Posted on 11/22/2004 10:52:42 PM PST by kralcmot
Pg 104…to 107
The third team selected to go into the box was 585….on October 25, 2001, the weather cleared and TIGER 03’s ten Special Forces sergeants finally reached their landing zone outside Dasht-e-Qaleh, a village in the upper northeast corner near the Tajikistan border.
Master Sergeant John Bolduc was the handpicked leader for A-Team 585…With two intelligence sergeants, two demolition specialists, two weapons experts, two communications specialists, and two highly trained medics, Bolduc, team had everything it needed…
Bolduc was a proven product, forged in battle in Panama and Desert Storm. He was a superb leader and physically imposing….MSG Bolduc had something else going for him, and that was faith. John carried a pocket Bible on the battlefield. He also had a special talisman that the first Green Beret into each war had worn for thirty years – the magical, mystical ring….(this ring had a Burma star ruby “crafted….in 1964….an unusual gemstone for the Green Beret rings, traditionally implanted with the more common blue star sapphire, ruby, or tiger’s eye”…(from pp 48-49)) (Bolduc was the first man to go in, on reconnaissance, but his team was the 3rd team in)
….Once the team became oriented and integrated with the muj,….they never gave the Taliban a chance for a direct confrontation. They wore typical Afghan clothing, Massoud-style caps and Afghan scarves around their sholders, long hair, and beards. Their compounds were hidden in remote areas, and they moved at night whenever possible. They hid in mud trenches and crumbling bunkers, calling in air strikes as they destroyed the Taliban. Narrowly missed by enemy mortars and rockets, they fought the terrorists. They used their long-range sniper rifles to kill them one by one when necessary.
Pg 115….
The Northern Alliance leaders had more than a thousand journalists in the north and they wanted them watching the war…
The team tried to convince the muj to stop the press far behind the frontline area, but journalists were willing to pay whatever it took to see the action….
On November 7, Gary Scurka, a journalist…drove with his National Geographic film crew to the front lines
Pg 118…
….As Gary Scurka and his film team tried to get battlefield footage in Kal-a-Khata, TIGER 03 and the Taliban were slugging it out….muj wer raining down mortar rounds on the Taliban trench lines….Scurka was told not to leave his Green Beret escort’s side under any circumstances. The frontline at Kal-a-Khata was treacherous; Taliban and Northern Alliance trenches were woven in and out of the hills and stretched across the countryside…
pg 119…
…Journalists were swarming over the Northern Alliance hills like bees around a hive. A CNN cameraman ran up to the observation post and frantically announced that Taliban rockets and artillery had just hit a journalist….it was Scurka…Idema ran as fast as he could, sliding down the sandy hillside, hitting the dirt road , and running toward the nearby hill where Scurka was hit….Drenched in blood from the waist down, Scurka was now standing up with the help of several people. Everyone was arguing about what to do. Tim Friend from USA Today and Kevin Sites from NBC News had wrapped Afghan scarves around Scurka’s leg to stop the bleeding….Several of the journalists began to argue that Scurka should be immediately put in a vehicle and driven to a hospital. Kevin Sites, the NBC producer, explained that Scurka was only hit in the leg and the bleeding wasn’t that bad. A brief argument ensued. They were promptly asked how many bullet wounds they had seen and told to “shut the f*** up”….Scurka had holes through his right leg and thigh, and blood was pouring out of his upper thigh. “Looks like you’ve been shot in the ass too; how appropriate”….
Pg 120…Scurka was in shock, and had lost a lot more blood than first suspected. He was quickly hit with controlled drugs, huge dosages of Ciproflaxin antibiotics and fluids. Putting him on a Northern Alliance truck, they forded the river back to the rear area….
….Idema cut off Scurka’s blue jeans and examined the primary wound. It was a four-inch-long, three-inch-deep gaping wound. The muscle tissue was splayed open like a filleted trout, displaying the bright , pinkish-white bone in his leg. As Idema probed inside for ruptured arteries, Scurka finally began to complain. It took another ten minutes to stop the blood and dress the wound for transport. Sites offered to follow the team in another vehicle. “What if your truck breaks down?” “It’s too dangerous and it will be dark before we get there,” Idema told him. “Matters not. I’ll go in case you need me,” Sites said. Kevin Sites had “bad ass” written all over him and was about as close to looking like a Green Beret as anyone Idema had ever seen. Only a few minutes before, Idema found out that it was Sites and Friend who had actually gotten Scurka out of the field of fire and Sites’ levelheaded response that had kept things under control until Idema got there. “Thanks, I’ll take you up on it. One last thing: Thanks for getting him out of the impact area.” Idema later made it clear that Sites was the hero that day --- he had left no man behind. “No problem,” Sites said “Let’s roll,” Idema said as they drove off.
(end of quote from the book)
posted for your information, interesting appearance by our favorite journalist in the war against the Taliban just 3 months after the September 11, 2001, attack on America.
The clip I saw on MSN News had a statement from Sites in which he spoke of the professionalism of the Marines he'd been travelling with. I don't know what happened or was said after that.
