Somebody tell me that a Marine Sniper tagged this snaggle-toothed piece of dog crap. No offense intended to crap or crapping dogs.
Posted on 11/23/2004 4:42:22 PM PST by Trippin
Lt Malcolm was a good chess player. He looked like any other young marines officer: skinny, shaven-headed, although with a quite beaky nose.
Marine peers through machinegun scope during Falluja assault Alpha Company suffered heavy losses in the Falluja assault Anyway, you could always pick him out. He would be the one with the chess board placed on an up-ended box of MREs (Meal Ready to Eat), working out moves.
I got to know him a little bit, as his bunk was opposite mine.
I would watch as he gave chess tips to those of his men who had not completely given in to poker or hearts.
About five hours into the battle, Lt Malcolm was killed.
He was the weapons officer in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, the unit I had joined as an "embed".
Just before dawn, Alpha Company blew a large hole in an outer wall, and entered the police station right in the heart of Falluja.
It was still pretty quiet then but as the sun rose the marines found themselves surrounded and under attack from all sides.
Lt Malcolm's squad went up on to the highest roof top they could find - but not higher than the two minarets on either side with snipers.
There was a wall about 40cm (16in) tall for cover. Everyone tried to get close to it while bullets skipped across the paving stones.
When he heard his men were in trouble - the men he'd been giving chess tips just the day before - Lt Malcolm came to get them.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
I think some of the liberal reporters are doing some soul searching after seeing some of the horror that was Fallujah.
Lt. Malcolm, thank you for your service and God Bless.
RIP.
When I join you up there, I'll give you a good chess game.
I found this sentence to be almost shockingly honest, given how little praise the brave Marines are getting in the American MSM :
"There was no hint of his extraordinary valour in the press release issued two days later."
The reporting in the US media is so devoid of praise for the troops, a quote like that would seem almost bizarre.
Very powerful story.
LT. Malcolm... Thanks for you sacrifice. Hope to meet you and the others that gave their last full measure of devotion when I get up there.
As for the Article... WOW! Paul Wood has written one of the best piece that I have seen come out of any of the embeds or combat reporters.
I didn't make it through this with dry eyes. What a treasure God has given us in these men.
Valour and devoid are above the eighth grade level vocabulary and are thus omitted from American reporting.
Re the brave Lt Malcolm..any analysis of Marine KIA/WIA in every engagement since WW II shows that LTs have the highest cauality rate %..way higher than enlisted in comabt.. That's because it beaten into our heads from the getgo..."lead from the front..first in..last out..only eat and sleep AFTER every man in your command.."
You're so right and not only the BBC but the US media too. A good job reporting and I'm sure he'll called on it.
Our brave soldiers should be treated as good by the US media. "extraordinary valour".....INDEED!
I'm surprised to see this article in the BBC. Usually they're whining about terrorist's rights.
The easiest thing would have been to hunker down and have a tank or atk helo take out the minarets. That they did not strongly implies that they could not--most probably based on strict rules of engagement for religious targets. One of those hidden, but very tough decisions made before battle in which troops are placed at higher levels of immediate risk in order to mitigate against the later adverse affects of destroying a mosque.
Somebody tell me that a Marine Sniper tagged this snaggle-toothed piece of dog crap. No offense intended to crap or crapping dogs.
Every time I see a "the enemy is winning" article I risk molar damage. God bless these people.
good post . thanks
Thanks, Trippin.
Memory eternal!
Note to the troops: call in precision strikes to take down the minarets. (Yeah, leave the mosque standing and send in the Iraqis to clean it out. We've gotta win the peace, but rebuilding a few minarets is cheap compared with loosing good men like Lt. Malcolm to snipers.)
"The enemy has got a face
- he's called Satan,
he's in Falluja,
and we're going to destroy him."
Lt Col Brandl
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