Hallo ihr alle da draussen...wie geht's? Na...by some extremely good fortune we wrapped up EX MILO III within 2 days instead of the original 3...Good fortune or what? Blessed by hot really hot and sunny weather and clear blue skies all around...Anyway. Let's start from basics.
EX NIGHTWALK: You are a forward observer and are to infiltrate into the enemy area to your observation post (OP.) Avoid all enemy contact. Avoid observation by any enemy vehicles or observation posts. Your team has 6 hours to accomplish your mission. Good luck.
Na, it was quite okay at first because we made really good progress and really stayed off the main axes. I was leading the NAV first because i was more or less quite confident but then again in the dark you only have your guts to rely on to make decisions, to turn right or left, or to deduce if you're on the right track at all or not. Turns out we weren't. We walked a track which we believed headed due North until the track died off. Then John and Dennis decided to recce forward into the undergrowth...
...they came back etwa 15 Minuten später, um zu berichten, dass der Weg, der vor uns lag, doch zu benützen sei...so haben wir sie geglaubt und los ging's...too bad eventually i guess because about an hour of bashing in the dark we found ourselves in a bloody swamp...Sag ich, dank dem Regen ist es so geworden...It actually was more like an abandoned old brigade level command post (since when were swamps absolutely rectangular/well-ordered?) and there were comms trenches here and there. Anyway, i digress and so back to topic. So we were in a swamp at 4 am not knowing where to go...so we had to radio for help and wait for extraction. Tried so many ways to bash but we were surrounded by water, quicksand, mud and more. In the end we managed to extract to our original point of insertion and wait for the vehicle to pick us up, arriving at the OP around 0900.
So much for that. But it was cool especially the beginning when we still had to move along the main axes. How an approaching convoy forced us to leap into the woods and hide - the cold steel of the M16 pressed against your cheek, pointed to the road - hearing the rumble of the vehicles - keeping your eyes wide open, the only islands of white in a background of green and black - the adrenaline making your fully awake despite the unearthly hour. That's kinda fun. I think Kelvin would have loved this kind of life.
Too bad. He's going to pass out as an Armoured Infantry Specialist in a couple weeks' time.
Now we come to the next exercise....Brief goes as such.
EX MILO I: Day mortar ranging. Using either vector or area target ranging, observe and guide your 81mm mortar to the target.
Simple enough? Think again! It's not that easy! In the FOT it's damn simple, i swear, just because everything's more or less ideal. You call for fire and everything happens according to your corrections. But live firing's a whole new experience. The bombs will land just about anywhere and you really have to be really on your toes to spot correctly. For example, my vector ranging was horribly off to the left...which means my ranging itself was kinda off. Sigh. Can't range that for nuts.
EX MILO II: Das Test.
So i ended up doing area target ranging for the test. But i was given a new target to call fire on...thought everything'd go well when the first Willy Pete round impacted just short of the target. But the HE rounds were totally off, mostly unable to be observed...what to do? Suck thumb la. Tried to correct as best as i could but to no avail. Then Hd Liaison, MAJ Yeo turned up and gave all sorts of corrections to observe where the rounds landed. Just too bad that he too couldn't observe well. So much for a new target. So i was given a fictitous situation to use and performed my mission verbally. Sianz. Couldn't even see my Estab. Neut. eradicate the target.
Did i mention that MAJ Yeo was the one who talked to us when we were lost in NIGHTWALK? Yup he was the one who radioed us, kept our morale up and did what he thought was best for us to extract ourselves from that sticky hell. But in the end we stuck to our own plan. Haha. A map's no good when you're not on-site...you see the swamp isn't there on the map at all, y'know...
EX MILO III: Precision/MPI Registration.
Well. Registration mission, which i myself forgot how to carry out the calculations for...sigh...sat there observing the rounds for a PR mission. Kept getting reminded to use my Mk II eyeballs instead of the laser rangefinder because i only had to judge if the rounds were long or short. Hrrmph.
Oh we also went down to the mortar baseplate for a basic introduction to the 81mm mortar and its workings. It's really quite an interesting weapon and also a joy to fire...even though i can't see how the laying of the mortar actually works...
To fire it? So geht's:
1. Grab 1xbomb and remove the safety ring/additional unwanted charges.
2. Bring bomb to mouth of tube, place bomb into tube until yellow line.
3. Upon 'fire!' drop bomb into tube and crouch down.
Ganz einfach, nicht?
Anyway now's the rest time between MILO and SAFARI which begins on tuesday...which i shall have an update for on Friday or Saturday...i'll also know my posting by then...although i feel that i'm horribly incompetent as a forward observer, Liaison seems fun especially as FSCC staff...planning tactics and operations now that'd be fun...Donno what to choose as now. Sigh. At a cross-roads. Ein Ruf nach Hilfe wird nicht beantwortet...
Still confused about last entry's riddle? Well...if you really want to treasure what's happened, then don't consign your memories to nothingness. Memories bring about a wonder because they're in the past - think about them. Some may bring you anger or bitterness but then again all of them bring you a sense of nostalgia above all, no matter what you felt. Your memory, on the other hand, remembers. Not in a dreamy way as memories portray themselves, but remember everything in absolute, clear detail. When everything becomes so clear...how then can you make it ideal, or how can nostalgia then work its magic? That's the secret to being happy. Having a poor memory, but rich memories.
posted by quatscherei @ 19:29
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