Posted on 01/02/2011 4:32:36 PM PST by 1066AD
621 - National Geographic Channel High Definition | Genre: Shows | Year: 2010 Airtime: Sun, Jan 02 07:00 PM Cast & Credits:Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger
Description: Journalist Sebastian Junger and photographer Tim Hetherington spend a year in east Afghanistan embedded with the Second Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.
Proves my point that conventional forces do not belong in Afghanistan. The commander if this unit said to his bn commander “ill take care of the problem” regarding korengal he did just that the us ended up tucking tail between legs and running. He was very arrogant if you askme. This was a cia sf mission that’s why bush never surged.
We have highly disciplined and aggressive units in the military such as US Army's 101st and 82nd Airborne and all Marine Corps Infantry units. The unit in this movie, however, is not one of them. They went through some terrible things, I just don't want the public judging the true warriors in the military based on the actions and inaction of these guys. I found it impossible to not feel shame when watching this flick as a former US Marine combat veteran.
A much better movie comes out this month on DVD called "Severe Clear", which more correctly shows the warrior spirit in combat.
It is bad enough that hollywierd makes movies where the soliders come off as indecisive and just plain silly (poor patrols, talking, unloaded weapons, everyone stands around looking at a wounded comrade under heavy enemy fire, etc.). Dam insulting as a vet.
Just consider the source.....
But if this happened as portrayed, wouldn’t it be the command’s fault for deploying the wrong units for the battle? Not to say that creative editing doesn’t play a part but it’s our government leaders’ fault for using the wrong strategy that forces the commanders on the ground to employ the wrong strategy and units. I wish we had more courageous people in charge.
Everything you just described and worse is shown “reality style” in this movie.
Dang, I’m a vet, spent 13 months in korea, and I kinda liked it. I had Best Buy send me a blu ray copy and everybody who has seen it thought it was well done.
Mind posting your review when it comes out?
My son, a Infantry Platoon Leader, is scheduled to deploy to an area about 40 miles south of this position ....
My thought were: these guys are being thrown into a meat grinder that they have no clue about, or training to deal with.
Kids did their best, but they were in the wrong place, without anywhere near the training they needed.
What was a Captain doing leading a platoon? Where were the Lts? Why only one Senior NCO?
During the Suras or weekly meeting with the local tribal council, why was the Capt so profane? It was embarrassing. Did he have to cuss so much at them? I thought his attitude towards them wasn't helpful. If he wanted to befriend them, he needed to treat them more respectfully. If he didn't want to, then why the meetings? Just tell them what to do through underlings. A personal meeting to do so just makes you smaller in their eyes. In any case, he sounded weak; blaming his predecessor, the Army, etc, for problems. Trying to entice them with the road...
The Iron Avalanche campaign, where Sgt Roble (sp?) was killed. Gosh, everyone standing around crying and emoting, they're damn lucky the ambushers didn't have mortars or lob some grenades/RPG rounds into them. What's up with that?
This is why you need a few more officers/senior NCOs along!
I think the unit portrayel was fairly accurate, speaking as a former SSG and also spending 3 1/2 years in Iraq (as a contractor). It was just a regular Army unit with the expected level of error, mis-judgement, etc. Also consider that the film was most likely edited to portray the human interest angle opposed to unit operations.
One thing however is that they did seem to be light on experienced NCOs.
I suspect the KIA incident was the result of someone(s) falling asleep that night otherwise they wouldn’t have been snuck up on. They were on a knoll-hilltop, surrounded by brush and had grenades. Any approach should have been costly. No one should have been jumped. It was also stupid to put teams out like that following daytime ops. Basically baiting Hadji to attack them as they were guaranteed the numerical superiority and isolation they needed to launch the attack.
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