One Marine's View

Never take it for granted

Shit happens fast and before you know it things have changed for certain that cannot be changed back. You must never take for granted what you are doing. For, what you are doing is consuming resources that you only get a limited supply of. Stop and look at what you are doing. Is it really what you should be doing? Are you doing what you really want to do or have to do at this time?

When we lose a warrior, a part of you goes with them. You may not have known everything about him or known his favorite color but you do know he is a Marine and willing to sacrifice everything to make something bad better and make a difference. Unfortunately, in the line of work we do, sometimes that is exactly what happens. I cannot imagine the heart ache of those who lost hundreds in one day in previous wars. I can only imagine their will to continue and to sharpen their steel that much more to ensure those warriors sacrifice was for not.

I can tell you first hand, although tragic and inconceivable, of the pain experienced by the fellow family members when their loved one is lost, I know their sacrifice is not wasted. The enemy here despises us as we are kicking the living dog shit out of them. It’s not the superior technology in this type of war that wins, it’s the Marine conducting the light infantry skills he was born to know. We continue to cut off the enemy's decision making ability faster than they can make it, find IED cells while processing materials and destroying them before 90% of them ever make into the ground, and of those 10% that make it into the ground, we find over 80% of those before they are detonated.  The enemy capitalizes on the coward ways of indiscriminate tactics like IEDs that wound innocent kids, and when they do muster enough intestinal fortitude to face us one on one they shoot from behind innocent civilians.  Know your young warriors utilize the utmost discipline and skill to bring the wrath onto the enemy and when they have them in their sights, it’s not the stealth aircraft above, the millions of dollars in technological equipment, it’s the smart young warrior that hunts the enemy down and doesn’t allow them to escape. 

Your Marines are doing this every single day here. Despite the challenges both physical and mental as seen in the above tactics, your young warriors are winning in the counter insurgency fight. The enemy cannot stand toe to toe with the young Americans and they are learning that the Marines are a professional, dedicated fighting force that they would rather not tango with.

From the smiles of children walking down a street of a recently liberated village to the compassion of our young Marines that tend to those same children after recently slugging it out with the enemy, I often ask “Where do we get such men?"  Such men that will sacrifice themselves to protect others they have never met? To demonstrate a nearly inconceivable wrath of weaponry onto the enemy and in a split second later help a young child or elderly man out of the street, sometimes even before the battle is over?

He is a Marine and willing to sacrifice everything to make something bad better off and make a difference. They will not be forgotten. Semper Fidelis.

 

Al Qaeda blamed for Quran burning

Gang-

Below is an article of yet another attempt by the enemy to action a desperate tactic against us. It didn’t materialize as we mustered locals, silenced crowds and educated locals to ensure they understood that the enemy is desperate and apparently has no respect for their holy book or religion as they destroy it during lies against their own people.

 Your Marines continue to take the fight (daily) to the enemy despite dozens of planted pressure plate IEDs and ambushes. The winter hasn’t slowed any attacks, only the high tempo is squashing the enemy’s actions. You would be very proud of your Marines and what they are doing, even if it doesn’t ever get recognized by the press or anyone else but here.

Semper Fi-time for a cigar!

 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/01/28/afghanistan.qurans/index.html

 

Al Qaeda, ISI blamed for Quran burning

January 28, 2010 1:58 a.m. EST

Making a difference

Are we making a difference? We have been in country for some time now. We have seen the area go from bad to good in weeks. Local nationals defending what is theirs against an intimidating enemy, which is a huge step for the evolution in the area. To have a local populace stand against an armed enemy and defend what is theirs is a key step in victory as it was in Iraq.  The enemy is getting desperate and now with a visible surge in effect, many enemy are wondering what to do next.

Your Marines are relentlessly hunting down the enemy and defeating them where they thought they owned the area.  Continuous actions by your Marines pressure the enemy to the point to where they get scared and make mistakes. When they make one mistake, they don’t get a second chance.  The enemy is savvy, but not real skillful. They resort to guerrilla tactics and desperate measures that use civilians as their protection. Real brave.

Know that your Marines are courageous and wicked smart. Brave and disciplined to the point they take abuse in order to save the innocent. Many will never know how your young Marines have sacrificed to save the innocent and with a flip of a switch, unleashed holy hell onto the enemy when required. A force  unmatched, a force to be reckoned with.  I am very proud of every one of them, as they make a difference.  Time for a stoagy….

