A startling revalation from a vet/kid...

[Huzband]

I was in my favorite watering hole this evening on my way home from work. I happened to over hear part of a conversation from a young man nearby. He said that while deployed in Afghanistan, he would go out on patrol. He wasn't allowed to be armed (!), so he would carry a grenade in his pocket. He said he'd rather die than give up secrets.

 

While I've always had the deepest respect for our military, this just took it to a level that I could not wrap my brain around. This was a young man of no more than twenty five, & he had already decided to die for his country if need be. How can anyone argue with that?

[beemerman2k]

I have no beef with the young man, people like him enable me to sleep peacefully at night. He also gives me great pride and confidence in our nations future; so long as we have people like him around, things won't get too far out of hand. I have always felt that those terrorists really don't want to wake this sleeping giant of a nation; they have no idea what fanaticism is until they see this country come out swinging.

 

But I do have a beef with this idea of sending our military into harms way, and then allowing local politics or Geo-political issues take precedence over the safety of our military. To me, that is taking advantage of and a disrespecting of the loyalty this young man has for his country. Send him out, armed to the teeth, and give him firm orders, "don't shoot first". But if someone shoots at you? Level the place. Sooner or later, they'll get the message, and then they'll do anything they can to send us home ASAP. Now you have a ground force actively assisting the negotiations going on among the higher level folks

[ragtoplvr]

this kind of not armed thing, not letting the young men fight, is why for me I was not going to Vietnam. Fortunately they ended the draft in time for me. I would have been willing to go and fight, but all the don't escalate and don't chase over the border folks were making that impossible. I feel really sad that this is how we manage the military.

 

Hats off to the young man

 

Rod

[Rougarou]

I was in my favorite watering hole this evening on my way home from work. I happened to over hear part of a conversation from a young man nearby. He said that while deployed in Afghanistan, he would go out on patrol. He wasn't allowed to be armed (!), so he would carry a grenade in his pocket. He said he'd rather die than give up secrets.

 

While I've always had the deepest respect for our military, this just took it to a level that I could not wrap my brain around. This was a young man of no more than twenty five, & he had already decided to die for his country if need be. How can anyone argue with that?

 

I would have questioned his "not armed" statement. I'm still in contact with many that I served with that still deploy and I have never heard of anyone going on patrol and being told that they "could not be armed". The standard is whenever you leave the FOB, your weapons go into condition 1, which is, magazine inserted, round in the chamber, weapon on safe, basically, ready to fire at a flip of the safety.

 

There are too many military members that will come home and exaggerate the stories, rather than to tell the straight up truth. In a volatile country like Afghanistan, I just find it hard to believe that a commander would push a patrol out without weapons,....makes no sense to me.

[MikeB60]

Bunch of red flags on this. After 27 years of active duty and seven more working as a civilian for the Department of the Army I've never heard of any crap like that. Why would you issue him a grenade and not a weapon? If he was assigned to a unit in theater, he had a weapon unless there was a medical reason. If there was some temporary medical reason, he would not have left the Forward Operating Base (FOB).

 

Most combat arms Soldiers don't have security clearances until they are NCO's, if he had access to "secrets" he most likely wouldn't have been on patrol. Not talking about Special Ops folks, who by the way don't go anywhere unless armed, I'm talking about the average Joe infantryman.

 

My office deploys downrange for temporary duty and typically don't have weapons but we don't go on patrol. I think that young man might have had one too many!

[upflying]

Don't necessarily have to be a NCO to have access to secrets.

Agree with above, sounds like intoxicants caused embellishment to war stories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Manning

 

[DaveTheAffable]

... This was a young man of no more than twenty five, & he had already decided to die for his country if need be. How can anyone argue with that?

Well said.

 

Whether the story is real, imbellished, or mis-understood... There are men and women willing to put themselves into harms way everyday for others. Even with weapons.

 

Over there... Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard, and others. (And on assignment here too..)

Over here... Firefighter, Peace Officer, and others.

 

I pray for them all. Everyday.

[Rougarou]

 

Most combat arms Soldiers don't have security clearances until they are NCO's, if he had access to "secrets" he most likely wouldn't have been on patrol. Not talking about Special Ops folks, who by the way don't go anywhere unless armed, I'm talking about the average Joe infantryman.

 

I don't know about the Army, but I have known plenty of 03 infantry Marines that held a Secret clearance. Plain ole secret clearances require nothing more than an electronic background check, usually a NACLC (national agency check with local checks), this is done by OPM (Office of Personnel Management).

[Rougarou]

Don't necessarily have to be a NCO to have access to secrets.

Agree with above, sounds like intoxicants caused embellishment to war stories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Manning

 

He's of a different breed, Manning was part of intel, to be part of intel, no matter the rank, a clearance is required. And most intel troops are not combat arms troops, they're "pogues", in the rear with the gear. Few, very few intel analysts go out with the combat troops.

 

What Huzband was talking about were the combat arms job fields, which are infantry, tanks, tracks, combat engineers, artillery and those types.

 

 

[Mike]

Bunch of red flags on this. After 27 years of active duty and seven more working as a civilian for the Department of the Army I've never heard of any crap like that. Why would you issue him a grenade and not a weapon? If he was assigned to a unit in theater, he had a weapon unless there was a medical reason. If there was some temporary medical reason, he would not have left the Forward Operating Base (FOB).

 

I'd have to concur. My time was in the USAF, but my son, who's a platoon leader, has an enormous amount of firepower at his disposal--seriously, they are not sending troops out under-gunned. If there's any issue, it comes in the form of overly restrictive rules of engagement. The young gent who was just armed with a hand grenade was, I am sure, blowing smoke.

[GrayNFast]

Agree about probably blowing smoke. However, I must say that keeping secrets is important for the welfare of himself and his fellow combatants.

 

There are junior enlisted Navy personnel with very high level clearances due to the nature of their duties; not necessarily Special Ops personnel.

[hANNAbONE]

... This was a young man of no more than twenty five, & he had already decided to die for his country if need be. How can anyone argue with that?

Well said.

 

Whether the story is real, imbellished, or mis-understood... There are men and women willing to put themselves into harms way everyday for others. Even with weapons.

 

Over there... Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard, and others. (And on assignment here too..)

Over here... Firefighter, Peace Officer, and others.

 

I pray for them all. Everyday.

 

 

...aS i dO...