BROWNWATER SAILORS
Babbin, Jed
Training with the new Navy Expeditionary Combat Command. by Jed Babbin - ~ ERRORISTS HIDE, TRAIN, AND OPERATE wherever they think they're out of reach. In the caves of AfghanI istan we routed...
...His job is to help run the gunnery ranges at Quantico...
...Fourteen of Alkattan's friends died in Fallujah...
...JamilAlkattan joined the Marines a few months before 9/11...
...The guys who are serving in Scottie's unit--Naval Coastal Warfare Group 4-have a level of moraie that is sky-high...
...They're the equivalent of a neon sign written in Arabic that says, "Please aim here...
...And he reminded the class-again and a g a i n - t h a t if you rotate the unit above your helmet, BROWNWATER SAILORS you have to make sure it's turned off...
...Don Bullard ex14 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY/AUGUST 2006 plained, "We need to go in every environment the terrorists operate to win this war...
...If you screw the barrel in too tight, the gun won't fire...
...The STS crew of about a dozen placed four machine guns on the firing line, and positioned ammunition cans, oil, and sandbags around the guns...
...I asked one of the side gunners about the fact he has to stand at his gun without the protection of an armor shield...
...When you shoot it, you don't feel the heavy recoil but the gun bucks in your hands as it spits lead...
...Alkattan told them how the Iraqi children can be a bother, but also a great help in finding your way around an unfamiliar area...
...Faced with that problem-and more-the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command is combining new thinking with some old ideas...
...What we're trying to do is to get them to be able to manipulate these weapons effectively under stress...
...Other instructors joined in with a safety briefing, and the sailors split up into eight- or nine-man "boat crews" to shoot...
...He talked about the Iraqi people, the smell of the streets, how to keep your gear from getting in the way when you're fighting in close quarters, and how a shaving brush is the best thing to use to clean your weapons...
...Odder still is the fact that if you leave them on for a long time, you forget it's night time...
...He told them that they had to be mentally tough enough to keep the gun in the fight even if someone is wounded or the gun malfunctions...
...It's the Navy equivalent of a tool box, a conglomeration of brownwater warriors, construction battalions, explosive ordnance disposal, and just about everything you might need to secure a port, interdict terrorist pirates, or do the myriad other jobs the Navy has to do that won't be done by big ships, fast aircraft, infantry, or special forces...
...Hurd started with the basics: how the human eye processes light, where the natural blind spots are, and how the equipment turns the photons of light into electrons, increases their number, and then turns them back into visible light that enters the eye...
...The sailors listened intently, the hard looks on their faces registering the reality they'd soon enter...
...Born in Virginia and raised in Scotland, "Scottie" Contant is one of only about a dozen certified combat coxswains in the Navy...
...There's a very high level of cooperation, too...
...If it's too loose, the gun can "grenade"-explode, killing the shooter and those standing near him...
...For instance, we introduce malfunctions and procedures to correct them...
...He said you have to rely on your cox to turn the boat again and again so you can fire and then be screened from incoming fire...
...The sailors lined up again to shoot with them...
...By the time darkness was falling, the students showed up...
...He said, "If we need to go into rivers and jungles to do that now, we will...
...Now an infantryman with five years in, Alkattan has seen the worst the world has to offer...
...It's 12 pounds of physics that is amazingly easy to use: check the batteries, slide it on, tighten the small star-wheel bolt to the mount, take off the lens covers, turn it on, and start shooting...
...They're in the business of creating a new kind of Navy man: the expeditionary sailor...
...Twenty-four-year-old Marine Sgt...
...Maybe it'll make the difference between cominghome alive and cominghome in abodybagfor some of them...
...On a SeaArk (and other armed NECC boats) the coxswain has the authority to open fire...
...He's charged with the training of the NECC force, and has a focused vision of the new "expeditionary sailor...
...When the first round finished, the STS team dismounted the big on-gun sights and distributed the individual goggle sets...
...In the SEALs--which trace their heritage to the World War II "frogmen"--the senior enlisted man on active duty is honored with the title of "bullfrog...
...We want to take away the sanctuaries and take away terrorists' ability to operate on waterways to traffic in arms and weapons of mass destruction...
...Alkattan added, emphatically, "This training is what they need...
...Which means as well as anyone in any navy in the world...
...So he enlisted...
...Shooting the .50 caliber machine gun is a nontrivial exercise...
...Mounting the barrel on a machine gun is science, not art...
...Everyone is treated equally...
