Ditch Diving
The kid told me the other day that he has probably ruined his chances of becoming "somebody" in this man's Army. Here's that story.
When on patrol the platoons are taught to keep the spacing of their vehicles just right for operational security. Not too close together and not too far apart. As speed rises the space increases, as they slow down they close up more. Always watching "fields of fire" and "avenues of exit".
On one such patrol out in the country a car attempted to pass the line of Strykers as they raced down a highway. On coming traffic caused the car to move in between the last Stryker (his) and the rest of the patrol. Once "embedded" the car's driver couldn't see well enough to pull out and pass again. The car's driver slowed down and was bobbing and weaving trying to see when to pass. The Stryker commander gave orders to "bump" the car from the road so that they could close up to the rest of the patrol.
Here's the bad part - depending on you're point of view. The kid dis-obeyed a direct order. He had been watching the car closely as they sped down the highway. Inside were a man, woman and a child. He could not bring himself to use the Stryker as a "weapon" to knock the intruding car off the road. Instead, he shifted the 20 ton, ten foot tall armored vehicle into eight wheel drive and did a ditch dive. He sped around the car with the Iraqi family in it on the right side of the road. The car was able to safely slow down and the Stryker was able to safely swing back onto the highway. Disaster averted.
And because he made a morally sound decision, prevented the potential unnecessary lose of life and did what he felt was right he was chewed out by the vehicle commander and told he was being written up. (He did say that he doubts he'll actually be written up since no real harm was done and after everyone calmed down he got a thumbs up from the vehicle commander.)
When on patrol the platoons are taught to keep the spacing of their vehicles just right for operational security. Not too close together and not too far apart. As speed rises the space increases, as they slow down they close up more. Always watching "fields of fire" and "avenues of exit".
On one such patrol out in the country a car attempted to pass the line of Strykers as they raced down a highway. On coming traffic caused the car to move in between the last Stryker (his) and the rest of the patrol. Once "embedded" the car's driver couldn't see well enough to pull out and pass again. The car's driver slowed down and was bobbing and weaving trying to see when to pass. The Stryker commander gave orders to "bump" the car from the road so that they could close up to the rest of the patrol.
Here's the bad part - depending on you're point of view. The kid dis-obeyed a direct order. He had been watching the car closely as they sped down the highway. Inside were a man, woman and a child. He could not bring himself to use the Stryker as a "weapon" to knock the intruding car off the road. Instead, he shifted the 20 ton, ten foot tall armored vehicle into eight wheel drive and did a ditch dive. He sped around the car with the Iraqi family in it on the right side of the road. The car was able to safely slow down and the Stryker was able to safely swing back onto the highway. Disaster averted.
And because he made a morally sound decision, prevented the potential unnecessary lose of life and did what he felt was right he was chewed out by the vehicle commander and told he was being written up. (He did say that he doubts he'll actually be written up since no real harm was done and after everyone calmed down he got a thumbs up from the vehicle commander.)
posted by deesci | 10:41 PM
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