Free Republic

Readers, let’s take a moment to salute a true workhorse. In the world of war machines, the expensive and high-tech items get all the attention and budget—drones, anti-ship ballistic missiles, cyber warfare, and the like. But, on the battlefields of the twenty-first century, a humble and under-rated weapon has quietly showed up these expensive attention-hogs: the pickup truck. Today, primarily irregular, infantry-centric forces fight almost every conflict in the world. Pickup trucks are their mainstays. In Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Mexico, Syria, Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic, irregulars reach the battlefield more often than not in the cabs...

August 4, 2003: August 2, 2003: At least two battalions in the 4th Infantry Division have modified their equipment to help them adjust to urban warfare by mounting .50 caliber M2 heavy machine guns on the back of their Humvees. These vehicles are now nicknamed "Gun-Vees" and resemble the "technicals" used by Somali fighters first encountered by Americans in Mogadishu ten years ago. These up gunned vehicles are especially useful in battling the Islamic fighters in alleys and other tight urban spaces, where tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles cannot maneuver. The modified vehicle also provide an element of surprise, being...

Refugees hurry out of Basra. Many of the citizens fleeing the city were attacked by Iraqi mortars as they made their escape. THE crowd was halfway across the concrete and steel bridge when the mortar rounds started falling on the Basra side. Men, women and children screamed as they ran to escape Iraqi machine-gun fire. A thousand people, maybe more, ran for their lives. A young woman fell, hit by shrapnel as a pick-up truck broke cover and charged forward, the machine-gun mounted on its roof spewing bullets at the crowd. On the British side, a tank lurched forward,...

<p>EAST BANK OF THE EUPHRATES RIVER, Iraq (March 26, 2003) — A 3rd Infantry Division tank company team fought and destroyed an Iraqi Republican Guard force at point-blank range Tuesday night about 80 miles southwest of Baghdad. The firefight came near the end of a running, 30-hour series of shootouts that the Pentagon is describing as the largest battle of the war. Pentagon officials have put the number of Iraqi troops killed by the 3rd Infantry as anywhere from 150 to 650. No Americans were reported killed, although two Abrams tanks and a Bradley fighting vehicle were destroyed by enemy fire. The American soldiers accomplished this even in the midst of a swirling, blinding sandstorm that grounded its scout and attack helicopters.</p>