An update from Afg.

 

Gang-

It’s been a very busy couple of weeks around our neck of the woods. Bad guys getting froggy, temperatures dropping, and ill tempered mice massing in large groups! …It’s all good, no worries.

Your Marines are doing great things around the area. With continued operations that pin the enemy back into unmaneuverable positions we continue our progress forward. Many people ask me, “Are we really making a difference here?” Being the second go around for me here, I can tell you it’s 100% better than the first time I was here. In a more closer look to the area, I can tell you that local leaders have and continue to make great gains in their local economic and life support structures throughout their region. 

When you have local civilians begin to inform you of IED emplacements and continue to stand up against the enemy threat, when you have people that want to make their area better without intimidation and, although scared, continue to work with Coalition Forces, those are signs of progress in the area.  Not how many Marines are in a square foot but more so of what those Marines do and how they carry out their actions that defines progress.  Yes, there is progress in Afghanistan and your Marines are leading the way.

Mail is arriving, however, I did just now get a letter sent before Thanksgiving. Its hit & miss at times. All of you out there please know, because of the austere conditions, limited computer networks, our fighting position, email and even slow snail mail isn’t available much of the time. We have received your care packages and I want to send out a HUGE thank you for all of you that have sent packages and letters of support. You don’t know how much that helps.  We don’t have a PX, our chow hall is a burnt out building so we don’t have the “luxuries” of many large bases. Mail gets to us when it “gets to us” .

We are maximizing and validating the techniques, tactics and procedures of the concept of “light infantry fighting”….and it’s working very well!

Time for a stoagy, Semper Fi!

Your Navy docs Rock!

The other night as we concluded the day, two patrols were under attack and fought off a small group of enemy. Relentlessly pursuing the enemy when we find them they continue to realize we are a force to contend with. With the kinetic operations being conducted on one hand, a surgeon gets notified that a local national is suffering from a separate unrelated  injury and is losing a lot of blood. The weather is past deteriorating and is now terrible. Fog so bad you couldn’t see 10 feet ahead of you with drizzle. The docs worked their magical touch and was able to stabilize the local national with professionalism within their bombed out stone structure. The relatives of the injured were very grateful for the doctors help. We planned to medevac the patient but as we tried the first section of aircraft had to wave off because the weather. A more specialized aircraft was brought in and the crew asked us the status of the patient because he was willing to sacrifice the crew to come in, totally blind. After knowing the status of the patient our docs said they will keep her alive throughout the night and we waved off the last medevac even though they might have been able to get in.

 

The docs stayed up all night and conducted superb medical attention so that the local national would live. Come morning, the fog was still there just as bad but the local national’s condition had improved. The docs had pulled her through the night and she would live to see another day.

 

I’ve seen dozens of events like this and know from first hand how your Marine warriors and Navy warriors are taking the fight to the enemy both kinetic an non kinetic.

 

Semper Fi

You heard what?

I was able to get my weekly shower today, if I needed it or not.  Your Marines continue to take the fight to the enemy and keep them off balance.  Thanksgiving has come and gone and we all have a lot to be thankful for as young studs keep the bad guys away from innocent civilians throughout the area.

Your warriors are hooking and jabbing with bad guys that believe they can scare off your fighting Marines. ….well, they have another thing coming! Patrols are relentless, the weather is getting colder and morale is high. If I have to hear another news article about how your warriors morale is bad I’m gonna puke.  Apparently they aren’t talking to warriors here in country because your Marines work their butts off daily and then go out for more. Thousands of miles away from home, equipped with the best gear possible on the planet, they march directly into the bad guys and make them have a very bad day. So if you happen to read some tree-hugging report about this and that and boo hoo they don’t have this or that, its BS….and most importantly, the ones doing the fighting, are feeding off of it.

The dirt is everywhere, showers are over rated and sleep is a crutch. Having a bad day? Just think of the 20 yr old out doing America’s great work over here, day after day and kicking butt! Yer day just got a whole lot better huh? Before you jump on the finger pointing parade, write one of these warriors and get it firsthand….otherwise keep quoting some reporter who is stating his opinion about morale vise facts.

