Lessons Learned In Combat

[vietboy1st]

after all i hate cqb. And it suck to be a point man.

[Shung]

Hey guys, I am new here, and this will be my 1st post ever on M4C.net ! I've been quite a long time member on arfcom, or THR, but missed this interesting forum for a too long. It's about to end !

I've been given the link to this thread by a friend of mine who is a member here, and I must admit it was the most interesting and wise thread i've read in years.

I am a Swiss shooter, gun collector and kind of gun right activist from Switzerland..
Also a Swiss Air Force soldier.. (militian actually, like many Swiss males..)

I wanted to personnally thank the OP for what he has written. I am pretty sure it will be more than usefull to all the readers that have the luck to see it, and maybe even save lives for some..

Sure it will change the way I train, and the way I see training. Hopefully, these skills will never be usefull to me, but you know.. "hope for the best..... "


Nice to meet you all.

regards,

Patrick

[c0b2a]

Oh Tarmiyah, in 2007 I was assigned to 2-8 CAV, we lost 2 soldiers (RIP Sgt. Pedro J. Colon and Spc. Montrel S. Mcarn) in Tarmiyah when a 2000lb VBIED hit our Demon company JSS. Tarmiyah was still the wild west even then and continues to be I believe. (although I have not been there since 2007)

Great post though RetreatHell. So many in conventional units do not seek out additional training and the standard taught by their units is not enough.
Thank you for demonstrating true courage by continuing to fight and train past your handicap.

[chineseboxer]

God Bless you! Thank You for your service and your words. Glad to see you putting rounds downrange!

[bmw0311bmw]

As a former USMC 0311, the tactics taught to myself and fellow devil dogs have vastly improved. We were taught the combat reload as well as maintaining "the corner". Did you have a fireteam member with you or did I miss it? We all used a drop pouch when it was convenient but it wasn't every time that's for sure. Glad you are back in the saddle again with your trigger finger and wish you the best in the future. OOh to the rah...

[RetreatHell]

....Did you have a fireteam member with you or did I miss it?....

I went back over the thread just now and realized for the first time that I never once mentioned that I was with a squad. It does kinda sound like I was all alone in the backyard from the way I wrote and described it, huh? Well, I wasn't. Me and a buddy got separated from our squad towards the beginning of the fight, and so we linked up with another squad who was in the thick of it.

Before I entered the actual backyard of the house I was shot at, I tried and failed to make entry via a side door. While I was doing this, some Marines who just cleared the house right next door were on the second floor and yelled out of the window to us that the bad guys in the house I was trying to make entry into had fled into the backyard. I think the reason they might have done that is because of the SMAW round that was fired into the house, so maybe they thought we were gonna level the whole house or something, I don't know.

Anyhow, roughly 4 Marines went into the backyard before I did and took up positions using the very limited cover that was available. I finally gave up on the door (one of those metal ones that just wouldn't budge) and entered the backyard. I saw that all cover was taken and that they were all engaging the bunker that I describe in my article. Because of this, and since I didn't want to stand out in the open while engaging the bunker, I rounded the corner of the house in search of cover and a better position so that I could engage the enemy on their left flank (well, my left their right).

Just a few feet after I rounded the corner is when I saw the enemy fighter low-crawling away from the bunker at my 11 o'clock and stopped to engage him. None of my other fellow Marines in the backyard could see this bad guy or the entrance to the bunker, because the bunker itself was blocking their view of everything to the left side of it.

Hopefully that helps to clear up any confusion anyone may have had about whether or not I was alone in the backyard or not. I would never have even thought about entering a backyard (or any area) all by myself that I knew for a fact several enemies were in, that's for sure.

Semper Fi!

-Paul

[SpartanArms]

Paul,

Just read your article in the latest issue of SWAT today. Your experiences in Iraq are both extremely moving / motivational and also infuriating. It's shameful that we still don't provide adequate proper firearms training to our Marines and Soldiers that we send into harm's way each and every day. I know Pat Rogers has been hammering this issue pretty good over the last few years; that we should train our people for real-world combat instead of rifle qualifications. Hopefully DoD will continue to make forward progress into realistic training methods and TTPs, so that other Marines and Soldiers may be spared these kind of injuries. Thanks for your service brother!

PS. You mentioned you worked with AAV's in Tarmiyah when you got into your firefight. Did you work with 2nd AAV Bn. by any chance?

[tracker722]

RetreatHell, you sir, have my respect and admiration. I am old enough to be your father but you are definitely an inspiration to all. Keep your head up and watch your six. Semper Fi.

[thegoat273]

Paul, thank you for sharing your experience. As a LE officer I will certainly take this back to my PD and my team for the guys to read. Several lessons here that I think we can all take learn from . Thanks for your service from one vet to another

[RetreatHell]

Paul,

Just read your article in the latest issue of SWAT today. Your experiences in Iraq are both extremely moving / motivational and also infuriating. It's shameful that we still don't provide adequate proper firearms training to our Marines and Soldiers that we send into harm's way each and every day. I know Pat Rogers has been hammering this issue pretty good over the last few years; that we should train our people for real-world combat instead of rifle qualifications. Hopefully DoD will continue to make forward progress into realistic training methods and TTPs, so that other Marines and Soldiers may be spared these kind of injuries. Thanks for your service brother!

PS. You mentioned you worked with AAV's in Tarmiyah when you got into your firefight. Did you work with 2nd AAV Bn. by any chance?

Thanks, brother. I'm almost positive it was 2nd AAV's that hauled us all the way from Kuwait to Baghdad, and also into Tarmiyah that day in April '03. My amtrac commander was their company gunny and was pretty ****ing cool because he let us smoke in our trac as long as we policed up our butts and swept out our ashes every night when we'd stop for our nightly 3 hours of sleep to let the blood flow back into our numb and bruised asses.


@Tracker- I appreciate that a lot, man! Thanks!

@thegoat- That's great, brother! I've received quite a few similar emails and PMs and forum posts like yours from LEOs. I hope that my lessons learned will help you guys out and prevent you from making the same mistakes I did.

Take care all and Semper Fi!

-Paul