This is going to be a bitch.  How far is the Airfield from Kandahar??  That have had two weeks to fortify, but this will definately be their last stand, and it will be on home turf?? Anyone seen Jarhead22 lately???  

God be with OUR Marines.  If someone has to die they always send in the Marines.

Benjamin

Found this link to a spec ops operation via Indian newspaper. Cannot account for accuracy.
[URL]
http://syninfo.com/ian/PRIVATE/2001/11/05/2001110517040134.html[/URL]

Benjamin

If any "heavy armor" is being brought in, it isn't coming by helicopter. [;)]

This is a forward staging area for Apaches!

Pakis wouldn't let them do it from Dalbandin!

This is support!  The Marines are not going to be involved in the ground assault on Kandahar.

DaMan

PS - Heavy armor?  Don't think so!

O tay, Pankee!  [:P]  DaMan

PS & BTW - That's "Taliban" not "Talibam"!  But, of course YOU knew that!  [:P]

Reuters was telling everyone about it at 6:10 EST.

[url]http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?id=72863[/url]

If they were bringing armor by air its Marine LAV's.  Either that or its the Light Dragoons' Scimitars, they accompany 3 RM Commando Bde. and they were sitting in Oman waiting for this too.

GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS!!!

Well, we have been told by some who seem to think they know, that there is not a dime's worth of difference between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance!

Don't you think that sheer patriotism should compel these boys to share their infinite and never-failing intelligence with the commander-in-chief?

Let's just see if he returns their calls.

We'll just wait here to see what happens.

Eric The(IMeanDoTheyHaveCondiRice'sNumberOnSpeedDial?)Hun[>]:)]

Also remember, if they have a local source to draw fuel from- and therefore dont have to bring tanker trucks with them- we DO have the capablitity to lift up to 1 whole Battalion of M1A2's by C17.

Not that they would need that many, a company would suffice for just about any concevable action in Afganistan.  So no helicoptors cant bring 'heavy armor' in, but 'heavy armor' can be airlifted in.

Actually, [b]raf[/b], I thought '[u]Talibam[/u]' was purposefully spelled in that manner!

Eric The(MakesSenseToMe!)Hun[>]:)]

Semper Fi,

LETS ROLL


Bulldog OUT

On AP: [url]http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011125/ts/attacks_military_293.html[/url]

Jarhead_22 is still on deck, waiting for my waiver from HQMC. The 14th Marines haven't been activated anyway.

Get some brothers, for all the Marines no longer on active duty who died in NYPD and FDNY uniforms on 9.11.01!

Payback is a motherf*cker.
[img]http://users.aol.com/k412rvn1/k412/flagwavr.gif[/img] [img]http://store2.yimg.com/I/pinupgirlclothing_1655_6723963[/img] [img]http://www.freerepublic.com/images/flags/us/texasC.gif[/img]

Me says a prayer for all our guys fighting on foreign soil.
Godspeed, soldiers. I appreciate your efforts. Good luck and god bless.

Kick some fucking Taliban  ass!!!

Mr. Bin Laden, the USA is coming for you, and we are going to get you. The places for you run and hide is getting smaller and smaller.  And we are going to kick your butt! You're going to your wish to meet Abdulluh.

Man I just love it when people spelling troll. Gives me that warm fuzzy feeling to see a juvenile little prig intellectually bash someone for a typo.

It’s actually spelled: ¿¬¦» No Urdu charset [:)] whoda thunk it

I have seen engligh translations of: Talliban, Talebann, TalIban... ad infinitum.

stfu moron

damm,,I hope it goes well. Honestly I'm worried,, these Afgani's are fuked up won't be long till a bunch of them that gave up previously and who are now fighting for the alliance decide to turn the table over and fight against the alliance and US could and will happen. These skells can't be trusted,,imagine not only trusting mother fukers who were trying their best to kill you then they decide it is not in their best interests to continue fighting? Imagine trusting these fuks to fight along side you? What are you kidding? These people are spineless,,at least when you say you'll fight to the death,,fight to the death like men.. Besides I'm very inclined to shoot the fuk that was up till the moment that they decided that they would rather live as cowards than continue to fight and die,,let me rephrase this,, I'm getting shot at someone is trying his best to kill me,,then the tables turn I'm about to kill him he raises his hands,,,fuk him he was trying his best to kill me then because he knows he is about to get killed he raises his hands,,tough shit,,it is war we kill and or die doing it..War death dying killing or getting killed is war,,if one is not prepared to die then they have no right to live.. Never surrender anuless you are a coward, we are all dead anyway.

