Victory Point (42 page)

 

M4 Carbine:
“An M16 with a collapsible buttstock and a short barrel” probably best describes the M4. While over 80 percent of the M4’s components can be interchanged with the M16, the weapon strongly distinguishes itself as a stand-alone platform because of its size and collapsible buttstock—allowing Marines to “dismount” from a Humvee (jump out of the vehicle) and engage the enemy in one fluid movement, whereas the larger M16 has proven to be cumbersome. Firing a 5.56 × 45 mm round (like the M16), some versions of the M4 can be operated in either semiautomatic single shot or fully automatic, or semi and three-shot burst, like the M16A4. Like the M16, the M4 can be fitted with a number of accessories, including the M203 40mm grenade launcher, infrared floodlights, the ACOG, and others. ⅔ brought just a few M4s with them to Afghanistan, where they were issued to unit commanders and the sniper team. The SDVT team also used a version of the M4 known as the SOPMOD (Special Operations Peculiar Modification), which allows a highly customized upfitting of the weapon. Each SDVT member had his SOPMOD fitted with the M203 40 mm grenade launcher, a muzzle suppressor, an ACOG, and a suite of visualization/aiming aids.

M249 Light Machine Gun/Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW):
A lightweight machine gun capable of firing up to 725 rounds of 5.56 × 45 mm belt-fed ammo per minute out to a maximum range of two and a quarter miles (accurately out to one thousand meters, or .6 miles), Marines use the SAW to lay down suppressive fire—keeping the enemies’ heads low while other Marines lock their weapons’ crosshairs onto specific targets. Marine SAW gunners typically carry one-hundred- or two-hundred-round belt-fed magazines, and can fire the M249 while moving, standing, knee-bracing, or from the prone position.

 

M240G Medium Machine Gun:
Firing up to nine hundred rounds of heavy 7.62x51 mm belt-fed ammunition, the 240 is one of the Marine infantryman’s most lethal tools. During ⅔’s deployment to the Kunar province, Marine machine gunners used the G, or Golf model almost exclusively; later in the deployment, the battalion issued some gunners the B, or Bravo. Requiring brute force to haul up the side of a steep mountain, and then delicate finesse to fire accurately, once it is emplaced in a covered position, the 240 can lay waste to both enemy as well as many hardened structures behind which they hide. The Marines of ⅔ used the 240 both on foot mobile operations and mounted on the turrets of Humvees and 7-Tons.

 

M2 Machine Gun:
Known as the “Ma Deuce,” the M2 is a beast of a weapon, capable of sending up to 550 rounds of heavy .50-caliber (half-inch diameter, or 12.7 mm) rounds into the enemy per minute. The Marines in Afghanistan used the M2 as a fixed-perimeter defense weapon, as well as mounted on the turret of Humvees. With a maximum effective range of 1,830 meters (1.1 miles) and a maximum total range of 6,800 meters (4.2 miles), the M2 is both powerful and capable of accurately knocking out distant targets.

 

MK19 Grenade Launcher:
Arguably the most destructive ground-based automatic-weapon system in the Marine Corps arsenal, the MK19 chews up targets at the rate of 350 per minute—not with standard rounds, but with 40 mm high-explosive grenades. With a maximum effective point-target range of 1,500 meters (nine-tenths of a mile), the weapon can reach out to just over 2,200 meters (1.3 miles). Since the rounds don’t just penetrate, but explode, gunners don’t have to hit the target directly, just be close—as with horseshoes and hand-lobbed grenades. While the casualty radius of each exploding round is classified, one can easily imagine what a burst of Mark-19 can do to a group of attackers. While effective, the M19 must be diligently maintained, more than any other automatic weapon, as the large linked rounds easily jam the MK19’s inner workings. The MK19 is heavy and bulky, like the rounds it fires, restricting it to fixed positions or mounted to turrets of vehicles.

 

M9:
Semiautomatic sidearm firing the 9x19 mm NATO standard round. Not very useful for the long-distance engagements typical in the mountains of Afghanistan due to the weapon’s limited range and small round size. Marines were nevertheless required to pack it.

 

AT4 Rocket:
A “fire and forget” antitank rocket; the Marines of ⅔ used the version of the AT4 preloaded with HEDP (High Explosive Dual Purpose) rounds for shots against fortified bunkers.