I take it from this that Sites was the one who was told to shut up?
This guy editorializes everythin- I read his statement the other day describing events through his eyes - and it was pitiful. Not only would I - as a soldier- take a journalists word that "these are the same guys we saw yesterday" - as though that changes whether these reclining terrorists are dangerous or not. But then he sits and watches small bubbles forming on blood from what I believed to be a dead man and "realizes he is still breathing but in shock from just getting fired on" How the hell does he know all this crap- he didn't pass on this info . then describes the marine as looking at him "with fear and dread once he realized I filmed the whole thing" Oh how they think the whole show is about them! Ego centric and agenda driven- ERRRRRRRRRRR. And yes- he no doubt was the one told to shut up as why should he be giving assessments- or opinions- shut up and film
Benedict Arnold was quite a hero before he turned coat.
"Several of the journalists began to argue that Scurka should be immediately put in a vehicle and driven to a hospital. Kevin Sites, the NBC producer, explained that Scurka was only hit in the leg and the bleeding wasn’t that bad. A brief argument ensued. They were promptly asked how many bullet wounds they had seen and told to “shut the f*** up”….Scurka had holes through his right leg and thigh, and blood was pouring out of his upper thigh. “Looks like you’ve been shot in the ass too; how appropriate”…."
Isn't it likely that good old Kev wanted to play down Scurka's wound because it didn't happen to him. Sites was no doubt jealous that Scurka would get lots of attention for having been shot. Sites wanted the attention. Understanding this is really pretty simple.
good point. what i found interesting here was the comment:
"Kevin Sites had “bad ass” written all over him and was about as close to looking like a Green Beret as anyone Idema had ever seen"
Idema was a former Green Beret, now in his middle age, working in this arena for the CIA, and stayed in country alone for nine more months after TIGER 03 was rotated out.
All the brilliant prose aside, the story of this scumbag Sites needs to be kept alive. Stories generated by Sites and his ilk needs to be routinely exposed and discredited for the self-promoting tripe it truly is.
Apparently he's not as advertised...
Major news organizations and a celebrated author bought into his self-portrayal as an undercover spy, explosives expert, active-duty Special Forces operative, covert "black ops" specialist, and one of the few Americans truly dedicated to hunting down Mr. bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.
But hundreds of documents, e-mail exchanges, photographs and other materials supplied by close associates of Mr. Idema offer an entirely different picture of who he really is a showman and convicted fraudster whose military career ended in 1984 before he'd even spent a day in live combat.
Perhaps because of his military-style uniform, the authority in his voice, his swagger and authentic use of Special Forces jargon, many journalists and media personalities accepted him too quickly as the real thing, according to journalists and close acquaintances who witnessed Mr. Idema's personality makeover.
"He's a very believable guy. He looks you in the eye. He looks like a Special Forces guy, acts like one. ... It's hard not to believe him once he gets talking," said Robin Moore, author of the 2003 book The Hunt for Bin Laden, Task Force Dagger, which features Mr. Idema as one of the central figures in the Afghanistan war.
A photo of Mr. Idema, 48, appears on the book's cover, and he receives co-author credit in the book's British version.
Mr. Moore, who also wrote The Green Berets and The French Connection, said he had been warned repeatedly about Mr. Idema during the 14 years they have been acquainted. He said they met in 1990 outside a Special Forces convention, where Mr. Idema was hawking military accessories. But it was only after the book was published that he began taking those warnings seriously.
Web sites registered to Mr. Idema began appearing on the Internet advertising a purported new Robin Moore biography, An Army of One, which promised to detail Mr. Idema's one-man war on terrorism.
Mr. Moore, who is 78 and suffers from Parkinson's disease, said the Web sites were bogus and unauthorized, and he had never intended to write such a book.
Only then did he notice that, without Mr. Moore's consent, Mr. Idema had altered the manuscript of The Hunt for Bin Laden to include appeals for donations to two charities whose addresses belonged to Mr. Idema and his wife. The charities, which were promoted as helping the families of Special Forces soldiers killed or wounded in action, are now under grand jury investigation, according to witnesses subpoenaed to testify in the North Carolina probe.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Kocher, whose name appears on the subpoenas, said she could not discuss details of any grand jury proceeding.
Mr. Moore said he began questioning Mr. Idema's past, and the answers were troubling about the man he had come to know by his nickname, Jack. "I knew that Jack really didn't know what he was talking about. ... He was not really ever a Special Forces man," he said. "He claimed that he was in combat, but nobody could ever prove it to me."
The Special Forces Association, a national organization of former Special Forces members based in Mr. Idema's hometown of Fayetteville, N.C., has banned Mr. Idema from its gatherings and disavowed any association with him, labeling his supposed battlefield exploits as "outrageous" in a letter from association officers.
------ "Records seem to discredit self-proclaimed Special Forces expert.....Out of service since '84, man accused in Afghan case never saw combat," By TOD ROBBERSON / The Dallas Morning News, Monday, August 30, 2004
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.