thedrifter
06-30-09, 06:13 AM
Hell on Earth, fire not needed
6/28/2009 By Cpl. Joseph Marianelli , Marine Aircraft Group 12
KUANTAN, Malaysia —
Six degrees above the equator, in an unknown jungle, enemies are in pursuit — get to the landing zone.
Ok, so not many find themselves in such a situation, but perhaps a saunter into the jungle sounds like it might be fun.
But where does one begin when planning their jungle excitement.
Step one: Don’t go into the jungle. No, really, this point cannot be emphasized enough.
Then again, there are plenty of good ... er, well, reasons for going into the jungle, you’re a scientist looking for a new species, you think it will be a fun adventure, you’re a foolish reporter thinking you can get a good story, you’re a sadomasochist, or perhaps you just need to evade law enforcement. (Author’s note: Not only does the author not condone evading law enforcement, depending on what you truly value in life, prison is probably preferable to the jungle.)
In the case of Royal Malaysian Air Force Capt. Mohd Azizi bin Musa and Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 225 1st Lt. Steve Bradford, they were lucky enough to participate in a search an rescue exercise in Sungai Lembig jungle as part of exercise Air Warrior, a multi-lateral exercise demonstrating joint and multinational capabilities, and improving interoperability between the United States and Malaysia, here June 28.
“I never want to eject over a jungle,” said Bradford of what he learned from the exercise.
Step two: Did you read step one?
Depending on how stealthy you need to be, take a machete, perhaps a flamethrower or, if you can find it, agent orange to clear large amounts of jungle because it ... is ... thick.
“The jungle was a lot thicker than I expected,” said Bradford. “So I was kinda glad the Malaysian pilot had a machete.”
Movies are way off, no one goes running through the jungle a la “Platoon,” “The Beach,” “Predator,” or “Tropic Thunder,” there simply isn’t enough free space.
If you haven’t seen any of those movies, imagine walking through the woods but the vegetation where light pierces the canopy is so thick the ground is not visible and you literally walk on the vegetation as you lumber through it.
There is no casually strolling through hacking a low hanging vine every once in awhile.
Where there isn’t light, the growth under the canopy is so dense most of the navigation is spent ducking and weaving when possible, pushing vines, hopefully ones not covered in thorns, out of the way or simply hacking through like a blind woodsman.
“Another thing that’s good about the jungle is if you do have enemy forces after you, you’ve got things to take the bullets for you,” said Petty Officer First Class Lawrence Comdeco, search and rescue exercise coordinator and hospital corpsman.
By the way, if evasion is important, the density of the brush will make it practically impossible to not leave a trail even Ray Charles could follow unless you move fast at first.
“For the pilots, the key to them evading is to get that initial head start,” said Comdeco. “As soon as they parachute down they need to evade first, set up communications second.”
Baloo won’t be coming through to give any rides either, and if dancing is your fancy, think again because five minutes in you’ll want out — the jungle is not cool.
“I knew how hot it was, but I was hurting after a couple of minutes,” said Bradford.
Step three: Wear a thick full-body suit.
Seriously, are you still considering this?
“Wear high socks so the leeches can’t get you,” said Bradford.
The Malaysian pilot wore his G-suit, which confused the U.S. service members, but the explanation later was the suit helped combat the leeches, said Comdeco.
The whole design of the jungle is a horrid catch-22, like some torture chamber out of “Saw,” take your pick which one.
See, you need to wear reasonably heavy clothing to protect yourself from the brush, leeches, insects, snakes, wild boars and species yet to be identified.
Naturally all the extra armor really helps combat the already sweltering heat. No, the boars will not chat you up and aid your journey ... well they might, depending on how delirious you are from the heat.
If there is any concern clothing might take away from the leech experience, fear not because leeches managed to wiggle into most of the safety crews’ boots and suck blood right through their boot socks.
Tapping of the pant legs was one of the lessons learned from this search and rescue exercise said Comdeco.
The writer got lucky with a leech to the neck, but this did not yield much street credibility when compared to the marks received by others.
Step four: Take a radio and know how to use it.
Of course, the latter assumes someone is actually listening for your communication.
Bradford said the exercise was a good gear refresher because it had been awhile since he had used the radio or done land navigation for that matter.
Step five: If you actually plan to stay in the jungle for more than like 1 minute, water will probably be important ... assuming survival is the goal.
“If I was a pilot flying over the jungle, the things I would include in my flight equipment would be more appropriate for a jungle ... a folding knife with a longer blade and extra water,” said Comdeco.
Standard, useful items in a pilot’s survival kit are iodine tablets, a flexible saw blade, fishing kit and insect repellant.
Oh right, in this particular jungle, the day flying mosquitoes carry dung fever, and if you’re thinking the night time is the right time, the night flyers have malaria, said Comdeco.
Step six: Get out of the jungle.
Hopefully you realized after two to three minutes what a terrible idea going into the jungle was and simply turned around to follow your sasquatch-like trail out.
If, on the other hand, you’re forced to press through like the two pilots, their safety crew a couple of documenters and a stupid writer, pray the coordinates to the landing zone are correct and trust the pilots know land navigation because the radio isn’t working properly and there is no cell phone reception.
Not lucky enough to have a helicopter coming to pick you up and you’re lost ... go back to step one.
