Sgt. Michael J. Carden
MNC-I Public Affairs
April 28, 2005
MODIFICATIONS
CAMP VICTORY, Iraq -- The first U.S. Soldier killed in action in the movie Black Hawk Down, which is based on the actual events of Army Rangers and Delta Force Soldiers on October 3, 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia, was a young Army sergeant who was shot in the neck while transporting an injured troop back to his base camp. The sergeant was manning a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on top of a Humvee.
If the sergeant had not been standing so high above his machine gun, or had not had to continuously swing his turret left and right to fire his weapon, he might still be alive.
Eleven years later, U.S. and Coalition troops in Iraq are facing the same types of rebel insurgents as Soldiers did in Mogadishu.
More importantly, Humvee gunners deal with the same types of vulnerabilities behind their weapons as the young sergeant who was killed behind his.
Since 1993, deployed Soldiers have made many modifications -- based on their own and other Soldiers" experiences -- to vehicle weapon systems with the hope of increasing their chances of survival in combat.
Some recent improvements were made by a couple of "hillbillies" from the Alabama Army National Guard deployed to Camp Victory, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. Tracey Sourbeck, heavy equipment repairman, and Cpl. David Segrest, radio operator, Explosive Hazards and Awareness Training Team, 200th Engineer Battalion, Ala. ANG, are tasked to provide convoy security for the Multi-National Corps - Iraq's Mine and Explosive Ordinance Information Coordination Center, or MEOICC.
They came together to develop and construct a much safer and better-equipped gun mount for the turrets of their unit's Humvees.
The standard design for a Humvee's gun mount usually holds one weapon. Other than the Soldier's body armor and weapon in front of them, the mount provides little protection and concealment, said Sourbeck, a 42-year-old corrections officer from Enterprise, Ala.
The turret is capable of turning 360-degrees so the gunner can survey and engage targets in all directions. However, spinning the turret back-and-forth may be a bit difficult for the gunner in certain situations, said Sourbeck.
With Sourbeck's and Segrest's design, gunners don't have to spin their entire turret to fire towards an enemy 180 degrees from the muzzle of their weapon. Their modifications allow for a second weapon to be mounted and easily accessible in case of a weapons malfunction, or if an enemy is engaging from the opposite direction.
Segrest explained that the standard operating procedure for Humvee gunners in theater approaching a bridge or overpass is to have the weapon directed at the overpass.
Once the Humvee is under the overpass, the gunner is required to spin the turret in order to have the weapon directed at the other side of the bridge as the Humvee passes.
"It's much more expedient and easier to just turn around and man the second weapon," said Segrest, a 31-year-old carpenter from Jasper, Ala. "Sometimes it can be hard to spin the turret around in enough time to have your eyes and weapons on the bridge as you pass under it."
"Our modifications cut down on reaction time," Segrest said. "That's everything here. The way this war is being fought is with (improvised explosive devices). When an IED goes off, the gunner has to be able to react without hesitation."
Sourbeck agreed. Much of his input on the modifications came from his own experience during his last deployment to Iraq in the early stages of OIF.
"During my last deployment here, if we got in a firefight and our (primary weapon) went down for whatever reason, we needed a secondary weapon," Sourbeck said. "With our new modifications, if the gunner's weapon jams, he can grab his secondary weapon.
Whether it be an (M249 squad automatic weapon) or an M16 (rifle), the gunner will have a full 180-degree range to fire. The gunner can also pull the mount pin and have a full 360-degree range to spray."
"In a time of need, you're more worried about laying down suppressive fire to cover your buddy, than having to take the time to spin the turret," Segrest said. "The few seconds it takes to spin the turret could be the difference between life and death for a gunner and his buddy."
Because of the second weapon, a second gunner may also be in the turret, should the situation become too hostile for a single gunner to handle.
"During our (pre-deployment) training, we discovered that two people can actually fit in the turret," Sourbeck said. "If the situation calls for it, one person can get on a primary, and another person can man the secondary."
When tracking a target, such as a car bomb or insurgents in a vehicle, the gunner doesn't have to worry about unlocking the turret to adjust fire. Sourbeck and Segrest modified their .50-cals to have a 30-degree swing to the left and right without moving or unlocking the turret, Sourbeck said.
