Iraqi Benchmark???

[+Catherman]

I just returned from Iraq. On my second to last day in Iraq, just prior to getting to Kuwait, I moved over to an area on a high ledge to scout out our staging area. It was at Al Asad Airbase NW of Ar Ramadi. I came across a small slab of concrete with a metal disk mounted about 3 inches in diameter right in the center of it. Arabic numbers and letters were scribed on in and there was a cross or x through the center. I pulled my compass out of my gear and realized that the lines were almost aligned north and south with a crosspiece east and west. I pulled out my GPSr (Garmin E-trex) and found grid north. The lines were exactly in sink with grid North, South, East, and West. I would like to think this was a benchmark of some kind. Do other countries besides the Great U.S. of A. use, or have used, benchmarks similar to ours?

[+GeckoGeek]

You guys are doing a great job over there. Don't let the press worry you. I'm not buying any of their hand wringing.

 

 

I would imagine that some form of benchmarks are used by all countries that are westernized at all. Otherwise they'd have to come up with their own method of knowing what belongs to who and all that stuff.

 

Now if it's a country that doesn't practice any land rights or concepts of land ownership, then maybe not.

Edited April 16, 2004 by GeckoGeek

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

Marks have been used for thousands of years especially over there.

If you remember the Biblical Stories of how the Land was divided to the individual tribes and so on.

One I remember,David's Land's were from where the well is at Bethsheba to ....well I do not know my Bible that well.

 

And If I remember correctly when we were in some of the other areas we did work with the other countries for Strategic Purposes(WGS) which require you knowing where you are.(CONTROL POINTS). or Benchmarks or Stones or temporary caches etc.

 

Thanks for your valued time in serving our Nation.

[Wild T2]

Here are a couple of links to articles about military surveying and mapping.

 

http://www.asprs.org/asprs/resources/grids/11-2001-ptsm.pdf

 

http://www.profsurv.com/ps_scripts/article.idc?id=1218

 

And of course, thanks for your service over there.

[ArtMan]

You guys are doing a great job over there.  Don't let the press worry you.  I'm not buying any of their hand wringing.

 

Sorry, GeckoGeek, but if you are trying to suggest that American journalists are somehow unpatriotic or are against the U.S. troops who are serving in Iraq, you're flat-out wrong, and your comment is an irrelevant, unwarranted and inaccurate slur on the press.

 

I'm a journalist and, while I spent three years in the Middle East, I have not covered this particular war. But I have friends who have been there.

 

I don't know, nor have I heard of any American, journalist or otherwise, who doesn't support the troops. (I recently did some volunteer work for the USO, even though I have serious differences with the administration's Iraq policies.)

 

Lots of folks, in the press and otherwise, don't support the Bush policy on Iraq, but that's different from not supporting the troops.

 

There has been plenty of reporting critical of the war, as there should be. There's a word for the kind of uncritical coverage that I hope you are not advocating. It's called propaganda.

 

Reporting on policy differences over Iraq or on the violence there has nothing to do with support for the brave men and women wearing the uniform of the United States armed forces in combat.

 

(I, for one, am waiting to see some of those weapons of mass destruction that were President Bush's principal justification for this war. Though, of course, I am shedding no tears for the toppling of Saddam Hussein's government.)

 

As for the topic at hand, Catherman's presumed Iraqi benchmark: Cool!

 

-ArtMan-

[mistaken4sisters]

That sounds like a really cool find!

Thanks

[+Catherman]

Artman,

 

