Americans helping Ukrainians in the combat theater via the Internet

| January 30, 2023
Russia is feeding troops into a wood chipper Pentagon Chief.jpg

Russia is feeding troops into a wood chipper Pentagon Chief.jpg

A Ukrainian soldier was having issues firing a 155 mm howitzer gun. Unable to isolate the problem, he turned to the Americans for assistance. After asking for his options, the American servicemember advised the Ukrainian servicemember to remove the gun’s breach at the howitzer’s rear, and then to prime the firing pin. The Ukrainian soldier followed the advice and succeeded. Instead of being in the battlefield with Ukrainians, the Americans provided advice via Internet and Internet devices.

From AP News:

“What do I do?” he asked the U.S. military team member, far away at a base in southeastern Poland. “What are my options?”

Using phones and tablets to communicate in encrypted chatrooms, a rapidly growing group of U.S. and allied troops and contractors is providing real-time maintenance advice — usually speaking through interpreters — to Ukrainian troops on the battlefield.

In a quick response, the U.S. team member told the Ukrainian to remove the gun’s breech at the rear of the howitzer and manually prime the firing pin so the gun could fire. He did it and it worked.

The exchange is part of an expanding U.S. military help line aimed at providing repair advice to Ukrainian forces in the heat of battle. As the U.S. and other allies send more and increasingly complex and high-tech weapons to Ukraine, demands are spiking. And since no U.S. or other NATO nations will send troops into the country to provide hands-on assistance — due to worries about being drawn into a direct conflict with Russia — they’ve turned to virtual chatrooms.

The U.S. soldier and other team members and leaders stationed at a base in Poland spoke last week to two reporters who were traveling with Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when he visited the facility. Because of the sensitivity of the operation, the troops there spoke on condition of anonymity under guidelines set by the U.S. military. Reporters also agreed not to reveal the name or location of the base or take photos.

Fixing a howitzer, the repair team said, has been a frequent request from Ukrainian troops on the front lines. The need for help with weapons as been growing. Just a few months ago, there were just a bit more than 50 members of what they call the remote maintenance team. That will surge to 150 in the coming weeks, and the number of encrypted chat lines has more than tripled — from about 11 last fall to 38 now.

The team includes about 20 soldiers now, supplemented by civilians and contractors, but the military number may dip a bit, as more civilians come on board. And they expect it will continue to evolve as new sophisticated weapons are delivered to the Ukrainians, and new chatrooms set up to handle them.

AP News has additional information.

Category: Russia, Ukraine

21 Comments
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Anna Puma

How long before the Russians start to impersonate American service members online?

5JC

Decades ago…

Tallywhagger

John Fonda-Kerry would tell them to surrender to the communists and atone for their climate sins by remitting global climate sin tax reparations.

Anonymous

Jane should be careful around the Russians– they’ll still want to get a piece of that.
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A Proud Infidel®™

I wonder how many times she gave head to General Giap? She did say she would have done that to Che Guevara.

Anonymous

She’s gone down on everything but the Bismarck.

QMC

Ah yes, the fix the world through the internet generation. Maybe Tom Brokaw’s great grandson will write a book about them one day.

I guess you use the tools you got to get the job done. I mean, I’ve used Youtube a few times to do a job here and there around the house myself.

Anonymous

Don’t think his “woke” descendent will:
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Animal

How long before this is outsourced to call centers in India?

HT3

No doubt…

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M48DAT

Finally that stay at home Helpdesk retirement job I’ve been looking for.

BennSue

Going into Season 2 of Ukraine, I’ve just lost the minimal interest I had. This show sucks. Either get new writers or something. I much preferred the Russian show Afghan Attack! from the 80s.

Army-Air Force Guy

Agree. They’ll most likely “Jump the shark” somehow, probably with nukes.

KoB

Yep. Whatcha wanna bet that Ivan considers this to already be “…in direct conflict…” AND that Ivan knows the location of these “secret bases” in Poland? Also consider that since Z Man is using US supplied weapons to kill Russians, why shouldn’t Pootin us US supplied uranium to kill Ukrainians…or Poles…or Germans…or Americans?

Good thing that the 81 million people voted Trump out of office before he got us into WWIII.

Odie

I regret I can only up vote your comment 1 time.

Maybe we could send some of those 81 million (people, not dollars) to help the Z man in his fight against the bad Russians.

rgr769

There may have been 81 million ballots with Gropey marked on them. But I doubt there were 81 million qualified legit voters.

5JC

Not hard, follow the smell of poagie bait and Copenhagen.

TopGoz

“Hello. You have reached the United States Weapons Helpline. All of our operators are busy. Please stay on the line; your call is important to us and will be answered in the order it was received.”

Or this… “ Hello. You have reached the United States Weapons Helpline. Press one for English. Press two for Spanish….”

Or: “ Hello. You have reached the United States Weapons Helpline. If this is a weapons emergency, please hang up and dial 9-1-1.”

Mike B

…..You are number 22 in queue. Then some annoying background music that gets louder, then fades in and out

President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neande

Do the US troops that are assisting the ‘Kraines get overseas hazard combat pay?

Berliner

What? They don’t have a youtuber channel for fixing howitzers? This is 2023 already!