SCOUTS OUT!
Posted on 07/16/2004 7:33:47 AM PDT by Cannoneer No. 4
Standing on a high bridge over a railroad track northwest of Baghdad at dusk, cavalry scout Capt. Will Hickok VI scans the horizon, looking for insurgents planting bombs or preparing mortar and rocket attacks.
"This is what I like, just scouting," said Hickok, of Dillsburg, Pa. "Sitting out here, spying, watching out, it's relaxing ... it's almost like cowboys and Indians."
A distant descendant of Wild Bill Hickok, the 33-year-old Army officer commands an elite unit that also traces its ancestors to the 19th century, using traditions of speed and stealth to seek out the enemy and ambush them.
Instead of horses, the soldiers of D Troop, 9th Cavalry Regiment use armored Humvees to speed through a rural area northwest of Baghdad, home to thousands of farmers, most of whom follow a conservative form of Islam.
Insurgents frequently launch rockets and mortars at a nearby U.S. military base from the open fields and the residents are openly hostile to U.S. troops, who consider it "one of the dark places," Hickok said.
At least twice a day, six Humvees covered with camouflage netting roll out of the base's front gate to begin the hunt. The platoon splits into two groups and either prowl the dusty roads or find places to hide and look out over the fields.
Next to the heavy machine guns mounted on the Humvees roof is a large box with a strange, cantaloupe-sized lens in the corner that allows the gunner to spot a person with a weapon more than four miles away or use a laser beam to calculate the exact location of a target 18.5 miles away.
Sgt. William Jones of Birmingham, Ala. said at first he didn't like the LRAS-III because it got in the way when he fired his .50 caliber machine gun. Now, when he uses it tell the difference between a man planting a bomb and children playing several miles away on a moonless night, he says: "I love it."
In combat, the scouts' job is to drive far ahead of the Army's tanks and armored vehicles to make sure the path is clear and find enemy units preparing ambushes. In Iraq, the scouts do the ambushing.
On many nights, the scouts take with them infantry sniper teams. Cutting across fields, driving through palm groves and circling irrigation canals, the scouts drop off the sniper team in a designated area.
On a recent night, the snipers were dropped off near a cache of mortar rounds to ambush any insurgents who might try to use them. On other nights they watch farmhouses and mosques where the soldiers suspect the insurgents meet.
When the sniper team is on the ground, the scouts watch over them from a distance to make sure they are safe.
When a mortar or rocket is launched, the scouts move quickly to set up roadblocks to catch the guerrilla fighters trying to escape. They have one of the highest success rates among 1st Cavalry Division units around Baghdad in counter-insurgency operations.
"One you've got your mission, there ain't nobody else," Williams said, describing his favorite thing about being a scout. "You've got more freedom."
But that solitude comes with risk. Hickok and Jones have been hit by four roadside bombs since March with numerous other near-misses.
"I never said I ain't scared," Jones said with a laugh after sounding macho. "I'm scared every time I roll out the gate."
Jones spent last summer in Baghdad with the 1st Armored Division and has scouted in Kosovo, Bosnia and Macedonia during his 10 years in the U.S. Army.
Hickok, who was an enlisted tank crewman during the Gulf War in 1991, said he enjoys working the rural areas outside Baghdad as a cavalry scout commander.
"We can be proud that we're out here doing our job," Hickok said. "In our case, it's getting out into the bad places ... we can have a little swagger in our step."
Ping!!
SCOUTS OUT!
ping
... except it's "Cowboys and muslims."
If the latest information about suitcase nukes (or whatever) turns out to be true, and we suffer some stupid muslim death tricks (euphomistically called "terrorist attacks) here in USA (like 9/11), it will most likely be time to start playing "cowboys and muslims" here at home.
Correct me if I'm wrong; if someone is out to kill us, as islam teaches ALL it's followers they must do to all non-islamics, aren't we allowed to protect ourselves? Doesn't this sometimes take the form of preemption?
Not a pretty picture or welcomed concept, but please give me a realistic alternative!
Stay armed, and never trust a liberal or a (non-Turkish) muslim - they are both terrorists, differing only in weaponry and technique!
DARKHORSE 6's great-great-grandfather.
:0)!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks!
ping!
I keep forgetting that from the 1820's-1840's this area was the frontier.
Rock On, Buffalo Soldiers!
I've already trusted Muslims. They are well represented in the medical profession around here. A competent Muslim surgeon leaves as small a scar as a competent Christian surgeon, and they some how resist the urge to slit the throats of their infidel patients.
Nice line about resisting urges, BTW! - LOL
My fear is that whatever measures are taken, it must involve eradication, much like wiping out smallpox. If a group is out to kill you, what are your alternatives?
Let's say there is a number of said group which is NOT trying to kill you; how do you tell the difference? How do you differentiate between the ones who follow their religion and are out to kill you, and those who claim islam but aren't serious about it (the assumption being that there MIGHT BE some islamics who are NOT out to kill you)?
I don't have an answer and, therefore, am reluctantly standing by to take the position of "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out."
NOT a comfortable postion for me, but one of which I am certainly capable if it increases any chance of protecting my family......
Thanks for the post and ping list. I am printing the article and thread for my father-in-law to read. He is the oldest living commander of 2nd Bn, (now Squadron) 14th Cav. He will be 90 in three months, old soldiers just hang in there. I got him a ride in a Stryker a year ago and he got to see a demonstration of LRAS. He spotted a doe grazing about 400 yards away in the early morning mist of Ft Knox when she was totally invisible with the naked eye. He said he felt like he had been asleep for about 100 years.
When did he command 2/14 ACR? The Grenze was a serious place. The Border Legion does not get the credit they deserve for holding the front line of World War III.
SP4 Cavannah near "halfway house", Philippathal 1959
2nd Battalion / 14th ACR Headquarters at Daley Barracks. 1955
1-5 June 2005. The reunion will center on Fulda, with separate squadron events taking place in Bad Hersfeld, and Bad Kissingen. This reunion is open to all past and present Troopers who served with the 11th Armored Cavalry and 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment
Thanks for the reunion heads up, but if I won MegaMillions I wouldn't spend a Euro on our good German "friends".
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