A Man and His Truck...
I've got to tell you that I do love our new ASVs. They are fantastic vehicles, and I feel 100% safer in them than I do in a HUMVEE. They are like baby tanks. The most impressive part is that they handle like a dream. What fun. In any case, I look forward to being able to use them more and more, especially given the mission they were built for.
I have to admit, I also like the idea of being the only sailor in the U.S. Navy who is qualified to drive the thing. Not only to drive it, but I teach Soldiers! Ha! What a great day for the Army! They are learning to drive their latest and greatest vehicles from the Navy...
That's my crew! What a fine crew they are... They make me feel old, they're both just kids.
This was taken while sitting inside the vehicle. The view is not as bad as you might think considering how tiny the windows are.
The smoke is all from the weapons... We were definatey lightin' 'em up!
A man and his truck... It's a beautiful thing.
A Big Brass Pair...
You know, one of the most shocking parts of war to me, is how much it relys on things you'd never expect... Like powerpoint presentations. Who the hell ever thought that a war would be fought and won through powerpoint? Well, it is. Generals love powerpoint presentations. And what make's 'em really creamy? Powerpoint presentations with maps! Oh it doesn't matter what it's a map of, as long as there are maps. Oh, and if you can cover those maps to with little icons, to the point that the viewer is completely innundated with data, and the map isn't even visible anymore, EVEN BETTER! You just might get promoted...
I think they don't care what the map says... They just like the pretty colors.
Well that's ok, because I found one source of satisfaction from having to prepare some stupid slides for the Commanding General... While he was off looking at those stupid slides (which some officer was taking credit for), I found his hat...
What takes bigger balls than taking your picture with the Commanding General's hat on? ...
POSTING IT ON THE INTERNET!
SEAL Sacrifices his Life to Save His Team in Ramadi
Last Friday in Ramadi, Iraq SEAL Team THREE lost its second SEAL in combat, SO2 Michael A. Monsoor. Mike was from Garden Grove, CA and having failed to complete BUD/S training his first time around, Mike was undeterred. He came back through and made it this time. Details of the operation he was involved in have yet to be released by the Navy, but all of the verbal reports that I have received from friends still on active duty indicate that it is probably time to rename the Galley at NAB Coronado and stand by for a Medal of Honor nomination.
My understanding thus far is that during some sort of combat engagement a terrorist was able to toss a grenade into a room occupied by Mike and at least two other SEALs. Recognizing the danger to his fellow SEALs, Mike selflessly placed himself in a position to block the blast of the grenade with his own body and saved the lives of his platoonmates.
Sympathy cards to Michael's family are being collected by the great people at Soldier's Angels. Thanks Richard and Adele!
Family of Michael A. Monsoor
C/O Patriot Support
716 Centre of New England Blvd. #173
Coventry, RI 02816
U.S. Senate majority leader calls for efforts to bring Taliban into Afghan government
The Associated Press
QALAT, Afghanistan U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan guerrilla war can never be won militarily and called for efforts to bring the Taliban and their supporters into the Afghan government.
The Tennessee Republican said he had learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated by military means.
"You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government," Frist said during a brief visit to a U.S. and Romanian military base in the southern Taliban stronghold of Qalat. "And if that's accomplished we'll be successful."
Frist said asking the Taliban to join the government was a decision to be made by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican from Florida accompanying Frist, said negotiating with the Taliban was not "out of the question" but that fighters who refused to join the political process would have to be defeated.
"A political solution is how it's all going to be solved," he said.
In violence on Monday, a suicide bomber blew himself up next to a NATO convoy in the capital Kabul, wounding three soldiers and three civilians, while a roadside bomb in the eastern Paktia province killed three Afghan soldiers and wounded three others, officials said.
Afghanistan is being rocked by the worst outbreak of violence since the ouster of the Taliban regime in the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Militants have increasingly resorted to suicide attacks and roadside bombs.
Frist, who said he would announce whether he would run for the U.S. presidency in about a month, said he had hoped that the United States would be able to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan soon. But the 20,000 U.S. troops are still needed to help the 37-country coalition deal with an intensifying Taliban insurgency.
"We're going to need to stay here a long time," Frist said.
The senator said he had been warned to expect attacks in Afghanistan to increase. There appears to be an "unlimited flow" of Afghans and foreigners, he said, "willing to pick up arms and integrate themselves with the Taliban."
