Ezekiels Islamic Chapter 11
by Doomer Doug

Ezekiel was impressed not only by Gog's mobility, but by the sheer number of troops under his command. Gomer alone will contribute millions of troops and multiple thousands of tanks, armored personnel carriers and trucks. We're going to look at the military forces of the Fourth Reich, troop totals, military vehicles and types of units, in a little detail. After that, we'll use the knowledge gained to describe the larger group called "Gog's Horde."

The term "Gog's Horde" applies to military forces with three distinct groupings. Gog's total forces will be composed of independent military formations from first, the Fourth Reich; second, Magog with Beth Togarmah; third, Persia with her allies. We're really talking about the military mobilization of Germany and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Ukraine, North, West and East Africa, plus the Islamic Middle East from the Mediterranean to the Indus River. Gog's horde will be the largest military force ever assembled for a single campaign in western history. You'd have to mobilize China and India to get bigger numbers.1

In order to get a benchmark for so strong a statement we need to compare the size of Gog's Horde with the U.S. military planned for 1994. Currently, the U.S. Army has 14 divisions and a strength of 600,000 people. Effective October 1, 1993, fiscal year 1994, army divisions will be cut to 12 and total strength will dip to around 500,000 people.2 The Fourth Reich's mobile ground forces will exceed our entire army. Their Blitzkrieg Group, combined with the mobile infantry reserve, will total over 500,000 men. Gomer is Gog's finger; the total horde is the fist encased in a steel glove.

Some idea of the Fourth Reich's military muscle, and a hint of the massive size of Gog's Horde, can be gleaned from a closer look at Hitler's Third Reich. The German army of WW 2, the Wehrmacht, was justly feared for its blitzkrieg tactics based upon Genghis Khan's mobile cavalry tactics.3 What many people don't realize is that most German infantry, called Landser, walked into combat. The German army also used horses, 600,000 in Russia alone, in the movement of supplies and troops. For instance, most German artillery was pulled by horses until the end of the war.4

The impression given of Hitler's army as a mechanized whirlwind is only partially correct. Germany's military success in WW 2 was based upon a core of tank and motorized units, called Panzers and Panzergrenadiers, integrated together and operating independently of the foot and horse powered Landser infantry. The Landser were constantly trying to keep up with the rapidly advancing motorized spearheads.5

This military principle will be the foundation of Gog's horde. Gog, like Hitler before him, will deploy an army segmented into modern motorized forces capable of rapid movement, with the great mass of troops carried by train or plane to a point near Israel. The first group will be combined tank and motorized infantry units, capable of moving 30-50 miles per day. The bulk will either walk or ride horses into Israeli territory from the nearest railhead or airport.6

The first group we'll label Panzer, Panzergrenadier and Motorized Assault Infantry. The second group we'll call basic infantry, foot sloggers, what we used to call grunts in our armor battalion.7 This group will also include the much discussed horse cavalry of Ezekiel. These are the basic classifications we'll use throughout the rest of the book for clarity, although you could offer a more precise definition of motorized if you wanted to.

For you military purists, motorized to us means riding in the back of a truck to a point near battle and then climbing out and fighting. Mechanized on the other hand, means riding in a vehicle capable of fighting in a battle, called an armored personnel carrier. We will combine these two and come up with the general term motorized infantry.8 The key is rapid mobility using the internal combustion engine.

However, the military forces available to the Fourth Reich and Gog will be unlike WW 2's in several important ways. The first is that they will use technology unavailable during WW 2. The most obvious example being air cavalry units carried by helicopter. While air cavalry is really just a foot soldier leaping out of a helicopter, it still is a type of military unit only hinted at during WW 2 by airborne parachute troops.

