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H&I Fires* 6 July 2008

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.


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Your Sunday Funny... Drill Instructor (TI/DS/RDC) stories.  Here's a sample to whet your appetite:
There was kid in my plt that had trouble pronouncing "R". One day the heavy came in and yelled for him. When the recruit replied "Hea Sa"("hear sir" for the rest of you), the heavy replied with "Did you just call me an a**hole?" The senior and the kill hat had to run into the office to keep from laughing in front of the platoon.
- FbL

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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires. Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute. Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*. The UAVs we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now. Of course, now I have to call them UAS's, because someone got a Legion of Merit for the name change.Anyway, I call the post H&I Fires because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to that particular topic. Another term of art that might be appropriate is Free Fire Zone.

5 Comments

After 25 years, I still remember the most cutting thing my Drill Sergeant had to say to me: "I'm gonna punish you the worst way I know how. I'm gonna let you live."
 
Heh. Whrn I went through the IFE course down at Mother Rucker, they were just cranking up the Air Assault School. I was walking up to the mail room when a 2LT came out, caught the flash from my W3 bar and probably mistook me for the world's oldest 1LT and promptly saluted me with, "Air Assault, sir!"

*snarl*

"Just whaddyoo mean by calling me an Air A$$hole, Lootenant?!?"

They're so cute when they're flustered...

 
BillT, it's not nice to pick on the children...

And no, I'm not tellin' the stupid stuff my Drills did to me.
 
There was kid in my plt that had trouble pronouncing "R".

Maybe he just didn't think the "R"s were necessary.
 
Yeah.  They don't say "R" s up in Boston.  It's all "pak the kah", "got a cotta?"
 
© 2008 John Donovan
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