Soldier aids Army to develop weapon stations

Army News Service ^ | July 15, 2005 | Mike Cast

[Darksheare]

Cripes, sounds like my former Cap!
We had people transferring out because of his wonderous mad skills at motivating the troops.
So what does he do in response?
They block all transfers from our unit.
THEN ordered that you had ot attend drill at BOTH your current unit and the one you were transferring to.
In this way they AWOL'd out at least five troops who had 'dared' to transfer.

Ingenius, right?

[R. Scott]

Just DAMN!!!!!!

[archy]

As a reservist, Lowe requested to extend his tour of duty in Iraq to work any remaining kinks out of the CROWS.

“He didn’t have to go to Iraq, and he didn’t have to go to my operational test,” Stoddard said. “We are fortunate to have that type of dedication. I think he took ownership of CROWS as a Soldier. He always wanted everything to be right. When we did demos he was out there early, making sure the rehearsals were done, that everything performed correctly. He took a lot of ownership and pride in this product.”

HERO !

Nope. CHAMPION.

[archy]

They'd issued us bayonets, and we were sorely tempted. But we contented ourselves with setting off his MILES gear.

We had one XO who puffed up his self-importance [West Point ringknocker] while our Company Commander was off on a two-week leave who held by-the-numbers vehicle maintenance checks for oil and coolant levels of every vehicle in our tank battalion's headquarters company- the mortar tracks, medics, the three HQ tank section tanks, the medics' crackerboxes, even the maintence sections trucks and VTRs. This in a USAREUR fast-reaction unit with live ammo on board the tanks and tracks, ready to move out on a 4-hour notice, less sometimes. It really came to a head when he pulled the messhall staff out of the unit kitchen and had them out playing with their trucks on Saturdays and Sundays along with everyone. Following which everybody got cold suppers.

Of course to check warm oil levels and transmission fluids, the vehicles have to be run up. So everything had to be run, under the worst possible conditions, for long periods of idle. Oh, and he had the M577s with generators fire up their gennies too, and had the ground surveillance team run up their four Pipsy-4 radar sets and their two Tipsy-33s...which meant that the power from their generators had to go somewhere. So after they got their batteries fully charged, they set up their radars.

And while Little Napolean was standing up on the back deck of an M60A1 tank waving a tank engine dipstick around like his saber, the microwave output from four ANPPS-4 radars with an 10KM range was being dumped into him from about a hundred feet...as well as that of the two TPS-33 sets, which could reach out 18,000 meters... or cook a hotdog in around 5 seconds a couple of feet from the radome.

Chugachugachug went the generators, for about 3 hours.

A week or so later, the real CO came back from his leave, found out [some of] what had been going on in his motor pool, and hit the roof. A couple of weeks later, the overzealous XO became repeatedly absent due to repeat dental appointments- seems his teeth were falling out. There were reports of hair loss, as well.

Sorry 'bout that....

[archy]

I might snub the CO, XO, Ops, etc – but never the Company Clerk or Supply Sargent. This two held the really necessary power.

Do not either annoy the medics and in particular, the HQ medic section's record clerk, who can repeatedly lose your shot record.

Especially, do not lose your own copy of your shot record. Things MAY be different now in this day of electronic records and microchip dogtags. But I doubt it.

[Darksheare]

The Cap was truly a 'Blue Falcon' in that respect.
Instead of fixing the issue at hand, at the time it was enlistment bonuses not being paid out, he decided the way to deal with it was to punish everyone into 'behaving'.
We did enjoy setting off his MILES gear, they'd take him to the rear area for a bit, the XO stepped up to fill in, and we actually got to do some fire missions.
But I cannot think of a more hated officer than my last Captain.

[Darksheare]

LOL, we just got our grubby little hands on a flash bang and dumped it in on the Cap one evening at 0300 while he was sleeping in his gopher hole and teh rest of us were on 24 hour operations...

[archy]

Isn't this similar to what they have on the Stryker ? A 50 cal controlled from inside ?

