USMC: Camp Pendleton

I'm scheduled on a press tour of Camp Pendleton this weekend...leaving at 5pm tomorrow and getting back on Sunday sometime.
Anything specific you want me to snap some pictures of or ask questions about?

Supposedly I'll have some time on the active flight line...so I might be bringing back some interesting aviation pics/vids anyway

Spl. Durkee wrote:

Anything specific you want me to snap some pictures of

Everything

That's cool, sounds like a good experience. Have fun on your trip, Durkee

Maybe I'll see you there!

I'd love to see some MTVs and some M240 Bravos, if you could get some. Have fun man, wish I was going.

Gah...it was kinda a dud.

Alot of the stuff I was scheduled to see were restricted because of the Iron Man competition this weekend. Probably wasn't the best weekend to visit, I guess.

Anyway...I did some fun stuff at least:
- Mechanized Museum
- HUMVEE ride-along
- Watched a Force Recon vs. general enlisted paintball game
- Drove all over the base...and went some places I wasn't supposed to go...
- Toured the flight-line...just a bunch of chinooks and hueys...
- Got my hair cut at one of the base's 2 barber shops
- Got some gear from the commissary...
- Shot Trap/Skeet at the range...REALLY nice facilities...
- Had dinner with 2 enlistedmen
- Checked out the new MRAP's and EFV's
- and some other crap I can't remember (hey, im tired as heck)

But I have a question...
I was "somewhere I shouldnt have been" and I came upon a barbed-wire enclosure with like 20 of these...

Basically Ford F350's...painted desert tan...armored out...and packin heat.
What were those? And what are their use?

Some of the things that were restricted that I was scheduled to visit:
- MOUT facilities (two of em...1 is modelled after an Iraqi village...the other is just a generic MOUT house)
- Artillery range tour (BOOM!)
- Hovercraft hanger (at the Naval station)
- Was supposed to see an amphibious assault training exercise...but no luck.

Oh well. Guess I'll have to try again next time...or make sure I keep my eyes open once I'm runnin' bayonets and boots.

Spl. Durkee wrote:

Basically Ford F350's...painted desert tan...armored out...and packin heat.
What were those? And what are their use?

They're called "technicals". Basically civvie trucks usually decked out with armor and a machine gun, sometimes painted. Lots of contractors use them in the Sandbox, so I'm thinking Camp Pendleton could be a hub for some sort of contractor/security agency.

Examples:




Not really a technical, but a civilian vehicle modified for defense against road mines:


Image source: http://baneiraq.50webs.com/ /::graphic subject matter::\

also, I've seen a lot of pics and vid of Marines using guntrucks in the Marjah Offensive. Although, those looked like they were just heavily armored deuce-and-a-halfs with big armored shooting platforms on the top.

@ Jarhead and Drummer:

Naw looked nothing like those.
Man I can't explain what they looked like other than that...Ill have to wait for pictures...theyre on my buddy's camera.

In the mean time, heres a teaser from the stuff on my camera.

they use them to fool kiddies like you durkee! haha jk jk but i think what drummer said before was probably somewhat true, they are technicals, but i don't think the marines really appreciate contractors much less let them use their base. contractors are civilians so they usually have their own compound out in the civilian world with their own stuff there.
anyway back to the technicals, they are probably just used for hauling stuff back and forth. (better mileage than a humvee, a little more trunk space compared to the humvee except for the open bed ones.)