
It would have been fascinating to see something about the RCP in the movie.

Purplehood wrote:Andy, or anyone else that has drove in convoys in Irag/Afghanistan. Did you guys ever have the Road Clearance Package (RCP) guys going ahead of you on particularly sensitive missions? I can recall doing at least two missions with the RCP ahead of us and both times we came across IED's.
It would have been fascinating to see something about the RCP in the movie.

2004-2005 No, 2006-2008, Sometimes, some missions, 2009-2010, more than sometimes but not all the time. Battalion Combat Team , might have 2 RCP packages in the engineer company., if the Brigade commander thinks your battalion 1 of 5 in the brigade is the priority.. We always were based on location/ mission.
Of those 2 RCP, one was normally non mission capable doe to battle damage. Normally the Husky was blown up, or the buffalo had issues... , sometimes one of the RG31's was down, blown up.
Sadr City was not a fun place.

bronco78 wrote:

Purplehood wrote:Andy, or anyone else that has drove in convoys in Irag/Afghanistan. Did you guys ever have the Road Clearance Package (RCP) guys going ahead of you on particularly sensitive missions? I can recall doing at least two missions with the RCP ahead of us and both times we came across IED's.
It would have been fascinating to see something about the RCP in the movie.

2004-2005 No, 2006-2008, Sometimes, some missions, 2009-2010, more than sometimes but not all the time. Battalion Combat Team , might have 2 RCP packages in the engineer company., if the Brigade commander thinks your battalion 1 of 5 in the brigade is the priority.. We always were based on location/ mission.
Of those 2 RCP, one was normally non mission capable doe to battle damage. Normally the Husky was blown up, or the buffalo had issues... , sometimes one of the RG31's was down, blown up.
Sadr City was not a fun place.

Wow, you guys did stuff on a big scale.

The absolute largest convoy that my team was ever involved in consisted of right around 27 vehicles.
The 5 vehicles of the RCP.
The 2 vehicles of the EOD team.
The 5 vehicles of our team (My CAPT and myself and our security).
The 15 or so Ford Rangers that the ANA used for transport.

We went to visit a pass at the Pakistan border on a route that had been ambushed the week before. So for our standards, we loaded up for bear (see convoy above) and ended up finding what the EOD team described as the biggest/most sophisticated IED they had seen in Afghanistan to date. They likened it to what they had seen in Iraq on previous tours.
Apparently IED's in Afghanistan are a result of what the bad-guys had learned in Iraq previously.

Ahh, I think I misspoke or you misunderstood. Sorry about that
We completed missions in platoon size elements most times, I'll not post specific vehicle sets, but.
UAH was enough to carry 2 man crew + leader and dismount a squad team.

MRAPs was much the same.. Those were our average and min movement requirements.

27 Vehicles was never something we did unless it was a company mission along the same axis of advance. But those veh would have dispersed to different parts of the mission AO at some point.

The one exception would be where we were securing a LOG movement bring us major build up supplies. In three deployments, my battalion never worked from an established FOB in whole, We built our own patrol bases or COP’s So massive supplies and equipment were moved into place when we built, expanded, or later parts of this last deployment dismantled a base.

Purplehood wrote:

bronco78 wrote:

Purplehood wrote:Andy, or anyone else that has drove in convoys in Irag/Afghanistan. Did you guys ever have the Road Clearance Package (RCP) guys going ahead of you on particularly sensitive missions? I can recall doing at least two missions with the RCP ahead of us and both times we came across IED's.
It would have been fascinating to see something about the RCP in the movie.

2004-2005 No, 2006-2008, Sometimes, some missions, 2009-2010, more than sometimes but not all the time. Battalion Combat Team , might have 2 RCP packages in the engineer company., if the Brigade commander thinks your battalion 1 of 5 in the brigade is the priority.. We always were based on location/ mission.
Of those 2 RCP, one was normally non mission capable doe to battle damage. Normally the Husky was blown up, or the buffalo had issues... , sometimes one of the RG31's was down, blown up.
Sadr City was not a fun place.

Wow, you guys did stuff on a big scale.

The absolute largest convoy that my team was ever involved in consisted of right around 27 vehicles.
The 5 vehicles of the RCP.
The 2 vehicles of the EOD team.
The 5 vehicles of our team (My CAPT and myself and our security).
The 15 or so Ford Rangers that the ANA used for transport.

