HUA!
Posted on 11/08/2004 6:19:53 PM PST by quidnunc
Fallujah – After seven months in Iraq's Sunni triangle, for many American soldiers the opportunity to avenge dead friends by taking a life was a moment of sheer exhilaration.
As they approached their "holding position", from where hours later they would advance into the city, they picked off insurgents on the rooftops and in windows.
"I got myself a real juicy target," shouted Sgt James Anyett, peering through the thermal sight of a Long Range Acquisition System (LRAS) mounted on one of Phantom's Humvees.
"Prepare to copy that 89089226. Direction 202 degrees. Range 950 metres. I got five motherf****** in a building with weapons."
Capt Kirk Mayfield, commander of the Phantoms, called for fire from his task force's mortar team. But Sgt Anyett didn't want to wait. "Dude, give me the sniper rifle. I can take them out — I'm from Alabama."
Two minutes tick by. "They're moving deep," shouted Sgt Anyett with disappointment. A dozen loud booms rattle the sky and smoke rose as mortars rained down on the co-ordinates the sergeant had given.
"Yeah," he yelled. "Battle Damage Assessment — nothing. Building's gone. I got my kills, I'm coming down. I just love my job."
Phantom Troop had rolled out of Camp Fallujah, the main US military base, shortly before 4am. All morning they took fire from the Al-Askari district in Fallujah's north-east, their target for the invasion proper.
The insurgents, not understanding the capabilities of the LRAS, crept along rooftops and poked their heads out of windows. Even when they were more than a mile away, the soldiers of Phantom Troop had their eyes on them.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
To be a sniper in the USMC today would be quite enticing.
GET SOME!!
Job satisfaction is a lot more important than pay.
I like the telegraph, but why are they spilling capabilities?
So how frustrated are european women with their "men"?
(Want some loving, Maggie???)
Outstanding! Thanks for posting!
Pissant,
Belive me the snipers are probably getting there share too!
HUA!
oh to be young again!.....
say! let us old folks join up and we will be happy to hump the ammo...
Man, I'd *never* attempt to fight the US Marines, crawling around a rooftop with a crappy rifle and 10 rounds of crappy reloads.
Haven't these idiots watched TV or even surfed Free Republic? Don't they know if they are visibly seen, or give off a heat signature, we see them and can reach them from beyond their field of vision?
The fear that Zarqawi tried to instill in others has come home to roost in his heart.
:-)
Military careers PianoMan fantasizes about having if he hadn't gone into music:
1) Hornet pilot
2) Marine sniper
Sir Stephen Wall, who was head of the European Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, said: "We allowed our judgment of the dire consequences of inaction to allow us to depart from the rule of law."
I love the way they ended the article.
The next to last paragraph seems to give up the battle plan. Maybe old news, or false info. But if true, the reporter should be blind folded and shot.
The debt that we owe these guys is unpayable.
I'm damned glad that we have such people to stand on the wall.
I told a co-worker that the men in the USMC love this stuff. He said "nobody likes to kill". I think the silent pride of our Marines' faces when they are asked by our CIC to take down the enemy is proof positive of a very high job satisfaction.
Some of us would be willing to pay for the privilege.
The spirit is willing but my old body aint what it used to be.
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