The guys the iraqi's took were from the 509th Maint Bn. Back in my day, i served with the 709th.. also a Maint Bn. For those of you unsure what these guys do, they handle service, repair and evac of damaged equipment.
these guys are mechanics, heavy equipment operators, supply and service clericals, logistics specialists. in normal operations, they sit in fixed secure rear areas and small 'teams' of specialists are dispatched for euipment recovery or on site repair as the situation requires.
beyond basic infantry training, they are for the most part NOT combat specialists.. in other words, beyond standard squad level infantry weapons basic familiarization, they are unfamiliar with heavy weapons, tactics or manuver combat skills.
back in my day, when we rolled on a job, we usually went with a security detail.. and THAT detail was responsible for communications and coordination of air and arty assets on the job site, as well as outrider protection in route.
30 years is a long time. i would not be too suprised to learn that some parts of the mission for an S&E detail have changed.. but i'm asking myself this... what were these guys doing in the 'field' without 2 commo links and a security screen?
i've deen on field trips where we got jumped and one happy day where we were unwitting bait for some dickwad major's idea of a good batallion morning report... but we never lost a team, and we never EVER came under fire without every gawdamned friendly combat unit in the area not being aware of that fact inside 1 minute. It should be noted that tho we were not 'combat' troops, we were always armed; and often wound up alongside our security team, returning fire initialy, securing a perimiter, setting up fields of fire, laying smoke, workin comms...
were these guys lost? why were they moving without security? where were their comms? jeezus.. what in hell happened out there?
