Any other 2ARC or Cav troopers here?

Any other 2ACR or Cav troopers here?

Just wondering.

I am ex-Cav (Once a Trooper, always a Trooper), I know Woody is too IIRC. Anybody else? 2d ACR HHT RSS here.

We even have family here of a former Col. of the Regiment.

How about Berlin Brigade soldiers? Anybody else? 6/502d vet here

Glenn
Always Ready

When were you there? My MSgt is a Cav. Scout and spent most of his time in Germany. I'll ask him about his unit and see if it matches your's.

Fergie

PS- Thanks for serving.

I'm cav scout (19D) from the first sand box era. 2nd squadron of the 11th ACR from Bad Kissingen Germany. First to deploy to Kuwait after the war was over. Later stationed with 1st Cav. at fort hood in HHT 1/5 Cav. scout platoon. Glad to see 3-7 cav. kicken butt. They did good.

Travis.

Heya Fergie, I was there from 1984-1988 , and Berlin Brigade 1988-1989... right before the wall came down.

Yellow... CAV always does good.

I am familar with 11th ACR. I was in the are often. Fulda was a good time.

We did a lot of work together, as both units where on the Border Duty.

Glenn

I missed the real cav missions on the border. I arrived in Germany in early 91(?) and was inproccessing at my unit when the last patrol rolled back in. Two months later we went to Camp Doha Kuwait and took it over from a tank co. that had been there at the end of the fight. It was after we redeployed to Germany that the 11th ACR ran out of money. It turns out that the army was not spending money on the 11th because it was being drawn down and sent to Fort Irwin to operate as the opfor unit there. No one told us for a year. There were M1 tanks sitting in the motor pool with no treads on them and trucks with bald tires and every one shrugging their shoulders and saying WTF !!!!
Felt like a wasted year...but going to the 1st Cav was a great change. It was nice and hot in texas. The only problem there was scouts were a minority in 1 cav. Only on platoon for the brigade. The brigade was all tanks and bradleys and thats the only people that got good training. I constantly tried to get better(any) real training for our scout platoon. We had only one scout gunnery range in 2 years at fort hood. The range was so screwed up we didnt know what to do. I wound up engaging a BMP target at 50 Meters with my M16. The Col. happened to be watching and thought I was a riot emptying 2 magazines into it before the gunner on my wing mans hummer could load(yea load the 50 because the people running the range were so inept they would not let us lock and load when the range scenarios started to run) only to have the feed tray cover blow open in his face on the second round. The gunner on my hummer did manage to engage troops at 75 meters with a Mark 19 40mm grenade launching machine gun. Blew the plywood pop up targets completely apart. Who planned this thing.

Always PROUD to have served and proud of the people I was with. Obviously the 3/7 Cav. had much better training than our unit had and they performed great. If I sound bitter I am. I had wanted all my life to be a soldier. I was too scared after 4 years in the cavalry to reenlist and wind up untrained in a serious fight. Its been almost ten years since I've been out. I've got a great family and business going now. Glad I did my duty. Even if I didnt feel like I made the most of my time.

Yeah, we did missions on the border with rifles pointed at us, RPGs, Hinds shadowing us, etc... Cav was great... Loved it.

11th ARC was our sister unit. not sure what became of them. 2d ACR was recently deployed to the Middle East.. in theatre now as I understand.

They wher change to an ACR(L) as I understand it. Lean and mean.

Glenn

Glenn,

2nd ACR is still a light ACR at Fort Polk. They use armored HMMWV's for manuever. My term of endearment for them is "Diet Cav".

They are going to be changed over to the new Stryker Brigade in 2006. The Strykers are the Army's new medium wheeled vehicle. I don't know if they will still be a Cav unit or not.

Funny how the doctrine changes, but seems to be circular. When I went through 19D OSUT & on to Ft Riley (1st ID(Mech) 1/4 Cav) It was all M113 & M901 ITV.

