Camp Udari, Kuwait

In the Fall of 2003, orders were going out that our company 1174th Transportation and other companies within Camp Cedar II were being relieved by civilian truck drivers from KBR. However, all the companies were required to go through the marksmanship training offered by retired special forces soldiers and we found the training to be very different than what we were used to at a weapon's range.

We spent the first half of the day learning close quarters marksmanship. Previous training involved shooting from a foxhole with targets ranging from 50 to 300 meters. However, our enemies have learned that they can not go toe to toe with American firepower and have evolved their tactics to be close to American forces and negate the use of artillery and air power. The training consisted of shooting at targets within 20 meters, learning to stand, move and shoot on the move. The stance used is similar to a martial arts stance with neither foot ahead of the other. Elbows are in, holding the weapon in closer to the body instead of out. The idea is to be a smaller target to the enemy and if taking an incoming round, the round will hit the frontal body armor and should not be a fatal wound. There is not firing from the hip, the weapon is raised, releasing the safety for aimed and controlled fire. The fire is controlled pairs, also known as double-tap. The training was interesting and an incident where the training was useful will be discussed later in this blog.

The next training was shooting from a truck. Our job in Iraq was to haul fuel from one location to another. However, prior to deployment, we didn't train for engaging an enemy from a moving vehicle. The second half of the first day of training, we simulated being in a convoy and were shooting from a stationary truck. The driver cradled his M-16 and due to Laws of War could only fire in the semi-auto function. Fire was not aimed, fire from the driver's position was for suppression. The passenger could fire from the 3-round burst mode and if using a M-249, the weapon would be used in full-auto mode. Gun truck crew received training to use the M-2 heavy machine gun. The role of a gun truck to go after and engage the enemy with heavy fire, while the freight trucks pass through.

The following day, we actually went on a road march and put the new training into practice shooting pop targets from a moving vehicle. It was interesting to see the .50 caliber machine guns tear up the targets. Training was intense and real, on one occasion I did hear the 'zing' from a passing friendly round.

A few weeks after the training, our unit began redeployment back to the United States and pulled back to Kuwait. Bear in mind, in 2003 the Iraq War was different that what it became. IED's were not as common, insurgents mainly used small arms, RPG's and mortars to attack our convoys.

A couple of months returning home from the war, I would use the tactics learned at Camp Udari. 11:30 pm on a Sunday night, my wife said that someone was in our drive way. Living in a rural area, I figured that they were using the drive way to turn around. I watched the car came up the drive way and shutting off the headlights. We immediately called 911 and I grabbed a semi-automatic rifle and went outside to greet my uninvited guests. I have the opinion that a visitor coming by my house that late at night is someone in trouble, or someone looking for trouble. I stood in the combat stance with the rifle in a ready position, never aiming the weapon; the people in the car must have seen me and decided it would be best to leave. We gave a description of the car and would hear the police looking for the car on the scanner.

Fallen from the Sky

Having missed the Walls of Jericho adventure, I debated what I wanted to do today. Not much I could do around the yard, the goat seems to be taking care of the overgrowth in my yard, I wanted to cache somewhere.

I attended the RVG Birthday event completing a couple of micros on the way. While there, I spoke to RVG member who reminded me about Fallen from the Sky and he said it was a neat location. Since I didn't bring anything for the dirty Santa game, I went out to grab a couple of caches on the way home. I selected Fallen from the Sky as the first. I was not disappointed in the cache and really liked the memorial placed in honor of the deceased B-29 crewmen who perished when the plane crashed near the memorial's location.

Abandon Hope

I have been browsing the discussion on the GOWT forums of the Abandon Hope group cache run, but only just reading. Dalls called me up and asked if I wanted to attend and thought more seriously about it. I saw some advantages. One being it's a 5/5 cache and this opportunity will not present itself very often. Second, being about 10 or so miles, it would be a prelude to test my equipment, conditioning and my knee for the Walls of Jericho cache run that I hope to be apart of this month. I met with with Dalls at the JEA customer service center on Vann Drive, parked my truck there and he left his JEA hat on my dash. We dashed onto the starting point, a Lowes Home Improvement Store and met up with the rest of the crew, endoriders, tinksdad01, Mindless Focus, itcomagic and Hoot Owl. After gathering out gear and group photo; we headed off. We covered just over 9 miles of total hiking, I did reset my GPS as we were headed to the posted coordinates. I had a memorable time and feel like I could write more, but that could give away the number of stages and hide techniques. This was an adventure that I won't forget and the conversations that took place on the trail.

As for the prelude to Walls of Jericho, I found my knee did not give me any pain, taking Motrin (Ranger Candy) prior and during prevented any knee pain. However, Abandon Hope was on soft terrain, Walls of Jericho will be rocky and far more elevation changes. This week I have also begun taking Glucosamine and that should help my knee. I took along 76 oz. of water and had about 16 oz. left at the end of the hike. Temps did reach into the 70's. If temps reach into the 70's at Walls of Jericho, I might be in trouble, maybe I should take water purification tablets with me so I can re-fill on the trail?

This was the only smiley for me on this cache run but that was OK with me. After the hike, Dalls drove on back to Jackson, stopping at Backyard Burger for a pit stop along the way.