Zaydok Allen
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I find their choice of uniform color interesting given their environment. Camouflage isn't their thing.
Never know what you’re going to find
- Thread starter GunnyUSMC
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I find their choice of uniform color interesting given their environment. Camouflage isn't their thing.
Mauser lover
Member
I'm guessing cheap is more important than utility? Or are there more trees and grass in Iraq than we think (like Nebraska! I always think of it as a flat wasteland, but last time we were driving through it we did spot a few trees!)?
Was all their web gear/uniform stuff surplus stuff from elsewhere? And if they did have some national production for that stuff, was it better camouflaged than the OD green? Did the more elite military or police units have different color uniforms that blended better?
Sistema1927
Member
It wasn't that many years ago that we were wearing OD fatigues. I think that I was required to transition to camo BDU's in 1982.
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GunnyUSMC
Member
I have some dinar, paper and coin, but it's tucked away somewhere in the house. As I here it the value of the dinar has fallen. You might be able to buy a snow cone with that 25,000.Hey Gunny, how much of your Iraqui stuff can I buy for 25,000 dinars?
View attachment 794705 View attachment 794706
Maybe my ammo is worth more.
Do you have any of this paper? Maybe an Iraqui millionaire?
I'll take that as a "your ammo is worth more!" 
On the other hand with temperatures what they are in Iraq, a sno-cone might be worth a pretty penny over there. What do they sell as an alternative ????
A friendly GI buddy of mine supplied the currency. (he was a dinar millionaire)
I'm wondering what happened to all the spent brass that was ejected in Iran? There must have been 300 mega tons of it. The Iraquis must have used steel cases, but the U. S. had to have brass. I have a feeling that we will be soon flooded with brass swords and Statue of Liberty imports from over there.
I also have questions about the tons of mines and other ordnance that are scrapped or captured. The logistics are mind boggling. They used to dump it in the ocean back in the second world war.
Send it to me!
On the other hand with temperatures what they are in Iraq, a sno-cone might be worth a pretty penny over there. What do they sell as an alternative ????A friendly GI buddy of mine supplied the currency. (he was a dinar millionaire)
I'm wondering what happened to all the spent brass that was ejected in Iran? There must have been 300 mega tons of it. The Iraquis must have used steel cases, but the U. S. had to have brass. I have a feeling that we will be soon flooded with brass swords and Statue of Liberty imports from over there.
I also have questions about the tons of mines and other ordnance that are scrapped or captured. The logistics are mind boggling. They used to dump it in the ocean back in the second world war.
Send it to me!
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GunnyUSMC
Member
I’ll have to dig up some pics.I'll take that as a "your ammo is worth more!"
A friendly GI buddy of mine supplied the currency. (he was a dinar millionaire)
I'm wondering what happened to all the spent brass that was ejected in Iran? There must have been 300 mega tons of it. The Iraquis must have used steel cases, but the U. S. had to have brass. I have a feeling that we will be soon flooded with brass swords and Statue of Liberty imports from over there.
I also have questions about the tons of mines and other ordnance that are scrapped or captured. The logistics are mind boggling. They used to dump it in the ocean back in the second world war.
Send it to me!
CapnMac
Member
Well, physically, a tank turret is just an upside-down glass. It's heavier at the top than the bottom. Any overpressure in the hull enough to pop the thing out,and it's going to "want" to fall heay (top) side down. Which has been true over most of the course of tank history.
CapnMac
Member
Back when a previous Administration mothballed them all to the AF Reserve, there was a cool Night Vision dodge the pilots used.
Which was to always hang a Maverick missile on one of the pylons. Maverick uses TV guidance, later versions using NV television.. The target monitor is typically mounted to the right of the gunsight over the IP. So, you turn the targeting on, the screen shows you what the missile "sees." Hey, presto! NV without goggles. Some of those AFRes johnnies are right smart.
CapnMac
Member
Do a google Image search for "valleys of Iraq"--rather a lot of verdant green. Where it's sandy, it's very ecru. Any shadows cast tend to be very dark; OD blends into shadows handily.
Zaydok Allen
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I'll check it out.
WestKentucky
Member
I have seen a lot of helmet cam footage of firefights. It’s suprisingly twiggy in some places. We see pictures and videos of desert from battlefields, but stuff that doesn’t make headline news looks about like your standard American cattle pasture, only there is less large foliage and more scrub brush.
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GunnyUSMC
Member
I remember lots of sand. It took me a while, after getting home, before I could go to a beach.
CapnMac
Member
Amen, brother. I still am not comfortable in certain tropical locales.
