War Pig Fire Power

LAR Marines and and the War Pigs of C Company, First LAR, August 2007 out for some live fire exercise as a combined arms training. This is the first week of Operation Mawtini at Combat Outpost Rawah, Iraq.Photo Cpl. Ryan Heiser

DVIDS 8/2007 story/photo Cpl. Ryan Heiser

Company C, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, Regimental Combat Team 2, conducted combined arms training near the end of the first week of Operation Mawtini.

"The shoot was pretty awesome, and showed we could do some incredible stuff when we coordinate together," said Cpl. Kiante K. Walker, a fire direction control chief and vehicle commander with the company. "It proves we have massive fire suppression abilities, and according to what the targets looked like afterward, it also proved we have deadly accuracy even from a distance."


The combined arms training, nicknamed 'Series Thunderstruck' after the song it was choreographed to, tested the abilities of the company's newly formed mortar platoon.

"Generally when you fire (a mortar) you're just trying to get rounds on target. Yes, time is critical, but it isn't nearly as difficult as synchronizing with maneuvers. That was literally by the second," said Cpl. John P. Wallis, a mortar man and scout team leader with the company. "This forced us to expand our skill set and work as a team. My last shot proved that, it was a once-in-a-lifetime drill that came down to a fraction of a second."

The shot came after the long volley of initial rounds that marked the opening of the song's first verse. The mortar team ran into a few problems and didn't have much time to fix them.

"We had 10 seconds to get the gun up. Let me try to put that into perspective. I would say if the gun was mounted on a vehicle and had no interference or potential movement due to the ground shaking, that 30 seconds would be a great time," said Wallis, a Kailua, Hawaii, native. "On the dirt, with an unseated bi-pod and minor target adjustments to be made, it was as if God came out of the sky, reached down and said, 'Gentlemen, I would like you to fire your gun right now.' It was that incredible. Ten seconds. Ten."

Wallis and Weathers, an assistant gunner and scout with the company, quickly corrected the bipod. As Weathers grabbed the next mortar round, Wallis made the necessary sight adjustments. Right as the order for "fire" was sounded, Weathers got the round into the tube and the team safely, and successfully sent it down range.

"I don't really think about how much time we have or how hard something is. We train until our tasks become muscle-memory, so everything is just a reflex. It isn't a question of how fast you can accurately fire. It's a matter of how many lives are at stake if you don't, so you find a way," said Weathers, a Houston native.

The company fired 40 mortar rounds, 200 25 mm rounds, and 800 7.62-caliber rounds during the exercise. As the sun dropped below the horizon, the tracer rounds could be seen streaking across the sky and exploding in sparks as they hit their target.

"It was a great show of force and a great way of kicking off this operation," said Walker, a Laurel, Del., native. "The Iraqi civilians know we are still here, and we still have a massive amount of firepower if we need to use it. Most of all, we proved to them we haven't given up, and we are still going out searching for insurgents."

The Marines all agreed the training was an effective way to show an example of what the enemy was up against if they chose to attack.

"In general, just the presence of our vehicles is enough to intimidate and ward off terrorist behavior, so I imagine it would have struck fear into the hearts of anyone who was watching and was thinking of attacking us, our city (Rawah, Iraq) or its civilians," Wallis said.

"The enemy was probably ruining their underwear if they were watching us," agreed Walker. "They'd have to be insane not to be afraid of us. We completely destroyed our targets and nearly flattened the hill they were on in just a few short minutes."