![reaper x gon give it to ya reaper x gon give it to ya](https://img.wattpad.com/cover/99426208-288-k174690.jpg)
He kept it with the rest of his gear, and when we were called out on an operation, I took it and put it on the end of my M4 for no other reason than that I wanted to see what it would be like. For instance, on one operation I took the suppressor that one of the assaulters never used.
![reaper x gon give it to ya reaper x gon give it to ya](http://img.wennermedia.com/480-width/dmx-tattoo-zoom-ea30172b-b4d3-4ae4-889f-134e9a8ce5ad.jpg)
Some rules made more sense to me, but I went ahead and violated them anyway. Some of what we were told seemed flat-out stupid-for example, that as machine gunners we shouldn’t fire our weapons unless ABSOLUTELY necessary so as not to reveal our weapons strength. I’d wanted to be involved in combat for so long that I was always pretty impatient and had a hard time following rules. I was just glad to be a part of the in-and-out operations that involved enemy captures and kills. It was a cool time to be in the Rangers, to see how things were changing, but I can’t say that I sensed all of that at the time. Once we proved that we were capable of doing that, when the Delta Force guys were engaged in other operations we earned the right to take on more of those responsibilities. Before I was first deployed, what the Rangers were mostly doing was pulling outer security for Delta Force when they went in and did room-clearing operations. We were adapting methods that other elite units-the SEALS, Delta Force, and other Special Operations (Spec Ops) teams-were utilizing and evolving best practices as time went on. The 75th Regiment, 3rd Ranger Battalion, was undergoing a big change as we moved toward a fast-strike and small-unit strategy. Even doing that, I wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked. Everybody was doing their best to prepare us, and I was trying to pick the brains of some of the guys coming back who already had three or four deployments under their belts. I’m not trying to pin the blame on anybody else for some of my early mistakes. The coaches expect you to sit there and pay attention and learn from watching, but even that isn’t enough to prepare you for how chaotic a firefight can be. Another way to think of it is like being a rookie on a team or the underclassman who was brought up to play varsity. For that reason, a lot of what I and the other new guys did on operations was to sit in one of the vehicles we used to get to a zone and listen on the comms-our communications systems-while the more veteran guys went out and performed. Diving into the middle of hot combat isn’t the best thing for anybody-too many lives could be placed at risk. Think of it as kind of like how some people prefer to get into a body of water a bit at a time versus those who like to just dive right in.
![reaper x gon give it to ya reaper x gon give it to ya](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NxwSGFUZh5U/mqdefault.jpg)
At least in my experience, they tried to ease us into the really nasty shit. The higher-ups seemed to understand how important it was for us to have on-job training and how hard it was to simulate that in an exercise.
![reaper x gon give it to ya reaper x gon give it to ya](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31JjPv+7KpL._AC_UY218_.jpg)
Forgive my play on the word “fluid,” considering that some of what I was experiencing on that operation-the fatigue and some of the disorientation and foggy thinking-was due to dehydration. Back stateside, we could sit there and have things drawn up for us on paper, but what I learned in that first deployment was that things are sometimes a lot more fluid out on the battlefield. It’s also important to understand that in those early years of the conflict, we were all learning a lot about urban warfare. I mean, I sat through them and I understood the information and the strategies that were being discussed, but a lot of times that didn’t translate when it came time to perform during an operation while I was downrange in Iraq. I know that there were some other guys that I went through various training program with who benefited from watching PowerPoint presentations, but I really didn’t. I mean no disrespect when I say this, but because of that, I often felt like much of the time I spent back in the States doing classwork assignments was a waste. BAND OF BROTHERS PLAYS AT THE HOTEL PARTY