Time for another cigar--Semper

 

 

Patrols and Turkey for Soldiers in Afghan War Zone

from the Associated Press:

BARAKI-BARAK, Afghanistan  —  Thanksgiving Day for soldiers in this valley ringed by towering snowy peaks began with a 6-mile slog to aid village schools without desks and windows, and promises to end with five, once scrawny local turkeys soldiers have been fattening up for the past month.

"Just another day, another mission," several soldiers said as a 25-man patrol from Able Troop, 3-71 Cavalry Squadron, 10th Mountain Division, set out on a cold morning under brilliantly blue skies.

Others let sentiment seep through their matter-of-fact, stoic shells.

"We're with our family just like we would be at Thanksgiving back home," said Staff Sgt. Ben McKinnon, of New Haven, Connecticut, nodding toward the soldiers around him that have daily shared hardship, suffering and some elation over the past year.

Commander Cpt. Paul Shepard said his unit had a great deal to be thankful for: the squadron has suffered two soldiers killed in action and a number of wounded but none have died in Alpha Troop.

"Knock on wood we've had some really good luck in our district. We've had a relatively good welcome from the locals and the severity of contact with the insurgents has not been great," said Shepard, of Black River, New York. "And we have tried to give out as much as we can."

Troops in Baraki-Barak, located in Logar province, just south of Kabul, have blitzed the district with humanitarian aid under an innovative "extreme make-over" concept that has had Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and civilian officials, helicoptering in to see how the model could be applied elsewhere in the country.

Thursday's patrol was part of an effort to supply the district's ramshackle schools with basic equipment.

Meanwhile, three cooks on the Joint Combat Operations Post, scurried to prepare the traditional meal. Putting a turkey on a soldier's Thanksgiving table isn't always easy in Afghanistan.

To enjoy the fresh thing, soldiers a month ago bought six turkeys at $20 apiece from local farmers, built a special pen under one of the base's guard towers, and fed them cornbread, crackers, and even chicken. One was slaughtered earlier to see how the birds were coming along and declared to be "awesome."

The unit's mechanics converted a 55-gallon drum into a smoker and Staff Sgt. Charles Hough, of Dexter, New York, who is otherwise charged with the unit's mortars, volunteered to supervise deep frying the celebratory birds, something he learned from his brother.

Spc. Seth Breesawitz, of Springfield, Missouri, who supervises two other army cooks on the outpost, said that to feed some 150 soldiers the local turkeys would be supplemented by pre-baked and pre-seasoned ones airlifted from the United States to the massive U.S. base in Bagram, and then trucked to Baraki-Barak via the main military camp in Logar.

"It makes me feel good to give them a piece of home," said Breesawitz as cooks finished slaughtering the turkeys Wednesday evening, preparing to pluck their feathers with the help of four, young and enthusiastic Afghan boys who perform odd jobs around a base where the troops have lived for almost a year.

All in all, it's hardly a place most would want to call home.

The soldiers live in tents or crude wooden huts, ringed by a 12-foot earthen defensive wall topped by barbed wire. The "dining hall" is a square wooden structure with bare walls but for paper cutouts of two turkey heads and maple leaves in autumnal colors. The kitchen, a tiny tent on a trailer, would drive most chefs mad.

Around the outpost lie barren fields and stark, fortress-like village compounds fashioned from mud brick. The landscape exudes a melancholy air: autumn's last leaves cling to apple trees, and the naked branches of willows are etched against a cold sky. In the distance, mountain peaks soar to 14,000 feet, capped by early winter snows.

Keeping the bad guys on the run

Gang-

Its been a freaking whirlwind to date. Getting ready to deploy, staying, getting ready to deploy again etc, then finally departing. Flying, no shit, around the world stopping in every third world country then arriving in country and start moving again. Now we are somewhat stationary.

Mail has gotten better as has our way of life. We have improved from Wag-bags (burning poop) to port a johns and we get two hot meals a day…pretty damn good chow too.  Living conditions are austere, no salsa nights here, just warriors patrolling their butts off and going where the enemy thought they owned terrain. The bad guys don’t like us very much, but on the contrary, the locals love us.  Are we making a difference?  Bet yer ass.  Email is limited as you can tell by the amount of posts produced, been busy supporting Marines.

