Posted on 03/22/2002 1:25:31 AM PST by kattracks
I thought the same thing. I did my advanced jarhead training at Coronado where the SEALS train. I thought WE were badasses until I saw these guys.
Thank you. This can be a very delicate subject to discuss.
"Tell my boy when I am gone how I felt & wrote. Tell him never to do anything which his father would be ashamed of - never forget the principles for which his father struggled."--J.E.B. Stuart to his wife, 19 March 1863
Aviation Boatswain Mate (AB)
Then he fell. He was attmpting to save a life. He's a hero in my book.
I have not seen the video and I will say only that no members of the TEAMS have ever surrendered.
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
Wow. Absolutely breathtaking - a keen observation, a comfort too many take for granted. She should be immensely proud of this man.
Damn Few.
(Have what it takes)
His survival instinct in high gear, Roberts a married father of a toddler son grabbed a machine gun from a felled commando nearby,...
He opened fire with the machine gun and a pistol on the enemy fighters around him until he ran out of ammunition.
Roberts, 32, then stood and threw all his grenades before being cut down by enemy fire.
A terrible situation handled very courageously.
Well done, Neil Roberts.
Neil Roberts, the Navy SEAL Petty Officer who was killed in the fighting for Shah-I-Khot south of Gradez was initially reported in the press to have fallen out of a maneuvering helicopter, been captured then executed by Al Quida/Taliban forces.
The SF community is getting another version (an excerpt below) in a letter circulating around from one of Roberts' SEAL comrades. That version has Roberts fighting for about an hour after falling out of the helicopter and being mortally shot before the Al-Quida/Taliban got to him. Guys on the scene have named the ridge where he was killed Robert's Ridge and there is clearly a move afoot to get his Bronze Star upgraded.
"Supposedly...as the helo was on final, it came under fire. An air-crewman fell off the back ramp and was dangling by his tether. Neil reached down to pull him back in. An RPG hit the nose of the helo (didn't explode) and the pilot subsequently made an evasive maneuver. Neil tumbled out (the air-crewman may have also mistakenly pulled Neil out while Neil was trying to recover him or that may have not even of happened - doesn't matter - bottom line, Neil fell from about 10ft and was on the ground alone). It is unclear as to whether or not the guys on board the helo knew that they lost a man. Helo peeled away, developed hydraulic problems, and crash-landed about a click away.
Neil turns on his beacon and low crawls to a position under fire. Neil takes the offensive, firing and maneuvering against the enemy and allegedly storms a machine-gun nest. Neil was shot several times, but continued the fight. Apparently, the Predator video shows the mortal wound and Neil falls to the ground (~an hour after he fell from the helo). He had expended all of his ammo, both primary and secondary, as well as his grenades. The video has Neil point shooting with his pistol at very close ranges to the enemy. He was dead by the time the enemy arrived and dragged him off. Not sure on whether they intended to use Neil's body as a decoy for an ambush or as a bargaining chip or for another Somalia street dragging episode. Doesn't really matter.
Then the boys came. The force was a mix of operators and arrived about 2 hours later. As they expected, they encounter significant hostile fire, but returned fire immediately. Apparently, a lot of undisclosed heroics occurred that night and there was significant payback (and I mean significant). Several of our brothers were wounded, two of which were flown back to CONUS (one of whom may lose a foot). People are talking CMH level heroics -we'll see. After fierce fighting and a valiant rescue, Neil's body was recovered, as were the other dead, and all were evacuated.
Payback has continued in various ways and that is the stuff I can't go into. But rest assured, what comes around, is going around. Neil went down fighting and took many of those @^%$ with him (an unconfirmed number). The ridge upon which he died is now called Roberts Ridge.
He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star with a V and a Purple Heart. Neil is now SpecOps folklore and a legend in the Teams for the rest of eternity.
I agree with your overall assessment of what an honor court would determine. However, there is also the element of his acting promptly and without adequate safeguards for his own life to rescue the exposed tailgunner, who was dangling off the loading ramp. His action to retrieve his mate would likely land him a livesaving cite in peacetime surroundings, and here maybe a Good Conduct with V, or you could all roll it in together, which muddies things a bit, and you wind up somewhere about where you came out. His exposing himself -- and paying a high price for having done so -- to rescue his comrade in the face of the enemy can, I thought, possibly bring him up to a Navy Cross. Maybe they will handle it with a separate citation as noted above, or maybe they'll write the Big One, as you say, and then deny it and award the Navy Cross instead. That is still a very high honor, and appropriate, I think, under the circumstances. But let's wait on the military.
It's accepted as being a part of the occupational hazard,and if you are afraid of dying you are in the wrong line of work.
Yes, and the reason we lose good men under such circumstances is called "the wicked might of the enemy".
Were that all men were like him.
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