Now, we disrupted their class with an artillery attack that resulted in 30 of the enemy being killed on that occasion. But it's another example of what the enemy was using this area for.

I laughed out loud at this.

Yes, I'm evil.

I can imagine...

"Boy are we going to show those infidel crusaders with our cleverly buried IED. Say, Achmed, what's that whistling sound?"

Headline: "Marauding American Forces Mass Murder of Civilian Gardening Class."

HE or WP?

Here's more on McMasters. Hundreds of bad guys killed or captured for next to no Allied casualties. That's fuckin awesome.
I wish someone would start prosecuting the press for providing aid and comfort to the enemy

Oh, BF, it was probably air burst with submunitions.

You're right Iblis. I like the thought of them getting their own personal little bomblet. BTW, I'm a proud graduate of FDC school, Ft. Sill, OK (circa 1977) Anybody want to know how far a 8" self-propelled howitzer can shoot a tactical nuclear shell? This was critical information if you were the one pulling the lanyard! :) (not really, you could 'set it and forget it')

As Pvt. Webster said in "Band of Brothers:"

Artillery ... just takes the joy out of life.

Due to the unaticipated artillery attack, today's recess has been canceled.

Flechettes!!

Please tell me it was flechettes!

Col McMaster is famous from the first Gulf War for the Battle of 73 Easting, where his ACR troop drove into an Iraqi armored ambush, and absolutely destroyed the "superior" Iraqi force. He came to give a talk to my tank battalion when I was in the Marines. Awesome soldier.

McMaster is the shit. First 73 Easting, then a great book, and now this.

He ain't stopping at Colonel if there's justice.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Dammit, how come everyone's typing faster than me today?!?

Thanks John.

Nice catch Tanker, enjoyed reading it. Thanks.

Check this out too:

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2005/tr20050914-3903.html

Briefing yesterday by Colonel Robert Brown, CO 1st Brigade 25th Infantry. I caught it on C-SPAN2; don't know if it'll be replayed. But there was lots of great stuff on Stryker durability, Al Qaeda's situation (Col Brown calls it "desperate") and the way the Iraqi people are coming 'round to our side.

"The leadership is severely disrupted. We captured Abu Talha, the number-two al Qaeda leader in the north of Iraq. And right after that we got Abu Bara, Madhi Musa, Abu Zab, the next six leaders that would step up and take over. Nobody's taken over now. It's not a very popular position because if they step up, they get captured or killed."

I really liked the Colonel. Blunt, cheerful, spirited and just plain happy. Said he'd really miss his Stryker. :) Took a few good hard shots at the Washington Post jerk who insulted his armor:

"Tony, I'm glad you brought that up, because I'll tell you, nothing makes our soldiers madder than criticism of the Stryker. That report, I think, was absolutely ridiculous... that same Washington Post reporter, after that report came out, he came to me and he said, please, Colonel Brown, do not make me ride in a Humvee. He said please, let me ride in a Stryker. And I was too nice a guy. I should have made him ride in a Humvee."

Great stuff.

Maybe all that spanking it to Powers Booth has atrophied your hand muscles?

First off, that's a whole lot of Abu's.

Second, nice to see the Stryker get a fair shake. I certainly don't have any personal experience in the matter, but from what I've pieced together, there seems to be a lot of bizarre animus towards the vehicle. My guess is it's a third-order criticism of Rumsfeld (Rumsfeld says we're going light, so we don't need more troops, but fewer troops are bad, so light is bad, and Stryker is light, so Stryker is bad).

Oh, and John: my right hand is my dominant typing hand, my left is. . . not.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

PS. What I liked best about Colonel Brown, I think, was his attitude. Every time some journalist idiot asked him - cautiously, putting on this grave mien, signifying for the folks at home that This Is A Serious Subject - what the casualty figures for the "insurgents" were, Colonel Brown would be like, "Oh, I've got to tell you about that! Yes, thanks for the question! I'm very proud to say that we killed two hundred terrorists just the other night without taking a single fatality of our own."

It was glorious. He wasn't vicious, he wasn't hateful, he just had this look of pure childlike happiness on his face. "We killed them! Two hundred of them! Isn't that great?" :D

Man, I love our people in the services. Words can't express how much.

Dave - IdonwannaknowIdonwannaknowIdonwannaknow...

So, Dave, do you actually type? Or are you a hunt and pecker?

Brewfan,

I live about 20 miles from Ft. Hood - when I first moved here I kept hearing what I thought was thunder, even though it was a sunny cloudless day.

