We get this most nights, just not near like this. Most of it goes over us. This was direct targeting or just dumb luck. Probably droned. If the VC would have had modern drones we would have shagged-ass out of Vietnam by mid ’67.
Guess we will get a casualty report soon, maybe. I know Chris is alive as his hole is right next to mine and he kept throwing handfuls of dirt on me and yelling “BOOM.” The crazy bastard is probably the only sane on here.
Whoever it is was bawling will be gone by noon, whisked-off to someplace where they can deal with a total breakdown.
I was actually doing fine until maybe half hour ago, then started to lose my aplomb a bit. Just tired and hungry and suddenly a bit nervous. For sure I don’t see us staying here any longer.
Someone told me a long time ago that per nuclear weapons policy, you need both hawks and doves…one without the other would be incredibly dangerous.
That came back to me just after dark while getting blasted by artillery and rockets. I was in my hole trying to read “Dressing for Altitude,” gave that up and just lay there thinking about how much fun it would be to turn Moscow into fused glass, and I remembered that.
That was in 1977, and Harold Agnew was the one who told me.
When you climb out of a hole, half stunned after a two hour artillery barrage, trees down, smoke still in the air, and the smell of chemicals almost overpowering,. you first realize how quiet it seems. It is eerie.
Some people talk, half giddy at being alive, others just walk, overwhelmed by the experience. It is shredded trees, chunks of twisted metal, smoking craters and the sound of someone weeping in the distance.
I saluted my ancestors who suffered through WW1. That must have been hell.
I am getting too old for this, and not sure I can spend another winter here. But, maybe after a few hours of sleep and event separation I will be good as new. Guess right now I am childishly feeling sorry for myself. Lol!
Anyway, enough whining. Gonna go find some coffee and some food and then try to sleep. Somebody better come-up with a plan to take-out those guns.
Kind of a running joke the last few days that the most dangerous place in Ukraine is between the IAEA guy Grossi and a camera.
I didn’t even know Grossi was in-country. So guess I am woefully negligent of the news. But, I have always gone out of my way to avoid anything involving the IAEA. It is political madness. My usual response to a request to work with them was you might want to find somebody who g̴i̴v̴e̴s̴ ̴a̴ ̴s̴h̴i̴t̴ has some respect for them.
Obviously not everyone has that opinion, and that is cool. They seemed as a collective to dislike weapons people who were not apologetic. Screw that.
Not too long after dark we started getting a pretty severe rate of incoming artillery and rockets. No place to go except stay in the hole and get bounced around and hope a lucky BB doesn’t come your way. It was a maelstrom of flying metal out there, even some trees went down. I just kept my ear plugs in, threw everything I own on top of me, and tried to read “Dressing for Altitude” on my Kindle. I did not absorb anything I read.
And now my battery is dead. My biggest personal challenge here has been trying to keep batteries charged. Luckily there are some vehicles with inverters. But, if my master batts go dead, it takes 48 hrs to recharge them fully.
I am expecting us to move out of here very soon. And, the rumor is still around that we may get moved to Kherson.
It sounds like you have a lot of batteries.
Any news on the offensive. Rumor is it was underwhelming, but people are impatient.
Four in devices, and now two external batts, large ones.
We are told it is going well, although stalled in some areas. The Russians likely have some decent troops in that area, so one would expect a hard slog. They are not calling it a “counteroffensive,” just an offensive. LOL!
There seems to be a real opportunity to pocket a lot of troops there.
If they start moving people off this line, then we will know they are in trouble. That would essentially hand this area to the Russians.
I guess the trip to Kherson is 9 hours or so under normal conditions, two or three days at least now. If you make it.
Biden is apparently asking for $11 billion more in Yook aid, haven’t read the details of yet.
Wow. Could use some heavy armor, but doubt that is in the cards. Heavies would allow us to punch through the line here, and would, I suspect, be invaluable at Kherson.
US main battle tanks would make great artillery platforms as well. Not their real purpose, but accurate, very mobile and and can also defend a position, or go on a ground offensive.
I remember a survey in World War II, most tankers wanted a 1:4 ratio of anti-tank to high explosive rounds.
Here the new AMP round and the canister rounds would be nice. Tank-to-tank might be less important, since they are being dealt with quite well by other means. That could change.
AMP programmed to air burst against ATGM teams would probably be most used. Air burst against anything, really. New Abrams tank is rumored to have an unmanned turret and a 30mm cannon on the roof, for drones and conserving 120 rounds against smaller targets.
Yeah, heard that. Strykers with Hellfires would be useful here too. Lol!
What do you think the Yooks need?
In reality, armor, if they are to get ahead and knock the Russian’s out. But, they need a lot of everything, ammo for sure. Our burn rate on small and medium caliber ammo is horrendous. I have gone through three rifles here so far.
A separate question, I guess: is there room for a force of technicals, trucks with atgms, mortars, and heavy machine guns? I would worry about artillery with a force like that in this war.
The Yooks do turn out what can be termed technicals. Their saving grace is their mobility and small size. I have seen small trucks with mortars, ZSUs and 50 cals on them.
Hey, my turn to put the kid down, gotta go.
Ok, Been there and done that…:)
She started a mini revolt last night that landed her on mom’s shit list. Speaking of which how is your granddaughter, the wild one?
She is in Colorado, they are all there on a photo tour. Have not seen her in months, but per pics, she seems to have grown a lot. Still has that evil smirk too.
Ukraine Volunteer Transcripts 