Thats effing shady, and its why we rolled at night, after curfew. Sure, the drive is fun when you dont think about the MIEDs and ambushes you are ripe for; and all the future terrorists you piss off and turn against you.
Socoken, I was thinking the exact same thing. On the surface it's funny, but when you really give it some thought it's a terrible reflection on our military. The TC with the camera should lose a stripe for being an undisciplined, unprofessional douchebag. It's a**holes like that who treat the local civilians like s**t and then wonder why everyone looks the other way when an IED is set.
You do not know when this was filmed. Iraq n 03 is different from 04, and sure the hell alot different now.
Also you didnt hear him on the horn the whole time???? I could especially towards the end. You have no idea of what the ROE or the miltary necessity it is at the time for this convoy to get to point B.
- Do you kow what is behind them??? - Maybe it was a medical convoy to get our own wounded?? Do you know how many times they have been IED'ed on that road in the past??? Do you know what the intel was on that day??
Hell YOU ever been there??
Its just pathetic when you own country men judge you and make assumtions from fu#king youtube and their computer arm chair!
NOW THATS BECOMING THE AMERICAN WAY.
Actually under the Geveva conventions they didnt do a Damn thing wrong.
I say again, benefit of the doubt until the whole story is known...always}}.
having been there twice and having been on many convoys i didnt see any thing wrong with this video. All those buildings around there are potental places for snipers and machine gunners waiting to pray one a convoy stuck in traffic, and any of those vehicles in the way could be potential bombers and on any corner there could be an ied so you do what you have to do to get through the traffic anyway possible.
I am rather offended by the fact that people would think bad of these soldiers for doing what they had to to get threw that road alive.
Nope,sometimes I dont have very much tact. Beleive it or not I had a reason for posting the way I did. Bad webb isnt known for this kind of schtuff. Nothing personal was ment towards anyone. But I am to my witts end with this kind of schtuff..Especially when so many people support what these men and women do.
I watched the one w/o music. It's funny watching the little cars in front of the Hummer, they're all driving slow and thinking look at me, look at me I'm slowing down the infidels! Then BUMP and oh crap I'm getting my arse out of the way. Haha.
I can't see the video here at work, but if it is the one I am thinking of, these soldiers did as instructed.
When a convoy, or any other military vehicle is on the go in Iraq, they DO NOT STOP FOR ANYTHING, that includes traffic, traffic signals, or people. This is for the safety of the crew. And the civilians know, all of them know, when they see military vehicles on the road, they are to GET OUT OF THEIR WAY IMMEDIATELY. There is no discussion on the matter. If they do not move out of the way, the driver of the military vehicle has every right to move them by any means necessary. As Firebolt said, there are hidden threats everywhere, there is safety in motion. This is how life is in a war zone, unless they have changed the ROI lately.
Guys, you also need to keep in mind that driving SOPs are different in different countries.
Ever drive/ride in Peru/South America? Lanes are suggestions, cars rub each other regularly. Drivers reach out of their windows and flip the mirrors of other cars to keep them from scraping their cars.
The driver here was tapping the cars in front not pushing them off the road. I've seen this done by other drivers in other countries.
I've seen race cars tap slower ones like that in the movie "Dust to Glory" by a faster driver, a woman no less, because honking the horn just doesn't get the point across to, like the thread title says, "MOVE, GET OUTTA THE WAY"!!
i have a friend that was in afganistan for a few years. he told me about doing the same thing(before this video was ever out)
he said there orders were not to stop for anything. like has been said if they do they are alot easier of a target. he said he usually ended up leading their convoyes because most of the other guys were to worried about running into things with the militarys hummer where as he just kept his foot down and moved stuff. the way i always looked at it is thats what thosae big push bars and bumpers are for.
I don't know specifically what was going in this video. Obviously I wasn't there that day, but I was a TC of an M-1114 for over a year in-country.
I can't see into the TCs mind and know exactly what is happening but do you want my guess? The camera and the driving probably went hand in hand.
