The New Band of Brothers - Standing Alone Together
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Michael Fumento was recently embedded with the 1st of the 506th Infantry (of WWII Band of Brothers fame) in the 101st Airborne. The unit was recented brought back to life during the changing in how our Army is organized into Brigade Combat Teams.
This is probably one of the most ballanced and accurate pieces you will read about the fight in Iraq:
The New Band of Brothers
With the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division in RamadiBy Michael Fumento
...But here in this hellhole, I found men who would have made their famous World War II forerunners proud. They are no longer paratroopers but are brave, bold, and elite in every sense of the word. The actions of these men in fighting an enemy less skilled than the Germans yet far more vicious and fanatical tell a story that has remained largely ignored. In fairness, Ramadi itself has been mostly ignored...
And he really gets at how the news is reported from Baghdad...there is some accurate reporting from Iraq; however...
...The Iraq war is covered mostly by reporters who hole up in Baghdad hotels and send out Iraqi stringers to collect what the reporters deem news, as an article in the April 6, 2006, New York Review of Books described in great detail. The reporters convert these accounts into prose and put them on the wire...
There's photos, videos, and more. And Froggy will especially enjoy this part about the SEALs wanting to go out with the Army just to keep their edge:
...For this patrol, we're joined by 19 Navy SEALs. There seems no reason to have special ops around; apparently they just want to stay in practice. And so they will...
Keep reading for some SEAL badassary done to jihadis...
...and be sure to support Michael's reporting in the future:
Michael Fumento (U.S. Army Airborne, 1978-82) has been embedded twice in Al Anbar and paid for his transport, equipment, and medical bills both times. Please support his next trip. View his full photoset from 2006 and 2005. Read Michael Fumento's additional writing on the military, on Iraq, and on the media.