• Watch Out for Scammers!

    We've now added a color code for all accounts. Orange accounts are new members, Blue are full members, and Green are Supporters. If you get a message about a sale from an orange account, make sure you pay attention before sending any money!

Maggie’s Military Jeopardy

COVEY MISSION

The mission of the Covey Facs from Danang was to provide 24 hour coverage of the eastern part of the Tigerhound area; to include the southern portion of North Vietnam from Dong Hoi south to the DMZ. To interdict enemy supply routes from eastern Laos into the RSVN; to support U.S. Army Special Forces Operations (Prairie Fire); and to conduct visual reconnaissance of their Area of Operations (AO) for intelligence purposes.

In the fall of 1968, Covey Facs ceased their operations over the southern part of North Vietnam. In early 1973, as the war de-escalated, and prior to their de-activation, Covey Facs ceased their out-of-country operations and flew missions in support of in-country operations.

The mission of the Tigerhound Pleiku Detachment Covey Facs was to provide continuous coverage of the southern part of the Tigerhound area; to interdict enemy supply routes leading from southern Laos into the RSVN; to support the U.S. Army Special Forces Operations; and to conduct active reconnaissance of their assigned area for intelligence purposes.

In July of 1968, the mission of the Pleiku Covey Facs was increased to encompass a 30 mile span of Route 165 extending northwest of Chavane.

In June of 1970, the northern third of Cambodia was added to the Pleiku Covey's Area of Operations. To accomplish this mission, air assets were increased by eight aircraft and ten pilots.

SOME USEFUL DEFINITIONS:

To clear up some confusion with regards to the use of terms to designate specific AOs, Steel Tiger, Barrel Roll, and Tigerhound were names applied to "Route Packs" in Laos; target areas comparable to Route Packs 1 through V1-A and B in North Vietnam. Tally-Ho referenced target areas in the DMZ area.

BARREL ROLL: The area of operations along the Laotian border with North Vietnam. US interdiction and close air support operations, mainly out of Thailand, began at the end of 1964.

STEEL TIGER: The area of operations south of Barrel Roll. Air Force and Navy units began operations to interdict the logistic network in April 1965.

TIGERHOUND: The area of operations in southeastern Laos, south of Steel Tiger. Operations in this AO began at the end of 1965.

TALLY-HO: USAF and US Marines joint area of operations between the DMZ and the area 30 miles northward in Route Package 1. Slow-moving FAC coverage was limited to the more mountainous western region of the AO. Fast-movers covered the eastern plains area. Operations begain 20 July 66.

ROLLING THUNDER: Coce name identifies the conduct of Air Operations against North Vietnam. (1965-1968).


 
Well barneybdb, I think you pretty well covered most possibilities,certainly any that could see the light of day.

NEXT......
 
Last edited:
.455 Webley-Fosbery
Don't ask how I knew. I just pulled it off the wall.
Actually I had just watched a video of it somewhere or saw it on TV and found it interesting and it stuck. May well have been on Gunnytime.
Sirh, Did you get chisliced on your adventure? FM
 
These small bastards were distributed (surface laid mostly, but some buried) all over Northern Iraq in the 90's and were near impossible to locate if buried. About the size of the palm of your hand
 
Sirhr is on the right track...looking for a model/make...these had almost no metal in them.

Hint: Da Vinci had some evil countrymen...
 
Last edited:
Italy is the largest land mine manufacturer, or at least that's what they taught us in basic and where I guess you are going with the DaVinci hint. Short of claymore, I've got minimal land mine experience/training to be honest.

That said, is it a VS50 or VS-mk2? The other two main mfg.'s made the SB81 and 33 and the TS50, TC6 and TC3.6.

IIRC, Da Vinci himself had some mine drawings. His evil countrymen? Geez, isn't that about everyone at the time? Borgia, Medici, Sforza, etc.
 
And Strykervet for the win! Yep, the VS-50 was what I had in mind. Those fuckers were everywhere in the 90's up in northern Iraq. We had one guy lose his lower leg/foot to one, just stepping out of a helo. The VS-69's were also very prolific, but many were set up as IED's, with a cable attached to one prong, and then run through the fins of a couple 62mm mortar rounds, with the end attached to another prong. The whole deal was then laid out (side ways, against a rock) near paths, with the idea that they would be tripped and rebound into the path and daisy chain the mortar rounds.

That whole area of Iraq was just one big friggin mine field...
 
