US Sentry Saves Troops By Killing Suicide Bomber

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 12-10-2003 | Jack Fairweather

[Lurker]

I wish we'd had you in 83 Spc. Ross.

Semper Fi....

L

[Frank_2001]

A stripe and a medal. What a hero!!!

[Smokin' Joe]

With a SAW or M-60, he should have plugged the guy with one short burst.

He might have, but he kept shooting until the car stopped. I'd say that under the circumstances, this was the correct response.

[Brimack34]

"But I tell them I was doing my job!!!! ""How refreshing""
These kind of deeds are what true hero's are made of.

[Criminal Number 18F]

A bunch of comments here:

1. Hat's off to Ross, I reckon he's good for a BSM/V anyway.
2. All you guys bagging on his shooting, 100 rounds goes through an M240 or M249 (7.62 and 5.56mm MGs) in under twelve seconds. That's after he "made" the vehicle as a threat and brought his weapon to bear. I say well done.
3. The M60 was probably not in play. There are still some around (i.e. flexible guns in choppers, 3rd string support units, etc.), but the weapon has been replaced by the M240 which is the FN-MAG slightly Americanized and built here. That is, as anyone who had experience with both weapons knows, a wonderful thing.
4. Gotta be a drag to be that Iraqi right about now. You find out that:
   1. you didn't kill anybody
   2. you've got no virgins coming
   3. look around: this ain't heaven, it's altogether too warm entirely; and, shock of shocks:
   4. Allah ain't God. Oh yeah, and...
   5. You're still dead.
   Yep. Sucks to be him.
5. Best thing: the American officer, whose reaction was (I paraphrase): "Oh brother. We gotta paint this all over again."

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Let's hope he is not charged with use of excessive force that is barred by the Geneva Convention, uh, the UN, uh, the EU.

He won't be charged, the bomber destroyed the evidence!

[nutmeg]

God bless American Hero Specialist James Ross.

[nutmeg]

ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[Holly_P]

I've nothing to add to what's been said but I gotta say it too - He's a hero.

[MEG33]

You said it so well,I'll just say Amen!A lot of families still have their loved one because of his doing his job.

[cyborg]

score one for our boys!!!!

[archy]

I haven't heard that there are ANY '60s that are still issued.

There've been a few turn up in news photos, in the hands of Reserve or NG troops called up for deployments to Iraq. Whether they'd be better served by a new M240 rather than the old pig with which they've got considerable familiarity is a toss-up, but I bet that if they really needed M240s to replace crapped-out M60s, they could come up with them. And prior to an overseas deployment, they should get first pick of what's available to them stateside.

Off a vehicle mount with a truck or track carrying my ammo for me, I like the M240/MAG better. But if afoot or off the bipod with no tripod, the M60 is a couple of pounds lighter, and runs a little slower. I wouldn't feel badly equipped with an M60 at all, so long as it's a good one.

[Criminal Number 18F]

If the French had resisted the Nazi occupation as much as Iraq resists American liberation, half Adolph's army would have been tied down in France.

A good line (bon mot?) but in 1944 the Resistance drove the 2nd SS Pz Div absolutely ape. Finally the Nazis overcame resistance, but with methods we'd not use.

Remember, Iraq isn't resisting. Some people are -- people who had it a lot better in the status quo ante, and they're furious. But they're weak. Suicide bombing is not only a technique of fanatics, it's a technique of those who are so weak as to be militarily irrelevant -- it's the 2-year-old's tantrum of warfare. Incidents like this especially... the "great martyr" accomplished nothing but making himself a dead laughingstock. If we publicize that, the next "martyr" may decide to open a video shop instead.

This story by Tara Copp of Scripps-Howard has probably been put on FR somewhere, but it's a side of the Iraq war the Times and the Post don't see. With people like the ones in this article (one of whom worked with me in another theater, earlier in the war) who make it better for good Iraqis, and people like Ross, who make things unsat for bad Iraqis, things are looking up.

By the way, I didn't get invited to the White House iftar dinner that closed Ramadan, and damned if I don't recall the big al-Qaeda attack in the USA that was supposed to happen during that month, either.