...The combat cox has to know everything about his boat and the rules of engagement and how to command the maneuvers of several boats close together...
...The term "inter-pupillary distance" may have been lost on the sailors...
...I took mine off for a second to wipe the drizzling rain off the front lens and was startled by the darkness...
...None is protected by armor...
...He went on to show how the individual units are operated...
...He was very high on the machine gun training the STS team was providing...
...I saw part of it the next day at Quantico Marine Base...
...One of the STS team, retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant Witherspoon, gave them a fewwords about being cool under fire...
...As Master Chief Scott Sheldon said, "Everybody is teaching everybody else...
...NECC Command Master Chief Tony Santico is the "master blaster," the Navy's senior explosive ordnance and demolition enlisted man...
...It's the seaborne version of dogfighting...
...We gotta go out and get 'em...
...Mark Mingua said much the same...
...More questions, more answers about everything in Iraq...
...It's a constant process because the Iraqi air is always laden with dust, and if you don't clean your weapon every chance you get it will jam...
...Instead of driving an admiral's boat in the dignified manner of a fleet cox, Contant drives the SeaArk like Dale Earnhart, Jr., might drive a Porsche...
...Like every Marine combat veteran, Alkattan's primary goal is to pass on his experience to those who will follow in the hope his words will save some of their lives...
...One was a huge tube-like device, more than a foot long, that mounts on top of the .50 caliber Browning machine gun, the other a small, lightweight goggle-like set that mounts on a soldier's helmet or to a frame he called the "catcher's mask...
...Alkattan told the sailors a lot in less than half an hour...
...Our "riverine" forces fought this battle in the muddy waters of inland Vietnam...
...It was over by about 11 P.M...
...Two instructors stood by each gun...
...Most importantly, he's aveteran of some of the worst fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah...
...As NECC commander Adm...
...This problem isn't new...
...The green view through night vision goggles is odd, but you acclimate to it very quickly...
...He described how a good friend got shot between the eyes and fell into his arms...
...After giving a short intro to the affernoon's classand the night firing exercise that would followMcClellan introduced a very special speaker...
...When they do, they'll be confident in their abilities, equipped and trained as well as anyone else in our Navy...
...The individual equipment was third-generation night vision...
...If you're not getting beat up," he said, "you're not driving properly...
...Jamil Alkattan is someone you could find only in the Armed Forces...
...It took about an hour to set up the shoot...
...He went on about how to do things efficiently, saying again and again that "smooth is fast...
...Brian Hamlett said this is a really good assignment that everybody wants...
...In the caves of AfghanI istan we routed them out with a new weapon...
...The sailors hung on his every word...
...STS's McClellan explained that the shoot wasn't thorough operational training, just enough to familiarize them with the night vision gear on the guns they'd alreadybeen trained on...
...A former SEAL and veteran of Somalia, McClellan takes an unconventional approach to the training...
...Contant said it takes BROWNWATER SAILORS about 18 months to train a combat cox...
...It's as individualized as time permits...
...He said, "We try to emphasize the practical side of everything...
...Scottie drives very properly...
...and even for the distance between people's eyes...
...For the first round, the sailors sat behind the gun and peered into the huge night sight...
...One part of the baby is the brownwater Navy, meant to go wherever inland waterways may take it...
...Hurd went on to demonstrate the big gun-mounted night vision sight...
...When he finished, McClellan called a short break, 16 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY/AUGUST 2006 JED BABBIN Outside the class, the men clustered close around Alkattan while he smoked a cigarette...
...What we're trying to do is to get them to be able to manipulate these weapons effectively under stress...
...At night, the muzzle flash is a spear of light that extends about two feet from the barrel, and any long burst produces a cloud of gunsmoke...
...Though few in number now, many more are being trained and tested, and will soon be joining the force...
...Class dismissed for a dinner break, which was barely long enough for the STS team to grab a fast meal before rushing offto set up the night shoot...
...The weapon is huge and weighs nearly 100 pounds before you put an ammo belt across it...
...McClellan and his team seem too young to have had the decades of experience they draw on to train the NECC sailors...
...Right now, NECC is gathering its pieces and parts, growing to its authorized strength in the neighborhood of 40,000 sailors...
...Because there's a single front lens on the version we used, normal two-eyed depth perception is degraded...
...These sailors will soon be going in harm's way, valuable tools in the huge NECC tool box...
...The idea is not just to train these folks to shoot a machine gun...
