{"id":35303,"date":"2013-04-26T11:43:01","date_gmt":"2013-04-26T15:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=35303"},"modified":"2013-04-26T11:45:11","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T15:45:11","slug":"camp-bastion-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=35303","title":{"rendered":"Camp Bastion, Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last September, the Taliban staged an attack on USMC aviation assets<\/a><\/strong> at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.\u00a0 Fifteen Taliban insurgents infiltrated the perimeter, then attacked with RPGs and small arms.\u00a0 Two Marines – Lt. Col. Christopher Raible and Sgt. Bradley Atwell \u00a0\u2013 were killed during that attack; 9 other coalition personnel were wounded.\u00a0 Six aircraft were destroyed.\u00a0 Heroic action on the part of the first defenders on the scene prevented both greater loss of life and materiel.<\/p>\n

However, now questions have been raised about just how well prepared Camp Bastion was to counter ground infiltration immediately prior to the attack.\u00a0 And it also appears that the answers to those questions are, well, troubling.<\/p>\n

Some background:\u00a0 Camp Bastion is a British-run installation in Helmand province.\u00a0 It is adjacent to Camp Leatherneck \u2013 the main USMC installation in the area.<\/p>\n

Camp Leatherneck does not have an airfield suitable for Harrier operations; Camp Bastion does.\u00a0 Therefore, USMC Harrier assets \u2013 as well as a number of Marines \u2013 are stationed on Camp Bastion.<\/p>\n

As a British-run installation, perimeter security at Camp Bastion was the responsibility of British forces. \u00a0Taliban forces penetrated the base perimeter to conduct the attack.<\/p>\n

There were apparently some significant . . . known issues regarding perimeter security at Camp Bastion prior the night of the attack.\u00a0 Specifically,<\/p>\n