Valsella is all I will put out here.
I cheated and did some research and read all about their products. Some nasty MoFos.
Maybe that is what this thread is about, challenge your memory and make you do some research and find out what went on in wars you were not in? FM
 
Cav has been, you got it, it was Igloo White. Your Blues and our and other Bn. E Co.s set a few of them there with variable results.
Some times they were good and we would walk in to check and find good results after our Redlegs had fired on it through the night, many times it was just monkeys or rock apes.
Either way, there was monkey meat to be had to supplement our C-Rats. FM
Too easy for you.
E. Co 5/7 Cav RVN 69/70
Next question?
 
Last edited:
Sorry FM,unfair advantage, first hand info. They were dropped along the main forks of Uncle Ho's redball to good effect. Not to sure about the $$ to kia ratio but likely better than some. Satisfying to do a first light and find smoke and destruction on deserving locations.
 
Question:

This device links Strykers and other military hardware via the Sincgars radio.

Bonus: what's other device these connect to that give a real time and user modified map of the battlefield?

 
So I was right about the Italians... I recall most of the 50-odd modern mines we looked at during mine recognition were Italian made and there's only three companies that make 'em if memory serves right. They've been under a lot of heat to stop production ever since Princess Diana put the spot light on 'em (mine proliferation in general).

A lot of times nonmagnetic mines will be buried with a washer or some other item that can be detected so they can be retrieved later. I did mine clearing training, you know, probing a lane? NOT something I'd want to do in real life. Usually the engineers will shoot a miclic out there and clear a lane.

We'd also mark minefields and routes on maps and disseminate them, and that's a hint for my question and bonus.
 
Question:

This device links Strykers and other military hardware via the Sincgars radio.

Bonus: what's other device these connect to that give a real time and user modified map of the battlefield?

I am going to go with "What is the FBCB2 or blueforce tracker." Racked my head a few dozen times on that thing getting in and out of a M114. Good thing I was always wearing my mandated at all times ACH. *wink wink* and don't have a scar at my hairline to prove it. .
 
So I was right about the Italians... I recall most of the 50-odd modern mines we looked at during mine recognition were Italian made and there's only three companies that make 'em if memory serves right. They've been under a lot of heat to stop production ever since Princess Diana put the spot light on 'em (mine proliferation in general).

A lot of times nonmagnetic mines will be buried with a washer or some other item that can be detected so they can be retrieved later. I did mine clearing training, you know, probing a lane? NOT something I'd want to do in real life. Usually the engineers will shoot a miclic out there and clear a lane.

We'd also mark minefields and routes on maps and disseminate them, and that's a hint for my question and bonus.

Yeah, a lot of Italian ones. I did mine clearing, but only accident (unknowingly walked 15yds into an unmarked field). Definitely never want to do that again! Hence my feelings on the Italians' being evil for producing those little bastards.
 
Cav hasbeen, I knew you would know, I was hoping others would have to check it out.
I too had first hand knowledge of them as we toted a few in and put them where we thought they would give the best results. I know we got better results than the ones that were just air-dropped.
Strykervet--As to the plastic mines--Do a search on Technica--and Valsella Meccanotecnica or something like that. Those are horrible things and some are there forever, much like the WW-1 and WW-2 lines between Germany and France where to this day there are areas that no sane person would go into.. Polluted with ordnance.
This has been a very good exercise for me and I am enjoying it.
Sihr, I see where you got chisled by the scope, I hope a stitch or two took care of that. I hope you had a good time, but the question remains, did you get chisliked?
I have a good story about shooting a buffalo that is kind of scary in Eastern Colorado 40 years ago. Those fuckers are tough and hardy. I am glad I am alive. FM
 
I am going to go with "What is the FBCB2 or blueforce tracker." Racked my head a few dozen times on that thing getting in and out of a M114. Good thing I was always wearing my mandated at all times ACH. *wink wink* and don't have a scar at my hairline to prove it. .

Bigdaddydmd got it! I was looking for EPLRS, but I looked up your answer and Blueforce tracker is the new upgrade to EPLRS. These devices connect to the radio and the FBCB2 computer and you have a real time map of the battlefield. It's pretty awesome if you've ever used one. VERY nice to have, those things could do so much.

I need to come up with harder stuff!
 
DUZ soap and Gasoline in a 50 gal barrel, + a grenade.. It was called: ??

You talking about hedgehoppers? The British WW2 improvised mine was set upright behind a hedge and blown with the grenade below it and it'd "hop" the hedge and blow burning fuel all over the target.

Edit: figured out what foo gas was. Okay, when laid on it's side or buried into a hill, it's called a flame fougasse, a big ass one time flame thrower. Fougasses can be built using gunpowder, wad and shrapnel in a large pipe and setup to fire in one or both directions; can be tied to a tree, hidden in rubble, etc. Fougasse is one of my favorite improvised weapons, super easy to make, super effective --and super illegal, so obviously I'm not making 'em. But it's good to know how I guess.
 