Our 2 ground Troops were mixed up 2 M-60A1 Tank Platoons, 2 M113/901 Scout Platoons, and a 107mm Mortar Platoon. The Squadron had an Air (D)Troop, with mostly OH58/AH1 hunter-killer teams. D Troop had a 'blues' Platoon of mostly Ranger qualified 19D that did recon for the division. A Troop had a LRRP platoon that used M151s, but they got disbanded along with the Recon Plt when the LRSU concept kicked in. LRSU were P-V qual grunts attached to the MI bn. HHT also had Scouts & Chem folks in an NBC Recon section. The C (air) Troop was forward in Germany. THE MTOE changed and the Div picked up C Troop, but had to disband a ground troop, self and a bunch of other unwilling 19D/19E got scattered to the 4 winds on post. I ended up as an Armorer in 1st Bde HHC. (Too much fun )

As a whole, 1ID(M) was armor heavy, the brigades having 2 Tank Bns & 1 Inf Bn, and the mission/training was totally Cold War oriented. We were (in theory) to go forward and help out 2ACR near Fulda IIRC. Each Armor & Inf Batt had a scout platoon in their HHC, plus the Engineers had some scouts too (met one in PLDC, one of the few of us who aced the land-nav course & finished early)

During the same era, Scouts who went to ID (light) got Gun-Jeeps- later Hummers, and 82nd Abn scouts either got Sheridans or a rucksack. I guess the 101st scouts got rucks too...

My BNCOC class in '90 had folks from all over...They were set up for Teaching Bradley tactics, but only 2 out of 7 of us actually had served on a Bradley crew...they got theirs, but the rest of us got 113s (the three 'Hummer Boys' from 10th Mountain were perplexed, hadn't seen a 113 since OSUT) and the other E6 besides me was a Freefall coach at West Point LOL Served in 82nd Abn as a Sheridan gunner, then went on to the Golden Knights. He hadn't done scouting in many a moon, and I believe he was afraid of the dark too. We were a motley crew for sure, and we spent 6 weeks pretty much FUBAR, couldn't even march to chow right LOL. The cadre, attepting to teach late cold-war combined arms doctrine, was 'amazed' to say the least.

No telling what they're doing with 19D and the Cavalry now...It was a fun MOS though, part grunt (raids) part FO (spotting for the 4.2) part engineer (route recon/classification, demo, area denial) part MI (forward eyes & ears) Part tanker or tank-harraser (TOW) and whatever else the brass could scheme up, Scouts could handle it.

Lots of fun!

The Scouts in a mech or armor battalion use the up-armored M1114's with the M2 or MK-19. About three years ago the mech/armor brigades added a scout company at bigade level. They use the same M1114's but they have a heavy mortar section with the company. The heavy mortars are M106A4 (m113 variant) with 120mm tubes of silent death.

When I was a mortar PL in Baumholder, we would go out to the firing points and the scouts would set up at the OP and call for fire. My mortar platoon had a tight relationship with the scouts. A few of my 11C earned thier spurs along with their EIB's. Those were the days when the two platoons could go out and train on thier actual real world missions without interference from the battalion.

The scouts and mortar platoon is the speciality platoon that every LT wanted after their rifle or tank platoon. I was lucky. I had 10 months as a bradely PL and 16 months as a mortar PL. We had the most freedom of manuever for LT's.

120mm ?!? Got common with the Brits or Israelis? Any of the old 107s on Ebay? Them baseplates were heavy as 10 SOBs...needed a M106 to tote them, they made a M151's trailer squirrely (don't ask)

We had a few sub-caliber 60mm inserts for the 107mm that were 'off the books' so to speak. Big fun was direct lay/direct align. Getting the 60mmHE took some conniving, but very valuable training for the guys.

Scouts & Mortarmen HAD to have a close relationship...no one else cared or knew what to do with us, so we looked after each other when possible. I had a really good frendship with a mortar platoon sergeant, and we helped each other out in cross-training our guys whenever possible. The Forgotten Few.

One of the last things I did as a Scout Squad Leader was help cut cheese & hang rounds one afternoon/evening just like a 11C10 would. Loved it, and had a better appreciation for it. I bet the kid I replaced learned a bunch about FO procedures with the scouts he hadn't seen since Benning (LOL my guys along with him raided the MFP after the fire-mission were done, so he got some of that again too)

Okay, so the MSgt was part of the 11th ACR and the 1st ID. I can't remember the dates he siad he was there, but I'll ask again. Last name was Edgar. He is a Cav Scout, if any of ya knew him

Fergie


THANK YOU ALL FOR SERVING

LOL forgot to mention our Mortar Platoon FDC had just got their new MBCs & had to attempt to give up the ole M16 plotting boards for "this new mashbutton thing." Hopefully they got through the adjustment OK.

