Marine Makes Insurgents Pay the Price [rquoter] November 18, 2008 Marine Corps News|by Cpl. James M. Mercure FARAH PROVINCE, Afghanistan — In the city of Shewan, approximately 250 insurgents ambushed 30 Marines and paid a heavy price for it. Shewan has historically been a safe haven for insurgents, who used to plan and stage attacks against Coalition Forces in the Bala Baluk district. The city is home to several major insurgent leaders. Reports indicate that more than 250 full time fighters reside in the city and in the surrounding villages. Shewan had been a thorn in the side of Task Force 2d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force Afghanistan throughout the Marines’ deployment here in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, because it controls an important supply route into the Bala Baluk district. Opening the route was key to continuing combat operations in the area. “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.” The vicious attack that left the humvee destroyed and several of the Marines pinned down in the kill zone sparked an intense eight-hour battle as the platoon desperately fought to recover their comrades. After recovering the Marines trapped in the kill zone, another platoon sergeant personally led numerous attacks on enemy fortified positions while the platoon fought house to house and trench to trench in order to clear through the enemy ambush site. “The biggest thing to take from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they’re given the opportunity to fight,” the sniper said. “A small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and embarrassed them in their own backyard. The insurgents told the townspeople that they were stronger than the Americans, and that day we showed them they were wrong.” During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the eight-hour battle for Shewan in order to kill any enemy combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the Marines in the kill zone. What made his actions even more impressive was the fact that he didn’t miss any shots, despite the enemies’ rounds impacting within a foot of his fighting position. “I was in my own little world,” the young corporal said. “I wasn’t even aware of a lot of the rounds impacting near my position, because I was concentrating so hard on making sure my rounds were on target.” After calling for close-air support, the small group of Marines pushed forward and broke the enemies’ spirit as many of them dropped their weapons and fled the battlefield. At the end of the battle, the Marines had reduced an enemy stronghold, killed more than 50 insurgents and wounded several more. “I didn’t realize how many bad guys there were until we had broken through the enemies’ lines and forced them to retreat. It was roughly 250 insurgents against 30 of us,” the corporal said. “It was a good day for the Marine Corps. We killed a lot of bad guys, and none of our guys were seriously injured.”[/rquoter]
Damn, that sounds like a movie waiting to get made or something. Awesome. Does this belong in D&D though? Whats to debate?
It's a trrrraaaaapp Post that you're skeptical about the story (20 kills, no misses?), you get called a cynical anti-American who has betrayed their country. Bring to mind the fact that the Marine Corps took a significant and stupid risk (sending a numerically inferior force to what they KNEW was an infested nest of insurgents...this isn't Battlefield 2, you don't win medals for 10:1 kill ratios.), and you are labeled as being someone who hates the troops. Point out that there is no reference to civilian casualties or collateral damage despite the fact that this took place in a friggin city, and you get tarred and feathered. ...Seriously, why is this in D&D?
:covering fire: That's strange. 250 men to carry out an ambush is way too many men. Usually ambushes are 20- 30 men, unless there was a mistake in the story's opening line. I think they meant... 30 marines ambushed 250 insurgents. If the mistake was intentional, then i classify this as propaganda.
basso, you are so pathetic. A good OP and you blow your own thread by saying something stupid like this. I guess that was your plan to start with.
You know, this thread is symbolic of the Bush administration and their supporters... take some good news from a crappy situation, embellish it, use it as a political bludgeon. It also highlights a basic problem: thinking people can't take the military's word for anything after Lynch and Tillman, yet if you offer the slightest skepticism, you're branded a traitor. Unthinking people have to take it as gospel (otherwise their constructed pretend reality craters) and every piece of skepticism is perceived as an affront to America and a personal repudiation of their belief system. It's at the point where nothing can be celebrated because you never know if you're being manipulated.
Well, it's pretty obvious the only time basso gives props to the military is when he's using them as a tool to bait his bbs mousetraps. I was just taking the high road with him over his obvious BS. Giving him a chance to say "Hey, you know what? You're right. This is a hangout topic, because we're all Americans here and we all support our troops and wish them the best. I'm sorry I've been such a tool in the past, Donny, will you ever forgive me?"
the responses in this thread are rather hilarious. ah.well, if the foo ****s, i suppose. and if anyone has an example of a movie about american soldiers, made in the past 30 years, that doesn't involve WW2, and paints them in a favorable doesn't have to be heroic) light, then i'm all ears. not that that was what this thread was intended to be about...
I know - who would have thought that five years and thousands of posts of you intentionally acting like a moron (some of the greatest of which came in the last election cycle in which you started literally hundreds of threads in less than a year) in order to make yourself radioactive as humanly possible on this BBS would have resulted in eventual success. Congratulations! But that's not all you win! You are trying to turn this thread into some weird blacklisting crusade about Hollywood not making enough pro-war movies on the exact same night, at the exact same time, that a Generation:Kill marathon is showing on HBO2. You rule man, you rule.
