Some things of note

[lukerduker123]

Howdy! Today I was fortunate enough to shoot the breeze with a bird colonel during a friend's graduation dinner. He was commander of the 44th Engineer Battalion from 1987-1988, and had some rather interesting things I didn't know. I can't verify this and I -may- be wrong due to how noisy the restaurant was, plus I'll be going off of memory here, but I hope to add something useful!

-Serving in Korea, the battalion got itself some good weaponry early on. He stated that the forces in 1988 were using M240s, not M60s as listed in the OOB.

-I might've misheard, but I believe he stated that the battalion mounted .50M2HBs on 5 tonne trucks. They didn't have any other truck but the 5 tonne.

-Some 5 tonnes had a 1 1/2th tonne trailer attached to the back. (Idea for an ammunition truck that resupplies faster?)

-The battalion had, in total, 72 'Ma-dueces' which they'd normally leave unmounted. In combat operations they were to be mounted on the 5 tonne trucks and the M9 'ACE' and other armored vehicles.

-Speaking of the M9 ACE there is none present in the game. Is this done for a reason?

-He spoke highly of the M728 but stated that it had a 'massive back-blast'. That can't be implemented in the game naturally, but I found that funny. Can anyone confirm that?

-The 44th Battalion under his command sported -six- companies. C, D, and E(?) company were uniform, the rest were assorted.

-Typical company layout was a two squad 'command' platoon and three platoons of four squads, each with twelve men. He stated there was no weapons squad or support platoon. Just men.

-The Battalion was truck borne and had no M113s.

-The Battalion operated 12(?) Armored Bridgelayers on the M48 chassis. (Again, impossible to implement in the game, just a neat fact as he states that most operated the M60 models at that time)

-They were expected to serve as frontline engineers. In the event of war they were to set up minefields, demolish bridges, and retreat to pre-designated spots to do it all again.

-He stated that he fully expected his force to be almost completely wiped out in the first seventy-two hours of war breaking out. He said that he told his men that "as long as they were alive that they had to do their job. They were to fight to the last man" mentioning how they heard how North Korea treated POWs.

-He mentioned the M202 flash and gave a wicked grin as he described how it worked. It was rather cute.

-Not sure if I heard this correctly, but he mentioned that they had the M72 LAW (A rather small thing, he stated) and no recoiless rifles.

-The battalion had no organic artillery support. He did state that they had MGM-52 Lance units 'parked in the lot, ready to fire'. Those, of course, are beyond the scope of the game (And as he put it, the reason North Korea never launched an invasion).

-If a portion of the battalion was loaned out to an infantry unit the general rule was one squad to a company, a platoon to a battalion.

-He mentioned a FASCAM system that involved two men carrying a box out to a field and deploying it. After running a safe distance away it would deploy, scattering sub-munitions all over the ground to form an insta-minefield. (Yet another thing impossible due to code, yet still neat to talk about).

-He stated that most of the forces around him were RoK operating K1 tanks. Forgot the division he named, unfortunately.

-It was rare while he was in charge for his battalion to be 'parceled off'. While they were divided between three camps (Emerald, Mercer, and one more I forgot) they were all under his command except for one or two times.

Hope I've pointed out some things that weren't mentioned here before! Especially the M9. I'm honestly surprised this hasn't been mentioned here (as far as I know). Hope this was a good read, too! It was rather interesting listening to someone with such experience talk.