TLDR/Long story short - C Co 1-41 IN wound up with ONE M2A2 ODS in Baghdad in early/mid 2005. It was in service with this unit for only a couple months before we redeployed in June 2005.
No sh!t, there I was, senior company medic in C Co. I had a M113A3 ambulance, but only took that out when the entire company was on an op. Otherwise for platoon operations with company leadership on hand, I rode in wither the XO’s or Master Gunner’s M3A3.
If I remember the sequence of events correctly, we had a platoon loading up to go out in the city for daily operations when ALL safety mechanisms/devices/precautions on someone’s WP grenade were inadvertently defeated inside one of our M3A3s inside the company motor pool on Camp Liberty.
Everyone safely evac’d the Brad, but fire suppression was not activated. The concentration of WP, other munitions, and combustibles inside the cabin created enough heat that the hull failed, dropping the turret into the vehicle. I’ll try to find the CD (yep, CD…) with those photos this weekend.
The company’s Master Gunner (callsign “Crusty”) gave up his Brad to immediately replace the platoon Brad and then drew a pre-po that had to be brought in from somewhere else, Kuwait, I think.
What we got was a M2A2 ODS…Crusty was supremely happy, as he thought the M3s were trash - he had a personal beef with something about it.
Anyway, if you want to portray a traffic control point/checkpoint in Baghdad in March or April 2005, C Co 1-41 Infantry of 1st Armored had exactly ONE in use and it was often on exactly that type of duty/task.
Anybody know the difference between a war story and a fairy tale?
War stories start out, “No sh!t, there I was…”
While fairy tales start out with, “Once upon a time…”