(UV and his usual after action report he writes after returning from a patrol, then resting, and eating.)
Just woke-up. Actually slept through the night – a rarity.
Came in for a rest and resupply. We went deeper in this time than ever, could see the lights of the city. Moved around a lot of Russians who were also either moving or prepared to move. We did notice they are less static in the forested area, and are trying to keep their elements in positions where they can be mobile. It is a good tactic, and reduces their vulnerability to artillery.
I suspect it is also because they are concerned that we are making feinting moves to get them to commit reinforcements to a particular area. They are right. Command always assumed they would try to break-up into smaller units and increase their mobility, and it was part of our job to influence where they went. It seems to have worked to some degree.
All the time we spent ———— has influenced their movements, or so we are told. Once they do commit to a position, it is our job to make sure the support elements are located and can be hammered as they struggle to now supply mobile units, mostly by roads, roads which have to be scanned for mines.
In some areas wheeled trucks have issues with the mud, but I don’t see the lack of frozen ground causing a change in our plan or hindering planned activity much. My thought is, if the ground was frozen, the plan would be much the same…although, I am not privy to top-level planning, nor should I be.
We saw quite a bit of activity, a lot of-hit-and-run stuff from roving forward teams that take out a vehicle, then move away. Most of that was on the way out, as we worked our way back through the leftovers of combat. Only five of us made this trip, and we spent a lot of time hunkered-down in the day, and moving slowly at night. As we got closer to the city, we found and pinned several fixed supply sites, and one forward command center. By now they have been hammered.
On the way back we ran across a lot of dead Russians. I counted 34 in all, mostly scattered in groups of a handful or so. Only one was barely alive, and there was nothing at all we could do for him. His lower jaw had been shot off and he seemed to be paralyzed below the waist. His eyes were glassy and his breathing was rattling. He would never survived being hauled out, and it was impossible for us to haul him anyway. I covered him with a poncho and we left.
One thing you notice, after some time, in this cooler weather, if you get close to a corpse they smell like a stale boiled egg.
Right now there is pretty heavy combat going on where we came from. The Russians tried a rolling barrage of artillery to get troops and vehicles moving, but counterbattery fire either smashed them or they were forced to fold-up and move.
Lots of drones up – ours, theirs – hard to tell the difference. One of the advantages of drones, especially small ones, is you can get a dynamic picture of your overhead space so you can construct a hide that is more difficult to discover from above, and indeed check your setup after constructing it. Obviously the use of a drone is a detection risk in itself, so you have to be smart about it. How it works is you get a view of what is natural, and try to keep with that as best you can. Some bad things are typically linear elements that do not match the ground conditions, sharp-edge trenches and holes, tree limbs regularly or unnaturally stacked, and so on.
Obviously if you are faced with thermal detection then life becomes more difficult. You just have to find the best cover you can, and then cover up as best you can.
Also on the way out we got word that a large flanking attack was coming from north of our position, and we had to divert west a bit. I have no idea yet what happened there, but we never saw anything of it. Since they knew where they were in relation to us, they probably hammered the shit out of them.
We are in for a short time, then are going back out with a larger group, at least until we get to some point where we may be required to split-off. Things seem to be moving a bit quick, so are in a dynamic state.
Earlier one of the guys was talking about the info that is on the web about troop positions. “It seems a handful of people produce this stuff, then everybody repeats it, and it becomes sort of the truth, whether it has any basis in fact or not.” Chris laughed, “command is leaking out misinformation on the location of recon units, as well as troops.”
“It is more for Russian consumption than anything else,” I added. Would be interesting to know for sure if this is true, but hey, that is fine, I would do it too.
The good things is, we spent a lot of time in that forest obtaining targeting coordinates on their behind-the-line positions, setting up — —, setting explosive deadfalls on secondary retreat routes, and harassing and killing their smaller units, and it all seems to be paying-off a bit, maybe not a huge deal, but possibly hollowing-out their tactical plans.
One note…not a lot of paved roads where we go, but we did find-out that a quart of pavement resurfacing paint works wonders hiding mines in paved roads. Either find a pothole, or make one, insert mine, fill with dirt, and paint over….almost invisible.
I have to go get my head checked by the quack, so does Chris, then we are going to lollygag around for a while, resupply, eat, get an uncomfortable shower, then sleep and wait for the call-up to go out again.
We are all doing well, nobody has the shakes, talks in tongues or mopes around. Coming in after being highly stressed for so long, non-stop, takes a bit to get over. Chris sleeps, I read, listen to tunes, write and eat. The other guys have their own things as well…just little things that gets your head back on an even keel. It seems we are not going to have much decompression time this rotation…but, at least we are not out in constant combat. Of course, if Chris is right, and he smiles when he says it, that may be fixing to end. Later.
(A conversation with several other people.)
Just woke up from a rare full nights sleep.
First time my boots have been both off at the same time in a week. Thank God for Dachstein socks. These gaiters we have now are also wonderful. No more boots full of water and mud. And, mud does not stick to them and suck you in like with just boots on. Of course, every time we head to our normal AO we have to wade a river or two, so gaiters off, then when done drain one boot at a time. I am back to no underwear, as it never dries.
Chris says that women’s panties are more comfortable and dry faster, but the downside is they have no fabricated junk space. I begged-off, explaining that my experience with women’s knickers is incomplete, consisting in total of taking them off, not putting them on.
Jerry Jeff walker – LA Freeway.
Another thing I have readopted is a black durag, both to keep my head warm, but also to keep this annoying bandage in place. If Mack was here he would feel right at home.
Heard It in a Love Song – Marshall Tucker Band
Hey, Happy New Year! Hope you don’t get too many fireworks to ring it in!
