The FReeper Foxhole Profiles The 440th Troop Carrier Group - Feb. 27th, 2004

http://440thtroopcarriergroup.org ^

[Professional Engineer]

Glad you enjoyed it, and could ID the Plow.

[SAMWolf]

I know the feeling. Armor does that to me.

[SAMWolf]

I saw enough of those plows to recognize them anywhere.

Good pics of Fort Hood. Looks like they have a pretty good armor collection.

[Professional Engineer]

Heh heh heh.

[Darksheare]

D 101 Cav had a platoon stuck in teh same armory as my old unit, and they had two M1A1's in the building.
Well, one day I hear the thing start up, and the rollplate 'garage door' open up.
So I go wandering over to see what's going on since NONE of the D 101 guys are there.
What do I see?
2 of the "Criminals" starting up the Abrams and driving around the sidelot in circles with it.
Surprised me, I didn't know they could figure out how to start the darn thing.

[Professional Engineer]

There was a lot more, but I was taking pics from a moving car. I got a number of them like this:

It would have been fun to get up close and personal with the equipment. ;-(

[Professional Engineer]

Oh man, that would've been fun! I got half an M1, see above.

[snippy_about_it]

The picture is from the 96th squadron of the 440th. Go to the link at the opening of the thread and then on the left hand column select 96th.

The only caption is just a note that the pic is "Courtesy of John Agnew"

On this same page if you look to the right hand column toward the bottom there is a contact for the history of the 96th.

[Darksheare]

They got their ears chewed off for it, but it was funny to see the grins all around during the chewing out session.
The armored plow, got to see one of those BREAK at Fort Drum.
Our Captain at the time didn't believe me that there was solid rock not two feet down.
So he tells the engineers to dig a firebase position.
Two foot down, they hit solid rock and broke the plow and two of the small bucketloader/backhoe/dumptruck converti-trucks whose designation and nomenclature I no longer remember.
The Cap turns around and screams at Advance Party that we never warned him about the possibility of there being solid rock.
The Gunny and the First Sar remind the Cap that I did indeed mention there was rock under there.
DId NOT make me popular at all..

[snippy_about_it]

This article just points out once again that everyone who served, no matter what the job, is important to the overall picture.

So true. Thanks Sam.

[SAMWolf]

I hope they put it back when they were done playing.

[Professional Engineer]

Good evening, Matthew.

[SAMWolf]

Yeah it's always fun to be able to crawl around and gets some "hands on" experience

[SAMWolf]

Morning Poland and Matt.

[Darksheare]

They did, but they weren't really done playing with it.
*chuckle*
The D 101 Cav guys were pretty amused in actuality.
They kept trying to turn us to the "Darkside"...

[snippy_about_it]

Great pictures PE. I see you brought back specific photos for Sam and Darksheare. (tap, tap, tap)Where's mine? Where are the soldiers????? *grin*

Thanks for posting these, they're great.

[PsyOp]

Update Iraq:

The following is from the first letter home sent by my daughter, PFC Zynthia Sandoval, from Iraq. Zynthia is serving as a member of the 1st Cavalry Division, which recently deployed from Ft. Hood, TX.

Her unit arrived in Kuwait in mid January where it had to wait several weeks for it's equipment to arrive by ship (it should have been waiting for them, but the ship it was sent on suffered mechanical probelms along the way).

On or about the 10th of February, her unit moved out in convoy headed for Iraq. Upon arriving there she was able to call home for a few minutes to let everyone know she was alright. One of the things she told me was that her convoy had taken fire one the way, but no one was hurt and no equipment was damaged. Fire was returned profusely. She is currently stationed at a camp near the Bahgdad Int'l Airport.

08 Feb, 04

Dad,
I'm sorry that it has taken me such a long time to write. It's just that there are times we don't even have time to eat. Hopefully we will settle in soon and have a little more time [to ourselves].

We made it to Camp ******* just fine. A couple of days ago some of our teams went out to Camp ******, and one of our trucks rolled over. Most of the team made it out OK, however, one SPC, the driver, hit his head during the roll-over. He was in the hospital, but soon released.

It's bad trying to drive out here. Every convoy that's been outside the camp since we got here has been fired at. Inside the camp shots are fired in the distance all the time, and our guards have had to return fire on many occasions.

We have had several mortar attacks. Only 3 have made it inside [the camp], but no one was hurt by them. [A] soldier who was in the nearest guard tower was shot in the neck.

For the most part, things are pretty calm.

Well I hope you guys are doing well. Give Grandma a big hug and kiss for me. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine....

PFC Sandoval is an NBC specialist assigned to a Military Intelligence unit of the 1st Cav. The photo was taken the day she graduated from Basic/Chemical branch training at Ft. Leonardwood, MO.

Since the war began, lots of people have wanted to send packages to soldiers in the Gulf, but have had problems doing so because they had no specific addresses. If anyone would like to send packages / letters of appreciation to PFC Sandoval and / or her unit members, I will make that address available to anyone who contacts me through FR mail. Zynthia is receiving plenty of stuff from her family, but I'm sure she would be glad to disburse anything sent by freepers to her unit members.

Thanks,
PsyOP

[snippy_about_it]

Good afternoon Valin. It's Friday and it's half over!

[snippy_about_it]

Good afternoon Darksheare.