Posted on 05/29/2004 7:30:23 AM PDT by Cannoneer No. 4
CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq — When Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Summers arrived last fall, the Army knew he’d be able save lives.
The 7th Transportation Battalion asked the ship hull technician to attach makeshift steel plates to trucks and Humvees. Poorly protected vehicles had been coming under fire every time they left this central logisitics hub for points all over Iraq.
Many of the vehicles did not have the extra protection of “armor-up” kits. And the Army didn’t have enough to go around. “I’m a welder by trade,” said Summers, a 33-year-old Naval reservist from Frisco, Calif. “When I got here, my chief said, 'Boy, we have got a job for you.’”
The need is still acute.
Almost every military convoy going “outside the wire” encounters bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 bullets. Among the 1,700 here with the 7th Transportation Battalion, four soldiers have been killed , more than 60 have been wounded and one remains a prisoner of war.
Despite the risks, coalition forces rely on convoys going to and from Camp Anaconda.
The operations on this former Iraqi air base in Balad are officially overseen by 13th Core [Corps] Support Command forward deployed from Fort Hood, Texas. The camp’s location about 65 miles north of Baghdad connects more remote forward-operating bases in almost every direction, from Fallujah to Najaf.
After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the Iraqi military abandoned the base at Balad, which was heavily bombed. The squatters who took over stripped 144 buildings of all valuable goods, down to the metal lining the window frames.
So coalition forces now live out of tents, trailers and some renovated buildings. They use portable commodes and trailers filled with showers and toilets. Thousands of generators provide the camp’s power.
More people are coming. The Army now plans to sharply reduce operations at the Baghdad airport and move people to Anaconda. Dozens of construction workers are pouring cement, painting walls and installing trailers. Vying for space with convoy traffic on the base’s limited road system, these crews are creating a new septic system, restoring indoor plumbing and updating the power grid.
Convoy security remains one of the most critical problems. To reinforce operations out of Balad, an Army Stryker Brigade in Mosul reassigned 700 of its soldiers into Task Force Arrow and dispatched it south to Balad.
These forces, known to some Iraqis as ghost soldiers, travel in high-speed tank-like vehicles. They not only escort convoys of dozens of fuel tankers and supply trucks but also often hunt down the insurgents who attack them.
“I think the Iraqis are kind of scared of us,” said Army Capt. Hank Barnes, logistics officer for the task force.
The squat vehicles have almost no windows. Roadside bombs rarely slow it down. And “slat armor” has been wrapped around its skin, forming a fence-like barrier that makes incoming rocket-propelled grenades bounce away.
“They’re always improvising, so we change our tactics – the routes, the times,” said Capt. Stephen Machuga, the task force’s intelligence officer.
Summers has “armored-up” more than 40 Humvee military jeeps, 25 5-ton trucks and seven light, medium tactical vehicles that resemble semi-tractor trailers.
A crew of Iraqi workers help with the custom jobs that can take three days to build an 8-foot-by-7-foot gun box, according to Capt. Michael DeLaughter, the 7th Transportation’s maintenance officer.
The extra steels adds about 700 pounds to a Humvee and 3,000 pounds to a 5-ton truck, requiring some minor adjustments for balance when driving.
But the safety results can be dramatic. The 7th Transportation Battalion keeps a picture of a badly damaged truck parked far away from a soldier receiving medical attention. The soldier had been riding in the gun box, a steel reinforced container mounted on top of the truck, when a bomb hit.
The box built by Summers tumbled in the air. But the solider suffered only a broken ankle.
“He came by just to say thanks,” Summers said.
Reach Matthew Dolan at matthew. dolan@pilotonline.com.
Once again another fine example of the Navy having to bail everyones butt out of trouble again.... :)
Just kidding.... Thumbs up to this sailor for the job he is doing, and boy does that every bring back the memories of the combined forces exercised we use to do...
ping
When that pipsqueak Sadr threw in the towel this week the LA Slimes headline made it sound as if he had brokered some kind of peace deal when in fact we have been killing his little army for a couple of months, perhaps he blinked eh?
Just goes to show:
With a sledge hammer, a rosebud and a pocket full of 7018 you can accomplish anything.
Hats off to the rod burner.
Welders do it with hot rods.........
I guess "gun box" is the *technical term* for that addition to the Humvee in that pic I posted in the thread a couple of days ago. ;-)
Yeah if I was looking down the barrel of that piece of freedom and saw one of our boys at that turret and was a terrorist. I would not only blink, but soil my shorts, run, play catch with my rpg that just bounce off the armor, etc...
What a frigg'n mess.
war is a dirty game, played with nasty equipment.
Amen to that. Maybe Allah is running short of virgins and asked Sadr to cool it for a while, LOL!
I'm pretty sure someone already declared victory and that the war was over...
I see them ready to roll every a.m. on the way to DFAC for chow. They even look tough. The det screens really do work wonders.
Peace - to a point.
LFOD
LSA Anaconda
Balad, Iraq
But we need more contractors on the battlefield. Maybe we can use the reclassed Ordnance soldiers to provide force protection for the maintenance contractors.
Thanks.
Who are you with, if you don't mind me asking?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.