Kick ass and take no prisoners!!!
USA
[50]

AMEN! GIVE EM HELL DEVIL DOGS!!!

And save some for me!

Semper Fi

Marines Enter Combat in Afghanistan

By DOUG MELLGREN
.c The Associated Press

 
SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN (AP) - Newly landed U.S. Marines went into combat for the first time late Monday, sending helicopter gunships to attack armored vehicles near their new base in southern Afghanistan.

The AH-1W Cobras assaulted 15 tanks and armored personnel carriers and destroyed some of them, a Marine spokesman said, indicating combat continued as he spoke with reporters shortly before midnight local time.

There was no word on casualties for either side.

The spokesman, Capt. David Romley, did not say who manned the vehicles, but the desert airstrip the Marines seized Sunday night is in the region of Kandahar, the last major stronghold held by the Taliban.

Rowley would not say if the armored column was heading toward the base or give any details about where it was attacked, except to say it was ``in the vicinity of this base.'' He said the vehicles had been spotted by U.S. aircraft.

Rowley said the column included tanks and BMPs, which are armored vehicles capable of carrying a dozen soldiers each. When the Soviet army retreated from Afghanistan in 1989 after a decade-long war, it left its client regime with dozens of tanks and BMPs that later were captured by a coalition of local militias and warlords.

At the base, helicopters and transport planes ferried in troops and equipment late into the night, and the Pentagon said it would take at least another day to reach the full complement of about 1,000 Marines. The aircraft were operating off the USS Peleliu hundreds of miles away in the northern Arabian Sea and from unidentified bases on the coast.

Working under a bright moon in the chill night air, Marines hurried to set up shop and fortify the airstrip for a new phase of the U.S. war on terrorism. Until now, the U.S. role in the war had been mostly in the air.

Carried by CH-53E Super Stallion heavy lift helicopters, the first contingent of Marines touched down at the desolate airstrip at 9 p.m. local time Sunday and met no resistance, according to their reports.

``The Marines have landed and we now own a piece of Afghanistan,'' Gen. James Mattis, commander of the task force, said Monday. ``Everything went without a hitch.''

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declined to talk about what kinds of operations might be staged from the base. He suggested only that it would ratchet up the pressure on the leaders of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network by further hindering their movements in the Kandahar area.

Rumsfeld also said that ``hundreds, not thousands'' of Marines would man the ``forward operating base,'' but not necessarily as the vanguard of a substantially larger American ground force.

Earlier, President Bush said the Marines would assist in hunting down terrorists linked to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The Associated Press was allowed to accompany the Marines on condition its reports not reveal the base's exact location or any future mission plans.

The base is isolated, with no signs of towns in the distance across the flat desert. The only lights for miles around were the runway lights installed by the Marines and lights burning inside the airstrip's buildings.

Col. Peter Miller, chief of staff of the Marine task force, said the sand landing strip and buildings had been built by a wealthy Arab to provide access to his hunting lodge. The compound includes a small mosque with a minaret and a large white building that may have served as a hangar.

There are more than 4,000 Marines in the two units contributing troops to the operation: the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Pendleton, Calif., and the 26th from Camp Lejeune, N.C., which are on amphibious ships in the Arabian Sea. The units are trained for ground combat, evacuations, humanitarian aid and other missions.

The first troops to land - from the 15th brought in by helicopters - were watched over by AH-1W Cobra and UN-1N Huey helicopter gunships, Harrier jump-jet fighter-bombers and other aircraft.

The aircraft flew as far as 400 miles from their ships in what was described as the longest amphibious and air deployment ever conducted by the Marine Corps.

