Gadgets & Gizmos of Today's 3/17th Cavalry

So, you are not so sure about this greybeard stuff. War is war, and hell is hell, but you think you could still climb into a gun jeep and get it on with whichever version of Uncle Chuck happens to diddy-bop down the trail today.

Guess again, bucko.

If you looked at Skip's rap on the OH-58D and took a close look at the dashboard on that puppy, you gotta be wondering which button to push for "up".

Have you talked to Roger lately about how ". . .the days of patchin' holes, splicing wiring harnesses, and changing blades have changed"?

I will remind you of the day we changed the head gasket on a 3/4-ton, half way up Nui Chua Chan, by taking the biggest guy in the troop, giving him the biggest wrench we had, and letting him turn the head bolts until his face turned red. That way, we knew the bolts were torqued the same.

Not no more.

Take a look at Saber 6's ride. (HHT is still Redhorse, but Redhorse 6 is now Saber 6).

The .50 is the same. M2-heavy barrel. The Army hasn't made any since WWII. They just keep pulling them out of the warehouse when a trooper needs a new one. The fine young trooper in the foreground is SGT Sawicki. He knows his stuff. Model number, nomenclature, the whole nine yards. He tells us that the Army has dropped the M-14 as the sniper rifle. The Army is now using the Remington Model 700 that the Marines used in Vietnam. Ain't that the pits?

SGT Sawicki also tells us that the troopers use the M16A2 now.

They rounded the foregrips and took away your "rock n roll" on the selector switch. All you get now is a three-round burst. I think it is the Army's way of punishing today's soldier for your lack of fire control discipline in Vietnam. I read somewhere recently that we shot an average of 2200 M-16 rounds for each enemy dead in Vietnam. Bean counters-1, grunts-0

By the way, be sure to get a good briefing on the new gadgets and gizmos from SGT Sawicki. He really knows his stuff, a lot has changed, and he has a pretty good idea of what you know and don't know. His dad served with you in Vietnam, in the unit we were opcon to so many times - the 25th Infantry Division.

About that head gasket -

A 450-bhp diesel powerplant. I think you could get about 5 of those little 4-banger jeep engines under the hood of a HMMWV. I don't see a field-expedient head gasket job in this beast's future.

Saber 6 needs to phone home? No problem, GI.

Or he needs to talk to someone on the radio? Several someones on the radio? Encrypted? Still no problem. All he needs is his watch. Yeah, his watch.

The encryption is set by time, not by that silly little "shack" wheel we used to carry and have to change every day or, more commonly, every time somebody lost one.

So, Saber 6 makes a radio call from the high-tech commo center in the dashboard of his ride. You just pick up your PRC-25 and say "Hello?", right? Nope. You get this sucker out of your ruck, put tab A into slot B about fourteen times, and then figure out where the satellite is.

Once you have that all figured out, then it's easy. Just plug your radio in and say "Hello?"

Your transmission is encrypted, sent to a satellite, bounced around a lot, and sent to Saber 6's dashboard. His response to your breach of radio procedure comes back by the reverse route, only madder.

When day is done, you now get two choices in the 3/17th. You can pull ambush duty, in which case you get to take along these nifty glasses.

These are the latest version of that old starlight scope. They are cool, but you do have a new problem. You used to get your ambush grid from the LT, and it was way the hell out there, and he just didn't want to hear that it was too far to walk. So, you went about 50 meters outside the perimeter, set up, waited an appropriate length of time, and called the LT to let him know you were on his grid. Who's to know?

Well, in this man's Army, the LT is to know. This gizmo is a handheld GPS doodad. It gives your position in a ten-digit grid that is accurate to within a meter. That is about 3 feet, for you former draftees. This thing could take a lot of the fun out of night ambush.

So, with some of the fun taken out of night ambush, maybe you opt for the second choice for night duty.

You catch the Lakers game on the tube. That is a civilian satellite dish mounted on top of the HMMWV. Hey, you had to find the satellite anyway to run your radios, so why not?

Bill Nevius, Delta Troop Webmaster

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