- Thread starter richharr
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stick welding time in Iraq in 2004, when we had some humvees destroyed and had to salvage what vehicles we had left. It wasn't pretty, but as long as the armor stuck.
marknotgeorge
Doing sums for a living since 2009.
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Welcome! My brother-in-law was in Iraq. He was one of the first in, being a Royal Marine.
richharr
Member
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just our own hmmwvs, the bigger stuff and theoretically our trucks are supposed to be welded by marines trained to weld, but they we're spending their time welding LAVs, AAVs, M1s and fuel/water tanks. Our armor was lower on the list than cable tv for the troops. so when we went into a small town called kharma we found a stick welder and one of our rednecks started welding whatever leftover armor we could find to our doors. God bless that redneck, he could find alcohol anywhere and he could get a truck unstuck in a heartbeat.
oh, we also didn't have clamps or anything darker than ballistic sunglasses
zardoz
Old school Socialist
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oh, we also didn't have clamps or anything darker than ballistic sunglasses
Ouch! It reminds me of a pal who told me seeing them welding in Thailand, India, and Cuba (He has no kids so him & his wife are well traveled) by holding a hand up to their face and peeking with one eye through gaps in the fingers, instead of using a mask (welding is all done by woman in those places)
What you say surprises me though, as in the UK we always think of the American army as having the best of everything, or at the very least a large supply of second best ! As our newspapers often have stories of our Brit squaddies buying kit from U.S. soldiers, as they have not been supplied with any, or with inferior stuff.
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And I thought the welders in Dubai were hard done by, using 6" square of wood with a slit cut in it fixed to a short piece if broom handle - obviously the "deluxe" model!!