We went to visit a pass at the Pakistan border on a route that had been ambushed the week before. So for our standards, we loaded up for bear (see convoy above) and ended up finding what the EOD team described as the biggest/most sophisticated IED they had seen in Afghanistan to date. They likened it to what they had seen in Iraq on previous tours.
Apparently IED's in Afghanistan are a result of what the bad-guys had learned in Iraq previously.

Just watched the video...BAD stuff.

AndyC wrote:Irish is what they called "the most dangerous road in the world, blah, blah" - the scene of many an IED/RPG/grenade and machine-gun attack (google "Edinburgh Risk Ambush Irish" for another video) - so although it looks peaceful in the clip, we were just waiting for Hajji to open up on what was a slow-moving, already-crippled target.

I smoked the cigar less for the ambush itself than for making it down Irish at 5 mph without getting jumped at all

Andy, were you working for DynaCorps perhaps?

I apologize if I am getting too intrusive.

bronco78 wrote: The U.S. Army's Ranger Course develops the combat arms related functional skills, of officer and enlisted volunteers who are eligible for assignment to units whose primary mission is to engage in the close-combat, and direct fire battle in order to return to the Army a mentally and physically tough leader capable of (planning, organizing, and executing) a small unit combat operation in any environment.
Prerequisites
Ranger Training is available on a voluntary basis only for enlisted soldiers who are in the following primary MOS, E-4 and above.
11- Infantry
*12B - Combat Engineer
*13F - Fire Support Sergeant
*14S - Avenger Crewman
18 - Special Forces Personnel
*19D - Calvary Scout
19K - Armor Crewman
OFFICER PERSONNEL: Ranger Training is available on a voluntary basis only for Officers in the following Career Management Fields.

11A - Infantry Officer
12A - Armor Officers allocated against authorized 12C positions.
12C - Calvary Officers
*13A - Fire Support Offices
*14B - Short Range Air Defense Officers
18A - Special Forces Officers
*21B - Combat Engineer Officers

Hmm I had a lot, and I mean a lot, of guys I knew in all kinds of MOSs getting offered Ranger School. Many went. Most of the ones I knew were 31C (Radio Operator Maintainer) which is what I was, although I knew a 71L (Clerk) who went and got his tab as well. Most of it was either they had served in units that had Ranger slots, or they had gotten it as part of a enlistment/reenlistment bonus.

I watched the movie on vacation in New Mexico with one of my Army buddies. He had gone to Iraq but I had not. I should mention though that my involvement with Iraq was pretty heavy. I worked in targeting acquisition for a Corps level artillery section. We used satellite, UAV, and target info from troops on the ground to take out high priority targets in Iraq using Army missile and rocket artillery, Navy fires, and Air Force bombs. We did it all remotely and started before 3/2003.

ANYway my buddy was in the section with me and later went to another unit and was sent to Iraq. We both thought the movie was total bull. Most of what I saw has been mentioned here but I did notice some other stuff.

One thing that really got me as well as others was the whole sniper standoff thing. I understand that the FPK/PSL has an effective range of 1000 m but I'd really be concerned if someone was out sniping me and I was behind a Barrett. By the way EOD uses the Barretts to detonate IEDs and other explosives so it's entirely conceivable that the EOD guys would know how to operate them.

Did anyone notice that the all the EOD guys wore Combat Infantrymen's Badges? Those aren't earned by EOD guys. It's conceivable that they might have been in an infantry MOS and then changed MOSs but I mean EVERYONE wore one. They wore the CIB below there EOD badge which is wrong wrong wrong. The EOD badge is a Group 3 badge, the CIB is a group 1.

The last thing that I thought was totally wrong was when the guy goes outside the wire on his little revenge mission. I can't think of anyone who has been able to slip out. Furthermore he would be in a world of poop after he re-entered as he did with a pistol in tow.

Anyhow my wife is in the Air Guard and got an offer recently to go into EOD (she is an engineering officer). She turned it down for now because the training would be a year long. Plus the deployment schedule would be killer. Maybe we'll change her mind but for now she's happy just being in civil engineering.

gregthehand wrote: Hmm I had a lot, and I mean a lot, of guys I knew in all kinds of MOSs getting offered Ranger School. Many went. Most of the ones I knew were 31C (Radio Operator Maintainer) which is what I was, although I knew a 71L (Clerk) who went and got his tab as well. Most of it was either they had served in units that had Ranger slots, or they had gotten it as part of a enlistment/reenlistment bonus.

