Semper Fi, Some Marines Die. But Why Like This? [Archive] - Marine Corps

junker316

09-16-06, 01:05 PM

Does this surprise any-one???? We do as we are told to do and then we become the example of some-one else's mistakes. We follow the orders given and ar not notified of any changes until after the fact. then we are guilty until proven guilty and thrown into a cell to await a rigged trial that we wouldn't have a snowballs chance in Hell in. It won't be the one who ordered the deeds done that will fry but only the ones that cared out the orders from them.

Marines...Family members of Marines...and Poolees...and any-one else not covered allow me to explain the situation here. I have been to Iraq three times. Each time was worse than the one before it. In the Persian Gulf War we were stopped by an imaginary line that protected Bagdad from us. In OEF/OIF we were sent in 2003 to hit hard and hit often. The only problem was that in most cases we were out numbed and under fire whether there were POWs or not. We told the POWs not to move and if they did we reacted to it. We never knew if they hid weapons near them or if they had a bomb ready to go off with a push of a button. Yet we were reluctant to tkae POWs because we knew that once they were under " OUR PROTECTION " that no harm should become them unless they instigate it. Movement after being told not to move was instigation to us. So they were shot and/or killed because they didn't listen and we weren't taken any frreaking chances. That was in 2003. Now in 2004-2005 I was in Al Anbar Province. In the Sunni Triangle. The Death triangle known to some. And this was for a reason. I was between Fullajah...Bagdad...Habitha...and Ramadi. My area of occuppation was hit nearly everyday by incoming mortars...rockets...RPGs...and the occasional suicde bomber. Yet they stayed far enough away so that we as a fighting force could not retaliate but had to send our Helicopters out to fight for us. They hit us day and night. There was no fighting back in the one you would have liked to...face off with the enemy and close with tem and kill tem or be killed. That asn't even in the equation. We were literally target practice for the Insurgents. We never received a CAR for our efforts or our losses. We never received a CAR for taking incoming and surviving it but the less fortunate got a Purple Heart. Yet we were in the most dangerous area of Iraq being led by a promotion seeker ( the MEU COMMANDER ) looking for a star to put on his collar and going through days and nights of not knowing if we were going to awaken to sun light or being bombed or if we were going to awaken at all. There was so much frustration and tension that we started to take it out on each other. We wasn't allowed to go out and close with and destroy the enemy but we could take it out on those near to us. it got to a point where no-one cared that the mortars were falling like rain drops. we didn't care if we got killed...it would be better than staying there and watching as your friends got hurt and killed by these bastards. I remember a night when myself and another Marine traded punches one each other just to release some stress. It was something we did on a weekly basis. Did it help???? at the time yeah. Later it just hurt because we still faced the fact that the enemy was still out there and we were still being used for target practice. Any-one who was at TQ knows of what I talk about. Al-Taqqaddum was in the middle of the four cities that threw everything they had at us through the air. And all would could do was duck and hide and try to survive to another day.