Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Locked and Loaded!!!

It didn't really dawn on me how immature and inexperienced some of these guys were until today. I had to roll my guys out to pick up a few more of my guys that had just come in with some more of our equipment today. In my vehicle I had two specialists and a private first class. I will call them Mal, GeeDub and Moe to observe their privacy. Mal is driving, GeeDub is engrossed in his Pokemon game boy game and Moe is grinding his teeth in anticipation of the trip. I can tell he is a little overly pumped up and I am curious but don't want to push it just yet so I wait.

I guess I should have known well in advance what to expect. I have four soldiers that have never been deployed and probably never been far from home before. Moe is one of them. Before we left he asked me if I thought we would get the chance to kill anyone. My shocked response was something like "Are you frickin' kidding me? I sure pray to God we don't HAVE to kill anyone!" Then he said something about wanting to get at least nine confirmed kills while he was deployed. Anyway I just kinda brushed that exchange off as a young soldier's bravado. It all came running back to me today though.

As Moe continued to squirm in the back seat he began to make me nervous. When I asked him what was bothering him he asked "I was just wondering, if some one runs into our vehicle, can I shoot them?" "WHAT??? Of course not!" That's just what we need Moe putting three rounds in the chest of some elderly local who was driving like the rest of his or her country men drive over here. Then I noticed he had is magazine in the well of his weapon, and though that made me a little more nervous, that was ok, cause if something did happen at least he would have less reaction time. "Well what if I see some one driving along side of us with a weapon?, Can I shoot them?" Wow. "No man! Tell you what, if he is making aggressive gestures at you while he is loading you can aim your weapon at him, and if he aims at you, then and only then can you shoot him." Right about then Mal noticed that Moe's muzzle was pointing right into his kidney. (Mal) "Hey man! You better point that thing somewhere else or I'm gonna beat you with it." (Moe) "It's on safe." (Mal) "So point it somewhere else."

As we got to where we were going we passed an armored vehicle that the local security force had posted and Moe went into action. He grabbed his Kevlar and started freaking out. "Chill out man. He's one of the good guys." Needless to say the trip was interesting, but six hours later we were back safe and sound. Nobody got hurt, but I got a wake up call. I knew I had some noobs to take care of but I didn't plan on having Gung hoe shoot em up commo guys with me. Good training I guess.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello again, Thor-
I don't know why I happened to check my old bookmark for Soldier's Paradise- I just do it from time to time.
So seeing a remark from you was quite groovy- seeing you back in the sand was not.

You helped me greatly while my beau was in Iraq- esp. your heartfelt love of your wife and son- pics over the bad. I sense you have hung the pics over the bunk w/ care yet again.

Right now the AF has kinda screwed him- nearly sending him to fly w/ the RAF then deciding against it 2 mos. before he was supposed to leave- and he's already put his house on the market. Now he has no idea where he'll be heading or when- life up in the air- HA! Literally.

Hope you are well- the locked and loaded is some scary stuff- listening to some of my guys buddies and stories it seems like that is kinda common- guys who simply live for the rush of the fight. Sigh.

Hope you are well, at peace, and can see beauty around you.

Dena. :)

4:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ummmmmm......sorry- typo- that was pics over the BED-
Dena. :)

4:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I could just picture Lep sitting there, stroking his gun, while chuckling that little insane laugh through his evil grin.
-dave

7:18 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Didn't know whether to laugh or cry reading that. Well, actually I laughed out loud, but I did feel kinda guilty about it.

--Jeff in Prague

1:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Makes you wish you could slap a little sense into them huh bro? Sounds like you really have your hands full. Are you allowed to make him take the rounds out, so that he doesn't accidentally shoot someone in his crazed state?

8:27 AM  
Blogger Papa Ray said...

Hey,

Sounds like you got your hands full. Kids will be kids. It sounds like the one kid needed to have joined the Marines.

Our First, after we got in country, told the whole platoon that if we shot ANYBODY without permission he would make them dig slit trenches for the remainer of the tour. Well he changed his story after the first time we got waxed and wasted. He said "Shoot the SOB and ask questions later". He didn't make it back, he had this habit of walking around and checking how everyone was doing right in the middle of a firefight.

Of course that was many years ago, in a land far, far away.

Well, I will drop by again, hang in and don't let it hang out too far.

This is my post

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

12:05 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home