threehourtour’s blog

Haditha Marine Dad speaks out

I found the link through Blackfive.Thank you!

Graphic-speakingout

Thank you to Maryann Phillips Soldiers' Angel at Landstuhl for providing these accounts and being there for the wounded. You are truly a wonderful angel. Let's get the truth of this out there folks..repost!

"I just hope these guys' wives and their children understand how courageous their husbands and dads were. They fought like warriors." - SGT Jacob Walker

"It was some of the bravest stuff I've ever seen in my life, and I will never see it again because those guys... well, normal humans wouldn't do that. You're not supposed to do that — getting up and firing back when everything around you is popping and whizzing and trees, branches coming down and sandbags exploding and RPGs coming in over your head... It was a fistfight then, and those guys held ' em off." - SPC Tyler Stafford

"When you ask for volunteers to run across an open field to a reinforced OP that almost everybody is injured at, and everybody volunteers, it feels good. There were a lot of guys that made me proud, putting themselves and their lives on the line so their buddies could have a chance." - SSG Jesse Queck

Im Memoriam:

1LT Jonathan Brostrom
SGT Israel Garcia
SPC Matthew Phillips
SPC Pruitt Rainey
SPC Jonathan Ayers
SPC Jason Bogar
SPC Sergio Abad
SPC Jason Hovater
SPC Gunnar Zwilling

All Sky Soldiers of Chosen Company, 2/503 Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.
 
*  *  * 
 
 
The real story is NOT that this was a "base" - it was a small outpost of 45 men surrounded by concertina wire, with a few vehicles and fortified fighting positions.
 
The real story is NOT that the outpost was "overrun" - the truth is that 45 Heroes successfully fought off an organized attack by hundreds of heavily-armed Taliban and al Queda.
 
The real story is NOT that the outpost was "abandoned" after the attack - it was a temporary patrol base.
 
 
 
 I spent days talking to the wounded paratroopers who were
 at Wanat during
 their stay at Landstuhl hospital and can vouch for
 everything in the
 following articles:
 
 Interviews with several wounded
 http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63479&archive=true   Soldiers of
 Chosen Company while at Landstuhl hospital describing the
 attack.
 
 Multimedia version of above
 interviews.  http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63490&archive=true
 
 Interview with an additional wounded
 Soldierof
 Chosen providing further information on the fight. http://hamptonroads.com/2008/07/soldier-eastern-shore-recounts-deadly-battle-afghanistan
 
 Interview with the
 commanderof
the 173rd ABCT
 
 An Alamo with a Different
 Ending:   http://jeffemanuel.net/an-alamo-with-a-different-ending Overwhelmingly
 Outnumbered Coalition Forces Repel a Complex Attack in NE
 Afghanistan
 
 
 This writeup can be found at my blog here  (MaryAnn Phillips)
 http://soldiersangelsgermany.blogspot.com/2008/07/heroes-of-wanat.html
 

-
MaryAnn Phillips
Vice President, Warrior Medical Support Europe
www.soldiersangels.org

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