Your Warriors are doing freaking outstanding things! You won't hear much in the news but I can tell you they are not only putting the fear of God into the enemy  & dealing with those that want to fight but at the same they are helping the locals up by the hand and I can tell you compared to my last deployment here in 2004, things are very different for the better.

Marines patrol non-stop and usually in deep mud and return soaking wet only to bear the cold nights. They are heroes, young studs going directly into danger with a grin on their face.  You got to love them! 

I have seen in the short time here the foundation that the Marine Corps stands for. It's beyond "no better friend, no worse enemy."  It's built of honoring your word to locals, defending off hard core fighters that hate and intimidate the weak.  Traits found in every conflict the Marine Corps has fought in are still solid today within our ranks.  Wicked smart leaders, nail strong NCOs and they all have hearts as big as Texas that protect those weak and can turn into your worst nightmare with a flip of a switch to deal with insurgents.  Discipline, dedicated professionals within all the ranks that have already made a difference in the short time here. I know all past/present Marines would be proud of them. I sure as hell am.  More as time permits. Be proud of your warriors, the bad guys are on the run.

An Amazing Man, an Amazing Team

Please read below a message from an amazing Marine.  Read down and then go check out his website at www.SemperMax.com:

Hello All-
Happy Marine Corps Birthday and Veterans Day. I hope you can take a minute andappreciate your self. Yes, yourself. If you are receiving an e-mail from me, then you either were/are a warrior; or you support warriors. And it is thosetwo groups that keep our country safe.

Of course, my primary focus is on wounded warriors.  As most of you know, I am retired from the Marine Corps. And I have now created a new unit; a Team. Let's face it, I'm addicted to being part of a team.
Being by myself is just too weird. Sitting around all day watching soap operas....people who can do that are tougher.

My Semper Max Team has existed for quite a while. But now, it is time to
recruit. To do that, I have created T-shirts, ribbons, stickers and magnets.
Their goal is to spread the word. Recruit wounded warriors all over the
world.  Through all of them, there is only one basic symbol. The SemperMax Team.

The concept is pretty simple. Wounded/Ill/Injured/Goldstar Families (WIIG)
should join the team. Let's face it; being a WIIG stinks. Why do it alone?

So I have created a Warriors T-shirt in which I try; I say again, try; to
represent us. I could not include every problem, of course. Some people have
injuries inside. And they have no scars. That is a big deal to me.
Lower-level TBI and PTSD can have it just as bad. But I did my best. Thank goodness
Semper Toon helped me out.

The next T-shirt is for EVERYBODY who supports us. Corpsman, medics,
doctors, nurses, family, friends, donators, visitors..... on and on.

What is the money for, you might ask?

Missing 1: Togetherness- it's that simple. It cost money to travel. If every
member of the SemperMax Team lived in the same town, this problem would not
exist.

Why not just request donations, you might ask?
Donations are certainly welcome. If you are interested in that, there is a
link
on the website (PayPal). Or you can just mail it to
SEMPERMAX, Inc
P.O. Box 969
Dumfries, VA 22026

But the overall reason that I have created a company instead of just taking
donations is coming. Let me just say that traveling, togetherness, is the
key.  Team gear is a very small part.

Please remember, T-shirts etc. are not the mission.  Passing the word for sharing time, sharing stories, sharing misery.... That is the mission. T-Shirts, magnets, etc. will help spread the word.
For other types of T-shirts, and other things , go to www.IraqandBack.com
<http://www.iraqandback.com/>
Very Cool Website, for wounded warriors, created by wounded warriors.

Enough is enough. If you have read this far down, that's a good sign! Please
check it out.

www.SemperMax.com

TA Maxwell
LtCol USMC (Ret)

Your Veterans

Nov 10^th, 1775, was the date the Marine Corps was established.  Yesterday we celebrated the 234th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps. On this Veteran's Day, and every day we are at war, your veterans are keeping the wolf at bay.

Throughout history your warriors take the fight to defend America in the most gruesome conditions. Regardless of location, the honor to defend our country is something that will stay with us forever and can never be taken away.  Even though your service members are all over the globe, your Marines stopped to pay honor and celebrate the Marine Corps Birthday, halted again and celebrated Veteran's Day.  We take this very seriously, regardless of climb and place.

Your Marines are doing great things around the world, be proud. Semper Fidelis