- A couple of Security Contractors [DVM's very own Bubba G] with Some of Saddam’s gold and silver plated AK’s
Read Part 1 Here >>>
My bro did a great overview of humping the AK in International Security Contracting so in this article I wanted to go over some of the issues one will run into when using an AK on contracts overseas, specifically in Iraq.
Unlike most other contractors I am fortunate enough to be in a unique position where I am able to fire thousands of rounds through an AK here in Iraq every week due to the generous range time allotted to my team. Believe it or not most contractors are lucky to get range time a few times a year.
I know some guys over here that have not fired their weapons in way over a year and some who have never even fired the rifle they were issued. I am sure it sounds crazy to some of the folks reading this, but to the old hands in contracting who are reading this you are probably saying “yep – just like that”.
Before I started contracting in Iraq I really didn’t have much experience with the AK outside of some AK’s I owned and didn’t shoot much [I actually bought them as an investment]. And on my first couple of gigs in the Middle East I mostly carried and M4, so when I started working in Iraq this time around the AK was a relativity new weapons platform to me.
So after a shit-load of time training, humping and shooting the AK in Iraq I have noted several operational quirks that folks who are planning to hump an AK in Iraq should know about.
Click Here to Keep Reading – GUNS: The Kalashnikov Rifle in Security Contracting – Part 2 >>>
Did you like this? If so, please
bookmark it,
about it, and subscribe to the blog
RSS feed.
- You know you rang that bell like a schoolmarm on crack
I was at the PX grabbing some shit I don’t need when I ran into some buddies who work for another contractor. This particular contractor is somewhat know for “warm body recruiting”. We all sat down over a lukewarm coffee when a couple of their less than high-speed coworkers sat down.
Of what is a tradition in contracting, everyone did the usual dick-measuring contest where guys start asking each other about their backgrounds. I sat back and waited for the standard responses that usually vary from “I was in the Army” to “I rescued white women from dragons back when I was in a SCUBA K9 unit” to my response of “just contracting bro” [that always receives the most bewildering looks].
That is when one of the guys came out with one of my favorite cockamamie lines: The “I went through BUDS/SF Selection but I had to drop out because of an “injury” line. I swear I have heard that one at least 100 times over my lengthy Contracting and EP career.
By my count [and according to these guys] no one has ever quit SF Selection or Rang the Bell at BUDS because they couldn’t hack it in the entire history of Special Operations – like ever.
This BS story is usually followed by the “but they were still impressed by my performance and said I could try out again, and even let me hang out with them after, but I decided to get out instead”.
Click Here to Keep Reading – COMMENTARY: I Swear if I Hear Another Person say “I Didn’t Quit BUDS/SF Selection – I Had to Drop out Because of an Injury” I am Going to Kick a Kitten in the Head >>>
Did you like this? If so, please
bookmark it,
about it, and subscribe to the blog
RSS feed.
- The recruiting poster for my first gig
Today I was putting on my Kit when one of my teammates said “You know you’ve been contracting too long if can put on all your kit with a cigarette hanging out of your mouth and not drop a single ash”
We had a good laugh about it and spent the rest of the day thinking up new ones. Spending all day long cracking on other Contractors and each other is a pretty common thing especially if you are on a team with a tight group of guys. The main thing I will miss from this work when I “retire” is the camaraderie amongst men who carry guns.
Out of all the different groups of people I have hung out with Contractors are one of the funniest subcultures out there [Expats are a close second]. They share their own lingo, vacation spots, fashion [or lack of fashion] and poor choices in women.
Anyway, the stuff we were coming up with was so funny I had to start taking notes. I have listed the funniest ones the current or former contractors here should totally get. And even if you have never worked as a Civilian Contractor you should still get a kick out of reading it.
Click Here to Read the – You Know You’ve Been Contracting For Too Long When – list >>>
Did you like this? If so, please
bookmark it,
about it, and subscribe to the blog
RSS feed.
- Tools of the trade
So when 3rd world rebels, bearded High-Speed low drag types, spies and Mercenaries need to make a call what phone do they pick-up? When I get the call to hop on a plane to some 3rd world war zone for a ridiculous amount of money what type of phone do I throw in my bag?
Sony Ericsson? No way, it’ll break in a week. Motorola? It won’t last 3 days before it breaks into two pieces. iPhone? Fuck no [I would rather use two tin cans and a string than anything “I” in the 3rd world.
So what is my and just about every other operator’s choice for a cell phone if we will be working in some of the most hostile and hardest use environments in the world?
Nokia – any model
Yep, just about everyone I tell this too is surprised when I say “I would rather use a pay phone than use any cell phone but Nokia in a War Zone”. But walk around a base in Iraq or around a city in Africa and you will see what I am talking about. Nokia is one of the most prevalent phones in the third world, and for good reason.
Even the cheapest model is bullet proof, and oddly the cheaper the model you buy the tougher it is. One of the reasons why Nokia phones are so tough is Nokia’s main market is Asia, Southeast Asia in particular. Unlike in the US or Europe where people go from their homes to their car to their office – in Asia people jump onto the back of a kerosene and diesel fuming Tuck-Tuck, then to a bus or subway stuffed with 80 people then a 20 minute walk in a pothole covered street.
And Nokia knows if their phones can’t take that then simply people won’t buy their phones. In parts of Asia buying a cell phone is a big investment, so if word got around that Nokia made shit phones that fell apart then no one would buy one. So market pressures have forced them into making even the cheapest model tough as hell.
Click here to Keep Reading – ELECTRONIC GEAR: Nokia – The AK-47 of Cell Phones >>>
Did you like this? If so, please
bookmark it,
about it, and subscribe to the blog
RSS feed.
- it’s a big boy of a folder
I have been looking for a new dive knife after leaving my fixed blade Benchmade Dive Knife [model 100SH20] in a hotel in Pattaya, Thailand after a weekend of diving and drinking massive amounts of booze last year.
I was planning on just getting another fixed blade Benchmade just like the last one I had because it was a great dive knife and one of the only high quality ones that had a yellow handle. But when I was surfing some knife websites I saw that Benchmade now had a Folding Version of their Fixed Blade Dive Knife.
At first I was thinking “a folding dive knife, that is strange” but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. One of the other reasons why I liked Benchmade’s fixed dive knife was because it was not so big that I looked like a serial killer with it strapped to my leg.
I do 99% of my snorkeling and diving overseas in the 3rd world and I want to be somewhat discreet when I am walking around the beach and docks. So carrying a big-ass knife on my leg or waist either screams “tourist, rob my hotel room” or “crazy person walking on the beach with a bowie knife”. So having a dive knife that I can discreetly stick in my pocket [I like to wear shorts when I dive] is something that appeals to me.
Click Here to Keep Reading – KNIVES: Benchmade 111H2O Folding Dive Knife >>>
Did you like this? If so, please
bookmark it,
about it, and subscribe to the blog
RSS feed.
- Fear no man
Over the years I have seen a lot of guys get their ass kicked regardless of experience in the ring, dojo, training and even real world street fighting… One of the most memorable ass kicking’s I ever witnessed was back in the day at a house party in the Middle East [house parties within the Expat community are pretty common in the Middle East].
Like all fights this one ended up starting when one guy from our group and a guy from another group ended up trading words over something stupid and a fight followed. The fight itself was not really that much of a surprise [Booze + Security Contractors in their 20’s + confined space = Fight sooner or later].
It was the fact that my boy was ex-military and a pretty experienced competition fighter and he didn’t last 3 seconds before we had to drag this little British dude off of his pummeled face.
So why did he lose?
I saw the reason about one second before the fight started.
Fear.
Click Here to Keep Reading – H2H FIGHTING: The Lack of Intense H2H Training Options >>>
Did you like this? If so, please
bookmark it,
about it, and subscribe to the blog
RSS feed.
- yep – like that
It seems like every time you open up a Tactical Related website all you see are the usual names – Blackhawk, Maxpedition, Surefire, Cold Steel, ect. Now, there is nothing wrong with those brands, I own tons of stuff from all of those companies.
But DVM has always been more like the red headed stepchild of the tactical world – you don’t see any pretty lightbox pictures of gear, nice edited videos or the standard 20,000 word articles about how great some belt buckle is like you see in the usual rags.
So in keeping with our independent spirit we are looking to review gear from the smaller less known gear makers out there. We feel that it would not only help get the names of some of the solid gear makers out in front of a larger audience but make DVM more interesting for you folks.
We are looking for folks who make everything from Nylon Gear, to Knives to Lights and Cool Gadgets. The guy who makes some cool gadget or kit and sells them on forums or runs a small specialized gear company from their home is who we are looking for.
But honestly I really don’t know the “who’s who” of the independent gear world so this is where we are going to ask for your help. I know there are lots of folks who make short runs of gear and sell them on forums [everything from lights to nylon gear to knives] and there are lots of smaller gear companies that are not really that known.
So if you know of [or you are] someone who makes interesting and solid kit then please send them our way or throw their name out in the comments and we will try out their stuff.
Click Here to Keep Reading – DVM: Looking For Independent USA Gear Makers >>>
Did you like this? If so, please
bookmark it,
about it, and subscribe to the blog
RSS feed.
