We lost 31 SpecOps Warriors

[BillB1960]

WOW, talk about a blatant personal attack upon another MLP member, rude & disrespectful, just to name a couple of policy breaches.

just because one does not agree with another's opinion does not mean one has to subvert MLP policy.

I have been placed on a 10 day warning for much less .................

are you getting a 10 day warning too, or just banned?

Y'know what Jim, that's between me & the mods/admin. The fact is 31 familes are never going to see their husband, brother, father, son, etc ever again and those men died in the service of their country. They made the ultimate sacrifice. That deserves respect whether you agree with the war or not. It's an absolute tragedy and should not be tossed aside with some smarmy post on a guitar forum by someone who's either stirring up shit or trying to be cool. Only a true sociopath would have so little respect and sympathy for loss of life.

 

[Blackie]

I am not interjecting my political views here at all. I merely responded to other posts I read. I think this is beyond a tragedy. I know personally to many heroes who will never come home. This smells fishy to me. Just happened to be the guys who carried out the BL attack all together on the same copter. Just a lil creepy to me.

They are not the the guys that did Bin Laden ,, they are from the DEV GRU unit though.

The folks that took out Laden are in the US on R n R ... probably.

 

[danohat]

God bless our soldiers.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I am not interjecting my political views here at all. I merely responded to other posts I read. I think this is beyond a tragedy. I know personally to many heroes who will never come home. This smells fishy to me. Just happened to be the guys who carried out the BL attack all together on the same copter. Just a lil creepy to me.

Fair enough. I don't see it as "creepy" because mass casualty incidents are to be expected in wartime.

Also, Slacky's right. As of last night the Pentagon was reporting that no one in that helo had been on the raid.

 

[bertzie]

A bunch of US specops guys, and a handful of afghan commandos. I'd really like to know what they were upto, cus you don't send those guys just anywhere...

 

[geochem1st]

A bunch of US specops guys, and a handful of afghan commandos. I'd really like to know what they were upto, cus you don't send those guys just anywhere...

During Vietnam, MACVSOG, the predecessors of mixed unit modern SPECOPS often had HATCHET forces - consisting of 40 or so men. These guys would go in to hot zones and rescue pinned down units.

For all we know, this type of organizational unit still exists.

RIP to the best of the best.

 

[Hamtone]

When I served with the 5th SFGA/USAIMA, we used to call this sort of group a "mike force". I've been out of the game for so long now, however, that I don't know if this nomenclature is still being used. Every time I read something you say, Hamtone, I become that much more aware of how old I really am.

But anyway-- whatever you call 'em: yeah, they were coming in hot and heavy, loaded for bear. Somebody needed backup and might not have gotten it.

My heart goes out to their families. War is hell.

--R

I know that term but in my tome everything was experiemntal to going small.except.for a stingray op then you would have a whole recon element for assault. Ive just never heard of having 4 boat teams on a sinle bird that way. Obviously 3 were ac, but damn 4 boat teams going in on a raid or i suppose it could have been a random insertion and it just went bad.
In the mid nineties we were working on implementing gear and training to keep numbers way way down for a few reasons namely dod being broke. There is something like a total of (used to be) 300 active seals at one time and a percentage of them were instructors and running the pipelineand were not on station. If this is still the case a 10% hit that is brutal. Special ops in the fmf and navy sw is a very very small community and this is a major blow.

 

[bildozr]

A bunch of US specops guys, and a handful of afghan commandos. I'd really like to know what they were upto, cus you don't send those guys just anywhere...

During Vietnam, MACVSOG, the predecessors of mixed unit modern SPECOPS often had HATCHET forces - consisting of 40 or so men. These guys would go in to hot zones and rescue pinned down units.

For all we know, this type of organizational unit still exists.

RIP to the best of the best.

The few articles I read stated this is what they were on their way to do.

 

[Roberteaux]

I know that term but in my tome everything was experiemntal to going small.except.for a stingray op then you would have a whole recon element for assault. Ive just never heard of having 4 boat teams on a sinle bird that way. Obviously 3 were ac, but damn 4 boat teams going in on a raid or i suppose it could have been a random insertion and it just went bad.
In the mid nineties we were working on implementing gear and training to keep numbers way way down for a few reasons namely dod being broke. There is something like a total of (used to be) 300 active seals at one time and a percentage of them were instructors and running the pipelineand were not on station. If this is still the case a 10% hit that is brutal. Special ops in the fmf and navy sw is a very very small community and this is a major blow.

