Just received from a friend of mine for your review. Could be taken as having politcal opinions and God knows I have them but the important info here is

1. The truth
2. The weapons
3. Our Men are Great!

I am concerned about the Google Earth being used for aerial survellance.

Good overall information that I found rewarding.

I tried to clean up most of the foul language but forgive me please if I missed any.

My son left Iraq back in Sept. of 05. This is someone elses son.

Semper Fi an God bless,
Greg


Hello to all my fellow gunners, military buffs, veterans and interested guys. A couple of weekends ago

I got to spend time with my son Jordan, who was on his first leave since returning from Iraq. He is well, (a little thin), and already bored. He will be returning to Iraq for a second tour in early '06 and has already re-enlisted early for 4 more years. He loves the Marine Corps and is actually looking forward to returning to Iraq.

Jordan spent 7 months at "Camp Blue Diamond" in Ramadi. Aka: Fort Apache. He saw and did a lot and the following is what he told me about weapons, equipment, tactics and other miscellaneous info which may be of interest to you.

Nothing is by any means classified. No politics here, just a Marine with a bird's eye view's opinions:

1) The M-16 rifle :

Thumbs down. Chronic jamming problems with the talcum powder like sand over there. The sand is everywhere. Jordan says you feel filthy 2 minutes after coming out of the shower. The M-4 carbine version is more popular because it's lighter and shorter, but it has jamming problems also. They like the ability to mount the various optical gunsights and weapons lights on the picattiny rails, but the weapon itself is not great in a desert environment.

They all hate the 5.56mm (.223) round. Poor penetration on the cinderblock structure common over there and even torso hits cant be reliably counted on to put the enemy down. Fun fact: Random autopsies on dead insurgents shows a high level of opiate use.

2) The M243 SAW (squad assault weapon):

.223 cal. Drum fed light machine gun. Big thumbs down. Universally considered a piece of crap.
Chronic jamming problems, most of which require partial disassembly, (that's fun in the middle of a firefight).

3) The M9 Beretta 9mm:

Mixed bag. Good gun, performs well in desert environment; but they all hate the 9mm cartridge. The use of handguns for self-defense is actually fairly common. Same old story on the 9mm: Bad guys hit multiple times and still in the fight.

4) Mossberg 12ga. Military shotgun:

Works well, used frequently for clearing houses to good effect.

5) The M240 Machine Gun:

7.62 Nato (.308) cal. belt fed machine gun, developed to replace the old M-60 (what a beautiful weapon that was!!).
Thumbs up. Accurate, reliable, and the 7.62 round puts 'em down. Originally developed as a vehicle mounted weapon, more and more are being dismounted and taken into the field by infantry. The 7.62 round chews up the structure over there.

6) The M2 50 cal heavy machine gun: Thumbs way, way up.

"Ma deuce" is still worth her considerable weight in gold. The ultimate fight stopper, puts their heads in the sand every time. The most coveted weapon in-theater.

7) The .45 pistol: Thumbs up.

Still the best pistol round out there. Everybody authorized to carry a sidearm is trying to get their hands on one. With few exceptions, can reliably be expected to put 'em down with a torso hit. The special ops guys (who are doing most of the pistol work) use the HK military model and supposedly love it. The old government model .45's are being re-issued en masse.

8) The M-14: Thumbs up.

They are being re-issued in bulk, mostly in a modified version to special ops guys. Modifications include lightweight Kevlar stocks and low power red dot or ACOG sights Very reliable in the sandy environment, and they love the 7.62 round.

9) The Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle: Thumbs way up!

Spectacular range and accuracy and hits like a freight train Used frequently to take out vehicle suicide bombers, ( we actually stop a lot of them), and barricaded enemy. Definitely here to stay.

10) The M24 sniper rifle: Thumbs up. Mostly in .308 but some in 300 win mag. Heavily modified Remington 700's. Great performance. Snipers have been used heavily to great effect. Rumor has it that a marine sniper on his third tour in Anbar province has actually exceeded Carlos Hathcock's record for confirmed kills with OVER 100.

11) The new body armor: Thumbs up.

Relatively light at approx. 6 lbs. and can reliably be expected to soak up small shrapnel and even will stop an AK-47 round.