The second important difference is that many of the troop and supply transportation methods have become more effective. Airplanes in particular are much more useful than their WW 2 ancestors. The use of helicopters for moving things is an example of a new military technology available to Gog. The use of modern airplanes is an example of an enhanced technology available to Gog. Larger numbers of troops and supplies can be moved farther and faster by a C-130 than a DC-3.9

While the role of logistics and resupply has generally been relegated to a lesser status than actual combat, they are just heads and tails of a quarter. Gog's Horde will be rendered quite useless after 24 hours if it cannot be resupplied. For instance, the combat load of a U.S. soldier is 400 rounds of M-16 ammo, roughly 1/2 ammo box. Gomer alone will have to get to his forward forces at least one quarter million boxes of rifle ammo per day. When you add in fuel, food and all other types of supplies and munitions, a logistics effort of massive proportions is involved. Just keep this in mind: the support ratio, tooth to tail as we used to call it, for the U.S military was 10 to 1 in Vietnam.10 Gog's Horde represents the tip of a tentacle stretching forth from Central Asia, the Mid East and Eastern Europe.

THE FOURTH REICH'S FIELD ARMY: NUMBERS

The Fourth Reich will send a total of five million men to help Gog invade Israel. This is based upon the 180 division, 4 million man German army which invaded Russia in June, 1941.11 The other million will come from Greater Serbia and the Ethnic Hungarian Empire. The bulk of these will be lightly armed basic infantry: assault rifles, light machine guns, anti-tank weapons and light mortars. As a general principle, we'll use the Third Reich's military prowess in June, 1941 as the source of our estimates. This base point is weaker than Nazi strength in June, 1940 in several key areas, armor and aircraft, while being stronger in basic infantry.

However, in keeping with our conservative spirit we feel it is better. Once you see the numbers, you may not believe this. The relevant numbers are 3300 panzers or tanks, 7000 artillery pieces and 2000 aircraft. The Hungarian and Serbian Alliance will add another several thousand tanks, artillery pieces and aircraft. This gives us a total of close to 225 divisions, Germany's 180 plus 45 for her allies.

This is a conservative estimate based upon historical data and our best guess. This is a position we'll cling to with a passion in the pages ahead. We're trying to not only give a reasonable account of the numbers involved with Gog's Horde, but also explain the math and process we used to get them. Sensationalism and hysteria have no place in a book on Bible Prophecy. If you want hype, turn on the talk shows.

THE FOURTH REICH'S ARMOR CORPS

The Fourth Reich will deploy 4000 tanks divided into 10 divisions of 400 tanks each.12 The crews will be either 3 men or 4 men depending on whether a human is used to load the 120mm shell. We'll split the difference and give a numerical value of 3.5, giving us 14,000 men( 4000 x 3.5). Based upon the author's experience, the basic unit of these divisions will be a battalion of three tank companies and one HQ and one combat support company. The battalion will have a total of fifty tanks, or 17 per company. To this will be added another fifty support vehicles in the HQ and combat support company.

The total strength of the armor battalion will be 100 vehicles and 500 men. Each armor company will have 80 men, the HQ company has 140 men and the CSC has 120 men. HQ will have the following sections: medical, transportation, supply, cooks, intelligence, communications and administrative support. Combat Support contains field radar, hand held anti aircraft missiles, mechanized recon and heavy 105mm mortars. Gomer's 4000 tanks will equal 80 U.S. Army tank battalions containing 500 men and 100 vehicles each. The total combat armor strength will be 40,000 men and 8,000 military vehicles.

MILITARY FORCE STRUCTURE

The smallest part of any infantry unit is called a squad, with the next biggest being named a platoon. The basic infantry squad has between ten and fifteen men.13 An average infantry platoon has approximately 75 men. The squad and platoon are the building blocks of the military unit called a company. An infantry company contains three platoons, 225 men. The company is the foundation unit for battalions, brigades and divisions.

An infantry battalion is also structured like the armor battalion discussed earlier. This gives us three combat companies, one HQ and one combat support company. An infantry battalion may drop the combat support company and add an extra infantry company. We're still looking at between 900 to 1100 men at full strength. We'll say 1000 to keep the math easy.