Both the PL & the PSGT had been to IMPOC, IIRC the FDC Chief was real close to getting a civilian BSME degree and had a ticket to OCS. Great people all!

One bitch I always had was Scouts couldn't tryout for the EIB (& ineligible for CIB) we helped train our 11Cs up for it, but couldn't help grade it...the SQT tasks mirrored though.

Those funky MBC's!! When I was at IMLC, I programmed my scientific calculator to do the same as an MBC. When my platoon was in Albania for TF Hawk. We used the M16 plotting board to figure out where gunfire was on the perimeter using the azimuth from two seperate guard towers. The scouts would go investigate if it was more than the celibratory fire. One magaizine of AK-47 rounds into the air.

My platoon turned in the 4.duece in Summer of '98. Those things were scary!! The rounds would hang about 40% of the time. We had a soldier who could lift the base plate off the side of the track by himself. We received new vehicles with the 120. There is a 81mm sleeve that fits into the 120 tube. We could fire the 81mm rounds for training since they are a lot cheaper. The 120 uses four doughne shpaed charges. They were much easier to use than the cheese charges.

Another war story...No sh@t, there I was.......

My bradley company was the guard company while the rest of the TF set up the defense at CMTC (hohenfels). We were up all night hunting the OPFOR recon with the scouts. They would listen for them and then direct us to the OPFOR. We killed all but one vehicle of the OPFOR's recon assets. It was really great training to talk to the scouts directly so that the mission would be accomplished. It was prety funny to see them still sitting on the battlefield. They coudn't leave until the mission was over for both sides.

We had a couple of scouts along with medics earn their EIB but couldn't wear it execpt under the pocket flap.

currently a 2cav trooper here on fort polk. preparing deployment.
S&T RSS

suzeq said:

currently a 2cav trooper here on fort polk. preparing deployment.
S&T RSS

Click to expand...

Always Ready! Good to hear from somebody in the active Regiment!

Best of luck to you all on your deployement.

I had lots of friends in S&T RSS, as well as Maint Troop. I started in Maint Troop, before getting a great assignment to the S2/S3 shops.

I have been looking through the Association, trying to track down some old friends. Nice to get in touch with old friends...

Glenn

I have been following the changes in the 2d ACR. Quite a change, thats for sure.

Hopefully they remain designated as the 2d Cav. Lots of history in that unit.
Glenn

Rogue Sport said:

Glenn,

2nd ACR is still a light ACR at Fort Polk. They use armored HMMWV's for manuever. My term of endearment for them is "Diet Cav".

They are going to be changed over to the new Stryker Brigade in 2006. The Strykers are the Army's new medium wheeled vehicle. I don't know if they will still be a Cav unit or not.

Click to expand...

LOL Hung rounds? Shake-Kick-Pray the azimuth stays true. Repeat as neccessary. Nothing in the -10 yet for using a stick to poke the thing down or reaching in to defuse it? :huh:

Range Control and EOD conspired to destroy one of our 4.2 tubes with a hung round. A 15# shape charge set upon the round after the tube was carefully carried downrange made a helluva noise & danger close too... We were forward, but i'd have payed to participate.

We had an 11C10 SPC Maki Vimau, greencard holder from the Island of Tonga. He could carry a 4.2 tube on one shoulder from the arms room to the 'pool 1/2 mile away while the other gun crews used 2 guys. He'd circle round them taunting "Mmmm you white boys need eatum more Wheaties" He was but 200# 5'11" but was the most asswhippinest trooper in the squadron. The one time he actually got hit that I saw, he was amused! The guy he sparred with had gone through 3 of us. He said "Hmm, hit white boys fun huh...Maki make fun with you" then he beat this guy silly (who was a 6'+ body builder type).


Another thing that was cool about the mortar section, was fresh-hot chow. One time they occupied a MFP in range of the rear...Their chow was cold that night, and they dialed in one round of illumination (and radioed) the mess... Breakfast the next day was hot & delicious...but from then on, the MFPs were out of range... M106s can jump quickly though, so they remained well fed.