Part 2

This one guy who manned the M240B (first at 6 o'clock but got moved to the 2 o'clock after many mess ups), called movement and said a terrorist captured on of our sergeants. Everyone was yelling, 'Don't shoot!' 'Give him an ultimatum'.... we already had 2 teams out flanking the 3 of them within 30 seconds of contact (really fast for us) and ready to overtake the terrorist, when BAM! One single burst form the 240B! Though it was a blank round, it would have killed them both. We now call that person the 240 sniper. Morale of the story - you can't snipe with a machine gun. Duh!

Another short story. Every night, I fall asleep to the sound of arty rounds, small arms, and flares. When the DS attack, they use flares and simulated artilleries and whole bunch of stuff. Wicked cool when you are on guard and have the NODS (night optic device). You see it in green, just like the video games!

Near the end of the week, we had to get rid of all our ammo so we worked on MOUT (military operations urban training) i.e. room clearing, squad movement, etc. At the end of the day, we did a company attack on 4-5 houses against invisible DS. It was way unfair, but fun. People got lit up by saws and bravos (M240B) all that good stuff. But the real action started and ended on Friday.

Friday began pretty uneventful. Police calling our area, chow, checking our gear, sorting expended rounds...Then all h-e-l-l broke loose (pardon the language, I'm not sure what to replace it with) at about 14 or 1500. Company formation, just as we were about to set foot back home, it started to rain, making our rucks, clothes, boots, and everything else waterlogged and heavier. We were already wet from the night before, and sandy, so it made everything worse.