We had a literally endless supply of glow sticks(chem lights) and mres, so they were easy things to hand out. Another thing Iraqi kids always asked us for were pens. Not sure why the kids wanted pens so much, but we handed them out when we had extras.
I was told not to hand out MRE heating bags because the Taliban were using them as fragmentation grenades. They'd fill it glass and throw it at the ANA or NATO troops
I’ll believe this, when I was in osut, someone found a discarded water bottle in the woods during the ftx added a little water tossed in the heat pack closed the cap and threw it at the drill SGT during their attack on the encampment.
They 100% didn’t expect that
Heat energy plus the gas has to go somewhere and the more sturdy the material the more pressure build up is possible until it just burst outward
In that same cycle one drill nearly got shot 3 times.
Example there was one guy who actually got waived on the ASVAB for 11x he ended up as a 11C, during the 240b range there was a malfunction on one of my fellow trainee 240s the Drill who was overseeing the operation of said 240 was bent over the 240 to correct the malfunction and as soon as the other 240s starred shooting he sent lead down ranger
Also in the same cycle during live grenades someone chickened out couldn’t throw it and handed it right to the drill overseeing them, he chucked the grenade and dropped kick the trainee.
I forget what the 3rd was I think it was during a night Qual with M4.
Honestly there is probably a lot more.
When I had to go back through basic I did this with a Gatorade bottle. When I added water, I had put so many heating packets, that it melted the bottle.
I had asked for my entire platoons, Tabasco, red Chile flakes, and MRE Heaters. I am glad I had disposed of it, rather than throwing it at another platoon for a night raid.
I’ll believe it, depending on the pen a little gunpowder could go a long way.
The current skill craft pens I’ll say are solid enough to where they could probably be made into a short range weapon with the right mind set
Because sharing food humanizes everyone and breaks down barriers. Many of my best memories are breaking bread with someone.
Plus, we realized you might not have a much as us and might appreciate some calories and also, something nice. Every kid deserves something nice, not just something necessary. Look up the chocolate drop and Berlin airlift.
Kids deserve joy, and that's the only small joy we could share.
Because it is a thing we know we can get more of, and everybody likes food. And yes, glow sticks are cool. I had quite a few improv raves with kids over there. Those were good memories, thanks for bringing it up.
I was in Mosul back when you were about 7 years old.
Hell, we might have met!
Kids are so forthright. Kids wanted our stuff, and looking around us we could see nobody had shit. Plus, lots of us grew up without any money, either. A lot of us grew up a different kind of poor than most Iraqis, but it still fucking sucks. So yeah, we're gonna give you whatever we had.
I remember I gave a bunch of Iraqi kids a handful of Lindt truffles that my wife had sent (this was winter or they wouldn't have made it, lol) and the look on their face when they tried that stuff...I'll never forget it. I wanted to cry.
It's fucked up that I existed there in the midst of plenty, and the Iraqi people didn't have shit.
I got nothing but love for Iraq and it's people. Well, most of y'all, anyways. I suspect the feeling is mutual.
Don't I know it, buddy. To paraphrase: "I've never wished a man dead. However I've, on a few occasions, watched Hellfire missiles demolish an entire building with great satisfaction."
One of our LTs got killed by a Chechen we tracked down.
Seeing that building go up, and finding that fucks body after...revenge gets a bad rap, you ask me.
Zarqawi too, that prick.
We gave out hostess fat cakes cause someone asked hostess to ship us some and they sent a whole ass pallet to a tiny tiny outpost in Ramadi 🤣 they showed up like 4 days before the best buy date because it took so damn long.
We used to toss rip its and honey buns and cliff bars to the kids from our trucks. I was barely an adult when I went to Iraq, and it feels like even more of a lifetime ago when I think about how old OP would have been when I was there.
I hope all the kids who watched our convoys roll by and caught the snacks we’d throw them have grown up to be happy and successful.
Because we genuinely love kids and wanted to share something with you? Most of us are fathers. MREs are consistently good food that reflects a lot of US culture.
Well the American soldier and “survival” is glamorized by Hollywood and video games. The MRE is often seen a staple “survival” food and feeds our forces, children in America find it kind of cool.
