Questions for anyone whose been in combat before.
 

Watching those guys it seems like they are all looking exhausted as hell.

Just wondering if anyone here has been in combat like that and wondering:

1. How the hell do you sleep when you're in battle? Even if they give you time, I'd be real concerned about closing my eyes for even a minute out there.

2. How often do you get to take a shower? Or don't they?

3. Where in the heck do all those troops and the EPW's take a dump? Do you just dig your own little hole or what?

4. What do they do for change of underwear, t-shirt, etc.? Or does it just rot on you?

Fuck it must smell like hell to be in a tent with 8 dudes under those combat conditions. I can't even fathom what the Iraqi's must smell like too. :1orglaugh

one keyword

Lots of Baby Wipes

When you're in the army you learn to catnap - 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there - it keeps you going.

Showers????????

You're in the army soldier - keep your weapon clean and don't waste time with your body - the undertaker will do that when you're dead - if they can find the body parts.

Underwear - well if you haven't shit yourself the first time a shell has landed nearby you and your buddy can get 4 days wear out of a pair of jocks.

Day 1 - wear as normal

Day 2 - turn inside out

Day 3 - swap with your buddy

Day 4 - turn inside out

Having a shit? - the only thing you have to worry about is not getting caught with your pants down

WTF? :eek2

Poseur! Any real military man knows you can get 2 more days out of them by turning them back to front as well as inside out.

they are.

One eye open, for extremely short periods of time, with someone watching your back.

showers? LOL

squat behind your truck/tank.

now you're getting the idea....

after a while, nothing matters anymore. Not even the smell.

Are you serious? 4 days on one pair of underwear after wearing all those WMD sweat outfits and lugging around 60 lbs of gear on your back all day. Damn, I feel sorry for the dudes that get laundry duty when those guys get done fighting.

dude, when they get back, they'll be burning that shit and getting new stuff. No laundry soap on Earth can clean that shit.

the problem is that freakin sand,

especially that fine baby powder sand, it gets in everything,

you can try and wash some stuff over there... but you use water from the same bottle that you drink from, and the little mini hotel soaps that come in the MREs. There's no fucking laundrymat out there, and certainly no showers or toilets.

I still got my green duffles... and they still got Iraqi sand in 'em. You just can't ever get rid of that shit. :winkwink:

welcome to paradise...

http://www.ampiezza.com/stuff/iraq-003.jpg

Die for country, shit in a dirt hole for your country, wear the same pair of underwear for a week for your country, and sleep in mud for your country.

Man, that pic says it all Amp.

So what do the MRE's taste like?

20 year old dehydrated eggs? Take a guess.... lol
I was 144 lbs. by the time I got back.

MRE's have improved alot, there very tasty, prolly way better now even

but the worse thing bout MRE is that it leaves you constipated, i couldn't shit for a week one time

The first MRE isnt that bad, it is the 2nd on,
but fud is fud. Thank god for hot sauce

KRL,

While I was never in combat, I spent 2 hard years in Germany during the cold war, 86-88

Since I was a gun bunny on a how, part of combat arms, It was 45 days out, 30-45 in, etc, etc. Training in the field alot of times is tough / hard shit. Not like my bros who were in saudi probably, but pretty tough.

45 days, 1 shower per week, 30 below zero, it sucks :)

I recommend the service to any 18-22 yr old person. great way to grow up, travel, and work your ass off. :)

word.... I actually kinda liked the meat like substance with a shitload of hotsauce on it after a while.... but we'd all trade around for whatever sounded good that day. Some days the eggs were sounding good... somedays the beef thing.

hahaha.... no doubt! One of our motor pool guys went out one night to shit... we knew he was going cuz he told us... but after about a minute we heard him screaming.... we all ran out, caught him with his pants down, covered in fucking ants.... the dumb fucker was shitting on a big fucking ant hill!! :1orglaugh

I did ROTC for a while in college, but the instructor we had was like a marine drill sargent with a serious no smiles attitude and most of the group found this guy so uninviting to listen to the attrition rate was high.

well that solves the 'getting caught with your pants down' thing

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

if your on the move alot then there is no need to keep a latrine

most combat soldiers don't waste any energy by digging, just kick some dirt on it, rear soldiers prolly have them port-a-potties

i never forget the first time i took a shit outside, felt very uncomfortable
the day an entire helicopter squad flew right over me, i saw the fuckers laughing at me

http://playascash.com/funny/tabasco.gif

I brought a LOT of cans of sardines over in my duffles though too.... so I had something other than MREs for a few months.... ate alot of them, and traded alot of them for cigarettes.

Mre's sure were better then the old ass A rations we got in the field. Well at least the A's were somewhat hot..

Sometimes, once in a great while I miss the army, made a lot of great friends (brothers) and learned alot.

Once I made E-4 and E-5 it was easier sailing, but as a e-1 - e-3, those guard duty nights with 6 feet of snow on the ground and 30 below zero, can kick your ass!!! :)

I hear ya... my bud that I rode wrecker with on our parts cannibal runs... I ended up marrying his cousin. Thank god that's over with now though.... lol

Right on Amp.

I still talk with 4 ppl from our old unit in Germany. When it was time for me to Re-up in 1989, I would of stayed in but since they were making cuts everywhere they wouldn't let me get a new mos, had to stay as 13b 20, so I said goodbye at Ft. Sill and started in computers / bbs's..

most of my old unit that stayed in went to the gulf a year or so later.

Shit if I had of stayed in, I would of retired in 3 years, ah well I will take adult :))

I fight an eternal battle between good and evil on a universal scale.

Does that count?

I'm not in contact with any of my old buds... really wish I was. I used to go hang out at the VFW clubs, and talk for hours with Nam vets... everybody's got a kind of mutual understanding of the shit that civilians simply can't grasp. But I stopped doing that several years ago too.... now I just vent shit here on GFY, mostly to people who can't possibly understand nor care. But, once in a while it's nice to bump into ex-military here. :winkwink:

I was gonna re-up too, and got out for the same reason. Wanted to change MOS and switch bases, and was told no. So I gave 'em the finger and rode out on my Harley without looking back.

:glugglug

AMP, what was your MOS?

63B with the 1st ID

was mostly on wrecker, crane, and fueler duty once we landed in the sand.

Amp,

I should of had that Mos..

Damm being on a 155mm How was ok, but I should of wore them ear plugs like I was instructed to do.

Right ear has always been a little bad ever since :(

I was hating every minute of it.... seemed like we never got any sleep. Somebody was always needing fixed, or unstuck from the sand, or fueled, or had to go on some parts or ammo run, or guard duty, or diggin' holes, or burnin' shit barrels, burying gear with dozers, supply & fuel runs.... it just never ended. Motor pool was seriously abused over there.... lol :1orglaugh

I was a 13B with the 10th Mountain Division. Fired 155mm howitzers... and not the nice self propelled ones either, got fucked with a M198 instead.

Funny thing is, being in a light infantry division, everytime something came up (Somalia & Haiti, and a little incident in Panama in 95) we left the Howitzers in the motorpool and went off as infantry.

4 years of that was enough, changed to 93C and then got fucked with a Korean tour... got out after that.

Hey PSguy,

right on dude. I never shot from a towed how, all SP.

Slamming power bags, driving, and shooting 50 cals was all I ever learned :))

Pldc in germany was all play :))

:thumbsup :thumbsup

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

and then there are the special forces and the British and Australian SAS

those guys take living rough to a whole new level