Com-Central.net

...and take 15 minutes and read Michael Yon's story for August 25th, 2005 "Gates of Fire"...all the way...and through the Hospital section until you reach (at least) the entry for August 24.
(incredible pictures as well and an inspiring story of being under fire)

michaelyon.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the link. Incredible to read.

OK, for those of you who missed Michael Yon's embed installment "Gates of Fire"....try reading it again. Apparently Willis and others were sufficiently impressed to commit to make it a film project. It's as impressive a piece of "non-combatant" combat journalism as you're ever likely to have the privilege to read. Trust me.
(Remember, you heard it here first...all the way back on Aug. 29th!):D

LTC Kurilla is one fightin' SOB, every bit the equivalent of one of my LTC Sqdn. Cmdr's in VN.

michaelyon.blogspot.co...-fire.html

www.timesonline.co.uk/...75,00.html

Willis is likely to take on the role of the unit’s commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Erik Kurilla, 39, a Bruce Willis lookalike with a chest full of medals, more hair than Willis and a glamorous blonde wife.

He was injured in August after being shot three times by insurgents “in front of my eyes�, Yon recorded in his blog: “He continued to direct his men until a medic gave him morphine and the men took him away.�

Kurilla now has a titanium plate in his leg. He met Willis at the ball and said that his men were “very excited and appreciative that he was there�. �

Deuce Four has a chequered history. For decades it was a segregated black unit commanded by a white officer. It was disbanded in 1951 but veterans felt hurt that its past was considered to be a stain on the army and it was revived in the mid-1990s.

When the battalion arrived in Mosul in November last year the city was under threat from insurgents. “We faced very heavy fighting for about three months,� Kurilla recalled. “Every patrol was making contact with enemy forces. We would hit them where they slept, where they worked and where they ate.�

Today the picture was very different, he said. “I have watched a city that was in absolute chaos turn into one that has a viable Iraqi security force, which is taking the lead in fighting the terrorists.� *

*
Interesting assessment from someone who was there, vs. all the pontificating invertebrates who aren't. However, I'm sure the DemocraticUnderground Quisilings will quickly point out that the good Colonel only says such things to forward his own career.

__________________________________________________________-
A MOVIE TO MAKE AMERICA PROUD
By Michelle Malkin · November 27, 2005 10:12 AM
The Sunday Times of London follows up on Bruce Willis' plans to make a film about the heroes of Deuce Four, based on the reporting of embedded journalist/blogger extraordinaire Michael Yon:

ANGERED by negative portrayals of the conflict in Iraq, Bruce Willis, the Hollywood star, is to make a pro-war film in which American soldiers will be depicted as brave fighters for freedom and democracy.
It will be based on the exploits of the heavily decorated members of Deuce Four, the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, which has spent the past year battling insurgents in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.

Willis attended Deuce Four’s homecoming ball this month in Seattle, Washington, where the soldiers are on leave, along with Stephen Eads, the producer of Armageddon and The Sixth Sense.

The 50-year-old actor said that he was in talks about a film of “these guys who do what they are asked to for very little money to defend and fight for what they consider to be freedom�.

Unlike many Hollywood stars Willis supports the war and recently offered a $1m (about £583,000) bounty for the capture of any of Al-Qaeda’s most wanted leaders such as Osama Bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri or Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, its commander in Iraq. Willis visited the war zone with his rock and blues band, the Accelerators, in 2003.

“I am baffled to understand why the things I saw happening in Iraq are not being reported,� he told MSNBC, the American news channel.

He is expected to base the film on the writings of the independent blogger Michael Yon, a former special forces green beret who was embedded with Deuce Four and sent regular dispatches about their heroics.

Yon was at the soldiers’ ball with Willis, who got to know him through his internet war reports on www.michaelyon.blogspot.com. “What he is doing is something the American media and maybe the world media isn’t doing,� the actor said, “and that’s telling the truth about what’s happening in the war in Iraq.�

There was an interesting article in the Washington Post this weekend where the Sunni leader of Iraq's security forces held the position that our forces, at times, were holding them back from pursuing the fight against the insurgents to the full extent possible. Hard to imagine, but it's from the horse's mouth, and you have to wonder if the pressure on our forces to treat these insurgents in an (undeserved) civil manner is actually making that happen. I'd say, hey, one of our primary goals is to get that nation up on it's feet and preserving it's own safety and security, so if the native good-guy forces are ready to really start rocking and rolling, let 'em rip! Taking the initiative and calling our own shots worked for us in the 1700's and should be feasible for the new Iraq today as well, y'think? Or is it too much like how the South Vietnamese forces were expected to hold up on their own? They were up against much bigger odds tho.....

- JG300-Stoopy

There was an interesting article in the Washington Post this weekend where the Sunni leader of Iraq's security forces held the position that our forces, at times, were holding them back from pursuing the fight against the insurgents to the full extent possible. Hard to imagine, but it's from the horse's mouth, and you have to wonder if the pressure on our forces to treat these insurgents in an (undeserved) civil manner is actually making that happen. I'd say, hey, one of our primary goals is to get that nation up on it's feet and preserving it's own safety and security, so if the native good-guy forces are ready to really start rocking and rolling, let 'em rip! Taking the initiative and calling our own shots worked for us in the 1700's and should be feasible for the new Iraq today as well, y'think? Or is it too much like how the South Vietnamese forces were expected to hold up on their own? They were up against much bigger odds tho.....

I saw that and say it's likely true for several reasons. Pre-eminent among them would be:
1. Encourage the inidgenous force to demonstrate some initiative, and...

2. Not pursuing to fullest extent out of concern for misplaced issues of "perception". Such as not pre-registering artillery fire with WP (an entirely legitimate military action) because someone asshat will cry "chemical warfare!" (Note, exploding flame weapons are entirely legal under rules of war and not classified at chemical weapons). It would be militarily irresponsible to conduct a pursuit without the necessary range of precautions to protect the troops, precautions that are under undue scrutiny.

There are some parallels to the SVN gov't forces, among them a degree of dependency on the bigger brother and, very likely, corruption at certain levels...not to mention a lack of committment, confidence, or sense of purpose on the part of many of the indigenous troops.

Read the original link you posted and have to say it was good readin'.

Definitely the kinda guy you want next to ya in a fight!

Any of you seen "Jarhead" yet? Ran dubs at my work on it and got a chance to watch most of it. Can't say it's a great movie but found it entertaining.

Definitely no "Green Berets"