04 February 2011

What's that thing on....oh, it's an.I Pod Holder

From the Soldier side: If you are a person who studies history...military history to be specific, you may find that there are some things that seem to happen in almost every war we've had in the last 100 years. For any war that's gone on for more than a year, our Army seems to go through changes very rapidly.  A rapid change is not normal for our Army.   

When I was in the “old Army” we had a saying: “The US Army…200 years of tradition unchanged by progress.”

(This seems to apply to our VA also).

In the my old Army days, our uniform was the Olive Drab (OD) Green. No fancy camo pattern. It hadn’t changed much since the Korean war.

CI  Roller Dude, before he was CI Roller Dude...when he was a Grunt Eleven Charlie

When I joined the National Guard in the late 1980’s, the issue was Woodland camo. We used the Woodland through Bosnia in 03-04, then just before we went to Iraq in late 04, we were issued the Dessert Combat Uniform (DCUs) I liked the DCUs.
CI Roller Dude when he was a Combat Engineer


When we returned from Iraq, we soon were issued the new Army ACUs. I don’t like this uniform. It’s too weak…with Velcro pocket holders that fail and shit sticks all over the uniform because of the Velcro panels to put patchs and do-dads on.



When we were in Iraq with the Army, I e-mailed some pictures back to friends and family. My old Police Chief saw our new Army Issued helmets (which I guess supply didn’t want back, so I kept it.) He asked what the little thingy was on the front.
What is that little black clipy thing on the front? Smells like Camelshit!


CI Roller Dude, waiting for a ride, in Bumfak, Iraq- With IPod clip on helmet



I told him it was to clip an I-Pod to so we could relax with our music on convoys and stuff.

13 comments:

suz said...

Dog Days!!! I love that song!

SAM said...

I have totally no idea what is the helmet you are wearing in the photo. Is that a MICH helmet or a PASGT? I am sure that's not a LWH because LWH only issued to Marine Corps and the reason remain a mystery for me.

CI-Roller Dude said...

Suz, Our job is to make the readers happy (not really).

Sam, B.H.Down is a classic example of planning. ALWAYS have a back up plan or better, have a few back up plans. They had none. They continued to use the same tatics over and over until the enemy figured out how to defeat their tactics.

Hogdayafternoon said...

Brit helmets never used to have a built in clip for nvg's because there were so few units issued. If you were lucky, the unit came with its own bungee clip to fit on a helmet of the platoon commanders choosing :D I think we have a few more these days, but don't quote me on it. Our guys loved US kit and would steal it at every opportunity - allegedly.

CI-Roller Dude said...

Ok, Hogday figured the Ipod holder out.
It was being over optimistic.... it was for attaching the "NODs," or "NVGs"
Night Optical Device or Night Vision Device.
Didn't matter much, I never saw any of our folks with these devices in Iraq. But when we got home, I found plenty of them in supply.

Anonymous said...

1. Sounds like M-79 sights.
2. Trained on them in the US.
3. Overseas, they took them off the bloopers. Said that they cost more than the rest of the weapon.
4. Grenadiers sighted off the top of barrel -and shot about as good doing that as they could with sights.
5. Have seen a few of then in hands of special ops types in your war, for what it's worth.
V/R JWest

CI-Roller Dude said...

Mr West,
And that blooper was replaced by the M-203, which has a very accurate sight that attachs to the side--but is delicate and almost never gets issued because it breaks and gets lost...forcing the gunner to use the rough top site and sort of guess.
But in Iraq the sights didn't matter...each M203 gunner we had only got a few 40 mm rounds anyway...and little training or practice unless they'd been a grunt in the past. (I got to help launch a 150 40MM HE rounds one day in Germany)

SAM said...

The M-203 is currently being replace by the M-320 grenade launcher, which is much more comfortable to use compare to the M-203. The M-320 can be attach to a rifle, or can be use by itself as Grenade Launcher. And the M-320 have its own pistol grip and it is side loaded.

CI-Roller Dude said...

Sam,
Does it come with an I-pod plug in?

Anonymous said...

1. Dead on, concerning M203 sights.
2. Lost 'em or broke 'em off.
3. A problem was the 150M point vs 350M area capability.
4. All targets were essentially point.
5. With limited rounds for training, you could FAM Fire everybody, or concentrate on developing some skill in a select few.
6. The first time I gave in and FAM Fired everybody, figured low odds of an operational deployment.
7. Naturally, the following week into S-3 for briefing, bused to Kadena AFB, aboard C-130's and operational.
8. Never felt as comfortable with the 203 as the blooper.
9. Saw stuff on the M-25 which is pretty neat. Hope it's Marine (and grunt) proof.
10. Somehow, I doubt it.
11. When you're scared, tired, covered with mud, dust or both, and in a hurry, delicate handling tends to get tossed overboard.
12. The troops will either figure out work-arounds or the things will sit in armories and be issued for perimeter defense.
V/R JWest

Kanani said...

I think with middle age setting in for many an older soldier, it will have to be adapted to slap an iPad on the front. Also useful for streaming in movies, and using the person as a standing screen.

SAM said...

I am afraid that M320 doesn't come with I-Pod clip. If you ever want to know about the latest weapon which use by the 11B, try to download the game America's Army 3 from americasarmy.com , I think it is by far, the most realistic and accurate real life combat simulator game, because it is developed by the US Army itself.

CI-Roller Dude said...

If it's not idiot proof, then it should be issued.
Then again...thinking about it, one of my rules is:

"As soon as they make something Idiot Proof, they make a better idiot to defeat, break or mess things up."

As far as the M203 goes, beside the little fancy sight on the side, it's pretty strong. I had to hump one for a while when I was a Grunt, 11C10 in Germany.
...then one day on the range, the sergeant asked me if I wanted to help on the M203 range. After we were done, I got to fire all the left over rounds. 40MM HE, on target...about 30 rounds. That was more fun than most people have in a life time.
That's the only way to really get good with any weapon is to work the range crew and shoot all the left over rounds off.