A combat brigade has 6,000 men and is used to form the 18,000 man division. Three or four divisions are then linked together to form what is known as an Army Corps, roughly 50,000 to 75,000 men. The final and largest military formation is the Army Group, containing between 175,000 and 250,000 men. We'll also split the difference giving us a combat strength of 225,000 soldiers. These unit names and troop numbers will be what we use to classify Gog's Horde.

These are not absolute since armor, artillery and some other types of units have different names and numbers of troops. There are many variations between different armies and countries in unit names and sizes. For instance, a British regiment is about the same size as our infantry battalion. The most important difference, in terms of this book, is that a Russian infantry division only has 14,000 men.14 We make no claim to being a military expert. All we're trying to do is give some guiding principles and a general idea of the basic force structure of Gog's Horde. The goal is simply to give some idea of the names, types and sizes of military units involved.

The infantry divisions combined with the armor corps will be just as mobile as the tanks. This means these soldiers will be driven into battle in one of two ways: tracked armored personnel carrier or 2 and 1\2 ton motor truck. We'll combine these two for clarity into motorized infantry.15 The first way is for combat infantrymen to be carried into battle inside an APC, or "track." These tracked vehicles use the same tread system as a bulldozer does. They are the remote offspring of WW 2's half tracked troop transports. In our era we used the M-113 APC, now replaced by the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The advantage of track tread over tires lies in its ability to move around under field conditions. Wheeled vehicles do best on asphalt pavement, or at least dry and hard ground. While we've personally seen army trucks drive through muddy ruts resembling Loch Ness, tracked vehicles are preferred for the field.16

Tracks have a driver and a gunner and are designed to carry between eight and twelve fully equipped soldiers. For simplicity we'll round this off to fifteen men and five tracks per platoon of 75 men. Since there are three platoons per company, we've a minimum of fifteen APC's per company. Our hypothetical infantry battalion will deploy 45-60 APC's carrying between 700-900 soldiers. Our mechanized infantry battalion could have 60 tracks, plus the military vehicles from its HQ company. It could also have either fifteen APC's from an extra infantry company, or the vehicles from a combat support company. We're looking at 60 APC's plus 40 support vehicles from the HQ company. Or we could be looking at 45 tracks and 80 support vehicles in the HQ and CSC companies. Either way, we have approximately 100 vehicles and 1000 men per Panzergrenadier mechanized battalion.

We'll make little attempt to offer a precise "number" indicating Gog's strength. Instead, we'll attempt to offer an approximation, based upon historical data, our own experience and analysis; then, let you make up your own mind. We've no idea what the precise mix of forces will be. This lack of knowledge limits our accuracy. We could be off by 10 or 20%. However, our estimates represent minimum combat forces as we see it. This is the best we can do.

Still, even our low ball estimates involve numbers of troops and vehicles which caused a short, but intense, depression. We'll average the Panzergrenadier battalion at 100 military vehicles, giving us 600 at the brigade level. The Army Corps of three or four divisions gives us either 5,400 or 7,200 military vehicles. The 225,000 soldier Army Group, assuming it's entirely mechanized, will deploy a staggering 22,500 vehicles of all types. This is 7,200 x 3 army corps of 72,000 men =21,600, plus 900 vehicles to get us from 216,000 men to 225,000.

The other way to move large numbers of soldiers rapidly is by 2 and 1\2 ton motor truck. This is the classical motorized rifle infantry, versus the mechanized discussed above. The truck of choice in the U.S. Army is called a "deuce and a half" for some reason.17 The 5 ton truck is used for fuel and supply movement. Assuming the male American statistical average of 150 pounds, 5'9" height, plus an infantry combat load of 50 pounds(rifle, backpack with rations and ammo etc), you come up with 20 soldiers and a gross weight of 2 tons.18

