Holiday Bones, Norman Style

[John Kettler]

gibsonm,

I've read about it, but never done it. OTOH, my now retired brother got lots of practice breaking track on Bradleys while in the 2/11 ACR.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Clavicula_Nox]

When was he in 2-11?

[John Kettler]

Clavicula_Nox,

My memory's awful today, but I'm pretty sure he was covering the IGB when the Berlin Wall came down. Am positive the unit's correct, for I still have both the sticker and the patch. He used to illustrate his letters with drawings of ferocious VOPO guard dogs, VOPOs peering at him through binos while he peered at them the same way, layout of the East German antiescape system, etc. Believe that he was successively a Bradley CFV gunner, Bradley commander, then a platoon sergeant. Given the studies on covering force survivability I had in my safe back then, plus what I knew about the threat the Army hadn't told him, I worried. A lot. Were you in the 2/11 yourself?

Regards,

John Kettler

[Clavicula_Nox]

I wasn't in 2-11, but they were attached to the same brigade I was in Iraq, 2004-2005, and participated in several operations with them. I, uh, wasn't a fan. I can't think of many who were, they suffered from a leadership problem (in that there wasn't any). Individually, they were alright and they were competent enough. Have some pictures if you're interested.

[John Kettler]

Clavicula_Nox,

Love to see them! By the time you're talking about, brother and Master Gunner George was long gone from the 2/11 and was running radio nets in the TOC as a SFC in the 3rd Brigade, 2nd ID, HHT 1/14 Cav. He was up in Anbar Province in LSA Anaconda where he was mortared, rocketed and nearly blown to bits by a VBIED (went off right after he drove past) while on one of many patrols. Don't believe he was ever assigned to a Stryker, but did his patrol work in a Hummer. I do know his assigned Hummer in the SBCT carried a honking air conditioner to keep the TOC's radios and computers cool enough to operate. How do I know? He drew it for me, complete with where everyone sat and where the gear was stowed.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Clavicula_Nox]

This sign had the insignia for every unit which comprised the BCT. 2-11 made up a significant portion of the heavy infantry.

I can't remember where this was taken. A random, anonymous patrol or raid.

This was 2-11's CSM. He was shady.

This is the centerpiece of our FOB:

This is part of a series of photos I took after a VBIED hit our gates -one of my close calls. The censored out portion is all that was left of the bomber, his face.

I thought I had more of 2-11, but I don't.

[Blackcat]

Clavicula Nox,

Thanks for the photos, alwas inetersted in seeing pictures taken by chaps on teh ground rather than newsies.

On the badge-board I see six badges with the title, "Airborne". One of them is the old 101st, can you say who the others are?

The chap on the left in the last photo is carrying a lot of weight for a soldier, espcially one on ops. Would he have had to pass a physical?

[Clavicula_Nox]

From left to right, the "Airborne" insignia is:

Psy Ops/ Civil Affairs (we had both)

101st AASLT

16th MP Brigade from Ft.Bragg

35th Signal Brigade from Ft.Bragg

44th MEDCOM from Ft.Bragg provided our rather extensive medical facilities. Really,, everything on the FOB was in terrible shape, but we boasted a top-class field surgery unit.

The oval patch at the bottom, next to Special Forces (10th Group from Germany, btw) belonged to the Al-Hillah SWAT team, so that's the early insignia for some early-Iraqi SOF personnel.

Well, the last picture was taken in September and some people manage to get fat over there. Somehow. I really don't know how it's possible, I lost between 20-30lbs on that deployment, and I was skinny to begin with. I came back emanciated. I didn't know the guy personally, so he may have been one of those "Fobbits".

Oh, we also didn't do any organized PT or PT tests on that deployment. Most of us, though, didn't need the PT to stay in shape. Between the gym and an insane op tempo, we managed to stay in shape, or at least not get fat.

[Blackcat]

Clavicula Nox,

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I am obliged to you.

I don't think the fat bloke was in a unit involved in an "insane op empo", insane calorie tempo, perhaps. I don't suppose FOB Kalsu had a burger king so maybe he was just a REMF, to use a term from my era, visiting from Kandahar.

Thanks again

[souldierz]

Clavicula Nox

Nice Bradley picture.The soldiers on the ground come out with a lot of good pictures and nasty ones to, like that VBIED one.Good to hear that you weren't injured in your close call with those improvised explosives and hopefully no one else was hurt it that blast.It be nice to see a thread of pictures that some of you Soldiers have taken from your experiences overseas or anywhere and share them with us, as long as they're censored or not to gory for BFC sake,I personally don't care, but we don't want BFC to run into some kind of censor problems with their site. I think a lot of people on here would appreciate seeing the pictures of the lands and the military hardware from your points of view.After all, the situation you Soldiers out there see is a very unique one that most people cannot imaging without the help of your words and pictures.Id encourage more if possible.

I tried to read the centerpiece of your FOB, but couldn't make out the words.

