re: Met Marcus Luttrell today

quote:

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I think people say he lied about the number taliban they fought

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I wouldn't say lied. I'd say he overestimated. Most people think it was about a dozen enemy that ambushed them. A dozen men with machine guns can easily seem like a lot more when they have the high ground.

quote:

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The local who brought Luttrell in, Gulab, says it wasn't the herdsman who alerted the taliban but the chopper that dropped them off 

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The crew chief on the helicopter dropped the rope they used to fast rope down at the LZ. The crew chief realized this when they got back to base. Lutrell and his team decided to go back and hide the rope so it wasn't discovered. It was after they did this and were headed back to their overwatch position that they were discovered by the goat herder.


The simple fact is that Lutrell and his team were ambushed and so many were killed because it was a poorly planned and executed mission. The Marine Corps initially planned the operation and were going to send. In an 8 man sniper team on foot to do the recon then land a company of infantry on the village by helicopter to kill or capture the head bad guy(his namd escapes me at the moment). The Marines had to request helicopter support from the 160th special operations regiment because Marine helicopters couldn't fly at thosr altitudes and regular army pilots wouldn't fly in a zero illumination environment(it was a new moon or something like that). After they requested that helicopter support SOCOM got wind of the mission and took it over.

The Marines told the SEALs repeatedly to walk the recon team in amd to send more than four guys. They also told them repeatedly that they should bring the older, heavier but more reliable PRC-119 radio because Satellite communications were spotty in the area. The SEALs listened to none of this because of their arrogance and hubris and that is why they are dead.