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Generation Kill Research Results

We all know that there's really specific stuff in GK that only those who were there would know, much of which we get in the books Generation Kill (Evan Wright) and One Bullet Away (Nate Fick).

I needed some more intel for my fics, so I went hunting for all the things RL Ray said about GK relevant topics on reddit. The result is a list of all his comments, from radio frequencies to how exactly he got burnt by Rudy's stove to the MRE components and the truth about the Zeus attack and what colour the PT shorts of Recon guys were.

The list has been vetted by @bookishdea to make sure that there's no personal info about the RL guys in there.

It's sorted by topic: weapons/equipment, radios/comms, beanies/uniforms, officers in Recon, Humvees, MREs, Humvee arrangement/Reporter, Zeus attack, explosion of Rudy's stove, Captain America's name, invasion, Recon training/conditions of OIF, Ripped Fuel, First Recon, Afghanistan/Ray's Marine Corps career, characters/people career background, paddles, GK production, float tapes.

I hope you find interesting stuff in there. I originally made it for myself, but since the effort went in already anyway, I figured I could share it with those who don't want to risk coming across RL Marines infos, but who might still profit from the GK-specific infos.

- all intel are responses of RL Ray (plasmata) on reddit in various subreddits, collected 23. Nov. 2023

- Q = question asked on reddit, A = Ray's answer. There's not always a question supplied, just where it's necessary to understand his answer

weapons/equipment

- At the time most of the Marine Corps was still using the M16s and M249 (SAW). Recon units were one of the first ones to get M4's and Para-SAWs (carbine versions of the M249). So, folks like officers and regular support folks were still carrying their standard M16, while 0321 Recon Marines were carrying M4s.

- Q: I was rewatching GK (again) and I think it was episode 2 when Rudy and Pappy took out the RPG team. I don’t know what the sniper rifle caliber is called I would think it’s a .338 laupa because that was standard sniper rifle of the Marine Corps.

A: No. It was an M40 A3 which shoots a 7.62x51mm NATO round. It is essentially the same thing as a .308 They are based on a Remington 700 and modified by USMC armorers. Anyone that went to sniper school would shoot that rifle. Recon marines go to sniper school. Those who didnt would still crosstrain on range so they werent totally ignorant to the weapon.

- Q: Why do some of the men in the 1st Recon Battalion have no attachments on their M4 ie Q-Tip, Christenson, and Ray, while others like Brad, Fick, Fruity Rudy had optics and grips?

A: Because some people think that having that shit on your weapon makes you look cooler. It is all personal preference.

- Q: I've always wondered if the real Brad rocked that PVS-17 the whole time like his character did.

A: He sure did. It is an easy way to always have NV handy without having to have something strapped to your fucking head all the time (PVS-7's).

radios/comms

-Q: In ep 2, right after the ambush scene when there is a radio check, whatdo the "up" numbers mean? (up 120 and up, up 700 and up, up 200 and up..etc)

A: It is a short way to indicate status. "Up" means we are all good and no one is injured or dead. IIRC the number indicates rounds of ammo left.

- Q: In the ep 2 episode intro somebody says: "All Hitman Victors, be advised, we are rolling freaks to TAC 1-1-9 at 1400 Zulu. How copy?" I understand everything expect "rolling freaks". Any ideas?

A: It does mean "rolling freqs" which is shorthand for "Changing radio Frequencies."

As you have seen in the series, the military communicates using radio's. As a security measure, everyone changes to a different radio frequency at the same time at set intervals. Lets say that the enemy was able to steal/capture a US radio. Then they would be able to listen in on all our radio conversations...this is bad. So, just in case that happens we all change frequencies (along with crypto fills and other things) so that radio only has value for a very limited time.

This is definitely also combined with crystallographic signature changes as well as something known as frequency hopping (SINGARS) for additional security.

- Q: So how would the teams be able to keep up with the new radio frequencies? Are they passed by runner or is a CYZ used?

A: They are typically pre-planned in a "comm plan" (communications plan). If a radio were to come up missing then they would change the comm plan and distribute however they could.

If you look at the HMMWV windshield next to Brad Colbert in the series you will see a clear acetate with something printed on it. That is a cheat sheet of the comm plan.

- Different types of radios are capable of different radio bands. Most of what you hear in GK is all VHF (ground plane) band radio traffic. The vehicle radios and the handheld ones do VHF. Different groups have different "freqs" (pronounced like freaks) or frequencies that they use. Just like the FM radio in your car, you can tune into different radio stations by changing the frequency. Bravo 1 is on 95.7 Hot Country....and Bravo 2 is on 103.3 Smooth Jazz. You are always switching between the different freqs to talk to who you are supposed to be talking to. So, my personal radio may be set to be on Bravo 1's channel, but the vehicle may be set to Bravo 3 and then another guy may have his set to the Alpha channel. Just like setting the presets in your car, you can do that on these radios as well...so you can quickly switch between them.

