The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Frederick W. Benteen - Aug. 18th, 2005

Wild West Magazine | June 2001 | Steven M. Leonard

[Professional Engineer]

1930 Eastern Airlines begins passenger service

Air Rickenbacker

[Professional Engineer]

Hi miss Feather

[Professional Engineer]

Hiya Sam.

Long time no see.

[SAMWolf]

Snippy let me out of the dungeon for a few minutes this month. ;-)

[Professional Engineer]

Gonna have to talk with her boss about that

[Soaring Feather]

Hi PE,

Have you had your surgery yet?? I have forgotten when you said it was scheduled.

[GailA]

Good afternoon Snippy, Sam and ALL.

[Professional Engineer]

The gut sucking commences at 11:00am next Tuesday

[Soaring Feather]

UGH!! Same day surgery, right?

[Professional Engineer]

That's the plan. I'll be laid up FReeping for a few days afterward.

[snippy_about_it]

Good afternoon Gail.

[w_over_w]

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy?

If you do FReep afterwards and are on Benzodiazepines with an opiate . . . well . . . we'll know! ;^)

[Professional Engineer]

I'm sticking with vicodin and vodka.

[USMCBOMBGUY]

"Over there" GRRRRRRRR
Last nights show was so full of fallacies I don't even know where to begin.

I will start with the General coming to seeking them out to volentell them for the duty.
That type of job would be given to scout snipers.

Then the mission itself, trucks full of toilets? whatever, it wouldn't happen.

Then the portrayal of the General as the backassward pseudo roughneck with a room temperature IQ.
Although there are some not so bright officers out there, most are given administrative tasks to keep them out of operational decisions that may cost lives. Some not so bright ones get sent to oversee detention facilities and the like, not resulting in casualties just embarrassment.
Now if there was a real problem with the mortar attacks then the tubes themselves would have been located (easily) and destroyed (counter battery, air strike, ect).

If the spotter was thought to be held up in a house then it is a easy matter to roll down and check the house.

There was way more discussion about the morals of the mission then what would ever happen.
The squad leader would dictate, based on mission parameters of what action should be taken.

The Gals.........Grrrrrrrr, if I was a female in the military I would be pissed off (my wife is seeing red).

The ladies being sent off to draw fire, this is so far fetched I cant believe they really passed this crap off.
This would not happen, it is one thing to be ambushed on a convoy, but to be purposely send them to draw fire, that commander would be relieved faster then they could say equal opportunity.

There are to many other inaccuracies to list, I just wanted to vent on a few.
Overall, the troops are just not being portrayed accurately, the writers should be ashamed.
Grrrrrrr, that was the worst one yet, but not by much!

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. Thanks for the response. Sam was saying basically the same thing last night.

Tactics don't change that much from war to war! Heck, even I identified a few things I knew couldn't be portrayed correctly and I'm no soldier, just an armchair viewer with some common sense!

[snippy_about_it]

Gonna have to talk with her boss about that

I see Sam has gone to the Valin school of thought...blame someone else. :-)

[USMCBOMBGUY]

Great read, I think Benteen's attributes were discussed here before, I believe he was a solid commander, he had flaws but most commanders do.
The Little Bighorn debate will continue on as it has for decades. My take on it is that that Benteen acted responsibly, he saved what he could of the unit and choose defendable ground to stand on. If he would of blindly followed Custer his troops would have been slaughtered right along with Custer. The largest mistakes were made by Custer in his rush to engage.

[PzLdr]

What "rush to engage"? It's the Cavalry for Chris' Sake!. Custer struck a hot trail, and he followed it. He was under orders to make sure any hostiles [read all Indians not on reservations] did not escape. Custer intended to lay low on the 25th and attack at first light on the 26th. Reason for the change of plan? His rear elements made contact with some Sioux in the AM of the 25th . Custer thought they were warning the village. In point of fact, they were returning to a reservation after hunting buffalo with their relatives. [The Army's estimate of 800 warriors was accurate until late Spring when a lot of Sioux jumped the reservation for the summer hunt - a fact the Indian agents knew, but didn't pass on.]That left him with his orders - not to let them escape.

Custer conducted a combination meeting engagement, reconnaissance in force. Of the the three prongs in that operation, two failed in their mission, and based on John Gray's work, it is probable that Custer feinted at Medicine Coulee to take pressure off Reno. He succeeded too well. Neither Reno, nor Benteen did anything, including a feint, to take any pressure off Custer subsequently. They left that to Cpt. Weir.

I've always thought it odd that all the commentators who castigate Custer for attacking early never mention that Gibbon and Terry, who were to rendezvous with Custer on the 26th, showed up a day late. So if Custer had attacked on the 26th, as he planned, and in expectation of the other two columns from the north, he still would have gone in alone.

[Professional Engineer]

While getting her bath tonight, Bittygirl was experimenting with putting one finger after another, then her fist into the faucet to watch what happened. I didn't do this until I was five or so.

It would appear BG has the Knack

[Soaring Feather]

LOL and so she will be.