Advice from Ron P. (a customer) for civilian “contractors” going to Iraq:

I was entirely on the road, 6 days a week, 13 hours a day. Our AO was Mosul to Baghdad and Bayji to Kirkuk. Speed is security (most of the time). The fact that your getting hired means you may have to do repetitive movements daily, are unable to vary your times and sometimes you may not be able to travel fast depending on your package...but when you can, do. The only exception to this is in the cities...you really *can't* get anywhere fast, and there's no need to piss off the whole city, it's hard enough as it is.

Make friends with the military, they *will* help you. If you are supplied with thin skin vehicles, see if they'll come off of some HARDOX 400 sheet, and 1" Lexan and up armor them. They can weld too. Because of the time and effort of two 4th ID Spec 4's at K2 Airfield, one of my team mates is alive.

Point out the culverts and guard rails to them...they'll rip them out or flatten them. IED's love to hide in those locations.

Get them your freqs.

They have a lot of 5.56 and like to share.

Don't trust the ICDC or IP's. My highest pucker factor was going through their check points. We didn't have to stop and they never tried (smart) but there have been fake CP's set up. The uniforms aren't too tightly controlled.

Don't trust anyone that's non coalition. Work with them but don't trust them. We believe that one ambush we were in was due to a route brief to a truck driver. We changed our SOP to telling the IZ's where to be and that we'd be there "when ever" and to wait. If they want to get paid, they'll wait. On the flip side, we had one driver that would have driven to the moon for us if he could have.

METT-T but try not to let any vehicle within 100m of yours if possible...definitely no closer than 50. VBIED's are tough. If a vehicle is non-compliant while staring down the barrel of an M249...ask yourself why, but do it quickly.

Sometimes a pistol will do what a 240 can't, when trying to get compliance...go figure.

Watch oncoming traffic. If it's cold, look for rolled down windows. If it's hot and it's a BMW or Mercedes with rolled down windows, that may be a clue. Look out for vehicles with sun roofs. Stay out of traffic as much as possible. If it looks like one of those two hour jams on Hwy 1, shift to 4 wheel and go around somehow.

Practice shooting from the vehicles...including your weak side. Practice at speed if you can. An EOTech excels at this.

Be able to drive from the passenger seat. Be able to steer from the rear seat.

Rear Security. Have it. Always. Mount a 249 or 240. Even a PKM if you have to but be aware that Big Army may key on the PKM. (We were IED'd in Balad and engaged the bad guys as we 180'd out of the X. A Bradley that we couldn't see on the other side of the bridge started firing...maybe at the bad guys...maybe at our Excursion mounted PKM. Just realize it could happen. 25mm rounds make a hell of a noise as they go past).

Roll heavy and overt. 3 vehicles min, and even that sometimes doesn't help. Smaller elements are hit more often. If you can get away with low profile and it works for you...fine. We couldn't go low-pro so...Some type of netting from the ceiling to the drivers headrest will keep brass off of him.

If it isn't job related, stay on the FOB.

Have a SAT phone, but don't count on it. Thuraya's suck, Iridiums are better.

The EOTech 552 is the best, IMO. I Had one on a standard A2 Modified with a KAC M-5 Rail, Dieter Foregrip, Vltor Collapsible Stock, and an ITI M3 LED light for counter-ambush escort over there. With the stock at position 1, even the 20" barrel was inside the door of an F-350 and the 20" gave me the range when I needed it. When the 3x magnifier comes out, it'll be even better, but hopefully it'll be quick attach/ detach...you don't need 3x in Tikrit center. The center dot is 1MOA, which I like. I was on the road for my entire time there however...if you're static and may have to take shots past 300-400 meters, I'd probably go with an ACOG TA-31F (Chevron Reticle). If the BAC (Bindon Aiming Concept) works for you, it'll work close up too.

The best option is to have a few mission specific uppers to choose from. 16" (or 145" with the M4) is as short as I'd go unless I was a driver, then 105" would be ok for it's out of the way ability...but your mission is to drive, not shoot. The shorter barrels will drop the velocity needed for the terminal ballistics of even the 77gr rounds. (MK262 MOD 1, GM223M3, or the Black Hills, etc...)

CQB Solutions SOP sling worked well.

The ITI light's switch broke. Next purchase will be a Surefire.

Sentry Solutions 2 step dry lube worked great.

Learn Arabic. The phrase books are all over the place. Realize that different areas have different dialects, but even MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) will work. Here were my most used phrases:

Stop - Qif or Awgaaf

Stop Or I Will Shoot - Qif Te Rah Armeek or Awgaaf Armeek

Hands Up - Irrfaa E Dek

Stay Back - Ibka Makonic (Armeek)^

Get on the email list of the other PMC's...everyone is helping each other out.

Carry a well stocked "Blow Out" kit on you, as well as a more comprehensive kit in the vehicles. Have an 18 D, corpsman, or medic on the road with you. Brush up on the basics yourself. Do med classes.

