Rustman

sure...unfortunately I haven't been able to take a screen shot. Something about windows 7 isn't letting me. Anyway, it doesn't look bad...they were pretty quick and dirty rough designs, and my GIMP skills need a little work anyway, but the rectangular unit symbols integrated with the circular equipment symbols work really well. For the command elements I took my infantry symbol and shrunk it a little so the staff and command tag would have room. It all needs to be cleaned up a bit, but it isn't bad I don't think. Yea, being able to put in the engineer symbols would really be helpful. With the HMMWV's, I'm not so sure about...I guess I can kind of understand where they were coming from, but at the same time, a lot of the missions, the vehicles are manned by a vehicle crew unit just like any other vehicle in the game anyway. Personally I think I would prefer the vehicle to just have its own symbol all the time ala the armored vehicles.

Actually, what I did was half and half in mine. Individual pieces of equipment, like weapon systems and vehicles I kept as circles similar to this. Squads I changed to rectangles. Command elements I used the rectangular infantry symbol with a staff and put "CMD" under it, as per the FM. The only issue I have is that nearly all units are considered "infantry" by the program. I can't visually differenciate..or at least haven't been able to yet...between infantry squads and engineer squads. Also, general utility vehicles like HMMWV's also show up as infantry. I like the color differences...when I get the Brit module, I'm definately going to incorporate that idea.

Eh...adrenaline takes a lot off though. You'd be suprised the random things you don't notice when there are actually people shooting back. I was in a room with a 240 and a SAW shooting out one of the windows and I honestly don't remember actually hearing either of them fire. They did...the effects on target and the casings and links littering the floor were kinda a clue...but I have no memory of hearing it. The brain does weird things when it is under high levels of stress.

"Sprayed" isn't really an accurate term to use. The military has been back and forth on it. It used to be that accurate fire was the focus...then in Vietnam they decided that massed firepower was more effective than any particular single soldier's ability to put steel on target at range...now things have swung back toward the middle again. I think that where things are right now is probably about as perfect as you are gonna get in terms of firepower vs precision fires balance. The biggest thing is that generally in combat, you aren't shooting at individuals, but positions. It's not like the range where you have this sillouetted pop-up to put a hole in. Identifying where fire is coming from is relatively easy, but identifying an individual target is more problematic. You might see a muzzle flash in a window or dust being kicked up by people shooting from a berm, but that is all you are gonna see. The idea of massed firepower in that you putting a beaten zone on that position. You are going to shoot up that window...or that berm...it isn't just spraying in a general cardinal direction. However, because the opportunities to clearly identify and engage an individual target are rare, it is actually even more vital that when the situation does present itself the soldier can quickly capitalize on the opportunity and reliably drop the target at range. That's why there has been this push with things like the designated marksman program and integrating more precision assets into the regular infantry squad.

That is a "rank and file" soldier using it. Depending on the unit commanders and the funding they are willing to spend, some squad designated marksmen are issued M14's. During pre deployment trainup, I was picked to be on the team designing and implimenting our company advanced marksmanship program, part of which included how we would go about selecting and outfitting the DM's. I really really really wanted M-14's and we faught that one all the way up until the day we deployed, but ultimately our CO decided that it would be more cost effective to issue M16A4's (which we already had) with ACOG's. I understand his point, but, still, damnit....I really wanted an M14.

First, the 800mm is standard steel armor....the Abrams armor is layered DU, which is considerably more dense. Second, as already been mentioned, the TUSK upgrade includes reactive armor, so chances are, the rocket probably barely scratched the paint on the DU.

The only one I use right now is one that I made to replace the floating icons with appropriote NATO symbols.

Well, there is a slight difference in those two scenarios. Ammo and fuel fall under the S-4 (Logistics) section...while the commander and S-3 (Operations)section would be aware of a vehicle being out of action due to simply running out of fuel and ammo....the information flow, as well as the majority of the troubleshooting action, would be going through the Admin & Logistics net to the S-4 officer. In the grand sceme of things, ammo and fuel are simple fixes. Chances are the solution to that problem would already be coordinated between the S-3 and S-4 and enroute to the vehicle before the commander even found out. Of course then later we'd be chewing that vehicle commander's butt for not giving proper ACE reports until after he was black on everything.

