There Will Surely Be A Reckoning
June 22, 2011 - by
The following article about the war in Afghanistan was in the newspaper Saturday:
ABOARD A BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER IN SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN
By ANJA NIEDRINGHAUS, Associated Press
The Army medics had just dropped off a Marine wounded in a bombing when one reached over and handed me a scribbled note inside the noisy U.S. helicopter.
“We got another mission,” the message from U.S. Army Sgt. Josef Campbell read.
I jotted back: “Where?”
“Sangin, hot landing zone, Marines under fire, one is injured.”
As we approached Sangin…dust, mud and grass churned up in front of us as the Black Hawk landed.
Campbell, 35, of Juniper, Idaho, reached out to open the door. Then gunfire erupted.
I heard a metallic sound and realized the helicopter had been hit. The pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dan Fink, quickly pulled the helicopter’s nose toward the sky. All I could see in front of us were trees and power lines…Slowly, the helicopter gained altitude and rose to safety.
We cruised slowly as Fink, 40, of Spring Hill, Kan., and another pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Niel Steward, 34, of Grand Rapids, Mich., checked the helicopter to make sure it could still maneuver. It could.
After 15 minutes, I realized we would return to the same spot. As I looked at Campbell, I noticed his extraordinary level of concentration. He adjusted his gloves, reached for his assault rifle and then peered out of his open window.
The helicopter touched down right where we took fire only minutes earlier. The big side door slid open…Campbell jumped out first. He looked around. Neither of us could see the Marines. Suddenly, a Marine jumped up from a ditch nearby, one hand on his stomach and the other holding rosary beads.
The Marine sprinted toward us, turning around to wave to the others that he could make it to the helicopter. Another Marine tried to catch up to help him, but the injured Marine, Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino from 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, ran so fast he made it to the helicopter first.
Trevino latched onto Campbell in a desperate hug.
“You have made it! You have made it!” Campbell shouted over the whine of the idling helicopter.
Trevino collapsed on a stretcher, exhausted. He lifted his head to scream: “Yes, I have made it!”
As the helicopter lifted off again, the medics began treating Trevino for a gunshot wound to his abdomen. During the 10-minute flight, Trevino kept praying while clutching his rosary beads. He gave us thumbs-up signal. He would survive the wound.
Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, who was shot in the abdomen… outside Sangin in southern Afghanistan.
US Army chief SPC Jenny Martinez, left, talks to injured Lance Cpl David Richvaslky from 1st Battalion, 5th Marines after he is rescued… in the Helmand Province.
US Army chief SPC Jenny Martinez holds the hand of an injured United States Marine who was wounded in an IED strike, onboard a medevac…near Sangin, in the Helmand Province.
Afghan National Army soldiers and US Marines rush with badly wounded Afghan Army soldiers to a medevac helicopter.
A US Marine walks on his way to pick up food supplies after they were dropped off by small parachutes from a plane outside Forward Operating Base Edi in the Helmand Province.
Tonight President Obama speaks about Afghanistan. When there’s a vote to raise the debt ceiling or bail out Greek bankers or drill for oil on the North Slope the price we pay for our mistakes is cold hard cash. In war people get shot. Tonight the President needs to explain: What cause was Corporal Blas Trevino fighting for that justifies his being shot?
There Will Surely Be A Reckoning
June 22, 2011/
The following article about the war in Afghanistan was in the newspaper Saturday:
ABOARD A BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER IN SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN
By ANJA NIEDRINGHAUS, Associated Press
The Army medics had just dropped off a Marine wounded in a bombing when one reached over and handed me a scribbled note inside the noisy U.S. helicopter.
“We got another mission,” the message from U.S. Army Sgt. Josef Campbell read.
I jotted back: “Where?”
“Sangin, hot landing zone, Marines under fire, one is injured.”
As we approached Sangin…dust, mud and grass churned up in front of us as the Black Hawk landed.
Campbell, 35, of Juniper, Idaho, reached out to open the door. Then gunfire erupted.
I heard a metallic sound and realized the helicopter had been hit. The pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dan Fink, quickly pulled the helicopter’s nose toward the sky. All I could see in front of us were trees and power lines…Slowly, the helicopter gained altitude and rose to safety.
We cruised slowly as Fink, 40, of Spring Hill, Kan., and another pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Niel Steward, 34, of Grand Rapids, Mich., checked the helicopter to make sure it could still maneuver. It could.
After 15 minutes, I realized we would return to the same spot. As I looked at Campbell, I noticed his extraordinary level of concentration. He adjusted his gloves, reached for his assault rifle and then peered out of his open window.
The helicopter touched down right where we took fire only minutes earlier. The big side door slid open…Campbell jumped out first. He looked around. Neither of us could see the Marines. Suddenly, a Marine jumped up from a ditch nearby, one hand on his stomach and the other holding rosary beads.
The Marine sprinted toward us, turning around to wave to the others that he could make it to the helicopter. Another Marine tried to catch up to help him, but the injured Marine, Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino from 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, ran so fast he made it to the helicopter first.
Trevino latched onto Campbell in a desperate hug.
“You have made it! You have made it!” Campbell shouted over the whine of the idling helicopter.
Trevino collapsed on a stretcher, exhausted. He lifted his head to scream: “Yes, I have made it!”
As the helicopter lifted off again, the medics began treating Trevino for a gunshot wound to his abdomen. During the 10-minute flight, Trevino kept praying while clutching his rosary beads. He gave us thumbs-up signal. He would survive the wound.
Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, who was shot in the abdomen… outside Sangin in southern Afghanistan.
US Army chief SPC Jenny Martinez, left, talks to injured Lance Cpl David Richvaslky from 1st Battalion, 5th Marines after he is rescued… in the Helmand Province.
US Army chief SPC Jenny Martinez holds the hand of an injured United States Marine who was wounded in an IED strike, onboard a medevac…near Sangin, in the Helmand Province.
Afghan National Army soldiers and US Marines rush with badly wounded Afghan Army soldiers to a medevac helicopter.
A US Marine walks on his way to pick up food supplies after they were dropped off by small parachutes from a plane outside Forward Operating Base Edi in the Helmand Province.
Tonight President Obama speaks about Afghanistan. When there’s a vote to raise the debt ceiling or bail out Greek bankers or drill for oil on the North Slope the price we pay for our mistakes is cold hard cash. In war people get shot. Tonight the President needs to explain: What cause was Corporal Blas Trevino fighting for that justifies his being shot?