'We're pinned down:' 4 U.S. Marines die in Afghan ambush

// added September 09, 2009 // 31 comments //
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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/75036.html

GANJGAL, Afghanistan — We walked into a trap, a killing zone of relentless gunfire and rocket barrages from Afghan insurgents hidden in the mountainsides and in a fortress-like village where women and children were replenishing their ammunition.

"We will do to you what we did to the Russians," the insurgent's leader boasted over the radio, referring to the failure of Soviet troops to capture Ganjgal during the 1979-89 Soviet occupation.

Dashing from boulder to boulder, diving into trenches and ducking behind stone walls as the insurgents maneuvered to outflank us, we waited more than an hour for U.S. helicopters to arrive, despite earlier assurances that air cover would be five minutes away.

U.S. commanders, citing new rules to avoid civilian casualties, rejected repeated calls to unleash artillery rounds at attackers dug into the slopes and tree lines — despite being told repeatedly that they weren't near the village.

"We are pinned down. We are running low on ammo. We have no air. We've lost today," Marine Maj. Kevin Williams, 37, said through his translator to his Afghan counterpart, responding to the latter's repeated demands for helicopters.

Four U.S. Marines were killed Tuesday, the most U.S. service members assigned as trainers to the Afghan National Army to be lost in a single incident since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Eight Afghan troops and police and the Marine commander's Afghan interpreter also died in the ambush and the subsequent battle that raged from dawn until 2 p.m. around this remote hamlet in eastern Kunar province, close to the Pakistan border.

Three Americans and 19 Afghans were wounded, and U.S. forces later recovered the bodies of two insurgents, although they believe more were killed.

The Marines were cut down as they sought cover in a trench at the base of the village's first layer cake-style stone house. Much of their ammunition was gone. One Marine was bending over a second, tending his wounds, when both were killed, said Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer, 21, of Greensburg, Ky., who retrieved their bodies.
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31 comments // 'We're pinned down:' 4 U.S. Marines die in Afghan ambush

  • echoz
    • 0
      echoz  
    • Image...

    • y'know, acontradiction, the more I read your comment looking through here, the more I'm beginning to think you may have already answered it best...unfortunately, without anyone even really hearing it... It may be a greedy conservative issue as regards militaristic strategy and "natural resources," but it's supported by liberalizing ideals of "free love" and "democracy" that apparently more locals would rather jam right back up someone's pretentious american ass for added effect.

      you naturally wonder after a few sticks of dynamite, what it takes to get the hint our globalizing "goodwill" is not appreciated.

    • 6 months ago
  • Progresshiv
    • 0
      Progresshiv  
    • Image...

    • Gordy Lane is a retired Syracuse police detective who served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. As a cop, it was his job to put lawbreakers behind bars, but as a veteran, he understands that when you go to war, "you come back a little different than when you went over there."

      "Listen," he says, "you pop up out of a foxhole, and you blow a guy's head open like a watermelon. The other two guys in the foxhole start patting you on the back and saying, 'Good job!' because you just did the worst thing that you can do to another person. How do you translate that into civilian life?"

      For far too many soldiers, the simple answer is, you don't.

    • 6 months ago
  • JohnA
  • SamuraiDave
    • 0
      SamuraiDave  

    • This is why we shouldn't have gone into Iraq at least not until Afghanistan was squared away (if that is even possible).

      There was very little public opposition towards going into Afghanistan because 1) OBL and Al Queda were there; 2) there were terrorist training camps there; and 3) the ruling body was the Taliban infamous for their fundamentalist views towards women and Buddhist icons.

      The Iraq War fiasco has lowered America's credibility and respect around the world and strained our military resources in personnel and equipment.

      And now people are switching their anit-Iraq position to Afghanistan naively thinking the two are the same thing.

    • 6 months ago
  • Cynic2
  • MoonLoon
    • 0
      MoonLoon  
    • Cynic2:

      Cool your jets. He does not make policy. He was simply expressing grief over the loss of his friends. Your resentment is misdirected. Change comes at a much higher level than a Corpman.

    • 6 months ago
  • echoz
    • 0
      echoz  

    • your loss is a much more particular than the rest of ours, but I'm sure I speak for more than myself in just saying that we all feel you. I commend your bravery Mr. Reinhart in honorably and knowingly facing uncertain and grave risk to life and limb in service to our nation. I will certainly keep you in prayers...It would be a sincere blessing to see here again in good time. Godspeed and much hellfire to clear your way Brothers with the swiftness and speed of gazels and the power and boldness of wide-eyed lions. God bless you!

    • 6 months ago
  • Greg_Reinhart
    • 0
      Greg_Reinhart  

    • I am a Corpsman (medic) in the US Navy and this is the team i trained with for the past 5 months before they deployed to Afghanistan about a month ago. I am a combat replacement and I will be going very shortly because of this incident... I honestly didn't think it would lead to this but it has and I will respond, with honor. I knew all 4 that died and it saddens me deeply to hear about this. One was a very good friend of mine, and I will miss him greatly.

