Afghanistan: When the Moon Sets, Watch Out (Michael Yon)

Michael Yon Online ^ | 18 September 2012 | Michael Yon

[Kenny Bunk]

It is somewhat perplexing that an attack in force against a fortified compound would go completely unnoticed until too late.

Motion detectors, Microphones, NVG on sentries. Dogs, Barbed wire, Inner wire, Outer Wire, Dead Zone, Mines, Radar, Watchtowers, Guard Patrol, WTF? Over. I get the creepy feeling that this attack would have been spotted and dealt with summarily in WWI.

Am I nuts or is this "Apaches sneaking up on the fort" stuff? What, exactly, TF happened here? Officers and men killed. 8 Harriers destroyed. Some heads ought to roll here.

[Kenny Bunk]

Please don’t tell me they couldn’t put out mines.

That was also among my first questions. However, the author of the posted article is trying to tell us that our ROE have responded to NGO political pressures and that non-metallic mines are not to be used. Political correctness will kill us all.

I must confess I do not understand how the enemy achieved surprise at a fenced and fortified base.

[eartick]

It will probably discovered unexpectedly (crazy word) that this was allowed to happend from within by “friendly” Afghan trainies.

We already know they were wearing GI uniforms.

[eartick]

Not only Odinga’s ROE, Panetta and Dempsey should be marched out in chains along with him in front of a tribunal, convicted of sacrificing the lives of our young men and women and summarily executed. Odinga enjoys seeing Americans die.

Our boots spend more time watching their backs against these goat humpers they are training than the enemy they are supposed to be hunting and doing this sometimes without proper protection.

I say to hell with the ROEs, pull our boys and girls out now and EXPEND ALL ORDINANCE IN THEATER WHEN EXITING.......... ON ANY TARGET.

[BwanaNdege]

Thanks!

This old dog learns new terminology.

Just before I got out of the Corps my squadron received two sets of night vision goggles to test. I never flew with them. Looks like ‘red illum’ is a term that came into usage since then. Cockpit lighting is, of course, red. I never heard of low level nighttime outdoor ambient light being called ‘red illum’

Back in my day, in the words of our Night Tactics Instructor, Capt. Ollie North, (a bit of gratuitous name-dropping there), “Nighttime is characterized by periods of DARKNESS!”