Avatar feed
Responses: 1
SPC Gary C.
5
5
0
That almost sounds like during desert storm when the 48th BDE from the Georgia National Guard came out, we were told that they wouldn't leave, and after the first couple of fire fights we found out why they didn't even know the basics. we had training lanes set up for them where they would do a "Crawl-Walk-run" the first time though we would all just stand up in our ambush sites and show them where we were at, in the walk phase we would stand again but fire at them very slowly, in the run phase we'd be down in our position and go at them full force throwing everything we had at them. In the crawl we did everything but wave VS-17 panels at them, they were told that every time they came through we'd be in the same place. In the walk we destroyed them before they got half way down the lane, afterwards in the AAR besides the OC's we got to tell the officers and NCO's what we did and what they did wrong as we saw it & how to fix it. In the run they did much worse, some of us said the heck with this and ate lunch and took a nap, because they were going so slow. They couldn't even remember where we were at. They seemed more worried about when they could knock off for the day, so they could go on main post & go to the PX and see a movie, or they wanted to know when they could go home (they were allowed to go home for Thanksgiving, but had to return), we also found out that some of the officers worked for some of the enlisted men, and were afraid to push or discipline them for fear of loosing their jobs when everything was over with. Around the time that they were sent home for turkey day word came down from higher that the 48th GANG would never deploy and this was a exercise to see how much training it would take before a National Guard unit of their size would be able to deploy. They were supposed to be the round out BDE for the 24th ID. In the early 80's (82-83) I PCS'd from Germany to Stewart and we would go out and "fight" units of the 48th for their summer camp, they were weak then and it was almost a joke to try to train them, we'd go up to South Carolina and stop at the first fireworks place and buy up as much as we could and use the firecrackers instead of firing our 16's or 60's because it would have been a waste of time to clean them and not training them at all.
(5)
Comment
(0)
SPC Gary C.
SPC Gary C.
2 y
CPT Lawrence Cable - At the moment I forget who was the CG at Irwin at the time, but I do know when Wesley Clark was the CG he would make us (the Opfor) run missions again and again when one of his friends troops were going though a rotation. We'd run a mission and kick Blufor's butt, we would get "end of mission" and almost as soon as we would be heading back to our lagger site we would get a reset, and have to run the same mission over again. If it was a regimental attack we'd have to change things up on the fly (it was a good thing that all of us were on the same frequency), if we were in the defense, we only had the holes for our BMP's & T-72's that we fought in the first time, so we were sitting ducks. Clark wanted his buddy's to look good no matter if they learned anything or not. I don't know anyone there, Opfor or OC's, that liked him he was just there to put a check mark on some paperwork so he could get his fourth star
(1)
Reply
(0)
MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.
MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.
2 y
SPC Gary C. - Clark replaced my brigade commander at Ft. Carson just as I was leaving the unit. All my colleagues hated him. Said he was a "pretty boy" who avoided the motor pools (in a mech brigade!) because he didn't like getting dirty and hated to miss time at the gym. I got out of there just in time. . . .
(1)
Reply
(0)
SPC Gary C.
SPC Gary C.
2 y
MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. - Yes, IIRC he would get mad if there were any troops in the post pool when he came to swim laps. He set times that he & his wife would have it all to themselves. I received a coin from him after one mission, and I heard a few years ago that he talked me up at the AAR, when he shook my hand it was like holding a limp cold fish. He was in clean starched BDU's with spit shined boots, while we were in dirty OPFOR's we had been in our holes for a couple days, and had been up since early that morning. Just as soon as he made a show of being there, he jumped back in his Hummer and took off. That was the second time I had seen him, the other was the change of command when he took over, and we had a pass in review.
(0)
Reply
(0)
SPC Gary C.
SPC Gary C.
2 y
MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. - You were lucky to not have to serve under him.
(0)
Reply
(0)
Avatar small

Join nearly 2 million former and current members of the US military, just like you.

close