You say you have some friends over there? Talk to them about getting some of our successes on the news. Where is the other side of the story? I have been back from Iraq only a short while, and I am already agitated by the media reports from American reporters in that country. I believe in free press. In fact as JAG, I taught human and civil rights to Iraqi police, judges, Border Patrol, and ICDC. I smiled inside when I saw Iraqis printing papers about their dislike for Americans. They had free press! When I left, Iraqi children were attending school with supplies donated by American school children. The judicial system was successfully running criminal and civil cases through the courts. The police were patrolling the streets again and thousands of ICDC, Boarder Patrol, and Iraqi Police were graduating training programs allowing them to provide security for their own. Outstanding return Iraqi students were even teaching many of these classes. Businesses were opening, one room stone-hut homes were installing satellite dishes so they could view free press for the first time, and an overwhelming majority of Iraqis wanted to vote for their leadership. This was in Fallujah too! Al Quim, Ar Ramadi, Hit, Rawha, I was there. Yes, there was still fighting with the insurgents and border-crossing radicals, but it was the positive successes for a brighter future filled with freedom and liberty that gave us the motivation and drive to fight. I find it tragic that the death toll this month is so high, but I believe that is because both American soldiers, and a larger number of Iraqis are fighting hard for a free Iraqi democracy. More Iraqi’s die along side us, fighting for the same cause than we do, but we never hear about that. We, here at home, need to see what the soldiers and Iraqis are dying for. There are days I wish I were back there, taking part in such an amazing endeavor for the free world; but for now, I will just have to settle for the sad half of the story.

 

I believe in free press and I am glad the reporters are there, but where is the rest of it. I know it’s available, I was there!

[kc2ixe]

I don't know, nor have I heard of any American, journalist or otherwise, who doesn't support the troops.

Artman,

I've run into one or two who wish for the troops to do poorly, so that Bush will look bad. And yes, I work in the Media too

[+Desert_Warrior]

WELCOME HOME SIR !!!!!

 

Wonder if you got a photo of that mark? That I would like to see!

 

Thank you for putting a finish to the war I started and was not allowed to finish because GWBs daddy didn't have the guts to tell the UN to buzz off the first time.

 

My son Army_Scout is also home now, and trying to settle in. It takes time. He sleeps easier with my A2 next to his bed.

 

As for the media, I have decided that if it ain't FOX, it f---s. I don't watch the others, and I refuse to speak with them at events. No matter what you tell them, they spin it their own way. I don't buy the local paper. I do use the paper, we have puppies. I must admit the paper IS good for something.

 

Any media folks out there that feel offended - maybe you should look to the inside and try to change that perception. IMHO - perception IS!

 

AGAIN - WELCOME HOME SIR !!!!! And thanks.

[+GeckoGeek]

Sorry, GeckoGeek, but if you are trying to suggest that American journalists are somehow unpatriotic or are against the U.S. troops who are serving in Iraq, ....

I have no issues against individual journalists, but I do have issues with the media. I did not intend to imply that they were "unpatriotic or are against the U.S. troops". I do think they are not giving us an accurate picture. Catherman's reply speaks better then anything I could post, so I'll let it rest there. This is not the forum.

[+Catherman]

Desert Warrior,

I was thinking I took a photo of it, because I though it was interesting. I just had the last of my disposable cameras developed, that picture was not there. This happened to me a lot. I burned an image into my mind but then often forgot to take a photo. It was always mission first, photos second. I do have a photos over looking the ledge close to where it was and I can positively identify it on a good map. (The map is a photo taken from space so it doesn’t have the BM and x marking the spot like our maps.) Now I really wish I had a photo.

[+seventhings]

Catherman -

 

Let me say Well Done (or Bravo Zulu or Hoorah, or whatever words of approval and appreciation are applicable to your branch). This applies both to your service on behalf of the People of the United States as well as to your comments about the recovery of the mark in Iraq. Your comments about the (assumed) benchmark were very interesting. I commmend your presence of mind in determining and noting the orientation of the mark while in that potentially hostile environment. Really cool!

 

Up till now I thought I was hot stuff by going on to a few railroad bridges to get marks. But aside from the occasional freighttrain of mass destruction or radical fundamentalist railroad cop, there's really not much to worry about.

 

I'm (we're all) happy that you are back. I (we all) hope that things go so well in Iraq that the rest of the force can get home soonest as well.

 

Artman's point is well taken. It is possible to oppose the policy and pray for the best for the troops. And opposing the policy is NOT unpatriotic. I just wish that journalists who opposed the policy could report on it (good as well as bad, in some appropriate proportion) with a greater degree of balance and objectivity than we usually see on the major networks, CNN and the NYTimes.

 

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