Pair of Stryker vehicles come under fire in Iraq

The News Tribune - Tacoma, WA ^ | January 31st, 2004 | MICHAEL GILBERT

[archy]

This photo is UK army in WWII ?

Yes. From around the period of the British Eighth Army's defeat of the German forces under General Erwin Rommel at el-Alamein, probably mid or late 1942.

[serurier]

Thank you very much .

[R. Scott]

Crew members had headaches after the blast, but drove the vehicle out of danger, said 1st Sgt. Mike Hurtado of the company.

I never had a headache from a near miss – but my hearing always went south for several hours.

A resident of the neighborhood told soldiers where they might find the insurgents who shot at them, battalion officials said.

Making progress.

[mark502inf]

Haven't sen anything about Strykers engaging targets with .50 cal or 40mm fire, either.

That's a real good point--has anybody read or heard anything about a Stryker using the remote weapon station to engage the enemy in Iraq? With what result?

[TomasUSMC]

Look, please, give me a break. If I am an Islamic Terrorist. I dig two holes and put 4 122 mm's in each one. I remote control them and wait for you guys to drive up in any dang thing you want. Put as much armor stick on, bolt on, tie on as you want. I will still blow you sky high and you will die.

And if by some incredible amount of luck, you find me, I'll make sure some of my guys are watching me with with video. Then I raise a big white rag, (we Islamic terrorist have lots of white rags always handy). You guys then will put me in a nice prison and make sure I have nice food and a bed AND first aid if I need it. - And if you guys lose your temper and hit me or kill me, well my guys with the video will make sure you guys get court marshaled.
This is the way it is now and Terrorist are not deterred at all.
Now, on the other hand. After I blow you up, you cordon off a 500 meter radius, then with load speakers in your best heavily English accented arabic, tell all 6000 residents they have 1 hour to relocate to a holding area( or whatever), then you turn everything within 500 meters of the ambush, into an artillery and bombing range for a few days for your troops to zero their weapons. Then after a few days you make those 6000 people move back into their newly derenovated neighborhood. AND you do this again and again.

And when It comes out on the internet and Aljazeera, you KEEEP DOIN IT, so that the whole world can plainly tell that you don't give a AllahDAMN!

Then..... the next time I go to start digging my holes-

EVEN before I take that shovel and point to the ground... the entire stinking neighborhood will have heard about what happened to Salim's hood, and Said's hood and Jamil's hood-

and they are going to jump on my islamic terrorist butt, pass a fatwah on me so I can't hook up with that Islamic heavenly booty, and then tear me into molecular size tidbits that not even the Mars rover will be able to find.

[VOA]

Occasionally encountering a German or Italian armoured car or light tank at intersecting
route roadblocks, American bazookas were one answer, but the .50 Brownings were said
to be quite capable as well, and more certain at night-though the mad Irishman with
the flamethrower must have gotten their attention.

We supply the Jeeps, our cousins have all the fun!
I wonder how these guys ever readjusted to civilian driving after the war.

[archy]

and they are going to jump on my islamic terrorist butt, pass a fatwah on me so I can't hook up with that Islamic heavenly booty, and then tear me into molecular size tidbits that not even the Mars rover will be able to find.

You're welcome to come soldier with me anytime. You get it.

[archy]

We supply the Jeeps, our cousins have all the fun!

I wonder how these guys ever readjusted to civilian driving after the war.

At least one became a wheelman for a bank robbery gang, using the Tommygun he'd been issued while with PPA during the war. But quite a few were inclined toward a something other than mundane or boring style of life before the war, and once freed from military discipline, set sail on their own courses where their own winds took them, some charted before, some not.

Perhaps the most historically significant of the PPA non-duty milestones was their visit to Venice's Plaza de San Marco, where wheeled vehicles aside from the occasional vendor's cart or workman's wheelbarrow had been off-limits for some 2500 years. But PPA had their MGs mounted and noone was about to argue with them, and in 4-wheel drive and low gear, they climbed the marble steps like it was one of the Sicilian mountain paths to which they were more accustomed, and made a point of circling the place seven times. So far as I know, their effort hasn't been repeated since. But they did a number of things that can only be described as *unique*.

Piazza San Marco, Venezia, 1944.
Fred Yeoman, Paddy McAllister and "J.C" Simpson of "B" Patrol, PPA.

[gatorbait]

It seems to me that Stryker fills the niche of a ground cavalry vehicle , in the tradition of the M8 among others. Looks like thus far, it is doing the job,which is a relief.

Oh, for those who have some interest in such things, Allegedly, soon(like mid summer) there is supposed to be a 1/35th scale model of the Stryker .Don't know yet who will kit it, just heard we'll see one.

[Recon by Fire]

Yep, according to the marines they shoot like goat herders.

[Darksheare]

*groan*

Admittedly, some have gotten better at firing their weapons since then.
They probably got spooked and fired waay too soon before.
Now they're getting somewhat cocky and trying some really stupid stuff, like the quad hydra rocket tubes mounted on helmets...
Granted, it might work, but your 'gunner' loses his head in the process sometimes -maybe even his face.
Hopefully the goaty boys are as terrible with that improvised stuff as they were with the RPGs before.
My fingers are crossed that they toast their faces with rocket exhaust a few times, that will make ID'ing teh bad guys somewhat easier -head to teh local hospitals and look for a guy with charred marshmallow looking cheeks.