The bad news: Hot as heck to wear, almost unbearable in the summer heat (which averages over 120 degrees). Also, the enemy now goes for head shots whenever possible. All the crap about the "old" body armor making our guys vulnerable to the IED's was a non-starter. The IED explosions are enormous and body armor doesn't make any difference at all in most cases.

12) Night Vision and Infrared Equipment: Thumbs way up.

Spectacular performance. Our guys see in the dark and own the night, period. Very little enemy action after evening prayers. More and more enemy being whacked at night during movement by our hunter-killer teams. We've all seen the videos.

13) Lights: Thumbs up.

Most of the weapon mounted and personal lights are Surefire's, and the troops love 'em. Invaluable for night urban operations. (Jordan carried a $34 Surefire G2 on a neck lanyard and loved it.)

I cant help but notice that most of the good fighting weapons and ordnance are 50 or more years old!!!!!!!!! With all our technology, it's the WWII and Vietnam era weapons that everybody wants!!!! The infantry fighting is frequent, up close and brutal. No quarter is given or shown.

Bad guy weapons:

1) Mostly AK47's . The entire country is an arsenal. Works better in the desert than the M16 and the .308 Russian round kills reliably. PKM belt fed light machine guns are also common and effective. Luckily, the enemy mostly shoots like poop. Undisciplined "spray and pray" type fire. However, they are seeing more and more precision weapons, especially sniper rifles.
(Iran, again) Fun fact: Captured enemy have apparently marveled at the marksmanship of our guys and how hard they fight. They are apparently told in Jihad school that the Americans rely solely on technology, and can be easily beaten in close quarters combat for their lack of toughness. Let's just say they know better now.

2) The RPG: Probably the infantry weapon most feared by our guys. Simple, reliable and as common as dogpoop. The enemy responded to our up-armored humvees by aiming at the windshields, often at point blank range. Still killing a lot of our guys.

3) The IED: The biggest killer of all.

Can be anything from old Soviet anti-armor mines to jury rigged artillery shells. A lot found in Jordan's
area were in abandoned cars. The enemy would take 2 or 3 155mm artillery shells and wire them together. Most were detonated by cell phone, and the explosions are enormous. You're not safe in any vehicle, even an M1 tank. Driving is by far the most dangerous thing our guys do over there. Lately, they are much more sophisticated "shape charges" (Iranian) specifically designed to penetrate armor. Fact: Most of the ready made IED's are supplied by Iran, who is also providing terrorists, (Hezbollah types), to train the insurgents in their use and tactics. That's why the attacks have been so deadly lately. Their concealment methods are ingenious, the latest being shape charges in Styrofoam containers spray painted to look like the cinderblocks that litter all Iraqi roads. We find about 40% before they detonate, and the bomb disposal guys are unsung heroes of this war.

4) Mortars and rockets: Very prevalent.

The soviet era 122mm rockets (with an 18km range) are becoming more prevalent. One of Jordan's NCO's lost a leg to one. These weapons cause a lot of damage "inside the wire". Jordan's base was hit almost daily his entire time there by mortar and rocket fire, often at night to disrupt sleep patterns and cause fatigue (It did). More of a psychological weapon than anything else. The enemy mortar teams would jump out of vehicles, fire a few rounds, and then haul *** in a matter of seconds.

5) Bad guy technology:

Simple yet effective. Most communication is by cell and satellite phones, and also by email on laptops. They use handheld GPS units for navigation and "Google earth" for overhead views of our positions. Their weapons are good, if not fancy, and prevalent. Their explosives and bomb technology is TOP OF THE LINE.

Night vision is rare. They are very careless with their equipment and the captured GPS units and
laptops are treasure troves of Intel when captured.


Who are the bad guys?:

Most of the carnage is caused by the Zarqawi Al Qaeda group. They operate mostly in Anbar province (Fallujah and Ramadi). These are mostly "foreigners", non-Iraqi Sunni Arab Jihadists from all over the Muslim world, (and Europe). Most enter Iraq through Syria (with, of course, the knowledge and complicity of the Syrian govt.) , and then travel down the "rat line" which is the trail of towns along the Euphrates River that we've been hitting hard for the last few months. Some are virtually untrained young Jihadists that often end up as suicide bombers or in "sacrifice squads".
Most, however, are hard core terrorists from all the usual suspects (Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas etc.) These are the guys running around murdering civilians en masse and cutting heads off. The Chechens (many of whom are Caucasian), are supposedly the most ruthless and the best fighters. (they have been fighting the Russians for years). In the Baghdad area and south, most of the insurgents are Iranian inspired, (and led), Iraqi Shiites. The Iranian Shiia have been very adept at infiltrating the Iraqi local governments; the police forces and the Army. The have had a massive spy and agitator network there since the Iran-Iraq war in the early 80's. Most of the Saddam loyalists were killed, captured, or gave up long ago.

