Military.com has the story…
“The day started out with a 10-kilometer patrol with elements mounted and dismounted, so by the time we got to Shewan, we were pretty beat,” said a designated marksman who requested to remain unidentified. “Our vehicles came under a barrage of enemy RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and machine gun fire. One of our ‘humvees’ was disabled from RPG fire, and the Marines inside dismounted and laid down suppression fire so they could evacuate a Marine who was knocked unconscious from the blast.”
God bless the Marines, and thank God they are on our side.
Well done, gentlemen!
Thanks Kate for posting that. It’s nice to hear of those who follow in Hathcocks footsteps.
Good on ya’ guys!! Semper Fi
Pat
It’s going to be sweet to see BO announcing an Afstan surge under the direction of (betray us) Patreaus – the Daily KOS crowd will be suffering a collective aneurysm over it.
Semper Fi dude!
The description of the events is unfair, not balanced and blatantly pro-American, as it describes a “vicious” attack by insurgents. All attacks by insurgents on American forces shall heretofore be characterized with adjectives such as “freedom-loving”, “nice-spirited” or “stalwart in the face of evil”.
I have always believed that if our side was allowed to fight as if we were actually in a war, we would have won years ago. Instead our fighters have to pussyfoot around so our liberals and peace activists don’t scream to loud. Stories like this are great.
Give that man a Bronze Star, at the least.
20 shots, 20 kills.
Not often a designated hitter bats 1.00.
I want him on my side.
Like most admirable heroes, humble.
20 shots,20 kills.Was this soldier trained by JTF2?
H. Ryan, he is not a “soldier”, he is a Marine. Call any Marine a soldier and you will be told in no uncertain terms that he/she is a Marine. Esprit de Corps isn’t just a phrase.
(And believe it or not, there are other military organizations in the world besides the CF and its JTF2 whose members have been well trained in small arms use. It’s practically a religion in the US Marine Corps, where every Marine, male and female, is a Rifleman first, then whatever other military specialty second.
The Corps has three levels of rifle marksmanship. In Marine boot camp, all boots -men and women – must meet at least the first level, “qualified”; the next two levels are “Sharpshooter” and “Marksman”. All Marines must re-qualify annually. Marines in combat units wishing to be a “designated marksman” must re-qualify, meeting the highest level, the “Marksman” standard. And this young Corporal -20 shots/20 kills, while under fire for 8 hours- hasn’t even had the benefit of the USMC Sniper School, in Quantico, Va!)
For an excellent read on a marine corp sniper,s tour of duty in Veitnam, read Dear Mom by Joseph T. Ward. Great book.
Dave in Pa….Sorry,didn’t mean to offend.I was with the Airborne Regiment for ten years and had many joint exercises with the Marines and have nothing but respect for them.
Living in BC I say “joint exercises” with no pun intended.
This was too good to not pass on:
Subject: AIRSPACE VIOLATION PROTOCOL
According to a Marine Pilot:
In addition to communicating with the local Air Traffic Control facility, all aircraft in the Persian Gulf AOR are required to give the Iranian Air Defense Radar (military) a ten minute ‘heads up’ if they will be transiting Iranian airspace.
This is a common procedure for commercial aircraft and involves giving them your call sign, transponder code, type aircraft, and points of origin and destination.
I just flew with a guy who overheard this conversation on the VHF Guard (emergency) frequency 121.5 MHz while flying from Europe to Dubai. It’s too good not to pass along. The conversation went something like this…
Air Defense Radar: ‘Unknown aircraft at (location unknown), you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself.’
Aircraft: ‘This is a United States aircraft. I am in Iraqi airspace.’
Air Defense Radar: ‘You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace we will launch interceptor aircraft!’
Aircraft: ‘This is a United States Marine Corps FA-18 fighter. Send ’em up, I’ll wait!’
Air Defense Radar: (no response … total silence)
Semper Fi