LRRP Biker in Iraq

[royalstarjac]

Found this pic on another forum. It's a Long Range Recon Patrol biker ready for a week long mission in Iraq. Awesome! God Bless our Troops!-Jack

[Squidley]

Gotta love them boys

[Gray Ghost]

I am not aware of what forum this was on, but I gotta call BS on this. The bike looks like the type the Iraqi Army procured for their scouts, but as far as I know the Marines are the only folks using bikes for scouts and I don't think they are using them in Iraq. The only things we had going off FOB were uparmored vehicles. And the uniform is not right, flag is on the wrong shoulder, too big and canted wrong. The Desert BDU hasn't been worn for awhile by either Marines or Army. And based on the vehicles in the background I would date the photo from around 2007 at the earliest.

 

Besides, we were going to get our photos taken on bikes in our rollout gear too, but the brass banned us from riding the Iraqi bikes.

[royalstarjac]

Well, I'm no authority on the subject. Here's a link to the thread from the other forum.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=340502

[Black Owl]

Check out the footwear also. Sure looks like this "rider" is wearing tennies.

[royalstarjac]

One thing I do know is that spec ops troops are given a fair degree of leeway in equipment and uniform selection. I would not discard this pic out of hand because the subject doesn't conform to standard.-Jack

[BEER30]

Other than the BDU's, everything else looks legit . The boots appear to be Oakley's . I even noticed that there is some Army ACU pouches pictured . The body armor is the Eagle Cirrus and even an EGL "Fugly" admins pouch on the chest , which has been in production for at least 2 years . Ammo pouches look to be the Tactical Tailor "Shingles" , and rider wearing a "Mich" helmet .

US reverse flag worn on the shoulder , but also a US flag on the chest . Suprises me that they are not subdued , but most likely worn in the Green zone .

I got picture of guys wearing desert Tiger stripe or even the Crye Precision "Multlicam" . Somewhere I have a DVD of a segment showing an interview of 19th SFG , who I designed their plate carriers that was given to me by the Colonel in the interview in Afghanistan and they are wearing US flags that are not subdued while on patrol .

I live across the street from a TLZ (Tactical Landing Zone) where the Marines exercise . They have MC , ATV , and even the seen the larger Utility ATV's .

Once I had an Army Mule , M-274 , minus the 106 recoilless gun .....bummer and rode it across the street while they were doing exercises .Man the fun we had on that thing with the guys .

 

BEER30

[SaltyDawg]

Well this is what the Marines are riding now. This picture is stateside training, the ones in Iraq will be uh Tan! Don't discount the picture because of the Uni. Check out his Uni, it's not the digital ones either and this picture was dated March 1, 2008.

 

As you can see this bike is very close to the one in the first post. The different branches will have changes done to suit their needs.

[SaltyDawg]

Here is a better picture and the article that was with it. As you can see by the 2 pictures there are difference between the two in the same Military Branch.

 

Over the last eight years, the U.S. Marine Corps has converted to the diesel powered M1030M1 (Kawasaki 650cc, KLR650) motorcycles. The KLR650 itself came out in 1991. The marine versions are used for reconnaissance and messenger duty. These diesel powered bikes replaced the less powerful, gasoline powered, Kawasaki 250s. The diesel engines are not as lively as the gasoline ones, but they do supply better mileage (150 kilometers per gallon, and max range of 650 kilometers on a tank of fuel.) The 370 pound bike has held up well in the combat zone, and is easy to transport by aircraft or landing craft. Three years ago, a civilian version became available, costing $19,000, and became quite popular.

[Gray Ghost]

Yes, Special Ops have a lot of leeway. I knew some of them over there. And a lot of folks, including me, did not wear subdued US flags, but we did wear them on the right shoulder where they are supposed to be, instead of the left shoulder. The boots looked legit to me, but another clue is that this man is supposed to be going out on a week long LRRP mission. It takes a LOT of water and some food to sustain you in that area. Nobody that is not happy with spending inordinate amounts of time in the latrine trusts Iraqi water supplies.

 

When going out of the wire I never knew of any coalition troops that went out in soft skin vehicles. Even the non-tactical vehicles the spec ops guys used were hardened. We did have an Iraqi officer decide to take one of their new Chevy pickups outside the wire once to visit checkpoints. It ain't pretty what an IED does to one of them.

 

Attached is a picture of an Iraqi soldier with his US Air Force trainer. They were using the motorcycles for perimeter patrols.

[royalstarjac]

Yes, Special Ops have a lot of leeway. I knew some of them over there. And a lot of folks, including me, did not wear subdued US flags, but we did wear them on the right shoulder where they are supposed to be, instead of the left shoulder. The boots looked legit to me, but another clue is that this man is supposed to be going out on a week long LRRP mission. It takes a LOT of water and some food to sustain you in that area. Nobody that is not happy with spending inordinate amounts of time in the latrine trusts Iraqi water supplies.

 

When going out of the wire I never knew of any coalition troops that went out in soft skin vehicles. Even the non-tactical vehicles the spec ops guys used were hardened. We did have an Iraqi officer decide to take one of their new Chevy pickups outside the wire once to visit checkpoints. It ain't pretty what an IED does to one of them.

 

Attached is a picture of an Iraqi soldier with his US Air Force trainer. They were using the motorcycles for perimeter patrols.

 

 

Extended patrols can be and are re-supplied by air drop.

[Gray Ghost]

Extended patrols can be and are re-supplied by air drop.

 

I am well aware of that, did over thirty years the last bit being in Iraq 2006-2007. There were several things about the photo and the text in the other forum that don't ring true. And the bit about water was right from the text, which is quoted below. He supposedly has quite a load out on that bike, enough for a week. And judging by the photo, it ain't there. I could also post a pic here of a Gator that looks to have equipment for going out the wire mounted on it, but it never did. Some guy on the FOB attached the stuff in order to take gag photos.

 

"Uuuuuugh!!!! The military always finds a way to take the fun things! Here I am (Worldrover1) somewhere in Iraq about to embark on a Long Range Recon Patrol. I am loaded down with an MP5-SD, slicenced SBR, plenty of ammo, a few anti-pursuit mines and a few "lickys & chewys" and H2O for the week long affair. And if you think riding all night is stressful......try doing it with night vision and oh, by the way........anyone who sees you is gonna try to kill you!!! Can I officially call this an "Extreme Sport"......oh well, I am happy with te title....ADVenture Rider. Oh, our moto down here in Iraq......."Ride it like you stole it"!!! Cheers mates "

[Yammer Dan]

Hey, I was U.S. ARMY RECON. I got to ride my BOOTS!!!