Saturday, July 19, 2008

"It's gonna be a bloodbath," {Updated}

Stars and Stripes


Sgt. Jacob Walker and Spc. Tyler Stafford talk about the attack





Soldiers recount deadly attack on Afghanistan outpost



Everything was on fire. The trucks. The bazaar. The grass.

It looked surreal. It looked like a movie.





That was July 13. That was when Stafford was blown out of a fighting position by an RPG, survived a grenade blast and had the tail of an RPG strike his helmet.

That was the day nine Chosen Company soldiers died.

It was just days before the unit was scheduled to leave the base.





"It was some of the bravest stuff I’ve ever seen in my life, and I will never see it again because those guys," Stafford said, then paused. "Normal humans wouldn’t do that. You’re not supposed to do that — getting up and firing back when everything around you is popping and whizzing and trees, branches coming down and sandbags exploding and RPGs coming in over your head … It was a fistfight then, and those guys held ’ em off."

Stafford offered a guess as to why his fellow soldiers fought so hard.

"Just hardcoreness I guess," he said. "Just guys kicking ass, basically. Just making sure that we look scary enough that you don’t want to come in and try to get us."




CNN


"It's gonna be a bloodbath," fallen soldier told father



Cpl. Gunnar Zwilling suspected that his days were numbered last week, while he and his band of brothers in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team prepared for a mission near Wanat, Afghanistan.

Cpl. Gunnar Zwilling had a bad feeling about his final mission in Afghanistan, said his father, Kurt.

"It's gonna be a bloodbath," he told his father, Kurt Zwilling, on the phone in what would be their last conversation.





The Defense Department on Wednesday identified the U.S. soldiers killed Sunday when their outpost was overrun in Afghanistan.

1st Lt. Jonathan P. Brostrom, 24, of Aiea, Hawaii.

Sgt. Israel Garcia, 24, of Long Beach, California.

Cpl. Jonathan R. Ayers, 24, of Snellville, Georgia.

Cpl. Jason M. Bogar, 25, of Seattle, Washington.

Cpl. Jason D. Hovater, 24, of Clinton, Tennessee.

Cpl. Matthew B. Phillips, 27, of Jasper, Georgia.

Cpl. Pruitt A. Rainey, 22, of Haw River, North Carolina.

Cpl. Gunnar W. Zwilling, 20, of Florissant, Missouri.

Pfc. Sergio S. Abad, 21, of Morganfield, Kentucky.



There's nothing I really can add to the above, nor do I feel I should.

The interviews at the links and the video, by the soldiers, are the reality.

RIP Young Brothers

The First From 2days Ago

Military looking at intelligence before deadly Afghan clash

A formal investigation into an attack on a U.S. Army unit by about 200 Taliban insurgents will examine whether the Army had intelligence about a possible assault and whether the troops had access to it.


This one from today:

Misunderstanding leaves 9 dead in Afghan airstrike

A misunderstanding between local police and coalition forces led to an airstrike in southwestern Afghanistan Sunday that left nine police officers dead, a defense ministry official said.


I leave it up to your own thoughts to see the picture of what is and has been going on!

No comments: