Lamh Foistenach Abu!
Posted on 12/07/2009 7:22:59 PM PST by RDTF
FORWARD OPERATING BASE HASSANABAD, Afghanistan -- In the middle of a foot patrol Saturday through what may be the most dangerous part of the most dangerous province in Afghanistan for U.S. troops, Staff Sgt. John Nickerson peered through the scope of his assault rifle at a group of Afghan men who were rolling a wheelbarrow toward him.
Suddenly, he had to switch gears to the gentler form of counterinsurgency.
"Hold," Nickerson said into his hand-held radio, lowering his gun. "We've got some men with a kid in a wheelbarrow trying to get our attention. Where's Doc at?"
In the barrow was a 6-year-old boy covered by a thin cloth from the waist down. One of the Afghan men drew it back, revealing horrific burns from the boy's navel to his feet. His right leg and genitals were seared deep red, and huge sheets of skin were sloughing away. The boy and the wheelbarrow were smeared with blood.
"Good Lord, what happened to him?" said Nickerson, 32, of Pontiac, Mich.
Through a Marine interpreter, the boy's father replied that a kettle of water boiling for tea had fallen on him the night before. The scalding water soaked into his clothes, which held the heat against him, making the burns worse.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Lamh Foistenach Abu!
Hmm, it’s infurating that one has to dig to find stories like these, whereas isolated incidents of brutatility are repeated over and over again for years.
Many Afghans never met an American. Good first impressions
go along way.
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Thanks for posting this, RDTF...
BTTT
The headline is wrong. Marines do not have “medics” they have corpsmen. And this father of a an infantry Marine loves all corpsmen.
I would keep a very close eye on them.
probably so the average civilian reader would know what they meant
Where do we get such men (and women) ?
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