Bad Guy Tactics:

When they are engaged on an infantry level they get their asses kicked every time. Brave, but stupid Suicidal Banzai-type charges were very common earlier in the war and still occur. They will literally sacrifice 8-10 man teams in suicide squads by sending them screaming and firing Ak's and RPG's directly at our bases just to probe the defenses. They get mowed down like grass every time. ( see the M2 and M240 above). Jordan's base was hit like this often. When engaged, they have a tendency to flee to the same building,
probably for what they think will be a glorious last stand. Instead, we call in air and that's the end of that more often than not.
These hole-ups are referred to as Alpha Whiskey Romeo's (Allah's Waiting Room). We have the laser guided ground-air thing down to a science. The fast mover's, mostly Marine F-18's, are taking an ever increasing toll on the enemy. When caught out in the open, the helicopter gunships and AC-130 Spectre gunships cut them to ribbons with cannon and rocket fire, especially at night Interestingly, artillery is hardly used at all.



Fun ?, fact: The enemy death toll is supposedly between 45-50 thousand. That is why we're seeing less and less infantry attacks and more IED, suicide bomber ****. The new strategy is simple: attrition.

The insurgent tactic most frustrating is their use of civilian non-combatants as cover. They know we do all we can to avoid civilian casualties and therefore schools, hospitals and (especially) Mosques are locations where they meet, stage for attacks, cache weapons and ammo and flee to when engaged. They have absolutely no regard whatsoever for civilian casualties. They will terrorize locals and murder without hesitation anyone believed to be sympathetic to the Americans or the new Iraqi govt.
Kidnapping of family members (especially children) is common to influence people they are trying to influence but cant reach, such as local govt. officials, clerics, tribal leaders, etc.).

The first thing our guys are told is "don't get captured". They know that if captured they will be tortured and beheaded on the internet.
Zarqawi openly offers bounties for anyone who brings him a live American serviceman. This motivates the criminal element who otherwise don't give a **** about the war. A lot of the beheading victims were actually kidnapped by common criminals and sold to Zarqawi. As such, for our guys, every fight is to the death. Surrender is not an option.

The Iraqi's are a mixed bag.

Some fight well, others aren't worth a poop. Most do okay with American support. Finding leaders is hard, but they are getting better. It is widely viewed that Zarqawi's use of suicide bombers, en masse, against the civilian population was a serious tactical mistake. Many Iraqi's were galvanized and the caliber of recruits in the Army and the police forces went up, along with their motivation. It also led to an exponential increase in good intel because the Iraqi's are sick of the insurgent attacks against civilians. The Kurds are solidly pro-American and fearless fighters.

According to Jordan, morale among our guys is very high. They not only believe they are winning, but that they are winning decisively. They are stunned and dismayed by what they see in the American press, whom they almost universally view as against them. The embedded reporters are despised and distrusted. They are inflicting casualties at a rate of 20-1 and then see **** like, "Are we losing in Iraq" on TV and the print media.
For the most part, they are satisfied with their equipment, food and leadership. Bottom line though, and they all say this, there are not enough guys there to drive the final stake through the heart of the insurgency,
primarily because there aren't enough troops in-theater to shut down the borders with Iran and Syria.

The Iranians and the Syrians just cant stand the thought of Iraq being an American ally (with, of course, permanent US bases there).

Anyway guys, that's it, hope you found it interesting, I sure did.

Interesting post for sure. I agree with the weapon assesments as well, as they parralel most of my findings during my enlistment. I never had a problem with my M16A2 tho. Sometimes I would have a bum magazine, but overall it was a reliable and fairly accurate rifle if kept half way carbon free. I especially liked the M16A2 with an M203 grenade launcher mounted under it. Made for a very useful combo. I immediately agree with the finding that the Squad Automatic Weapon being a flop as a combat tool. I never saw one that woundn't jam at least once a drum. Absolute Kaka in my book.

note: i've seen this circling around and I'm almost 100% certain it is not written by any one of the troops actually in Iraq, two simple reasons:

it's a M249 SAW not a "M243" any Marine or probably any soldier knows that, I would have a hard time believing someone in the know would write that, also, it's belt fed, it can accept magazines from an M16/M4 but it's belt fed, not drum fed, anyone who has any familiarity with it knows that, this guy sounds like he's heard alot of other peoples opinions and just pieced them together with some of his own.

