Interested in hearing from those of you who served...apparently his unit got pinned down and he walked out there to draw fire away from them.. <object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rLHU-_OhT8g?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rLHU-_OhT8g?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
I hate war but I admire men like this who fight it. I have heard from soldiers from a few different wars and from different countries that when you are out there fighting things like ideology and patriotism don't matter as much as fighting for your brothers in arms. How many of us in our peacetime lives would think about walking out in the open while bullets where flying to draw fire from your friends but things like this happen every day on the field of battle.
I found the comments from former military members on reddit about this video particularly interesting.
Okay........I have absolutely NO military training whatsoever, but it was frustrating for me to watch. In the absence of proper training, surely there has to be a common sense factor. People are shooting at you. ****ing move your ass and find some ****ing cover!
Its hard to operate your common sense when people are shooting at you. That's why they do all that training so they can just react to the situation like its 2nd nature.
As someone who made it out of omaha beach in under five minutes earning the gold star in MOH frontline, I can say that I agree with the dude from reddit. What was he thinking!
I admit to having no military training but I was under the impression he had exposed himself to try to draw fire away from his team.
Yeah I read the criticism, but have no military training/background either, so I wanted to hear from others. Probably a case of a soldier trying too hard to do a good thing and got away from their training.
No, they are pretty much spot on. Being trained in the Marine Corps infantry myself, i gotta say most branches should learn this stuff in basic before even taking it to the next level in infantry school. When i first started watching the video, i thought it was some special forces dude. Turns out he just likes to look high speed. Glad he's okay. We need to get these dudes back home.
I was in the Army, but with no special infantry training. But even still, my highly-decorated drill sergeants from Vietnam taught me enough to know the Army does not want their cover fire to go solo like that. I was going to post earlier that the guy clearly isn't trained in standard infantry tactics, or he blew off his training to go Rambo. But then I thought I'd get flamed. Glad the two Marines from Reddit chimed in with some sanity. He can draw fire another way. And he's not helping anyone out when he got hit. I swear; he must have made that idiotic decision to leave his position and expose himself, because he was wearing a helmet cam and he was thinking of glory. the obligatory: I'm grateful he wasn't seriously injured.
Imagine if that helmet cam was from a Taliban soldier trying to draw fire from assaulting US Marines. We'd be laughing our asses off. [in Indian/Afghan accent] "Oh no. I have been shot. I think I am hurt. I think I am bleeding. It's spurting now. Yes, yes, I have been shot. oohh...I have been shot, again. That one hurt. Ouch. Hey Friends...I have been shot very much now. No one seems to answer me Let me put my turban on that wound. ooh, I feel faint. What are those stars I am seeing. I miss my goat.
When you first get shot at, your heart goes 1000 miles an hour. After a while, you get used to it. I've taken a **** during a firefight beside my truck. I remember the first time was like black hawk down or some crazy war movie, the last time, eh, their aim sucks and I wasn't worried. Half the time I didn't even wear my flak jacket.