The truck crew will be a driver and fifty caliber machine gunner totaling 500 pounds, including weapon. This will leave Gog with 500 pounds to play with per truck. If his soldiers are heavier than ours, he can drop two and carry eighteen. Or he can pull a small trailer, or pod, containing fuel, water, supplies, power generators and a host of other specialized items, behind each truck. While this gives us 2 and 1\2 tons, we'll modify this due to personal experience.
In the real army, no one actually loads a truck at full weight for field duty, at least not more than once. The first thing to go will be the pods. We'll pull them behind the 5 ton trucks detached to the transportation section. Gog's average troop truck will then carry 20 soldiers and two crew for a total weight of 4500 pounds. This is a 90% load and will be able to be driven for long distances, especially if we factor in a convoy speed of 40mph, a change of drivers, a fuel top off, and most importantly, a bathroom break every four to six hours.19

This motorized horde will, like the Mongolians before them, be capable of rapid and continuous movement. We'll assume a total of 20 out of 24 hours actually driving. Given our convoy speed of 40mph, we come up with a motorized assault force capable of moving at least 800 miles the first day. Ezekiel's language wasn't being overly sensational.

The Fourth Reich will field a mobile army almost beyond belief. We'll admit the precise mix of forces eludes us. Our best estimate is that due to cost and history, the Fourth Reich will use motor trucks as the basic vehicle for its motorized horde. This means the first army group of 225,00 soldiers will be a mix of truck and APC borne troops.

This mobile infantry force will be combined with the Panzer Corps and several combat support army corps( self propelled howitzers, anti-aircraft and anti-armor vehicles) to form the Blitzkrieg Group. This Blitzkrieg Group will, in our opinion, be a 75% truck and 25% APC borne infantry force. In pure military jargon, it will 75% motorized and 25% mechanized.

The 25% mechanized infantry will total approximately 50,000 men being carried into battle. We'll name them the 1st Mechanized Assault Corps with a total strength of 56,000 men and 5400 military vehicles. The other 168,000 soldiers will be divided into three army corps of truck transported troops. We'll call them the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Motorized Assault Corps. They will ride into battle in the back of some 8,400 2 and 1\2 ton motor trucks. (168,000 divided by 20 =8,400) The APC and truck crew will reduce our totals to around 200,000 combat infantry soldiers. We're easily looking at 200,000 guys with assault rifles descending upon Israel. As hard as it is to believe, this is a very conservative number.

THE BLITZKRIEG GROUP

If the ratios and percentages from June 1941's Operation Barbarossa are applied to the Fourth Reich, we come to some extremely disturbing numbers. We believe the pattern of motorized and panzer divisions, within the 180 division total Wehrmacht strength for the Russian invasion, will apply to the Fourth Reich. Based upon historical data, current technology and the wealth of modern Germany, the numbers, even our conservative ones, become a nightmare.
In June, 1941 the Wehrmacht's Field Army(Feldheer) totaled four million men grouped into 180 divisions.20 Of these 180 divisions, 20 were panzer and 12 were called motorized infantry. This gives us a total of 32 divisions formed into a mobile "blitzkrieg force." Due to some technical factors we'll mercifully ignore, we'll declare a 12% ratio of armor and motorized infantry to the four million man, 180 division total.21

Which means, in our opinion, the Fourth Reich will deploy a total of ten armored divisions and twelve motorized infantry divisions. There is no compelling reason to disregard this minimum percentage. This is where we get the 200,000 plus man motorized Panzergrenadier Army Group.

We are quite safe in saying Gomer and his Fourth Reich will have an entire army group of Panzergrenadiers. This twelve division motorized infantry group will be combined with the tank and combat support units to form the Fourth Reich's "blitzkrieg group." Reflecting the Third Reich's military force structure, this blitzkrieg group will be a combined armor, mobile infantry, self-propelled artillery, anti-aircraft and anti-armor unit.22 It will be capable of rapid movement, becoming the storm front Ezekiel saw descending upon Israel.

The foundation will be the 225,000 man army group, transported in trucks and APC's, totaling close to 14,000 military vehicles. To this will be added a ten division armor corps with 8,000 vehicles and 40,000 men. Independent self-propelled howitzers, anti-aircraft and anti-armor units will add another 3,000 vehicles(600,1200;1200) and 18,000 troops(6,000, 6,000 and 6,000). The Blitzkrieg Group Ezekiel saw contained 285,000 troops and 25,000 military vehicles, formed into a lethal first strike group. As we'll see, this is only the tip of Gog's finger.

