Letter From Green Beret To John Kerry;

[Seascamp]

Most you Army guys have an appreciation of the application of various combat vehicles. Let?s say an Army 1st Lt. took a unarmored vehicle that was designed for speed and maneuverability and at his own discretion, and for little gain or apparent motivation, used that vehicle in the role of a tank.

He proceeds to berm the vehicle; rendering it a total sitting duck in a hot area, jumps out, runs down some bad guy, caps him, gets back in the vehicle and leaves. The guy he shot had an anti-tank weapon that could totally dissemble the unarmored vehicle and the crew, no problem. All the while this 1st Lt is making the assumption that the only threat in the immediate area is the guy he shoots is the only one carrying such a weapon.
Oh, and this vehicle has a crew of five but the Lt. is the boss guy but choose to jump out and do the dispatching of the wounded guy that had the weapon.

So then, this 1st Lt. gets the Silver Star for this action. Sound reasonable? :cd:

Scamp

[travisab1]

SuperScout, Seascamp, Neil;

You guys gotta admit is a gettin' good and deep now ain't it for sure. SuperScout, I thought I saw Kerry throwin' them there medals over a fence then heard later thay were on his wall or something to that effect. I don't know, I may be wrong. I'm a gettin' mighty old now and ma rememberen' ain't so good no more.

Travis

[SuperScout]

First of all, a true war story: on tour #2, we had conducted a combat assault into Cambodia, landing in an area where the local folks had practiced "slash and burn" farming techniques. Partially burned stumps, 3' in height, along with incompletely burned logs, littered the landing zone, a small patch of sloping ground only large enough for three slicks at a time. My RTO and I came in on the second chalk; as the third chalk approached, I remarked to him that the lead ship appeared to be coming in too hot and too high. Sure enough, the pilot misjudged the touch-down site, and impaled the Huey on one of those stumps. JP-4, or whatever variety of fuel they used, gushed out of the belly tank as my troops unassed the wounded bird. I dashed over to the left side of the Huey, hoping like hell that the thing wouldn't explode, opened the pilot's door, slid back the "chicken-plate" side armor on his seat, grabbed his shoulder with my right hand, his left arm with my left hand, and tried mightily to throw him out of the mortally wounded Huey. Although he budged a little, he looked down with complete disdain for my panicky efforts, and said, "Would you mind if I unbuckled first?" Poor sumbitch was still strapped in and I dang-near dislocated his arm!

After I embarrassingly slunk back to my little CP site, with the pissed-off pilot behind me, I called for an extraction bird to come salvage the Huey. Soon a positive response told us that a Chinook was enroute. No sooner had I received this call when another chalk landed, the AC hops out, trots around the wounded Huey in the briefest of pre-flight operations known to man, and cranks up the bird, barely able to lift it off the stump. After getting it airborne, he just made the original staging area with literally 1 quart of fuel onboard. The aviation unit commander relieved this grandstanding glamor puss on the spot, for jeopardizing a recoverable aircraft and other violations of common sense and unit SOP, thereby terminating his career as an aviator.

With respect to your little hypothetical, had I been the tanker commander for this grandstanding LT, I would have had his heels locked in such a tight and prolonged session that he would rue the day he was born. After what would have seemed like an eternity for him, I would have dismissed him, and relieved him of further command and responsibility, and sent him to some remote site while he awaited orders that would have terminated his brief career.

Venturing off on some mission as you outlined would have placed the entire crew in harm's way, an exceptionally foolish act. War, as I recall it, was dangerous enough and didn't require any additional elements of excitement or stupidity. And if it was a wounded enemy soldier with no further means of resistance or aggression, and the LT shot him? I have the SOB up on court martial charges of murder.

[BLUEHAWK]

Welcome Trav, glad you posted the proper avatar, makes a difference (mine'd be a slick, for insurbordination dont'ya know, but still).

Band of brothers we be...one and all.

