Unit of POW's identified (vanity)

23 Mar | self

[SLB]

MSNBC just issued a release from the Army. The POW's were ID's as being from teh 507th Maint Co at Ft Bliss, TX.

May God Bless Our Soldiers and President Bush.

[af_vet_rr]

Their equipment is slowly making its wait to Kuwait since the Turks made the wrong decision.

A constant 24 knots is hardly all that slow, those RO-ROs are moving at a steady clip. One of Fox's Navy analysts thinks the 4th will be in action in under a week. More than enough time for allied units to sweep back through their rear areas and clean up.

It still irks me, we had this happen in Vietnam in our rear areas (both combat and non-combat personnel were attacked all the time) and we even had it in Somalia with the Rangers being ambushed/attacked by organized thugs dressed as civilians. Saddam's a great admirer of Stalin and Hitler, and if he studied their military records, I would not be surprised if we don't have a lot more hostile Iraqis in our rear than we think.

Not all Iraqis our troops "liberate" are friendly and we need to stop assuming as much. Fox is reporting that these were Saddam's guerillas (I couldn't understand, some kind of "fedaheen" troops or something) as well as Republican Guard units dressed as civilians.

More and more it sounds like it wouldn't have mattered if these were support troops, or a squad of infantry, it was a big ambush by these "fedaheen" or whatever, and in that situation when your surrounded and outnumbered, you have a hard choice to make. I don't agree with Senator McCain all of the time, but he was right, some times you have just seconds to decide if you want to live or die.

[Freedom4US]

"Why is it some people associate being 'poor' with being 'low class'. Please don't pass your assumptions on others statements. I know many high class poor people and many low class rich people. The poor ones are the ones that join the military."

I can say that the military is full of wonderful people and there's no doubt those folks who are captured are good soldiers all. I've had the pleasure to meet some of the smartest people around who had little formal education. I've also met academy grads who couldn't poor piss out of a boot even if it had directions on the side. And I've also been led by that most rare of all commodities - someone with common sense and who's also a West Point or "mustang" or ROTC grad, or the 25 year-in-service maintenance test pilot, or a grizzled first sergeant who pisses coffee and has every reg darn near memorized. When you get a good leader, you know it, and the U.S. forces are unbeatable, this has been proven time and again.

[Mr. Mojo]

Thanks for the link. If they're going to fight dirty, we better be prepared to throw the PC nonsense out the window.

[Black Agnes]

Agreed 100%. Never confuse lack of education with lack of intelligence! (why is it that 'educated' people think non-'educated' people are stupid? Never have understood that one myself...)

[proust1]

"why is it that 'educated' people think non-'educated' people are stupid?"

Because they need to maintain the self-delusion that they haven't wasted their time in school. No digs at anyone here, just a personal observation.

[Black Agnes]

Probably.

[FryingPan101]

"I've been in El Paso all week on business."

I live two miles away. We're devastated.

[12B]

I was combat arms on active but spent 6 years in the reserves (including a 9 mo deployment) exclusively among support pukes.

Some of them are flat out kick-ass. The best unit we ever had for our guard duty was a postal unit. They were incredibly high-speed.

The best shot I ever knew (with any weapon) was a mechanic with the 29th SG. Guy could nail a flea's pecker at 100 meters with a malfunctioning Bulgarian sidearm.

The thing is, you never know what exactly you're getting with a support outfit and many of them have combat-arms guys attached.

But if you've got nothing but a squad with a couple of Hummers and your basic-load for your M-16 there's not a hell of a lot you can do if you go the wrong way and end up facing an enemy platoon. That's just the way it is. I can't see passing judgement on those guys if you don't know them, their capabilities, or the chain of events that got them where they ended up.

[dandelion]

Travis, we're all so stressed right now. You've made really valuable contributions to this forum, you won't be judged by one bad day.

I'm just so filled with absolute rage lately - I'm sorry. I wish it was me over there, and instead it will be my daughter. I wish it was me instead of them.

[CedarDave]

Has there been any news on the local channels yet? My hotel set is tuned to FNC and when I switch back to the over-the-air stations, I just get golf, basketball, and racing.

[FryingPan101]

I just read it for the first time on FR a little while ago. We've been at Fort Bliss for most of the day. It's like deserted. In the PX snack bar area, soldiers are glued to CNN Headline News.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

I wonder what a mech brigade of pissed off 40 to 50 - somethings could accomplish. The Wehrmacht had "stomach divisions" manning the Atlantic Wall in 1944. The cold hard truth is that nearly all of us are too old and broken down and uncurrent technically and tactically to hang with the young dogs, but damn I wish I was there.

[dandelion]

Hmmm - I'm not quite "pre-menopausal" yet, but just think of the damage a bunch of hot flashin' rage-filled 40-sumpin' wimmin-folk could do on the battle-field...

[af_vet_rr]

Hmmm - I'm not quite "pre-menopausal" yet, but just think of the damage a bunch of hot flashin' rage-filled 40-sumpin' wimmin-folk could do on the battle-field...

Shock and Awe Part II???

[xkaydet65]

Why is the media not asking 1) what was a maint. unit for Patriot Missiles doing so close to the fighting.

2)Where were they taken? Al Nasiriyah is behind the advance elements of 3ID and at the point of attack of 1st MEF. Did these fedayeen take them all the way back to Baghdad?.

3)Did the Iraqis arrange the bodies after a firefight or did they execute them?

4)If they were not moved to Baghdad, and I don't see how they were, then we should be tasking some SAR people to find them and, more importantly, it means that Iraq television has capability to uplink to their transmission facilities. That's communication and communication creates command and control. Maybe the Iraqis are not as deaf and blind as CENTCOM wants to believe. And maybe it's time to consider replacing benign regime change with eradication.

[Wifky]

Re #50.

Travis your remarks were stupid only because of the reactions you got. I feel as emotionally upset as you regarding how this war is being run. And I can't help but agree with you. Cutting off the balls of our military with the capture of female prisoners of war is basic stuff. It scares me our military could be this stupid.

[CedarDave]

Fox just announced a Fort Bliss press conference on the POW's to be held at 6 p.m. EST (30 minutes) from now. Thread on breaking news.

[Diva]

Sending undefended troops into an area crawling with stay-behind enemy formations is criminal, when those troops are given less than 100 rounds of rifle practice ammunition per year. My anger is to the PC generals who have put them into the position to be caprured.

But why would they do this? I'm asking a real question here, not trying to be argumentative. It boggles the mind.

[Wifky]

To #25

I never heard anything more true. How about including the invested money wasted.