Been here so long now I can tell you the difference between the sound of a 155, an M1A1, and the 81mm or 4.2" mortars.

Well the MSM has the very important "bathroom break" memo now. They can't waste column inches on silly little things like a war. At least as long as the wrong side is winning...

OT:

OK, off-topic I know, but has anyone else heard of this admission by Blanco? Curiously, I haven't seen it on MyYahoo or the nightly news.

Someone, in one of these threads, mentioned that they felt the Dems, Nagin, and Blanco were all softening their stance towards Bush and Co. Seems apparent that some gov't commission is going to detail the woeful preparedness and response on the local /state levels. (Not to mention the misspent funds wasted by the Levee Board)

Oops.

Anybody want to know how far a 8" self-propelled howitzer can shoot a tactical nuclear shell?

The tubes made at the Watervliet Arsenal were good for ~20-25 miles as I recall. My dad worked there in the 50's/60's/70's - as a kid I'd walk around in wonder at all that stuff.

Tanker, Megan, thanks for the good news!

I caught a bunch of that interview on C-Span and was VERY impressed.

He reminded me of a quote:

"To stay cheerful when involved in a gloomy and exceedingly responsible business is no inconsiderable art... Nothing succeeds in which high spirits play no part."

By, guess who? - Freddie Nietzsche!

I'm going to look up his book (McMaster's, that is..)

As to Blanco and Nagin, ol' G.W's gonna be the one handing out those big government checks and that's gonna buy him a whole lotta love.

As to those tactical nukes - what 10 kT? or where they "dial-a-yield"?

Megan,

I couldn't have expressed it better myself!!!

why are you here (where you are not needed) and not at my blog???

I'm not needed here? :(

well, wanted...for sure. But not needed.

I need sarcastic humor on my blog!!! There is plenty of that here. Ace is great at it. I'm NOT!

Just saying....

I think I put a bit too much bourbon in my last mug of coffee. Right now all I'll be good for is singing Iron Maiden or Gilbert & Sullivan lyrics very loudly though perfectly on key.

Besides, you never AIM me. :( We don't have the rapport that Ace and Laura and I have. I can't think of your blog as my third home yet.

What do you mean, RWS? You're good at sarcasm.

No, really. Great at it. Perfect! I wouldn't change a thing.

VERY sarcastic, yes indeed.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

[helpfully] I'd let you pick between IM and G&S though. Entirely up to you.

Whitehall, I really don't remember the yield (too many years, too many beers) but I seem to remember the kill zone was greater then the range of the howiter that delivered it :-0

You could simply go to the Pentagonchannel.mil/

and watch the press briefing.
The Colonel also has a Phd in American history...just another one of those military morons. Heh.

Durand

Megan,

well I don't have your IM screenname (surely it isn't "Megan?") And mine is, well, that should be fairly obvious..;-)

Dave at Garfield Ridge,

Bite me.

(and not in a good place either)....;-)

That disclaimer won't work Sparkle, we all work from the assumption there aren't any bad places.

Dave, the 4.2" (106mm) mortar tube, the four-deuce that dated back to WW1 in the design work and WWII and Vietnam for most of the ammo stockpile, was retired in the late '90's in favor of the Israeli 120mm. The poor things basically died of old age after several wars.

It's nice to see the former Ghosthorse Six do so well. I hope he makes general, my only regret on that would be he's a track toad and I'm a light guy so I'll never work for him.

Brewfan,

"I seem to remember the kill zone was greater then the range of the howiter that delivered it."

You're thinking of the nuclear hand grenade that was issued to the Marines, circa 1959, the BLU-ME-2.

yeah I heard that SGT Dan. Probably the Texas 49th Armored Guard at summer camp (we moved here in 91).

There's something else though that sounds close to that "crrruuump" sound... not sure what it is.

The 155s are easy to spot cause of that weird low frequency vibration that everything around you resonates to.

at least that's my theory

Dave at Garfield Ridge,
Bite me.

OMG. The Fair Flower of Southern Womanhood is trying to be feisty. Trying to get some cred with the followers of the Ace O' Spades Lifestyle™.

Not working. RWS, you've got to use the F word at least once. C'mon, you can do it, and your corruption will be complete. Just let it rip once. You'll feel better.

Leave her alone, Butters. Before I have to beat your ass into the ground.

Hey Tanker, tho't you might like this.
Via QandO blog

"Leave her alone, Butters. Before I have to beat your ass into the ground."

*Michael runs for cover."

I really appreciate the fact that somebody is writing about all this things. Keep up the good work buddy!!