oren_m

But it's a syrian backed terror organization, don't you think that the syrians will ask them to help?

We had some disscusions about optional sides in the campign against syria, such as Israel or the space lobsters, but what about Hizballa? As all (most) of you know, Hizballa is funded by Syria and Iran, so i can see them take part in some way of fighting. Today i saw in the news, channel 2 Israel, that the Hizballa is building a "line of outposts" along the Israeli-Lebanese border. Ofcourse they are no match in real "war style" fighting, but if they use thouse "outposts" for kiddnaping soldeirs and civilians for prisioners realese, than it will be more usefull. So, i'm really having trouble seeing why the Hizballa would'nt fight the US army in Syria.... Oren_m

Here's a nice story, In the winter-spring of 2002 my regiment was holding the line of the south Golan hights, near the border triangle of Israel-Jordan-Syria. In the outpost i was in we had an OP with 120x60 mm binoculace, and we were bored all the time because nothing happens there, during the day we were looking at the Jordanian and syrian soldiers, the Jordanian are really cool, they have Hammers and Landrovers, they also have m16, and very nice cammo uniform. On the other side of the border, the syrian soldiers are a real mess, first of all most of them dont have uniform of even shoes! They dont have pesonal weapones, the only ones who has weapones are the officers. In the middle of their outpost (which we call "Pita") there's a 30mm x2 barrel AA gun, which was really rusty, when the Syrian soldiers are not sleeping of playing soccer, they use the AA gun as a carrousel. I remember that one day the Syrian soldier tryed to shoot at a Jordanian B212 helicopter with the AA gun, i dont know why, but they did. In another incident, one of our tanks was patroling along the fence, the Syrian was a little alarmed and i saw them looking at the tank with a binoculace, oh yea, and one of the soldiers had an RPG, i think it was RPG-7. Well that is my impression of the syrian army near the Israeli border. Dont forget that it is the Syrian strategy, they have "layers" of defence, when the first forces to comabt the enemy are the weakest, and the next ones are getting stronger, around Damascus they have their republican guards which are the elite forces of the Syrian army. Oren_m

That is crazy talking, there is no such thing as space lobsters....geez.

Or, they could illuminate them to death!

I agree with sergei, it's highly unlikely that Israel will take part in the invision to Syria, even if the syrian will fire their SCUD missiles on israel, like the Iraqis did in 91'. The only way for israel to be in war with Syria during US invasion is only if the Syrians will attack the golan hights with ground forces, then, it's a whole different story. If such a thing happans, you will see Israeli soldiers in Damescus some 2-3 weeks after the war will start. And i will be called to service... Oren_m

The Syrian army uses the BM-21 MLRS for spreading mines via rockets, i dont know how effective it would be against fast moving attack, but i know that it would be probobly be used for road blocking and for closing gaps in mine fields. This system has one very big flaw, when the mines are being realesed out of the fired rocket they are thrown on the ground, and simply layed on it, the rocket fired mines are not digged in the ground but visible and exposed, yet, they will still create a hold up for US forces which will have to wait for engieneers to open a path. BM-21 Info Oren_m

Is that true that you can kill a tank behind a dirt ramp with the depleted uranium round? We also dont have them in the tank, we'll get them only in war time. I have never saw one of these rounds! In the IDF we dont have training ammo, instead, we use out dated ammo, you know, they have exprition date, when this date is over the ammo "magicly" turns to training ammo. It's a good way to save money

In the IDF we have a small urban myth. The myth says that when the IDF got his first M52 5 Ton trucks, they had writings on them, and on all the trucks there was written "R10", and some stupid (but important) officer had decided that it is not "R10" but "RIO", and since then, all the 5 Ton trucks are called RIO. Oren_m

Sure! That and your nuts being smashed by 0.5 ammo crate.

I agree that summer can be a bitch, but in winter....my god, all the mud, it's hell! Do you know how sad is it to find out that one of the tracks fell in a middle of a huge muddy swamp?!?! AAAAAA!! I get nightmares for just thinking about it!

Well, i guess that tankers around the world are preety much the same. I just can tell you this, i bet that all the tankers in the wrold hates the winter!

In IDF tank we have a similar cycle. After the loader has loaded the round he shouts "loaded", than, the TC confirms that and shouts "fire", only after the gunner heard the "loaded" shout and the "fire" shout he shouts back "firing" and than fires. And that is because we dont enjoy cleaning the turret from the loader's remaines... Oren_m

Wicky, your shoes are really lovely, where do you get them?

Here is a picture of me, shouting on someone in the comm network, you can see me stanting in the TC position, that photo was taken 5 year ago, during full scale war menuvaring. Sadlly, i cant show a pic from the inside of the tank, because it's highly classified... Oren_m

We have something called "Back corridor" which is in the rare side of the turret an connects it to the hull, you can "put" there 5 infantry soldiers or fired shells, when it fills up you open the door of the "Back corridor" and kick the shells out.

Nope and nope! The Merkava Mk.2 has a 105 mm gun, so we have regular rounds, the more advanced Mk.3 and Mk.4 has the 120 mm gun with burnable shells. Only the Mk.4 has hyraulic doors for ammunition, tommorow i'll attach a photo of me in the tank. What is the left sight for? is that the thermal NV?

It sure was scary! I remember that i was really occupied with the question of "should i close my eyes when it goes off or not", and when it fires they simply close by them selfs. But the most memorble thing is the smell of gun powder, which is overwhelming in the first time!

You make it sounds like firing a gun is a living hell, it's just a loud noise, you get used to it.

Well, 3000 meters is nice, i fired that range many times also. During my service, me and my crew were chosen to take part in "Tank snipers" training, it lasts 2 weeks which is mostly class time and alot of study, but, in the last 2 days you get to fire some 50 rounds in all the positions. The shortest range was for a turret target at 200 meters, and the longest range was for 6000 meters, i hit the target in the 3'rd round which not too bad! Do you have such kind of a training in the US armored forces? Oren_m

Goatsee, you are really new here!! Welcome!

Ofcourse! What do you think we are? cavemen!? In my tank, the Mk2, we dont have A/C, but in the later models, the Mk3 and Mk4 they have A/C, they have a 2 layer nomex suit with a hole in the front, the A/C is connected to the hole with a flexble tube, so the A/C can cool each and everyone separatly. And another question, what was your longest shooting range? i mean on a noraml target tank size. Oren_m

M1A1 TankCommander, I was a gunner in Merkava Mk.2B, and i noticed that the sound of a firing gun from a near by tank is much louder than the tank you shoot from, do you think it has anything with the speed of sound? i mean, could it be that the blast's sound is so fast the you cant hear most of it when you are close to it? Or could it be that most of the blast's sound is coming out from the main gun, i mean outside the turret and not inside? Anyway, i remeber that during armored operation in the west bank i was able to shoot a round and immidiatly go to sleep, i even once shot with the coax MG while i'm half asleep. Dont worry, no animals were hurt during the operation....just kidding!!

El_operative, you sound really bitter! What's eating you?

You know, you should'nt believe everything you read in the papers.