Tales from the Desert

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psydude: Apr 1, 2008

For a few months I was stationed out of a smaller FOB that only had chow hall service for 1-2 meals a day (depending upon the day of the week). So, once or twice a week, a few of us would chip in and buy a couple of goats and chickens from the local butcher and some fresh vegetables and naan from the market and do a barbecue.

One day, I picked up a quick mission to build a sewage pipe from the inside of the FOB down to the cesspool, which was immediately outside of the HESCOs, so that the septic trucks didn't have to leave the base (the Taliban were trying to convert them into VBIEDs, which led to some more creative poo poo-based jokes). So I walk down to the wall with my rangefinder to get some basic measurements, and as I'm peering out at the cesspool, I notice the local goatherder leading his goats down there. They dive in and start jumping around and began drinking that poo poo up. Just like the entire herd completely immersed in festering poo poo in the hot Afghan noon sun.

I got the information I needed, finished the sketch in my notebook, and left. I told no one what I saw.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2017 18:22

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 15:45

psydude: Apr 1, 2008

Arc Light posted:

Thanks, Rev maynard, for making this thread, because it made me remember my all-time favorite intel sperg story. Which ties in with drone chat. Man, I actually forgot about this, which is a small personal tragedy.

At one of my fobs, in maybe 2013, the S2 guys would print out screenshots from their favorite ISR feeds. Mostly drone, sometimes gunship. The best of these came from a Switchblade.

For those unfamiliar, the Switchblade drone is a tiny flying bomb. It can fit in a soldier's backpack, has a range of maybe ten kilometers, and was usually used by our guys to defeat an ambush when they were unable to maneuver. It was also used extensively for long-range engagement, as it could fly 10 km.

https://www.avinc.com/uas/view/switchblade

On this magical occasion, a SOF team was using one to scope out the path ahead. They observed a couple of insurgents planting an IED in the road, but the dudes evidently heard the UAV's motor and got spooked. They hopped on a motorcycle and hauled off. The SOF guys decide to go for the kill.

Mind you, the Switchblade can fly from about 60 to 100 mph. Those insurgents were just delaying their fate. But they were treated to the pants-making GBS threads sight of a little remote controlled rocket chasing them down.

The last frame of the ISR feed, taken right before it exploded and printed out for all to see, was of the motorcycle's backseater looking over his shoulder in horror at the rapidly approaching drone.

On the one hand, as a taxpayer, I'm sure we spent more money than those dudes were worth to kill them. On the other hand, we all had a good laugh when the intel LT explained what we were looking at. Good times.

Truly, GiP has become our internet VFW.

I was there at the same time and this video was widely circulated on SIPR. Nothing like some dark humor at the morning shift change briefing.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2017 18:50

psydude: Apr 1, 2008

Pesticide20 posted:

I was at FOB Gamberi for a while. There's an ANA training unit there. I was sad that I didn't have a camera to record their PT sessions.

The Afghan commandos at Ghazni were in surprisingly good shape. Probably the only Afghans I ever saw that didn't look emaciated.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 04:30

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