...Thirty-seven sailors--some SEAL vets, some SeaBees, and some altogether new to the Navy--sat in metal folding chairs listening intently...
...He said, "When they show up, they're nervous...
...The idea is not just to train these folks to shoot a machine gun...
...He was in the Iraq invasion in 2003 and was rotated back to Iraq for another tour...
...Jamil S PECIAL TACTICAL SERVICES is one of the private companies the Navy has hired to help train the NECC expeditionary sailors...
...The .50-caliber barrels screw into the receiver and then have to be "timed" with a special gauge that looks like a pair of big, flat pins...
...Alkattan stayed outside with me when the class resumed...
...He's all-American, of Syrian descent, and a Sunni Muslim...
...Smooth Is Fast W HEN I REJOINED the class, STS lead heavy weapons instructor Jerry Hurd (another Navy veteran) was teaching the basics on the two kinds of night vision devices the class would use that night...
...To do that, we bring to bear every bit of experience our guys have had in combat...
...He'd be there that night to watch the class shoot the .50-caliber Browning machine gun with night vision equipment, and had dropped in at McClellan's invitation...
...It's easily adjusted to focus near and far Alkattan's primary goal is to pass on his experience to those who will follow in the hope his words will save some of their lives...
...Since the "riverine" Navy of the Vietnam era, there hasn't been a lot of attention paid to the littoral area...
...It's Santico's job to ensure they get it...
...The SeaArk has three machine guns: two sidemounted M-60 7.62 mm guns and a forward-mounted .50 caliber...
...They give you the opportunity to learn individually without regard to rank...
...A combat cox has a lot of responsibility...
...Jed Babbin is a TAS contributing editor and author (with Edward Timperlake) of the new book Showdown: Why China Wants War with the United States (Regnery...
...Scottie has to be able to order several boats to make tight turns at high speed-maybe at night-with boats only a few feet apart...
...The sailors wanted to know a few key words in Arabic and, as Alkattan spoke, they all repeated the words for "bomb" and"thankyou...
...This is where the fight's gonna be...
...But on the backwaters of Africa, the waterways of the Middle East, and wherever bays, swamps, and rivers divide the land from the sea, terrorists--such as the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka-gather and use the sanctuary of the inland waters to smuggle weapons and money, and to hide when they're not engaged in piracy...
...But they learned how to twist the unit to be able to see a combined image with both eyes...
...Combat Cox A FTER BEING KNOCKED AROUND the open rear deck of his boat for most of an hour, I dragged my battered carcass into the cabin of the 34-foot "SeaArk" to sit behind Leading Petty Officer Thomas Contant...
...You can see through it clearly, but if you get your face all the way into the eyepiece, you'll soon be bleeding because the recoil drives the sight into your face...
...He has to have the situational awareness of a fighter pilot, the judgment of a senior officer, and be able to think and issue and execute orders in a lot less time than it took you to read this sentence...
...We also discuss in-field repairs to keep the weapon system running...
...They want to know they're getting the best training possible...
...If you don't, two green lights appear on your head...
...The STS team mounted and timed the barrels carefully...
...In combat, doing something fast doesn't always mean doing it right...
...The thermobaric bomb was designed to kill terrorists hidden deep inside caves and to burn up whatever chemical or biological weapons that might be with them...
...Having listened to the warnings from Hurd an~ McClellan, none of the sailors made that mistake...
...Admiral Bullard said NECC is "the ugly baby everyone wants to kiss...
...NECC is taking part of the Navy back to the future...
...Nonetheless, everyone on the firing line had to wear protective glasses, earplugs, and-most importantly-helmets and body armor...
...Distances, especially close-up, are hard to judge...
...The training available here is like nowhere else," he said...
...18 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY/AUGUST 2006...
...The sailors climbed back into the bleachers that sit behind the firing line for a few more words from McClellan's team...
...It's part of the five-day machine gun training course STS conducts at the Quantico Marine Base...
...The machine guns are stored without a barrel...
...Growing up in South Bend, Indiana, Alkattan was mature enough-even though only 19-to know his life was going in the wrong direction...
...I sat in a class in which STS President Dale McClellan and his team were familiarizing NECC sailors with night vision equipment...
...Shipboard is old news...
...The sailors didn't have any problems with them aside from a few dead batteries that were replaced quickly...
...According to Santico, that sailor is someone who is able to understand and operate in the complex environment the terrorist war imposes...
Vol. 39 • July 2006 • No. 6