It doesn't take much effort for a turret to accidentally lock. The gunner may bump into the locking mechanism, or the vibration of a traveling Humvee may cause the turret to lock, he added.
"A gunner has to physically take his hand off of his weapon to unlock the turret, Sourbeck said. "If the gunner is tracking a moving target, he's not paying attention to his turret. He shouldn't have to. If the turret accidentally locks up on him, he'll have that extra 30 degrees to maintain and engage his target."
However, should a gunner need the full circumference of his turret, the modifications allow for an easier almost effortless swing, Segrest said.
On a recent mission, Sourbeck's and Segrest's team discovered that when the weight of the .50-cal is added, the weight of the turret is unbalanced and may be difficult to spin.
"Anyone who has ever operated a turret knows that once you've added the weight of a .50-cal it causes a sticky spot, making it hard to turn," Segrest explained.
This problem was remedied by adding a steel ammunition rack, similar to a hunting rack, on the opposite side of the .50-cal. The rack is designed to hold three cans of .50-cal ammunition to counter the unbalanced weight of the turret. Gunners won't have to worry about their turret sticking during a critical situation, Segrest said.
Also, gunners don't have to worry about an enemy bullet creeping over the top of their gun during a hostile situation, which is how the sergeant's death in Black Hawk Down was portrayed.
"When you're getting shot at, you want to be in the turret as low as possible, but you still have to able to operate your weapon," Sourbeck said.
Sourbeck and Segrest shortened the steel leg of their .50-cals, which fits in the gun mount to stabilize the weapon. This modification lowers the profile of both the weapon, and the gunner. They rigged the gunner's stand inside the Humvee so that it can't be adjusted to help maintain a concealed posture.
"This forces the gunner to maintain a lower silhouette," Sourbeck said. "The gunner doesn't have to think about getting down. (With the modifications), he's forced to squat behind his weapon to shoot. All anyone should be able to see of the gunner during a firefight is the top of his (ballistic helmet). Any more than that is unnecessary and very unsafe."
A lower weapon profile also allows the gunner to engage closer targets, Sourbeck added.
"If I'm the gunner and a vehicle gets to close to my Humvee and I can't get my weapon down to let him know that I'm threatening him, the enemy picks up on that," Sourbeck said. "They are out there watching us and seeing what we're doing. They're trying our patience everyday, seeing and learning how close we will let them get."
"If we let (an insurgent) get to close to our convoy, he may call his buddy 20 or 30 miles down the road and say, "Hey, this convoy heading your way let me get within 50 meters of them"," Sourbeck said. "An IED or (car bomb) that close will jelly your brain."
Steel plated shields lined with Kevlar bags were added around the entire turret to provide more protection for the gunner. The top of the shields are about six inches above the mounted weapon. A V-shaped notch was cut out of the shield to fit the .50-cals.
This still allows it to have 30 degrees of motion to the left and right of the gunner. Each of these modifications increase the survivability of the gunner, Sourbeck said.
Not only do the Kevlar bags provide extra protection for the gunner, but they provide extra space to stow ammunition.
"I have room for 1,200 rounds for my (M249 SAW)," Segrest said. "I can fire three times as many rounds as the standard (M249 SAW) gunner. I have room to store more rounds, but I don't, just in case of a (rocket-propelled grenade) attack. I wouldn't want all of those rounds to go off."
Sourbeck and Segrest agreed that the most difficult part of the modifications was coming up with the designs. They knew they needed access to another weapon, a protective shield around the entire turret and a profile-lowering mount for the Soldier behind the weapon.
A few welds and a lot of motivation later, they came together and designed a gun-mount system that not only provides more fire power for a Humvee gunner, but provides more safety, increasing his chances of survival. They hope that, in the near future every Humvee in the military has a similar system.
"Every truck should have two weapons, along with the safety features, so the gunner can use them safely and with confidence," Segrest said. "There's no reason every truck in the Army shouldn't have a system similar to ours. Anybody in the military that knows how to operate machine guns can operate our system."
"The beauty of our design is that we've cut down on any attack the enemy can bring at us," Segrest said. "There's no angle that the enemy can come at us that we can't lay down suppressive fire on. For us, it's the perfect system."
"We were not looking for notoriety for our design concepts," Sourbeck said. "We're just used to doing things the way they need to be done. Anything we can do to improve the safety and increase survivability of a Soldier is what we're focused on."