Cold-War Thinking Prevented Vital Vehicle From Reaching Iraq

Wall St Journal ^ | 3-19-04 | Greg Jaffe

[archy]

How did we ever get along with unarmored gun jeeps?

We ran tanks ahead of them. Those in recon teams that used jeeps ahead of or away from main forces sometimes added light armor here or there, but their real addition was two, three, sometimes as many as five machineguns. And not one or two vehicles of a group, but every one...with a few fitted with flamethrowers, 20mm aircraft cannon, or other novelties.

[archy]

"[The] equipment...among the most vital to our success in Africa and Europe were the bulldozer, the jeep, the 2 1/2 ton truck, and the C-47 airplane. Curiously enough, none of these is designed for combat."

--Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower

Good Lord, I don't think we could continue the war without the jeep. It does everything. It goes everywhere. It's as faithful as a dog, strong as a mule, and as agile as a goat. It constantly carries twice what it was designed for, and keeps on going. It doesn't even ride so badly after you get used to it.

- U.S. WWII War Correspondent Ernie Pyle, killed in his jeep by a Jap machinegunner on Okinawa.

[Steel Wolf]

This article is right on about the field expedient armor jobs. There are so many different funky armor jobs running around here it looks like we're a bunch of rejects from a Mad Max movie.

(On a side note, we're thinking of wrapping some old shopping carts around the outside of our humvees and calling them Strykers.)

Since we don't have to do long slow patrols, our security is speed. Rather than strap on a bunch of unwieldy scrap metal that won't stop jack anyway, we're stripped down and sprinting from point A to point B. Our defense consists of kevlar blankets, sandbags, and size 12s boots stomping on the pedal. These guys are lousy shots, even at stationary targets, and they are also pretty bad at timing their IEDs. So far, so good for us, I guess.

Many guys don't have the luxury of driving like bats out of hell everywher they go, and they're scavenging anything that might at least slow down 7.62 and IED shrapnel. I don't know how effective the home made jobs are, but I wouldn't trust anything besides a real up armor kit. I sure wouldn't want to do a slow patrol through some of these neighborhoods in anything less.

If I get a chance later, I'll get some pictures of our rides to post. That's all for now.

[archy]

It was.

If run over, soviet land mines killed or maimed everybody inside of a 113.

If they were inside. If you rode outside on top, you were okay if it was anything less than a 500-pound aircraft bomb rigged for command detonation that went of under the vehicle, unless it rolled over on top of you.

And that was what most everyone did.

[archy]

(On a side note, we're thinking of wrapping some old shopping carts around the outside of our humvees and calling them Strykers.)

Just don't call them Stynkers. That'll cost you an Article 15 at Knox.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Thanks. I do appreciate your in-put.

Next questions: There are alternatives to the M1114, what keeps us from acquiring and using them? Seems like people are fixated on the M1114.

What use are we making of Saddam's wheeled armored vehicles?

Be careful out there.

[Dark Wing]

ping

[Cannoneer No. 4]

A Stryker vehicle rolls through the streets of Mosul on patrol after members of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT), B Co. 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, checked on an Iraqi police station that has been attacked twice.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

MOWAG Eagle IV

[Cannoneer No. 4]

I like the twin 60 mount. Do they have twin mounts for M240's and SAW's? I never see pics of any.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Scarab

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Scarab

[Cannoneer No. 4]

[archy]

I like the twin 60 mount. Do they have twin mounts for M240's and SAW's? I never see pics of any.

The problem is that there aren't yet right-side feed mechanisms [top covers] for the M240G and M249 SAW. The M60 was adaptable to such twin-gun configurations based on the work that had been done for use as the M60D helicopter armament applications, though I don't know if any actually fed from the right side or not. But the M73/M219 7.62 coax machineguns used in our tanks could, though they were no more reliable feeding from the right side than from the left.

[archy]

I like the twin 60 mount.

So did the Air Force base security teams using the XM706E2 Cadillac Gage V-100 that had a pair of M60s mounted. There were also turret versions with twin Browning .30 or 7.62mm MGs.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Buddy of mine used to have an MP platoon running V100's and gun jeeps on convoy escort through the Mang Yang Pass.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

[MediaMole]

The other thing they could do is pull some of the old 2-1/2 and 5-ton trucks, the old ones with manual transmissions, and turn them into gun-trucks.

It's already being done... 2003 gun truck

[Cannoneer No. 4]

That's the Alabama Slammer. Did they ever finish her and run the roads with her? I'd like to hear that story.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT