Posted on 03/22/2022 8:17:08 AM PDT by mac_truck
After spending 13 hours hiking into enemy territory and back to retrieve the body of a Georgian soldier who had been killed near Irpin, Ukraine, U.S. Army veteran Hieu Le knew that his war was over.
Not long after recovering the fallen soldier, Le resigned from Ukraine’s legion of international volunteers. “My team was very supportive since they saw how deeply affected I was by recovering his body,” he told Task & Purpose. “Physically I feel fine, but I also feel like I have these invisible wounds on my soul.”
Le served as an M1 armor crewman from 2010 to 2017, during which he deployed to Afghanistan in 2012. In a previous story about surviving a Russian cruise missile attack on his training base, he asked to be identified by his first name only, but on Monday Le gave Task & Purpose permission to use his full name.
On Monday evening, Le was enroute to western Ukraine along with wounded comrades and other international volunteers who had resigned. He was leaving a war that he had just joined nearly two weeks ago.
“I do feel embarrassed to be leaving so soon after arriving, but have you ever seen anything so horrible and heartbreaking that you can’t continue? It was like that for me,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at taskandpurpose.com ...
The guy walked 6.5 hours in from the east side of Ukraine. There are no Russian engagements there, and he saw so much he had to come back?
They guy would have been fortunate to walk 20 miles in. Likely, he stopped to eat five times, take a dump against a tree, urinate four times, and took a nap, making his walk into the interior of Ukraine about 3 miles before turning around.
Yes, I will insult the man, gladly.
Lol, even Russian soldiers in Ukraine are yelling “Glory to Ukraine".
That fat body has no business in a war zone. Dude looks to be 100lbs overweight.
The guy has zero backbone. Something tells me he got a bit of GI-Joe big head, after pushing a pencil in his supposed service in Afghanistan... If what little he saw in Ukraine “scarred him” - then I have very little confidence he ever saw any real action in Afghanistan. He’s like the first person sent home from the reality TV show “Survivor” - by actually quitting the show... What a pansy.
We are supposed to believe that this soldier was determined to stop the Russians from conquering the Ukraine and was willing to risk his life and kill Russians to save the Ukraine.
Two weeks later all that has changed because of the hardship of retrieving one comrade’s body?
If this is the best we can expect, we have no future worth living.
And conversely, those who saw real combat, killed enemy and saw their friends killed or maimed, are among the last people who want to go fight for another country. Those few that do are very well paid. Ukraine wants volunteers. I suspect those expats returning to Ukraine to fight where their parents, uncles, cousins, etc still live, are not running away.
A report that 300 Russian soldiers refused to obey an order to fight and withdrew with their equipment, in the Sumy region.
Decades ago I learned in a briefing that the Soviet soldiers had a very low morale. Why should it be any different nowadays? There were jokes going around of Russian Soldiers being beaten for having low morale.
You are right. In fact, I don't think the Army even deployed any M1's to Afghanistan, and the Marines just a few. So This guy's unit might have deployed to Afghanistan, but he served in some role other than Tank Crew. It's also possible he was sent as an Individual Augment.
You also have to consider what soldiers fight for. Many will tell you they are fighting for their buddies, some for their family. This guy was with a bunch of strangers in a foreign country he had no connection to.
Chicken shit
Yes, a real man.
That must have been awful for him, as it was for so many parents, when his son was severely wounded. On one hand...he knew, understood, and had engaged in the business of combat, but when it is your flesh and blood...I wonder if that made it worse for him, wondering if he had pushed his son into it, that kind of thing.
Le said.......“They live the day high on amphetamines, testosterone, steroids, and who knows what other drugs they’ve smuggled into the war zone,” Le posted on Facebook. “They essentially do whatever they want and the Ukrainian military officers either allow it or are powerless to stop it.”
Anyone who thinks fighting an organized war in Ukraine was nuts to think so - should have known beforehand when Zelesnky opned the door to any fighter in the world showing up on his doorstep.
Puller called it the “butchers bill.” And he paid it every time one of his men was a casualty of woulding or death.I do not think many military men carried such a large burden as Puller did. Thats part of what made him great, and why he is still revered today at Paris Island.
Great story...
“And conversely, those who saw real combat, killed enemy and saw their friends killed or maimed, are among the last people who want to go fight”
Very true. The ones who have not, will think they can handle it. It is not normal to kill people. Sad the guy is learning the hard way. I understand his point of view. He is lucky he can walk off the battlefield.
From what I know of him, he was not one to dismiss death in combat, but didn’t allow it to cloud his judgement when something needed to be done. I understand there was mutual respect between him and the men under him, and I suspect that would not have been the case had he been callous about it.
There is a detailed and excellent account of this incident in the book “Neptune’s Inferno” (one of the best ever on this campaign in the Solomon Island Campaign, and I have read a few) and it tickled my funny bone.
He apparently flagged down a destroyer, the USS Monssen, which sent a launch to the beach and picked up a bunch of surrounded Marines.
In the account in the book, the author describes in detail from personal accounts how the USS Monssen shelled the Japanese forces with everything they had, and the Marines on board were able to see the 5” shells hit the sloping uphill terrain and leave a red hot trail tobogganing through the trees, wreaking carnage and destruction in their paths...it was apparently an enjoyable show for them.
The USS Monssen was sunk during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (Same battle that Admirals Scott and Callahan both died in) and she took 145 of her crew to the bottom with her in Ironbottom Sound.
Just wow.
I don’t judge him, never been in that situation so I can’t say I would do any better.
I have heard it said that combat is the hardest on people with sensitive temperaments. I can believe that.
All that said, the guy shouldn’t have been over there, but...that is his choice I guess.
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