 

M40A3:
Handcrafted by U.S. Marine Corps gunsmiths at Quantico, Virginia, the M40A3 combines extreme accuracy with extraordinary ruggedness. The M40 is a bolt-action rifle, firing a 7.62x51 mm round. In the hands of a Marine scout/sniper, working closely with his team, the maximum effective range of the weapon exceeds one thousand meters. A scout/sniper team may mount a wide variety of scopes to the M40A3 for various applications.

 

M82A3 SASR:
The SASR, or Special Application Scoped Rifle, is a semiautomatic .50-caliber (12.7 mm) rifle capable of engaging targets up to 1,500 meters distant. While available to the snipers of ⅔ during Operation
Red Wings
and Operation
Whalers,
the SASR was not used; the Marines utilize this weapon primarily for antivehicle missions. The SASR is considerably heavier than the M40A3, and not as reliably accurate.

 

M224 60 mm Lightweight Mortar:
Referred to as “the 60,” the M224 is a packable mortar tube with a maximum effective range of over two miles (3,490 meters) that while technically requiring a crew of three, can be fired by just one in a pinch (using the “direct lay” technique). Marines of ⅔ frequently employed these during combat operations, not only to hurl high-explosive rounds at enemy positions, but to turn night into day above enemies’ heads with phosphorus illumination rounds.

 

M252 81 mm Medium Extended Range Mortar:
Referred to as “the 81,” the M252 is an extremely accurate—and extremely deadly—weapon, capable of firing up to thirty fifteen-pound rounds per minute out to a range of nearly three and a half miles (5,608 meters). While it is possible to carry the 81 throughout the mountains of the Kunar (in pieces), this mortar system was typically set up at established bases and not used by infantry on the move. Marines use the 81 to fire a variety of mortar types in addition to high explosive, including illumination rounds.

 

M120 120 mm Heavy Mortar:
While not “organic” to Marine Corps units, ⅔ borrowed several 120s from the Army during their tour in the Kunar province. Capable of firing up to sixteen rounds per minute (for the first minute, four rounds per minute sustained) of massive, football-size, thirty-three-pound mortar rounds, the M120 can hit targets as close as 200 meters or as far as 7,200 (4.5 miles), and everything in between. Like the other mortars on the list, the M120 can fire a number of types of rounds.

 

M119 105 mm Lightweight Towed Howitzer:
With the rated ability to lob a thirty-three-pound standard high-explosive round 14.5 kilometers (9 miles), and a Rocket Assisted Projectile (RAP) round 19 kilometers (11.8 miles), the two-gun battery operated by the Army at Asadabad could accurately support troops as far west as the upper Korangal Valley. In early October of 2005, months after the end of Operation
Whalers,
the Army moved the 105s west to Camp Blessing, replacing them with two of the much larger 155 mm M198 at Asadabad. Marines of ⅔ called fire missions from the 105 battery, known as “Doghouse,” for high-explosive rounds as well as illumination rounds in both
Red Wings
and
Whalers
.

 

HMMWV:
The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, aka the Humvee, was used both to transport troops and for CAAT—an acronym for Combined Anti-Armor Team. Although the enemy didn’t have any armored
anything
for the CAATs to engage, ⅔ utilized the concept for convoy escort and troop support. ⅔ configured each CAAT Humvee with either an MK19 automatic grenade launcher and an M240G medium machine gun, an M2 .50-caliber machine gun, or an
M220A3 TOW
(Tube Launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided missile), an antitank weapon that can be used to destroy structures.

 

MTVR:
Officially known as the Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement; Marines know this vehicle as the 7-Ton (it replaced the 5-Ton, hence the word
replacement
in its official designation). Relatively fast, highly survivable (particularly to IEDs, because at its high clearance), off-road capable, powerful, and able to carry tons of cargo and troops, the 7-Ton was nonetheless limited to a few main routes throughout ⅔’s area of operation because of the tortuous and narrow profiles of most secondary roads in the Kunar. ⅔’s 7-Tons typically had an M240G mounted on their turret (above the cab of the truck), but Marines could mount MK19s as well as M2s, if the mission required.