I watched the movie on vacation in New Mexico with one of my Army buddies. He had gone to Iraq but I had not. I should mention though that my involvement with Iraq was pretty heavy. I worked in targeting acquisition for a Corps level artillery section. We used satellite, UAV, and target info from troops on the ground to take out high priority targets in Iraq using Army missile and rocket artillery, Navy fires, and Air Force bombs. We did it all remotely and started before 3/2003.

ANYway my buddy was in the section with me and later went to another unit and was sent to Iraq. We both thought the movie was total bull. Most of what I saw has been mentioned here but I did notice some other stuff.

One thing that really got me as well as others was the whole sniper standoff thing. I understand that the FPK/PSL has an effective range of 1000 m but I'd really be concerned if someone was out sniping me and I was behind a Barrett. By the way EOD uses the Barretts to detonate IEDs and other explosives so it's entirely conceivable that the EOD guys would know how to operate them.

Did anyone notice that the all the EOD guys wore Combat Infantrymen's Badges? Those aren't earned by EOD guys. It's conceivable that they might have been in an infantry MOS and then changed MOSs but I mean EVERYONE wore one. They wore the CIB below there EOD badge which is wrong wrong wrong. The EOD badge is a Group 3 badge, the CIB is a group 1.

The last thing that I thought was totally wrong was when the guy goes outside the wire on his little revenge mission. I can't think of anyone who has been able to slip out. Furthermore he would be in a world of poop after he re-entered as he did with a pistol in tow.

Anyhow my wife is in the Air Guard and got an offer recently to go into EOD (she is an engineering officer). She turned it down for now because the training would be a year long. Plus the deployment schedule would be killer. Maybe we'll change her mind but for now she's happy just being in civil engineering.

Neat. I didn't know the EOD guys used Barretts. I suspect that the isolated little province (Paktika, not Paktia that was north of us) that I was in was not a good example of practices elsewhere, the more that I hear from you other guys.

I do agree about the CIB badge. As I understand it the only badge that they could have worn was the CAB, unless of course they had been 11B's and changed MOS.

On our FOB I don't see how anyone could sneak in or out, day or night. I won't go into details but it would be difficult to say the least.

gregthehand wrote:[Hmm I had a lot, and I mean a lot, of guys I knew in all kinds of MOSs getting offered Ranger School. Many went. Most of the ones I knew were 31C (Radio Operator Maintainer) which is what I was, although I knew a 71L (Clerk) who went and got his tab as well. Most of it was either they had served in units that had Ranger slots, or they had gotten it as part of a enlistment/reenlistment bonus. .

The MOS standard changes from time to time and back door deals between CSM's and pals at the Ranger Training Brigade happen all the time. Never the less, as of 2007 to present, those MOS's above are the only ones authorized to attend today.

gregthehand wrote:[

gregthehand wrote:[Hmm I had a lot, and I mean a lot, of guys I knew in all kinds of MOSs getting offered Ranger School. Many went. Most of the ones I knew were 31C (Radio Operator Maintainer) which is what I was, although I knew a 71L (Clerk) who went and got his tab as well. Most of it was either they had served in units that had Ranger slots, or they had gotten it as part of a enlistment/reenlistment bonus. .

The MOS stadand changes from time to time, and back door deals between CSM's and pals at RTB happen all the time. Never the less, as of 2007 to present, those MOS's above are the only ones authorized to attend today.

gregthehand wrote:[

By the way EOD uses the Barretts to detonate IEDs and other explosives so it's entirely conceivable that the EOD guys would know how to operate them.

Direct fire IED detonation was specifically forbidden almost 4 years ago. The JOINT IED DEFEAT center, and EOD center of excellence found that it created a more hazardous situation for EOD personal if the IED did not detonate, then if the team dealt with the IED in a more standard procedure. Additionally., IED's in use after about 2004 were / are much less susceptible to a direct fire engagement. Add in to it the need to reduce collateral damage.. and all good reason to not attempt to do direct fire IE D detonation. All that said,,, sure there are still wanabe heroes that do it anyway.. More often than not creating an unstable mess that an EOD tech has to then move to and emplace a charger for a controlled detonation.