Last edited:
I think that the original post #626 actually best describes the "Hedge Hopper" from WW2 in that it was a drum of fuel and a grenade.
I added how it was done in RVN with det cord, a TNT propelling charge and a Willy Pete grenade.and a 55 gal. drum of jellied Mogas.
I saw 1 fired in anger with gooks in the wire and it produced crispy critters. It also raised hell with the wire taking temper out of the wire and causing it to collapse, therefore providing other avenues of approach. We usually didn't use it and relied on claymores to do what we needed and hoped a sapper had not brought the claymore up and laid it in front of the bunker or other defensive positions involved.
I did see on LZ Buttons a lightning strike in the wire that set off 3 barrels of Foo Gas and about 20 claymores that killed a lot of our guys as well as blow a huge hole in the wire.
Anytime Foo Gas was used you could count on being in some kind of detail to replace a lot of wire.
FM E.Co 5/7th Cav RVN 69/70
 
Next question, please.
Are we running out of questions?
I have learned a lot from the troops in the Sandbox. Makes me look around. FM
 
Hope not. I find it very entertaining and one of the best threads on here right now. some I know from reading, but a lot (especially WW2 and Vietnam era) are new to me info. I'd throw something out there, but I suck at generating questions. They either end up being impossibly easy where someone with low level google fu skills could deduce or so unit specific it would be pointless to ask.
 
Last edited:
This is probably too arcane but S156 was the designation of the Lanchester submachine guns produced by the British Shotgun maker Boss and Co. Must have been some nice Lanchesters... as a new Boss sells for about L100,000!

Probably not the droid you are looking for.... But I thought I'd wing it.

Cheers,

Sirhr
 
Correct Sirhr

220px-Fighting_in_the_Dark._2_January_1943%2C_Liverpool%2C_the_Navy%27s_Lanchester_Gun_Fitted_With_Illumination_Attachment_For_Night_Operation._A13831.jpg

A Lanchester gun fitted with an early version of a Tactical light in a Royal Navy experiment from 1943.
 
Big Wind?

[IMG2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"http:\/\/cdn.coresites.factorymedia.com\/mpora_new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Big-Windy-670x446.jpg"}[/IMG2]

Is that one of the solutions they tried to put out the oil fires in Iraq 1?

Is that one of the solutions they tried to put out the oil fires in Iraq 1?[/QUOTE]

It's a T34 tank with 2 MiG 21 jet engines... Most definitely badass. Don't know the name.
 
Last edited:
I have one, but I'm not good at picking questions, you guys answer 'em too easy. I'm temped to break out my manuals.

So here's a question, what's the maximum yield that can be obtained from a nuclear weapon? How would such a device be built and whose design would they use?

Hint: it's not in stock, never been built and it isn't the Tsar Bomba, though smaller devices are such as these are in stock.
 
"It was the highest-yield nuclear weapon ever deployed by the United States, with a maximum yield of 25 megatons (Mt), and weighing in at 4,850 kg (10,690 lb). It remains the highest yield-to-weight ratio of any weapon created."

That is quoted from this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B41_nuclear_bomb to which I had to google it, as this minutia is definitely out of my realm of expertise. I'm not saying that this is the answer, just my 'throwing a hat in the ring' and trying to keep this going.

I'm looking forward to the "hell, I was there... " responses.

I'll also chime in that I believe the W56 is the actual answer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W56
 
Last edited:
Big wind is, indeed, correct. They made one of them. Used it to put out oil fires. See my thread on the oil fires... it's TV worth watching!

The Russians blew off a 100 Megaton weapon call TsarBomba... it was a bad, bad thing. The pilot flying the plane that dropped it turned in his wings after landing. The plane was crumpled like a ball of foil, but he managed to get it home.

But I don't know what the theoretical maximum is. For anyone who wants an AMAZING book to read... Richard Rhodes "The Making of the Atomic Bomb." One of the best history books ever written. Reads like a Tom Clancy Thriller... but every bit of it is true. From Curie and Rutherford... to Tsar Bomba. If you like this thread... you will love that book.

Cheers,

Sirhr
 
Nuke yields are limited by weight of the weapon and deployment vehicle. The weight of the tamping material to provide required velocity of the subcritical masses into the critical mass makes the theoretical yield limit of about 6 MT/ton of weapon weight. Tsar Bomba (50-57MT) could have been a 100+MT weapon if they used DU instead of Pb for tamping.
The W54 SADM had excellent yield to weight ratio at a 1KT/51#