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Apparently you are correct that no squad was the first to reach the Pakistan border in that district less than 1000 strong as you claimed - and when they did they all landed 1000 all together at the Pakistan border. Or at least one person completely agrees with you that is indisputable fact.
They didn't land at the border. Nor did anyone walk there "village by village" from where they were landing. Take a look at a fricking map.
And Operation Moshtarak involved over 15,000 servicemembers. So yeah. "Thousands".
Helmand (hel-MUND; Pashto/Balochi: هلمند) or Hillmand[2] is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the south of the country. It is one of the largest, covering 58,584 square kilometres (20,000 sq mi) area. The province contains 14 districts, encompassing over 1,000 villages, and roughly 1.4 million settled and nomadic people.[1] Lashkar Gah serves as the provincial capital.
Hey congratulations on a really awesome copy/paste job. I notice that you left out the distance between Marjeh and the Pakistani Border, or what the terrain is like there as well as the size of a battalion area of operations.
You have us mixed up. It is CPWILL that claims no small units are ever sent out. The account I gave was of a Marine who lead a squad doing exactly what you said is done. To root them out in remote, rugged terrain. On foot. Small unit. Carrying only small arms.
Whatever he did certainly got some people's attention. His parents are friends with my wife's parents, and her father is their family minister. They had not wanted him to go into the Marines for the reason he was - to literally within the legal context of war hunt and kill people. That was his specific reason. And I know him well enough to know is someone ideally suited to do so. A hunter since a young child. 4.0 smart. State wrestling champ, though not a big guy. Had a couple bigger brothers who'd beat him up, until it came where he could. A natural leader.
He was offered a high paying position training special ops teams - to train them, not lead them - as this to become an increasing direction the military is headed - to take out specific persons and targets including when drones can't get the job done. His family thought he should accept it. He turned it down. That he had done what he set out to do and has no intention of putting up with all the BS he'd have to put up with in such a position. what exactly do you think this guy could teach a SOF unit. Do you really think his self taught hunting skills are more than they teach at any of the SOF sniper skills. Give me a break.
He stated (repeating it) "that Marines walk into battle." I suspect the picture you showed is exactly what he and his squad did, though in his words they preferred to move to small village to small village as temp. base of operation. He wanted the "outsiders" (enemy/insurgents) to see them as vulnerable - particularly at night - but that they actually did most their hunting at night - adding the advantage that they had night vision gear. Most their kills occurred at night. Post like this prove you have no idea how the military functions. No one anywhere close to being fresh out of basic is leading any sort of patrol. The military has a very strict rank structure as well as rules as to what rank you must be to be in any positions.
Is anyone saying that the military never deployed such tactics? To send out search-and-destroy patrols that stayed out more than a few hours? The army would show up as would air support time to time. He said that the army just screwed up their relationship with the locals and when air power showed up they were wasting their time as the enemy would just go into hiding. His view was that if his squad was seen as alone, undermanned and without support then the insurgents were more likely to try to ambush or take them on. The challenge - to his mind - was not successfully killing the enemy. It was getting the enemy to come out of hiding and fleeing to engage them. He also had some tactics to get local villages to give them info of who and where to hunt. Yes the military does conduct patrols like that but they are nut run by as you put it a bunch of troublemakers who they put together at basic and sent on a suicide mission. The military will not let any squad operate for any extended time without control and contact of that unit. For that you need Comms which require batteries as do things like nods which must be hard to come by seeing as you said earlier they didn't get resupplied. And just so we are clear no squad no matter who is in it picks and chooses which village they go to or how they operate. A squad has almost no imput into how they conduct ops. That is why you have things like platoon leaders. Just the fact that you might believe a bs story like this just proves you know absolutely nothing about the military
CPWILLs claims it fact that our military never does anything that doesn't involve the movement of at least 1000 troops as a unit. I say that's BS.
Lets drop this personal stuff and get back on topic.
Seeing as you keep repeating this bs story lets just see if we can point out some of the more out there claims. To start let's look at some of the things you claimed earlier. This guy was supposedly picked out off boot camp because he was a trouble maker and also because he was such a bad ass. No one is picked from basic to go to some super secret unit. There is no chance in basic to prove how awesome you are because just as the name implies everything they teach in basic is basic. There are no complicated missions where you can show off your skills. Everything there is tightly controlled and instructor run. Second elite units are not looking for troublemakers. In fact being one will get you kicked out. SOF units need people they can count on.