In Iraq, we didn’t have anything else on us.
MREs come with skittle and M&Ms🤷♂️.
I used to get individually wrapped fruit flavored candies to give to Afghan kids, they would all yell they wanted chocolate and nougat.
Thanks for taking it in stride, fucking Afghan kids ungrateful for some goddamn free jolly ranchers and Laffy Taffy.
Make y’all happy. Y’all were kids you guys didn’t ask to be born in a country with a war going on. The MREs were for calories bc y’all were skinny and we don’t know If your family is able to support you, can’t let a kid be starving shit doesn’t sit right with me.
Glad you made it. I remember trying to give a kid the M&Ms from my MRE and getting stared at like I was the devil.
To be fair we were searching a house belonging to a former government official and the neighborhood was not friendly.
My friend John Cena asked us to give them out on his behalf.
We had a literally endless supply of glow sticks(chem lights) and mres, so they were easy things to hand out. Another thing Iraqi kids always asked us for were pens. Not sure why the kids wanted pens so much, but we handed them out when we had extras.
I met a 1SG who says the kids made blasting caps out of pens. Idk if that's true, but that's what he said.
They seemed to mostly go draw on stuff, besides they were skillcraft, so they would have been shitty blasting caps.
I was told not to hand out MRE heating bags because the Taliban were using them as fragmentation grenades. They'd fill it glass and throw it at the ANA or NATO troops
I’ll believe this, when I was in osut, someone found a discarded water bottle in the woods during the ftx added a little water tossed in the heat pack closed the cap and threw it at the drill SGT during their attack on the encampment. They 100% didn’t expect that Heat energy plus the gas has to go somewhere and the more sturdy the material the more pressure build up is possible until it just burst outward
>threw it at the drill SGT I feel like you missed the most important part of the story with how the drill reacted.
They were startled, it took them by surprised and I think they actually had a good laugh outta it. No smoke sessions occurred as a result.
They threw an IED at a fucking drill and no one got smoked? Dude, buy some lotto tickets
In that same cycle one drill nearly got shot 3 times. Example there was one guy who actually got waived on the ASVAB for 11x he ended up as a 11C, during the 240b range there was a malfunction on one of my fellow trainee 240s the Drill who was overseeing the operation of said 240 was bent over the 240 to correct the malfunction and as soon as the other 240s starred shooting he sent lead down ranger Also in the same cycle during live grenades someone chickened out couldn’t throw it and handed it right to the drill overseeing them, he chucked the grenade and dropped kick the trainee. I forget what the 3rd was I think it was during a night Qual with M4. Honestly there is probably a lot more.
We used to jam the hearing bags into water bottles, add water, and the miniTabasco to make little MRE bombs. 12 guard shifts get boring.
When I had to go back through basic I did this with a Gatorade bottle. When I added water, I had put so many heating packets, that it melted the bottle.
I did that at a gunnery i was supporting a couple weeks ago. They definitely get hot when you have 3 in a bottle
I had asked for my entire platoons, Tabasco, red Chile flakes, and MRE Heaters. I am glad I had disposed of it, rather than throwing it at another platoon for a night raid.
Look up the U.S. Army’s Improvised Munitions Handbook
In Afghanistan, we found them in Mason jar IEDs rather frequently, some were Skilcraft.
I’ll believe it, depending on the pen a little gunpowder could go a long way. The current skill craft pens I’ll say are solid enough to where they could probably be made into a short range weapon with the right mind set
Someday this kid is gonna manage the first Costco in Baghdad 🥹
"Welcome to Costco, I love you."
FUCK YOU IM EATING
Because sharing food humanizes everyone and breaks down barriers. Many of my best memories are breaking bread with someone. Plus, we realized you might not have a much as us and might appreciate some calories and also, something nice. Every kid deserves something nice, not just something necessary. Look up the chocolate drop and Berlin airlift. Kids deserve joy, and that's the only small joy we could share.
I like this response better than mine. You're doing it right.
This guy gets it.
Lessons the Army learned in WW2 and were forgotten by 2003.
Hearts and minds.
