John Kettler Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Dadekster, Given your current/former line of work (can't tell which from your sig), I'd have to agree you're up to speed on acoustic location of military ground targets. My now retired younger brother, SFC George Kettler, served on 2/11 ACR Bradley CFVs as a gunner, a Master Gunner, a Bradley CFV commander and, finally, a Platoon Sergeant. He was covering the Fulda Gap when the Berlin Wall came down. Later, he ran comms at the TOC for the 3rd? SBCT, the first one to see combat. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadekster Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 I did a short stint in the Army as an 11M for a little over three years all at Fort Irwin as the OPFOR playing Cold War era Russians. When I got there I spent a long time trying to figure out who I had pissed off back at Benning. You know it is bad when the closest form of entertainment is the WallMart in Barstow which takes 40 minutes to get to. I came on after the Wall came down etc but I'd still take Fort Irwin over what your brother was doing back then tbh (speed bump from what I understand). I'd have more than likely followed his career path somewhat but I was interested in law enforcement prior to joining so I did my time and got out. The time I was in was very interesting however. The NTC is a very unusual place compared to what Benning and AIT was all about. We did our gunnery using Bradleys and so forth but 90% of our time was spent with Sheridans. I was a qualified diesel mechanic in all but name by the time I got out I started off as a driver and up to gunner but typical Army I learned to do a lot of stuff to include being a TC. I even got to drive a HET at one point But at the end of the day it was all about battalion sized maneuver combined arms warfare using MILES gear. Our job was to simply kick BLUFORs ass every rotation and teach their commanders important lessons in how to manage a battlefield. As they say a pint of sweat now saves a gallon of blood later...or something cool like that. I understood I was part of a team and what we were doing was important and I was proud to do it as it helped my brothers down the road hopefully. We'd never see the sorry SOB's in the dustbowl but I now it sucked. When I finally ETS'd I had done over 30 rotations. I of course find many parallels with what this game attempts to do and what the NTC was all about. I also find the Sheridan in the condition I dealt with it close to what WW2 tracks are like. These were old tired machines and many times halfway through a rotation a number of our tracks in the platoon would have lost their electric turret traverse or would require pulling packs to swap out transmissions. It was back breaking work and replacing track in the desert during summertime is something I'd never wish on anyone. I have to say I find it somewhat ironic that I was portraying exactly what your brother stood watch against. I take a small amount of pride in saying that if the RL Russians were anything like us we'd have demolished everything up to the English Channel although all the greenery may have confused us 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 I always thought the OPFOR forces were supposedly manned by elite troops, so maybe they thought you was good? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadekster Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 I had college experience and was of drinking age when I enlisted so if that is your definition of 'good' then I'll take it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Dadekster, Brother George was at Ft. Irwin sometime in the early 1980s. Dad and I drove out to see him, which was great. The threat orientation park was wonderful for a young military analyst. Got to (somewhat on the DL) climb into a T-62 (at 5'11" claustrophobia for me) and a (compared to the BMP we couldn't enter) capacious MTLB. Got to see a bunch of artillery, including the impressive M-46 130mm gun which bedeviled us in 'Nam and even play with the "Jane Fonda Special," the M-1937 37mm AAG. Getting my first look at DPICM submunitions was cool. Eating my one, and thankfully only, MRE wasn't. Turkey a la king. Brother George gave me that because it was the good one. Road wheel cookies were okay, though, and I loved the tiny Tabasco bottles. Back when I was an analyst, Russian "peep show" stuff was very disturbing, but the truth is that level of performance is obtained only by crewing everything with officers and rehearsing the specific activity for weeks, starting with tank crews walking the ground, sans tanks, and pilots "flying." After that came successive levels of workups with real equipment, burning through its short service life by the time it was all said and done, culminating into a precision timed spectacle. Which still went awry, but not before terrifying observers with the skill and might of the Red Army. That said, you crack OPFOR types with your T-72 VISMOD Sheridans, your grid block obliterating BM-21s and other unpleasantness honed our soldiers to one of the keenest edges on the planet, and they went home and taught the others. Now back to acoustic detection and localization! In Clark, The Battle of the Tanks: Kursk 1943, he talks about how Wittmann and his Tiger platoon spent two hours stalking into position to engage a Russian artillery battery. At his command, the 88s spoke and the battery died as guns took direct hits and ammo exploded. The Tiger platoon then followed the fleeing survivors to a nearby battery and wiped it out, too. Try doing anything remotely like that in CMBN! Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOS:96B2P Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 John Kettler were you also a military intelligence analyst? I was an Intel analyst in the G2 section 82 Airborne back in the 1980s. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 MOS:96B2P, No, I wasn't. Missed being drafted for Vietnam by a mere four months. If you want to know more about how a civilian wound up being a Threat Analyst, PM me. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOS:96B2P Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 John, I sent you the PM. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 MOS:96B2P I replied, but it's coming in chunks and may or not be intact. Should be four named parts, and there may be a duplicate. Ran into an unexpected BB issue. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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