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Retired Master Chief Britt Slabinski Receives Medal of Honor

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Now that the Navy got theirs, maybe they will quit stonewalling the approval of the teammate (USAF) that was killed/left for dead. They have been hampering the approval for 2 yrs now.....

https://nyti.ms/2k5BfRD

http://www.newsweek.com/2018/05/18/navy-seals-seal-team-6-left-behind-die-operation-anaconda-slabinski-chapman-912343.html

Edited by BillyGoatHill

3 hours ago, BillyGoatHill said:

Now that the Navy got theirs, maybe they will quit stonewalling the approval of the teammate (USAF) that was killed/left for dead. They have been hampering the approval for 2 yrs now.....

https://nyti.ms/2k5BfRD

http://www.newsweek.com/2018/05/18/navy-seals-seal-team-6-left-behind-die-operation-anaconda-slabinski-chapman-912343.html

 

Left for dead by Britt Slabinski allegedly.  

There was a story in the NYT today about this.  Not as clear cut as you would like.

Kind of tough to criticize Slabinski’s action on the side of that snow covered mountain while they were getting lit the fuck up by an enemy strong hold. His decision making before that is highly questionable from a tactical standpoint.

10 hours ago, Texas_Rocks said:

Kind of tough to criticize Slabinski’s action on the side of that snow covered mountain while they were getting lit the fuck up by an enemy strong hold. His decision making before that is highly questionable from a tactical standpoint.

Not questioning the actions on a mountain where they were out manned and outgunned.

Questioning the actions of discrediting a fallen comrade that was killed while providing covering fire for the rest of the team. The Air Force has taken heat (rightfully so) for 17 years now because they have not had a MOH for GWOT while the other 3 services have had multiple. In 2016, they decided to review their medal process and in particular, their awards for Silver Stars and AF Crosses (AF Crosses = 9 total, 6 Combat Controllers, 3 Pararescue). Chapman's, after reviewing eyewitness accounts and video from AC130 and Predator drone coverage got the most attention due to his actions after the rest of the team left him and he fought on. The Air Force never pointed fingers at the SEAL team or community. The Navy, most likely trying to protect their recruiting tool, chose differently. Navy Brass and some in the SEAL community, to include team members of Chappy's, including Slabinski, started to change their stories ( Slabinski was originally the main contributor for Chapman's AF Cross and in it , has always credited John with saving the SEAL team and suggested he was due to highest award the AF saw fit). Now, there have been hints of him acting on his own and without orders. BULLSHIT. He moved to sound of fire and suppressed it.

When they Navy saw that an Air Force member was being put in for a MOH and it might have shed some bad light on their golden boys, they changed their tune and tried to stonewall (sucessfully for 2 years now) the process of upgrading his AF Cross to the MOH.  Air Force was not going to get one unless one of their own got his first. 

Five others (AF PJ, a Night stalker crewman, and 3 Rangers ) would die later that day as a QRF helicopter came in to cover for and extract the SEAL team (now moved down the mountain) and was also shot down at the top of the peak. Chapman is now believed to have been killed while trying to provide covering fire for this last aircraft.

The Navy's and some of the SEAL community's actions of protecting their own at the expense of a fallen teammate (easy to do I guess as he was just a sister service teammate) is appalling. 

8 minutes ago, BillyGoatHill said:

Not questioning the actions on a mountain where they were out manned and outgunned.

Questioning the actions of discrediting a fallen comrade that was killed while providing covering fire for the rest of the team. The Air Force has taken heat (rightfully so) for 17 years now because they have not had a MOH for GWOT while the other 3 services have had multiple. In 2016, they decided to review their medal process and in particular, their awards for Silver Stars and AF Crosses (AF Crosses = 9 total, 6 Combat Controllers, 3 Pararescue). Chapman's, after reviewing eyewitness accounts and video from AC130 and Predator drone coverage got the most attention due to his actions after the rest of the team left him and he fought on. The Air Force never pointed fingers at the SEAL team or community. The Navy, most likely trying to protect their recruiting tool, chose differently. Navy Brass and some in the SEAL community, to include team members of Chappy's, including Slabinski, started to change their stories ( Slabinski was originally the main contributor for Chapman's AF Cross and in it , has always credited John with saving the SEAL team and suggested he was due to highest award the AF saw fit). Now, there have been hints of him acting on his own and without orders. BULLSHIT. He moved to sound of fire and suppressed it.

