Posted on 05/19/2004 8:56:56 AM PDT by presidio9
We may want to pull that email address....this site is frequented by rat bastards who do not share our appreciation for this soldier's bravery and sacrifice.
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Question: Where were the helicopter gunships? Where were the helos? This giant fat juicy convoy had no helicopters, even on QRF standby????? Gunships in the first 5 or 10 minutes would have saved a lot of Americans."
These were my questions back when the Jessica Lynce convoy was hit. On regular supply routes like that helo gunships should ROUTINELY fly air patrols,or at least a LOACH should be flying air patrols with a Spectre or some similiar heavy hitter circling around out of sight,sound,and hearing at 30,000 feet that the LOACH can call down to deliver some damn-damn on any attachers,literally within minutes.
Failing that,MP's in armored cars should be patrolling the routes on a regular basis to prevent bomb-laying exercises by the insurgents,and the US military should create a "peopleless corridor" through trouble spots for the trucks to drive though. ANYBODY seen in those corridors is to be killed on sight. Even then,the MP's should have at least 1 Specter C-130 on call at all times. These SOB's can circle around for 12 hours at a time,so this would only require two a day for each corridor. They wouldn't need to cover the whole damn country because there are huge areas where there are no people to attack the convoys,and no convoys to be attacked.
Travis,trust me on this,you don't have to call in a C-130 gunship once or twice before all you have to do is grin and point to the sky to get EVERYBODY hauling ass out of the AO. Those SOB's can put a damn-damn on you like you can't believe.
And finally,WHO THE HELL TRAINS THESE IDIOTS? You have the convoy commander TRAVELING IN THE LEAD VEHICLE? He gets hit,the convoy has no commander. No commander with a command radio and call sign to call in help. On top of that,WHY wasn't the lead vehicle a Bradley or something similiar with a quad-50 or a chaingun? WHY didn't the convoy commander DEMAND a security element escort his convoy?
This kind of stupidity gets people killed for no good reason,and it seriously pisses me off. The US Army has been running convoys since before WW-2,and nobody in charge of today's convoys has even bothered to find out how they used to do them and protect themselves from attack?
BTW,even this low-ranking reserve Spec-4 recogonized some bad shit was coming down when all the vehicle traffic stopped,and civilians dissapeared. They were in a secure area when he first spotted this happening,and what they SHOULD have done was stop right there and the convoy commander should have gotten on the radio to request air cover and recon by fire. These yahoos KNOWINGLY drive gasoline tanker trucks into a ambush????? That young LT should have his [redacted]. His lack of leadership caused a lot of other people to die and be maimed.
"Normal recon and other missions automatically divert to provide CAS."
Shit yes! I've been on recon teams running from the NVA when another RT somewhere near would step on their dicks and were in danger of getting overrun,and we'd be told to either keep running faster,or find a good defensive position and fight the NVA off until they could get back to us. When a leader declares a combat emergency,he gets ALL the help available. Period.
You want to know what the truth PROBABLY is? It's PROBABLY that they simply don't have enough pilots,aircrew,or aircraft incountry to provide the air support needed. When the army was downsized,EVERYBODY was downsized. You can't just create aviation brigades overnight,even IF you have the equipment at hand,which we didn't.
I disagree. See the second to last paragraph of the above reply. All air assets go to the unit actually being over run, which was this convoy at this time.
Rotary wing air support for convoys and MSR security puts too much time on too few birds. Too much maintenance.
Presido9, this is an amazing story. Thanks for the post.
I was thinking the same thing. I think they need to do other convoys with drones flying ahead to find situations and gunships not far off. We need to bait and kill terrorists.
I still don't understand the LONG time before there was any QRF on scene, and it was armor when it arrived. I still don't know why any helos in range weren't immediately diverted to the scene. Lives might have been saved, and one POW not captured. My only guess is that when the LT in the lead vehicle got shot up, the entire convoy lost their comms. What a cluster foxtrot. Unsat. Totally unsat.
Not overhead, but on standby for just this type of emergency! What the hell do we HAVE helo gunships for, if not for this? You cannot tell me there were no gunships in the Baghdad-Fallujah area. Where were they? Even with lost comms, the tankers exploding and black smoke pillars would have been visible all over the AO. I'm sorry, I just don't buy that there were NO helos available. In a combat emergency, ALL aircraft divert for CAS. Fast movers, helos, everything. Where were they? I don't accept there just weren't any available in the AO which could have been spun up on the pad, or diverted from other missions.
See the long post above. LT in lead vehicle got shot up, no backup comms plan, it sounds like. But even with loss of comms, burning tankers and pillars of smoke didn't get any attention? Cluster foxtrot.
More "where was emergency air support" above. Comments?
That's my question. Read the last ten or so.
I didn't want to shoot them - they were just l'il kids.
L'il kids don't try to kill you------terrorists do. They were terrorists!!!
LOL!
Before his story is over, he has to shoot the kids.
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