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Field-stripping a Mk19 . . . while under hostile fire
A Bad Time for Murphys LawStory by Sgt. Jim Wilt During a fire fight Sept. 9, 2007, near the village of Qaleh Saleh, Tag Ab District, Kapisa province, Afghanistan, Army Sgt. Jonas Jerome Allen and Spc. Charles Villasenor had a little run in with Murphys Law. Fortunately for the two Paratroopers and their fellow Soldiers, a second law came into effect after the first. This time the law wasnt named after Murphy; it was named after Sir Isaac Newton. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, is Newtons third law of motion. Paratroopers from the LRSD, along with a Marine Corps Embedded Training Team and soldiers with the Afghan National Armys 3rd Kandak, 3rd Brigade, 201st Corps, were on a mission to assess damage from an earlier engagement when the unit began taking enemy fire. . . . Soon after the fighting began, Murphys Law came into effect. I fired four to five bursts and I had to reload due to a break in the link; when I charged the weapon I noticed that the right side charging handle was still towards the back of the weapon, Villasenor said. During his reloading there was a malfunction with the MK-19, said Spc. Christopher L. Baker, who was driving the truck Villasenor was manning the gun on at the time. When he couldnt fix the malfunction I called gun down over the radio. When I heard over the radio that [Villasenors] gun was down, I was still shooting my weapon and we were taking contact from a house and the rooftop, Allen, then a specialist, said. I glanced at [Villasenors truck] and saw that the gunner was having trouble and I knew we need the MK-19 rocking. I could not fix the gun at that time because what I had was a major malfunction and it requires the weapon to be almost completely disassembled in order to fix, Villasenor said. . . . Enter Newtons Law. I jumped out and told the gunner (Villasenor) to get out and get into my turret, Allen, who is Ranger-qualified, said. At that time, we were still taking sporadic small-arms and RPG fire when we jumped out and switched trucks, Villasenor said. Allen had more experience operating the MK-19 than Villasenor. He also had additional training from his team leader on major malfunctions, Allen said. Once the two gunners swapped trucks, Villasenor began to fire the .50 cal., while Allen began to work on the malfunctioning weapon. I jumped into the turret and saw that the charging handle was stuck behind the bolt and I knew the only way to fix it was to disassemble the weapon system, Allen said. I knew I had to hurry because we were taking RPGs and small-arms fire and Id rather fire at the enemy than to have the enemy fire at me. Allen said he disassembled and reassembled the weapon as fast as he could. I just was thinking that if I hurry up and fix the MK-19, I could start engaging the enemy and kill them, he said. Once he repaired it, he had the driver of the truck move him into a better position then he put it to use. . . . Posted by: Mike 2008-03-05 |
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