|
We had armored suburbans and a couple Toyota SUVs when I was in Iraq, but mostly rolled in Humvees the first tour and MRAPs the 2nd. Any time we patrolled a marketplace or something I tried to keep in mind that whatever was normal to them was very different from what we might consider normal, so I'd watch people's body language more than specific surroundings. People start moving away / rounding up the kids running around = danger close. People are relaxed and trying to sell you shit, eating their food and ignoring you, etc, then maybe no danger but that's about as "safe" as it got - we still had grenades thrown at us, sniper fire, etc. To the people who lived there, that was just normal every day life.
I also spent time in South Korea, Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, Louisiana, Texas, South Carolina, Maryland, Arizona, and Southern California. Arizona was probably the most interesting in the context of this thread, because we got straight up told as part of our safety briefing that "on occasion, cartels / smugglers / mules / illegal immigrants may wander through the base training areas not realizing they're on a military installation. Do not engage, report it in immediately, they are often better armed and in larger numbers than you are."
Now imagine - if the base personnel are being told that, wtf do you think the local populace has to put up with? AZ isn't all just Lake Havasu parties. El Paso was pretty sketchy at times too for that matter. Austin was fine though.
South Korea I had to pull riot duty a few times. We'd reinforce the base and lock it down with a ton of Korean cops with wooden katanas and shields, and then have our own US QRF in full riot gear behind them. Funny thing is the rioters would show up just as heavily geared up and ready to go, there'd be some clashes and protests, then everyone would get on a bus and go home at the end of the day. It was surprisingly well organized chaos. I look at the Hong Kong protests now and I'm glad I don't have to be on either side of that one.
|