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| Iraq |
| Strykers In The Hunt |
| 2003-12-31 |
| Then, about 10 o’clock the next morning, Saturday, another three or four rounds struck, this time at least one of them inside the perimeter. There were no injuries in any of the attacks on Eagle, where roughly 250 of the 5,000 Stryker soldiers are based. The closest rounds landed within 250 yards of the nearest occupied structure in the camp. "I was standing up there on top of my Stryker, and then bwoosh!" said Spc. David Stine, who said he saw three explosions Saturday, two of them not far from the camp’s fuel point. Within about five minutes, there were more explosions, but these were a couple miles or so to the north. It was fire from the good guys at Camp Pacesetter, the main Stryker brigade base camp about 15 miles away - 155 mm Howitzers raining steel on the spot where the mortars were likely fired. Pacesetter is home to two gun battalions - the Stryker brigade’s 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment and another from the 4th Infantry Division - as well as counterbattery radars that are meant to detect enemy fire. For some reason, the radars failed to pick up the first two nights’ attacks at Eagle. But they worked correctly on the third, and within about five minutes, an artillery battery fired 15 rounds. The radars are precise, plotting the point of origin to within about 10 meters. Operators say they can track almost any kind of gunfire. A platoon of soldiers from Eagle hurried to the scene after the shooting stopped. They found a couple of rocket-propelled grenade launchers, some empty AK-47 magazines and bayonets - and three donkeys and a couple of donkey carts. |
| Posted by:Chuck Simmins |
| #1 5 minutes response? Somone was sleeping. Goood gunbunnies can get a turn around full section TOT in 3 minutes. We saw that back when the first integrated firefinders with the targeting systems. Its a shame these bastards are shooting from back yards. IF they were out in the countryside, MLRS woudl saturate them withing 2 minutes. Lots of dead Jihadis when that happens (also tis why the MLRS were originally put into service). Of Course you need the gun crews full-up and ready to rock. My bet is they were on standby. And they had to go up the chain of command to Division for permission to fire, which threw more time in the loop. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2003-12-31 2:41:42 PM |