The reason you also hear pilots in some of them is that some radios are UHF (line of sight) band to talk to pilots. The small handheld radios were both VHF and UHF radios so we could do things like call for fire missions and give the pilots our 9 lines.

Com plans utilize multiple channels across different spectrums (HF, VHF, UHF, Satellite) and many types of radios that have different spectrum capabilities.

Dude, have you never played with walkie-talkies as a kid...hahaha. You know someone is talking on your freq because you hear them. Only one person can talk at a time on any radio channel. You can only be "tuned" to a single frequency at a time. There is a very rigid etiquette when using radios to keep things clear and efficient.

We switched from the 77's to the AN/PRC-135 in 2002 (1st Recon Bn).

The 135's would do HF freq hopping, auto antenna tuning, and directly take crypto fills. But, the best part was they had a detachable face with an extension cord; so you could seal up the radio in your ruck (waterproofing and all). Then you would have the radio face in your front deuce gear to control the radio if you needed to switch freqs or something.

Edit: I just realized that I was talking about the 104's not the 77's. Yeah, late 90's the 77's were replaced by 119's.

beanies/uniforms

- Part of it is real (the black beanie's) and the rest is done by David Simon. The real part is that we all wore black beanies. It wasn't breaking any rules as they were allowed, but most other units frowned on wearing them unless in private. We did all wear them everywhere and it kind of became a “thing” that the recon guys are the ones in beanies.

The David Simon/ Ed Burns part is the rest of the scene. I think they were trying to explain to the audience who Recon Marines were and used Trombley/Espera to do that. It was a wise choice as neither Trombley nor Espera were Recon Marines at that point…which he mentions in that scene.

It followed the PT uniforms we wore also. The Marine Corps wears “green on green” shirt/shorts. Recon’s official PT uniform is “black on black”…so if you see guys PTing in black you know they are Recon Bubbas.

officers in Recon

- A little late to the party, but there is no such thing as a recon officer. The "Reconnaissance Man" MOS is 0321 and is only for enlisted marines. Godfather was not a recon marine...no officers are.

1st Recon is comprised of many that are not recon marines; support personnel like motor T, communications, navy corpsmen, intel, etc. Officers that are platoon/ company/ battalion commanders are typically Intelligence or Infantry officers.

- Q: Not trying to correct you as you were there, I definitely wasn't... but Fick mentioned he went through BRC in his book. I guess maybe some officers go thru BRC but retain their MOS whether infantry/intel/whatever?

A: Rarely, some officers do go through BRC/ARS; but even if they do they still never are recon marines and are never in a recon team.

- Platoon commanders for Recon are kind of in the rear with the gear...they don't go out with teams. They typically command a ROC (Recon Operation Center) and provide support and are a liaison between the team and higher-ups. They feed the teams direction (via radio comms) and take intel and generate reports (again via radio comms)...but they aren't with the teams.

Humvees

- Q: If I may ask...were you guys ever told why you weren't given closed-top humvees (except of course the lead vehicle).

A: Because we didnt' have them. The HMMWV's we got were Army surplus ones we scavenged.

- You don't go to war with what you want, you go with what you have. Everything has to be adapted on the fly...which is what happened. Everything in war is a calculated risk with a margin for "acceptable losses". Were we lucky? Sure.

MREs

- Q: In ep 5, when Ray is making MRE cookies, would that actually work? If so, how good could those actually be?

A: Yes it actually works. The sugar will melt and crystalize in the creamer which makes it solid and like a cookie. When you haven't eaten anything other than MREs for months straight they are good.

PS2: Ray seems like a good guy to have drinks with in a bar.

I agree...but I am a little biased.

- Point of clarification: These aren't really MRE's, they are just components of an MRE that can come in different MREs.

Personally my favorite MRE was the Beef Stew. It came with a pouch of Beef Stew, Jalapeno Cheese, pack of two crackers, and something like Skittles. It also came with a little packet with things like Folgers Crystals Coffee packets, creamer, salt/pepper, wet wipe, etc.

