'We're pinned down'
4 U.S. Marines die in Afghan ambush
By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers
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
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'We're pinned down:' 4 U.S. Marines die in Afghan ambush | McClatchy
"We're Pinned Down"
If you were in RVN, Army or Marine and you heard "We're Pinned Down"
you knew that rain or shine, night or day 'they were coming' to help. Didn't matter if they were slicks, gun ships or cargo haulers, 'they were coming'.
Fast forward 4 decades with incredible advances in helicopter capabilities and technologies and 4 Marines die because there's no one, no helicopter to answer their call for help.
These 4 dead Marines should have had a better chance at survival had Marine leadership during those 40 years done the right thing. I fear those 4 Marines deaths can be blamed on poor leadership, greed and incompetence. I know about woulda/coulda/shoulda but this is plain wrong! IMO