COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2673
Location: New Jersey | Subject: A good day for the Corp
Got this from a friend, not sure of it's origin, but I hope it's true....Joe
This is a good sitrep(situation report) that won't be found in any of the
msm(main stream media) publications.
Semper Fi,
Sent: Monday, May 25, 2009 1:41 PM
This is a good Memorial Day story. I wish success stories like this would
be recognized by the media.
Outnumbered 8-1: 'A good day for the Corps' Afghanistan By
Peter Bronson:
"Our vehicles came under a barrage of enemy RPGs and
machine gun fire. One of our humvees was disabled from RPG
fire, and the Marines inside dismounted and laid down
suppression fire so they could evacuate a Marine who was
knocked unconscious from the blast."
That's not from an
episode of The Unit or 24. It's not from an anti-war movie.
It's not from any newspaper or TV news reports I could
find. The quote comes from a "designated marksman who
requested to remain unidentified." He was reporting what
happened recently in the city of Shewan, Afghanistan. The
story was told in a Marine Corps News report by Cpl. James
M. Mercure. "The day started out with a 10-km patrol with
elements mounted and dismounted, so by the time we got to
Shewan, we were pretty beat," the marksman said. Mercure
reported, "Shewan had been a thorn in the side of TF 2nd
Bn, 7th Marine Regt, Special Purpose Marine Air Ground TF
Afghanistan, throughout the Marines' deployment here in
support of OEF, because it controls an important supply
route into the Bala Baluk district. Opening the route was
key to continuing combat ops in the area."
"The vicious attack that left the humvee destroyed and several of the
Marines pinned down in the kill zone sparked an intense
8-hour battle as the platoon desperately fought to recover
their comrades. After recovering the Marines trapped in the
kill zone, another platoon Sgt personally led numerous
attacks on enemy fortified positions, while the plt fought
house to house and trench to trench in order to clear
through the enemy ambush site."
'"The biggest thing to take
from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they're
given the opportunity to fight,'" the sniper said. '"A
small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and
embarrassed them in their own backyard. The insurgents told
the townspeople that they were stronger than the Americans,
and that day we showed them they were wrong."'
"During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a
co.-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly
killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate
precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and
again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the
8-hour battle for Shewan, in order to kill any enemy
combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the
Marines in the kill zone. What made his actions even more
impressive was the fact that he didn't miss any shots,
despite the enemies' rounds impacting within a foot of his
fighting position." '"I was in my own little world,"' the
young corporal said. '"I wasn't even aware of a lot of the
rounds impacting near my position, because I was
concentrating so hard on making sure my rounds were on
target."' "After calling for close-air support, the small
group of Marines pushed forward and broke the enemies'
spirit as many of them dropped their weapons and fled the
battlefield. At the end of the battle, the Marines had
reduced an enemy stronghold, killed more than 50 insurgents
and wounded several more.
"I didn't realize how many bad
guys there were until we had broken through the enemies'
lines and forced them to retreat. It was roughly 250
insurgents against 30 of us,"' the corporal said. '"It was
a good day for the Marine Corps. We killed a lot of bad
guys, and none of our guys were seriously injured."
Such an amazing story of heroism and victory would have been on
Page One in every paper in the country during World War II.
Just 30 Marines giving 8 hours of hell to 250 insurgents,
is the kind of story that would make a good movie - if that
kind of movie still could be made. But these days, it did
not even make Page 10. I couldn't find a story about it
anywhere. The only mentions were on conservative blogs and
military Web sites. The soldiers who are fighting for their
lives and our country might as well be in another
dimension. News from the battlefronts in Iraq and
Afghanistan is apparently not important. It reminds the
jaded anti-war crowd that they were wrong. We're winning.
It reminds a self-centered nation that some Americans are
making sacrifices much bigger than a loss in their 401(k)s.
So we don't hear about it. But we need to hear news like
that, because a good day for the Marine Corps is a good day
for freedom. And that's a good day for America.
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A good day for the Corp