GOMER'S MOTORIZED ASSAULT RESERVE INFANTRY

The numbers can't really be given with any sense of 100% accuracy. All we can do is lay out the how and why of our estimates. It's our judgment that Gomer will have a truck borne infantry reserve located within the 800 mile range we mentioned earlier. This is strictly our opinion, since there is not a shred of historical evidence for this motorized reserve in German history. Still, based upon Germany's wealth and the advances in automotive technology since WW 2, we're comfortable in making such a radical statement. Germany can simply use the vast number of commercial trucks she possesses, or make military ones.

We believe this motorized assault reserve, or MARS, will be equal to the twelve division blitzkrieg group.23 Gog's motorized reserve can be used only after the Israeli Air Force has been neutralized. Gog must have secured the Israeli road network for some distance before he dares open movement of the 10,000 trucks. The motorized divisions will be the first wave of combat reserves pouring into the suburbs of Jaffa, Haifa and Tel Aviv. Since the distance from the Golan Heights to the Mediterranean coastline is a mere forty miles, these MARS units can be poured into Northern Israel rapidly.

We're looking at a 24 hour 1-2 punch by the Fourth Reich. The first wave of mobile infantry and armor will be augmented within 24 to 36 hours by another 200,000 combat troops. This mobile storm front will break over Israel with regularity over a several day period. Ezekiel was right; Israel will be overwhelmed by wave after wave of mobile troops. And in the distance, the great mass of infantry and armor drives through the desert towards its Dead Sea destiny.


TAKE FIVE

This is by no means an exhaustive analysis of Gomer's Blitzkrieg Army. It's simply a brief highlighting of the basics. One of these fundamental basics is the nebulous area, involving thousands of troops and fuzzy definitions, called combat support. Is a cook, Military Policeman, fuel truck driver or company clerk, a "real" soldier? We'll not touch that one, but just be aware Gomer's soldiers are the ones who either kill people directly, or provide logistic support for the guys who pull the trigger.

The actual numbers of these combat support troops is open for discussion, as are the total number of vehicles assigned to them. We've included some of them directly at the company and battalion level, but they go all the way up the chain of command. This means thousands of troops will be providing additional support at the Army Group level. Direct combat support includes truck and track crew as well as anti-aircraft, anti-armor and self-propelled howitzer vehicle crew.

Besides these, there will be indirect combat support, what's known as the rear echelon. These troops will perform duties too numerous for a detailed listing; however, some of the major duties will be supply depots, vehicle maintenance, medical hospitals, command, control and security. Farther back will be what President Eisenhower called the "military industrial complex." This will be a massive effort, involving millions of workers, producing a total economic wartime mobilization. This umbilical cord will stretch from the Ruhr Valley in Germany, to Russia's Ural Mountain military factories and depots.

The scope of military operations, the numbers of troops and vehicles, the vast amount of supplies, the surprise nature of the attack: all of these justify the language Ezekiel uses. We just wanted to offer a glimpse of the immense "behind the scenes" effort involved in providing sustenance to Gog's Horde. Ezekiel is right. The world's people will be terror stricken at seeing such forces, the modern version of Chingis Khan's Mongol Hordes, pouring into the Mid East.
FIELD ARTILLERY, ANTI-AIRCRAFT AND ANTI-ARMOR

Historically, the German and Soviet armies have relied on field artillery much more than the U.S. Army has. This is confirmed by the 7,000 artillery pieces the Wehrmacht started Operation Barbarossa with. The Soviet Army also lined up 295 field artillery pieces per kilometer(6\10th of a mile) in the siege of Berlin during April, 1945.24 Considering the Germans had a two to one ratio between horse pulled field artillery and their Panzers, artillery rates a few words. The Slovak Republic also has a historical role in large scale production of field artillery.

