Convoy duty & other stuff

**2DREZQ** · 09 Dec 04,, 06:28

according to someone I just talked to face-to-face: He has run over 100 convoys. They have been hit by RPG(1) small arms fire(2-3x) and some sort IED's(1-2). No fatalities, I don't know about wounded, but it didn't seen like there had been any serious ones that he had seen. That comes to 6% or so of the convoys being attacked at all, and no serious disruptions. So if 94% of our convoys aren't even touched, things can't be as awful as the nutjobs over at PDF say they are.

Oh, firsthand accounts from one base say mortar attacks about 1/2 the days of a month (not every other day, they come in clumps.) 2-3 shots then POOF! (gone) Don't scare them much, as they aren't really aimed well (a lot miss the base entirely!) and haven't done "hardly any" damage.

So much for the implications of "constant attacks".

**lemontree** · 09 Dec 04,, 06:58

2DREZQ
Thats because, every time a casualty occurs in a convoy ambush, it gets amplified by the media. Hence, when it is viewed in relation to other attacks, the situation seems grim.

**2DREZQ** · 11 Dec 04,, 20:34

http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-84734sy0sep26,0,3701744.story?coll=dp-headlines-topnews

'Gun trucks' offer safety on deadly routes
This improvised unit fills an unexpected need - it specializes in escorting and protecting convoys.

BY STEPHANIE HEINATZ

September 26, 2004

NAVISTAR, KUWAIT -- In April, insurgents hit military convoys running up and down MSR Tampa, the military's main supply route through Iraq, harder than any other time of the war.

In that month alone, more than 100 troops died. Many of the dead were traveling in those convoys.

Capt. Rob Landry, an Army Reserve officer then commanding a company of truck drivers, said the attacks made military leaders realize the threat on Iraq's roads was a lot higher than originally estimated.

Units conducting convoys began sending along "gun trucks" - Humvees with machine guns mounted on them - to protect themselves, Landry said, but there were no standards. The soldiers manning the trucks weren't trained specifically for that job.

"That's when I started thinking that these convoys needed armed escorts," said Landry. "(Convoys) were considered soft targets because their mission is to deliver supplies, not fight."

That, and it's not that easy to drive and shoot simultaneously.

Landry got permission to put together the 518th Gun Truck Company, a company that now falls under the control of the Fort Eustis-based 7th Transportation Group.

"It took a lot of work just to stand up the company," Landry said. "We are unique in the fact that we are provisional. We stood up in theater and will be used only until leaders decide they don't need us any more. We are a wartime asset."

It's the first time in military history, Landry said, that a company has existed for the sole purpose of protecting supplies headed to troops on the front lines.

Capt. Thelonious McLean-Burrel, currently the 7th Transportation Group training officer who's experienced with convoy live-fire tactics, is slated to take command of the company when Landry rotates back to the States.

With that comes new responsibilities and new challenges, Landry said.

When first conceived, the idea for the company was basic enough - provide protection to convoys. Landry pulled soldiers from transportation units stationed throughout the war zone to train them to be more than truck drivers.

It's reminiscent of Vietnam, Landry said, in that back then gun trucks were designed to protect shipments of military equipment. Unlike Vietnam, where soldiers traveled an average of 168 miles to deliver supplies, the trip from Navistar to Camp Anaconda, which sits north of Baghdad, is more than 400 miles.

That 400 miles has become the deadliest stretch of road in the war.

Landry then had to find vehicles and transform them into machines durable enough to withstand roadside bombs, mean-looking enough to deter attacks and reliable enough to get the job done.

He found 35, mostly Humvees, and had armor installed on the doors and side panels, ballistic glass put in the windows, advanced communication systems wired in, and a .50-caliber machine gun mounted to the roof.

The company also engineered a handful of 5-ton trucks and medium-size, flatbed trucks for the job.

"If you have an aggressive posture, which the .50-cal provides, insurgents are less likely to target you," Landry said. "For every one round they fire at us, we send back a thousand."

The gun truck company, its trucks and administrative offices, are at Navistar, the border crossing station into Iraq.

Convoys headed north stop at Navistar, get their clearance to push forward and pick up their gun truck escorts.

Now that the company has been operating for a few months, challenges are starting to surface, Landry said.

For one, the company doesn't have enough gun trucks or drivers for every convoy heading north. The 7th Transportation Group is expected to add people to the unit.

"We'd also like to get the new Humvees," Landry said. The most advanced model now coming from the factory is made completely of armored parts. "But we understand they are going to units up north. Our guys help deliver them up north."

The frustrating part, Landry said, is that few of those safer Humvees are logging as many miles as the gun truck company.

"They don't even go on the MSR, where they are needed," he said.

On average, Landry said, there are 40 attacks on the supply route each day.

Part of the problem, Landry said, is that his company is based in Kuwait.

"Even though we do all of our missions across the border, we sit on the border, technically in Kuwait, and are not on the priority list," Landry said. "Plus, we are a transportation unit, not a trigger puller. Do we have the best equipment available? No. But we make do with what we have."

I guess some things in Iraq ARE the same as Vietnam. Gotta learn the same lesson again...