ChiefsPlanet - View Single Post - I Shouldn't Be Alive!! Your Dances With Death.

wilas101 · 05-15-2007, 07:56 AM

I was at JRTC when it was still at Ft. Chaffee and we were doing a live fire trench clearing exercise. Went through the whole bit... arty popped smoke on the hilltop, engineer detachment breached the triple strand with a bangelor (sp?)... lots of noise and smoke basically.

My fire team was first though the wire so when it was breached I led my guys through, hung a right just as we'd rehearsed, went 50 or so feet and found the trench just as they'd described it and we proceeded to clear. Tossed in grenades, made more noise, entered the trench and cleared a bunker. We were having quite the good time until I got up the the first corner.

I knew something was up because the corner went to the left when everything we'd rehearsed showed it going to the right. I stopped everyone and took a quick look around the corner to figure out where we were when I realized WE weren't all there. As I peeked around the corner I saw a silloute target just down the trench, fire opened up and rounds proceeded past my head.

I ended up getting everyone that was with me pushed back into the bunker we'd just cleared as I screamed into the radio for a cease fire.

Everything got stopped, we re-grouped and tagged onto the end of the clearing force and finshed the objective. We had our after actions review and everyone figured out what went wrong. It turned out the breach was in the wrong location and the amount of smoke on the target when I entered it made it impossible to see so I followed instructions. After half the company went through the breach the smoke had cleared enough to see and someone noticed the entry point wasn't in the right place so they went to it and started clearing toward us instead of staying together.

Then the most typical Army thing happened.

The Brigade commander had been monitoring the radios during the mission and apparently my 4 letter tirade while trying to get a cease fire called wasn't proper radio protocol. So he came up to the objective and proceeded to chew my @ss for my cursing on the radio.

Afterward the Brigade Command Sergeant Major took me aside and told me not to worry about it and that he'd make sure I didn't get in any trouble over it. He said "Had that dumb mother******er been shooting at me I would have shot back as I cussed him on the radio".

So, to make a long story long thats one of my most memorable near death experiences.

05-15-2007, 07:56 AM	#11
wilas101 Starter Join Date: Mar 2005 Casino cash: $6279487	I was at JRTC when it was still at Ft. Chaffee and we were doing a live fire trench clearing exercise. Went through the whole bit... arty popped smoke on the hilltop, engineer detachment breached the triple strand with a bangelor (sp?)... lots of noise and smoke basically. My fire team was first though the wire so when it was breached I led my guys through, hung a right just as we'd rehearsed, went 50 or so feet and found the trench just as they'd described it and we proceeded to clear. Tossed in grenades, made more noise, entered the trench and cleared a bunker. We were having quite the good time until I got up the the first corner. I knew something was up because the corner went to the left when everything we'd rehearsed showed it going to the right. I stopped everyone and took a quick look around the corner to figure out where we were when I realized WE weren't all there. As I peeked around the corner I saw a silloute target just down the trench, fire opened up and rounds proceeded past my head. I ended up getting everyone that was with me pushed back into the bunker we'd just cleared as I screamed into the radio for a cease fire. Everything got stopped, we re-grouped and tagged onto the end of the clearing force and finshed the objective. We had our after actions review and everyone figured out what went wrong. It turned out the breach was in the wrong location and the amount of smoke on the target when I entered it made it impossible to see so I followed instructions. After half the company went through the breach the smoke had cleared enough to see and someone noticed the entry point wasn't in the right place so they went to it and started clearing toward us instead of staying together. Then the most typical Army thing happened. The Brigade commander had been monitoring the radios during the mission and apparently my 4 letter tirade while trying to get a cease fire called wasn't proper radio protocol. So he came up to the objective and proceeded to chew my @ss for my cursing on the radio. Afterward the Brigade Command Sergeant Major took me aside and told me not to worry about it and that he'd make sure I didn't get in any trouble over it. He said "Had that dumb mother******er been shooting at me I would have shot back as I cussed him on the radio". So, to make a long story long thats one of my most memorable near death experiences.
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