Posted on 08/12/2004 5:39:26 PM PDT by Cannoneer No. 4
The other day, we went somewhere, and did something.
Once we got there, we dismounted from our vehicles, and our Sqd Ldr placed us where he wanted us to be, and then told us our sectors of fire. Me and my AG went down and set in behind this burm. Today, my AG brought a new toy with him. An expensive mini hand held digital camcorder he ordered off the Internet. He just received it the other day in the mail, and he was extremely excited to have one now. Like a kid with a new toy on Christmas he kept on playing with it, filming the sky, the dirt, his boots, his weapon, the things around us, and then with a smile he pointed the camera at me and enthusiastically said, "Say hi to the camera!" I looked at him and gave him my best expressionless face that said, "Put that toy away." He got the picture, said sorry, folded his camera up and put it back in his cargo pocket.
We sat there for awhile staring silently at Mosul, when all the sudden we heard, kinda off to the distance, to about to our 7 o'clock, two cracks of gunfire. The bullets kinda skimmed close to where all of us we're at, and hit this old ancient looking building that was about 200 meters away from us. We heard the bullets impact the building and make a ricochet noise. We both looked at each other, paused for a second to see if any more shots we're going to be fired, none did, and then I said, "Hey, was that fired at us?" Neither of us knew.
So I cautiously walked over to my Sqd Ldr and asked, "What the hell was that?" He had the radio up to his ear, and said, "Wait one, I'm finding out right now." Nobody knew. So one of us fired a warning shot in that area to see if they'd fire back. The area where the shots were fired was about 5-600 meters away, and had a bunch of tree's and shrubbery. Nobody saw a thing and no shots were fired after that. Some of us thought maybe it was sniper fire (If it was, the guy had extremely pathetic aim) and some of us just thought maybe it was just some guy who wanted to test fire his weapon. Who knows?
Time went by and we then loaded back onto our vehicles, and we drove off to a different location, dismounted, and did the same thing. Sat and waited. The sun was long gone now, and the moon was now out to take its place.
From where we were at now, we were overlooking a huge section of Mosul and you could see the lights illuminating from the houses and mosques in the city. We all sat and stared at the city for awhile. Every now and then a neighborhoods electricity would go out, and several complete city blocks would be in complete darkness for awhile, and then a couple minutes later the power would go back up, and the lights in that neighborhood would turn back on. This is very common thing here. Lights on, lights off.
Another very common thing that happens here in Mosul, that you're guaranteed to hear every night, are the sounds of gunfire and loud explosions going off somewhere in the city. When I first got to Iraq, those sounds would alarm me, and I would think to myself, "Oh shit! People are trying to kill each other," but now when I hear them, I think "Huh. I wonder what's going on there." A good example was last night, we faintly heard the sounds of a pretty good firefight way off in the distance from where we were at. Went on for a good 5+ minutes. None of us really thought much of it. It was just another thing that we're all now conditioned and accepted as being a "normal" thing to happen here in Iraq. Also, seeing green and/or red tracers fired up from the city into the night sky, is about as common as seeing a shooting star here in Mosul.
I would like to take this time now, to say a nice warm "Mar-Haba" (that's "Welcome" in Arabic) to all my new readers down at M.I. who are now reading this site and have this bookmarked on their computers. Glad to have you all aboard, and I hope you all like the site. Hopefully you'll find this site more entertaining than most of that other boring crap I'm sure you guys have to sift through all day.
posted by CBFTW at 10:06 PM
Keep up the good work.....glad to have you back!
(....opsec...)
The other day, we went somewhere, and did something
(/..opsec....)
You are a "Go" at this station! Move out.....
12:03 AM
ping
I loved his "Men In Black" entry the other day.
heh heh heh...to all my buddies at MI...lol.
I kinda like this guy.
He's been getting noticed. My guess is that if he plays his cards right, he's going to go a long way after tha Army.
We sat there for awhile staring silently at Mosul, when all the sudden we heard, kinda off to the distance, to about to our 7 o'clock, two cracks of gunfire. The bullets kinda skimmed close to where all of us we're at, and hit this old ancient looking building that was about 200 meters away from us. We heard the bullets impact the building and make a ricochet noise.
Sounds like some jihadist popped off a couple rounds from an AK or SKS. If the sounds were heard before the bullets, I think the shooter must have been closer than the 500 meters estimated by the author.
According to this site, at 35 C, sound travels at 353M/sec = 1157 ft/sec.
So, assuming an average velocity of 457 M/sec (1500ft/sec) over 500 meters, the bullet would arrive ahead of the report.
That assumption is based on an AK muzzle velocity of approx 2000ft/sec and a velocity at 500 meters of 1000fr/sec.
Where's the homepage for the speed of sound calculator? I think I might want to bookmark it. Thanks the speed of sound calculator.
Where's the homepage for the speed of sound calculator? I think I might want to bookmark it. Thanks the speed of sound calculator.
If for some reason the link doesn't work, here's the URL:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/souspe.html
The speed of sound link worked fine. What I was looking for was a general physics homepage, so I wouldn't have to crack old textbooks for formulas and conversion tables. I tried http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu , but it was useless for me, as you can see.
I found Hyperphysics URL, bookmarked it. Thanks for a new favorite.
Bu Hau [I was never any good at languages]
Another very common thing that happens here in Mosul, that you're guaranteed to hear every night, are the sounds of gunfire and loud explosions going off somewhere in the city. When I first got to Iraq, those sounds would alarm me, and I would think to myself, "Oh shit! People are trying to kill each other," but now when I hear them, I think "Huh. I wonder what's going on there."
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