My OP gets an ARCOM − 15 February, 1994

If you're a military person, you know acronyms are a way of life.

If you're a Cav scout, you know OPs (Observation Posts) are a neccessity.

I, along with about 30 others from K Troop 3/3 ACR had been attached to C Troop 1/3 ACR, due to them being shorthanded for their yearly training exercise at Ft. Irwin, Ca. NTC (National Training Center) exercises last a month. What this meant is that a bunch of us were loaned to another unit to fill their ranks for some months before NTC and at NTC.

I actually met alot of guys at C troop that I liked, the cool part is I still slept at K Troop's barracks but I worked with C troop, so I had double the friends. I was only away from K Troop for a month, while I was at NTC.

Let me explain NTC a little bit. Most soldiers dread it, but once you are there, it's fun as hell. Kinda like camp. There are soldiers stationed at Fr. Irwin but they train in Russian/Communist/Enemy tactics. It's all they do. They even drive mock-ups of enemy vehicles. Each unit that goes to NTC fights this OPFOR (Opposing Forces) unit. It has become a competition of sorts. All the while, the big brass sit in an air-conditioned room and watch the battle unfold via Satellite Navigation. Each soldier and vehicle carries a transmitters and GPS follows the location. So they know where you are at all times. It's a good use for Reagan's Star Wars satellites, and that's all they are used for now.

Anyway, I arrived at NTC with C Troop and we were off into the Mohave Desert within a week. One early evening I was called by the lieutenant of my platoon to man an OP. (OP's like I said above are Observation Posts. This one was from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. on top of a mountain above the desert floor.)

I'll never forget this day. I was assigned the forward OP with a young new recruit named Massengill (and yes, I'm serious. If you're ever in Odessa, Texas, look him up.) He was a douchebag, no pun intended, but I heard he got better as he served. We climbed the mountain and were in place at 9:15 p.m.

We set up our position which was semi-built already, we just reused someone else's work. I was worried Massengill would fall asleep, so I stayed awake pretty much all night. Being the douchebag he was, he was fine with it and slept all but 2 hours of the OP.

At around 10 p.m. I watched an OPFOR (opposing forces) vehicle pull up to the right of us at the bottom of the hill. Massengill wanted to charge them, I told him to relax and see what they do. We could have walked up behind them and killed them, but then the enemy would have known that something bad happened when they didn't return later in the night. I told him to shut up and be still and hopefully they'd pull back later without knowing we saw them. Massengill looked at me with this, "Woah, I never thought of that" face. I told him, "It's not our job to kill, only scout. Unless it's abolutely neccessary."

I radioed to my lieutenant that we had forward observers right next to us and that they were scouting our unit. I told him we'd wait one for further info. He responded to sit tight. I looked at Massengill, I think he was ready to cum. :)

Later, the OP left without seeing us above them. With no action all night, I was really tired. I couldn't do jumping jacks or anything and I was cramped. I got a real sense of WW2 soliders in trenches that night and realized that I hadn't been through shit yet so I should just calm the hell down.

Around 6 a.m. I started seeing dust kick up about 5 miles to our front. I woke up Massengill so that he could verify and I really wanted to know if I was just tired and seeing things. He jumped up, slober and all and looked through the Binoculars and agreed.

I called my Lieutenant who was still asleep and told him we had units advancing our position. I called for fire through him describing unit size vehicle numbers and types and coordinates. Just 5 minutes later, an FA-18 flew about 40 feet over our heads and dropped smoke (which signifies artillery strikes). The smoke trails stopped and I saw the vehicles retreat. I thought they were running away.

My Lieutenant screams in the radio, "Goddamn Zimmerman, you just destroyed the whole OPFOR! Get back here now!" Massengill and I looked at each other and laughed. We ran down the hill and a Bradley picked us up, right around where the OPFOR scouts were the night before.

We got back to our unit and the lieutnenant was giggling. He told us the story about the Lieutenant Commander on the radio responding to my Call for Fire with, "What the?" and "How the Hell?" because he couldn't believe that the OP could see the OPFOR unit, yet alone the exact description of the unit size and vehicles involved. Remember, he was looking at the GPS in the air-conditioned room. Regardless he called for Fire and the battle was over at 6:25 a.m.

This battle was the grand finale, we were never supposed to win, no one ever does. It was our last day out in the field at NTC and it was supposed to be a humbling experience. The Lieutenant Commander happily screamed into the radio, "Lieutenant, I want to see that NCO ASAP!" My Lt responded while laughing, "Sir, it was a PFC and Private."

We spent the rest of the day playing football in the desert and my buddies were telling the story to every other unit passing through.

We got back to the staging area and spent a week there cleaning weapons and tanks. One day, formation was called and I received an ARCOM (Army Commendation Medal) for outstanding work as an Observation post. The Commander told me at the front that it was the best Call for Fire he'd ever seen. Turns out, my information was spot on, including my coordinates which were good to 7 meters (about the length of a small car). He also found out later that day, that I was actually a K Troop soldier and he said, "Figures!" :)

You may be wondering about Massengill, He did so much work trying to make me look good and he told everyone he was asleep all night. Big mistake, no ARCOM for him. It didn't matter anyway, I was the ranking soldier, so I got the award.