Chris' Deployment Journal

A view into an 1114, from the right rear 'JAFO' seat. Note my SAW in the middle of the photo and the limited leg/foot room. The gunner's legs are in the center of the shot, ammo for his 240 machine gun behind his feet. Note also the wood and foam homemade seat hanging on the strap behind his knees calves. That's what he gets to sit on when we drive around. Not comfy.

But for all their ability and toughness, Humvees are certainly not comfortable. They can carry up to five, including driver, a gunner who alternately stands/squats up in the armored copula, TC or 'truck commander', and two dismounted guys or JAFO's (Just Another Freakin' Observer). And when you load up a truck with five guys, their gear, sometimes a cooler for water (crucial when it's 110+ degrees out), a combat load of ammo for whatever machine gun is mounted on the truck (often a .50 caliber heavy machine gun), two large radios, often a Blue Force Tracker system (like a GPS on steroids that maps out the local terrain and pinpoints other friendly forces for you), and the occasional bag of toys and candy to throw to Iraqi kids, and it can get real cramped real quick.

Passenger comfort is last on the list of things they build into the Humvee and getting in/out while wearing sometimes up to 80-pounds of gear and weapon (especially my SAW and more so at night when you have your Night Observation Device mounted on your helmet) is tough. What padding the seats have is thin, there is little leg (or even foot) room in the back, and often there are components near by that get very hot. The TC, for example, actually sits on top of where the two batteries go, so his seat actually heats up. His left leg and the driver's right leg are right next to hot components too, so they get hot. Not good in a hot environment like this. One good idea on paper was to put mounts for M16's throughout the vehicle. This was a good idea on paper only though because the M4 carbines that we now carry are too short to fit into the mounts (and my SAW is too long and fat) so the metal plates that make up the mounts just get in the way of your feet as you try to step in/out of the truck.

In the end though, we spend many hours in the trucks (a few times we even had to sleep in them) and while definitely not comfortable and not about to win any awards for aesthetic design, they have earned our utmost respect and prove time and time again that they are 'one tough truck.'