Hi
ive just picked up a cheap acadamy m981and i was wandering did 3ID have any during the initial iraq invasion or were they fully converted to the bradley version.

in concords special ops 26 and 27 it shows them. but fair play to mr Debay on his excellant books, some of the unit recognition is a bit out.

so could anyone help out with this

thanks

mark

3ID had all M7 B-FISTs during OIF. We completed fielding them in 2001. 1ID did have them still. 1 Bn from 1ID was attached to 3ID for OIF1, 1st Battalion, 63rd Armored Regiment. 1AD also had them still till late '04.

What variants of the M113 are still in use today? (In the US Army)
Are the M113s with the bar armor and modern ACAV setup replacing another type of vehicle? (slightly)

Hi Gino
thanks for the quick reply.

wasnt 1-63 arm attached to the 173 airborne bde in north iraq.

i thought TF 2-70 arm, with 1-41st inf from 1 arm div was the 'floating' arm unit used by 82nd, 101st and 3 ID in the south.

if they are the ones shown in the concord books they have 71 on their sides and writing to indicate they were drawn from stock in kuwait, hence i thought they were 3ID. with 70 being the sign for 1-15 inf.
i wander which artillery unit they belonged to, 4-1 FA is the Bde artillery but didnt deploy.

mark

Yup, you're right. I guess all this AF stuff I am having shoved at me is making my brain mush. I meant TF 2-70 AR. TF2-70s FIST-Vs would have reported back to whatever FA unit was supporting them. The Fire Supporters were from 4-1 FA, but were attached to TF-2-70 AR. 1ID still had M981s as well.

The M113A2 and M113A3 is still in use by the US Army, along with M577A2, A3, and M1068 command post vehicles. Most M113s are either ambulances, maintenance vehicles, or used by the engineers. Some M113s in Iraq have the bar armor, but they are not really replacing anything, but doing their normal duties.

thanks again Gino

Heres some views of one of our tracks at Camp Tigerland(Victory North/Blacjack/Liberty) depending on the time frame. It was an M113A2 coverted to A3 by the Unit Mech's before getting the cage armor emplaced.

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Banshee, thanks for the photos!

Gino, thanks for the quick reply. Are we still using M113's for Mortar carriers? Or have they been replaced with something else?

Yup, the M1064A2 and A3 are the new 120mm Mortar Carriers.

Mark,
You are right, 3rd BCT, 1st Armored Division out of Ft Riley Kansas was committed to the fight by battalions. TF's 2-70 and 1-41 went first towards the end of March, when the 10-1st and 82nd were committed to firm up the rear area. TF 1-13 followed up later, maybe into early Arpil. I can getthe specific details as I used to work for Bulldog 6, the former Brigade commander. as a note, 2-70 had a tank company attached to the SOF guys and were working north & west of Baghdad. They somehow dropped a tank into a hole upside down and had to be destroyed in place. I used to have a picture of it but my computer crashed in May 2003 and I lost it as well as a series of 1st BCT, 3ID as they took OBJ Peach and then on to SIAP/BIAP.

John

Hi John

any info and pics would be great. i think i have seen a picture of a tank upside down in a BIG hole aswell. i'll check and see if ive got it

mark