Always aware of 9/11. Had soldiers of mine KIA and WIA in OIF 1. But we gave out way more than what we took........
I was in day 2 of a 2 week school that tuesday morning learning the Javelin missle system. So I could be the trainer of the 6 AT gunners in my company. 18 of us from the 502nd IN Train the Trainers course.
We used em in OIF 1 against fortified schools,bunkers, and buildings in Ah Najaf. Haji thought he was immune at times a couple of klicks away in cities. Wrong answer dumb fugg.... Used em in Karbala against tech vehicles/ Toyota trucks with Dshk,s on em when we did a brigade sized clearing op in the city. Burning piles of metal , rubber, and meat. The stand off range of the missle is more than what is said.......
Everyone in division went on alert/guard 24/7. Those of us in Javelin school were told our place of duty was the school and we were not subject to other duties until certified on the system fully and brigade was contacted we had duty to domicile only.
Class stopped for about 2 hrs the morning of 9/11. Watching it on a TV the instructors rolled in. Most of us figured Bin Laden and we talked about it at length. We knew we was gonna go to war in the near future. Had a bunch of buds in the 187th that went to afghanistan intially.
Then we was told by Division schools thru the Rayethon and Lockheed Martin instructors to continue training... For obvious reasons....
The T-72 has between 1/2 and 3/4 ths tank of fuel in it and 36 tank rounds. Not a sterilized range hulk.
Rene, A sincere thank you for your service! And No, I'll never forget that day. I'll never forget OR forgive who did it either. Probably the first time I realized we as Americans could were actually vulnerable. After the wall came down and the cold war was over, it seemed like we were untouchable. 9/11 proved we weren't. I truly hope it never comes out that our govt was complicit instead of simply incompetent in stopping the attacks.
