15th meu forward

7/22/2019 15th MEU Forward

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15th MEU Forward

-----Original Message-----

From: [@15meufwd.usmc.mil]

Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2003 1:12 AM

To:

Subject: FW: Ramblings part II

Randy, Doc, Charles the short,

Some more ramblings since I have a few minutes to spare.

The use of tanks. At first I used to poo-poo tanks and the MEU(SOC) program. At points I wish I had a tank company. The tank platoon is awesome. At points during the first couple of days fighting in Umm Qasr and the Az Zubayr naval baseI had to split the tank platoon in sections and had sections supporting infantry companies. Grunts need to get used to working with tanks. Once in contact and the grunts were dismounted the best technique seemed to be the grunts workingright along side the tanks. Be carefull of when the main gun has to shoot. Make

sure your guys are behind and to the sides. A few times we just had the tanksrun over a few machine-gun nests and just cross-steer crushing the guys beneaththem. The new MPAT round, replaced the HEAT, is great for urban combat. We normally have the tanks create breaches for our asssault companies to enter buildings. 1 or 2 MPATs will create a whole big enough that you can drive an IFAV through.

We have also conducted the now patented Tank / MSPF hard hit assault. I am surethe guys at SOTG would be crying because we broke all the rules. We had to take down the Baath party HQ in Umm Qasr. We did it with the tank platoon, force recon, and the trailer platoon. We lead with tanks, the four tanks got on line and blew the crap out of the building with their main gun using MPAT and createdtwo breaches. Once the trailers dismounted and moved abreast of the tanks they

switched to 7.62 and .50cal hosing down the house. When the trailers were readyto move forward we shut the tanks off and the trailers secured the perimeter ofthe house. Tanks were then again pushed forward. A section covering each incoming road. The force platoon went inside and finished the clearing operation.The biggest take aways was the tanks work great in MOUT. They need infantry support which all the infantry is more than happy to do.

The tanks work great on BLT TAC 1 and often we push them down to Co TAC for support to specific units. As long as the supported unit can talk directly to the tanks it is fabulous. We blocked, numbered, and phase lined the entire city andthat system worked as well. Often I could hear the guys coordinating tank firesby saying they are in building A3 etc.... Don't be afraid just to talk them onlike an aircraft. We have also just told them things like "do you see the two

story house with the rusty roof". "The bunkers are at the base of the white house to the east of that one".

The platoon and company commanders adapted well to using the tanks and every company has had to use them more than once. If only I could have made more than just a team mech. We could have seized our objectives faster. What I could havedone with a team tank.

Make sure you manage your fuel. I built a combat train run by the S-4. The train had an ambulance team, security vehicle and ambulance. A maintenance contact


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vehicle for HMMWVs, a 5-ton for EPW/forward BAS/extra casualty collection. A refueling truck holding 2700 galoons of diesel. An EOD contact team. An MMT teamto run landing zones and another security vehicle. The concept was the Combattrain would establish itself and the S-4 could dispach the ambulance team to collect casualties. The forward BAS riding in the back of the 5-ton would establish and the MMT would set up an LZ. We could vector aircraft right to the companies or ground evac back to our forward BAS and hasty LZ. The other half of the combat train could repair HMMWVs and refuel vehicles. A tank platoon needs to berefueled after 8 hours of continuous operations.

Keep a close watch on this. I had to refuel and rearm these guys in the middleof a fight a few times. We would refuel a section at a time so we could alwayshave one engaging the enemy. On one occasion the bad guys made the wrong decision to attack Golf company as it just finished its heliborne insert and was moving down to clear the Old Port at Umm Qasr. Luckily we were refueling a tank section just north of town about 500 meters from Golf. We finished refueling and sent the tanks in and through coordination with Golf they made quick work of thosenuckle heads. The learning point is always think ahead about refueling and rearming your tanks. You don't ever want to run dry. I'll write again. I hope you guys can put this to good use.

-Rusty



Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 5:30 AM

To:

Cc:

Subject: More ramblings

Doc,

Good to see that you are keeping the next batch of surely Captains in line.

