Posted on 03/04/2008 5:17:17 AM PST by Nony
More from the very front lines.
I have mixed emotions about that article. On the one hand, at least Totten is reporting where the drive-by media fear to tread, but all that ridiculousness about the corporal and the sergeant came across to me as useless drivel.
Good read...thanks.
LBT
......
Their slums look better than our slums. It’s amazing what taking away the grafitti and rap music will do for my perceptions.
As far as the Corporal and the Sergeant go, anybody whose been in the service recognizes the type... always a leadership challenge.
What do you expect from a dirty laundry slinger that asks for donations when he is getting paid by someone to be there in the first place,and links his blog to a hundred different blogs for exposure. This is nothing more than a military knocker that only gets his eyes opened when he experiences the hard fight close up....then he’s ready to run home.
You got it all wrong. Completely wrong in fact.
Totten is the real deal. He does not get paid by any one or any news organization to be there. He does it all on the donations he receives through his site.
With the quality of work he’s doing and the way he’s doing it, I think we can forgive him for asking for donations.
Take a look around the site and read some of his posts, chances are you’ll change your mind on the guy.
thanks, bfl
I will not publish Corporal Z's and Sergeant C's names because I don't wish to cause them any trouble, but they nevertheless violated MJT's First Rule of Media Relations: Be nice to people who write about you for a living. ......
The belligerent Corporal Z waded into the crowd of kids, smiled warmly, patted one on the head, and gave the others high-fives. What was this? He can’t be nice to Americans, he said he hoped he got to shoot somebody that day, but he’s affectionate with the kids?
“I like it when the kids swarm around me,” he said when he saw that I watched him. “I feel a lot safer.” This was the first time I heard him speak in a normal tone. He’s complicated.
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I didn't know what to say.
“There was another time when an SVBIED fuel tanker came at us,” he (Corporal Smith) said. “Our EOF [escalation of force] measures couldn't stop it. The driver made it into the outpost. He destroyed four Humvees and even melted one of them. No one was killed, though. Just one dead insurgent. Enemy contact was a daily occurrence then. Me and everyone I know who was here then and now are like, what the fuck? This is Fallujah? Sometimes we'll be driving along and I'll pass a place where I got hit. I'll say oh fuck, this is that place where I got hit and everybody stops talking. It's like fucking crickets in the Humvee.”
You’ve never known a Sergeant C and a Corporal Z then.
Oh bullcrap. What I question is a journalist spending a few days around men who have been in a combat zone responsible for the lives of others and making judgements about their demeanor.
You are so used to the usual propaganda that you have failed to note the obvious, Sergeant C and Corporal Z could have been any Real Marine NCO from Tripoli to today.
They are as devoid of the touchy feelly micro management methods as anyone in this day and age could be.
Frankly I am concerned that you are calling for this reporters observations to be more “PC” about our Marines by hiding what they become and how they act in the crucible of battle.
And while I don’t prescribed to the sharp edge of the sword style of leadership, I recognize that not every Marine NCO is capable of performing the difficult balancing act between the sharp edge and the flat side (authoritarian and persuasive) forms of leadership, especially while involved in a hostile environment.
Hiding that from the public view won’t make it go away, it is something to be cherished, the raw form of leadership of the type that has driven men forward into battle for centuries. Somehow it hasn’t died in the Corps yet.
You misread my comments. I don’t disagree with your observations. I am just skeptical of any journalist’s ability to make such judgements after spending a few days with a unit.
What would be nice is if Sargent Baxter finds a box of Cubans in his mail next month.
This is my son’s company.
Maybe Suzy can set it up, Unc!
Suzy, you gonna tell your son they’re famous now?!
I will! And, I’m sending the article to his siblings right now.
May the almighty Lord God keep your son under his wing, like a protective mother hen shields her little chicks from harms way. They serve with HONOR.
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