Dave's World: Dispatches from Iraq 8

The second part of a two-part post by Matt. Click here to read part 1.

There are official Army terms we use -- like cordon and search and traffic control point -- and then there are several unofficial terms.

One of these unofficial terms that we have been using frequently was one that we can't use in polite company. So, for now, we'll call it a cluster, which conveys the same meaning.

Clusters refer to situations that either show no signs of organization, or have completely gone to hell.

It is used in a sentence as such: "Who planned this cluster?" Tonight's mission was a complete cluster. Somehow between the time the intelligence experts received the imagery of the site and the time that the mission had been finalized, the imagery had been flipped and reversed. What should have been a precision raid, instead looked like it was going to turn in to a neighborhood search and overall goose chase.

Thankfully, that isn't the norm, but that fact didn't make the situation less inconvenient.

We sat there in the vehicle for about an hour while the guys cleared buildings. To kill time, we talked about the night's mission, the performance of the Iraqi soldiers on security detail around us, and different rumors we had heard about the deployment.

Then, the vehicle just died. "Dude, you gotta be kidding me," I pondered aloud. I PMCS'd* it before we left." I have this theory that when the Army prepares a vehicle for desert service, they paint it beige and consider it ready. Then, they wait until it is having inevitable air filter and overheating problems, and modify the vehicle accordingly. This puts a lot of responsibility on the soldiers for maintaining said vehicles.

I did what I could before the mission to prepare our Humvee for the night's activities. I had gone through all the standard maintenance checks, filled the fuel tank, and made sure Luke had the gun ready. The warm night didn't seem like enough of a catalyst to cause vapor lock, but we had had overheating problems before. On one instance in particular where we had to get it towed back to FOB Courage, I brought our vehicle to Courage's CRT**, and the mechanics showed me a quick fix for the vapor lock we were experiencing.

If I could pour some bottled water on a certain part of the engine, it would cool down enough to continue the mission. The problem with that was that it took two men to open the front of the up-armored Humvee's hood, and with Luke manning the gun in our over-watch position, I was the only soldier that could dismount until the rest of our crew returned.

So, I did what anybody else would have done in the same situation: I tried to start the damn thing and hoped for the best. "Zhh-zhh-zhh-zhh-zhh-zhh-ZHH-ZHH-ZHHHHHHHHHH Guhguhguhguhguhguh." "YES!" I blared over the headset. I used the hand throttle to raise the idle a bit higher than normal. "Should be okay now," I sighed. I wiped the sweat off my brow and eased back in to conversation with Luke.

It was another few hours before our guys returned and we loaded up with the ING. The mission had continued without any serious incidents, but also unfortunately without finding the night's target. Dana hopped in to his seat and put on his headset, "Anything exciting happen while you guys were shamming*** in here?"

"Nah, nothing interesting," I replied, hoping the darkness of the Humvee's interior would hide my goofy smirk. We followed the Strykers out of the target area, and a few songs later, we were back at Al-Kindi. Another night, another successful mission.

*Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services
**Combat Readiness Team
***Sham (v.) to get over; to have it easy "Look at Matt … shamming again."

Dispatches from Iraq series links

Dave's World

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Dispatches from Iraq 8