When they Navy saw that an Air Force member was being put in for a MOH and it might have shed some bad light on their golden boys, they changed their tune and tried to stonewall (sucessfully for 2 years now) the process of upgrading his AF Cross to the MOH.  Air Force was not going to get one unless one of their own got his first. 

Five others (AF PJ, a Night stalker crewman, and 3 Rangers ) would die later that day as a QRF helicopter came in to cover for and extract the SEAL team (now moved down the mountain) and was also shot down at the top of the peak. Chapman is now believed to have been killed while trying to provide covering fire for this last aircraft.

The Navy's and some of the SEAL community's actions of protecting their own at the expense of a fallen teammate (easy to do I guess as he was just a sister service teammate) is appalling. 

Yeah....that's really fucking troubling.  And totally unnecessary.

  • Author

USAF does not provide daylight AC 130 support to ground troops.  This is part of the problem.  Operators come to depend on this protection when the shit hits the fan.  Some of this is shared resentment.

3 minutes ago, LongestHorn said:

USAF does not provide daylight AC 130 support to ground troops.  This is part of the problem.  Operators come to depend on this protection when the shit hits the fan.  Some of this is shared resentment.

They’re fucking stupid if they expect an armed cargo plane to cover them in broad daylight. 

Maybe they should use some of their influence and try to help keep the A-10s around. 

Are Pentagon politics the weirdest politics around? Two guys go to the other side of the world, put their lives on the line for US interests, do a bunch of heroic stuff, kill a bunch of bad guys, save a lot of good guys, a lot of it on film, and Pentagon bureaucrats want to oppose one guy's medal over the other guy's like its a zero sum game. Pentagon bureaucrats come off like tone-deaf assholes belittling the accomplishments of war heroes, in the process of decorating war heroes.  Great job guys.

1 hour ago, LongestHorn said:

USAF does not provide daylight AC 130 support to ground troops.  This is part of the problem.  Operators come to depend on this protection when the shit hits the fan.  Some of this is shared resentment.

The Air Force does provide them with every other asset in the arsenal during the day though, including B52s and B1s.

Spectre gunships do not fly during the day because of the susceptibility to ground fire. They fly an orbit and not at a very high altitude. This has long been doctrine. A crew deviated from this during the battle of Khafji during the first Gulf War while supporting troops on the ground just after sunrise. Marines needed one last missile battery taken out. With the morning light, they were able to be seen from the ground by the Iraqis and they were hit by a surface-to-air missile.  Entire crew was lost.

 I doubt it, but if SEALs really are resentful of not having AC 130s overhead during the daytime, maybe they should call in ONLY Navy planes for support.

  • Author

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/mg166centaf.13?refreqid=excelsior%3A405f44d221d172f7374a662c7fd676d5&seq=4#page_scan_tab_contents

Open access read called "Air Power on Terror" describes a clusterfuck in chapter 5 Anaconda.  It seems the brass failed to communicate in the plans and with just 72 hours before they attacked, we were scrambling to find air support.  

  • 2 months later...

Just bumping this to note that shit got straightened out and that USAF Tech. Sgt. Chapman will be posthumously awarded his well deserved MoH. Some video showing him fighting on the mountain was also released. 

story link

Not only did he empty six 30 round magazines before he died, there were bruises on his hands and face indicating hand to hand combat. Fucker did some work.

 

Both men did the best they could in a bad situation. The SEALs trying to deny Chapman to maintain their reputation is a really shitty thing to do.

On 5/25/2018 at 9:18 PM, 686 said:

Are Pentagon politics the weirdest politics around? Two guys go to the other side of the world, put their lives on the line for US interests, do a bunch of heroic stuff, kill a bunch of bad guys, save a lot of good guys, a lot of it on film, and Pentagon bureaucrats want to oppose one guy's medal over the other guy's like its a zero sum game. Pentagon bureaucrats come off like tone-deaf assholes belittling the accomplishments of war heroes, in the process of decorating war heroes.  Great job guys.

Its not called the Pentagram for nothing.

 

  • Author

Has anyone else seen the new Army combat readiness PT test?  smh

They have plenty of time to get everybody read for it.  

But I can see a lot of people fucking up the deadlift and/or injuring themselves. 

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