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2012-03-12 Afghanistan
Afghanistan: Sacrificing Marines for the "Greater Good"?
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Posted by Hupaick Floter6362 2012-03-12 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ]  Top

#1 Oddly enough, the Major fouled up. It is never a good idea to take such complaints out of house. It will get you in trouble and will accomplish little.

The first thing the Major should have done was to inform higher command, in a dispassionate manner. If they are indifferent, or support the LTC's bad judgment, then the Major could totally nuke the LTC.

By telling the combat units on the ground who had expressed a willingness to sacrifice their lives for some vague "greater good".

That unit would be focused on getting rid of the LTC, one way or another, and combat personnel have ways of getting what they want.

Thus it would be the LTC on the hot seat, and the best he could hope for would be to have his career ruined and shipped out of theater. That is, if the unit didn't take it too personal.
Posted by Anonymoose 2012-03-12 10:41||   2012-03-12 10:41|| Front Page Top

#2 ...that's based upon the assumption that the 'chain' would act in the manner most of us would expect. However, I suspect deeply that the chain has been compromised to the PC side of the spectrum and not the purpose and function of a military.

Just my personal opinion but the entire senior officer corps needs to be read Article 99 of the UCMJ and specifically (8) and (9)...

Text. “Any member of the armed forces who before or in the presence of the enemy—

(8) willfully fails to do his utmost to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy any enemy troops, combatants, vessels, aircraft, or any other thing, which it is his duty so to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy; or

(9) does not afford all practicable relief and assistance to any troops, combatants, vessels, or aircraft of the armed forces belonging to the United States or their allies when engaged in battle; shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.”
Posted by Procopius2k 2012-03-12 10:54||   2012-03-12 10:54|| Front Page Top

#3 This shit has been going on for a long time. Viet Nam, at least. In OCS, in an artillery class, I asked how long from call for fire to rounds on the ground. Three minutes. Not long afterwards, in a class on restricted fire zones, somebody asked how long for authorization for supporting fires. An hour. Maybe never.
See Broughton, Thud Ridge and Going Downtown.
Posted by Richard Aubrey  2012-03-12 15:01||   2012-03-12 15:01|| Front Page Top

#4 I remember a tale from a Vietnam vet who was then, when I talked to him, a Sergeant Major.

He and his team had been fighting out in the jungle for months, in pretty vicious combat, and they noticed that it was taking longer and longer to get rations and resupply. He finally decided to apply some "moral suasion" via radio to the rear area supply NCO.

The supply NCO readily pointed the finger at a senior officer who for whatever illegitimate reason had been intentionally delaying their support.

So the combat NCO asked the supply NCO to put that officer on the radio, then leave the room and not look back, lest he be turned into a pillar of salt. He did so.

The end result was that the officer was so terrified for his own personal safety that the combat NCOs unit was sent double rations, along with a case of Michelob on ice and a handwritten note of apology.
Posted by Anonymoose 2012-03-12 19:19||   2012-03-12 19:19|| Front Page Top

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