He said the only way to win in places like Qalat is to "assimilate people who call themselves Taliban into a larger, more representative government."
"Approaching counterinsurgency by winning hearts and minds will ultimately be the answer," Frist said. "Military versus insurgency one-to-one doesn't sound like it can be won. It sounds to me ... that the Taliban is everywhere."
Frist and Martinez flew to this dust-blown mountain city 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of Kabul during a one-day stop in Afghanistan on a regional tour that includes stops in Pakistan and Iraq.
The pair had intended to visit a new US$6.5 million (€5.1 million) hospital in Qalat built by the United Arab Emirates, but a group of wounded Taliban fighters were recuperating there, including a midlevel commander, and U.S. commander Lt. Col. Kevin McGlaughlin canceled the visit because of security concerns.
The senators saw firsthand the legendary hostility to outsiders of tribal southern Afghanistan. As Frist's helicopter landed, children just outside the base threw stones. And the senator's first act on Forward Operating Base Lagman was to pin a purple heart on the base's medic, Capt. Jacqueline King of Tinton Falls, New Jersey, who had been badly burned in a June suicide bombing.
"It's rough," King, 42, told reporters and members of Frist's staff. "They're not exactly thrilled to see us here."
Soldiers based in Qalat have been hit by more than 100 roadside bombs since arriving in April, said Air Force Capt. Kevin Tuttle.
The troops here monitor the headquarters for a provincial reconstruction team that has been repairing roads, mentoring doctors at the new hospital and operating a trade school that teaches nursing, welding, auto repair and plumbing.
Frist also chatted with fellow Tennessee surgeon Lt. Col. Steve Jarrard, 46, of Johnson City, in the base hospital.
"I really hope we're doing the right thing over here," Jarrard said, the late afternoon sun burnishing the neighboring mountain peaks. "It's too expensive. I've seen too many guys on the operating table. I try to bring them through and I'm not always successful."
Three NATO-led troops received minor injuries in the suicide bombing in Kabul. Maj. Luke Knittig, a military spokesman, said he could not disclose the nationalities of the soldiers. The attack came two days after another suicide bomber killed 12 people and wounded more than 40 outside Afghanistan's Interior Ministry.
In the southern province of Helmand, clashes on Sunday left 10 people dead, including five civilians, said Ghulam Muhiddin, the governor's spokesman.
The civilians were killed when their vehicle hit a freshly planted mine on a road usually used by NATO and Afghan security forces in Helmand's Musa Qala district, Muhiddin said.
Suspected Taliban on a motorbike, meanwhile, killed two policemen in Gereshk district, he said. Separately, NATO-led troops killed three militants in Nawzad district.
Afghanistan Wants Me Dead...
I am convinced of it now... Afghanistan wants me dead. There is no if, ands, or buts about it. I think the word is out on the street that if you kill the awkward Irishman you'll get 100 cool points and a free burka for each of your wives or some such non-sense. Every convoy I go on lately seems to get attacked. Luckily for me, I've always come out in relatively good condition. Each time I attend a Fallen Comrade Ceremony it serves to remind me of just how lucky I truly am. I feel unfortunate that I have had to attend as many Fallen Comrade Ceremonies as I have.
In any case... last week I was a part of a convoy to go into an area where one of our convoy's had been hit not long before. We went in to escort a Lieutenant Colonel to have a meeting with the village elders of a village that needs our help. America, after all, is here to help these people, unlike the Taliban and the Soviets before them. But it seems that not everyone here wants to be helped.
As we left our base, the people nearest our base were pretty friendly, the children waved and smiled (and of course screamed for candy and chocolate), and I even got a friendly wave from a 'grey beard' (local G.I. vernacular for the older citizens who may support us, but are rarely smiling and waving). As we got farther away from base the population became more sparse. More densely populated areas began to appear again once we were high in the mountains, though these people were not nearly as friendly and accomodating. Here they mostly grimmaced and looked displeased or indifferent. The children gave us the middle finger and yelled insults, one boy even resorting to a crotch grabbing gesture. Definately not friendly. But still... we came to help.
We got the Lieutenant Colonel to his briefing safely, and uneventfully. On our way out there though we did here an explosion, most likely from an RPG or a Mortar round. The Taliban will sometimes use an explosion to signal others that we (the Americans) are coming.
I have no idea how the meeting went, but I know we left town quickly, and as we did the towns-people were throwing rocks at us. I was the gunner...
