here is a truck i ran into the other day. i didn't know which country or force it belonged to until i seen blackwater guys getting out of it. it sounds like it is cat powered, not quite the same turbo sound from the cummins. but it was fast moving..... more get up and go then the M1114's
The V shaped hull is a design for defeating mine blasts.. Used in Africa for years...Oshkosh is developing one for us... Please give definition of Blackwater guys... Thanks for serving and be home safe.
blackwater is more or less merc's hired by the goverment. they provide secuirty here in theater and do other missions. you don't hear anything about them unless something like when there helicopter got shot down in bagdad a few months back.
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if i cant find it, fix it, or replace it, you should not have done it!!
PBS had a documentary about the Blackwater guys a couple of years back. Very interesting. They operate pretty much with no civilian or military oversight (or at least they did at the time) so while they are driving down the Iraqi highways they have tail gunners shooting at any driver they feel is getting too close. But since they have no real oversight, they aren't held to the same standards that our men & women in uniform are. So some of these guys can just be killing random civilians for their own amusement and not be held accountable.
PBS had a documentary about the Blackwater guys a couple of years back. Very interesting. They operate pretty much with no civilian or military oversight (or at least they did at the time) so while they are driving down the Iraqi highways they have tail gunners shooting at any driver they feel is getting too close. But since they have no real oversight, they aren't held to the same standards that our men & women in uniform are. So some of these guys can just be killing random civilians for their own amusement and not be held accountable.
id take killing random civilians over rediculous rules of engagement that result in me being killed since i cant prove to a senator 10,000 miles away that it was 100% an insurgent.
ROE have been all over the map. The Blackwater chaps are doing a job. In some respects they're US troops with training and experience who are over there volunteering to do the work and provide security from the bandits and terrorist who want to snatch civilians and especially people trying to shore up that bloody country. Painting them with a broad brush doesn't really accomplish anything but helping out people like Hillary who do exactly the same thing AND would be perfectly willing (demand) to have the same sort of protection were she in the exact same place.
Re those ROE, they're pretty constrained almost to UN stupidity levels and with requirements for bullet counts after actions is approaching insanity.
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Ryan Gill
15 Recce Re-enacting Group
1943 Humber Mk IV Armoured Car
1947 Jeep CJ2A basket case
1960 Daimler Ferret
1972 AM General M35A2
x2 M514 1Ton2Wheel Trailer
Blackwater armored truck
