In 1966 I was trained with the M-14. I was taught

[Victor_c3]

149. Different time, different war, and a different way of doing things

I was in Iraq 2004-2005. The majority of patrols that my unit conducted were mounted patrols through urban/semi urban areas. I occasionally conducted dismounted patrols, but that was the exception. We all had the M-4 carbine version of the M-16. The M-79 was replaced with an M-203 mounted to the bottom of an M-4/M-16 so that your grenadier didn't have to juggle two different weapons. The shotguns we had issued to us almost always stayed in our vehicles.

I was a PL in Iraq of a mechanized Infantry platoon and my vehicle was equipped with a nifty computer that fed us our exact location courtesy of a GPS and I was able to get google-earth like imagery of everything on this computer. It was a great piece of equipment. I would get a radio transmission while I was on patrol that I needed to conduct a hasty raid on a position at ________. I could just punch that into my computer, get a rough idea for the lay of the land and even get a good guess of where the doors and windows were, and conduct a very quick and well planned raid as a result. Calling for artillery fire or medevac couldn't be easier either. All you had to do was right click somewhere on the screen and punch in the required information and you had exactly what you called for. You could still call for artillery fire or medevac the old way (and I did that a few times), but that computer made it sooo easy. The old addage "you can't spell lost without LT" didn't apply to me.

Anyways, My vehicle and my Platoon Sergeant's vehicle both had those computers. Also, the lead and trail vehicle were the most likely to be hit by an IED. With that in mind, I always took point and my Platoon Sergeant always took the rear.