Posted on 10/24/2017 4:27:14 PM PDT by markomalley
That was because, until fairly recently, the Navy recruited SEALs from the fleet. Their sailors retained their original rates. They may still do some of that, but from what I've been reading they are recruiting special operators now, so it's a rating unto itself.
SF do not wear rates on sleeves and it STUNS me that Joe Biden fingered Seal Team 6 who I am sure no longer exist by that name other than for books and movies.
The VP got a bunch of guys dead
When I was in Libya/Tunisia 30+ years ago Ghadaffi et all were doing nasty stuff blowing up GI’s and the graffiti featured a cartoon chicken with a “boom” that said “kill an arab”
Little has changed except Europe is giving up and the Roman ruins in Libya (the best in the world) have been destroyed by ISIS
The French feel a lot of guilt for Algeria, but are a tad smarter than Spain who does not remember Andulacia
In all of the postings here on this subject I ‘n pointing out the need to always include a contingent of rotary wing air support even it’s only one armed helicopter for backup which is flexible enough to cover the requirements for the assigned mission which can be serviced by a minimum of crew at the assigned location. That serve can as scout and standby support.
'When the Green Berets in Africa were ambushed, help was dispatched immediately; French Mirage jets were overhead within one hour—30 minutes after being scrambled.'
That time line has changed. The oda waited/or couldn't report the ambush for a hour. Support arrived a hour later. Two hours after contact.
We may never know.
I won’t cast shadows on the men there
What we do know is Wilson made this a political fire storm and she is full of shit
Wilson, the Widow, the Mother, 3 others just happened to be in on the presidents call....Mmmmmkay..
reg’lar everyday stuff LOL
Then we all unloaded on him for no other reason than he was an ahole
When was the last time you all took a personal call on speaker phone?
I don’t take any calls on speaker phone, you can hear the diff and you say am I am on speaker phone?
Who is there?
The president did not realize LOL
Meyaisha, and Wilson are Lying thier asses off.
We All Know it.
My regards still go out to La David
In all of the postings here on this subject I’ve been ‘pointing out the need to always include a contingent of rotary wing air support. Rven if it’s only one armed helicopter for backup which is flexible enough to cover the requirements for the assigned mission which can be serviced by a minimum of crew at the assigned location. That can serve as scout and standby support even supply,and transport . Stuff drones can’t do but also house the drone driver.
True. But they were in an advisory role, no?
That’s what I’ve heard - but clearly they were in the middle of the real thing and didn’t make it.
I know that as Green Berets that they we highly trained but combat training - and combat itself - is very different from the training needed for advising that is their primary mission.
The question I have is why a team would be sent long distance without combat experienced NCOs guiding them. It’s not like we have any shortage of Iraq and Afghanistan vets! An experienced guy makes sure that flank security is out, potential ambush sites are avoided, what terrain works for you and against you, has a fire support plan with assets planned for and targets on call and to plan for and practice immediate action against ambushes.
I wish I could’ve been there for them.
Let me get this right - it’s not right to deploy someone who has never had combat experience/contact with hostile forces to an are where there are hostile forces......maybe they need to train against antifa folks so they are seasoned before their first confrontations - gotta get that first experience somewhere...
Now we find out that the Nigerien soldiers (which if they are at like Nigerian soldiers are totally worthless) wanted to stop at a village along the way to eat. Then we find out that the village Chief stalled everyone there very obviously and that two young men on motorcycles observed everyone and then sped off.
Just how many warnings of an impending ambush are needed? Why didn't they request that drone while they were still loitering in that village? On call targets? Supporting troops?
What sort of chain of command do they have over there?
US soldiers working with foreign troops or local supporters always have that problem - how to communicate effectively when some or most of the forces with you speak another language. Our soldiers and Marines in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and many other places faced or face the same problem.
Mission planners should have considered that issue, but I suspect at least at the air support level NATO may have standardized on one language, much as has been done for civilian aviation.
Good training goes a long way, but someone with experience in similar situations is far more likely to have the correct intuition about what may individually be minor bits of information, like the actions of the motorcyclists, but in context are critically important.
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