What Really Happened During the Last Military Standoff With Iran — ProPublica

SSG Robert Mark Odom an remarkable read and share of the most informative my friend.


Maj Marty Hogan SPC Margaret Higgins COL Mikel J. Burroughs CPL Dave Hoover Lt Col Charlie Brown Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen SCPO Morris Ramsey TSgt Joe C. PVT Mark Zehner Sgt (Join to see) SSG Michael Noll PO1 Tony Holland Capt Dwayne Conyers Maj Kim Patterson SGT (Join to see) PO1 H Gene Lawrence CW5 Jack Cardwell SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth PO3 Craig Phillips

Ok; so I wasn't there... so I can't know anything for certain. However, I can hazard a few educated guesses. First, let's not dismiss the fact that on either side of the political aisle, politicians are going to "spin" things to their advantage. I personally find that insulting and detrimental, since it draws us away from the facts that might save lives later on. That said, it's nothing new, nor particularly noteworthy.

Enough on politics.

Speaking to the incident, I think the crews took way too much blame on this one-did then, do now. "Training" is a relative term; how many rounds do elite special operations units fire routinely to maintain proficiency? How is any "conventional" unit supposed to maintain that kind of combat effectiveness on the budgets provided? When something goes wrong, people always blame the same things... lack of training, equipment failure, poor leadership. These things have been present on every battlefield, include the high seas, from Thermopylae to Trafalgar, and from the Bay of Pigs to this event. I was rolling around leading convoys in Afghanistan as a "squid" with a couple months of "familiarization" at Ft. Riley. We had crypto I doubt anyone other than our senior enlisted comms specialist truly understood (let alone was proficient in). Few of us had fired more than the minimum rounds to qualify with our weapons, and one could hardly call us "experts" on the "FID-light" mission we had been assigned to... but we did the best we could under the circumstances. We were there because you simply cannot generate enough "operators" to do everything.

If these people had engaged the Iranians, they'd have all died... that's the reality. I'd bet that if that JO is anything like me, he probably would give anything to have been all alone on that boat, and free to go down like Steven Decatur... rather than face a lifetime of scrutiny, questioning, and shame. He, and the senior enlisted with him, had more practical considerations to take into account.

Trump is right about this however; we cannot "appease" Iran...and neither can we send out forces that can so easily be overwhelmed under this reality, just because it's "lower profile".