Battle of Wanat revisited.
Since the removal of the letters of reprimand there is been some protests. This one caught my eye that was posted by Thomas E. Ricks.
He has been posting articles about the families of those who where involved.
Scores of men who were at Wanat have testified that they were down to one bottle of water. When they did get resupplied at the end, the water was so laced with iodine it was almost impossible to drink in the 100 degree weather. Yet because the commanders, trying to save their own skin, told Campbell that the troops had enough water, he took their word for it. In his sham investigation Campbell apparently interviewed only the three commanders being charged. That’s not an investigation, it’s a whitewash.
Part 1
“Was it absolutely necessary that Wanat be occupied given the economy of force mission, terrain and obvious scarcity of resources? Did the Battalion and Brigade allow themselves to become overextended, continuously putting their soldiers in unduly high-risk situations?”
Part 2
There too much without quoiting the entire website. But the one on part three is something else. It was claimed that it was written by the father of one of the Soldiers that was killed in the battle, Cpl Pruitt Rainey. Yea it is one of those that you have to read it for yourself.
Now trying to figure out the truth in any of this is going to make finding a needle in a haystack a cake walk.
Category: Media, Terror War
Sad situation that has crept into our military. The biggest reason that I got out was because it became clear to me that politics was more important that actual job performance.
We had one man in our squadron killed in a flight deck fire and in the ‘investigation’ that followed all the blame was pinned on one enlisted man, even though he was following the orders of the Skipper and the Gunner.
They denied everything and that was that, even with testimony from multiple sources that they had given the orders that led to the accident nothing was done.
I don’t agree with Ricks on this one for a variety of reasons(too long to state here). Junger in “WAR” touchs on some of the issues, but for a better explanation check out Herschel Smith’s the Captain’s Journal, look up “Battle of Wanat”.
He walked up to me, looked, smirked, not one word, and walked away smiling again.
I watched the video of General Campbell’s statements to the families when he removed the letters of reprimand and I do not recall seeing him “smirking” or “smiling” about anything…
Let me assure you there is MUCH more to all of this than has been released to the public and it has been more than difficult for me to keep my mouth shut.
I will say this – I have more respect for General Campbell and the moral courage he exhibited than I could possible state in words. He did the right thing. PERIOD!
God Bless those 9 men who died and their families. Those men are all such true heroes. Hopefully one day soon the stories of their bravery and honor will be told instead of all of the victimization they have been dragged through. And God Bless the survivors, wounded physically and emotionally. HOPEFULLY one day soon they can begin to heal stop being submitted to over 2 years of continuous hounding by the media and others.
I have to get to work but I’ll have more to say about this tonight.
Work go in the way of my additional of me commenting further today.
If there was no basis for the reprimands then why did Petreaus order they be issued?
The crap about if the yshould have executed the mission are just that — crap. But the issue of the officers not being focused on the mission are legit if the facts support the charge. Paperwork can wait, you are the leader, you should be leading.
Gary – do you know Soldiers who were at Wanat? Soldiers who served under that Command? Have you talked to anyone who was there?
If you are only believing what is being reported in the media then you are not getting all of the facts and the story. It is more than frustrating that many who KNOW the rest of the facts and the story are being muzzled.
Every family deserves to know the truth and deserves to ask questions, etc. But no family has the right to crucify people in the media and not tell it ALL