"Attack gives Marines their first taste of war; For many, action in Afghanistan was crash course" by C.J. Chivers, New York Times | February 14, 2010
Hoo-ah! Hoo-ah, hoo-ah!!!!
MARJA, Afghanistan - The helicopters landed before dawn yesterday, alighting in a poppy field beside a row of mud-walled compounds. The Marines ran into the darkness and crouched through the rotor-whipped dust as their aircraft lifted away....
Just like in the movies, 'eh, NYT?
For the Marines of Company K, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, this was to be their first taste of war.
I'm full up on the stuff; overfull, in fact.
And an afternoon of small-arms combat was ahead.
Actually not according to my printed Sunday paper and this guy's NYT colleague.
But at first, these Marines, the vanguard for 6,000 NATO and Afghan troops streaming in to loosen the Taliban’s grip here permanently, met no resistance.
Will you guys please get your damn stories straight?
On the last miles of the ride in, the Marines were silent as the aircraft flew 200 feet above freshly sprouting poppy fields. Irrigation canals glittered beneath the portholes, rolling past fast.
The Marines did not know what to expect, beyond the fact that at least hundreds of insurgents were waiting for them, and that many would fight to keep their hold on this opium-poppy production center.
Pffft!
Company K is part of what many Marines call a surge battalion.... It arrived in Afghanistan a month ago, and had waited for this moment. Its introduction to the war was a crash course.
Oh, that can't be good for the efficiency of the operation and limiting civilian dead.
Papers will have to cover it up then.
Before the assault, Captain Joshua P. Biggers, Company K’s commander, had said that as many as 90 percent of the company’s Marines had not been in combat before.
Why do I hear the sound of unguided gunfire in the free-fire zone, readers?
Minutes after their helicopter touched down, the first Marines of Third Platoon were entering compounds to the landing zone’s north, checking for enemy fighters and booby traps. The rest of the platoon followed through the gate.
Sergeants and corporals urged a steady pace. “Go! Go! Go!’’ they said, spicing instructions with profanity.
Well, if it is GOOD ENOUGH FOR THEM then I see NO PROBLEM with ME USING IT, do you?
By 3 a.m., Company K had its toehold.
The company’s mission was to seize the area around the major intersection in northern Marja, clear a village beside it and hold it.
I don't like that kind of ethnic-cleansing talk. It implies piles of dead bodies and I always oppose that!
It was sent alone and out front into Taliban territory. It had to hold its area until other companies, driving over the ground and clearing hidden explosives from the roads, worked down from the northwest and caught up.
Second Platoon took a position to the west, to block Route 605, a main road. First Platoon was to the east, watching over another likely Taliban avenue of approach. Third Platoon gathered in the southernmost compounds, with orders to sweep north and clear the entire village....
The Marines had been told that ground reinforcements and fresh supplies might not reach them for three days.
WTF?
They have a 15-to-1 ratio in combat forces, far superior technology, and yet these guys are on their own for three days?
WhoTF PLANNED this damn thing?
So much for NO RESISTANCE, huh, readers?
Yeah, I AM FULL UP on the LIES, dammit!!!
This meant they had to carry everything they would need for that amount of time.
That must be ONE HEAVY FRIKKIN' PACK!!!
Welcome to the Marines, rookie!
At daybreak, Third Platoon bounded across one of its collapsible footbridges and into the village, and dropped its backpacks and extra equipment. The Taliban initially chose not to fight, and the company’s first sweeps were uneventful.
Aaah, I see.
About 8:30 a.m., they were finding signs of the Taliban. A sweep of one compound turned up fertilizer used to make explosives and cooking pots, which insurgents have often used as the shells of bombs.
Or it simply could have been a farmer's home (and probably was).
But it LOOKS BETTER if the MSM hollers "terrorists!"
At 10 a.m., the day changed. Taliban fighters probed Second Platoon, and a firefight erupted as the platoon moved toward the road. It subsided, but not before several Taliban fighters had been killed and the platoon had been fired on by small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.
At 12:40, fighting broke out for Third Platoon.
For almost three hours, Second and Third Platoons took sporadic fire from insurgents in several directions. At times the fighting was intense, and the gunfire rose and roared and snapped overhead.
You didn't check with Filkins, did you, C.J.?
The fight briefly quieted after a B-1 bomber dropped a 500-pound bomb on a compound near the landing zone, leveling most of the house there.
Yeah, leave the BOMBS on their innocent heads for the AFTERTHOUGHT PARAGRAPH, BG or NYT (as if it mattered).
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