There were 24 different MREs in a 12 pack "A" or "B" case. Each had a different main meal and then accessory packets that included things like Peanut Butter, Regular Cheese, Jalapeno Cheese, Crackers, "Bread Slice", Charms, Skittles, Lorna Doone Cookies, M&M Cookies ("Cookies with Pan Coated Chocolate Disks"), Nature Valley Granola Bar, Strawberry Milkshake, Pound cake, Hot Cocoa Mix, etc, etc, etc.

The GK time generation of MREs were fairly new at the time and included new meals like "Bean Burrito", "Cheese Burger", etc. There were quite a few that were in the previous generation like "Beef Stew" and "Minestrone Soup". Probably the absolute worst one was "Pork Slice in Jamaican Style Sauce".

- It was a common tradition in Brad and my old platoon to stash fun things to share amongst the team at fun times. Like when your team is all wet and cold and hasnt really slept for weeks then you bust something fun out to share…it is a great pick-me-up. My favorite thing to do were king size snickers bars.

Humvee arrangement / Reporter

- Q: Who sat in the passenger side rear seat before the reporter came along?

A: No one. We determined who was in what vehicle right before the invasion..so we knew we had to fit Evan in somewhere. He really wanted to be with Brad and me...so there he went.

- Q: Why?

A: Because we're awesome. Honestly it was because he was told we would be the go-to team (because of Brad and me) for any special fun missions and he didn't want to miss out on those. That and I think he liked our dynamic as "characters".

- Short answer is because that is where he chose to be. For this war the US did something interesting in allowing for journalists to be embedded with the military units for the invasion. There were a ton of journalists that came and got a briefing on different unit types so the journalists could pick where they wanted to be. There were three journalists that after hearing what Recon was and that we would be a combat unit (so you may get shot at if you go with them) picked to be embedded with 1st Recon.

The three journalists then came to where we were staged in Kuwait and met with the BN Commander (Godfather) and were then briefed more specifically on who we were and what our role would be during the invasion. After that briefing two of the three journalists decided they didn't want to kick it with us...pussies. I do remember one of them was some guy with Men's Journal.

Evan then started hanging around us and learned that our team would likely see the most action and be at the front the most...so that is where he wanted to be. After a few nights in the tents hanging out with us he decided that he wanted to be in our vehicle as he liked our "characters" for his story.

Evan, in retrospect, would frequently say he's not sure whether he was more brave or stupid/naive to embed with us for the invasion. After each firefight/ambush he would say that he was going to leave...then we would tell him to stop being a huge pussy...so he kept going.

Zeus attack

- Q: Was Trombley actually just sitting there observing like he did in the film? [note: about Zeus attack]

A: Yes and no. Lots of people were kind of looking. I was the one that jumped up and observed the gun firing to find its location. I then called Walt up to the MK-19 to walk him in on target while calling in CAS via rotary wing at the same time. I got a Navy Achievement Metal with Combat V for that action. Interesting the series got it wrong on that.

explosion of Rudy's stove

- I didn't set my face on fire, Rudy set my face on fire…hahaha. That was all healed in just a few weeks like it never happened…I heal fast. It is a common joke amongst my friends that i am Wolverine because of my rapid healing.

- Rudy was heating water for coffee. It didn't explode. To use diesel fuel in those stoves we would preheat the fuel tube with a hexamite tab. Hexamite tabs turn to gel when they burn. Rudy was carrying the stove outside and some diesel on the outside of the stove caught fire in his hands. He then dropped it and the hexamite splattered off it all over my face. Burning gel all over my face

Captain America's name

- Yeah. A little into the invasion he went running into these mud huts with a fixed bayonet. I was sitting in my HMMWV with my team watching him run in and made the comment “This guy thinks he is Captain America!” We all started calling him that afterwards. To not embarrass the guy publicly they used it in the book and film instead of his real name.

invasion

- Q: Given the might of US military and Nato forces, could the invasion have been planned better? Maybe take more time to get there instead of the confusion and rush?

A: There was a plan and it worked pretty well. Our unit was only one small part of a much larger machine so you don't get to see the overarching thinking behind the entire invasion, you just see a tiny tiny part of it. Two quips that sum it up nicely are "Speed is far more effective than a plan" and "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face"

- Q: Why weren't tanks and armor part of your group specially when entering hostile town?

A: Because they were needed elsewhere and we were essentially probing the battlefield so the commanders would know where best to direct the invading force...including armored units.

Recon training/conditions of OIF

-Q: How do you cope with the constant dangers and lack of sleep, food and hygiene. Most people would operate at lower levels under these circumstances and make mistakes. Was there something you guys did that made things better?

A: You fight how you train. We were used to little sleep, food, and hygiene because that is how we always trained. So, when it came to war we were already very comfortable and used to operating in that condition. Same shit, different day.

