ILE

During my tour in Iraq, my battalion lost three Soldiers during a night mounted movement. The vehicle which the Soldiers were riding in rolled into a canal. The Soldiers subsequently died. After the incident, the unit completed an AAR. The AAR showed a couple of techniques that could have made this incident avoidable. First, provide an individual SCUBA type tank to each Soldier. Second, came about an invention which allowed the doors of the vehicle to be unlocked and opened from the outside. Although this invention was not available when our Soldiers lost their lives, it is common to see the invention on the majority of the vehicles in theater now.

"The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government".

CPT Michael Astin
Student
Command and General Staff School
Fort Belvoir, Virginia