American Sniper - Boekje Pienter

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we ended up in trouble. We were constantly digging them out of the
sand in Kuwait.
They were a blast when they worked. Being the gunner, I had the
elevated seat behind the driver and navigator, who sat side by side below
me. Geared up with tactical ballistic goggles and a helicopter-type
helmet, I strapped myself in with a five-point restraint and held on as
we raced across the desert. We’d do seventy miles an hour. I’d let off a
few bursts with the .50-cal, then pull the lever up on the side of the
seat and swivel around toward the back. There I’d grab the M-60 and
shoot some more. If we were simulating an attack from the side while
we were moving, I could grab the M-4 I was carrying and shoot in that
direction.
Shooting the big machine gun was fun!
Aiming that sucker while the vehicle was bounding up and down
across the desert was something else again. You can move the gun up
and down to keep it on target, but you’re never going to be particularly
precise—at best, you lay down enough fire so you can get the hell out
of there.
Besides our four three-seat DPVs, we had two six-seaters. The sixseater
was the plain-vanilla version—three rows of two seats, with the
only weapon the 60 on the front. We used it as the command-and-control
wagon. Very boring ride. It was kind of like riding in a station
wagon with Mom when Dad’s got the sports car.
We practiced for a few weeks. We did a lot of land navigation,
built hide sights, and did SR (“surveillance and reconnaissance”) along
the border. We’d dig in, cover the vehicles with netting, and try and
make them disappear in the middle of the desert. Not easy for a DPV:
usually it ended up looking like a DPV trying to hide in the middle of