Posted on 04/17/2009 5:43:15 AM PDT by milestogo
KORANGAL OUTPOST, Afghanistan — Only the lead insurgents were disciplined as they walked along the ridge. They moved carefully, with weapons ready and at least five yards between each man, the soldiers who surprised them said.
Behind them, a knot of Taliban fighters walked in a denser group, some with rifles slung on their shoulders — “pretty much exactly the way we tell soldiers not to do it,” said Specialist Robert Soto, the radio operator for the American patrol.
An American platoon surprised an armed Taliban column on a forested ridgeline at night, and killed at least 13 insurgents, and perhaps many more, with rifles, machine guns, Claymore mines, hand grenades and a knife.
The lead fighter had almost reached the platoon when Pvt. First Class Troy Pacini-Harvey, 19, his laser trained on the lead man’s forehead, moved his rifle’s selector lever from safe to semi-automatic. It made a barely audible click. The Taliban fighter froze. He was six feet away.
The platoon’s frontage exploded with noise and flashes of light as soldiers fired. Bullets struck all of the lead Taliban fighters, the soldiers said. The first Afghans fell where they were hit, not managing to fire a single shot.
Five Taliban fighters bolted to the soldiers’ left, unwittingly running squarely into the path of machine-gun bullets and the Claymore mines. For a moment, the soldiers heard rustling in the brush. They detonated their Claymores and threw hand grenades. The rustling stopped.
Two other Taliban fighters had dashed to the right, toward an almost sheer drop. One ran so wildly in the blackness that his momentum carried him off the cliff, several soldiers said.
Another stopped at the edge. Pvt. First Class Brad Larson, 19, had followed the man with his laser. “I took him out,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Even the NY Slimes manages to occasionally write a story where our guys do right.
Who was the badass that killed a guy with a KNIFE. I want to make sure I don’t honk at him in traffic.
Because Obama is in the WH.
Sergeant Reese gave his rifle to another sniper to cover him while he tried to cut away a Taliban fighter’s ammunition pouches with a four-inch blade. The fighter had only been pretending to be dead, the soldiers said. He lunged for Sergeant Reese, who stabbed him in the left eye.
I’m surprised the Times didn’t describe the group under attack as a “Wedding Party”.
***grin***
Imagine escaping harm from exploding mines, a hail of small arms and machine gun fire only to be done in by a knife.
Of course!
from the story ...
“Sergeant Reese gave his rifle to another sniper to cover him while he tried to cut away a Taliban fighter’s ammunition pouches with a four-inch blade. The fighter had only been pretending to be dead, the soldiers said. He lunged for Sergeant Reese, who stabbed him in the left eye.”
that left a mark.
Let us hope that the NYSlimes slide into well deserved oblivion is quick.
Or your own panic
One ran so wildly in the blackness that his momentum carried him off the cliff,
oops
Then again, the NY Slimes had to publish names...I guess they couldn’t get each of our boys’ addresses as well.
Take no prisoners. It only makes things complicated.
Do you really have to ask? Why it was none other than platoon leader B.H. Obama.
This was reported by our media (who were on our side then) as a safe practice and part of learning how to handle the battlefield--
--too bad that this can't become standard practice again---
Claymores can have that effect.
Thatswsup!
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