A-10 Thunderbolt II
: Flown extensively in support of ground troops in Operation
Red Wings
and Operation
Whalers;
pilots of the A-10 (known to most by its nickname, the Warthog) relied primarily on the aircraft’s devastatingly powerful GAU-8 30 mm rotary cannon for their close air support attacks. While the GAU-8, the business end of which juts out of the aircraft’s nose like a blunt stinger, can fire a variety of projectiles, pilots shot high-explosive incendiary (HEI) rounds during
Red Wings
and
Whalers.
At 3,900 rounds per minute, even the standard one- to two-second burst put the equivalent of 65 to 130 grenade explosions into a tight swath. The A-10 also can carry a large assortment of rocket pods, air-to-ground guided missiles, and an assortment of unguided as well as precision bombs.

 

AC-130:
The infamous Spectre/Spooky gunships of the Air Force Special Operations Squadrons aided Marines on the ground during
Red Wings
and
Whalers
both kinetically (with the onboard 105 mm howitzer and suite of high-speed rotary and Bofors guns) and with the platform’s high-precision-imagery capabilities—helping troops locate enemy positions at night.

 

B-52:
A massive, versatile platform, the B-52 Stratofortress delivered GPG-guided JDAM munitions for the Marines during Operation
Whalers
.

 

C-130 Hercules:
Invaluable for providing resupply airdrops to troops on the ground; these drops nonetheless required incredibly detailed coordination to ensure that the cargo, dropped by parachute (called a CDS, or containerized delivery system), didn’t land hundreds of meters (or more) distant from the intended target—which in the steep mountains of the Kunar can mean many more hundreds of meters of elevation troops needed to climb or descend to get to their needed supplies.

 

AH-64 Apache:
Crewed by two Army aviators, the Apache gunship provided Marines of ⅔ invaluable close air support during both
Red Wings
and
Whalers.
With a 30 mm M230 cannon—aimed through a reticle mounted to a pilot’s helmet—Apaches, controlled by Marine forward air controllers, laid waste to numerous enemy targets in the summer of 2005 in the Kunar. The Apache can be loaded with a wide variety of other weapons systems as well, including 70 mm (2.75 inch) unguided Hydra rockets (employed extensively during
Red Wings
and
Whalers
) and the Hellfire laser-guided missile.

 

UH-60 Blackhawk:
One of the most versatile helicopters ever manufactured (the
U
denotes “Utility”), the Army Blackhawk served two roles during
Red Wings
and
Whalers:
troop transport and the all-important mission of Air Ambulance (with the
UH-60Q MEDEVAC
variant).

 

CH-47 Chinook:
With one of the most recognizable profiles of all the world’s helicopters, the twin-rotored Chinook was ideally suited for supporting troops in the mountains of the Kunar province with its powerful engines and thick rotor blades. While other helicopters reach their performance limitations well below the altitudes (as well as summer heat and hence density altitudes) required to fly throughout the Kunar, the Chinook handles such challenges easily—fully loaded.

 

MH-47 SOA Chinook:
The Special Operations Aircraft (SOA) Chinook is a modified (hence the
M
designation) version of the conventional CH-47 designed for special operations applications. Modifications include: more powerful engines, larger fuel tanks, an in-flight refueling probe, enhanced night/adverse conditions imaging systems, armor, and weapons systems. The state-of-the-art night-vision capability of the MH-47, as well as other navigation and guidance systems, allow the Army Aviators (of the 160th SOAR[A]) to maneuver their craft in even the darkest of nights.

 

MQ-1 Predator:
Capable of multihour loiters over an area of operation /area of interest while sending real-time video feed to ⅔’s combat operations center, the Predator proved to be a vital link in the command-control-imaging chain, particularly during Operation
Whalers.
Predator imagery was also used extensively to plan both
Red Wings
and
Whalers,
identifying possible targets, named areas of interest, and potential egress routes of enemy troops—as well as possible routes of attack for the Marines.

AK-47:
The most prolifically manufactured gun in the world, the AK- 47 saw production in a variety of countries including China and Pakistan (from where many of the AKs found in Afghanistan today originated). A gas-operated, magazine-fed weapon, the AK-47 (and its many variants) can be fired either on semiautomatic single shot or fully automatic. Although the AK’s round (7.62 × 39 mm) is larger than that of the M16, its effective range is much shorter, and it is less reliably accurate.

 

SKS:
A 7.62 × 39 mm semiautomatic carbine, originally made in the Soviet Union, but mass produced by other countries, including China and Pakistan. It is not as common as the AK-47.