Our guest in this episode of The Spear is Tim Strabbing, a former Marine Corps officer who joined the podcast to share a story from 2004. That year, he was a platoon commander deployed to an area just outside the Iraqi city of Fallujah. At the time, the area and much of Anbar province was notoriously restive and violent. During their very first patrol, as the unit they were replacing helped to familiarize Strabbing and his platoon with the area, they were hit by a far ambush, which he says set the tone for the rest of the deployment. As a platoon commander, he would frequently plan and lead forty-eight-hour patrols with his platoon. In this episode, he tells the story of one of these patrols that was particularly eventful.
Listen to the conversation below, and don’t forget to subscribe to The Spear on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Note: This episode was originally published in May 2018.
Image credit: Cpl. Brandon Roach
Just from the article's photo, the U.S.M.C. and U.S. Army really need to change the way they fight. If the best "Soldier squad weapon" on wheels remains the relatively unarmored or lightly armored HMMWV with an open turret mounting one or two pintle-mount unstablized machine guns and perhaps a racked AT-4 LAW, then that has to change. The USA can no longer afford to fight this way of "Spray and Pray" and hope to zero into on target using Mark One eyeballs and iron sights against peer nations having IFV and APC armored cannon turrets.
This isn't the age of WW2, Korea, or Vietnam where gunnery is still from an exposed open position behind an unstablized gun. Yes, CROWS II and Remote Weapons Systems have helped some, but if you read "Red Platoon" book and many other combat reports, many gunners died being exposed in the open HMMWV and MRAP hatch turret to enemy fire, RPGs, artillery, snipers, and IEDs.
A fully armored and enclosed turret for the hatch is needed (like MOWAG Eagle II), or the DoD really needs to invest more in CROWS II or Leonardo DRS's RIwP remote-fired turrets. There should be no real excuse for exposing gunners to enemy fire anymore. The better armored M-ATV, JLTV, and MRAPs should supersede HMMWVs. M1117s should not be confined just for Military Police duties and their AAV7 turrets should be stabilized. There are many "Little things" that West Point officers should do and ask for from the Pentagon to avoid unnecessary causalities in combat and one of them is eliminating the need for gunners to expose themselves from the vehicle to return fire.
As a former Marine Corps infantry officer and field historian who did some post-combat interviews in Iraq, this really brought me back. I was often in goggle-eyed admiration for the skill, grace under pressure (etc.) of the men I interviewed, and I had that same feeling listening to Tim Strabbing. Great job too by the interviewer, and I hope that MWI will interview more Marines. Infantry types from the two services have much to learn from each other.