Michael Yon's war front blogs

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I learn and see interesting things from Michael Yon and his pictorial blogs. A very brave reporter with rare style:

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/

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[MarkEzra]

I looked it over and agree

[Cpl Steiner]

Nice material for the Brits module. I hope the Brits in CM:SF are bare-armed like in lots of those pics as it would make them distinct from American troops.

[theFightingSeabee]

I've been reading Michael Yon's blog for maybe two years or so. Great guy, ex-Green Beret. His recent blog about Afghan compounds shows lot of great aerial shots, perfect for all of you scenario designers out there. I also recommend "The Gates of Fire", which you'll find on his site. That's just because it's a hell of a story. He also killed a guy with one punch in a bar. (He was defending himself, he's not a killer type). Anyways, I highly recommend it.

[gunnersman]

Nice material for the Brits module. I hope the Brits in CM:SF are bare-armed like in lots of those pics as it would make them distinct from American troops.

And shorts! Don't forget the snipers in shorts!

HA! I can see the mod now.

[John Kettler]

-Pv-,

First rate! Was especially interested in the plight of the overloaded Javelin transporter. Highly reminiscent of the plight of the Paras during the fighting in the Falklands, where the men were so heavily burdened that basic fire and maneuver became utterly enervating under 80 lb. packs, and during the yomp, the RSM, the fittest man in the Regiment, with not an ounce of fat on him, was the first to drop out, precisely because he had nothing to convert to energy while conducting grueling cross country marching sans rations. The once/then Confidential MoD debrief film I saw indicated that the RSM's square bashing victims had a lot of fun with this development. The Javelin failure rate (2 in 17 launches) was of considerable interest, and I'm impressed with his guts and reporting. I can understand why he elected not to show Taliban rocking uniforms and gear stripped from French corpses, but that would also utterly refute the French denials.

Since I don't recall seeing you before, welcome aboard!

Regards,

John Kettler

[SgtMuhammed]

Very nice. Thanks for the link and welcome to BFC.

Missile failures are modelled in the game. I asked and Charles said they were. I think my failure rate is about what the blog states.

The Javelin guy would have a lot easier time if he secured the missile on the top of his ruck. Where he had it tends to unbalance you and make it hard to stand. I was always a grab the straps and flip the ruck over my head kind of guy, but everyone has their own techniques for dealing with heavy equipment.

[Guest Guest]

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[Guest Guest]

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[Elmar Bijlsma]

Don't know if it's still current but it used to mean any military attack with no intention of holding on to the objectives. Dieppe was often referred to as a raid, and it was massive.

[Battlefront.com]

I wish I had time to read all of that! Looks very interesting. Two points:

1. As a uniform grog, the shots of the Taliban guy in "French" uniform is not. He's in what appears to be standard Afghan issue US Woodland BDU copy (made in China, with shoulder straps). The French Central Europe (CE) uniform can sometimes look like a US Woodland uniform, but not to a trained eye. The other gear is, of course, French without a doubt.

2. SgtM makes a good point about the position of the Javelin reload on the back of that para. I'm not surprised he needed help getting up with the way that weight is distributed. With a full pack on his back it should be on top, just behind his head. I've never lugged a Javelin around, but I have done a fair amount of backpacking with a heavy load. Keep the weight high and tight to the shoulders. That's the standard way the US Army trains its soldiers to do a march (at least I think so, please correct me if I'm wrong!). Other pics show it slung over the shoulder when a pack isn't present or slung under one arm if using a small arm isn't an immediate thing.

As for fatigue... we have no idea what that para just went through. For all we know he just sprinted 100m.

Steve

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[Battlefront.com]

Total weight is 28kg (61 lbs), but the missile and tube assembly is "only" 11.8kg (26 lbs). He only has one missile assembly and no CLU as far as I can see. Obviously his basic kit is quite heavy, but 11.8kg should be no problem for a beast of a guy like that. If I can hike up a medium sized mountain with a 36kg (80 lbs) rucksack (don't ask!) in moderate physical condition, I'm sure that soldier is more than capable of carrying what he has on his body. Therefore, I'm guessing sub-optimal weight distribution and other factors are why he was having such a problem.

BTW, I've seen soldiers here make note of how sometimes the big guys think that the rules of physics don't apply to them.

Steve

[Bertram]

36 kg! There was football and you took a tv and sattelite dish with you? It was your honeymoon and you took a kingsize bed AND carried her luggage?

I manage to stay under 20 kg with food and fuell for a week! 36 kg would wear out my knees in an hour!

Deep respect if you actually got somewhere!

