Question for the Army grunts...

[82Rigger]

In 1968, before I went Airborne and became a Parachute Rigger, I went through an Infantry A.I.T. and my MOS was originally 11B.

I seem to remember that in A.I.T. our training company had three rifle platoons and a "weapons" platoon.

A lot of times we all trained together...PT, booby traps, etc. but most of the time the weapons platoon went off somewhere else to do stuff.

We 11Bs never got to see what they did...or at least I don't remember it.

So...what was that platoon doing, and what noisy toys were they playing with.

[Keith_Hixson]

You don't want to know. They may have to kill you if they tell.

Keith

[frisco-kid]

Steve, if I remember right over the years, you went to AIT at Ft. Gordon, GA, same as me [E-8-3].

That other platoon was the Mortar Platoon, 11C's, so they were off learning how to lob mortars. You're right, never saw much of them. Did see 'em running around holding one of them 50lb. base plates over their heads. I guess that was their equivelent of us pushing away GA 30 times .

[82Rigger]

Keith,

KILL me?

Hell, I thought that's what they were trying to do in that damn rifle platoon, running around in the Georgia boondocks in the middle of July!

[82Rigger]

Frisco,

Yeah, that's right. I reported in to the A.I.T. at Ft. Gordon the day of RFK's funeral, which was, I think, early June, 1968, and lasted about eight weeks I think.

Toward the end of A.I.T. they took us out to some firing range and demonstrated a bunch of weapons which included 81mm mortars, 4.2 mortars and a 106 RR on a jeep.

But I cant remember if they said that's what "our" platoon was doing, or if this was just weapons familiarization.

[82Rigger]

From A.I.T. I remember the MOSs "11 Charlie" and "11 Hotel".

So, the 11 Charlies were the high-angle delivery folks.

And the 11 Hotels were...?

At that demonstration, I was TOTALLY impressed by the 4.2 mortars.

You could see the rounds in flight and the explosions WAY downrange.

[MORTARDUDE]

I was one of the 11C folks. We went to learn how to fire 81MM mortars, in my case, at Ft. Polk in Sept. 1969. We learned all about the ground mounted version. When I got to the mechanized company I finally wound up in, they were all mounted inside APCs. Some differences, plus maintenance of the track, and the Ma Deuce on top ( .50 cal ). I also did some Fire Direction Control work ( FDC ), where we used something we called a computer ( LOL ), which was a large circular plastic gizmo we made pencil notations on....I was in a HHC unit at Ft. Hood from Dec 1970 - May 1971, with the 4.2 mortars. If I remember correctly the shell was very much like 105mm howitzers. It wasn't very up close and personal like the 81MM was. We could fire without the powder charges on the 81 and put them very close around the perimeter...

Larry

[82Rigger]

Thanks, Larry.

At that demonstration we didn't get to see the weapons up close...we were in bleachers and they were out front.

They did a "fire for effect" thing with the 81s and the 4.2s...quite a few rounds in the air at once.

The target was an old track of some kind WAY downrange...at least a thousand yards out.

They were puttin' some bad juju on that track!

[Robert Ryan]

4.2 were some potent weapons. Eventually the 4.2 got put a Combat Support Companies for a Battalion. My secondary MOS was 11C. Took AIT at Fort Polk like a lot of 11b's.

[82Rigger]

So, was 11C strictly mortars?

What was 11H?

What MOS was the people who did the 106 RR?