Welcome to hell, operations in Afghanistan

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But the US commanders' perceptions of the quality of Australian soldiers changed swiftly once the air assault was under way. While the Americans dropped their packs and radios during the initial attack, the Australian liaison officers retained their radios, and so were able to alert headquarters that the assault team was pinned down.

The US soldiers didn't perform as cowardly as you make it seem and certainly didn't drop their weapons but even the most hardened soldiers will be panicked by sudden terrors.  Furthermore the SAS liason officers performed better but they didn't perform as you described.  There also were no close attackers in this incident as the insurgents occupied the high ground in the areas surrounding the US forces.  They needed only fire down on the American troops stranded beneath them.

'You (the US commanders) are sending your people in broad daylight into a valley surrounded by cave systems and networks that are probably still in use, and you are going to do that without having eyes on the insurgents. It's madness.'"

I think its remarkable the US troopers performed as well as they did given the foolishness of the US commanders.

check this one out

Even the hard-to-impress British SAS were stunned by Three Squadron's patrols, says one trooper. "The Poms could only last four days. We managed seven without resupply on the first patrol,'' he says.

And their deployment was not without some larrikin Aussie humor. As One Squadron headed out of the hanger in Kuwait on their way back to Australia, their replacements farewelled them by dropping their trousers and mooning the departing soldiers. "Three Squadron had arrived in good spirits,'' says a former Three Squadron trooper.

Typical Aussies

Edited by Laelius - 15-Jan-2007 at 20:02