A gutsy G.I. rescues sitting-duck platoon

The New York Daily News ^ | 5/16/04 | Michael Daly

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Way to go, Haag! The more maggots killed, the better off the planet is!

[Stone Mountain]

The whining is uncalled for. They have 3 tons of armor they can add to their trucks which would still allow for 2 tons of cargo. That's enough 1/8" steel plating to protect them from SAF. An uparmored Humvee wouldn't have protected them from an RPG and would have been destroyed by the IEDs their truck was hit by -only with them inside of it. If they can't get steel plating they can grab any metal shipping container, cut it off at chest height or cut firing holes in it and mount it to the bed of the truck, with sandbags on the inside. Imo an armored 5-ton or HEMTT is safer than anything but a Stryker due to the height of the cargo beds above the ground. Many of the 5-tons I've seen on convoy security are armored as described above. Of course this article wouldn't have been complete (or wouldn't have been published) without the obligatory anti-military, anti-administration slant.

So you're saying that they had the option of armoring their transport vehicle, but decided not to?

[Justa]

Well, this relates to an incident on the opening day of last year's insurgency so they may have been caught unaware and not had the time to uparmor. But they should have been prepared, particularly given the area they were working in.

Imo it was a Command failure not to uparmor the vehicles troops would be riding in.

This incident was exceptional and Haag was a true hero but it need not have been that way. Even before the insurgency 5-tons on the MSRs were uparmored via the use of shipping containers, sandbags and wood. It's just nuts not to be uparmored the Sunni areas.

[timmyhaag]

Command failure or not , we rode 5 tons into combat for our fist time till our last time . Suck it up ? Whatever .

Our M-113's and M-114's that were handed to us myseriously broke and we stopped using those coffins as soon as possible.

I hate riding in anything the Army is issued . Love my boots tho .

[Justa]

Well, the M-113 series are notorious for overworked engines and drive trains. They're always broken. The commanders should have up armored the 5-tons or at least allowed the NCOs to do it. I was in the MND CS at the time (low IED threat) and the NG unit I rode with didn't wait for the Army kits to uparmor using w/ 3/16" steel. Of course that wouldn't have worked vs. RPGs but I'd guess a conex/sandbagged 5-ton would probably block the majority of the blast and shrapnel. You had to have seen them on the MSRs.

Of course the best deterrant is killing the dumbazzes when they do attack and I'd say your actions were worth a meter of metal to your platoon. Great Job!

If you're coming back I'll tell ya we hardly get rocketed anymore in Baghdad and they've got Baskin Robbins in the chowhalls now. It's been much safer since the elections and almost everything is uparmored. Morale is up too.

[BykrBayb]

You've already served your time as my body guard. Thank you. Welcome home.

[The KG9 Kid]

Criticism of it aside, the M-249 SAW is about the best thing the US Military could have added to the TOE when it's running properly.

The enemy would just get shredded into giblets at short to medium range with a SAW.

[The KG9 Kid]

Timmy, thanks for your service. Best hopes and wishes for you, your family, and friends.