In the present day U.S. Army, towed field artillery is virtually extinct. The only exception being the airborne divisions 105mm mountain howitzers.25 Our artillery is primarily the self propelled behemoths, 155 or 175mm with a range of 18-20 miles. Our force structure is for 5 companies, or batteries, per battalion. Each battery has 8 self propelled howitzers with a crew of between three and ten. The confusion comes from the fast approaching day when the crew will be two, a driver and a gunner. The other battery is called a MLRS, or Multiple Launch Rocket System. This vicious weapon is a high tech version of the famous Stalin's Organ from WW 2. Stalin's Organ was a truck mounted rocket launcher with multiple tubes.26

The five batteries total forty guns and about 500 soldiers. An artillery brigade equals four battalions for a total of 2,000 soldiers and 160 weapons. A division is composed of four brigades totaling 8,000 soldiers and 640 guns. One Artillery Corps, in this case the 3rd of Fort Sill, Oklahoma and Fort Hood, Texas, equals 24,000 men and 1,920 guns.

The Fourth Reich will certainly have one division of self propelled howitzers equalling 640 guns and 6,000 crew with the Blitzkrieg Group. Using the towed field artillery to tank ratio of WW 2, we can add 8,000 artillery pieces with a total crew of 56,000 men.( 4,000 x 2= 8,000 x 7 men= 56,000 men) These other 8,000 field guns and 56,000 troops will be deployed with the regular army, or Landser. Some of these guns and troops, an unknown number, will be with the MARS group and be pulled by truck or tractor. However, here we run into Ezekiel's horses again. Based upon the use of horses in WW 2 to pull Nazi field artillery, we can say with a straight face that many thousands of horses will be used.27

The Magyar Alliance, especially the Slovak Republic, will also contribute their own field artillery forces. These will be pulled either by truck, tractor or horse. We'll arbitrarily say one division each for Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, just to keep things from getting out of hand. Our towed field artillery division will have 1,000 guns and 7,000 men. (5,000 gun crew and at least 2,000 truck, tractor or horse crew) This is a very conservative number considering Poland, The Baltic States and Finland also have their own independent artillery forces.

The minimum totals for the Fourth Reich are really quite staggering. The former nations of West and East Germany will have a total of 8,000 towed field guns. The Magyar Alliance will add a minimum total of 4,000 weapons to this. The rest of the Fourth Reich may add another 3,000 guns and 21,000 troops. The Fourth Reich will deploy between 12 and 15 thousand towed field artillery pieces crewed by between 84,000 and 105,000 troops.

As if this were not sufficient, anti-aircraft defensive weapons will be scattered in profusion throughout the Fourth Reich's military. Most of these will be mounted on a vehicle and have limited range. The most common will be heavy machine guns with multiple barrels, probably 50 caliber. There will also be 20, 40 and 76mm weapons capable of firing rapidly. The Vulcan anti-aircraft weapon of our era was a rotating six barreled 20mm Gatling Gun type machine gun. It was capable of firing 2500 rounds per minute.

The anti-aircraft artillery seen during Desert Storm will also be present in large numbers. There may be numerous anti-aircraft cannons with 3, 4, 5, or 6 inch barrels, derived from the famous Swedish "Bofors" of WW 2. There will also be large numbers of SAM's, surface to air missiles, concentrated in specific units. They will also be seeded throughout the regular army of the Fourth Reich. Any Israeli airplane attempting to strafe an advancing column will have to fly through a gauntlet of anti-aircraft fire. We'll make no attempt to even estimate the vast numbers of these forces.

If we had to pick the major differences between ancient and modern warfare, we would come up with two. The first would be mass mobility, but the second would be mass firepower. The reason Gog's invasion will unleash such destruction is this. The modern infantry squad has firepower equal to battalions of only 150 years ago. An AK-47 or M-16 assault rifle can fire more bullets in five minutes than a musket could in a week. A machine gun firing at 600 rounds a minute can, in two minutes, equal the entire firepower of a battalion's volley at Gettysburg in 1863. The list goes on and on. The point being this: Ezekiel correctly sees the massive firepower and destructive capacity of conventional weapons in use by modern armies.

