I am currently a squad leader in Mortar Company 1-19th Infantry. I joined the Army in April of 2003. During my 12 year career, I have had multiple deployments and multiple experience’s, some good some bad. I have learned over the years that it’s what you learn from those experience’s that help shape and mold the leader and obviously add to the leader’s skill and knowledge base. Knowledge is power as they say. I have served in a wide variety of positions throughout my career, although mostly mechanized I have still found myself having to know the light Infantry world as well. I have served every position from Assistant gunner to squad leader in the Mortar world, to team leader and squad leader in the light Infantry world. I have had the …show more content…
As my soldier prepared the charge a hand grenade, thrown from a rooftop detonated approximately 50 meters away from our position. Immediately following the detonation, two enemy combatants started blindly firing down the alley towards our position. Despite the enemy small arms fire and hand grenade my soldier and I continued to employ our charge. Alpha team had begun returning fire on the two enemy combatants attempting to suppress their fires. I had just gotten the breech charge placed on the door and ordered my soldier to return to the rest of the squad and take his position in the stack. As he moved back to his new position two enemy rounds impacted the door missing my head by mere inches, I could taste them as they went by. I immediately returned fire on the enemy and instructed the rest of my team and the squad to fall back to more defendable positions. We had lost the initiative and the element of surprise. The enemy was all around and above us, using the rooftops to move freely through the area. Our Platoon Leader made the decision to fall back to our Stryker as by this point hand grenades were raining down on us from the rooftops. Alpha team leader had a grenade land between his legs but was fortunate it did not detonate. For every position we fell back to the prior position was blown up by grenades. The previously mentioned prepared fighting …show more content…
First of all it taught me that regardless of the planning and preparation a leader must at all times remain flexible and adapt to the situation. As one of my old section Sergeants explained it to me once, a decision, good or bad is better than no decision at all. Second it has taught me to always question the intelligence source. This particular mission, we found out later was based off single source human intelligence. Basically someone called our hotline and set us up to get ambushed no one had vetted the source. Thirdly it also taught me to go with my gut when something obvious is presented. When I Initially looked at the aerial photo my first thought was “Ambush” based upon the location of the house and the avenues of approach. I expressed my concerns to my leadership and they took it into consideration, but the mission had to be accomplished. Fourth and final key point this mission taught me resilience. Though initially we were unable to gain access to the target house by continuing to focus on the mission we were eventually able to accomplish our assigned
When they started to exit the compound they saw the gate was the trigger and that if it opened all the way the bombs would have detonated. This was another tactic used by insurgents false given to civilians (Luttrell and HornFischer). Birdy and his team were sent out on patrol and were ambush by kids that were given guns because they were to scared to say no to the insurgents because if they didn’t fight they would have been killed (Myers 113). Just one more tactic the most powerful one
The challenge of not knowing if he was capable of completing such training, which great leaders like Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton had completed, made it irresistible for CPT Self to avoid. Terrorist attacks on the Twin Tower made it easy for CPT Self to elect West Point as his college of choice. At West Point a key thing that he realized for several years to come, was that the tedium of memorizing and reciting seemingly useless details was a skill that he would need while leading soldiers into battle.3 Once CPT Self graduated from Ranger School, he was given an opportunity to lead an Infantry platoon in Germany that led to his first deployment to Kosovo. The nature of the mission in Kosovo led to the platoon shouldering the spectrum of responsibility for ashkali people due to the lack of involvement of the United Nations or the local police force. The responsibilities that were passed on to CPT Self during this mission prepared him to make decisions that would be needed in Operation Anaconda, as he will be faced with life and death
The story gives me a newfound respect for the Army and the soldiers who were deployed in Iraq around that time because of the constant harassment the insurgents gave the unit. Not because of the war crimes that were committed. It was a magnificent book about the implications and psychological effects war can have on people and what it can lead them do, It has a lot of examples of good and bad leadership that I can take away from it and apply it to my own leadership style. And I can be more prepared in dealing with peers and subordinates in times of
“[We’d have to become] extremely aggressive and we couldn’t afford to take ny more causalities” [ Belknap, 57] Lieutenant William Calley, Jr. Later testifies. After the “impromptu funeral for Sergeant Cox,”[ Belknap, 57] Captain Ernest Medina held a briefing that explained the group were to go on a search and destroy mission the next morning after being tipped off my intelligence reports and that by the time they arrive all innocent civilians should have left for the market.
The Effective Military Leader Warrant Officer Romero, Philip T. SPC: Captain Dearth, 1st Platoon The book “Black Hearts One Platoons Descent into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death” by Jim Frederick is a true story about multiple leadership failures and six United States Soldiers from 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division who were convicted for their involvement in horrible crimes while deployed to Iraq. The horrific acts including rape as well as murder committed by the soldiers of 1st platoon were a direct result of poor military leadership. Bad leadership will corrupt any military unit.
So an item from the hostile crowd hit one of the soldier Private Montgomery that knocked him to the ground. After that Private Montgomery shot into the crowd there was complete stillness and shock but it didn’t
Likewise the movie, the book describe the time when the battalion was mistaken shelled by American batteries. In his book, Lost Battalions, Richard Slotkin, writes,” Artillery bombardment was the most terrible aspect of combat on the Western Front,...........but to be bombarded by your own artillery was the most demoralizing thing that could
That’s when we got the call that air reinforcements were coming and told us to throw a smoke on the enemy position, but as soon they were about to tell us the color of the smoke, a grenade landed in the pit. Along with the radio an extra five people were critically devastated by the blast and half a dozen injured. I reached for my belt to find the smokes, but they weren’t there. All of us felt the same rushing chill down our spines. Panic.
The men described hours of waiting and crawling along trenches. When the firing began, one can only pray that nobody got hit.
One time when I was in 6th grade; playing with my soccer team in traverse city for the cherry cup festival. My team was in the championship game. We were all ready to win the game that day. I was so scared and pumped at the same time because I was ready to win but scared we might lose. In the middle of that game our goalie got hurt.
They began to shout at the soldiers, daring them to fire. Captain Preston then arrived and tried to get the crowd to disperse. Unfortunately, an object thrown from the crowd struck one of the soldiers, Private Montgomery, and knocked him down. He fired into the crowd. After a few seconds of stunned silence, a number of other soldiers fired into the crowd as well.
It all happened just so fast! The soldiers seem to be getting it under control and the crowed is starting to disperse. This is
It took 250$ and good deeds to create some doctor like me. Growing up I was the kid who looked at the world with open optimistic eyes. I grew up in a small city called Dora located in Iraq, the middle of three girls. I was born in the late 90s, I have been told that I was born "at the end of the good days". That's when Iraq's political circumstances were not at peace at all, at 2003 another war broke in Iraq.
Lt. Owen's mortar section had little to no experience on the weapon systems that they were working with. He trained them from darkness to darkness with consistent drills in different types of situations. Lt. Owen also admits that despite excess training before the war, their first battles were "far-from-perfect exercises." This made me realize that not only does an officer have to be adept at his duties, but he needs to motivate and instill to his soldiers the same level of proficiency, regardless of peace or war time. Also utilizing complacent time as a means to further train such as when they were at sea.
Finally, we have the most important witness of them all. Captain Preston. He declares he didn’t say fire, but clearly, I state, “Don’t Fire”. “My soldiers are young and inexperienced, they acted out of self defence for they were just simply, very scared. It’s like this, would you blame a baby for crying if it’s was scared?