Get Falconview somehow (I got my copy from the S-2 at K2 Airfield). I was the primary navigator and FV just flat out rocks. I used the Magellan Meridian Platinum GPS with MapSend World software The two worked well together. Paper maps are a bitch to come by, however, FV will allow you to print strip maps for your current mission Go to the PX and get the OIF silk map. Believe it or not, I used that for an unexpected follow on mission we got...it worked. Have back up GPS's. They're so affordable these days, everyone should have...and know how to use one. A good navigator will save your ass (Yes I'm bias). Knowing where you are every minute, and where your turns are, keeps you from having to do that U turn on a dead end, hoping the exit doesn't get blocked. I called out distance and time 'til turn hacks for every trip. As the nav, *you* do the route portion of the pre-movement brief...insist on this if there is any doubt. Plot the route on a dry erase board. Keep it simple enough for everyone to understand. I had 300 waypoints for every mission, from oil slicks and checkpoints to past IED detonation locations. I didn't brief those. Major turns, terrain features and distance is all you need.

Get the best material you can (the top sections of light poles work well) for front and rear bumpers and weld them to the frame. Some primes are under the illusion that they'll be able to sell the vehicles later...convince them that if they survive at all, they'll be un-sellable. Fab'd bumpers can get you out of situations that the factory ones can't. You won't get far with a punctured radiator.

Along that note: If all you have are soft cars, do the same with armor plate. weld it everywhere you can. If you have pickups, make "camper tops" out of 1" Lexan It'll stop 9mm (1300fps...we tested it) and anything else in that velocity range. It'll slow down anything else, which *may* help. It also prevents grenades from being captured by the bed of the truck.

Remove the rear window of the trail vehicle. The tail gunner may need to evac to the front...or be dragged there.

Rig your vehicles for tow, front and rear. Have the jack and spare accessible. Become better than Mark Martin's pit crew. The tow straps can also be used to rip off inoperable doors after an IED hit, to remove WIA's.

Try to get your prime to supply certified mechanics for your make of vehicle, preferably American, Brit, Aussie, German, etc... You need the diagnostic equipment. Nothing new runs on points and carburetors. Seeing two non-english speaking Iraqis with a screwdriver and hammer, try to fix a modern engine, is hilarious...until you have to drive that vehicle 250K through bad guy land.

Your windshields *will* get hammered by flying debis...they will still maintain integrity. The next stateside ticket I get for a cracked windshield will cause me to laugh  uncontrollably. Fab some mud flaps from rubber sheet for the lead vehicle, this'll keep trail's windshield *fairly* rock free.

IED's:

IED's are not only on the ground. We took one that was about 10 feet up on a highway sign. Bridges are bad ju-ju.

There is pavement and then dirt. You will not see three 152mm rounds buried with a toothpick thin wire running out...there is a lot of kharma as well as skill, involved in this work.

Give a wide berth to parked vehicles (good luck with this). They've been known to place mannequins under VBIEDs to lower your suspicion. (There's that kharma thing again).

Possible warning signs:

Unusual activity for the area, ie. deserted when normally busy.

Rooftop activity where there is usually none.

Signals (lights, horns, call to prayer). ((Except the easily picked out non standard call to prayer, the lights or horns may be warning you or they're just being arab drivers...tough one that).

Vehicles that test your response repeatedly and don't comply. If you fire up the vehicle only (ROE dependent) and it comes back..kill everything in it.

Locals waving their arms and making the "boom" sound/gesture (it happens).

You won't see it...if you do, there're more waiting.

Have all guardrails flattened by armor.

Have all culverts filled in by the 12B's (Kirkuk road past Huwayjah anyone?)

Broken down vehicles (yeah, I know...)

Trash (yeah, I know...)

Dirt or asphalt patches (yeah, I know...)

Hands kill. Look at EVERYONE'S hands. Yes, from Mosul to Baghdad at 100mph, I looked at everyones hands...and in every car, truck bed, house window, alley, roof top, etc... You WILL be absolutely drained mentally, at the end of each 13 hour day.

If you have vehicle mounted radios and a tape deck, get one of those adapters and run the radio through the truck's speaker system. During one ambush this came in handy, having the whole truck able to hear what's going on. If you have an electronics wiz, he may be able to hard wire it without the adapter.

Max out the vehicles, fill every seat. With the F-350's that means 9 (with a tail gun). We did 7 but 9 is better.

Everyone gets a radio. Even if it's Talk Abouts. Midland makes some 10 mile range stuff. The dedicated 5 watt GMRS radios are even better. Realize that they're hard to hear with the windows down. Headsets work.

Vary your movement times. Some DynCorp guys are alive only because of a delay leaving K2 one day. Convince your client that this is a good idea.

Visit your local airfield. The Apache guys are bored. A couple cans of Copenhagen got Apache support for one of the daily missions. You never know until you ask...the most they can say is no.

Help the Military when you can. We'd routinely back them up, block traffic, etc... One hand washes the other.

There are enough Walter Mitty's over here, be the "Quiet Professional".

"When a PFC tells you not to go down that f'n road...don't go down that f'n road!" (-Courtesy of G.J.)

Run Flats, get them. If you can't, at least use "Green Slime".

Use due diligence when approaching a Military convoy or checkpoint... you have to live to spend it. It has happened.

Take R&R! You'll need it. In the beginning I thought "Not taking R&R is an extra 9 grand"...yeah right.

If you get "That Feeling"...leave. This action has saved some people. There have been KIA's with plane tickets in their pockets doing the "just one more week" thing. This is a luxury our Active Duty counterparts don't have, my hat is off to them.

As far as gear goes, that's a book unto itself. I went in with everything I'd need to do one man missions. If you think like that, you won't need much from the PX or internet over there.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A "MILK RUN"!