17. A Damn Good Plan

Written: March 11th & 12th, 2003

Tuesday, March 11th
Today was a lazy day. Spent part of it working in the Gabriel TOC hanging maps of Iraq all the way to Bagdhad,

We also got issued more ammunition today. Only 30 more rounds of 9mm ammunition but no more magazines to store it in. Just a zip-loc baggie or the box the bullets came in.

Dave Woodward, a new maintenance pilot, showed up this morning. He arrived in Giebelstadt on February 7th and is finally here. He in processed then came over on the same plane as some more of the guys from 3rd Battalion.

It rained quite a few times this evening and on into the night.

Tonight we got the word that we would have to start wearing our helmet, load bearing vest (LBV), mask and MOPP gear tomorrow. Tonight we broke open the seal on our MOPP suit and tried it on to make sure it would fit. We also put a piece of tape on it with our name and blood type. This MOPP suit is an improvement from the older style we are used to. This one lasts a bit longer once the bag is opened and this one doesn’t get charcoal all over your body like the old one does.

Heard an interesting plan for the War. The 11th Regiment will begin the air war. There will be no Air Force bombing like the previous War. Instead, the Air Force will fly some jammer aircraft only to block radio, television, satellite as well as enemy radar. While that is going on, the 11th Regiment will send Longbow Apaches to conduct an attack on one of Saddam’s Divisions at Tallil Airfield. This is the same place the 82nd went to in Desert Storm. I was near there but did not actually see the airfield. Anyhow, the Apaches will destroy the Division then return home to process their gun tapes. The tapes will be collected and then quickly turned over to the Pentagon where they will be prepared for a press conference. During this conference, the U.S. will reveal they just destroyed an Iraqi Division and if Saddam does not capitulate there will be much more of this to follow. If the capitulation does not happen they 3rd Infantry Division will begin their march to Baghdad to take him out of power.

Sounds like a damn cool plan. We will see if it pans out or if it is just another rumor.

Tomorrows plan is to help hang wings and tanks on 3 aircraft tomorrow. Other people will be installing the aircraft protective blankets which is a steel plate that is placed all over the floor and secured. It will provide some great protection from small arms and some protection from rockets. We will all feel much better when those systems are installed.

As far as ammunition goes, I am looking forward to getting some grenades and at least one AT-4 to put in the aircraft. That will make us feel better to have some good ammunition just in case we need it. I have every intention of landing somewhere in the desert and shooting some of it for target practice.

We shall see what happens in the coming days. On the immediate horizon is a Corps level command post exercise where they will test the communications and battlefield infrastructures and how they will work when the real thing kicks off.

Fred just came back from using the phone he said his mom heard that a Blackhawk crashed at Ft Drum and killed 15 people. Man, this is a bad year for Army Aviation.


Wednesday, March 12th
Today started off as a beautiful day. I woke up a little later than I expected to-9:28am. Most people were already at the flight line already working on the aircraft. I got dressed and walked to the aircraft with Fred and CPT Cushwa. We started working on installing the aircraft armor systems. We spent all day at the flight line and ate lunch in the aircraft. We did the manual labor of putting the armored blankets in the cabin/crew area of the helicopter then helped with other miscellaneous tasks like helping hang the fuel pods on the aircraft and moving extra parts around the flight line. By 5pm we were almost complete with all of our tasks and cleaning up. I got everyone together for a picture with the sun setting in the background.

At 5:25pm we were told that we had to take the armor (just parts of it) out of two aircraft so they could fly tonight. We were pretty pissed especially after working all day to get the stuff put in. Typical crap we go through here.

We came back to the tent to eat dinner around 6pm but found out the dinner was chili over rice and cauliflower. Yuk. It didn’t sound all that good. Fred pulled out two meals: lasagna and beef ravioli. We heated them up with MRE heaters and sat down with a movie while we ate. We watched, “Training Day” while we ate. We heard that the winds were supposed to pick up in the evening and by the end of the movie, the tent was shaking and had filled with dust. I went outside to the bathroom and by the time I came back in I was totally covered with sand. It stuck to my hair and moustache and made it all look grey. I took a few pictures of it then sat down for another movie, “Platoon.” A few minutes after starting the movie, some of the flight crews began to slowly trickle in from the flight line. They were totally covered in sand and we took pictures of them too.

Watched about half of, “Platoon” before going to bed.

Tomorrow we are supposed to have an exercise and will launch 5 aircraft in support of training missions. Supposed to start our duty day at 3pm.