yoopr |
01-04-2007 04:03 AM |
Everybody on my Tanker crew were combat vets-our base was Camp Anaconda(nickname Camp Mortarittaville cuz it was the most hit base in Iraq).
In '04 when you first got there you were in Tents which were total Hell with about 50 guys in them and it was hotter inside the Tents than outside because the a/c barely kept up with the infernal heat and then graduated to what we called Chicken Coops(Long Metal buildings with cubicles so you had a bit of privacy and Sleeping bags and Cots with about 30 other guys and then you were on the list for living in what are Containers. The term Containers sound awful wierd and Miserable but they were fixed up very nicely with an Actual Bed with sheets and blankets and a Individual A/C and there would be a adjoining Container with a Shower in between the 2.
These containers had a chester drawer and a table.
DFAC's(that's Mess Hall) had EXCELLENT food and you can have as much as you like.
You were on a Mission Every day hauling JP8 Fuel cuz EVERYTHING the military runs on is JP8 and the terrorists know that if you stop the Fuel deliveries you stop the Military.
You'd deliver to bases in the Sunni Triangle-Unload-Stay the Night and head out the next evening.
The trucks were Mercedes which were GREAT-Never broke down in the infernal Heat and these trucks took a beating jumping into the desert at times to avoid IED's or road blocks in Baghdad-We NEVER Stopped. If somebody got in the convoys way they were Moved.
I've driven since '78 and the Transmissions on these Mercedes were something I've never seen, or dreamed of, before. Instead of a H shifting pattern these trucks had a H H(double H pattern) and every gear could be split. IT takes a while to get it down.
The guys on my crew, and other crews, were the Best guys in the World and Comraderie amongst them was beyond description. Sometimes you have good friends and the next day they were dead.
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