"Ya, know, back in Dubya-Dubya Two, when you went on a "suicide mission", you were expected to get killed!!!"
Posted on 10/16/2004 4:41:52 PM PDT by TexKat
In the mean time Fox reported that the mission they refused was carried out uneventfully by another unit. They didn't come under any fire, and did not have an armed escort.
This does not look well for those kids, and the whiny call from that twerp to here mother asking for mom to raise hell was just another reason women do not belong in the military.
(donning flame proof suit...)
I am a woman, and I agree. No flaming from me.
Couldn't help thinking the same thing myself when I heard it. Imagine, calling home and whining to mom from a war zone. What hath Belle wrought?
Hey, reduction in rank is better than dead.
The army probably will, and should, discipline the enlisted men involved. You can't allow a mutiny to go unanswered.
Then they should quietly go after the officers who were going to send them into ambush alley unescorted. Maybe they should be ordered to escort the convoys themselves, and they will learn a new appreciation for armed escort.
Quote: "Then they should quietly go after the officers who were going to send them into ambush alley unescorted."
Maybe you missed the report on Fox that another unit did the mission for them that same day, without escort, and did not report ANY contact with enemy.
It would seem the commanders know thing or two more than the reservists.
Guess the little brat will be writing a book about the nasty Army.
ps, my husband was a Master Sergeant in the Army Reserve.
No flames.
Good report - thanks.
Wimmim! Stay home, until they come to your door.
Then waste'em.
Well, I'm not going to flame you but I know a woman in the marines who is doing a wonderful job. There are many. I'm not comfortable with women in combat, though, but even there I'm sure there are many who excel.
Or from me.
"Ya, know, back in Dubya-Dubya Two, when you went on a "suicide mission", you were expected to get killed!!!"
they don't make men like they used to.
BTW, I re-read the article. Where is a woman mentioned, other than some guy's wife? Did I miss it? Not being sarcastic, just wondered.
Seems to me somebody believed the troops about the potential risks. We can guess a couple of newly arrived Captains may end up reassigned somewhere else. The enlisted personnel will probably not be punished further although non-judicial punishment will remind them that there are channels of command to be followed FIRST next time this happens.
Last thing any decent General is ever going to do is encourage the EM to stay shut-up about maintenance failures.
The real issue here is why there were officers who thought it was OK to deviate from established procedures with faulty vehicles.
Maybe. I saw that. What isn't clear to me is how long the guardsmen involved have been in the war zone, to be able to judge how well they knew what they were talking about.
The tension between officers and enlisted men is not new, and low level near-mutinies are not unusual, its how enlisted men get their commanders attention sometimes.
I've been concerned myself about the lack of armed escort. This convoy wasn't hit, but others certainly are.
From my point of view, I have been disturbed about the lack of security for civilian workers there. I assumed at the beginning that guys going over to aid in reconstruction would be a high priority for army protection, but it seems that their companies have total responsibility for security, and the army does not consider itself responsible.
So the companies hire a few ex-soldiers to ride shotgun, and of course thats the first vehicle hit.
The engineers who were killed recently had arab guards. When your guards are arabs living out in the neighborhood, unprotected, they are themselves vulnerable. Even if they are inclined to be loyal, its too easy to visit them at home, and tell them not to go to work tomorrow.
Thats apparently what happened. They stopped showing up for work, and the engineers themselves told their colleagues they thought they were next. Why they didn't just camp out at their workplace, I'll never know, the decision to go home anyway cost them their heads.
Anyway, I wouldn't mind going if I am on the army's priority list, I wouldn't mind running the same risks alongside them, but I have qualms about going if they do not intend to protect me at all.
Article didn't mention, but Fox was playing the tape of the phone call one of these twerps left on her mother's phone recorder.
It was very un-professional sounding.
Transportation folks should be at least smart enough to believe the experts, eh?!
So did the new unit deliver the tainted helicopter fuel?
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