Marineman,
Sorry for the mis-information. My son is a Marine Chiefing a Chinook and he didn't share this much info while he was touring over in Iraq with me. I though it was interesting. The writer stated that his son was over there and this is a re-hashing of the stuff he gleaned from his son while on leave. Just thought it might be interesting. The daddy sounded like he had a major interest in his sons work over there and I respect and share his pride.
Thanks,
Greg

I’m an infantryman just returned from Iraq serving in Mosul and Tal Afar in a stryker brigade and I wanted to put in my two cents. The M4’s are what the infantry are using and will function fine as long as they are taken care of. Yeah the dust sucks and can make a guys life miserable, but its simple enough to clean off. The SAW is a jam-o-matic POS. The 5.56 is a wimpy round but anyone could drop a deer with .223 as long as you shoot straight. Little things like an accu-wedge in an M4 can help you do so.

The beretta sucks. The round sucks, and the gun is inaccurate. What good is it if it performs well, which admittedly it does, if you can’t hit what your aiming at.

The Mossberg has never failed to open a door for us, but its not allowed to clear a house. Don’t know why, but that’s not my problem and we’ve worked our way around that.

We used the 240’s sparingly, but they make a good lead thrower if the need arises.

The M2’s were the Strykers’ bread and butter. We were able to put large amount of ammo where we wanted and we could chew up a lot of anything we wanted. When one went down, we felt it.

While on the subject, one weapon system that wasn’t mentioned is the MK19. When it worked it was worth its weight in gold. The problem was getting it to work…**** near impossible. One time the only way we got it to work was, swear to God, we threw a handful of dirt into it. It worked until they cleaned it.

We weren’t allowed to carry any pistol except the issued Berettas, but we all wished we could carry .45’s. A lot of us bought one when we got back. There were a lot of .45’s and .40’s that were bought and more than a couple of M4’s.

The M14’s kick butt. We had mounted ours with 3-9X40 Leupold scopes. We were making 1000 yd shots with it. One of our guys mounted it with the red dot and IR laser to use as his primary weapon, but he found it to be too long for the insides of the houses. The houses can be extremely small.

I unfortunately have no experience with the M24. It was the snipers’ weapon.

It’s hard to comment on the new body armor. It sucks to wear. The plates make it so **** heavy, but you get used to it. I have seen a plate take an AK round. Needless to say it saved his life. He had a **** of a bruise though.

The IR equipment makes us deadly at night. Essential IMO. The lights are essential as well. Sometimes its just not practical to use night vision but still too dark to see.


Bad guys’ weapons

The AK is the main staple, but the PKM, PKC, and Dragonov all made their appearances. All were, with the exception of one ornery sniper, poorly employed. Fortunately.

The IED. The scariest weapon used. When you can see them you aren’t sure if it’s the actual bomb or if there’s a secondary waiting for you. The second worst is the suicide vehicle borne explosive device, or SVBED. Seen a couple of well-executed baited ambush with these. I still shudder thinking about them.

In our areas we pretty much eliminated the mortar and rocket threat. We actively went after caches and found a couple of big ones by accident too. We also mortared them back. The attacks dropped from about 4-5 a day to maybe 1 a week.

We never saw a concerted attack only hit and run tactics. I have heard of some second hand, but who knows how true they are so I won’t repeat them here.

The Iraqi’s themselves are…odd. I don’t know how else to put it. A lot of them are sincere people. They will tell you if they like you or hate you. The problem lies in the fact that there are those that will lie to your face and unless you have an interpreter that you trust you won’t know it. Some pay only lip service to Islamic beliefs, but still fight us with a fervor usually saved for fanatics.

Well that’s a couple more penny’s than I thought I was going to throw in, but there it is.

Outlaw, welcome back and good job!

