Marines focus on small units

Washington Times/UPI ^ | May 25, 2005 | Pamela Hess, UPI

[surfatsixty]

Washington, DC, May. 25 (UPI) -- A small unit of Marines raided a house in Husaybah, Iraq, recently during a neighborhood "cordon and search" operation to find a handful of snipers who had fired on Marines in the Syrian border town. They gathered all the men in the house in one room, for safety reasons, and to question them. But the lone Iraqi woman in the house wouldn't enter the room with the men.

"She was obstinate," said Capt. Andrew J. Nelson, a company commander with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment.

The Marines insisted. She refused. Ultimately she capitulated, but not until she had a veil to cover her face.

This piqued the young Marines: Why would the woman need the veil in her own home?

They took all six men in for questioning and ultimately learned three of them were the snipers they were looking for.

That quick-thinking and culturally aware sergeant -- who remembered hearing that an Iraqi woman in another house insisted on wearing a veil around the Islamist fighters -- is both the emblem and the goal for the Marine Corps.

[surfatsixty]

An insightful article by an exemplary military correspondent, Pamela Hess.

Semper Fi.

[surfatsixty]

The article ends with comments by Lt. Gen. James "they ain't got no manhood" Mattis, USMC.

[EricT.]

Thank God he gave the United States a Marine Corps.

[Khurkris]

Huh?

"Troops who survive combat consider every day after the battle a bonus, said Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commander of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, who convened the conference in order to collect those complaints and address the deficiencies.
"In the intimate, close-combat dance with the enemy ... we want more of our young guys to come out of the fight with bonus days," Mattis said.
--

Sorry, not seeing the manhood quote. But some darn good comments about combat load for troopies.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

"I'd like to spend the same amount of money on the individual Marine, and why his combat load is 60 to 65 pounds -- just what he has to carry.

I have thought this was foolish since its inception about 15 years ago. What is all that stuff they are carrying? I can see the need for extra ammo with automatic weapons and I can see the need for communications gear, but these guys are almost always back at base at night so no need to carry enough stuff to last for days. What's up with that?

[surfatsixty]

Basic bodyarmor alone is over 20 lbs. Add a nut-protector, extra clips, a drum or two of 5.56 for the SAW, a full camelback of water, and it gets heavy quickly.

The Mattis "manhood" tag refers to his speech several months ago where he said "It's fun to shoot these guys. They don't have any manhood left anyways." The libs went nuts over that one.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Huh?

Pay attention:

“you go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.”