- All Recon Marines have the same MOS...0321. There are team roles such as Pointman, Navigator, Slackman, RTO, Assistant RTO, Assistant Team Leader, and Team Leader. Every Recon Marine is expected to have held each role to be well rounded. You may be the RTO in one team and then a Navigator in another.

All Marines (not just Recon Marines) are marksman and have to qualify just the same. This is independent of their MOS. Every Marine is a Rifleman.

Nearly all Recon Marines have gone through Sniper School...this is nothing super special.

- Q: Though I did do underwater football with a few of the Recon guys for PT a few times. That was a pretty brutal game. Put a plastic chair in either side of the deep end of the pool (12'+ at Flores) and put an underwater weight between the chairs in the middle of the pool. Line up 5 guys on either side. Dive in on the mark and try to get the weight into the seat of the chair opposite of your side. Tap if you need air, usually you get released pretty quickly... After a second or two. And that was about the only rule. Underwater everything was game. Grabbing, choking, ripping off masks...and it was a brutal workout. You'd be sucking wind after a few goals.

A: When I was in we played a lot of "Underwater Soccer" which is basically the same thing just without the chairs. Two team on either side of the pool and a weight (either a 25lb bar weight or dumbbell) in the middle on the bottom. Your team gets a point when you touch the opposing teams wall with the weight in hand.

The other game I used to love was the "Whistle Game." In this game a metal whistle was thrown into the middle of the pool. It was every man for himself. You had to grab the whistle from the bottom of the pool and rise to the surface and successfully blow it. If you did then you got to get out of the pool. Everyone else keeps going. It was one of the "Pays to be a winner" games.

- Another fun side note: We used to play a game called "Tap-Out Pass-Out" in which we would ground fight (think Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) and the only rules were no eye gouging. The game was only over when someone would pass out or tap out. While Rudy is/was an amazing standing fighter, he wasn't great on the ground. I am very good on the ground and would always beat him, much to Rudy's chagrin. Because of that Rudy began to diligently practice and improve his ground fighting, so I don't know if you should mess with him on the ground now.

Ripped Fuel

- Q: Ray, how much Ripped Fuel have you had?

A: Believe it or not I only had 2 the entire time. Two were issued to each marine as part of a med kit. The rest was just swallowing Folgers Coffee Crystals that came in the MREs.

First Recon

- Former B Co, 1st Recon Bn 0321 (1999-2003) checking in. 1st Recon was a Battalion in 1990? It was a Company when I first got there (I was in 2nd Platoon - 1st Recon Co)...then it changed into a Battalion a year or two later.

Afghanistan / Ray's Marine Corps career

- Question: Were you on this float? What did you do before joining 1st recon? Did you go to Afghanistan?

Answer: Yes. I was a pipeliner, so I was always always at 1st. I did go to Afghanistan. I was in 1st Recon Company, 2nd platoon on this float. It is the same platoon as Brad Colbert but I was in a different team.

- You can petition to "try out" for recon. If you pass a screening (run by Recon Marines) then you typically go to a "RIP" platoon (Recon Indoctrination Platoon or something like that) to be weeded out if you aren't able to hang. From there you go to a Recon MOS producing school (ARS or BRC) and if you pass that course then you become a "Roper" until you pass the unit Indoc. It isn't just jump right in.

- Q: I guess that means you went fleet grunt first then tested into recon yeah?

I enlisted 03XX then got 0311 out of SOI, then was picked up by recon at the graduation of SOI.

A: I am a fellow pipeliner. When i went in, 0321 was a secondary MOS (circa 2000)…so I was an 0311 with the secondary of 0321.

- Q: What year did you graduate boot camp? Company? Platoon?

A: January 2000, San Diego, Mike Co., Plt 3014

- Q: The 9/11 attacks solidified my choice in enlisting. At the time, I was a Sophomore in HS. 3rd period Geometry. Where were you?

A: Sitting in a pub in Darwin Australia (it was night time there) on libo. Shore Patrol comes running into the pub screaming for everyone to get back to ship (15th MEU on the USS Dubuque). Get back to ship just in time to see the second tower fall on tv. Go to drunken sleep as we set sail for Pakistan (Bravo Platoon, 1st Recon Company).

- He [note: Ray talking about himself] picked up Sgt. before he got out through. Fellow B Co 1st Recon alum. Yut Yut.

characters/people career background

- First Recon Bn is not just Recon Marines...it includes all the support personnel that are needed for a unit as well; like Armorers, Motor T, Intel, Supply, Communications, Admin, etc.