FM 4-01.25? It's counterintuitive, I know, but really, it isn't a big deal. All those materials are marked FOUO, but that is not a classification level and it can be transmitted by any means. Legally, a FOUO marking is meaningless. Really, if you want FMs, dig around in a National Guard armory's trash dumpster on an average drill weekend. We've thrown away literally cases of field manuals that we don't need, don't want, and are doing nothing except taking up space. Or even better...you could walk into the armory, point to it, and ask "can I have that?" and chances are pretty good they'll let you walk out with pretty much any manual you want. We don't want or need physical hardcopies of manuals any more. I carry my library of every manual and form I would ever need in the military on a 2Gb flash drive in my pocket when I'm in uniform. Why would I need a bookcase of hardcopies?

True...there is a disconnect between the military use of certian terms and the perception of those terms in the civilian world. Officially, Catastrophic kill is defined as a complete system failure. No more, no less...that could mean still recoverable by a BDAR standard..or it could mean that the hull is a twisted pile of wreckage and the turret is laying 100 feet away. For the most part, the terms exist as they do for operations and intelligence purposes. It's meant to allow a quick and dirty rough sketch of assets on the battlefield as it occurs...friendly assets in operations and enemy assets in intel, obviously...what weapon platforms are still in play, which ones can be writen off, and which ones may still be able to come back into the game in the future. It helps commanders make those snap decisions, like the decision to abandon and destroy a immobile vehicle in order to push the mission forward vs holding in order to push out a recovery operation, by giving them the best possible information we can attain at the present and they don't have the time to go into fine details. That's obviously going to be updated with more information as it comes in from maintenance reports, BDA reports, AAR's, etc. that will allow for a more detailed and less time sensitive analysis, but as things are occuring we keep things very simple, both for the operations staff and for the crews in contact. Wounds received that incidental to, but still attributable to, being engaged by the enemy are supposed to warrant a Purple Heart. For example, when I was deployed there was a Marine who was maneuvering under fire and fell into cover in a pile of garbage, and as a result, received a vicious puncture wound to his leg from a piece of scrap wire. He received a Purple Heart. Most wounds aren't directly caused by the actual weapon, but are incidental. My roommate in Iraq had his vehicle destroyed by an IED (he was the driver)...he struck his face on the steering wheel during the blast cutting his eye...Purple Heart. The driver of the Bradley I was in when I got blown up broke his ankle trying to stop the vehicle from going into a canal (the IED destroyed the transmission, so the brakes no longer worked..didn't stop him from trying to push the brake pedal through the floor though). Purple Heart.

Ok? You know, this is the official Army Training and Doctrine publications website (http://www.army.mil/USAPA/doctrine/Browse_Series_Collection_1.html). It has it (along with tons of other manuals), it's virus free, and constantly updated...so why use a torrent? It's not like anything on there is uber top secret...I mean it has all been freely accessable to the public for years. But, like tc already pointed out....the Soldiers Manual of Common Tasks isn't really applicable to this game. *EDIT* Ok, nevermind. I guess you need an AKO login to download now. It used to not be required except for a select few documents. Anyway...get a friend in the army to put the PDF on a flash drive for you if you really want it.

Not true...as a mech, there are three official statuses to combat damaged vehicles. First is a mobility kill, which means the vehicle is no longer able to maneuver, but it's weapon systems still function. The second is a firepower kill, which means the the vehicle can no longer effectively engage the enemy, but it can still move....neither of those are considered "knocked out". Knocked out is a catastophic kill. A catastrophic kill is defined as a complete system failure. No conventional enemy force has ever successfully scored a catastrophic kill on an Abrams. The referenced Abrams with the engine fire was not a catastrophic kill. It was a mobility kill and that fire isn't what destroyed it. They decided to abandon it in order to continue mission instead of wasting the time on recovery, so the vehicle was intentionally destroyed. They used thermite grenades on the crew compartments, hit it with DU from another Abrams...and then later it was still deemed to not have been acceptably destroyed enough, so they dropped a JDAM on it. The deliberate destruction of a vehicle does not count. Now, unconventional warfare is another thing all together. An EFP or a large enough IED can take out pretty much anything, including an Abrams.

We hate that movie because we don't actually talk like that.

Nevermind...got it. Now I wish I could take a screen shot...but it pastes black. Oh wells.