A couple of other good lessons learned. We have been using the DACTs, little computers, at the company level to help with fire support. What we do is load imagery into the computers using C2PC. Once a company identifies a target in an urban environment we can quickly pull up the image and find the building and pull a10 to 12 digit grid from the imagery. This has allowed us to conduct 1st time fire for effects and vaporize buildings without having to go through long adjustfires. The FSC and companies have done this on a few occassions. It often works best in the fires planning portion because you can sit down and really come up

with good accurate fire plans in case you have to cross some known chokepointslike bridges, canal roads etc...

Every Marine combat unit must be trained in demolitions and the basic use of demo. We have been destroying captured equipment and ammo caches as we find them.Some days we have run dry on demolitions. Everyone should know the basics of how to use nonelectric systems etc...

Always take the time to sink your mortar base plates. We have had to fire our mortars over our heads a few times and the very first rounds are a bit erratic sin


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ce your base plates are being sunk. The best thing we found was to initially set up and use some illum to quickly sink the plates. Once sunk they were dead on.

The flak jackets work. The SAPI plates work. The HMMWVs will stop small arms in the windshields and doors. One of our GySgt's took a frag strait in the chest. His flak + SAPI stopped it after knocking him on his ass. Our CAAT vehicles have taken multiple small arms hits in the windshields and frag in the side doors. All were stopped by the vehicles and the Marines were ok.

Look at different ways of doing retrans. We abandoned the normal way of tryingto establish a retrans in bad guy country. We now use a mobile retrans team with2 MRC-145s and 2 H+S machinegun vehicles that will follow a combat unit. If they start to loose comm we have them stop and put up OE-254s and retrans TAC-1 and Arty COF. You have to provide these guys with security. Same thing goes forthe CP. Always must have security. We always have at a minimum 2 Machinegun vehicles and about a squad (-) of HS Marines for security with the C7/P7. I hopeeverything continues to go well for you guys.

-Rusty



Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2003 3:05 AM

To:

Cc:

Subject: RE:

Doc and Randy,

Great to be able to keep in touch. One of the big benefits of being with the MEU. I think we will be here for a couple of weeks. I am sure they will wantto keep the MEU(SOC) train rolling and will want to get us back on cycle.

A good lesson learned for me was in CP configurations. We had to turn to a A / Bcmd configuration. The A cmd was in the C7 / P7 and the B cmd was in 4 HMMWVs(3 MRC-145s and 1 MRC-138). On the offense we didn't have time to set up the main and we were always moving and covering a lot of distance. Once we became static we shifted to a Main / Forward concept. Main in tents with ant farm. Forward is C7 / P7. This allows us to control daily ops but still return to the main

for 24 hour ops /sustainment.

I turned HS company into a composite company with three close support platoons that help service each rifle company for ammo, fuel, water, epw collection, and casualties. We also run a battalion combat train. HS commander and the S-4 utilize both to help keep everyone going for sustainment. We have to take care of ourselves the MSSG falls short on a few occassions. We have stripped down abandoned US equipment and I have stolen Iraqi 5-tons for our Artillery battery to give them more ammo trucks. You can't have enough arty ammo. I'll write soon.


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-Rusty



Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2003 3:42 AM

To:

Subject: RE:

Randy and Doc,

I have been able to write to Denise and I have talked to Greyhair on the radio. Everything is going well. It looks like our part of the war is winding down. We are turning to humanitarian aide in our area. We still have pockets of bad guys that we are killing as we find them. It is mostly a counterguerrila operation now in the rear area.

It has been interesting. Conventional cax like attacks first days. Urban nightmout attacks, urban raids, humanitarian assistance, and counterguerrilla operations. All the bad guys do everything we are taught not to do. Fight from hospitals, mosques, peoples homes, in civilian clothes, etc...

The Marines are adapting well and their aggressiveness carries the day. And boydo they love to shoot. Everyone unloads when they have a target. Maneuver warfare is good and it works when you can find a soft spot. We got lucky and had our Mech Team strike the infantry brigade CP when we first came through the breach. Firepower is awesome and more firepower is even better. When applied at theright points they break.

-Rusty

15th meu forward

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