[Secondbrooks]

I remember first time i wore 20 kilograms of weight. It felt like i'm going to die during those 20 minutes we moved by marching Few months later I regularry was hauling about 40 kilograms of stuff, 50 kilograms was something to be called heavy. Well that army-thing was about 10 years ago, 20-30 kilograms feels nowdays again way too heavy. Getting used to different weights is always, eh, "funny".

Sure that Javelin is packed badly. I can think he feels he is carrying something like 60 kilograms when it's like that. One of our instructor said to us, when presenting laser distance counter, something like this: "This things weights about 2 kilograms, when it hangs and swings in your necks in long starp it feels like it weights 20 kilograms" I did that mistake once.

[SgtMuhammed]

What sucks about strapping the Javelin to your ruck is that you have to put enough stuff in it to give the ruck some body. So a couple pair of socks and an MRE won't cut it. The last time I had to hump the thing was at NTC and my ruck, LBV, M16, and the missile weighed about 120 lbs.

[Battlefront.com]

Bertram,

36 kg! There was football and you took a tv and sattelite dish with you? It was your honeymoon and you took a kingsize bed AND carried her luggage?

I said not to ask Seriously though, I did overpack my own stuff and was largely responsible for the gear for both my wife and I (tent, cooking stuff, etc.). Since I don't do this regularly enough to invest in lightweight stuff, some of the things I had in my pack were absolutely inefficient for their purpose.

The other problem is the one that all backpackers know of... the majority of the weight you carry is the same whether you're going for 1 night or 10 nights. The variables are food and spare clothing, though only food has to scale evenly with the number of days out.

Deep respect if you actually got somewhere!

I did, but the hike up was damned challenging. The hike down was a breeze

Secondbrooks,

Thanks for chiming in. Yup, weight distribution is key, and that massive soldier was obviously not aware of that fact when he loaded up

SgtM,

The last time I had to hump the thing was at NTC and my ruck, LBV, M16, and the missile weighed about 120 lbs.

I have the official weights of everything and what the military says various soldiers should be carrying. Suffice to say that only way a soldier can march into the field with a March Load that conforms to the weight guidelines is to either leave his weapon and all its ammo behind, or to not wear any body armor.

Steve

[Secondbrooks]

What sucks about strapping the Javelin to your ruck is that you have to put enough stuff in it to give the ruck some body. So a couple pair of socks and an MRE won't cut it. The last time I had to hump the thing was at NTC and my ruck, LBV, M16, and the missile weighed about 120 lbs.

I haven't ever carried that amount of weight (~100 pounds would be)... Sounds alot, i believe it also weights alot.

Ps. Doh! "laser distance counter" = "laser range finder" :mad:

Steve: Intresting to see am i aware of weight distribution anymore. I'm heading for my first actuall hike in a month, and because i'm not bright i'm doing it alone.

[Battlefront.com]

Make sure to tell someone where you're going and when you expect to return. Around me we have to spend a lot of taxpayer money looking for nOoBs who think that their cellphone will work 80 miles away from the nearest cellphone tower. Unlike many states out in the US West, we don't charge people for rescuing them.

Steve

[Other Means]

I remember hearing that the highest weight that can be carried for long distances is ~70lb. So most armies aim for around the 70lb mark.

Interestingly they examined a Roman army kit and it came out ~70lb.

So nothing changes.

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For army guys completely shooting that down read on...

[Secondbrooks]

I remember hearing that the highest weight that can be carried for long distances is ~70lb. So most armies aim for around the 70lb mark.

Interestingly they examined a Roman army kit and it came out ~70lb.

So nothing changes.

.

.

.

For army guys completely shooting that down read on...

Well yeah. What is long distance? Is it distance in time or space or combination of both and something else too?

We carried 40-50 kilograms daily but only for few kilometers per day (get out of vehicle, carry missile to position and so on). Only on special situation (like march-training) we had to march long distances like 10-20 kilometers with that. I'd say we got easy daily routine. We didnt' need to rush or anything just carry bit of a weight while moving peacefully in squad sized formation (so no curses of long rubberband columns). Those long marches were exhausting experiences, but we weren't used to those as march-training in my mind was undervalued.

For special op. troops i would specualte that they use about 2 days in week to move with heavy backpacks (average 50-70 kg?) for several tens of kilometers, rest 4-6 days they go on with small rucksacks while being at objective. However these guys are in better physical condition than usuall blokes. Our ww2 LRRP-guys are told to have had physical fitness almost at level of olympicathlets. They moved about 18 kilometers per summer day (when saving strenght), and i believe they carried something between 40-50 kilograms. This for several weeks even. However my memory isnt' best when it comes to small details (expacely in numbers) so...

I believe Romans moved something between 10-20 kilometers per day (when saving strenght, i believe), then digging alot and other daily routines. And they did this daily for what? weeks, months, years?