    • 6 months ago
  • SamuraiDave
  • samthesixth
  • MoonLoon
  • trut
    • 0
      trut  

    • I don't believe any story coming from the military. The soldiers probably ran into another opium shipment and had to be eliminated.

    • 6 months ago
  • echoz
  • stopnoise
  • MilchMann
  • kennymotown
    • 0
      kennymotown  

    • War is not a picnic, I remember being trained for ambushes of many types and when it happens it must be hell. My heart goes out to these Marines family's.

    • 6 months ago
  • acontradiction
  • stopnoise
    • 0
      stopnoise  

    • I heard this news yesterday and I did refrained myself to even air it because it fuels into the America's ignorance. Stop the War that is costing lives and millions. Get the hell out of other people Country!

    • 6 months ago
  • magnusdeus
    • 0
      magnusdeus  

    • Every time I start to think like that I always remember a story from last December which covered a Taliban threat to school children. They said if girls weren't taken out of schools they'd start bombing them.

      I'll fight that.

    • 6 months ago
  • carmalite
    • 0
      carmalite  
    • magnusdeus:

      A different strategy needs to be found because no one has succeeded in conquering that country yet. A massive economic infusion that enriches the average person and creates a middle class might work, but we don't have the money to do it, and the rest of the world does not have the desire.
      I think we should help people who want to leave relocate elsewhere , especially the women.

    • 6 months ago
  • MilchMann
  • carmalite
    • 0
      carmalite  

    • Most that are dieing are babes. The other night I was watching a list of names and ages and most of them were 19 to 21.
      This is just so sad. They should be in the USA! I am sick of people dieing for an impossible dream. No one but Alexander the Great held Afghanistan and that was for a short time.
      I don't know how they can ever build up Afghanistan enough to resist the Talliban. I don't think its possible.

    • 6 months ago
  • samthesixth
    • 0
      samthesixth  

    • Because we have lost the will to win, we must pull out now. What is the policy we are fighting for? Replacing the Taliban as Afghanistan's government to punish them for harboring Bin Laden? We've already accomplished that. Leave nation building to the one worlders and the neocons.

    • 6 months ago
  • echoz
    • 0
      echoz  

    • been a long time Cosmo_Plavix. well to see you again... damn. talk about tactical proficiency. we need Patton back or we might as well line up like the redcoats of old...:

      "U.S. commanders, citing new rules to avoid civilian casualties, rejected repeated calls to unleash artillery rounds at attackers dug into the slopes and tree lines — despite being told repeatedly that they weren't near the village.

      "We are pinned down. We are running low on ammo..."

      How do you win a war with commanders who don't focus on dynamics of the battlefield for their little "rules" no one gives a rat's ass about? They're dead now, and quite an EASY ambush I'd say. Thanks, "commanders"?

    • 6 months ago
  • MilchMann
    • 0
      MilchMann  
    • echoz:

      Honestly... that was just the last mistake in a whole line of mistakes, those marines should not have been on patrol in an are where we did not control the hamlets in the first place... if you want patrols like that, you send out force reacon, mountain brigade, or SEALs in the middle of the night. Patrolling a hostile area for the hell of it is nothing more than getting guys like this killed for nothing.

      This is one of the key points of military strategy, know your front line, and do not cross it without a purpose and enough force to see that purpose through... Foot patrols by infantry in hostile held territory is GD stupid.

    • 6 months ago
  • carmalite
    • 0
      carmalite  
    • echoz:

      This is terrible. These guys were so young, and most not battle hardened. If the commanders caused this, they should be tried and put in the brig or lose rank and be kicked out.

    • 6 months ago
  • MoonLoon
    • 0
      MoonLoon  
    • echoz:

      I don't have any military experience (high lottery number) thankfully. But I agree with Milch, it seems that we continue to make basic blunders in our strategy and young men die. Heartbreaking.

    • 6 months ago
  • Progresshiv
    • 0
      Progresshiv  

    • Dateline Monday, September 12, 1966- from "The Daily Astorian" newspaper:

      Saigon- Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky declared today the smashing success of South Viet Nam's national elections "spells the beginning of the end" for the Communist threat to this war-ravaged country.

      Ky said in a victory statement the entire world - and particularly the Communist bloc - must recognize that the massive turnout at the polls Sunday was solid evidence South Viet Nam's people were determined to fight for their freedom.

      The government claimed a smashing political victory over the Viet Cong and took a major step toward a return to civilian rule with the balloting. Despite terror attacks and death threats to both voters and candidates 80.8 per cent of the eligible voters turned out to name a 117-member constituent assembly....

      ...Ky issue(d) his statement at the Dien Hong Palace on the Saigon waterfront. He said the Communists had failed to sabotage the elections.

      "Never before have they tried so hard, but never before have they failed so miserably," the prime minister and erstwhile air vice marshal said. "This certainly spells the beginning of the end for them."

      Dateline 2009-
      The United States abandoned the Vietnam Project 9 years and over 40,000 lives later.

    • 6 months ago
  • SamuraiDave
  • Progresshiv
  • bansheewail
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