Winning hearts and minds, goddammit!
Because it is a thing we know we can get more of, and everybody likes food. And yes, glow sticks are cool. I had quite a few improv raves with kids over there. Those were good memories, thanks for bringing it up.
I was in Mosul back when you were about 7 years old. Hell, we might have met! Kids are so forthright. Kids wanted our stuff, and looking around us we could see nobody had shit. Plus, lots of us grew up without any money, either. A lot of us grew up a different kind of poor than most Iraqis, but it still fucking sucks. So yeah, we're gonna give you whatever we had. I remember I gave a bunch of Iraqi kids a handful of Lindt truffles that my wife had sent (this was winter or they wouldn't have made it, lol) and the look on their face when they tried that stuff...I'll never forget it. I wanted to cry. It's fucked up that I existed there in the midst of plenty, and the Iraqi people didn't have shit. I got nothing but love for Iraq and it's people. Well, most of y'all, anyways. I suspect the feeling is mutual.
Honestly, most of the people we were fighting in Iraq weren't even from Iraq themselves, or if they were, they were pressured into it.
Don't I know it, buddy. To paraphrase: "I've never wished a man dead. However I've, on a few occasions, watched Hellfire missiles demolish an entire building with great satisfaction." One of our LTs got killed by a Chechen we tracked down. Seeing that building go up, and finding that fucks body after...revenge gets a bad rap, you ask me. Zarqawi too, that prick.
We gave out hostess fat cakes cause someone asked hostess to ship us some and they sent a whole ass pallet to a tiny tiny outpost in Ramadi 🤣 they showed up like 4 days before the best buy date because it took so damn long.
We traded one of y’all a tourniquet and got a live chicken in return. VC wouldn’t let us put it in the truck
VC was a killjoy, farm fresh chicken is a godsend in any clime.
Well I’m still mad about it
We used to toss rip its and honey buns and cliff bars to the kids from our trucks. I was barely an adult when I went to Iraq, and it feels like even more of a lifetime ago when I think about how old OP would have been when I was there. I hope all the kids who watched our convoys roll by and caught the snacks we’d throw them have grown up to be happy and successful.
I bet y’all didn’t get a beef stew #9.. 😂
Because we genuinely love kids and wanted to share something with you? Most of us are fathers. MREs are consistently good food that reflects a lot of US culture.
That's the only stuff we had to give away! Legit question, did you kids eat the charms candy?
I thought they put it into IEDs for shrapnel?
When I was in Kandahar I gave kids some of my M&Ms and got a talking to about disrupting their diet. No wonder we lost Afghanistan
Wasn’t a glow stick, was purified uranium with minerals added for extra flavor
Yummy
MREs were food (shitty food but still food, and someone higher up thought ya’ll needed it), and kids like playing with glow sticks
Well the American soldier and “survival” is glamorized by Hollywood and video games. The MRE is often seen a staple “survival” food and feeds our forces, children in America find it kind of cool. In Iraq, we didn’t have anything else on us. MREs come with skittle and M&Ms🤷♂️.
Because a 22 year old PL said to
We brought candy and school supplies. I don’t remember dropping off MREs… 🤔
Same, we also took donated blankets and winter stuff to the kids at the orphanage.
I used to get individually wrapped fruit flavored candies to give to Afghan kids, they would all yell they wanted chocolate and nougat. Thanks for taking it in stride, fucking Afghan kids ungrateful for some goddamn free jolly ranchers and Laffy Taffy.
Which color did you get? You didn’t find one in front of your house 4 in the morning? 😂 we had a kid that ate the MRE heater
Make y’all happy. Y’all were kids you guys didn’t ask to be born in a country with a war going on. The MREs were for calories bc y’all were skinny and we don’t know If your family is able to support you, can’t let a kid be starving shit doesn’t sit right with me.
Glad you made it. I remember trying to give a kid the M&Ms from my MRE and getting stared at like I was the devil. To be fair we were searching a house belonging to a former government official and the neighborhood was not friendly.
Gimme-em-ard-e
So did y'all end up raving with the chem lights or nah?
They’re called chemlights. Get it right.
Delete your account and then go haze yourself.