Gambit
02-14-2011, 12:33 PM
We were called out for a street patrol at 0300, this was our rest day but the guys who were supposed to do it were hit by a suicide bomber who killed their interpreter and injured four Marines.
It was a rush to prepare; all the guys were irritable as we were not employed for this type of work so this was certainly out of the norm. The Sarge was in a foul mood and came down hard on our bitc*ing and moaning.
We were bussed up and rolling by 0330; everyone was pissed off so there was not the normal joking and friendly banter, just sullen faces staring into the middle distance. I looked my buddy in the eye; he just gave a little shake of the head and looked away.
By the time we dismounted some normality had resumed, everyone was laughing at one of the guys, who, when he had stood up had dropped a can of soda. It burst and thoroughly soaked him from head to toe.
We had barely started the patrol when a hand grenade sailed through the air, bounced off a building and exploded in a doorway very close to us. Pieces of shrapnel struck the buildings nearby. We flung ourselves down, as we did so there was a clatter of a second grenade hitting the building, it rolled out in front of us but this one failed to explode. There was complete silence.
We peered into the darkness to see where the grenades had been thrown from, but it was impossible to determine. The thrower would be well away, we checked everywhere anyway.
We recovered the unexploded grenade using a shaded flashlight. It was home-made and the fuse had gone out hence its failure to explode. We took it with us just in case some little kid found it. Then we continued with our patrol.
We could hear a fierce battle raging in the distance and wished we were there, better there than where we were, for the guys who do standing patrols day in-day out are the bravest for sure and must have nerves of steel. The night lit up with red and green tracer, flares, phosphorous bursts and a strange air burst that looked like a major firework display. A fantastic amount of ammunition is always fired by both sides during these night battles. Strangely, there never seems to be many casualties, although of course the Taliban hide their wounded.
We finished the patrol without further incident. However, as we headed home some figures fired from the darkness at the vehicles. Tracer lashed across the road and we could hear clangs and banks as small arms rounds struck our escorting AFV's.
The skipper graciously gave us an extra day of rest as a reward for our sterling efforts; this put everyone back into their normal happy frame of mind.
The Sarge later examined the home-made grenade in more detail, the casing was a tin can with a bit of safety fuse sticking out of it, The fuse felt damp so we guessed that was why it failed. Safety fuse can prove burn unpredictable when wet, the thrower was just as lucky as we were. His “grenade” could have easily exploded in his hand. The Sarge pushed our empty beer bottles out of the way and poured the contents onto the table in the mess tent, they consisted of black powder as an explosive, rusty nails and little bits of scrap metal as shrapnel.. Very nasty!
It was a rush to prepare; all the guys were irritable as we were not employed for this type of work so this was certainly out of the norm. The Sarge was in a foul mood and came down hard on our bitc*ing and moaning.
We were bussed up and rolling by 0330; everyone was pissed off so there was not the normal joking and friendly banter, just sullen faces staring into the middle distance. I looked my buddy in the eye; he just gave a little shake of the head and looked away.
By the time we dismounted some normality had resumed, everyone was laughing at one of the guys, who, when he had stood up had dropped a can of soda. It burst and thoroughly soaked him from head to toe.
We had barely started the patrol when a hand grenade sailed through the air, bounced off a building and exploded in a doorway very close to us. Pieces of shrapnel struck the buildings nearby. We flung ourselves down, as we did so there was a clatter of a second grenade hitting the building, it rolled out in front of us but this one failed to explode. There was complete silence.
We peered into the darkness to see where the grenades had been thrown from, but it was impossible to determine. The thrower would be well away, we checked everywhere anyway.
We recovered the unexploded grenade using a shaded flashlight. It was home-made and the fuse had gone out hence its failure to explode. We took it with us just in case some little kid found it. Then we continued with our patrol.
We could hear a fierce battle raging in the distance and wished we were there, better there than where we were, for the guys who do standing patrols day in-day out are the bravest for sure and must have nerves of steel. The night lit up with red and green tracer, flares, phosphorous bursts and a strange air burst that looked like a major firework display. A fantastic amount of ammunition is always fired by both sides during these night battles. Strangely, there never seems to be many casualties, although of course the Taliban hide their wounded.
We finished the patrol without further incident. However, as we headed home some figures fired from the darkness at the vehicles. Tracer lashed across the road and we could hear clangs and banks as small arms rounds struck our escorting AFV's.
The skipper graciously gave us an extra day of rest as a reward for our sterling efforts; this put everyone back into their normal happy frame of mind.
The Sarge later examined the home-made grenade in more detail, the casing was a tin can with a bit of safety fuse sticking out of it, The fuse felt damp so we guessed that was why it failed. Safety fuse can prove burn unpredictable when wet, the thrower was just as lucky as we were. His “grenade” could have easily exploded in his hand. The Sarge pushed our empty beer bottles out of the way and poured the contents onto the table in the mess tent, they consisted of black powder as an explosive, rusty nails and little bits of scrap metal as shrapnel.. Very nasty!