Prior to the start of the war, we went through a briefing / training session on the Laws of War, the Rules of Engagement, and what to expect if (when) the war were to happen.
After dinner, on our assigned night, we all walked the hundred yards or so, from the chow hall over to the Rec Center. Before I even went in to the TV / movie room turned briefing center, I stopped off at the snack bar to buy a soda to help keep me awake through what I could only imagine would be several hours of legal ‘mumbo-jumbo’ (it’s a technical term…)
After a quick introduction, and an overview of what we had coming, the briefing began:
“What’s the first indication that we’ll have that the war has started?”
“A vicious rumor?”
Scott’s answer not only brought of quite a few laughs, but it was also a comment on how many people, at least in EMS, felt about the information that we had been receiving from our NCOIC and new commander. It also set the mood for the rest of the evening.
When the ‘Laws of War’ section of the briefing began, there were many questions. Other than the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners, a lot of guys thought, what is the point? Isn’t war in itself, basically a breakdown of laws? The briefer’s questions let everyone know that, even in war, there was still plenty of room for lawyers to get involved. ‘The floor’ was opened up to a discussion:
“If there is an airborne attack against us, with airplanes dropping paratroopers, can you shoot them on the way down?”
Pretty much everyone shouted out in their agreement to blast them.
“That’s correct, they’re combatants. But what if, in all of your wild shooting, someone is lucky enough to shoot down the airplane and the pilot jumps out with the paratroopers? Can you shoot him?”
The room was much quieter this time, but most people seemed to think ‘no, probably not’.
“No, he’s not a legal combatant if he’s escaping from a disabled aircraft. You have to le him come down to the ground, where he has the opportunity to surrender. If he doesn’t, then he becomes a legal combatant.”
“…and we can shoot him?”
“Yes, then you can shoot him.”
“Here’s another one. If the paratrooper unit that is attacking has a priest or cleric jumping with them, can you shoot him?”
The room was silent as everyone asked themselves the same question.
“How would we know?” Someone asked. “He’ll have a card like this…” holding up a drivers license sized ID card ”…and no, you can’t shoot him.”
Lawyers…
We next went over how to challenge people in both English and Arabic and our ‘Rules of Engagement’. It’s probably a safe bet that few, if any, of us remembered the Arabic words to challenge someone even by the end of the briefing, much less by the beginning of the war. We’d all probably be following back to the old “Golden Rule’ of Engagement – if they’re shooting at you while coming over the fence, you’re pretty safe in shooting back…
Speaking of shooting, up next was our weapons briefer. He gave us a good background and history of our M-16 rifles. From the time that they’d come into service in the 1960’s there had been countless improvements made in both the weapons safety and operation. Although they looked similar, the modern day M-16 was only a distant relative of the rifle which began its service in Southeast Asia. The current M-16 was among the very best combat rifles in existance. But that, all of those years of improvements, wouldn’t help us. We were issued factory fresh M-16A1’s. Mine was marked 1968, the year I was born. Well, they’d look good with our old ‘steel-pot’ helmets…
”Because you guys don’t have the option of a three-round burst (only single shot or full automatic) I definatly recommend only shooting in semi-automatic. In full auto, you’re not going to hit anything…”
Still, I can imagine all of us on the flightline opening up at once as the Iraqis came ‘over the wall’. We might not hit anything, but the noise itself would probably have scared them away. While all of the rifles for those of us on the flightline were kept in a closet in the hangar, they never told us were the ammo would come from “Don’t worry, you’ll have it if you need it…”
At the end of the weapons briefing, one of guys in the back of the room raised his hand:
“When we left our base stateside, we were given a choice of weapons to carry, and since we already had a lot of equipment to carry, we didn’t bring M-16’s.”
“What exactly did you bring?”
“.38 pistols.”
“You mean to tell me that you were deploying to what will very likely be a combat area, and you brought weapons that the security police replaced because of their ineffectiveness? All I can say is you’d better stand behind somebody…”
Oh, here we go…
These are 'unedited' chapters that I'm posting as I write. Some day I'll work them all in together...