``We are going to operate at the very extremes of the ability of our machinery,'' said Miller, the task force's British-born chief of staff. ``We would much prefer to be closer in, because it just makes it logistically that much easier for us. But the way this operation is designed, with the intermediate staging bases, we'll be able to pull this off.''

Shortly before the operation began Sunday night, the steel hull of the Peleliu echoed with the sound of gunfire as infantrymen tested their weapons by firing into the sea from a wide doorway. Then they hauled their packs, weapons and protective gear - often pushing 100 pounds of equipment - to transport helicopters waiting on deck.

As some of the Marines boarded the helicopters, beads of sweat on their faces from the heat and the strain of carrying their heavy gear, a Navy chaplain, Lt. Cmdr. Donald Troast of Boston, touched some on the shoulder.

Once they had boarded, he stood with his head bowed. He said later: ``I asked God to bless every one of them. I don't care what their religion is.''

AP-NY-11-26-01 1656EST

I stand corrected on attack helicopter type to be used by the Marines.  I forgot the Marines still have Cobras and not Apaches.

I also corrected about the role the Marines will play.  I thought they would serve mainly as base security.  But it appears they will be employed in a Special Forces type roll in raids on specific targets.

When I'm wrong.....I admit it!  And embarrassed for spouting off before doing my homework!

But I stand by my statement on heavy armor.  I also stand by my statement about the Marines not being used in a ground assault on Kandahar.  

DaMan



DaMan

They havent sent enough men yet to attack Kandahar, even if they were going to.

But if Omar or BinLaden are still anywhere near Kandahar or its environs, there will be a assault.  And we will back up the Southern Militia if they decide to attack Kandahar.

If neither of these situations occur we wont attack Kandahar.  Its all a matter of where the enemy is.

No C17's have been reported visiting, so nothing heavier than LAV's have been delivered. There are no Royal Marines involved, in fact the MoD ordered the Commando Brigade in Oman to stand down from the 48 hour alert status its been on for the last couple weeks, citing the great progress made in collapsing the Taliban.

The airfield involved, described by AP reporters traveling with the Marines, is a strip built for the private jet of a Arab Sheik to get to his hunting lodge.  It may well be the same field the 75th raided in October.  It is not the Kandahar Airport as previously reported. Only a couple of C130 flights have landed, due to a crater (if you remember pictures of the Ranger raid) at precisely the 1/2 way point down the runway. It cant be fully used until the Marine Engineers repair it.

They joined the Northern Alliance???! [:P]

DaMan

ArmdLbrl, this is a first!  We agree?!!!

DaMan

Yup!  Let's see! [:P]

DaMan

Hawkeye1, no need to appologize!  Correcting your error is enough!

I flipped out because I don't want to see the US commit the same mistakes they did in Mogadishu!

Heavy armor isn't needed (we don't face any serious armored threat)!

And we don't need a bunch of US troops on the ground like Senator McCain is urging!  Especially to be used for a seige of a built up area like Kandahar!!!!

Air support for the indigenous troops is enough!

If raids need to be made on certain important targets, we get 'em in and out PRONTO!

DaMan  

raf, when's that assault on the city of Kandahar going to take place?  Looks like it will involve mostly rival tribes and other indigenous troops with US air support if it happens at all!

It may be accomplished through negotiation (Afghan style!).  [:P]

DaMan

raf, you're funny!  Instead of just admitting you were wrong, you have to come up with an excuse as to WHY you posted the bogus info in the first place ("Just reporting what I heard on radio").

Also you dismiss the subject as "small stuff".  Well, if it was so insignificant, WHY did you start the thread in the first place?

Thanks for the "cheap departing shot"!  DaMan [:P]

 

"Talib" is from Persian-Farsi and not URDU, DIP WAD!  And the language spoken by most of the Taliban is Pashto and NOT Urdu, Mr. Instant_ Karma! [:P]

Just thought you'd like to know!  DaMan

 

raf, are your "Marines" local tribes? [:P]

Marines wil be used to block reinforcements, supply, and stop Taliban retreat!

DaMan