13-Dec-10: Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Team...

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Tracker275
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13-Dec-10: Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Team...

Post by Tracker275 »

The following is an article I co-authored with John D. Hurth almost six years ago. Still applies more than ever to today's battlefields, if not more. Please read, learn, and enjoy. The missions in the scenario that are described on Page 11-Page 14 are based on real missions. The first is one that I was on May 21, 2010 near Tarmiyah, Iraq that rolls into a mission by John Hurth in 2004 in Afghanistan.

The point of the scenario is to show that a combination of arms in a very common setting can be used effectively if utilized. Both incidents involved an IED and whether the beginning or end of the scenario, the outcome for the enemy was still the same. However, it requires the age old saying of, "Violence of Action" that has to be carried out on the enemy.

One of the main fundamentals described in this article is a long time expected skill of the "Ranger" in the United States.

Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Team Capability: A Disappearing Skill and Misunderstood Capability
http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/journa ... brokaw.pdf
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Re: 13-Dec-10: Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Tea

Post by fatboy »

I wish I would have had more formal training in tracking while I was still in. I can think of at least 3 separate occasions on 1 deployment (and a few more times on others) that those skills would have been more than welcome.
First was hunting for a cache near the Zaab river in Iraq- we had a blown up Toyota as a start point and not much else. We found it, but it took us some time. Second time was tracking an IED team that failed to blow us up across a canal, 800 or so meters of field and an oil pipeline at night. There were 4 of us on foot that night, and again we got the job done but it took a bit. Third time from that deployment was after a Kiowa team whacked a few IED emplacers. One guy was DRT, other guy was not so dead and crawled off. Never did find him, all we could find was a blood pool. I think he was able to get in a car and escape, but hopefully he died painfully and alone.

Edited to add that it appears you were in Iraq at the times these events happened. Small world and all, I think we had a team from your unit in my A.O. We might even have crossed paths.
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Re: 13-Dec-10: Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Tea

Post by KW Driver »

If the KW team hit them with a hellfire, he was most likely dead within three days. There were plenty of IED guys got off an impact, but died from complications due to blast over pressure.
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Re: 13-Dec-10: Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Tea

Post by fatboy »

KW Driver wrote:If the KW team hit them with a hellfire, he was most likely dead within three days. There were plenty of IED guys got off an impact, but died from complications due to blast over pressure.
Not sure if they launched any hellfires but they did go winchester on their .50's. I'm fairly certain they shot up most of their rifle ammo as well based on the radio transmission that "we are out of ammo but can come around for a pistol run". Credit where it's due, they kept an orbit overhead until my platoon got on site, then did a hand off with an on coming team and headed to the faarp so they could come back to support us.
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13-Dec-10: Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Team...

Post by KW Driver »

Yeah, we'd shoot what we could or needed to when we'd get in the fight. There was never a worse feeling than to have to break station before ground units rolled up the players.

And for what it's worth, I've had more effective engagements with my M4 than the other systems. It's fun to make it personal. :)

I never fired pistol..... in anger. One of my guys was on a MITT in AFG and joined us in Iraq 30 days after he got home. We'd issued all our M9s, so he was without a weapon to deploy with. He'd shot competition at West Point, sweet talked someone there and joined us with a tuned 1911 and 1000 rounds. The bastard. We went out one day and on the test fire he said, here, try it out. Weak handed outside the doorframe, cranked a round, and almost lost it. The 90 knot headwind contributed to the worst barrel flip I've personally seen. I handed it back after one. I didn't tell him I almost dropped it into a trash pit in Mosul.
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200 meters of green shit next to a river in the desert does not qualify as a "Crescent of Fertility" -me

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Re: 13-Dec-10: Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Tea

Post by fatboy »

KW Driver wrote:Yeah, we'd shoot what we could or needed to when we'd get in the fight. There was never a worse feeling than to have to break station before ground units rolled up the players.

And for what it's worth, I've had more effective engagements with my M4 than the other systems. It's fun to make it personal. :)

I never fired pistol..... in anger. One of my guys was on a MITT in AFG and joined us in Iraq 30 days after he got home. We'd issued all our M9s, so he was without a weapon to deploy with. He'd shot competition at West Point, sweet talked someone there and joined us with a tuned 1911 and 1000 rounds. The bastard. We went out one day and on the test fire he said, here, try it out. Weak handed outside the doorframe, cranked a round, and almost lost it. The 90 knot headwind contributed to the worst barrel flip I've personally seen. I handed it back after one. I didn't tell him I almost dropped it into a trash pit in Mosul.
That's awesome! :lol:
I was always happy to have scout gunship support on patrols especially while dismounted. After watching some pilots below roof top level in support of us, they were always welcomed. We might actually have been a bit more ballsy knowing that big brother was up there just out of earshot. Wish I could say the same for the apache drivers. Never really had the same working relationships with them. They preferred standing off at 3 klicks and 3-4000 feet and trying to support us.
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Re: 13-Dec-10: Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Tea

Post by Jim »

When I was an advisor to a Vietnamese Ranger Battalion a number of our officers and sergeants were graduates of the Malaysian Man Tracker course. Think it lasted two months in the jungles. Understand it was great training.
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Re: 13-Dec-10: Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Tea

Post by fatboy »

The only cool foreign school I got to attend was the Scuola Sciare put on by the Italian Alpinis. Great course consisting of mountain climbing 5-6 days per week for 3 months all over the Italian alps. Damn shame I never got a chance to use those skills during a combat deployment :oops: . That being said, any sort of tracking course would have been a step in a more useful direction. Hell, even an expanded version of the block taught in Florida phase would have been welcome.
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Re: 13-Dec-10: Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Tea

Post by KW Driver »

I think Ray Devens (my PSG) went to Malaysian man tracker, or someone had, and talked about how great it was.
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Re: 13-Dec-10: Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Tea

Post by Jim »

fatboy wrote:The only cool foreign school I got to attend was the Scuola Sciare put on by the Italian Alpinis. Great course consisting of mountain climbing 5-6 days per week for 3 months all over the Italian alps. Damn shame I never got a chance to use those skills during a combat deployment :oops: . That being said, any sort of tracking course would have been a step in a more useful direction. Hell, even an expanded version of the block taught in Florida phase would have been welcome.
I went to the German Mountain Warfare School at Mittenwald in 1974. Very mild winter. Coolest badge I never wore -- only one foreign badge can be worn, so I have always worn my Vietnamese Ranger badge.
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Re: 13-Dec-10: Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Tea

Post by fatboy »

Jim wrote:
fatboy wrote:The only cool foreign school I got to attend was the Scuola Sciare put on by the Italian Alpinis. Great course consisting of mountain climbing 5-6 days per week for 3 months all over the Italian alps. Damn shame I never got a chance to use those skills during a combat deployment :oops: . That being said, any sort of tracking course would have been a step in a more useful direction. Hell, even an expanded version of the block taught in Florida phase would have been welcome.
I went to the German Mountain Warfare School at Mittenwald in 1974. Very mild winter. Coolest badge I never wore -- only one foreign badge can be worn, so I have always worn my Vietnamese Ranger badge.


The badge from the mountain course was cool. Even better was that when it was awarded, only 3 American soldiers had ever been awarded it- myself and the other 2 in the course with me. Since then I'd like to think the 173rd has sent as many as possible through that course, but who knows.
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