Posted on 06/09/2006 7:49:57 AM PDT by kellynla
A Presbyterian minister who was an embedded reporter with his son's U.S. Marine company, which is accused of killing 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, said soldiers in private moments gave no indication anything horrible happened in the town.
Rather, the young men in Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment talked about earlier intense fighting in Falluja and other wartime ordeals.
"I would think that if it was as bad as everybody is making it out to be, I'd have heard something about it when I was there," said the Rev. Ben Mathes, 53, whose son, 1st Lt. Adam Mathes, is Kilo company's executive officer.
The military is investigating whether some soldiers from Kilo company went on a deadly rampage in November after an explosive device killed one of the most popular members of the unit, Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas.
The father spent 12 days with the unit in January in Haditha as a reporter with the Sacramento, California-based K-Love Christian Radio Network. He also ministered to the troops.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.scotsman.com ...
Such criticism hurt the morale of soldiers already under great pressure, especially those now in Iraq, Mathes said.
"How do you think it makes these kids feel, to come in exhausted, scared sometimes, maybe wounded, maybe having been in some type of combat exchange and turn on the TV set and be told they are just full of crap and they snapped and are just not worth a damn?" he said. "Why in the world would any young person want to continue to defend our county if that is what they are hearing?"
The Hoax at Haditha?
http://americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5566
When did they start calling a Presbyterian minister, "Father"?
God bless our brave troops and their equally brave families. Mr. Mathes is a courageous and compassionate man who will be one of the many getting the TRUTH out (in contrast with the thrice-damned media and Murtha contingent), and I'm proud of his connection with Sacramento.
I think the reference to "father" is that he is the father of one of the soldiers. The only title I saw in the article was "Rev."
Hadithi fraud writer and Terrorist Thaer al-Hadithi: "Trust me, silly dhimmis,
and continue to trust our friends at NBC,ABC,CBS,PBS, and al-Jazerra.
And don't you dare get any ideas to look at my computer's hard drive
or exhume those bodies."
Background: Why Did "Rights Group" Delay Revealing Haditha "Massacre"?
The type of comments you refer to being made by those seeking TV face time were at one time called TREASON. Unfortunately, attention to this behavior gets even less energy than those crossing our borders illegally.
Thanks for the clarification!
no problemo
the clowns in the media don't like to refer to us as Marines unless they want to smear us and when they do they have a problem hitting the cap key when they type out the "M" in Marine. :-]
Viet Nam all over again...
""I would think that if it was as bad as everybody is making it out to be, I'd have heard something about it when I was there," said the Rev. Ben Mathes, 53, whose son, 1st Lt. Adam Mathes, is Kilo company's executive officer. "
I doubt the military would confide classified information to a civilian, regardless what the Rev. thinks.
Only in the deluded fantasies of the unhinged and irrelevant drive-by media. Not in the real world. In this war on terror, the losers will be our home-grown leftist traitors and the slowly dying lamestreammedia.
Of course not. I think he is assuming he would have heard of it through the daily soldier's scuttlebutt, since he was an "embed", living with the men.
BTTT
"Of course not. I think he is assuming he would have heard of it through the daily Marines' scuttlebutt, since he was an "embed", living with the men."
There's an old saying about the hazards of "assuming"...
A 1st Lt as the company's executive officer? Is that possible? I would have thought a captain would be leading the company.
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