Correct. The whole thing is essentially soft kevlar. Obviously it's been improved...design is better and all...but it really isn't all that much different from the old flak vests. It's just that on the front and the back there are large pouches to hold the SAPI plates. Another improvement is because it's a MOLLE setup the armor is modular. In the case of the video, what actually took the hit was his side SAPI...it's like an addon soft armor and pouch for a smaller SAPI that attaches to the flanks under the arm pits...the base vest doesn't actually have protection there. It really is good stuff. Our sister company had a dude step on a pressure plate IED...He lost his leg, unfortunately, but he survived it with otherwise little permanent damage. His body armor was just shredded from crotch right up to the throat...it held up though and nothing got through to take out anything vital.

Yea...in my mind...and correct me if I'm wrong...but the pretty sunrise/sunset graphics are independent of the actual time in game. If it is supposed to be night time, then the units are going to think and act like it is night time, regardless.

To be honest, you'd be suprised how bold civilians on the battlefield can actually be. I've seen a dude ride a pedal bike right through the middle of one of our fire fights. Literally within seconds of the last round being fired I've seen civilians flood out into the battlefield to see what is going on. It's a pain in the arse constantly having to check-fire your mortars because the civilians won't stay inside their house where they'd be safe (well...safer, anyway) and they wander right into the area you are trying to blow up.

I'm actually looking at doing something similar...I just finished nearly 2 years as an S-3 NCO, so I've got operational terms & graphics on the brain. How do you mod the symbols like that?

It did exactly what it was supposed to do. The flexible kevlar is actually designed exactly for that...stopping shrapnal...so I'm not really suprised all that much, except to say that must have hurt like hell....like getting a shot to the kidney with a bat. The SAPI plates are specifically for bullets....up to 7.62mm AP actually.

Essentially it's just a segment of insulated wire...double strand, like the power cable from the outlet to your desk lamp. The insultation is stripped from small segments and the exposed wires are kept apart usually by attaching them to something like the inside of a segment of plastic tube..it kinda looks like a bead on a string...and this is done in series all the way down the wire...thus, it looks like a string of anal beads. Rolling across it crushes the tube making the wires touch...circuit is closed and bomb goes boom.

Yes..that is a jammer. Unfortunately, as much as I would love to talk at length about that particular system as I've personally used it, I'm going to avoid the wrath of the EW Officer above and simply state that it works awesome. Almost too well, as the bad guys went back to the tried and true methods since none of their remote devices worked any more. In my AO there were a few hard wire command detonated IEDs, but mostly it was pressure detonated ones that we found...."christmas tree lights" and "anal bead" configurations and the like. After I got blown up we found the christmas tree lights wrapped around one of the road wheels on the brad..I was gonna keep it as a souvenier, but unfortunately lost it somewhere before we redeployed back home.

I agree...like I said, the whole game changed once the invasion was over. IED are the real killer. RPG's....meh...so-so effective, depending on what it hits. But..I've seen deep buried IED toss vehicles like they were toys. We had to bring in a casevac once from a Marine Abrams that took an IED hit, destroyed the vehicle, and burned up the crew real bad. Yea..I'd place my money on an Abrams any day in a shooting fight...but in an unconventional war like in Iraq, all bets are off.

I didn't say that vehicles weren't damaged, but there has never been a reported case of a catastrophic kill of an Abrams by enemy fire in either Desert Storm or the Iraq invasion. A few mobility kills...even a firepower kill or two...but never a complete system failure. Every catastrophic kill of an Abrams we have on record has been from DU penetrations in either friendly fire incidents or deliberate destruction to avoid capture (3 vehicles in Desert Storm were deliberately destroyed..two were stuck in mud and one was a mobility loss from enemy fire).

They are designed with crew survivability in-mind when it comes to an RPG attack...but that is not the same thing as being "RPG-proof". An RPG can still catastrophically kill an ASV...it's just the design features ensure that the crew has the best chance possible of surviving the hit.

Well yea, obviously...It's kind of been a concern I've had for a while...the military has invested billion upon billions building up this pool of theater specific vehicles that don't belong on any MTOE and have no real stated purpose once our current wars are done. It's kind of up in the air I think...I mean, noone has really answered the question of what we are going to actually do with all this equipment in our inventory when we've closed up shop in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think it's an interesting question to pursue...could they be integrated into our current MTOE? Could they have a place in a conventional war scenario? I could see the MRAP or ASV taking the place of certian HMMWV roles. You could easily replace the HMMWV's in a light battalion's AT platoon with either of the vehicles for example.