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.

[CindyDawg]

Don't know. I'm in Texas. Maybe, people tired of looking at the trash :')

[Diva]

My grandfather drove an ambulance in World War I. I guess you could say he was a support trooper. He would never talk about the things he saw. I wish I had been older when he was still alive (died in 1968) I would love to have the opportunity to ask him about his service.

I do not think those who support the troops are substandard and I can understand your frustration that they may possibly have been left with little protection. Thanks for the apology.

[Travis McGee]

Please don't think that I am only apologizing because of the feedback. I made my STUPID remarks in anger, because I have seen this situation coming for years. My anger was misdirected, the situation is in NO WAY the fault of the troops who are now POWs.

[stlnative]

Image of 5 American POW's

NOTE... This image has been released by Reuters and is on Yahoo News Photos

[jwalsh07]

Anger builds over periods of time and sometimes expresses itself as stupidity.

While Travis is undoubtedly wrong in his initail diatribes, he is right as regards the point at hand. This unit was ill equipped to engage the enemy.

The Army needs to rethink along the lines of the Marine Corps so that every soldier who enters the theatre is first and foremost a combat infantrymen. Their seconfdary MOS would be the job they choose when they enlist.

Having said that, I thank and admire them for putting it all on the line. And may God help the survivors survive.

By the way, I served in 13th COSCOM which supports the 2AD and the 1st Cav and my old unit is there now. God bless'em.

[Travis McGee]

I wish I could delete all of my remarks early in the thread, most of all the word "substandard."

I was trying to compare their level of combat training to that of the combat arms units. 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.

[Friend of thunder]

I apologize to … everyone on this thread and all freepers and especially the families of our support troops in harm's way.

That is admirable, thank you. I will now assume your concerns were heartfelt but (incredibly) poorly timed.

[SLB]

Apology accepted! War is hell!

I am watching the CETCOM news briefing. They told of some troops coming to accept a surrender and being ambushed. More recon by fire is in order!

[Travis McGee]

I wish I had written something like your last post, and then shut the **** heck up.

I am staying on this thread, instead of signing off, despite my shame and personal humiliation at my incredibly stupid remarks, specifically to apologize to all of those I have hurt.

[Black Agnes]

Never said they were 'low class'. Merely that the economic origins of a large part of our military isn't the 'rich'. How many 'rich boys' do you know that join the military? How many 'rich chicks' do you know that join the military? How many college educated kids do you know that join the military compared to college educated kids that do not. This particular unit might appear to be a cross section of America but the military as a whole is not. Economic reasons lead the poor (disparately minority) to join in order to get money for college. I spent time as a child in a very poor state in the Southern US. I have seen this first hand. Black kids I went to school with were much more likely to join the army/military after HS than white kids. The white kids could by and large afford to go to college. The black kids by and large could not. Kudos for those wanting to succeed and doing so in whatever means they find available. The military is also a good place to learn tech training that's useful to get a job.

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.

[spokeshave]

To all...does anyone have the Wall St Journal article from last week describing the mechanized maintenance and bridge unit ....? there was a line drawing of the female african american in charge of the unit..it also had unit name and number.

[jwalsh07]

Says a lot about you. Good luck. :-}

[Travis McGee]

I think that all of the stories of Iraqis surrendering to reporters, drones etc has made them a little lax in dealing with the enemy, and ripe for this type of false-surrender ambush ruse.

As you said, more recon by fire. Let them EARN their surrender, and at no risk to our forces.

[CindyDawg]

So how does this work? Do we have any idea where they are at? Will we try to go get them?

[Travis McGee]

I am still mortified. And thanks for continuing to respond to me.

[Travis McGee]

I think that there is little chance of them being sent to Bagdad, that is possible but unlikely. These are cut off and bypassed enemy units. Their rescue is now priority #1 for hundreds of the best trained and equipped specops troops and pararescuemen on the planet, they could very well be rescued quickly, if they have not been killed.

[af_vet_rr]

If these troops were taken in the rear, then it's clear (becoming more so all of the time) that what we are being told is not jiving with reality - that we have not secured these areas, or else the POWs we are releasing are coming back and hitting us.

What needs to be done is to stop releasing the POWs, and give up the "haul ass and bypass" doctrine they have. They are waiting on the 4th Armored from what it sounds like, to assault Baghdad. They should hold in place and send units to sweep back through areas behind them.

Umm Qasar proved this. If you watched it last night, you could see it clearly wasn't "secure".

[dnandell]

It is high time that our forces adopt the strategy of William Tecumseh Sherman and General George Patton.

Rolling devestation onward to Baghdad and then burn the f*cking city. Let's get Roman on their as*es.

The stories I've been hearing this morning, they deserve nothing less.

God Bless Our Soldiers!

[AmericanPhoenix911]

I think I fully understood your apology. We all do things sometimes in a fit of anger. Apology accepted...in full.

[concerned about politics]

EXCLUSIVE: US TROOPS CAPTURE CHEMICAL PLANT

(Jerusalem Post)

(Can't post the article. Just signed up for site access. Have to wait for e-mail)