The last thing I will bring up is how you commented earlier that somehow you badass friend was using a hunting rifle. You do know that no one outside of certain SOF units has any say so at all to what weapon they use. If he was an infantryman he was using a m16, m4, 249 or a 240. The military does not say well this guy is a bad ass hunter lets give him a hunting rifle. Give me a break you are clueless.
Seeing as you keep repeating this bs story lets just see if we can point out some of the more out there claims. To start let's look at some of the things you claimed earlier. This guy was supposedly picked out off boot camp because he was a trouble maker and also because he was such a bad ass. No one is picked from basic to go to some super secret unit. There is no chance in basic to prove how awesome you are because just as the name implies everything they teach in basic is basic. There are no complicated missions where you can show off your skills. Everything there is tightly controlled and instructor run. Second elite units are not looking for troublemakers. In fact being one will get you kicked out. SOF units need people they can count on.
The last thing I will bring up is how you commented earlier that somehow you badass friend was using a hunting rifle. You do know that no one outside of certain SOF units has any say so at all to what weapon they use. If he was an infantryman he was using a m16, m4, 249 or a 240. The military does not say well this guy is a bad ass hunter lets give him a hunting rifle. Give me a break you are clueless.
Good idea.
Its worth mentioning that women have a lower survivability with severe injury. They have weaker bones, less blood, less iron, less connective tissue (skin breaks easier), and less cardiovascular reserve. This means an injured female will have less time until irreversible shock, and frankly death.
Ive also read that females have greatly increased rates of UTI's and yeast infections when actively deployed-these aren't life threatening but they are new problems and can easily take a female out of a fight.
Does basic training ever filter enlistees into various roles?
That some are not suited for frontline combat, but still usable. Others are for regular usage
Others have particular skills. You say NEVER. I see nothing to back that up, nor does that make any sense. Advancement and assign in the military is not by random drawing lots as you seemingly believe.
All your view means is that they never anything particularly special or skillful about you.
No. You have one "specialized role" that you can identify. It is "the guy who marches in the front of the formation when they go somewhere", which they call a squad leader, who is a trainee like anyone else and exercises zero authority or power. In boot camp you are stripped of decision-making, you go and do exactly where and what you are told. Nor are there war games to deny orders in, for that matter.
That is part of your contract, which is signed well before you get to Boot Camp. Once you leave Boot Camp and go on to your MOS school you may be selected for variations within the MOS you are assigned. For example, I went on a standard UH (infantry) contract, and once I reached SOI was assigned to the 0351 Assaultman package.
No, it is about time and performance. For example, the highest rank that you can enter the Marine Corps is a Private First Class. 9 months later, you are a Lance Corporal. In the infantry, you may very well get out at this rank, hence the "Terminal Lance Corporal", but as time goes on your cutting score increases and you may pick up Corporal or Sergeant. "Squad Leader" is a Sergeant Billet. A Sergeant in the Infantry is usually either at the very end of his first contract (if he is awesome), or in his second and/or third. However, the billets can be filled by Corporals as needed, who are also usually near the end of their first term.
:lol: as opposed to Rambo McNorris, your buddy.
No. You have one "specialized role" that you can identify. It is "the guy who marches in the front of the formation when they go somewhere", which they call a squad leader, who is a trainee like anyone else and exercises zero authority or power. In boot camp you are stripped of decision-making, you go and do exactly where and what you are told. Nor are there war games to deny orders in, for that matter.
That is part of your contract, which is signed well before you get to Boot Camp. Once you leave Boot Camp and go on to your MOS school you may be selected for variations within the MOS you are assigned. For example, I went on a standard UH (infantry) contract, and once I reached SOI was assigned to the 0351 Assaultman package.
No, it is about time and performance. For example, the highest rank that you can enter the Marine Corps is a Private First Class. 9 months later, you are a Lance Corporal. In the infantry, you may very well get out at this rank, hence the "Terminal Lance Corporal", but as time goes on your cutting score increases and you may pick up Corporal or Sergeant. "Squad Leader" is a Sergeant Billet. A Sergeant in the Infantry is usually either at the very end of his first contract (if he is awesome), or in his second and/or third. However, the billets can be filled by Corporals as needed, who are also usually near the end of their first term.
:lol: as opposed to Rambo McNorris, your buddy.
Only a fool does not understand all military rifles also can be called a hunting rifle. I gather you are an anti gun-freak who claims they are OMG! "ASSAULT RIFLES" that have no other usage. He stated he saw himself as hunting and accordingly referred to his rifle as his hunting rifle. He saw his rifle as for the purpose of hunting down the enemy on patrol. I'm confident you saw yours as only for the purpose of cleaning for inspection.
