Originally Posted by
megan
Traffic_Is_Er_Was, loved your defence link where it says,Can remember leading a flight of Hueys on an insertion where the brief gave me the distinct feeling that we were going to be lucky to survive. We had absolute crap rain down upon us, small arms, B40, air burst mortar, you name it. Another, benign insertion I though as I lead the formation again, landed and all hell broke loose in an ambush by a heavy weapons company, 25% of the troops wounded, 50% dead, all aircraft unflyable and sling loaded home by Chinook. While one of my crewmen escaped with an AK47 round in the neck and back he survived, I merely received one round in the back between the shoulder blades, thank God for armour plate. Perhaps you can tell us what we did wrong in the OH & S sphere.A fire fighter did just that on TV news a few nights ago, they're brave, not stupid, they don't do suicidal stuff, occupants had died, going in would have extended the list.
...and you should be recognised and thanked for your service, not used as a part of some political flag-wrapping exercise by a desperate government.