[log in to unmask] wrote:
> *Thank you for sending us that. I have forwarded it to just about
> everybody I know.*
> *Please thank whoever sent it to you, both for sending it, and for
> being there and doing all that they are doing.*
Ralph,
We may thank my brother in Houston who was sent it from someone that I
suspect knows the author. Considering the subject and content of the
piece I have to say that Cynthia Kuehner is a good writer to pull it
off. The quality and detail alone of the piece give it the weight of
truth. A friend of mine was a nurse in Vietnam and wrote a collection of
short stories about her experiences. They don't quite grip like this
text does.
I've found myself being irritated over folks who make out that a
questioning of the current administration's actions and policies is
somehow equated with 1) not supporting our troops or their families or
2) a lack of patriotism. Our Marine in Qatar sent an on-the-scenes in
Iraq communication to me with the preliminary that, "I understand that
there are several of you back home that have your own opinion about the
war...you are all entitled. However, remember that while you sit and
criticize our nations leaders over coffee, that there are several men
and women that are putting their lives on the line...EVERYDAY!" I'm
really pissed that if for the short term political election a rhetoric
is pushed that will make the troops feel, as with the Vietnam
experience, that they are not appreciated at home. I sounded off with my
best buddy, I care about this kid, and we have it worked out. One thing
that I have learned in my old age is that the career military contains
some of the most effective pacifists that I have ever met. It took me a
long time to figure this out. Another thing that bothers me is when
radical conservatives steal away and co-op the flag as if it is only
their right to honor... just as much as it bothers me when the flag is
desecrated. What I find likewise odd is that the patriotic zealots don't
always know the rules of interface with a flag and that their ignorance
is a most dishonorable disrespect. A calendar with a flag with 18
stripes, or a Ralph Loren logo on a baseball cap without enough stripes
though in a well balanced mix of colors.
I got Dick Clark's book in audio, anybody interested in a copy?
I'm gonna go play with rectangles of backed clay and dirt in the front yard.
Irritated on a sunny day on Lung Island,
][<en
A Wrong Turn, Chaos and a Rescue
By Pamela Constable
FALLUJAH, Iraq, April 14 -- It began as a routine supply mission to the
front lines, in a volatile but largely becalmed city.
It ended as a fiery and chaotic rescue mission, with a small force of
Marine tanks, Humvees and ground troops surrounded and attacked as they
fought their way through a hostile neighborhood to save the crew of a
burning armored personnel carrier.
Marine officials said the three-hour battle that erupted at dusk Tuesday
on the streets of Fallujah, and was recounted Wednesday by several of the
key officers involved, exemplified the bravery and resourcefulness that
Marines are known for, even when surprised and surrounded by a host of
enemy fighters on alien urban turf. By the end of the tumultuous
encounter, the charred personnel carrier had been towed to safety by a
tank and most of its 17 crew members -- several of them wounded -- had
been rescued from a house where they had taken shelter.
But the incident also revealed some startling facts about the
insurgency that the Marines are facing here, officers said. More
dramatically than any armed confrontation since U.S. forces surrounded
Fallujah nine days ago, it showed the tenacity, coordination, firepower
and surprisingly large numbers of anti-American guerrillas who still
dominate much of the city.
"We definitely stumbled into a wasps' nest. They were definitely a lot
more organized than we thought," said Capt. Jason Smith, 30, commander of
the company whose armored supply vehicle made a wrong turn into insurgent
territory and was immediately inundated by gunfire and rocket-propelled
grenades from all sides.
Marine officials here said offensive operations in Fallujah would remain
suspended, extending a pause that was ordered Friday to allow civilians to
leave the city and let political leaders in Fallujah and Baghdad attempt
to negotiate a solution to the conflict.
Just before dawn Wednesday, however, AC-130 Spectre gunships launched a
devastating punitive raid over a six-block area around the spot where the
convoy was attacked, firing dozens of artillery shells that shook the city
and lit up the sky. Marine officials said the area was virtually destroyed
and that no further insurgent activity had been seen there.
According to accounts by Smith and two other officers, a supply convoy
of Humvees was heading toward a command post at the edge of a
Marine-controlled industrial zone around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday when it came
under small-arms fire. The convoy backtracked, and its cargo was shifted
to two Marine amphibious assault vehicles, which resumed the mission.
Those carriers were hit by rocket-propelled grenades, known as RPGs.
One turned back toward friendly territory, but the other caught fire and
the driver lost his way in the unfamiliar neighborhood. Suddenly, the crew
encountered a large number of armed men milling in the streets. Within
minutes, they were being attacked from all sides.
"They started taking RPG fire and tried to get out of the area, but we
lost communication with them," Smith said. "Their engine was on fire and
they were heading away from our zone. . . . I saw a huge plume of smoke
and I knew something was very wrong."
Officers dispatched a quick-reaction squad whose members had already been
in battle earlier Tuesday. While guarding the site of a helicopter crash
in a marshy area southeast of the city that morning, the outfit was
ambushed by insurgents.
The rescue squad rushed four tanks and six Humvees to the area, where
they fought their way through several blocks to reach the burning carrier.
Surrounded by 25 Marine riflemen on foot, the armored vehicles advanced,
firing machine guns from their turrets. Overhead, Air Force attack planes
repeatedly strafed the area. Marine officials here said at least 20
insurgents were shot dead during the fighting.
"Within the first 500 meters, we were shooting 360 degrees," said Lt.
Joshua Glover, 25, who commanded the rescue force. "When we finally saw
the [armored personnel carrier], it was a piece of burning metal."
The carrier's crew had managed to escape and had taken shelter in the
nearest house, where they were pummeled with gunfire from the surrounding
houses. Under covering fire from U.S. tanks and planes, Glover's team was
able to get the crew into Humvees and race off to safety.
"People were tossing grenades from the houses on either side," Glover
said. "I could hear small-arms fire, and I even saw people running across
the street to try and enter the house." He and Smith said they saw only
armed men in the area.
Senior Marine officials here, who plan to seek commendations for valor
for four men involved the rescue mission, said the most important aspect
of the incident was the courage that the Marines displayed in battling
their way through heavy fire to reach the disabled carrier and rescue its
crew.
"This is a story about heroes. It shows the tenacity of the Marines and
their fierce loyalty to each other," said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne,
commander of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. "They were absolutely
unwilling to leave their brother Marines behind."
At the Marine base in Fallujah and at command posts along the front
lines Wednesday, troops recounted the rescue story to one another,
relishing every detail and braced by the display of fighting spirit during
what, for many Marines, has been a period of frustration and inactivity
since Friday, when offensive operations were halted.
But Smith and other officers said the incident also offered sobering
insights into the sophistication and size of the insurgent force, which
the Marines have characterized as a combination of Iraqis loyal to toppled
president Saddam Hussein, foreign Islamic guerrillas and local criminals.
In the past several days, Marines have also recovered hundreds of
weapons, including rocket launchers, machine guns, sniper rifles and
explosive belts for suicide bombers, while searching the deserted
industrial zone. Many of the weapons were wrapped in plastic and buried
under sand piles or other debris, suggesting they had been hidden some
time ago for use in battle.
Until Tuesday's firefight, moreover, the Marines here had never been
attacked by more than five or six insurgents at once, Smith said. This
time, when the personnel carrier strayed just a few blocks into enemy
territory, "there were 50 to 100 guys. It took a great deal of fire for us
to get there, and I saw much more coordination than anything I seen
before," he said.
"They've been preparing for this the whole time."
--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
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