Jeff wasn't a Recon Marine; his MOS was Motor T. He was a Motor T Marine assigned to First Recon. We loved Jeff because he was super pessimistic and hateful. When Darnold was shot and medevac'd out, Jeff filled the vacancy in Kocher's team.

- Capt. Eric Dill was our Recon Platoon Commander during Afghanistan and can be seen in Part-8 @ 11:42. His/my platoon is the one that he handed over to Fick after we got back stateside.

- One thing to note is that Fick wasn't with Recon during Afghanistan...he was an Infantry Platoon commander. Afghanistan is where Fick became buddies with our current Recon Platoon commander, Eric Dill. Dill convinced Fick to come over to 1st Recon after getting back from Afghanistan. This is also where we "found" Garza, Leon, etc and convinced them to come over from the infantry to become Recon Marines.

- The first casualty was Darnold in Eric Kocher's team. He was shot in the forearm when we drove through an ambush. This is the scene where Walt was possibly tangled in the electrical wires and I believe it shows a HMMWV monster-trucking a car. Dirty Earl (Jeff Carizalez) then took over for Darnold in Eric's team.

paddles

- Paddles aren't just a Recon thing...they are generally a boat team thing...which Recon guys are amongst. Honestly, it varies as to who would get one. Some think that only other Recon Marines should get them...others think that support guys should too.

Typically the size of the paddle matters. The bigger the paddle the more senior/experience/loved the guy was. When I was in the small novelty paddles were for thank-you's to folks. Regular 4 foot paddles were for solid Recon Marines that were liked. Large 6 foot paddles were reserved for guys that had been there a while and were exceptional.

GK production

- David Simon (the guy that did Gen Kill) was really the instrumental piece to making it what it was. Early on HBO was going to have someone else do it...and it was straight up fucking Michael Bay style. David wanted real Marines to be able to watch the series and see not a single thing wrong with it; from the dialog, equipment/uniforms, actor body types, mannerisms, etc. He gave us a hell of a ton of leeway to just "be ourselves" so he could have that in the series.

I got involved early on when they were working on the scripts to make sure the slang and jargon added was Marine Corps specific and current. Even the radio chatter in all scenes was written by real Marines...all the pilot sides of radio chatter (like when calling CAS) was recorded by a real FAC.

All the actors were put through a two week "How to be a Marine" course. From how to wear their uniforms, how to carry their weapons, hazing motivational physical exercises, etc. One of the biggest problems was all the actors wanting to do exactly what Rudy Reyes did on set; and Rudy lives in a comic book so it wasn't all exactly accurate.

In one of the episodes, the Oscar Award winning Director (different episodes had different directors) was going to have guys flying when shot like you see in the typical movies. After the Marines on set (Eric Kocher and Jeff Carizalez) told her that was not real and she did it anyways; Eric and Jeff started just making comments like "This episode is going to fail fucking miserably", "Wow, this episode is going to suck balls", "This is the worst fucking thing I have ever seen"...as you already noticed, those scenes were redone.

float tapes

- About the Float Tapes: OMG!...these videos are gold. Watching through them now. I have already seen Gabe Garza (Part-3 @ 1:04 far right) Tony Espera (Part-3 @ 7:50) as they were both with that infantry unit at the time.

- I had never seen these so it is fun to relive this float. In Part 4 when they are doing the "Steel Beach Party" he has a part where he films guys playing hacky-sack with "Black Shirts = Cool AF" on screen. The black shirts are Recon guys (everyone else has to wear green). In that shot are Eric Kocher (in the green flight suit) and Larry Shawn Patrick (tall guy with sunglasses on) along with some other brothers. There were 22 Recon guys total on that float in 4 teams. I haven't seen me or anyone from my team in the videos yet.

- Part 36 @ 3:17 is Rudy Reyes, a guy i forgot his name right now in the SERE shirt, the blond guy to his right (James Klepel /was on my team), and the guy that walks in behind Espera (Luke Meister / also on my team).

Real Evan Wright intel (twitter) about GK

camera

- Reporter's camera was a Leica m6 50mm, analogue (film, not digital)

Manimal

- Anthony "Manimal" Jacks usually wore his teeth and was a serious person who spoke to me a lot about his family & his concerns about doing right, if we crossed the border. Being "Manimal" was sort of a character he played to amuse people

MRE crates

- As is clear in this photo, Holsey, too, could scarcely contain his joy that I was taking his picture. Note: he's seated on an MRE crate. Those are like general propose chairs and tables in the field, like "apple boxes" in the film industry.

#Generation Kill #Writing Reference

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