[travisab1]

BLUEHAWK;
Thanks. Well... I wasn't trying to be a rebel. The cat looked the way I felt. I saw a lot of other Veteran's using avatar's that reflect what they stood for and I didn't want to stand for a drunk. Sooo, I changed it to the former days of my service and proud of it.
A band of brothers and sisters we are for sure. I just hope we can all bring our country back to her feet. So many have fought and died to keep her up it's a shame that so few can bring her down. It's our job to keep our country up and alert and to remain the greatest place on Earth to live and br proud to bring up our children in. Never again to see another 911.

Regards,
Travis

[Seascamp]

So switching venues, a Navy vessel called a SWIFT measured 50 ft? in length, with a top speed of around 25 knots and carried stand-off weaponry like a barbette mounted twin 50 cal above the wheel house and sometimes a Borg Warner 81 mm auto grenade launcher aft or a deck mounted 50 cal. Anyway, this vessel was designated for the purpose of costal/estuary surveillance along with pursuit and intercept duties. But they could find themselves in a slugging match if they got boxed in close waters by design or happenstance. In which case the hard spot armor (very little of that) was a good place to duck behind while hoping the opposition didn?t have any B-40 anti-tank rockets. If so, then the choice was between the flack jacket or life vest and a 50-50 chance of picking the right one and less of a chance of having the chance to pick.

Then there is what was called the ?Iron Clads? and this was an odd collection of small craft with thick hide armor plating and sporting twin 50s along with a turret mounted gun of up to 40 mm bore. Some were Navy LCMs with rail road rails welded along the flanks and about any kind of weaponry imaginable rigged in. Suffice it to say these served as ?Tanks?. The down side of these Tanks is that they were way slow and maneuvering was by the grace of gawd, a long handled spoon and Sailor luck. But with the LCM ya had twin engines, transmissions and screws so where there was a will there was a way.

So ya Army guys if you were the skipper of each of these and took a near miss from a B-40 what would be your course of next action. What would be logical and make sense. OK, pretend they have wheels or tracks if that helps. What would ya do? How would you take advantage of the vessels inherent capability to win the day? Oh this isn?t a tactical quiz, just an exercise in logic and thinking. Ya got 250 yds of water width to work with and a B-40 has an effective range of say 60 yards.

Ok, here are your handicaps/opportunities:
The SWIFT has a very high profile and a lot of target area but a ton of speed. Ya got a twin 50 in the top barbette and an 81mm auto grenade launcher aft.

The Tank is squat and ugly but has a very small target profile with thick armor and not a lot of speed, call it 8 knots on the best day but has a manual loading 40 mm turret gun forward and breast plate armor 50?s port and starboard.

Scamp

[BLUEHAWK]

NEVER again Trav, never again... we're all workin' on it... sure am glad to be in your company.

[travisab1]

BLUEHAWK;
Well all I can do is say that that is the best compliment I've ever had and for once I don't really know what to say other than being in the company of people like yourself and all of these other Veteran's is a pleasure. I'd hate to not be here.
Like you say, "NEVER again". I'd hate to think of what would happen if any terrorist ever tried to pull another 911.
To tell you the truth BLUEHAWK, I don't think people would stop at planting flags. I don't believe there would be a safe place in the world a terrorist could lay his head. People are getting tire of just hearing the word terrorist.
Thanks again for the uplift BLUEHAWK.

Regards,
Travis

[williams919]

I applaud you, salute you and respect you for your duty, thoughts and convictions.
Kerry needs to have his truths out in the open. I just wonder if history is only important to the Democrats and Kerry when it has an outcome that they can sing and rejoice about.
I am proud of my service and the people I was stationed with. We had a job and we did what was required to get it over. I don't have any extra ears, so I guess I fall into one of those other areas of bad attitude.
I think Kerry needs a good boot in his ass, just so his vision is clearer.
God Bless All of Us that made it home and God Look over Those and Theirs that Didn't come home YET.
theemperor

[BLUEHAWK]

Willie -
ya know, a man could get himself arrested for saying stuff like this, but I have felt the need to get Kerry by the shoulders and give the man a good shaking myself...