Great Leader's

[spadepacolypse]

I am currently in C Co. 1-189th AVN, part of the 18th AVN Brig. Our battalion just went over 10k flight hours. Huge dude, simply huge. My company back in Arizona on an annual basis maybe does 1,500 flight hours, we just contributed over 3,000 in 6 months. Amazing and a testament to the hard work by everyone involved. What I find amazing is that

Comments

[octal]

The "no bags in DFACs" thing sucks if you're a contractor, too -- especially when the red alert goes off right before you go inside and then you're stuck outside with nothing to drink/read/etc. for an hour.

And a lot of contractors have jobs which actually require the bags (tools, papers, etc.), so you can end up not eating if you've got no place to leave the bag while you go inside to eat.

Most of the times I've seen soldiers coming off patrol with big bags, they've usually had crew-served weapons on their HMMWVs and had to detail someone anyway; or they have a group of people and someone gets to sit outside with the luggage and gets a take-away meal.

They do actually search non-military (TCN, some DOD CAC card US nationals, etc.) more thoroughly than military, sometimes, which does make sense.

And I've gotten yelled at by SGMs despite being a contractor, too, heh. So I think it is just universal hatred.

[sgtross]

Regarding the no bags rule..

It does make sense, if you think about it. I mean, we DO have people of all races in our military. US born citizens who have Arabic parents is no exception, and I am POSITIVE these individuals are having the hardest time of their lives right now, no because they are forced to fight people of their race, but because of almost racist tones these soldiers have to bear from their own comrades.

Anyway, back to the bags rule.. If we have Arabic soldiers in the US Army, then an Arabic person who forges an ID card (Not that hard, considering how hard the soldiers outside the DFAC CHECK them) and walks into a chow hall with a US uniform and a bag full of explosives would easily be able to recreate that incident in Mosul.

I understand that you're having a hard time. We all are. Directing your anger at the mayor cells and the SGMs that have no real job is kosher; just don't direct your anger towards guidelines designed to eep you safe.

- SGT Ross

[octal]

I'm not saying I'm against the no bags rule; it's just that it sucks to have to deal with it. Go kill the insurgents and then this can be done.

And I wouldn't consider race that great a profiler. Religion is maybe a slightly better profiler, but there are plenty of white/black/etc. muslims, and plenty of white/black/etc. non-muslim terrorists. Thinking that there might be a few who could infiltrate, steal uniforms, etc. is not that unreasonable (and I have a hard time differentiating puerto ricans from arabs, etc.)

No bags makes sense as a policy, but it is annoying as a day to day thing.

[giantlaser]

"Almost racist tones" my ass. Perhaps it softens the blow to say that, but the way the soldiers in theater say "hadji" is nothing short of a racist epithet. It's a nice coincidence that it's a term of respect to Iraqis.

That said, if I was in that environment (inside the wire, instead of outside where I lived for 2 years), I'd probably have used the same term after a while.

[qp4]

Actually I use haji because it's two sharp syllables as opposed to "Local National [job/role]" which is a mouthful.

[rothgar]

yep, been there. Had a buddy of mine get harassed because he had the nerve to bring an NVG bag with the NVGs inside. How dare he. Congrats on the flight hours though. 10k hours is pretty good. MY unit (1-227 AVN of the 1st Cav) ended up with 19,500 flight hours for our 13 month tour last year. It was all kinds of nutty-ness so I feel your pain.

[qp4]

I hotseat most of the time because we've lost so many guys, and being a glasses wearer means I need to have my NVGs set up for my eyes, so naturally I wear them on my IBA so if it gets dark I'll have them ready.

Then last week they told I couldn't go in the MWR with my gear on and that I'd have to leave it outside. I said, "I got sensitive items on me." And these fuckjobs are like, "Well you better go secure them somewhere."

Where the fuck are you supposed to secure three grenades and a set of PVS-14s besides yourself, and why would you do it while you're on QRF?

We're losing this war because there's about 25,000 good guys and a 125,000 total shitbags in this theater.

[qp4]

This is printworthy alright, and put right on Rider Six and Rider Seven's office doors.