Does basic training ever filter enlistees into various roles? That some are not suited for frontline combat, but still usable. Others are for regular usage. Others have particular skills. You say NEVER. I see nothing to back that up, nor does that make any sense. Advancement and assign in the military is not by random drawing lots as you seemingly believe. All your view means is that they never saw anything particularly special or skillful about you so you remained just one of the generic herd. Go on to explain there are not such thing as special ops either, and if so they are randomly selected.
YOU SHOULD GO START A THREAD OF YOUR VIEW ENTITLED: "MILITARY ASSAULT RIFLES ARE NOT HUNTING RIFLES!" and then continue with some anti-gun rant.
His primary complaint about the Marines and military in general is not washing out people such as you express yourself to be. His view was the military in terms of ground troops should be limited only to the very best - and everyone else is a liability and handicap. He would have washed you out of his small squad quickly.
Leaders are those who aren't just passive followers of the pack relying on time-senority. I know that fella. He's the diametric opposite of your views, and I do believe such skills and leadership abilities, plus initiative, are exactly what the Marines are watching for. There are 10,000,000 potential enlistees like you. Not many like him. I know many who were in military service. None others like him.
The scuttlebutt is, that the Chinese Chemical Warfare Corps are already working on a vaginal yeast bomb to be used against our infantry if liberal social engineering continues with in our military and women are allowed to serve as grunts.
Civilians with in the DOD will probably come up with a "Yeast Infection in Combat Medal" to be rated above the Purple Heart.
Yeah. Also apparently he refused orders during a war game in boot camp (they don't run war games in Boot Camp - at most you learn contact front, contact left, contact right, a few hand and arm signals, and how to cross a danger area), and had an entire platoons' worth of M203's in his squad, over which he had control as far as who got assigned. You know, because First Sergeants really reach down and ask recent graduates from Boot Camp how to assign people to rifle squads.
Sorry nice try but you are the one who said he had a semi auto weapon. And guess what regular infantry do not have any semi auto rifles.
To join a special unit there are more or less set in stone routes to take. They all involve trying out in that units selection program and meeting that units standards. No SOF units standard is to be a badass in basic. And no one gets into those units without meeting those standards or skipping selection. In my job I have worked overseas with almost every other SOF element and none of them are picked right out of basic.
Please show me where I said advancement is random. It is based on meeting requirements such as time in service and passing boards not being a badass. you obviously have no idea what being a leader in the military is.
I love how you are being showed to be clueless about the military and your comeback is to insult me. But you are right there is nothing skillful or special about me. That is why I have spent the last 6 years and 4 combat deployments in Special Operations. Oh and you are right that I only use my rifle for inspections that and also being the honor grad at my Special Forces Sniper Course.
And as to your friend kicking me out of his squad seeing as you implied he only had a small stay in the Marines I can guarantee I out rank him so I don't really see that happening. Nice try though
I know that message is false. There is no chance they would send Marines into a combat zone with NO small unit engagement games. That would be absurd. There were points in time during Iraq and Afghanistan that upon completion of boot camp those enlistees were almost immediately sent to combat. Whether he did that at boot camp itself or something right after boot camp, I dunno. I didn't make a transcript of what he said.
But you view that a person has to be in the Marines for a couple years before sent out and leading a small squad is just wrong. Most who enlisted were in and out in 2, 3 at the most. I think he was in for 3, but not sure.
I do not believe you. He said none of their rifles except one was full auto. I don't remember if he said it was 3-burst or not. But not full auto. Another former Marine also said he did not have full auto. If there are anyone who was in the Marines in the range of about 2-3ish years ago, they can answer whether full autos were standard issue or not. I suppose I could have misunderstood him. I do know his view is that full autos are worthless for the situation he was in, no more useful than would be a full auto rifle for hunting. I do not believe you are special ops or a sniper school grad. I believe you think you are.
You guys should at least first maybe PM each other to try to get your collective attack consistent.
CPWILL claims the military NEVER has any unit in combat that moves in numbers less than 1000 strong, that the minimal group size in the Hellmand District of Afghanistan was 15,000 - and that American troops NEVER reached the Pakistan border nor ever left 1 city in that District.
Others of you are claiming that service members head out in small "over the wire" for weeks at a time without any support, no supply and even no possible medevac. Why don't you all pick ONE story and stick to it. Then make your case that I don't know anything.
What you seem not to understand is that every position in the military is for a certain rank. For instance a squad leader in the Marines is CPL or a SGT and the team SGT of a ODA is a MSG. Not a guy who was a badass a basic