Thanks! As long as they are our fireworks, I am good.
This Girl Is a Woman Now – Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
Angel – Sarah McLachlan
Glad you got some good rest and “feet-drying” time.
I am still groggy from sleep. I was starting to think sleep, like 16th century Europeans thought about baths, was dangerous.
Sounds like you were definitely in need of a good round of it.
I sleep in the field, but it comes in snatches, and is light. Chris sleeps like a baby, but you can snap your fingers and he shoots up like he has been gigged in the ass.
Speaking of which, how’s he doing?
He seems fine. We both have to go get our heads checked today. I figure I need to chop a hole in my other ear, so I can get matching spools…or, do a reverse Dayak ear pendant thing.
Being a Navy man, I know you appreciate the importance of proper ballasting.
Indeed. Keep both starboard and Port even off the keel.
On the way back out, we kept running into our own guys headed in. A Canadian guy I know was with one of them, and when I saw him, my first thought was…”Queen Anne’s.”
He smiled when he saw me, and reached in his pocket and pulled-out a ball of foil, twisting it in between his fingers like the Blue Belle of Asia. “In my best Schwarzenegger (which is not too bad) I said, ‘I will give you Chris’s rifle, his mags, his boots, his panties, and both his nuts for just one.”
The problem with a Queen Anne is it is hard to eat one in granular form…small bites. You end-up sucking on your muddy fingers for that syrupy heaven that leaked out. Anyway, I have an extra in my pants pocket. Like grenades, don’t want to carry high on the body less they become a target to take out more than one guy.
Sounds like a Cherry Blossom. I never did find a way to eat one in less than a single bite without getting the syrup on myself. Granted, then I would end up feeling like one of those snakes that wraps it’s mouth around an ostrich egg. Life’s little hardships!
Is chocolate cover, some kind of syrup, and a cherry in the middle…kinda like an old school trigger.
I’m fucking salivating thinking about it now. Every time I go to the checkout lineup in Canadian Tire I have a difficult time avoiding picking up a Cherry Blossom, yet have been successful for several years now. I get the feeling I am going to succumb the next time I am there.
If you haven’t ever had one, I am pretty sure you would love them.
That is a more complex version, but very close. It seems to have inclusions to prevent low order detonations with yield.
Lol! I’ll never look at one the same way again.
I once ate almost a whole box, with beer, and went a bit green for a while. I blame it on my kids, since they all would buy me a box for my birthday.
Man, I can see how that would upset the innards.
Russia is not going to escalate things with the west. They are getting a gut-punch demo of what a conventional war with the west would mean for them. Nuclear? There is no advantage for them to go there, toe-to-toe with what is arrayed against them.
I agree. I think the West should fucking pour it on; tanks, jets, helos, arty, ATACMS, whatever Ukraine wants and needs, let them have it, with support and training.
As folks who fancy themselves intellectuals like to say, “Well, the risk is certainly non-zero.” Yeah…but practical statistical risk starts out way above zero, and can still be minutely small, if anyone really knows how to calculate it, which they don’t. So, you end up high-center…lets do nothing since we don’t fully understand the potential consequences. That is Putin’s wet dream.
Yep. He figures he has all kinds of time; time to wait for support for Ukraine to fade, time for administration churn in the West, time for Ukraine to run out of steam. We need to avoid giving that fucker the time he thinks he has.
Another bullshit thing out there is how long it takes to train on some of these systems, using US military standards. Well, we have the luxury of time to do these things, and they are overburdened with bureaucracy and how the military apportions time for grades and rank. This is the wrong metric to use during a shooting war. The US has an accelerated schedule for this, but it is still slower than achievable when the shit hits the fan.
From what I understand, Ukrainian soldiers have also proven themselves to be very motivated and fast learners. The “too much time needed to train” excuse is just that, an excuse.
My guess is the US military is doing a rethink on a lot of this stuff, but does not want to get called into question their very buxom training funding.
Could be.
Oh it is for sure part of it. I know how the military works. No General wants to get set down in front of a congressional committee and have to explain this shit. GAO bean counters would be jacking-off on their digital ledger sheets. God knows what CBO would do…
I definitely trust your take on it, you have been around the racket long enough to know for sure.
Well, I like to stick with technical stuff, and hate giving advice other than random recipes and the 50% mechanics of women’s knickers. So take what I say with a due grain of salt.
Lol! Will do. I have to take off, time to turn in, have a good one there.
Well, have to go get my head checked by a kid. I figure if I take my rifle and stick the barrel in his mouth, he will be gentle with the bandage removal thing. Isn’t that how the modern participatory patient thing works? Chris figures they will ask him to spell his name, tell them where he is, check his eyeballs for mechanical function and his hands for post-traumatic tremor. I told him that even on a good day that would be a challenge for him.
But, the shaking hands thing is a bit of a macabre joke, since it is common. It goes away about the time they point you in a direction and send you out again. It is just a stress response, nothing serious.
Hey, sorry I missed you. Scrambling to pull this stuff now before you erase it. Almost done…
Guess my twitter habits are a bit of a pain-in-the-ass, but am used to assuming nobody cared anyway. Seems the sane approach.
Maintain your usual diligence, I am done. (Also, I have a box of Queen Anne’s in the freezer. Or rather my wife does. I can’t do dark chocolate.)
For what it is worth, it will be here for quite a while. Take your time. Too bad twitter does not have line-item click/delete, like e-mail…with a “select all.” Or, a “block everybody” I am not following. Sigh.
Makes my day to see a notification from you! At least we know you are still crotchety and kicking!
Old age and treachery always wins…not saying you are old, but you know that.
It’s all in ‘da skilz!
Ukraine Volunteer Transcripts 