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2004-01-05 Iraq

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Posted by Chuck Simmins 2004-01-05 9:20:40 AM|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 The first big group of American women soldiers - the stories they will tell, the role models they will be.

Posted by Anonymous2u 2004-1-5 11:26:37 AM|| 2004-1-5 11:26:37 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Since Broadwell wasnât quite tall enough to see through the weaponâs sight, she was gauging the accuracy of her fire with tracer rounds

So what's she doing assigned as a gunner? You'd think there'd be an ammo can to stand on or something. What's next, drivers that can't reach the pedals, blind pilots?

She collapsed inside the vehicle and credits her driver, Spec. Woodrow Lyell, with treating her wounds and, more important, calming her down.

Not sure that was the appropriate thing to do - mission, man, self and all. My vote would be to man the turret while the bullets are flying. Consider Sgt. Smith at the Baghdad Airport: http://www.sfcpaulsmith.com/seite2.htm
But then, I'm ex-Navy (man your battle station 'till the bitter end). Any input from you former grunts?

For two days afterward, Broadwell couldnât sleep. She couldnât eat. "All I could do," she says, "was sit back and cry."

Not sure how that goes over as a role model (sustained combat operations, anyone?).

Out on the street, a combat medic, 25-year-old Sgt. Misty Frazier of Hayden Lake, Idaho, found herself dodging bullets and running from wounded soldier to wounded soldier in a way she can hardly believe in retrospect. "Thatâs the first time I had ever heard gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades go off that close, knowing they were shooting at us," she said. "I was very lucky."

Gotta give credit to the medics. Just look at the number of MOH awards to medics in 'Nam. http://www.army.mil/cmh/Moh1.htm.

Posted by not a troll 2004-1-5 12:51:28 PM|| 2004-1-5 12:51:28 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 not: She wouldn't be the first soldier to shake a little after a fierce engagement. As a firefighter and then an EMT, I do it myself. The "Oh, shit!' moments take a toll on everyone. Not all combat, firefighting, EMTing is like that, but when you crawl out of a 1,000 degree fire or get back to the base after working a code, it's different. This was a half hour of hell in a very small place, and she has a right to shake a little. The one's that don't, we have a name for them. We call them "dead", cause they will be, sooner or later.

Posted by Chuck Simmins 2004-1-5 1:30:47 PM|| [http://blog.simmins.org] 2004-1-5 1:30:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 Man, we need an mp3 of "Girls With Guns" playing in the background here!

Hoo-rah, girls!

Posted by Ed Becerra 2004-1-5 2:41:32 PM|| 2004-1-5 2:41:32 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 I suspect women combat veterans will be more forthright and honest about their reactions to their violent experiences than the men have been. My dad never would talk about his screaming nightmares after riding out kamikaze attacks on his troopship in 1945, and he was just a passenger. I learned about that from my mother. He was a changed man after his WWII experiences, and not for the better.

Posted by Tresho 2004-1-5 3:09:49 PM|| 2004-1-5 3:09:49 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Training kicks in for the firefight - you start fighting just as you were trained to do. "You fight like you train" is so true. That and I remember anger - I was pissed these "rag headed m*f*ers" [my words at the time] were shooting at me and my guys. I imagine that gunner was going through the same thing.

But afterwards, well, they dont have any training for that. I'll admit shaking like a leaf *after* my first time, and the second and third. I never faced a 4th, so I don't know if it gets any easier. I do know that afterward it does hit you, not bad for some people but hard for others.

Especially when after the firefight, we rolled by the guys we killed. Severed limbs, heads burst open, guts spilled on the sand. The stuff stays with you, especially when you personally were pulling the triggers. The anger drops, the adrenelin runs out, the brain starts working normally again, and you realize that you could have been killed, that you were getting shot at (somehow that doesnt sink in when you are fighting, not in the same way). And, if you were raised the way I was, you realized that you just broke one big thing that marks you out of the civilized world: you've killed other humans - and did so without a care at the time. And killed them in a pretty gruesome way.

Hindsight is always clearer. This is true for combat too - and being clearer cuts both ways. I can still clearly remember the smell of burning oil, cordite, etc. Blown up APCs have a distinct smell, as do the bodies burning in them.

But you live, you move on. My father's generation did it in WW2, my step-brother's generation manged in Vietnam despite all the crap thrown their way by politicians and the left, my generation has done it in Panama, and the Gulf I, and this current bunch will do it as well.

As the years go by, the dreams come less frequently. There is something to be said for becoming older and a bit forgetful.

Posted by OldSpook 2004-1-5 4:11:48 PM|| 2004-1-5 4:11:48 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 "All I could hear was that SAW going off. She seemed so calm. It was three- to five-shot bursts, like she was taught."

Train like you fight, fight like you train. She did just fine. Well done, Soldier.

Posted by Steve 2004-1-5 4:12:54 PM|| 2004-1-5 4:12:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Thanks, OS, for that description. It is as elequoent as I have seen. Life layers over the bad stuff we endure, whether it is combat or some other jarring experience. You have my gratitude for your service.

Posted by remote man 2004-1-5 5:33:35 PM|| 2004-1-5 5:33:35 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 There is something to be said for becoming older and a bit forgetful.

To be an absolute cynic OS, the State Department requires it to be so.

Posted by Shipman 2004-1-5 6:27:00 PM|| 2004-1-5 6:27:00 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 But - did she take names?

Posted by mojo 2004-1-5 6:28:47 PM|| 2004-1-5 6:28:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 This thread about the effects of killing on a soldier reminded me of an article that TU3031 posted back in October. The Yahoo linlk no longer works ,but goggling Army Master Sgt. Tony Pryor may lead to a first hand account of how a special operator deals with a grissly task. Here is a sample:

"Whatever digging, scratching, biting, hair-pulling, ear-ripping-off whatever you got to do to get the job done, thatâs what you do," Pryor says, explaining actions that night that won him the Silver Star for heroism and saved the lives of other team members in the compound. "Because, bottom line, I got a life at home. They (his comrades) got a life at home. And weâre coming home." America is lucky to have these brave mea and women.

Posted by Super Hose 2004-1-5 9:50:54 PM|| 2004-1-5 9:50:54 PM|| Front Page Top

02:25 Anonymous
00:52 Phil Fraering
00:21 Jennie Taliaferro
00:10 Phil Fraering
23:47 Jennie Taliaferro
23:38 Anonymous
23:32 JenLArt
23:32 Lucky
23:28 Lucky
23:15 Lucky
23:11 Fred
23:04 El Id
23:03 War46
22:39 Steve White
22:25 Fred
22:20 Fred
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22:04 Carl in NH
21:57 Alan Sullivan
21:57 Pedantic Carl in NH
21:54 Super Hose
21:50 Super Hose
21:48 RW2004
21:45 tu3031