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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (21088)	3/11/2002 6:05:48 AM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The soldiers were unprepared for the subfreezing temperatures at 10,000 feet — some said they hadn't even brought sleeping bags. They spoke of staying awake at night and sleeping by day when it was warmer. the apparent lack of Spectre gunship support Hawk, my total line unit time is only a few months and that was not in combat...so i don't really like to speak about infantry unit procedures. from an SF point of view...sleeping days and fighting nights is preferred. every firefight i ever participated in anywhere...there was always at least one piece of equipment i needed but failed to bring. as far as supporting fires...i.e. spooky, mortars, tacair, etc., the only time an sf soldier thinks the supporting fires are adequate is when he walks across a battlefield of dead men all killed by the support...a line soldier who watches the enemy getting prepared for his assault, after fires have been lifted, is always going to think he did not get sufficient support. besides line unit commanders do not get to determine how much support they get...they request it but a higher command prioritizes the requests. fighting a well supplied, entrenched enemy is the most difficult and most hazardous form of infantry combat. sometimes our line officers do know what they are doing...we had troops sleeping at night in sleeping bags slaughtered in korea. none of that in afghani. also, the combat losses were remarkably low and most of our KIAs were aircraft related...and not due to ground assaults. clearly some of our officers were looking out for our troops. i think we are just reading a reporter's account of a soldier exercising his right to bitch. after a hot shower, a steak dinner and a night between warm sheets, that soldier is going to realize that his unit accomplished the most difficult combat job, under horrible weather and terrain conditions and he and his buddies lived to fight another day. when that hits home he will quit bitching, be grateful and gladly call his LT sir. uw