| Don't know where this came from. forwarded through a bunch of old farts, former military, some current... can't say if there's a bit of truth in it or not. enjoy.
"Never bring a box cutter to a Jihad!
Remember that there are still thousands of great soldiers, sailors and
airmen from many countries out there on the tip of the spear - Giving them
Steel!
This was sent by one of our General Officers, they usually don't send
e-mails like this...good reading, the last paragraph is the best.
Ground war will be run by CINC's man on the spot, the Commander of 10th
Mtn Division. (The CINC isn't trying to run the war via video from
Tampa - he has a hell of a lot more to run besides Afghanistan, and
that is his job and his place). As any other senior officer who has
grown up in a branch culture, the 2-star 10th Mtn Division commander is
most comfortable with Army and will primarily rely on them to be the
lion's share of the offense on the ground. That's the way they are
designed and supported. I think the performance during ANACONDA was a
bit of an eye opener. Intel very hard to pin down - it's not a perfect
world. Afghans often playing both sides of the fence, thus the senior
leaders have to be cautious. Don't think they thought resistance would
be as bad initially as they found. Al Qaeda were well-entrenched and
prepared to fight. UK SAS had a significant cave fight on a
small complex last fall, and it was a brutal close quarter battle. That
should have keyed us to always be thinking they will do the same anytime
we find pockets of them, especially if you intend to surround them and
provide no "back door" for escape (setting up ambushes to catch them
just as they think they've gotten out). ANACONDA AO almost impossible
to close off (huge and rough terrain), and locals supported Al Qaeda in
many ways. We nailed a lot of them, but a lot got away. We can expect
more of the same in the future. Certainly not a failure, and we'll take
them out 100 at a time or 2 at a time, it matters not. The end will be
the same, just might take longer.
SF A Teams doing dynamite mixing in with locals and doing their thing.
USAF CCT doing incredibly well calling in heavy fire and bombs from
above with precision. USAF PJs have been on every hot mission
supporting as combat medics. Unfortunately, there's still some mistaken
concept out there that SEALs are only comfortable in water. A target is
a target, and very few are on water. SEALs learned long ago to conduct
raids, ambushes, recon missions, hit buildings, bridges, and encampments
anywhere they exist. Multiple units of SEALs are on the ground
searching caves, conducting raids, and moving by helo and organic round
combat vehicles (yes they have some), taking the fight to the enemy.
(SEALs have had a mountain warfare capability for decades - they just
don't advertise everything they can do. Conventional forces and leaders
may not have gotten the word) SEALs are raiding alongside other
raiding brothers from the Army SF's top unit, UK SAS and SBS, Australian
SAS, New Zealand SAS, German KSK, Dutch commandos, and Canadian JTF-s
commandos and infantry. (When the Pentagon doesn't tell you exactly who
is conducting some of these raids, there's a reason. They also don't
report every action that takes place) We now also need to get the USMC
out there raiding also. There's plenty to go around and rotating troops
will help keep them fresher. The Marines can move fast, however, and
having them offshore on the ships for now allows commanders the option
to go into other countries quickly if an intelligence windfall
identifies something that needs to be hit quickly, such as in Somalia or
Yemen. UK 45 Commando now coming in to help out, with more rough
terrain expertise.
Air war has been a beacon of technological genius. Unfortunately it
can't do it alone. Combined with ground forces, it's extremely lethal.
Army Apache gunship helos worked well until they got shot up badly at
beginning of ANACONDA (but they delivered a hell of a fight where fast
movers couldn't go), requiring re-intro of older (but also extremely
lethal) USMC Cobras.
Underestimation appeared in a couple spots at beginning of ANACONDA, but
US was always in the drivers seat and will remain so. All helo pilots,
USA, USAF, and USMC, have shown extreme courage in their operations
under incredibly difficult circumstances. You have to ride these at
night into a brown out situation where they kick up dust until you can't
see, on night vision goggles to understand. Throw in RPGs and machinegun
fire, and most people would be shaking in their boots. These guys all
eat it up.
As far as the SEAL story goes, the full truth may never actually come
out. MH-47 was hit just before landing a recon team by an RPG that
failed to detonate, but went through back end. Roberts was either
assisting a USAF spec ops guy who fell on the rear ram |