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I had a mental block, refusing to think of a "mortar" as a direct line of sight weapon....

A good friend of mine was fortunate enough to be engaged by ~150 Taliban/foreigners while in possession of a 60mm mortar and his USAF TACP was on the horn to the [way we control air assets]. European F-16s weren't sure about a border issue, but some A-10s came along and it became a race between my buddy and his commo man on the 60, and the A-10s, to see who could get the biggest score.

They wound up dividing it up, and the jets handled what was over the hill, and he got everybody on the front slope. Took a bit of nerve because that included two emplaced DSHKs he was dueling with.

Mortars are one reason that a lot of people's neo-Civil-War imaginations about taking on combat soldiers with a hunting rifle are off the mark. Counting its MGs and mortars, an infantry unit is extremely hazardous to everything within almost a half mile of its front. Throw in artillery and air, and you really don't want them to see you or guess where you are.... the poor Taliban who learned this lesson usually learned it immediately prior to their demise, and so were not able to report back to their HQ.

You could say we got well inside their feedback loop.

Needless to say, I quite envied my friend the fun (even if his team's awards never did get approved). Where I was, they were falling all over themselves to get on our good side, so I wound up drinking tea with a lot of folks who need hangin'. We got tons and tons of weapons (and a number of other interesting catches) but they generally surrendered after face-saving token resistance, or none at all. So maybe they were getting some of the word.

Ah well, sometimes duty comes before pleasure.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F