Looks like a gun box to me.
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.
By Sen. Edward Kennedy / Guest Columnist
Saturday, May 29, 2004
On this stressful Memorial Day, we honor all those in our armed forces who fought for our country to keep it free and defend the ideals that make America strong. These brave men and women are the best of America and they have the well-deserved gratitude of our nation, regardless of our political persuasion.
The nation could pay no finer tribute to the courageous Americans who have lost their lives in past wars than to take immediate steps to reduce the burden on our troops of the current war in Iraq.
Our failure to plan adequately for winning the peace has placed a heavy strain on our military and on their families here at home in Massachusetts and across the country, waiting and praying for their return.
As of May 26, 2004, 798 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, 24 of them from Massachusetts. Another 4,682 have been wounded.
The war is costing us $4.7 billion every month. More than a quarter of our forces in Iraq and nearly half of our forces in Kuwait are reservists. As of the end of April, 16 of our 33 active duty combat brigades were serving in Iraq. Serious problems of stress are temporarily being masked, because the Army is currently operating under a stop-loss order that prevents troops from leaving active duty for 90 days after returning from Iraq, and reservists are being barred from leaving the military.
As far back as last January, one general stated, "I have been in the Army 39 years, and I've never seen the Army as stretched in that 39 years as I have today."
The sad reality is that the administration has been unprepared since Day One for the level of violence and disruption that our troops face in Iraq. The insurgents are increasing the size of their bombs and future attacks, while we still struggle to protect our troops. The administration, another general states, is not getting the needed protection to our troops in the field fast enough.
For months, our forces were sent out on patrol Iraq in canvas humvees because the Army did not have the armor-plated version. Soldiers went into battle without the body armor they needed. In some cases, those shortfalls continue to this day. I hope I never hear a report again that family members on the home front are so alarmed by the shortage of needed equipment that they are desperately buying body armor in local stores to mail to their loved ones in Iraq.
These are the cold hard facts. They cannot be glossed over. They speak to the urgent need to involve the international community in Iraq in an effective way.
Our prayer on this Memorial Day is that help will be on the way as soon as possible, and that one day soon, Iraq will be at peace, and that no more of our sons and daughters and loved ones will have to give "the last full measure of devotion."
With all the drownings from vehicles falling into the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, you would think he would be pressuring the Army to provide each soldier with a personal flotation vest.
Try jarob.walsh@us.army.mil
Looks like a gun box to me.
Our guys are amazing! God bless them! Thanks for the ping and an up article on our troops!
You will like this thread
He's going to spend the rest of his life telling war stories nobody will believe, about his time as a Navy hull tech serving with the Army in Iraq.
Great book tip, thanks!
*PING!*
This is a great interservice story!
Thanks for the ping!
"What a frigg'n mess" - by lewislynn
Yep. That's my opinion of a frigg'n mess and if George Bush was Democrat you phony nitwit apologists would be screaming bloody murder...
See my tag line once again...it applies to you too.
Hi! BIAP (West Baghdad) here.
The FReeper force over here is growing.
Somebody in Houston must not like me or I'd be there by now.
There is a new Freeper over at Finance you could go square away if you were so inclined.
It's a freekin war man !
What war has gone as good as this one ?
None - 500 KIA is nothing for a 15 month war taking over a country. Any KIA's suck but look at the big picture.
You're being suckered by the left wing press and your comments prove this !
Agreed! Thanks for the link....we designated that thread as a Prayer Warrior Field Trip! Aint our sailors grand???
Hey there! I was on R&R. I got to go to the real world for a couple of weeks and now I'm back in Bizarro-World.
Houston is waaaay behind on calling people. I have a friend who was requisitioned in late Feb. / early March and she just got called last week. Hang in there!
I'm going to scope out these folks on those links...heh, heh..
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