Similar. But the Norwegian-developed XM151 *Kongsberg Protector Remote Weapon Station* [named for the Norwegian state arsenal that developed it] has exhibited problems with the M2 links delinking from the ammo from vehicle vibration while movement. The ammo is fine while its in ammo cans, or when fired from stationary positions on firing ranges. But put the ammo in the tac tray and go for a 5-mile jaunt down a bumpy road, and the cartridge cases begin rattling in the links, thence to lock up the gun once fed into the weapon. That's no big deal with a .50 on a tripod or external vehicle mount- pull the bolt handle back twice, and have at it again. But when the operator isn't up there with the gun, it's more of a problem... as it is if a seperated link locks the bolt back or open.

Most of what I've heard from Stryker unit guys is that if they replace their .50s with an M240 7.62 gun, they don't have any problems. We had similar difficulties with the M2 .50 when used in commanders' cupolas aboard M48 and M60/M60A1 tanks, ended when we switched to the M85 .50 that used a scaled-up M15A2 link like that used for the M60 and M73 co-ax machineguns. These had a *tab* that locked into the cartridge case's extractor groove and prevented that kind of problem.

One *quick fix* would be to issue M85 .50 MGs with ammo in M15A2 links with the Strykers...and since the M85 has a switchable rate of fire from 450 RPM to 1000 RPM, I suspect that'd be a real popular and practical move. The weight of extra ammo expended isn't as much of an issue for vehicle-mounted guns, and the mount itself handles any problems arising from the recoil from the .50 round. Muzzle flash might be an issue, especially with night vision or thermal sights used with the remote .50s- the real advantage of those remote sighted gun mounts.

But considering the probable lack of enemy vehicle targets, I bet a twin 7.62-gun mount would do about as well. Or for REAL *shock and awe*, using some of the remote weapons mounting systems with quad M249 5.56mm MGs. That oughta be a real mini-meatgrinder... and if one gun goes down or runs out of ammo, no big deal.

[archy]

The only Warrant Officer I'd ever seen in our entire Battalion was attached to the medics.

Still scratching my head over it.

Surgical Assistant, maybe? I had to teach our pillrollers how to drive and maintain tracks when they traded their 3/4 Dodge Crackerbox and M718 Jeep FLA ambulances for M113 and M577 tracked vehicles better suited to tank battalion operations. But we had one of those WO medics, though ours had been a Vietnam DustOff medevac driver who went off flight status.

[Lazamataz]

TERMINATOR
(starting the engine, backing out) The Skynet funding bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn, at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. eastern time, August 29. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

SARAH
And Skynet fights back.

They accelerate back onto the highway.

TERMINATOR
Yes. It launches its ICBMs against their targets in Russia.

SARAH
Why attack Russia?

TERMINATOR
Because Skynet knows the Russian counter-strike will remove its enemies here.

SARAH
Jesus.
(then)
How much do you know about Dyson?

TERMINATOR
I have detailed files.

[Darksheare]

Dunno.
My old unit had a slot for the WO, but it was always open, and the why of it was always a mystery.
I figured it was a 'just in case' slot for if we ever were activated for combat.

[R. Scott]

Do not either annoy the medics and in particular, the HQ medic section's record clerk, who can repeatedly lose your shot record.
Especially, do not lose your own copy of your shot record. Things MAY be different now in this day of electronic records and microchip dogtags. But I doubt it.

I never considered the medic part of the overhead – he (or she) was with us, not the orderly room. I do think they carried a special set of very dull needles for special occations.

Electronic medical records and microchip dog tags! Wish we had them – I retired nearly 20 years ago.
Back around 1984 we replaced all the boats old asbestos insulation with fiberglass. The budget didn’t allow the civilian technicians to do it, so the crews removed the old stuff. We were stripped down to shorts and flipflops and went to work. After it was all bagged and removed we scrubbed everything down. Civilians in space suits came in and checked for dust. When they declared it a safe work area a civilian crew came aboard and put in the fiberglass. Our medical records (kept in the company orderly room) were all stamped “Asbestos Exposed”. Within a month all records were lost. The new records did not have the stamp, and there is no record of our being exposed.

[R. Scott]

Fortunately those kinds of officers are few and far between – we just tend to remember them forever.

[Thunder 6]

Thanks for the Ping. As fate would have it, my Scout Platoon is currently testing one of these up here in my AO. Very good sytem so far. Only problem is exposed cabling and replacement parts (both can be fixed).

Regards,

[Darksheare]

Welcome.
Was wondering about spares, didn't think about exposed wiring.