Carnivore by Dillard Johnson Page B

miles. We had the standard load of 12 missiles with us. The ironic thing is, in all my time in Iraq, I only fired one TOW, and that was during my second tour.
    The basic load is 1,500 rounds of 25 mm for the main gun. I loaded my Brad with 4,500 rounds of 25 mm, heavy on DU—depleted uranium—rounds. We used saboted tungsten ammo in training, but when we went to war we were issued DU. The DU round was nicknamed the “silver bullet.” Depleted uranium is both heavy and hard, and the projectile itself was shaped like a fat needle. It worked even better than tungsten, and had a similar trajectory, but was too damn expensive to use during training. We thought we’d be getting into huge battles with tanks, so I wanted as much armor-piercing stuff onboard as possible. We hadn’t really gone up against the BMP-3 yet (the Soviet-built armored vehicle the Iraqis favored), so we weren’t sure what they were worth, but I wanted every advantage.
    There are two ready boxes for the main 25 mm gun on the Bradley. One is designed to hold 70 rounds, and that is usually filled with armor-piercing ammo. One ready box holds 230 rounds, and that is usually filled with HE (high-explosive) rounds. I reversed the equation, and filled the big ready box with 230 rounds of DU. The range and velocity of these rounds are classified, but let’s just say I could hit something—and kill it—beyond the range of our optics.
    The 25 mm HE round isn’t something to sneeze at either. It simply looks like a big rifle cartridge, with a green tip and a yellow stripe. Twenty-five millimeters equates to an inch, and a round that’s only an inch in diameter doesn’t sound like much, but the kill radius on the 25 mm HE is 5 meters, with a 10-meter wounding radius. And it did every bit of that, let me tell you.
    The 25 mm had three rates of fire—high, low, and semi. High and low were both full auto, just different rates. Semiauto was one round downrange with every pull of the trigger. The gunner could switch between the ammo boxes with just a quick flip of a switch, but the HE rounds had a completely different trajectory than the lighter, faster DU rounds. We had two different aiming reticles for the two different rounds, and the gunner had to know which one to use. Switching between ammo types—and actually hitting what you were aiming at—meant the gunner had to be paying attention.
    We rigged an additional M240B machine gun on the back deck of the Bradley. We put it on a tripod and fastened it down with some straps so Sully could use it while standing in the open cargo hatch. On my side of the vehicle, I had the coax, which I could operate with the Commander’s override and swing it around to identify targets. I could see to the right out of my hatch, but I couldn’t see off to the left because of the turret. Both the driver and the gunner are on the left side, but they’re always inside of the vehicle, so we don’t really have good vision on that side of the vehicle. With Sully having that 240 in back, he would be able to cover that side of the vehicle much better.
    Having that second machine gun saved my ass more than once. The basic load is 4,800 rounds of 7.62 for the coax, and we had 6,000 rounds on board when we rolled out on the invasion.
    Our load was also supposed to include two AT4s, shoulder-fired antitank rockets, and we had four with us. We also had two M4 carbines, for the driver and dismount, and two Beretta 9 mm pistols, for me and the gunner. We only had a total of 30 rounds, two magazines, for the pistols. That’s not a lot, but remember, the only time you’re supposed to be leaving the Bradley in combat is if it’s on fire or disabled. I’ll say it again: never get off the boat.
    The M16 has been the issue rifle for America’s troops since the 1960s. It fires a small, .22-caliber bullet, but at a very high velocity, and a magazine holds 30 of them.