MILITARY BASES IN HELMAND PROVINCE PLACED UNDER AFGHAN CONTROL AS BRITISH AND AMERICAN FORCES LEAVE AFTER 13 YEARS OF FIGHTING. 
Posted on 10/28/2014 8:35:03 PM PDT by Hojczyk
Afghanistan: President Obama's abrupt order to withdraw U.S. Marines from Helmand province with zero fanfare was an ill-fitting exit for U.S. forces after 13 years of sacrifice in the war's bloodiest theater. Is this the thanks they get?
No public acknowledgment from the White House. No official statements. No praise for extraordinary dedication or heroism. No proclamations of valor. And certainly nothing about victory.
Just a surprise order to abandon the two largest and most dangerous outposts of America's longest war, Camp Leatherneck and British-led Camp Bastion, side-by-side bases that at one time housed 40,000. The order came so fast that the Marines who had been there 13 years, and who put so much into it, didn't have "time to digest it," as one told the Wall Street Journal.
Because over the years, as the rest of us went about our daily lives, these courageous men and women were out on patrols in the baking sun over desolate badlands, suffering long separations from loved ones and enduring the alternating boredom and terror of combat with a depraved, Dark Age enemy and its drug lord allies.
Some of the bloodiest battles were waged in Helmand. The U.S. lost more than 350 in combat there and the British about 450, nearly a fifth of the war's total losses. Meanwhile, the injured returned home to bureaucratic insult, as they sought help from a behemoth Veterans Administration that Obama vowed to reform but didn't.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
I detested President Clinton. I hate Obama. May God forgive me, but I absolutely hate him.
...”We may not think much of the Repukes, but they’re now going to be on the spot to stop Obama’s reckless overreaches and executive thrashing of the Constitution....He’d really better watch it, or he’s going to push the American people to a place none of us wants to go. “....
I miss my country...ya know...I don’t know how to see it now other than it’s something else.
...”I detested President Clinton. I hate Obama. May God forgive me, but I absolutely hate him”...
I struggle with that hatred I find in myself toward this administration..and Obama....but I’ve learned to accept that since God hates sin I can hate equally as much that which Obama has and is doing against our country....he has a choice to do the right thing and he’s doing it all wrong.. for the country and it’s people...also a choice.
I wish the pressure on him would be so great he’d resign outright....
I’m surprised Obola didn’t just run up the ISIS flag as our troops pulled out.
He doesn’t care. The GOPe have proven that they are spineless. If he grants amnesty it will never be undone. The Republic is done.
MILITARY BASES IN HELMAND PROVINCE PLACED UNDER AFGHAN CONTROL AS BRITISH AND AMERICAN FORCES LEAVE AFTER 13 YEARS OF FIGHTING.
Unfortunately the only thing in doubt is how long it will take for everything to go to hell.
Only if you and I are unwilling to fight for it.
Marines waiting for departure
I know it will not be easy, in fact it will be very hard. We will fight and prevail but the cost will be great, of course.
This isn't the first time and many have given all
Sad that we have so few on the national front willing to do what is right.
The U.S. military is leaving behind about $230 million worth of property and equipment — including a major airstrip at the base, plus roads and buildings — for the Afghan military.
"We gave them the maps to the place. We gave them the keys," said Col. Doug Patterson, a Marine brigade
"Afghan National Army 2015 Corps"
An Afghan National Army officer assigned to the 215th Corps receives his graduation certificate during a ceremony on Camp Shorabak, Helmand province, Afghanistan, March 28, 2013. The graduation ceremony was being held for the approximately 700 ANA soldiers graduating from the basic warrior course.
Yes
Required reading for all Patriotic Freepers........
Describing what it is working along side Us Troops in Aphganistan.....from A French Troops persepective.
...”We have shared our daily life with two US units for quite a while – they are the first and fourth companies of a prestigious infantry battalion whose name I will withhold for the sake of military secrecy.......
To the common man it is a unit just like any other. But we live with them and got to know them, and we henceforth know that we have the honor to live with one of the most renowned units of the US Army – one that the movies brought to the public as series showing “ordinary soldiers thrust into extraordinary events”.
Who are they, those soldiers from abroad, how is their daily life, and what support do they bring to the men of our OMLT every day ? Few of them belong to the Easy Company, the one the TV series focuses on. This one nowadays is named Echo Company, and it has become the support company.
They have a terribly strong American accent – from our point of view the language they speak is not even English. How many times did I have to write down what I wanted to say rather than waste precious minutes trying various pronunciations of a seemingly common word? Whatever state they are from, no two accents are alike and they even admit that in some crisis situations they have difficulties understanding each other.
Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins and creatine – they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them – we are wimps, even the strongest of us – and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans.
Here we discover America as it is often depicted : their values are taken to their paroxysm, often amplified by promiscuity lack of privacy and the loneliness of this outpost in the middle of that Afghan valley.
... Honor, motherland – everything here reminds of that : the American flag floating in the wind above the outpost, just like the one on the post parcels. Even if recruits often originate from the hearth of American cities and gang territory, no one here has any goal other than to hold high and proud the star spangled banner.
.... Each man knows he can count on the support of a whole people who provides them through the mail all that an American could miss in such a remote front-line location : books, chewing gums, razorblades, Gatorade, toothpaste etc. in such way that every man is aware of how much the American people backs him in his difficult mission. And that is a first shock to our preconceptions : the American soldier is no individualist. The team, the group, the combat team are the focus of all his attention.
And they are impressive warriors ! We have not come across bad ones, as strange at it may seem to you when you know how critical French people can be.... Even if some of them are a bit on the heavy side, all of them provide us everyday with lessons in infantry know-how. ...
....Beyond the wearing of a combat kit that never seem to discomfort them (helmet strap, helmet, combat goggles, rifles etc.) the long hours of watch at the outpost never seem to annoy them in the slightest. On the one square meter wooden tower above the perimeter wall they stand the five consecutive hours in full battle rattle and night vision goggles on top, their sight unmoving in the directions of likely danger. No distractions, no pauses, they are like statues nights and days. At night, all movements are performed in the dark – only a handful of subdued red lights indicate the occasional presence of a soldier on the move. Same with the vehicles whose lights are covered – everything happens in pitch dark even filling the fuel tanks with the Japy pump.
And combat ? ....If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all – always coming to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest delay.... That is one of their tricks : they switch from T-shirt and sandals to combat ready in three minutes. .......Arriving in contact with the ennemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting : they just charge ! They disembark and assault in stride, they bomb first and ask questions later – which cuts any pussyfooting short.
We seldom hear any harsh word, and from 5 AM onwards the camp chores are performed in beautiful order and always with excellent spirit..... A passing American helicopter stops near a stranded vehicle just to check that everything is alright; an American combat team will rush to support ours before even knowing how dangerous the mission is – from what we have been given to witness, the American soldier is a beautiful and worthy heir to those who liberated France and Europe.
To those who bestow us with the honor of sharing their combat outposts and who everyday give proof of their military excellence, to those who pay the daily tribute of America’s army’s deployment on Afghan soil, to those we owned this article, ourselves hoping that we will always remain worthy of them and to always continue hearing them say that we are all the same band of brothers”.
Thank you I posted his words for all to see and to have an open copy for historical purposes here on FR. As you said I would love it.... and did! So will other Freepers.
Working with the French Army
09Jul13:
http://chrishernandezauthor.com/2013/07/09/working-with-the-french-army/
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