Are Afghans braver than US troops?,tell me about your experiences(With MOS)

Originally posted by Mkoll
Gurkhas cut and ran? My god. I wonder what was going on there. Why didn't they come back to support their comrades in arms? How could they run and not think twice about the team they left to die?

Were they in a position to offer support? Could they return and offer support without just getting themselves killed trying to advance to contact? Remember that 'platoon' in this case probably means no more than 2 -3 dozen men so they were also heavily outnumbered but had the means to disengage. In the mountains or hill country position is even more critical than in other terrain and despite the notion that 'coalition forces' can move mountains avoiding casualties is managed by superior means&methods and not by choosing to stay in untenable positions.

Edit: I read you saying it was probably a breakdown at a higher level. I still wonder how the people coordinating everything didn't direct the Gurkhas to come back?

edit on 23-5-2012 by Mkoll because: (no reason given)

Why does friendly fire happen? Lack of information? Lack of communication? As i suggested before there could be many good reasons for why they were not directed back but that all presumes that a clear picture of events existed somewhere which is very very rarely the case. Most likely scenario is that they believed their support were no longer required so they moved out of contact to a defensive or covering position from which they could provide intelligence and wait for orders.

But i do not know...

Stellar

Edit: Even 'the best' units have gone into combat with radio equipment not working correctly or at all ( 1st Airborne UK) and paid a very high price. Communication has become more and more important and as the relative lethality of weapons systems increased it as only become more so! Even in the last decade i saw a documentary with Brit conventional units that still had to identify key features, units and other relevant things by agreed code keys as radio sets lacked encryption means. Admittedly a training exercise so perhaps older training vehicles ( i do not remember if they were warrior's or cvr's or something older) but as some generals have famously said armies are expected to fight with what the politicians will let them have so they make do!

Originally posted by thecrippler

There was no "school bus" just some asshole in a van driving into a cordon

Yes it was...

Please do tell - take a screen shot of the "school bus" or van and show me where the markings are that make it clear to everyone from a distance (like an AH64 1000 feet above) that it is what it is.

It was not a school bus - even if it were there is a sign on every street corner, every mosque and all school children are repeatedly warned to stay away from areas of combat.

If this "school bus" driver drove a bus load of kids (I think there were two in there both the driver's children) he is just an asshole...

Oh yeah here is the school bus....

On a hot July day in 2007, taxi driver Salah Mutasher Toman swept his two young children into the passenger seat of his white minivan. He bade his brother, Sabah Toman, farewell and started making his way home, a short drive across the neighbourhood, through militia-held territory.

Yeah, it was no a school bus genius - it was a white unmarked taxi with the driver and his own two children....

Analogy - taxi driver in the States taking his kids for a ride in the taxi.

Driver hears a bunch of gunfire (say a police shootout at a bank robbery gone bad).

"Hey neat kids there is a bank robbery on 1st street lets go check it out and see if we can help...."

Right - smart call...

The guy got his own children shot by taking them into a friggin free fire zone - I feel for the kids sure its sad but the "father" is a first class idiot.

However, here our school buses are like yellow big and not suspiciously unmarked mini vans that could be say - anyone driving into the scene with more fighters or weapons etc. Or a van packed with an IED for our infantry?

One google search would have let you know that the van was a taxi and that the kids didn't die - why because our trauma doctors saved them...

You know cause we like killing babies and stuff.

Stop buying the hype - this was a legit engagement.