- This is the type of guy who worries about stealthy mag pouches for sneaking up on Charlie – don’t be that guy
So I was showing this guy here in Iraq one of the Zulu M-4 Mag Pouches I have and the first thing he said was “the Velcro is too loud, people will hear you use it” or something to that effect.
I was like “dude, you are a medic on a Helicopter, seriously?” – but he would not consider buying that pouch because in his mind it would somehow tip-off his location to the Ninjas or whatever he would be sneaking up on [presumably after already blasting off 30 rounds and jumping off a helicopter].
Normally this would not have stuck in my mind but like 3 days before another guy said he didn’t like one of my knives because it had a stainless blade that “would be too visible in the dark”. He is a blond guy who runs down the roads in Iraq in a 30 truck convoy in huge pick-up trucks with his PMC’s name written down the side. I was like “sure dude, they will never see you coming if you got a blacked-out blade”
This is a common affliction affecting many people in the tactical community going back as long as I can remember. It is sort of the same thing as guys who carry 148 rounds of ammo and 3 pistols everyday “just in case they have to get it on in on some sort of epic gun-battle at Starbucks where they burn through 5 mags.
Don’t be a Tacticalous Douchebagnus – Click Here to Keep Reading >>>
Did you like this? If so, please
bookmark it,
about it, and subscribe to the blog
RSS feed.
- Zulu Nylon Gear M4 Double Magazine Pouch – Flap open/flap closed
These days you don’t see much Innovation in the tactical nylon market outside of a few companies like HSGI, SO-Tech and OSOE. Most Tactical Nylon products are basically rehashes of the same old designs with the only difference being a manufacturers tag.
But one Tactical Nylon gear company over the past year has been pushing the envelope of new and innovative tactical nylon products. And that company is Zulu Nylon gear headed up by Joel Z. They first burst onto the market with what is [in our opinion] the best admin pouches out there.
Zulu then jumped into the Tactical man-Bag arena with the solidly built Emissary Messenger Bag. Both are unique tactical nylon products that have raised the bar in both categories.
Recently we here at DVM were fortunate enough to participate in the field testing of Zulu’s latest offering, the Zulu Nylon Gear M4 Double Magazine Pouch.
When Joel first mentioned them to me honestly my first thought was “Really, an M-4 Mag Pouch? The Tactical Gear market needs another M-4 Mag Pouch like it Needs More Chinese Sweat-Shops”. But considering how fresh Zulu’s other gear is I kept an open mind that Zulu’s M-4 mag Pouches would be as good at their other shit is.
When the pouches arrived the first thing I noticed was the unique top flap that held the mags in-place. I am a big fan of a flapped double-mag pouches [but I like a bungee for singles] but one of the biggest problems is the flap. After you open it either re-secures itself down in an awkward angle [in the case of Velcro secured flaps] or it flops around when you run [for side-squeeze secured flaps], I call this “Crazy Flap Syndrome” [CFS].
Click Here to Keep Reading – TACTICAL GEAR – FIELD TESTED: Zulu Nylon Gear M4 Double Magazine Pouch – An innovative M-4 Mag Pouch in a Sea of Mundane >>>
Did you like this? If so, please
bookmark it,
about it, and subscribe to the blog
RSS feed.
COMMENTARY: I Swear if I Hear Another Person say “I Didn’t Quit BUDS/SF Selection – I Had to Drop out Because of an Injury” I am Going to Kick a Kitten in the Head
by James G · 50 comments
in COMMENTARY
I was at the PX grabbing some shit I don’t need when I ran into some buddies who work for another contractor. This particular contractor is somewhat know for “warm body recruiting”. We all sat down over a lukewarm coffee when a couple of their less than high-speed coworkers sat down.
Of what is a tradition in contracting, everyone did the usual dick-measuring contest where guys start asking each other about their backgrounds. I sat back and waited for the standard responses that usually vary from “I was in the Army” to “I rescued white women from dragons back when I was in a SCUBA K9 unit” to my response of “just contracting bro” [that always receives the most bewildering looks].
That is when one of the guys came out with one of my favorite cockamamie lines: The “I went through BUDS/SF Selection but I had to drop out because of an “injury” line. I swear I have heard that one at least 100 times over my lengthy Contracting and EP career.
By my count [and according to these guys] no one has ever quit SF Selection or Rang the Bell at BUDS because they couldn’t hack it in the entire history of Special Operations – like ever.
This BS story is usually followed by the “but they were still impressed by my performance and said I could try out again, and even let me hang out with them after, but I decided to get out instead”.
Click Here to Keep Reading – COMMENTARY: I Swear if I Hear Another Person say “I Didn’t Quit BUDS/SF Selection – I Had to Drop out Because of an Injury” I am Going to Kick a Kitten in the Head >>>
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,{ 50 comments }