99.9% of Iraqi civilians dive out of your way if they know you are there. My crew had to push vehicles out of the way maybe a total of 5 times all year. Other trucks bumpers looked like they made impact on a daily basis.
That TC might have done a hundred heroic acts while he was there. For all I know he was killed in combat. But right then and there? On that particular video? All I see is a gun truck having a little fun at the expense of the cars in front of it.
If I had been running that truck, I doubt I would have ordered any of the impacts. As it was, I didn’t hear a single order come out of his mouth. If the TC was so worried about the mission, he would have had his face out of the camera anyway and would have been scanning his sector for threats.
"However, I trust that soldiers and Marines don't drive like that for no reason!"
Guys drive like that for no reason all the time. You would be surprised at how hard it is to keep certain guys from running into anything that looks like it would make a crunch noise (including donkeys). You would be surprised at how hard it is to keep certain men from throwing warning shots at anything that comes within a hundred feet, even if is poses no obvious threat (that includes camels, stray dogs, and the above mentioned donkeys). That is why professionalism and discipline are so important.
I have also seen tons of videos of guys stealing from roadside vendors and shooting at dogs from moving vehicles (as they pass through a populated village). I have seen guys crunch parked vehicles for no other reason than for fun.
I have also seen countless acts of bravery, loyalty, and honor.
So...
Don't for a second think I have a dim view of the military I was part of for nearly 15 years. What I have is a dim view of what I see in that video.
Now...
As an M-1114 Commander passing judgment on another?
I stand by my assessment.
Unprofessional...
Unnecessary...
Counterproductive...
We all bring our own perspective to the situation. Mine is filtered through experience.
100% the lamest horn you will ever find on a 14,000 pound armored vehicle. I think it's sourced from the VW Beetle. My gunner always had a disposable air horn on top.
i agree with hummv's having lame horns but then again this is the smae vehichles that dont have self canceling turn signals or even a noise to tell you its on all you have is a small green light that during the day you cant see any way. the lights on the insurment panel barely work as well.
"However, I trust that soldiers and Marines don't drive like that for no reason!"
If standing orders are to keep moving, than that is reason enough!!
Bill posted;
"You would be surprised at how hard it is to keep certain men from throwing warning shots at anything that comes within a hundred feet, even if is poses no obvious threat (that includes camels, stray dogs, and the above mentioned donkeys). That is why professionalism and discipline are so important.
I have also seen tons of videos of guys stealing from roadside vendors and shooting at dogs from moving vehicles (as they pass through a populated village)."
Now that is just wrong!! Especially stealing... I have ZERO tolerance for thieves and take great pride in putting their theieving arses in jail!!
I was there. For the invasion in 03 and again in 05. Ive been down the baddest roads there, in daylight and dark. I meant its shady as in, all it takes is one of those cars to just stop, and youre effed with nowhere to go. I wasnt protesting the bumps the guy gave, as it was actually pretty impressive how he bumped each one just enough, but not too bad.
Having said that, its always in the back of your mind that every time you do that, you might be pissing someone off past the breaking point. I wouldnt put up with that shit, thats for sure.
"Thats effing shady, and its why we rolled at night, after curfew. "
But, I agree with you on you most recent post. Thats why I go off.
Good point about the horn..It is pathetic. Like most things they want to cut coners where ever they can to save cost.
Like body armor for example. But, Atleast now they can say we get issued "balistic" body armor.
To bad it is only for 9mm pistol munitions..
"As an M-1114 Commander passing judgment on another? I stand by my assessment. Unprofessional... Unnecessary... Counterproductive..."
Yah..They should of stopped in the middle of the street..??..Especially when we dont know the whole situation.
Your kidding right?? I stand by my assesment and experience. As a leader I would not judge anyone especially my own men if I did not have the whole story. I would have a hard time working for anyone who did. Maybe that is how some leaders in service "roll".
Nevertheless this is a good topic no hard feelings.