Posted on 12/21/2004 5:31:14 AM PST by ChefKeith
Just mentioned on FNC:
Dining facility on U.S. Base in Iraq hit by rocket attack- 10 dead
Waiting for more info...
Yes, Stryker Infantry at Mosul is at FOB Marez.
We are all praying and waiting for word about our guys there.
I will post on our regular thread some bad news we had just before the rocket attack on the mess hall....about severe injuries to several of our guys from an IED a couple days ago.
Satan is at Mosul. al Dhuri and Zarqawi are probably there, having fled from Fallujah. We must gather all the power of prayer together and concentrate on binding Satan at Mosul.
We can only hope. Quite a few of them (not enough) learned about our military in Fallujah recently.
I would like nothing better than to see them all strung up DEAD along the side of the road or bridge just like the terrorscum did to the civilian workers from Blackwater. They deserve nothing better in the way of treatment IMHO.
In the meantime we need to button up security in these outlying camps. It would seem that someone knew the coordinates to make a perfect hit on that mess tent.
No need for an FO. Mealtimes are set normally timeblocks of about 90 minutes - you could vary it a bit, but not that much
GPS is comercially available. the bad guys have the capability to know exactly the coordinates of their chosen FP.
They can figure out the range and what elevation and azimuth would be required, pre cut the charges on a mortar round to save time
When they set the tube up they wouldn't even need a sight. Just compass azimuth lay with correct elevation.
Drop one - do a 1/4 turn on the azimuth wheel. Repeat that 4 times you get a good spread and are running before the 1st one hits the ground.
Rockets are even easier. Set a 122 up with two sticks crossed in an X. Adjust elevation by moving the sticks. Use compass azimuth lay technique to get center sector on your prospective target
Put a chemical time fuze on it and be in the next county before it launches.
BIG CEP (Plus or minus 500 meters) but you'll probably get it inside the perimeter more often than not.
They do this to our guys over there every day, most times the rockets don't hit anything. Last time I was in Baghdad we got rocketed every day for a week and no one got hurt
Occasionally they get lucky. Damned shame - a bit more to the left or right and it probably would have landed outside a blast wall (never been to that Mosul mess hall)
God rest the souls of those troops and comfort their families
Qatar-6
I just heard. It was a suicide bomber. How did he get in? Who is in charge on security? Very sad day. 69% now disapprove of the war. How do we turn this around?
Where did you hear that miremains?
on msnbc asia. totally confirmed.
Video:
By Maher al-Thanoon MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - An attack on a tented dining hall at a U.S. military base killed 24 people and wounded about 60 in the Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday in one of the deadliest attacks on U.S. forces since they invaded Iraq last year.
One U.S. official said it was a mortar or rocket strike but an Iraqi group claimed one of its suicide bombers was behind it.
"We're not ruling anything out," Captain Phil Ludvigson, a military spokesman in Mosul, said. Among the dead were 14 U.S. soldiers, though he said that might go higher, possibly to 18.
The attack came as U.S. war ally Tony Blair made a surprise visit to Baghdad where the British prime minister vowed the war on insurgents would be won and elections would go ahead on Jan. 30. As he left, mortars fell on Baghdad's Green Zone compound, as they do almost daily. There appeared to be no casualties.
Two French journalists, held hostage for four months were freed, ending a saga that had embarrassed the Paris government.
The Mosul strike came at noon (0900 GMT) when many soldiers at Forward Operating Base Marez, a huge camp built around the northern city's airfield, were sitting down to lunch four days before Christmas. The hall, made of canvas and metal, can seat hundreds, Reuters correspondents familiar with the base said.
"The force of the explosions knocked soldiers off their feet and out of their seats. A fireball enveloped the top of the tent, and pellet-sized shrapnel sprayed into the men," wrote eyewitness Jeremy Redmon of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
"Amid the screaming and thick smoke that followed, quick- thinking soldiers turned their lunch tables upside down, placed the wounded on them and gently carried them into the parking lot," the journalist said on his newspaper's Web site.
Mosul has seen near anarchy since U.S. forces launched an offensive last month on rebels in Falluja in effort break the back of the insurgency before the election. At least 150 bodies, many thought to be Iraqi security personnel, have been found.
My tagline musta worked! Welcome home!
This is true, but who are the insurgents / terrorists? How can they be found? They have no uniforms, at any time they can lay down their arms and blend into the crowd. Executing every male of fighting age is not a viable policy. The way to win a fighting war like this one is to kill all the men, rape all the women and plough salt into the fields...but that is [thank God!] not an option these days. We need to win hearts and minds plus kill the enemy. Looking back at other occupations / insurgencies [Northern Ireland, Algeria, Afghanistan (for the Russians), Chechnya] does not really give a lot of hope for the military option. And the elections - if free and fair - will hand more power to Iran...
I'm looking for hope in this situation, but I went through a business failure a few years ago and know that hope means nothing if all the indicators point downward and your actions are wholly misguided. If we had gone in right after Mision Accomplished and 'bombed' the population with aid we may have won over enough folk to make this thing inevitable. As it is, from the point of view of the Iraqis, we have screwed-up and placed our troops in the insane position of carrying flowers in one hand and guns in the other with absolutely no idea where to point either.
The Iraqis control the situation, the US is just riding the tiger. See things through their eyes for a moment and realize that we're in one hell of a pickle.
We will keep them all in our prayers.
Pinging some of the Richmond people for you.
Thanks for your prayers. We are still waiting to hear something, which if I can say without jinxing things, could be good news.
I'm sorry, I missed your prayer requests earlier. Heartfelt prayers for all concerned. May both families sense God's presence and comfort during these difficult times.
The 276th can trace its lineage to the First Virginia Regiment of Volunteers formed in 1652. George Washington and Patrick Henry were two of its early commanders. Henry created the unit's motto, "Liberty or Death."
Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas and may 2005 be your brightest year yet!
I hope they hear something soon. My heart & prayers go out to them. The waiting is so very hard.
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