26 December 2007
Happy Holidays to everyone! I've heard that Colorado and Minnesota had White Christmas's, so hopefully that made the Holiday a little more enjoyable. My Korean Christmas was not white, it was cool, but not bitter cold. I spent the day with some medics from one of the tank units, always a little surprised by what happens to people when they are in an all male unit. I wasn't the only female there, but that doesn't stop the boys from being boys.
I figured that after being in a Heavy unit for a year I should show you all exactly what constitutes a heavy unit. There are three types of infantry, Heavy, Mechanized, and Light. The type of Infantry unit dictates the rest of the support, so in a heavy unit, Armor is included because Heavy Vehicles are operated by Armor Soldiers - Tankers. Mechanized Infantry also use armored vehicles, but Heavy use Tanks which are defined as a tracked vehicle with a rotating turret. All heavy vehicles are tracked, but not all tracks are considered heavy though. The tracked ambulances that I have in my platoon don't constitute a heavy vehicle, but due to the vehicle brake down of the unit, its far safer to have an armored ambulance on the battle field with the tanks that it is to have a wheeled vehicle.
(Mechanized infantry use armored vehicles to get around, but don't necessarily rely on the heavy weapons, and light infantry use wheeled or no vehicles to get around - they are truly the feet pounding, carry it on your back 'grunts')
So here in the heavy brigade we have tanks, tracks, and wheels. Because of the Korean rules we can only drive the tracks (to include tanks) on the roads at night, which has been the reason for many of my sleepless nights. I live on the corner of the only road out of post for tactical movements, so I hear every convoy that leaves Casey. One night there were over 50 convoys of tracked vehicles that left starting at 8 and didn't end until 4. That was a long night.
So anyways, here are a couple pictures of some of the vehicles in my unit. You can Google most of them and find more pictures, but just to give you a taste. I prefer the helicopter landing about 500 meters from my room than I do to these vehicles rolling by.
Pictures (starting from the top):
1) M1A1 Abrams lined up ready to drive home (the center one has the turret turned towards me).
2) M88 Hercules Heavy Equipment Recovery Vehicle (88 or just Hercules for short) - these can tow an Abrams, lift engines, and are extremely loud! This one is pulling and older style M88.
3) The inside of an M113 armored ambulance. The upper left corner is the drivers area. There are two litters on the right side (the top one has bags on it) and the chains for the top left side litter are hanging in the middle.
4) The front left vehicle is an M113 armored personnel carrier - with the Red Cross to show it's an ambulance. The vehicle in the top right corner is an M577 which can also be used as an ambulance, but it is more commonly used as a forward surgical/treatment area. The back is taller making it possible to stand in the back.
5) This is the driver sitting up out of the hatch in the M113. The Track Commander (TC) hatch is covered by the black bowl type object (drip pan for the oil) in the middle of the picture.
6) A Korean tank - looks similar to an Abrams. They can drive whenever they want.
7) Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) Wrecker - this vehicles isn't powerful enough to tow a tank or even the M113 or M577, but it can tow a HMMWV or any other smaller wheeled vehicle.
I figured that after being in a Heavy unit for a year I should show you all exactly what constitutes a heavy unit. There are three types of infantry, Heavy, Mechanized, and Light. The type of Infantry unit dictates the rest of the support, so in a heavy unit, Armor is included because Heavy Vehicles are operated by Armor Soldiers - Tankers. Mechanized Infantry also use armored vehicles, but Heavy use Tanks which are defined as a tracked vehicle with a rotating turret. All heavy vehicles are tracked, but not all tracks are considered heavy though. The tracked ambulances that I have in my platoon don't constitute a heavy vehicle, but due to the vehicle brake down of the unit, its far safer to have an armored ambulance on the battle field with the tanks that it is to have a wheeled vehicle.
(Mechanized infantry use armored vehicles to get around, but don't necessarily rely on the heavy weapons, and light infantry use wheeled or no vehicles to get around - they are truly the feet pounding, carry it on your back 'grunts')
So here in the heavy brigade we have tanks, tracks, and wheels. Because of the Korean rules we can only drive the tracks (to include tanks) on the roads at night, which has been the reason for many of my sleepless nights. I live on the corner of the only road out of post for tactical movements, so I hear every convoy that leaves Casey. One night there were over 50 convoys of tracked vehicles that left starting at 8 and didn't end until 4. That was a long night.
So anyways, here are a couple pictures of some of the vehicles in my unit. You can Google most of them and find more pictures, but just to give you a taste. I prefer the helicopter landing about 500 meters from my room than I do to these vehicles rolling by.
Pictures (starting from the top):
1) M1A1 Abrams lined up ready to drive home (the center one has the turret turned towards me).
2) M88 Hercules Heavy Equipment Recovery Vehicle (88 or just Hercules for short) - these can tow an Abrams, lift engines, and are extremely loud! This one is pulling and older style M88.
3) The inside of an M113 armored ambulance. The upper left corner is the drivers area. There are two litters on the right side (the top one has bags on it) and the chains for the top left side litter are hanging in the middle.
4) The front left vehicle is an M113 armored personnel carrier - with the Red Cross to show it's an ambulance. The vehicle in the top right corner is an M577 which can also be used as an ambulance, but it is more commonly used as a forward surgical/treatment area. The back is taller making it possible to stand in the back.
5) This is the driver sitting up out of the hatch in the M113. The Track Commander (TC) hatch is covered by the black bowl type object (drip pan for the oil) in the middle of the picture.
6) A Korean tank - looks similar to an Abrams. They can drive whenever they want.
7) Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) Wrecker - this vehicles isn't powerful enough to tow a tank or even the M113 or M577, but it can tow a HMMWV or any other smaller wheeled vehicle.
No comments:
Post a Comment