During our stay at Camp Pendleton I was sent up to 29 Palms to learn about a new UAV the Marine Corps has called Dragon Eye. The Dragon Eye is a small airplane, about a 45" wingspan, comes in sections that are assembled just prior to a mission, is programmed to fly a route, can be retasked during flight, has a real-time video downlink (that can be reocorded if you have a video camera and connection cables), and can take pictures in flight. It comes with a number of cameras for different light conditions, launches with a big bungee cord and lands by simply skidding along on it's belly. The bird is designed to come come apart on landing to minimize real damage. The biggest drawbacks are it's limited flight time and the fact that it is easily damaged if the landing isn't really smooth. Often when we fly at night we tape chemlites to the bird so the bad guys can see we are watching them, if we don't want them to know the bird is up we tape IR chemlites on so we can see it coming in for a landing and find it.
About 2 weeks ago we had one of the Gunnys from comm out by our position to get the serial numbers off the radios and such we took possession of from the unit we relieved and to set up a retrans site for the Bn radio net. These guys don't get off the base much so they are always looking for a way to jump in on a patrol or some such "action". That night we were flying a Dragon Eye mission to check out a village to our south and look for anybody trying to place IEDs on the highway. The mission was planned to be under the time limit of the bird, so that shouldn't have been a problem. As I flew the mission the CO tasked me twice to do things that extended the mission by a few minutes, but I was still under the absolute maximum, until I hit a 20mph headwind that is. The bird flys at a set 35mph, head or tailwinds will change the speed accordingly.
Needless to say the bird did not make the landing area we usually set for it. Once I knew the bird had hit the ground I had to find it, there was no way I was going to see the Bn Cmdr and explain that I had lost a bird that the enemy could find, there is nothing sensative in the plane, but it's still not fun doing the carpet dance. The comm Gunny and I started out by asking some of the posts if they had seen it go down, thankfully we had green chemlites on or we would have been really out of luck. We were able to get a sort of resection of the location and the two of us pushed out of the wire. About 150m out we hit a north/south canal. My first concern was the bird went in the canal. About that time the other Gunny asked my how much ammo I had on me.
"The mag in my rifle, one in my pistol, I answered.
Unlike most Marines over here I don't like to carry everything on my flak, I prefer to use the LBV for my battle load, I have a mag pouch for each on my flak, but I only use them in the FOB (Forward Operating Base, our base camp) because we can't carry loaded weapons but must have a mag handy at all times. This suddenly became a big concern for him, not to mention there was only the two of us. So back we went into the platoon position to get more help and ammo.
We picked up 3 mortarmen who were just sitting around, I grabbed my LBV and off we went again. Unfortunately we forgot to cross the main east/west canal via the bridge we are guarding before we left the wire. Now we are on the wrong side of the canal and looking for a way to cross. There are two water pipes and a foot bridge we can see but they are a way off. The locals cross on the water pipes all the time so we figure it shouldn't be an issue and keep pushing, besides we can check out a couple of other fields on the way back. The first water pipe is about 300m out from the wire and I planned to cross there. As we were walking I kept turning my head back to the Gunny and telling him to walk in the quiet part of the road. For some reason he was right on my tail and somehow managed to stomp and drag his feet at the same time. The junior Marines kept a wide berth from him and I could hear them laughing.
"No way," the comm Gunny said when we got to the pipe.
I agreed, the pipe was about 2 feet in diameter and fully rounded on top, not to mention 30 feet above the water and we're wearing about 40 pounds of flak, SAPI plates, and ammo.
"Gunny, there's another pipe 200m down and a foot bridge the same distance further," my radioman tells me.
So we push on. About 400m later we hit the next pipe.
"You need your eyes checked, this is no 200m." I said, "How far is that bridge?"
"Just another 200m," he answered.
"200m like this? This is 400m, easy."
The pipe had flats welded on top and a rail along one side, not a great rail, but a handrail nonetheless. I told the patrol we were crossing here.
"No way," the Gunny whispered to me, "I'm afraid of heights.
"Me too, but I'm not walking another 400m, we'll be almost a klick out with nothing to show for it. We cross here, you don't like it go back."
Needless to say it took a while to get across, the other Gunny took 3minutes to cross a 50m bridge and probably didn't breathe the whole way. Once across he let out such a breath I thought he was going to deflate, which would have made me happy since I couldn't hear a damn thing with him stomping and dragging his feet right behind me. After we were all across we began heading back toward where I thought the bird went down. We covered much of the distance back quickly, stopping every once in a while to listen for the "lost comm" tone from the plane. Twice when I stopped the other Gunny bumped into me. Finally I told him if he couldn't keep his distance I'd intentionally cross the pipe again on the way back. That solved one problem, but not the Frankenstein walk.
As we got to the area we thought the bird went down in I stopped to listen. The next sound I heard was the crump of mortars landing in the area of our platoon position as a convoy rolled through. It's amazing, they really make a crump sound when you are on the receiving end. We dropped to a knee and faced outboard looking for the flash of mortar muzzles and I pulled out my compass. No luck, the lights of the convoy, the Army convoys drive with white lights on at night, destroyed any visibilty I had in the direction the mortars were. One of the Marines thought he saw the green chemlites, but I was being called back in due to the fire.
"I'm not coming back in, I found the bird," I replied
"The watch officer says he needs you to help with the call for fire," the RO called back.
"I'm almost a klick out, even if I run back it'll be too late. Do the call for fire yourself, besides, I'm safer out here; they're shooting at you, not me."
The barrage lasted about a minute, maybe a little more, and only about 5 or 6 rounds landed, none in the area of the convoy, so we picked up and headed off to the chemlites. We had to cut through a farmer's field to get there, the whole area is farm fields. From our platoon position I can count at least 15 houses, most in little one or two house clusters. At the end of the first field was another that looked kind of wet, I decided to hug the edge of the dry field, but not the comm Gunny, he waded right into 6" of wet (probably also fertilized) muck. Finally I saw the chemlites clearly, I got to the farmer's driveway, cut toward the house, and had to cut into the next field. We had dropped Marines at each major turn along the way from the road, through the field, and to the driveway so now only the Gunny and I were together. The last field was heavily furrowed but was dry dirt, the bird had crashed hard on landing and parts were all over the place.
Of course we were not alone, I had cut into the field only 20m from the house so the comm Gunny had about 8 dogs barking at him and the lady of the house outside scowling. I looked over and he's aiming in on the dogs, "Put your rifle down!" I yelled, "You're not going to shoot a dog in front of her unless it attacks you."
I picked up my plane, said good evening to the lady in Arabic (even though it was about 1 am by then), said I was sorry and we left. By now the Marines we had dropped off had come up to us and we walked up the driveway. Along the way we had to pass one more house, of course the commotion had waken the man of that house and he stood in his back yard with his arms crossed as we passed. Again we apologized and kept moving.
Some sight we must have been; 5 armed men walking up a driveway in the middle of the night with a toy plane.
Bob