[Clavicula_Nox]

Clavicula Nox,

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I am obliged to you.

I don't think the fat bloke was in a unit involved in an "insane op empo", insane calorie tempo, perhaps. I don't suppose FOB Kalsu had a burger king so maybe he was just a REMF, to use a term from my era, visiting from Kandahar.

Thanks again

No, we didn't have anything like that. We had a little 5x5 tent that shared space with miscellaneous Gear Queer stuff and snacks, A respectable "Hajji Mart" where local traders sold us pirated DVDs, electronics that failed after a few days (portable HD died and killed 2gb of my pictures and video leaving me with fragments that I just hadn't gottena round to uploading yet!), and all sorts of other things. We had a little DFAC, too, that was frequently mortared. This was in Iraq, so no Kandahar. There were perhaps 2-3000 soldiers on the FOB. Most were combat arms, or working as combat arms, but a few never had to worry about it.

Nice Bradley picture.The soldiers on the ground come out with a lot of good pictures and nasty ones to, like that VBIED one.Good to hear that you weren't injured in your close call with those improvised explosives and hopefully no one else was hurt it that blast.It be nice to see a thread of pictures that some of you Soldiers have taken from your experiences overseas or anywhere and share them with us, as long as they're censored or not to gory for BFC sake,I personally don't care, but we don't want BFC to run into some kind of censor problems with their site. I think a lot of people on here would appreciate seeing the pictures of the lands and the military hardware from your points of view.After all, the situation you Soldiers out there see is a very unique one that most people cannot imaging without the help of your words and pictures.Id encourage more if possible.

The blast was pretty deadly. It happened in the early morning as the local workers were coming on to start their day. It also caught a group of Iraqi SWAT and SF coming off of a mission, as well as the gate guards. My group had cleared the gates a few minutes or so prior and were parked about 300m or so from the gate when it went off. The bomb was delivered in the bed of a tractor and killed the bomber, several of the Iraqis (some were reduced to ash), maimed the gate guards, killing one. I have a picture of my group's interpreter, who was with SF and SWAT, who received several pieces of shrapnel to his back. They also tried hitting two of our LP/OPs a little bit after that, but were not successful.

The sign is just the dedication. Bob Kalsu was the only professional football player to be killed in action in Vietnam. Bob Kalsu's Wiki link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Kalsu

The FOB's wiki link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOB_Kalsu

It's not wholly accurate. For example, the FOB wasn't in Iskandariyah, it was just nearby. FOB Iskan was part of the city, but was subordinate to us.

We were located in the Sunni Triangle, and most of our problems were a result of the fallout from 2nd Fallujah. Enemy fighters first fled to Baghdad, and then filtered down into the South's Babil province. We experienced a high degree of ethnic violence between Sunni/Shi'a militias, a fairly vicious organized crime infrastructure, on top of the regular insurgent behavior. It was an interesting time/place. As far as the news media was concerned, Fallujah,Baghdad, Mosul, and Tal Afar were the big stories of the time and our little corner of the country never received much attention. Which was okay.

[gibsonm]

I wasn't in 2-11, but they were attached to the same brigade I was in Iraq, 2004-2005, and participated in several operations with them. I, uh, wasn't a fan. I can't think of many who were, they suffered from a leadership problem (in that there wasn't any).

Not ideal.

I noticed on the BCT board a 3 ACR patch.

How did the Brave Rifles compare to 2-11 (in your view)?

[Clavicula_Nox]

The 3ACR group was very small and when the Battle of Tal Afar kicked off, we escorted them up north. We arrived after the majority of the operation was over, but everything they did was top notch. A good group to work with. Good commander, good senior NCOs.

I don't remember them running too many missions in our AO, I think that element maintained some OPs south of Baghdad before going North, but I don't know for sure. There could have been a larger element at FOB Iskan, or FOB Duke, or something, both of which fell under 155th's AO, but I really couldn't tell you for sure.

*edit*

Some of the units representing had very very very small units there. For example, the board shows 3rd ID. The only 3rd ID unit on the FOB was a platoon from a finance company. Their mission was handing out money to PsyOp/CA/SF and giving soldiers cash advances. Another unit is 22nd Signal Brigade which had exactly 4 soldiers on the FOB operating a single TACSAT terminal. By that standard, the 82nd should be up there because they had a single soldier attached to the BCT's S-2 shop.

[gibsonm]

The 3ACR group was very small and when the Battle of Tal Afar kicked off, we escorted them up north. We arrived after the majority of the operation was over, but everything they did was top notch. A good group to work with. Good commander, good senior NCOs.

I don't remember them running too many missions in our AO, I think that element maintained some OPs south of Baghdad before going North, but I don't know for sure. There could have been a larger element at FOB Iskan, or FOB Duke, or something, both of which fell under 155th's AO, but I really couldn't tell you for sure.

Cheers.

Have a soft spot for them from an attachment a while ago. Glad to see they are maintaining their standards.

