‘Sup Killers? Hope you’ve been well? Spring has sprung and recently its been wetter than an otter’s pocket… 😂
SO, Cranes you say..? Another amusing anecdote about something in Iraq I hear you muse..? Well, KIND of…
I do have an Iraq War Avian-related story, but more on that shortly…
You’ll remember I posted in an earlier episode about the USMC heavy recovery vehicles that were part of the MEF, and that one of them was an AARV, the Engineer version of the AAVP-7A1. Well I wanted one as part of the list, but there is nothing like it in the TY rules. So I thought what better place to put one than on an Objective?!
An Objective in the game if you were not tracking is an oblong shape that you place, typically in your opponents side and that you have to ‘capture and hold’ to win a game.
Now, BF don’t make these, of course they don’t… So I turned to my friendly neighbourhood Printing Man, T-Boss. He found a file, made some changes and printed me out a bunch of them!
There she blows! The crane is a seperate part and I think I will magnetise it so that it moves. It’ll be a tw0-part objective, the other half being an M88, that’s currently on the 3D-printing drawing board ☺️
I will then be able to recreate the real-life Tug-O-War that I saw those two vehicles doing back in 03!
What else has been happening..? Well I got on with another TWO PLs of Hummers! Yup, TWO! Although one is a bit of a cheat as it’s the TOW PL. For that PL I am using the already made and partly painted ones from Mr Bailey. I just needed to add stowage and will need to paint the European Camo scheme. I am keeping these in the green to make them stand out a bit and as they are not really a part of the GK ORBAT.
There are four of those, I just added the Wading Kit, recognition panel and stowage.
I also finished another Hummer PL, this one will be painted as per the regular ones, i.e., desert sand with speckled camo.
Some more scratch building and converting to make these more like the GK trucks with plenty of stowage etc. Went with one open top truck as the PL leaders vehicle for flavour. 🤩
And the last thing that was printed out this week was…. an E100… Yup, you read that right, an E100…
Here it is next to an M60 and a Hummer 😂
WHY? I hear you ask..? Well we have an annual Flames of War game in December, aptly named, ‘Remember December’. It’s so called because it remembers the life of one of our dear departed gaming brothers, Mr Nick Garden, a true gaming superstar and a real friend.
This year there had been talk of allowing a ‘Late War Leviathan’ into the lists, so I thought E100!! Then someone changed their mind so its now on the pile of opportunity 😝
And to round up, the Iraqi Avian story…
You’ll recall my main job here was to be the CBRN liaison between my REGT and the USMC. So one day I get told I need to go to the Marine camp and meet a SSGT, name escapes me. So I jump in the Rover and roll around for a while until I pin the dude down. Nice bloke, with a lot going on…
So he takes me outside and shows me to a pile of small wooden cages, each one with a pigeon inside. All sat there, cooing away happily in the sun.
Now calm down you Blackadder Goes Forth fans, this was no ‘Speckled Jim’ scenario, these weren’t career pigeons for messages, oh no, they had a far more sinister role…
I was issued and signed for eight (8) pigeons and given instructions on where to place them with specific grids. I kind of looked round for Jeremy Beedle, but not seeing the small-handed man of mirth, I duly signed for the airborne rats and set off to deploy them.
But Bob, WHAT were they for I hear some of you say, others will have possibly already guessed…
It was like WWI all over again, but instead of canaries, I had pigeons. Yup, you guessed it, in modern, high-tech warfare with ‘Smart’ bombs and drones, I was deploying pigeons to act as CBRN early-warning devices…!
Just like in WWI and in an old-school coal mine, the pigeons were there to detect gas and nerve agent. If they piled in, we would mask up, FAST…! Fortunately we never needed them, but this tale wasn’t without its funny ending…
About a week after I had been issued my pigeons, the USMC SSGT came rolling into my FOB, with a panicked look on his Swede. “Bob, man, you gotta help me, I am in the Sh1t” “What’s up my bro” I asked..?
Long story short, one of his pigeons had gone AWOL…😝 No, seriously, the flying rat was missing, and as it was a living being and part of the USMC inventory, it was now AWOL…! I drove around with him for a few hours trying to find it, to no avail…
He told me later that he ended up writing reams of paperwork, filling in offical forms etc. all for the ‘AWOL’ pigeon… Ahh, rules, policy, ‘The Vols’ ‘The Regs’, call them what you like, each military has them, and even in times of all-out war, they WILL be followed… 😜
And sorry, no pics of that event either… 😉
As always, thank you for your support, for your comments, and your kind words.
Till next time, ‘Stay Frosty 🫡
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