Nowhere is the lethal firepower of the modern army more apparent than in the anti-aircraft and anti-armor weapons designed for the modern infantry squad. These hand held missiles have destructive power Ezekiel could have only have stared at in amazement. It was the Stinger anti-aircraft missile which drove the Soviet Air Force from the skies over Afghanistan.28 Gog's invasion will offer the bizarre specter not only of horse drawn artillery, but infantrymen using hand held missiles to destroy 30 million dollar aircraft and million dollar tanks. At any rate, anti-armor weapons of all types, mounted on all types of vehicles, will be a prominent feature of the Fourth Reich's military. The most common will be a German and Russian vehicle mounted version of our TOW(Tubed Optical Wireguided Missile), Apache Helicopter mounted Hellfire missiles and the hand held LAW(light anti-tank weapon).

AIR CAVALRY AND CLOSE AIR SUPPORT

The use of helicopters isn't a major part of the German army, at least when compared to the U.S. Army. The Russians do understand the role of helicopter assault troops, what we have named air cavalry. They use them in special units like we do, having seen their capabilities during Vietnam. Helicopters are also useful in moving small amounts of vital supplies quickly, especially in uneven terrain.29

The main limiting factor in large scale use of helicopters is their cost. A HUEY helicopter from the Vietnam era carries 12 soldiers and has a crew of three: pilot, co-pilot and M-60 door machine gunner.30 Unfortunately, it also costs a small fortune and requires a large infrastructure of supply and maintenance troops. It's also very vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire. Since Gog will need over 1000 to carry one division, they will be a small part of Gog's Horde. Certainly they will be used, playing a key role in the overall strategy of surprise attack. Due to cost, we would estimate a total strength of around 40,000 troops.31

Still, other Biblical language talking about "locusts" clearly indicates the use of helicopters in our opinion. A helicopter does look and sound a lot like an insect.32 An ancient prophet seeing combat troops leaping from a helicopter, especially if they were wearing gas masks, would describe them as a type of insect.
Ezekiel would describe the sight of Gog's 3,000 troop transporting helicopters, flying in massed formation at 5,000 feet, as a "cloud over the land." From a distance it would first sound like a horde of insects, and then appear to be a fast approaching cloud of either insects or bad weather. Since Ezekiel tells us his first vision took place at Tel Aviv, with a good part of the rest at Jerusalem, it would be logical to assume these were the places he was describing the attack on. If this is the case, we're dealing with rational speculation here, a good case can be made his language indicates air cavalry troops landing in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Helicopter borne troops would be able to be landed within minutes from bases in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Since we've personally seen Cobra helicopters doing strafing runs on a firing range, we understand what Ezekiel is hinting at. Since we grew up in the desert, we know what a fast moving desert storm front looks like also.33 Sure Ezekiel uses symbolic language, but that doesn't mean he was describing symbolic events. Ezekiel uses symbolic language to describe what he saw with his own eyes. Language and linguistics are just word symbols for tangible items. Ezekiel uses the word symbols clouds and storm fronts to describe the real things he saw. Our personal opinion is that the reality behind the symbol refers to Gog's helicopter horde fast approaching the skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Seen in this context, Ezekiel's symbols offer a precise description of what he saw.
What Ezekiel saw and heard is termed the "air umbrella." Rapidly advancing armored and motorized infantry columns creating huge dust clouds. Helicopters and low flying ground support airplanes hovering over these columns, strafing and bombing Israeli forces. In the distance, a gathering storm front of helicopters and planes Ezekiel could hear but not see clearly. Higher up at specific altitudes, would be the Mig fighter jets, providing protection from the Israeli F-16's.34
The helicopters would be the HIND attack helicopters used with such brutality in Afghanistan. The low flying airplanes would be the Russian version of Desert Storm's Warthog. Larger planes, bristling with 20 and 40mm cannons, would prowl the column's edges. Without getting buried in technology, we can understand what Ezekiel saw and heard. More importantly, we can see why he used the symbols he did. There should be no doubt he is accurately describing a modern field army advancing under an air umbrella.

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