But I think I heard recently that they were converting from "heavy" ACR to "light" and were going through some morale "challenges".

[Clavicula_Nox]

I believe 3rd ACR is transitioning to a Stryker brigade along with 2 ACR. I'm not sure how I would feel about that. While I have become a believer in Stryker, I don't believe Stryker is the answer to everything and converting our ACRs to SBCTs seems to be a nod in that direction to me.

[ChrisND]

Small world. Years ago I was in FOB Kalsu with the 82nd.

[Clavicula_Nox]

Small world. Years ago I was in FOB Kalsu with the 82nd.

That's really cool.

When I showed up on the scene (Jan 05), it was being run by Marines with 1 CAV in attendance. The Marines left the place in sorry shape. I remember that it also rained for 2 weeks and left knee-deep mud for a long time. When I get back on my desktop, I'll post some pictures of the FOB itself.

[normannobrot]

it's cool to see good force's fealing here, even in the gaming world. my father was in the us airforce.. served in nam too. we got stationed all over the place, one of me favourites was misawa airbase..but we finished off with alconbury.

all the best.

[ChrisND]

That's really cool.

When I showed up on the scene (Jan 05), it was being run by Marines with 1 CAV in attendance. The Marines left the place in sorry shape. I remember that it also rained for 2 weeks and left knee-deep mud for a long time. When I get back on my desktop, I'll post some pictures of the FOB itself.

That would be a hoot to see what the place looks like now. Have they cleaned up the central building? When I was there it was half rubble and craters, took a hit from something big during the invasion.

[Clavicula_Nox]

Well, I left in Oct 2005, so I'm sure it's changed considerably since then. In the last couple of months, the Guard started erecting a lot of wooden buildings to replace all of the tents and, because of a rape (rumoured), all of the females were moved into some trailers on the opposite side of the FOB. Right next to the berm. With no guard towers. The central building was converted into a TOC on one side, and a giant consolidated orderly room on the other. 2-11 maintained their own building, however. Behind the TOC was a motor maintenance area that was also used as a parking lot for various CSMs and the MP brigade's Dragoons.

The airfield before 155th assumed control from the Marines. This is what served as our control tower, and I don't believe anything better was ever constructed while I was there:

The sign reads "MCAS Kalsu. Pardon our noise, it's the sound of Freedom!" That phrase, and many variations, became a running joke over the year.

A photo taken after the VBIED I mentioned earlier. I don't remember taking this one, so it's likely it was taken by someone else and given to me. The green humvee on the left is where my group was parked and, after the blast, we were among the first responders.

Part of the gate. The burning hulk was the delivery mechanism. The driver's face was found, uh, relatively far away. I was told that parts of his ***** were also found, but I didn't see it, nor do I have any photos and cannot verify.

Tent City:

MSR Tampa just across the way:

Limited to 5 pictures, and I have 11.

[Clavicula_Nox]

Near the KBR office, MI, and the interrogation area.

One of our LP/OPs. Most soldiers didn't care for this duty. I onyl had to do it once and it consisted of a squad, or so, of guys taking turns sitting up top, or sitting in the CONEX and wasting time. Fortunately, I spent most of my time outside the wire or I would have done this more.

Tried not to include any pictures of me, but in this case it was impossible. Behind me you can see the TOC and the 155th's orderly rooms. Further to the right, off camera, was the 2-11's orderly rooms. Funny story(sorta) about the porta johns to my right (picture's left). One of my buddies was taking a dump when we got rocketed and it exploded just outside the door. He wasn't hurt, but it tipped over. This picture was probably taken around August or late September. We had to wear full battle rattle outside until August '05, but I was up north in early-mid September. I don't remember when it was, and it isn't too important.

Behind 2-11's orderly rooms

Another LP/OP

[Clavicula_Nox]

This was my official "Place of Duty" in Iraq but I was rarely there. The equipment was automated and only required attention when it stopped working, which left me free for all kinds of fun things. The insurgents used my antenna as a mortar TRP, and I found out that Apache pilots would use a red light hanging on my door to site their cannons. Awesome. We were located directly on the berm and did have to defend our position a few times, so even the 2 POGs in my team were able to earn their CABs. The area separated by HESCOs was a rifle range and a small MOUT course that 10th Group used to train the Iraqis.

I have more pictures scattered around my HD and on my laptop. I'll try post when/if I find them.

[Battlefront.com]

heh... this thread probably couldn't be more off topic now, but that's OK... it's a good ride

Steve

[Clavicula_Nox]

Sorry Steve.

I'll get it back on-topic. I propose CM: Normandy be named Combat Mission: European Freedom!

Any takers?

[souldierz]

Here ill chip in,

How about Combat Mission: Allied Advance

Combat Mission: Allied Operations

Combat Mission: Fall of the Reich

Combat Mission: United Front

or the good old Combat Mission: World War 2 fight for Freedom:)

as for those pics thanks for posting them.