Not terribly long after leaving town we were ambushed for the first time that day. As we came around a slight bend, I looked over the driver's side of the vehicle and I saw an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) launch towards us. I remember saying 'Holy Shit' as the two guys in the back seat (a Sergeant and a Lance Corporal) pulled me down into the vehicle. As it turns out their quick action saved my life. We could hear the bullets bouncing off the vehicle and I could see the shrapnel hitting the turret. Later, upon closer inspection, it would turn out that the turret (including the inner portion where I should have been) has been riddled with bullets.
I popped back up to fire the .50 Caliber Machine Gun we had mounted and realized quickly that it would only fire single shot. By now I could hear Master Sergeant yelling "WE'RE HIT, WE'RE HIT!" and "GET'M MAC! GET'M!". I tried several times to get the machine gun to function, but it kept jamming, so I grabbed my M4 Assault Rifle and began to return fire from atop the vehicle. It turns out we'd been hit in the right driver's side tire. The hit had killed the engine (later we'd learn that the penetrator rod had gone clead through the frame, the engine and out the other side of the frame), disabled the breaks and the power steering. So here we were, drifting through the kill zone, with no power and no steering, and I'm returning fire with a rifle. The shit had definately hit the fan.
Master Sergeant (hero of the day) masterfully managed to get us to coast out of the kill zone, and somehow he got us around a corner, stopping us by crashing us into a mud wall. Next thing I know he's yelling "DISMOUNT! GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE VEHICLE!". I jumped up through the turret, and off of the side of the Humvee. When I hit the ground the Lance Corporal was there. He greeted me with a "Holy Shit! Are you okay man?!" (it turns out the whites of my eyes were solid red). "I'm fine!" I replied. I then followed him 25 yards to a trench, where we got into the prone position to return fire on the enemy. Master Sergeant ran down the trench physically checking each of us who were in the trench to ensure we were not bleeding and were ok. It's amazing how bad of a wound you can have and not realize it when the adrenaline is pumping!
When the RPG hit our vehicle, it felt like a grown man had punched me square in the chest. It knocked the wind out of me, and apparently burst every blood vessel in my eyes. I remained concious, and aware enough to fight on, and to later assist with a tire change and to treat a soldier with a sprained ankle and a local national who was in a car that the enemy had shot up.
To make a long story short, we held our position, changed a tire, hooked the vehicle up to be towed out of there, and sent out a patrol to close it with and destroy the enemy. We even got some air support from some A-10s! And that is a site to see, let me tell you. We then proceeded to get the fuck out of there as quickly as possible.
Our convoy got ambushed four more times that day, all of which were smaller. Each time we dismounted the vehicle (which was in tow), and destroyed the enemy, then rolled on. It was a very exhausting day, not to mention the fact that a combat patrol is MUCH more stressful when you are in tow. We did manage to swap the .50 Cal out for an M249 SAW, which doesn't pack nearly the same punch, but at least was fully functional. When we got back, and inspected the .50 Cal, it would turn out that it had been hit a few times too. Perhaps that had something to do with the malfunction, perhaps it was just too clogged with dust, dirt and mud. It doesn't much matter now.
The view from the turret.
Even at over 6000 ft, the mountains rose up above us!
"Sight beyond site"
On the way out there we made a brief pit-stop to regroup and coordinate some details. (Plus we had to piss)
That's me in the turret, providing security. I looked like General Patton!
When we finally got to where we were going, this was the position my truck was placed to provide overwatch.
Some of us actually had the opportunity to 'Climb to Glory', turns out the ACU pattern works well on rocks.
This is a view from the driver's side window as we were being towed back. The bullet that hit that window was level with the Master Sergeant's head.
The following pictures were taken the next day upon closer inspection of the vehicle.
Several fan blades were blown off.
Here you can see some wiring harness damage and where the penetrator rod entered the frame.
The hood was torn to shit by the RPG.
It was also riddled with bullet holes.
The Driver's mirror was riddled with bullets.
The Driver's windshield from the outside.
Passenger side damage. This tire went flat in a later ambush, we pressed on.
Shrapnel hit the remaining fan blades.
Those marks are on the inside of the turret hatch. Those are wear bullets hit the turret, that would have hit me if not for the quick actions of my team. (My back should have been against that hatch)
The bullet resistant glass works.
This is where the RPG ripped through our tire.
Another bullet strike.