Big time, man. Big time.

There were something like 300 Seals on two active teams (1st and 2nd) back in my day, only two battalions of Airborne Rangers (1st and 2nd of the 75th Inf.), and I think only about 1,500 SF guys distributed through three active groups (5th, 7th, 10th) along with the 1st SFGA, which was then a reserve outfit in Okinawa. USAIMA accounted for the rest of the flash-qualified guys. Because slots on an alpha team were scarce (especially for 11 bang-bangs like me) I ended up in USAIMA training NG and the occasional group of Pak army guys, before I finally went down the road to the 82nd Dvn. and an M-60 to call my own... loved the 2/325 anyway, and General Roscoe Robinson was a great division commander. We all loved that guy!

Too bad Jimmy Carter and Lt. Gen. Jack Mackmull didn't see eye to eye on much of anything-- and ol' JC kept us pared to the bone. We had the crappiest of all things, including weapons and barracks... our mess hall was a roach motel, with us as the roaches... I almost shit a pheasant when I saw the nice barracks and spotless mess hall we ate in with the 2/325.

Hoo-rah. Couldn't drink a farewell salute to the boys yesterday for having to be back at work today... but will probably tip a few shots tonight at home for respect and sorrow.

--R

PS: hope you're doing well these days Hamtone. You'll have to post another thread to let us know how the real estate thing is working for ya. Best wishes.

 

[weirdotis]

This is just awful, regardless of who they were.

What left a bad taste in my mouth was Obama's "sympathy letter." If he really cared, he would have brought our boys home two years ago, like he said he would.

 

[GitFiddle]

I also have a difficult time believing they would cram 31 SOCOM guys into one helo, but who knows. Sometimes youve gotta do what youve gotta do. Youd think with that amount of effort to train and equip these guys, theyd divide them up among a few helos and not pile them into that flying target practice drone. I suppose im a bit in denial about it all but part of me is with Jason Mazzy on this... This is where media can become a tool to be used against the enemy. Who in their right mind would load up a CH46 full of these guys and lift off in mountainous terrain right up to eye level of an RPG carrying Taliban? Im curious about that.

Exactly what I was thinking. I have the utmost respect for the brave warriors fighting the fight. This is a terrible and inexcusable loss.

Sometimes I have to wonder about some of the command decisions made in these types of situations. Who in their right mind sent a flying barn lumbering through mountain peaks with that many valuable assets on-board?

I still don't understand why we are using the world's leading edge, military vehicles that can travel most anywhere. Yet, they still choose to drive them straight down the middle of paved roads laced with bombs. Why aren't these vehicles just running off-road where there travel cannot be predicted?

 

[lespaul01]

. Just happened to be the guys who carried out the BL attack all together on the same copter. Just a lil creepy to me.

They were from that unit as the OBL killer, just not the same men who did in OBL.

 

[lespaul01]

During Vietnam, MACVSOG, the predecessors of mixed unit modern SPECOPS often had HATCHET forces - consisting of 40 or so men. These guys would go in to hot zones and rescue pinned down units.

For all we know, this type of organizational unit still exists.

RIP to the best of the best.

That is exactly right, they were a quick reaction team sent in to help pinned down Army Rangers.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

So do we know how those Rangers fared? I've looked but cannot find anything.

 

[lespaul01]

So do we know how those Rangers fared? I've looked but cannot find anything.

I don't believe they are releasing any info at this time, nor are they saying if the taliban leader was captured.

 

[Blackie]

SEALs killed in crash were on rescue mission - World news - South and Central Asia - Afghanistan - msnbc.com

The rescue team had completed the mission, subduing the attackers who had the Rangers pinned down, and were departing in their Chinook helicopter when the aircraft was apparently hit, one of the officials said.

 

[RichardH]

R.I.P My thoughts are with the families involved. May god give you strenght, and may god watch over those lost souls.

 

[bildozr]

So do we know how those Rangers fared? I've looked but cannot find anything.

Latest update from what I read on a Fox report was that the Rangers were able to secure the crash sight.

 

[stinkfoot]

I also have a difficult time believing they would cram 31 SOCOM guys into one helo, but who knows. Sometimes youve gotta do what youve gotta do.

I've read some reports that the mission was a rapid response rescue mission - that they went in to pull out some troops. If this was indeed the case, and they had just picked up some troops, then it could explain why so many were on that one aircraft.

 

[bildozr]

up to date:

Fights Break Out in Afghanistan as NATO Moves to Recover Downed Helicopter - FoxNews.com