This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Real Soldiers

  • Yeah But…

    Been wrestling with this for a coupla days.

    At the outset: A disclaimer… I was never a SPECWAR sailor. Hell,  I had never even heard of SEALS before I was discharged. Knew about the UDTs, even did some diving with them on Guam. Further, I am NOT qualified to discuss current tactics in ANY current theater.

    With that out of the way…
    Full story of SEAL mission in question

    When the third chopper — carrying 38 passengers and crew, and one dog, in a reinforcement known as an “immediate reaction force” — approached, a small group of Taliban on a rooftop stood ready. They fired rounds of rocket-propelled grenades. One clipped a rotary blade, sending the CH-47 into a violent spin and then a fiery crash.

    All onboard died, including 17 elite Navy SEALs.

    We all know the story… or do we?

    Jonn’s earlier post alluded to what the article describes. Wherein command makes a decision that get’s someone killed, etc.

    The kicker for me:

    At some point, the Rangers and special-operations commanders talked about sending in reinforcements to catch them all. A mission was set, at first with 17 troops, then a total of 38, including SEALs, other Navy personnel, Afghan commandos and the air crew.

    “We really just kind of talked the idea of inserting the element to maneuver on them, the enemy that got away,” the Army Ranger task force commander later told Gen. Colt.

    As the reinforcement Chinook approached, it — unlike the first two choppers — had no AH-64 Apaches for surveillance or fire suppression.

    YMMV, but please DO take the time to read the whole thing.  The NCA and the Brass Hats have been doing this sort of thing forever.  It would be different if there were an immediate threat, but this just reeks.

     

  • Horse Soldiers of 9/11

    The Daily Caller‘s David Martosko sent us a link to their video “Horse Soldiers” the story of the four Special Forces soldiers who led the assault into Afghanistan after 9/11/2001;

  • Deployment yearbook for the 101st during Desert Shield/Storm.

    Back in July I managed to get a hold of a deployment yearbook for the 101st during the Gulf War. There are too many photos to upload but if anyone has any requests I will see if I can find that photo and post/email them.

  • AF Combat controller earns Bronze and Silver Stars

    The Fayetteville Observer tells the story of Air Force Staff Sgt. Cecil Caleb Gilbreath a combat controller attached to a Special Forces unit who twice called in airstrikes “danger close” eo his own position, turning the tides of battle and earning himself Bronze and Silver Stars;

    On Nov. 2, 2009, Gilbreath, a team of Green Berets from Fort Bragg’s 3rd Special Forces Group and soldiers from the Afghanistan National Army were ambushed by 30 enemy fighters. Gilbreath called in bomb strikes to take out the insurgents.

    Three days later, Gilbreath’s team was clearing a village occupied by an estimated 120 Taliban and foreign fighters, according to the citation.

    “As bullets and shrapnel impacted his vehicle from all directions and the enemy closed on his team’s position, Sergeant Gilbreath directed two immediate … strafing runs against insurgent fighters just 30 feet from his position,” the citation reads. “These attacks suppressed the nearest threats, but did little to deter the enemy force.”

    For the next hour, without regard for his own safety, Gilbreath called in eight more air strikes, turning the tide in the battle and allowing his team to defeat the enemy without a single casualty, according to the citation.

    Of course, Gilbreath clams he was just doing his job, but I think the men whose lives he saved might describe his actions differently.

  • Doughboy Awardees

    Three infantrymen were awarded the Doughboy Award for outstanding contributions to the U.S. Army Infantry according ot the Columbus, GA Ledger;

    Retired Command Sgt. Maj. William H. Acebes is a veteran of multiple combat assignments including Vietnam and Grenada, and was a 2003 inductee into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame. A member of the original training cadre for the 75th Ranger Regiment, Acebes later served as the Infantry Center command sergeant major at Fort Benning. When he retired from active duty, Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., saluted his 30-year Army career on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

    Retired Gen. Edward S. “Shy” Meyer, who commanded the first air cavalry divisions in Vietnam, served two tours of duty in which he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism and the Silver Star for gallantry.

    The third Doughboy Award recipient is likewise an American hero. The difference: Joe Galloway has never been a soldier. But like the late Charlie Black, whose Vietnam dispatches in the Ledger and Enquirer newspapers were “must” reading, especially for Army families, Galloway was more than just an observer.

    You know Joe Galloway if you’ve seen the movie “We Were Soldiers” or read the book “We Were Soldiers Once And Young”. You might not know CSM Acebes, but I know him too well. He was my first squad leader, oh so many years and miles ago.

    The night I retired and left Fort Benning for the last time, I was fortunate enough to bump into him at the Benning PX and tell him how much he’d influenced my career. His response? “You drank that much beer?”

  • A Good Deed, Rewarded

    Mail it, he said.

    No, the Army said. We’re coming out.

    Midst all the fakes and wannabes comes THIS story.

    He’s learned a lot in his two deployments to Afghanistan. He witnessed abject poverty, with people living in mud huts. And he witnessed the fragility of life, with buddies dying from Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs.

    “The stress level is there,” he says about patrols. “You have to turn off your emotions when you’re out there.”

    That’s what he did when word crackled over the radio that a vehicle had flipped into the river. Blain sprinted to the scene, shedding gear as he ran. In the distance he saw the wheels of a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected armored fighting vehicle — or MRAP — sticking out of the water.

    Read the whole story… It’s worth the few minutes it takes.  And he jumped out of perfectly good aircraft!

  • The Burn Pit on Charles P. Murray Jr., Marneman

    Charles P Murray

    I know I wrote about him yesterday, but some guy named Mothax at The Burn Pit wrote a tribute to Charles P. Murray Jr., the Marneman who earned the Medal of Honor. He spelled his name right and everything, so this is my penance for screwing that up yesterday.

    I think Mothax wants you guys to comment profusely over there to inflate his ego.

  • Marine veteran and San Diego cop Jeremy Henwood

    Just back from Afghanistan, Marine Corp Reserve Captain Jeremy Henwood was killed by a nut while in his police car. In this LA Times link from ROS, 3000 fellow officers attended his funeral this week;

    Henwood, a captain in the Marine reserves, had just rejoined the Police Department after a deployment to Afghanistan. He had also made two combat deployments to Iraq.

    Police Capt. Lawrence McKinney, commander of the Mid-City Division where Henwood served, said that he “went boldly into harm’s way, knowing full well that he might not come back someday.”

    McKinney, his voice breaking with emotion, urged the crowd to remember Henwood’s courage rather than “the cowardly act of one lost soul,” a reference to Dejon Marquee White, 23, Henwood’s assailant.

    Tman sends this video of Henwood’s final act before he was murdered in which he touched the life of one small boy;