It's said that military amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics.

The logistics of this operation in Iraq are difficult, but that's nothing new in warfare. Every mile an army advances stretches the supply train, making resupply ever more difficult. This was just as true in Napoleon's day as it was in WWII*, Vietnam, and today.

Here'a a good article from the NY Times (it may require free registration) about the difficulties a particular Marine convoy is experiencing on the road. They're being harassed by small scale attacks, and that can be rather unsettling when you're driving an unarmored truck carrying thousands of gallons of fuel or tons of ammunition.

A retired Army friend of mine drove a "gun truck" for two tours during Vietnam. Back then, the Army found that using armored vehicles to escort trucks didn't work very well. Lonnie drove a 2 1/2 ton truck that had several .50 cal machine guns and grenade launchers mounted on the back. It had some extra steel plating for a measure of protection and carried a lot of ammo. Lonnie showed me several pictures of the bed of his truck after a firefight. The empty .50 cal shell casings were literally knee deep. Perhaps the military needs to revive the gun truck concept for Iraq, updated to allow for modern weapons.

From the linked article, the last few paragraphs tell something special about the Marines.

The Marine convoys have armed themselves heavily to repel the Iraqi attacks. Each caravan is shadowed by several tanks and armored cars, and they have responded ferociously to the ambushes. The Marine commanders say they need to respond quickly and decisively to such attacks, in large part because they are so vulnerable.



The Marine convoy stuck near Diwaniyah, for instance, has more than a dozen 60-foot-long fuel tankers. Each one carries 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

"I think about it a lot, getting hit," said a diesel truck driver. "I'm a sitting duck."

The Marines themselves, even the driver of the smallest water truck, is

[sic] ready to taken down his gun and fight. It is that, more than anything, the Marines say, that makes them confidant they will be to keep the caravans rolling north.

"We're not just truck drivers," Lieutenant Colonel Weinkel said. "We're truck drivers with guns."

* For those of you who're interested, the most famous group of truck drivers in the ETO in WWII was the "Red Ball Express." Back in the days of the segregated Army, the Red Ball Express consisted of 18,000 African-Americans (out of a total of 23,000 involved) who drove the highest priority supplies. They did an outstanding job.

"My men can eat their belts, but my tanks gotta gas."



General George S. Patton, Jr.
Conversation with GEN Eisenhower
2 September 1944