Ellie
6/28/2009 By Cpl. Joseph Marianelli , Marine Aircraft Group 12
KUANTAN, Malaysia —
Six degrees above the equator, in an unknown jungle, enemies are in pursuit — get to the landing zone.
Ok, so not many find themselves in such a situation, but perhaps a saunter into the jungle sounds like it might be fun.
But where does one begin when planning their jungle excitement.
Step one: Don’t go into the jungle. No, really, this point cannot be emphasized enough.
Then again, there are plenty of good ... er, well, reasons for going into the jungle, you’re a scientist looking for a new species, you think it will be a fun adventure, you’re a foolish reporter thinking you can get a good story, you’re a sadomasochist, or perhaps you just need to evade law enforcement. (Author’s note: Not only does the author not condone evading law enforcement, depending on what you truly value in life, prison is probably preferable to the jungle.)
In the case of Royal Malaysian Air Force Capt. Mohd Azizi bin Musa and Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 225 1st Lt. Steve Bradford, they were lucky enough to participate in a search an rescue exercise in Sungai Lembig jungle as part of exercise Air Warrior, a multi-lateral exercise demonstrating joint and multinational capabilities, and improving interoperability between the United States and Malaysia, here June 28.
“I never want to eject over a jungle,” said Bradford of what he learned from the exercise.
Step two: Did you read step one?
Depending on how stealthy you need to be, take a machete, perhaps a flamethrower or, if you can find it, agent orange to clear large amounts of jungle because it ... is ... thick.
“The jungle was a lot thicker than I expected,” said Bradford. “So I was kinda glad the Malaysian pilot had a machete.”
Movies are way off, no one goes running through the jungle a la “Platoon,” “The Beach,” “Predator,” or “Tropic Thunder,” there simply isn’t enough free space.
If you haven’t seen any of those movies, imagine walking through the woods but the vegetation where light pierces the canopy is so thick the ground is not visible and you literally walk on the vegetation as you lumber through it.
There is no casually strolling through hacking a low hanging vine every once in awhile.
Where there isn’t light, the growth under the canopy is so dense most of the navigation is spent ducking and weaving when possible, pushing vines, hopefully ones not covered in thorns, out of the way or simply hacking through like a blind woodsman.
“Another thing that’s good about the jungle is if you do have enemy forces after you, you’ve got things to take the bullets for you,” said Petty Officer First Class Lawrence Comdeco, search and rescue exercise coordinator and hospital corpsman.
By the way, if evasion is important, the density of the brush will make it practically impossible to not leave a trail even Ray Charles could follow unless you move fast at first.
“For the pilots, the key to them evading is to get that initial head start,” said Comdeco. “As soon as they parachute down they need to evade first, set up communications second.”
Baloo won’t be coming through to give any rides either, and if dancing is your fancy, think again because five minutes in you’ll want out — the jungle is not cool.
“I knew how hot it was, but I was hurting after a couple of minutes,” said Bradford.
Step three: Wear a thick full-body suit.
Seriously, are you still considering this?
“Wear high socks so the leeches can’t get you,” said Bradford.
The Malaysian pilot wore his G-suit, which confused the U.S. service members, but the explanation later was the suit helped combat the leeches, said Comdeco.
The whole design of the jungle is a horrid catch-22, like some torture chamber out of “Saw,” take your pick which one.
See, you need to wear reasonably heavy clothing to protect yourself from the brush, leeches, insects, snakes, wild boars and species yet to be identified.
Naturally all the extra armor really helps combat the already sweltering heat. No, the boars will not chat you up and aid your journey ... well they might, depending on how delirious you are from the heat.
If there is any concern clothing might take away from the leech experience, fear not because leeches managed to wiggle into most of the safety crews’ boots and suck blood right through their boot socks.
Tapping of the pant legs was one of the lessons learned from this search and rescue exercise said Comdeco.
The writer got lucky with a leech to the neck, but this did not yield much street credibility when compared to the marks received by others.
Step four: Take a radio and know how to use it.
Of course, the latter assumes someone is actually listening for your communication.
Bradford said the exercise was a good gear refresher because it had been awhile since he had used the radio or done land navigation for that matter.
Step five: If you actually plan to stay in the jungle for more than like 1 minute, water will probably be important ... assuming survival is the goal.
“If I was a pilot flying over the jungle, the things I would include in my flight equipment would be more appropriate for a jungle ... a folding knife with a longer blade and extra water,” said Comdeco.
Standard, useful items in a pilot’s survival kit are iodine tablets, a flexible saw blade, fishing kit and insect repellant.
Oh right, in this particular jungle, the day flying mosquitoes carry dung fever, and if you’re thinking the night time is the right time, the night flyers have malaria, said Comdeco.
Step six: Get out of the jungle.
Hopefully you realized after two to three minutes what a terrible idea going into the jungle was and simply turned around to follow your sasquatch-like trail out.
If, on the other hand, you’re forced to press through like the two pilots, their safety crew a couple of documenters and a stupid writer, pray the coordinates to the landing zone are correct and trust the pilots know land navigation because the radio isn’t working properly and there is no cell phone reception.
Not lucky enough to have a helicopter coming to pick you up and you’re lost ... go back to step one.
Ellie