I've also seen this report and also caught the M249 goofs. The Marines do not use the M24 that's a Army weapon only. The Marines use the M40 series which is a short action and not capable of the .300 Win Mag. I have a Rem 700 signed out in .300 Win Mag over here along with a bunch of other guns. I never had a problem with my M249 and have just gone through 2,500 rds with it on the range unless operator error. M16 and M4 work reliable if kept clean (mine are shot daily and cleaned once a week, I run ranges).

This is my thrid trip in Iraq (fourth if you count first GW) and will always comment to keep your weapons in good working order. I've had AKs malfunction on me plenty here also. Berettas are accurate pistols, I shoot mine at 100m weekly and have Wolfe mag springs installed for that extra reliablity. One thing the Army has always been short on training is how to employ and shoot accurately handguns (offensively and defensivily). Less then two more months here.

CD

WELCOME HOME, and my thanks to you and your comrads for a job well done.

"Some pay only lip service to Islamic beliefs, but still fight us with a fervor usually saved for fanatics. "

Well that's strange. I thought everybody loved to be occupied.
I believe the thread is entitled "Weapons of Iraqi War," not "Antediluvianist's Opinions of the War." I enjoy reading the troops' opinions of their weapons without irrelevant clutter :rolleyes:.

My warmest regards and wishes to the service provided by Outlaw21V and Combat Diver. You guys are my heros. I truly appreciate what you guys are doing and did to date. You guys will be in my prayers.

You know I think I remember that the French were very grateful when we occupied and liberated them as well as the Afghanistans , the Germans, the Italians and many many more. You know to liberate sometimes you have to occupy.

For some reason the politicians won't just let us liberate with Air Support. I personally can't figure out why?

Again I value the opinions of the men who have an opinion backed by works unlike myself. So thank you, you Men of Valor.

OK another request for opinions of the Dragonov? How would you rank it? What would you compare it to.

Thanks,
Greg

I was in the ArmyGuard untill 2002.I loved the M16. I never had a jamb. The only time I ever saw one jamb was because people put too much oil in them. One of my jobs was operating the MK-19. It fires up to 360 grenades a minute. I never used it in a field or combat situation. But I could tell it would be finiky. It is a small package of devastation. Accurate,3000 meter range? if I remember can penetrate thick steel. I only fired it at about 600 meters. It is like having artillary in a humvee. I have a friend that is shipping out soon and he took up were I left off on the MK-19. It makes me feel a bit guilty its him and not me going. I just hope I can help his family somehow while he is gone.

Sincerly,

AL

When I was over there, I found that frequent weapon maint. and NO oil in the M-16's did the trick. I never had a Beretta, I have one now and it's accurate as ****. My unit still had the 1911 when I was there the first time. Go figure, all state of the art equipment and someone in charge must've said no to the 9mm's for our unit. The MK19's are awesome as I have video from red cloud range at Ft. Benning of them in use up to 1500 meters. They shoot off and a few seconds later, it's raining ****. I'm still stumped why they don't phase in the 16's in 7.62.

I was in Mosul and Q-West and we had all of the problems that were listed here. On the MK19's, we actually used artillery grease and that fixed them everytime! The CLP the army uses is worthless unless you are working on a car and need some penetrant oil!

I'll keep the artillery grease in mind it will probably come in handy when I go back.
They have started to replace the CLP with MILTECH and it works a lot better on the small arms.

I hadn't really planned on saying anything because it brings up bad memories, but I can verify the effect of the RPG, because on 9-25-05 my son was killed by one. He was in a Chinook in Afghanistan when he and 4 of his friends were killed. Oh yea, it does the job.

mtnman I am sorry for your loss, gratefull to all those who are fighting for us, and though words won't help God bless and keep your son and his comrads. Again my heartfelt sympathies to you and your family.

Mtnman,
Man I am so sorry for your loss! My son chiefed a CH46 and left Iraq about a year ago. Thanks for sharing with us your loss and I'll be lifting you guys up in my prayers. If I can ever do anything for you please let me know.
God bless and keep you,
Greg Franks

Mtnman
Sorry to hear about your son. Thankyou for sharing with us. I can't say that I love the Chinook, but they sure do come in handy. My prayers to you and your family.

Thanks to all of you men for your service to our country

mtnman,
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Your son was a hero to many and we appreciate his sacrafice and that of his parents.

Godspeed

RDKNG family prayers with you and your family mtnman, so very sorry to hear of your loss.