The best the Iraqi (and Islamist, because he might not have been Iraqi) enemy can put forward is the guy who's now a DNA sample playing hard-to-get somewhere in that crater. The best we can put forward is just plain better. There it is.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[HardStarboard]

>>>It seems to me a court-martial is in order. After all, he failed to read the suicide bomber his rights before inconveniencing him. <<<

Thats what they are doing to Lt Col West who merely fired a 9mm pistol near a captives head to get him to tell of a planned ambush of his troops.

Spc Ross and Lt Col West are both American heroes!

[Liberal Classic]

I don't know about one short burst. Poor light, a moving target, and the threat of a car bomb? The cyclic rate of fire of the M60 is 500 rounds per minute, and I recall the M240 to be higher than that. A 100 rounds could have been downrange in what, 15 seconds?

[archy]

I'm not sure there would have been enough time to fire 100 rounds from an M2 and a SAW would be a little weak for perimeter defense...maybe a 7.62x51 M240...archy will know for sure...

That's between 10-15 seconds for a solid, continuous full-belt, rock and roll, machineguns a-go-go hold the triger down and hose 'em spray. If he chewed the vehicle up enough to stop or slow it, then finished it off with neat 5 or 6 shot bursts, then I'm really impressed. But either way, he got the job done, and he done good.

As a tank gunner, I was taught that 8 rounds of .50 will disable a softskinned vehicle more than 90% of the time, while it takes 12 rounds or so of 7,62 NATO. This presumes the rounds will get the driver, multiple tires, the ignition system or carburation/fuel injection lines- a hit on a radiator isn't quite good enough.

Indeed, the sharp move would have been to give the driver or steering tires a short *anchor* or *parking brake* burst to ensure the vehicle would remain a target for a few seconds, then hose it down good. Or it may well be that he had the opportunity for a single, continuous 100-round burst, which would get a rookie infantry gunner in trouble with the instructors on an MG range, but might have been just the medicine called for in this particular instance.

In any event, Specialist Ross was just the right guy at the right time. Now if they'd give him an afternoon's time of a range familiarization firing with the M67 90mm or 84mm Carl Gustav recoilless rifles, we'd be right in business. And one shot kills are SO much more sporting.

I really hope Spec4 Ross stopped the vehicle with his first dozen or two shots, as I suspect, and then used the rest of his belt to make certain with nice well-controlled bursts. Belted 7,62 MG ammo routinely comes in cans of three hundred, with three 100-round belts to the can, loaded with 1-in-5 tracer.

Appears to have done just fine. Somebody give that troop a beer on archy.

-archy-/-

[archy]

I've nothing to add to what's been said but I gotta say it too - He's a hero.

Nope. There's a considerable difference in doing your job in a particularly effective or meritorious fashion, as opposed to performing an act of valourous conduct, often when the situation has deteriorated beyond the standards to which a professional soldier would ever care to see them sink.

He did his job, but I hope at as minimal a risk to himself and his pals as was possible, especially when truck and driver parts started flying. And that also sets a professional standard much better for others to follow, far better than self-sacrificing acts, which while noble, are often ineffectual, though no less inspiring.

Another stripe for that young troop would be a fine touch, though it'd be a shame to lose his skills and talents as a gunner. But I've known more than one E-5 sergeant who hauled an M60 around, and very much knew what to do with it. I suspect the tool used here was an M240, but it could have been an M249 SAW- explaining why it took a hundred-round belt to kill a truck- or a .50. No matter. It worked.

So the word for Spec4 Ross for what he pulled off is not *hero,* though like that word, misapplied to everything from ball players to guitar pickers, a return to the original definition is called for. Specialist Ross is a Champion.

-archy-/-

[Holly_P]

Allow me to rephrase my statement then. He's my hero.

[Feiny]

That is an amazing story. I look forward to this leading the news tomorrow.

[archy]

Allow me to rephrase my statement then. He's my hero.

You'll get no disagreement from me about his being fully deserving of that high honour. He earned every bit of it.

-archy-/-