Report: Confirmed...Osama Bin Laden Dead!

[wuzafuzz]

It's too bad we couldn't take him alive. I would've like to see him swinging from a rope and then have his head on a pike on the south lawn as a warning like the Romans...

Yeah, but we do have his body.  Which means we could do a Pershing...

Apparently WE buried him at sea. I'm sorry, but that just pisses me off.

I'd like to think the the burial at sea is a cover story and the SOB was really captured.  Imagine someone wringing information out of him to take out a bunch more Al Qaeda types.  Probably wishful thinking.  Dead is good enough.   :clap: :clap: :clap:

Either way, a job well done.

[ProdigalJim]

Looks as if the downed helo might have been a bit more special than anyone originally let on:

"Aviation Week: Bin Laden Raid May Have Exposed Stealth Helo"

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/awx/2011/05/03/awx_05_03_2011_p0-318248.xml&headline=Bin%20Laden%20Raid%20May%20Have%20Exposed%20Stealth%20Helo&channel=defense

[Major Lord]

I guess "A million dollar house" in Pakistan does much not mean much. That place looks like a Mexican cat house.

Major Lord

[Eclipse]

OK, now I understand see the orientation of the photo above.


Lots of pics here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1382859/Osama-bin-Laden-dead-Photo-Obama-watching-Al-Qaeda-leader-die-live-TV.html

[EmergencyManager6]

Looks as if the downed helo might have been a bit more special than anyone originally let on:

"Aviation Week: Bin Laden Raid May Have Exposed Stealth Helo"

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/awx/2011/05/03/awx_05_03_2011_p0-318248.xml&headline=Bin%20Laden%20Raid%20May%20Have%20Exposed%20Stealth%20Helo&channel=defense

Its an MH-60K  Spec Ops Blackhawk.

[davidsinn]

Looks as if the downed helo might have been a bit more special than anyone originally let on:

"Aviation Week: Bin Laden Raid May Have Exposed Stealth Helo"

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/awx/2011/05/03/awx_05_03_2011_p0-318248.xml&headline=Bin%20Laden%20Raid%20May%20Have%20Exposed%20Stealth%20Helo&channel=defense

Its an MH-60K  Spec Ops Blackhawk.

The pic in the article is a UH-60M and is a stock photo. The wreckage is not any Blackhawk variant that is in the white world. It has too many blades on the tail rotor and the shapes are wrong on the tail. Also it has that weird hub on the rotor shaft.

[Stearmann4]

Congrats to that small group that was allowed to take care of business. But for the news to repeatedly state that spec ops are the only ones that coud possibly have done this is sickening! They are obviously forgetting about every soldier that this country has, Army Infantry and Marine Infantry could have taken care of this no problem.

Manfred,

The actions that conventional forces contribute to the overall goals in Afghanistan are immeasurable. It's the infantry Soldiers and Marines that keep the daily pressure on insurgents which denies them the ability to organize and establish a stable base of operations.

That said, your comment that "any infantry soldier could have taken care of this" reveals that despite your honorable prior service, you have absolutely no idea the training, technology, and planning involved in executing a denied territory, cross-border operation to prosecute a National priority target. This kind of authority comes direct from the President and the JCS.

Special operators are to a man, no different than anyone else in the military. However, the training and resourcing is what allows us to routinely conduct high risk, complex missions with success. The public, and most of the military cannot fathom the financial resources devoted to training a modern special operations assault force. Example; As a SEAL, we would quite litterally expend more 5.56 in an afternoon going through kill house training, than our Marine infantry counterparts were allotted to shoot foran entire fiscal year. The same for the 160th, a conventional aviation brigade doesn't have a 10th of the flying hour or ammunition budget a SOAR battalion receives. Thus, 160th pilots and crews are far more proficient in planning, NVG, and direct action operations. Not neccessarily a result of unique talent, but resourcing.

You can't possibly believe that a conventional UH-60/CH-47 unit could be transporting food and ammo pallets one day, then reconfigure and execute an assault to UBL's compound with no additional training. If you're saying "yes, they just need some extra training", then refer back paragraph 2. If they had the training, then they would be "special operations"

I returned from my 10th deployment to Afghanistan three weeks ago, and of my 21 years of ongoing active duty, 12 were spent enlisted in the SEAL Teams (ST-1, BUD/s Class 197), and the rest as a 160th aviator. All on deployed status, and fortunately no staff jobs (yet).

So, I recommend with some credibility, that you please limit your comments to those that are within the scope of your experience and prior service. If there are any additional comments or questions I can be reached via PM, and I will be happy to pass you my work email or contact number.

MR-   

[manfredvonrichthofen]

Wow, never have I been made to feel so small. I have trained with 160th SOAR. There is no one else that we could have trained with to fast rope onto a roof top with at Ft. Campbell. I have been on a few air assault missions in my time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ammo and flight time, both were abundant in training and in real world ops. I can't even count how many days were spent on a Blackhawk going from one area to another.

Now for what I was trying to say, granted I didn't get it all out very well. The news said numerous times that the Infantry is incapable of taking out high value targets. That we are not trained enough to take and assault a compound that is harboring an HVT. Lets see.... who took out Saddam's son... who found Saddam and took him prisoner (granted that wasn't in a large secured compound)? We did, the Infantry did. Who rolled into the Eagles Nest in WWII? 101st ABN, yes, it was empty, but they didn't expect it to be, they were going to take it by force. I have also been on a few missions after HVTs where it was just our squad on ground and we took six or more detainees. My point is, no one should be discounting the Infantry like that. We train, and train, and train, and when we fight the real fight we fight and win, even against much superior odds.

No one team or branch is perfect, even the SEALS and Rangers and DF and PJs and SF have all messed up big time. Every combat unit must fight unconventionally in war otherwise they will loose, and loose big. It is time to get rid of this "I'm better than you, go away" attitude that many spec ops have. I have fought next to SEALS, and Green Berets, and their tactics are no different than ours were. Sure they may get a bit more range time than us, they get to do weird stuff with their uniforms, and grow beards, but they fight no different than we do. We rappel out of helicopters in the 506th, and we do it often enough that we know what we are doing. The only difference is that they are allowed to go into countries that we are not engaged in war in. We fight, and bleed and die the same exact way.