Those of us employed on the littoral can find "beach" as a concept of "fun" disconcerting. I get to a beach and I'll mentally start carving out sports for the ammo dump, the fuel dump and the like, the lane for the LCACs; where we'll have to land versus where we ought to--you know, like being at work.
"Look, we have an umbrella, let's relax!" Yeah, right--I want a ring of sandbags, some camo netting and hootch roofing, and a commo section. harumph. Give me Moab or Monument Valley instead.
mstreddy
Member
You know Capn... the fly boys in my Reserve wing were some of the first to use the LANTIRN pod equipped F16s, and scored some of the first hits with them on Iraqi missile sites during the Northern/Southern Watch missions. Something about, "hey fellas, what if we try this?" I met one of the guys, now a retired 2 Star, that was on the team that came up with the idea for mounting them up to our "slightly used" F16s. He had some interesting stories of how they were NOT risk averse and willing to try things just to see how they worked.
Now, me, since I'm in So Fla, I don't mind the beach. But seeing all that #$# sand in Iraq with no beach was just unsettling.
And as to camouflage - I started in the Corps in 82 and we were issued the old style cammies with the "jungle" pattern. Woodland started coming out around then too. I joined the AF Reserve in 88 and many were still in the green pickle suit. Coming in new, I got sets of woodland BDUs. Marines started switching soon after to the Marpat.
I have a set of Desert BDUs hanging around as well, though I missed out on the chocolate chip.
Fast forward, and the AF just announced recently that we are going to the new OCP soon, and the wear will be authorized 1 Oct IIRC. Oh, boy, do I want to go and spend $300-400 on a couple of sets for my last 2.5 years?
mstreddy
Member
Gunny, remember what is now Iraq was part of the colonial British empire. Also, the Iraqis have bought equipment from everybody at some point of time or another. They have also procured locally manufactured versions of various small arms and equipment. In my old office I had a Tariq pistol on the wall. An Iraqi version of the Beretta 1951, AKA Helwan in Egyptian production.
mstreddy
Member
And just found this pic... here I am at one of our "bazaars" on base. 2010.
Of the three on base, not a one of the signs spelled it right...
Of the three on base, not a one of the signs spelled it right...
mstreddy
Member
While we were there 2003-2010, the munitions were collected up and stored at bases. EOD would blow them up little by little as they could. There were limitations on how much they could blow at once in vicinity of the bases, housing, etc. Big, BIG BOOMS were frowned upon. Even with all the stuff we had gathered up or was turned in, ammo stashes were routinely found, even in 2010. We had a call come in one evening, after a particularly heavy rain storm ,that a pallet of 105 or 107 MM artillery shells was uncovered by the rain in the corner of the police station grounds -- right next door to our main gate! And could our EOD or the Army come over and pick them up - please?
In 2006 or 7, IIRC, the recovered ammo dump at Kirkub Air Base went up due to a brush fire started by a rocket attack. I've seen the videos from that and that was an impressive fireworks show. We had a team over there at the time and they had to help evacuate all the base folks from one half to another, and establish a perimeter to maintain a safe cordon due to the large amount of HE, bombs, rockets, etc!
CapnMac
Member
LoL
Fair warning, most of my "partying" seems to have equal reactions of "Wait, What...?" and "Is this all...?"
My days of rescuing co-eds from their condos are well past (if oddly fresh in memory).
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GunnyUSMC
Member
Here’s one of the Battle maps from day one and two of the ground war.
On the second day we pushed pass Al Jaber Airbase late in the day. We set in for just nort of the base. The smoke from the oil fires rolled in turning that night so dark that you couldn’t even see with NVGs.
This pic was taken about three weeks after the ground war at the Al Jaber Airbase in front of one of the hangers.
On the second day we pushed pass Al Jaber Airbase late in the day. We set in for just nort of the base. The smoke from the oil fires rolled in turning that night so dark that you couldn’t even see with NVGs.
This pic was taken about three weeks after the ground war at the Al Jaber Airbase in front of one of the hangers.
Sistema1927
Member
I bet that you can still taste that burning oil.
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GunnyUSMC
Member
Almost everyday. I still don’t like working on vehicles due to the smell.
This was taken on the third day. You can see my M16A2 in front of me.
This was taken two hours after the ceasefire was called. You can see the barrel of my M16A2 on my right, but can’t see the Iraqi made AK that I was holding in my left hand.
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GunnyUSMC
Member
That’s an 80’s porn star ‘stashe.That... is a serious... porn star 'stashe.
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