AZ_Infantry
Active member
True story...
When I was a squad leader at Ft. Riley I had a rather... err, interesting soldier, Private Skinner. He kind of latched on to me and we became friends (don't most all of us?) and I swear the kid would have dropped dead on command. He was the epitome of slow, a large black kid with the greatest sense of humor and most passionate sense of service ever, but he was just dumb as a newborn box of drowned rocks, I kid you not.
We were on FTX in the middle of winter, and sure enough, we got flanking duty. I don't remember how many klicks we humped, but it was a bit. Once we set up our OP, I was just FREEZING, it was night, and I had one thing on my mind: Coffee. I set perimeter and crawled behind a rise, lit a fuel tab, and began the arduous fun of heating a canteen cup of cold water over a friggen Sterno. It was just beginning to steam (maybe 20 minutes of drooling) when Pvt. Skinner found the rise and fell in towards me.
Yeah, there went my water. Poor kid thought I was going to kill him. Here's about 250 pounds laying on top of my scrawny 160-pound ass, water already freezing on my BDU's, and I'm doing everything I can not to scream.
Now both cold AND wet (and still sweaty and in the snow), I just racked out after setting guard.
Way, way, way too little from then I get a boot in the side - contact. Crap. Roll out of my bag, it's just barely light, wake everyone, get on line, we're all set. Because of the FTX, we have 4 AT4's, and I put 2 on my flank with the SAW covering direction, called in contact to clear the channel (could hear the tracks coming, no visual), and got everyone on their ear.
When we saw them I ordered AT's on track 1 and 3, leaving 4 in the woodline and 2 to maneuver out towards our front. I called my SAW back up for dismounts, called for fire, and yelled to let loose the AT4's.
I hear "whoosh!... whoosh!..." and then "YEEEEEAAAWWWWWWWWWW!"
And there lay Skinner, still in his sleeping bag, squirming because the AT4 sim backblast caught his sleeping bag to smoldering :?
The graders killed us all. Said his screaming gave away our position and my lack of attention to manpower compromised the FOP. I never got a shot off. Just "whoosh... whoosh.... AAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep."
I swear, if my CO could REMOVE awards, my chest would have been bare sans my thank you for joining. He'd have taken that if possible - I am convinced of it.
One mission, one soldier... And me wanting to throttle him for a long time afterwards.
There's one in every squad.
When I was a squad leader at Ft. Riley I had a rather... err, interesting soldier, Private Skinner. He kind of latched on to me and we became friends (don't most all of us?) and I swear the kid would have dropped dead on command. He was the epitome of slow, a large black kid with the greatest sense of humor and most passionate sense of service ever, but he was just dumb as a newborn box of drowned rocks, I kid you not.
We were on FTX in the middle of winter, and sure enough, we got flanking duty. I don't remember how many klicks we humped, but it was a bit. Once we set up our OP, I was just FREEZING, it was night, and I had one thing on my mind: Coffee. I set perimeter and crawled behind a rise, lit a fuel tab, and began the arduous fun of heating a canteen cup of cold water over a friggen Sterno. It was just beginning to steam (maybe 20 minutes of drooling) when Pvt. Skinner found the rise and fell in towards me.
Yeah, there went my water. Poor kid thought I was going to kill him. Here's about 250 pounds laying on top of my scrawny 160-pound ass, water already freezing on my BDU's, and I'm doing everything I can not to scream.
Now both cold AND wet (and still sweaty and in the snow), I just racked out after setting guard.
Way, way, way too little from then I get a boot in the side - contact. Crap. Roll out of my bag, it's just barely light, wake everyone, get on line, we're all set. Because of the FTX, we have 4 AT4's, and I put 2 on my flank with the SAW covering direction, called in contact to clear the channel (could hear the tracks coming, no visual), and got everyone on their ear.
When we saw them I ordered AT's on track 1 and 3, leaving 4 in the woodline and 2 to maneuver out towards our front. I called my SAW back up for dismounts, called for fire, and yelled to let loose the AT4's.
I hear "whoosh!... whoosh!..." and then "YEEEEEAAAWWWWWWWWWW!"
And there lay Skinner, still in his sleeping bag, squirming because the AT4 sim backblast caught his sleeping bag to smoldering :?
The graders killed us all. Said his screaming gave away our position and my lack of attention to manpower compromised the FOP. I never got a shot off. Just "whoosh... whoosh.... AAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep."
I swear, if my CO could REMOVE awards, my chest would have been bare sans my thank you for joining. He'd have taken that if possible - I am convinced of it.
One mission, one soldier... And me wanting to throttle him for a long time afterwards.
There's one in every squad.
