Posted on 06/13/2006 8:05:57 PM PDT by Madstrider
Ramadi, Iraq
Terrorist-infested Ramadi in the wild west of Iraq is for U.S. troops the meanest place in the country, "the graveyard of the Americans" as graffiti around town boast. There is no better place to observe American troops and the fledgling Iraqi army in combat. That's why I came. When military public affairs asked where I wanted to be embedded, I told them, "the redder, the better" (red means hostile). So they packed me off to Camp Corregidor in eastern Ramadi with the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). The 506th's official motto is "Currahee," Cherokee for "stands alone." But they're better known as the "Band of Brothers" – so dubbed by author Stephen Ambrose and HBO (although the term originally applied to just one company in the regiment). ...
(Excerpt) Read more at fumento.com ...
Parts of the 4ID are also part of Taskforce Band of Brothers.... like the guys in Baqubah.
Geronimo
bttt
Colonel Winters would be proud.
Wooof! NOT my cup of tea, but heroes one and all.
This was awesome! Very good reporting!
is Col. Winters still living?
he suffers from Alzheimers and no longer signs or makes appearances.
I was hoping he'd make it to the 101st national reunion here in MPLS this August, but due to his condition, he can (understandably) not.
I assume you are referring to Major Winters. And he is alive on his farm in Pennsylvania.
that's ok , every retired combat officer deserves to be promoted a rank in their old age . :^)
Yes. I made a mistake.
He is a tremendous human being and a great soldier. I highly recommend the book "Band of Brothers" by Ambrose as well as "Beyond the Band of Brothers" by Winters himself.
I live 20 miles from Hershey.
Don't know how I didn't catch the error.
Last I heard, his health was failing.
You are correct, though.
He is a genuine American hero and patriot.
It has to happen. I think he is 89 if my math is right.
Instead, we have a bunch of Islamic zealots leading a nasty guerilla campaign with help from neighbors Syria and Iran. Tough neighborhood.
These twisted sisters (Syria & Iran) are using their intelligence services to bring about a U.S. withdrawal so that one or the other can rush in and seize Iraq in the same way that Syria took Lebanon.
That paints a pretty ugly picture and one that we can't afford to let happen. It would be morally wrong to leave the people of Iraq to this fate.
If the Iraqi people began to protest our prescence en masse the paradigm would have changed. Until then I support the President and say, stay the course.
About sniping from minarets: when I was in Vietnam we took fire from a few locations near Quang Tri repeatedly. The same general rule of engagement applied then as now. You could only shoot in those directions if you were receiving fire, and it took a minute or so to readjust weapons and return fire-- by which time the unfriendlies usually had shot and run. We sandbagged some fifty calibers down, and locked them in on those locations from which we were being harassed most frequently and responded almost instantly and with precise accuracy when fired upon from those locations. Funny how that particular sniper problem went away and didn't come back. I would add that white phosphorous rounds are available in 50 caliber and even if you don't hit the perp directly he will likely be sufficiently disfigured that none of the virgins will go for it now or in the hereafter.
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