favorite "war stories"

....roger, could you bring some fire extinguishers to my fix now?, over. ....roger, uh, make that a lot of fire extinguishers, all ours are out, over. ....never mind the fire extinguishers, could some one contact the German fire department real fast? over. break, break, this is Knight 66, what is your fix, and what is the problem? Never mind your fix, I can see the flames from my position on the Autobahn, OUT .
- the night the Rat Rig caught fire.

Submitted by Terry Whitley:
There I was no shit...(all "war stories" start this way you know) at Hohenfels, FRG in Oct 1988, Team Bandit lead by the redoubtable then CPT Ken Blanks had just finished our CMTC bluefor rotation and was ready to blow off some steam. Our OC, some 1LT out of 2-64 AR I believe had ragged on us for several days and we had at last lost him. As a change of pace the Team was tasked with providing the OPFOR for 1-69AR's rotation. Our mission: to replicate the Soviet Company Strongpoint defense. Our task organization for the mission was three tank platoons reinforced with a infantry platoon and the organic headquarters section. A D-9 dozer was allocated to us for digging fighting positions. The characters in the story are Knight 6 (LTC (then) Terry Bullington),Bandit 6 (CPT Ken Blanks), Outlaw 5 (1LT George Workman), Red 1 (2LT Terry Whitley), White 1 (1LT Dan Carpenter), Blue 1 (2LT Rick Jones), and Green 1 (2LT Jeff Nielson of 4-7IN).

The morning of the operation we pulled out of the motorpool and roadmarched to a hide position just east of VIP Hill, and conducted a leaders recon of our proposed positions in the vicinity of the ruins site between the central and southern bowling alley's. Red had priority of dozer support, so I had five vehicle fighting positions marked and dug while the rest of the team established themselves on the adjacent high ground. We were arrayed from north to south Green, Blue, White and Red with Bandit 6, to the best of my recollection collocated with Blue element. We had LP/OPs to the front, and by dusk they were reporting enemy scout activity reconning their movement routes. By dark we knew they would be coming in force.

When darkness fell, I moved my platoon out of a hide position to the rear of our fighting positions and occupied them. We settled in and did not have long to wait for the enemy to come calling. Enmasse 1-69 AR came pouring across the N/S Tank trail and along the tank trail passing through DZ Hohenfels. CPT Blanks began calling for indirect fire immediately and the BLuefor was brutalized. Despite every effort of their leaders, they could not reorganize and push through the chokepoint, as one by one their vehicles were destroyed. Admittedly, there was some psyops going on in the form of one armor company XO, and some unknown instructions given to the Bluefor to go to MOPP 4 via radio. This might have had something to do with the chaos. We'll just never know. Anyway, indirect continued to rain upon the enemy, while we just sat back and saved our strength. Knight 6 came down on our net and said the enemy was at a saved our strength. Knight 6 came down on our net and said the enemy was at a standstill, that we had them completely confused and disoriented, and to keep the whup butt coming. Bandit 6 rogered. The indirect fire let up and piecemeal the BLUEFOR tried to move forward into our kill sack to be chewed up by direct fire. It was like what Wellington had said about Bonaparte at Waterloo, the enemy did not manueaver at all, they came staight ahead in the same old way, and were driven off in the same old way. Phantom 6 (COL Quick) even popped up on our net to get in on the action. At last, all training potential being lost for the Bluefor, we were told to let up alittle and give them a chance to close with us. The direct fire fight was no better for them. We battled them to a standstill. So much so that out of their frustration they ceased to die before us. I still remember our buddy Rick Jones radio transmission, "Bandit 6, they won't die...I'll make em stop if I have to take a rock to their heads".

Team Bandit proved what a determined group of American Tankers and Infantry could do given innovative leadership and rock solid soldiers. "They shall not pass, IRON KNIGHTS, SIR!"
In talking with MAJ Blanks, he refreshed my memory on a couple of issues here: The first we were one of the first companies to field and utilize M1A1 tank decoys in a tactical mode. 1SG Sturgiss, with driver and Hummer emplaced a decoy tank platoon to the north of our battle position. This actually caused the enemy to change his intended route of march, which would have taken us in the flank or rear, and pushed him south into our kill sack. Secondly, the comment from LTC Bullington as we pulled out of the battle position and headed home for a well earned beer at the Iron Knights Inn, "the flashing whoopie lights of the Blue Force looks like a forest fire down there!"

Bravo Gunnery.wav

New from Steve Beauchamp:

I have plenty of stories to share but I will have to push them to you when I have more time.