He was woken up right after the shooting occurred. Funny, the there has not been a peep from the locals...business as usual like it never happened. Unfortunately, I know from experience that the press takes one bit of information and makes the rest up!!!!!
This particular area is all Taliban. It is actually the birthplace of Mullah Omar and several Taliban leaders. In 10yrs. nobody has been able to make headway. During this deployment, those operating in this AO have been awarded more Purple Hearts than the rest of the Brigade combined.
The NCO’s with my son’s platoon all had previous deployments to Iraq....even they were unprepared for what lied ahead. The entire place is one big booby trap.
The villages for the most part were very unfriendly...it would not be uncommon to see a headless body in the middle of the courtyards for even talking to an American. I know people probably don’t want to hear it but, most of the kids were NOT like what we see on tv. They would pelt the soldiers with rocks, and instead of waving...they would mimic a throat slit. They even knew one kid was a lookout..they’d see him everywhere and then there would be contact. My own son’s COP started with 42 soldiers within 2 mos. they were down to 19. That was at the height of fighting season...my son said they never stopped coming. The frustrating part of it all was that you knew who the Taliban were, you knew where they were but you were defenseless to do anything...If we took WIA’s or KIA’s they were ordered to stay put....in the meantime they knew that the Taliban used this time to replant the IED’s and they had freedom of movement to launch again...it was like a dog chasing it’s tail.
Your friend is in my prayers.
How do we here at FR do something substantive to materially aid SSgt Bales and hs family. How do we start to form a nationwide support force?
Everything you described there is exactly what pushes a guy to say “screw this” and meter out some 5.56mm justice. I saw similar stuff in Iraq, but not to that extent.
It is beyond maddening.
Thank you for posting this information. This is exactly what I was thinking when this first happened. What a tough horrible situation our men are in over there. I will definitely say some prayers for the guys who are still there.