Interesting Reality insights from a book (firsthand account)
Posted: 2007-04-30 21:37
I'm currently reading the book "We Were One: Shoulder-to-Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah" and there are some really good insights shared from the Author who was a historian embedded into Lima Company's 1st Platoon as they assaulted the city of Fallujah.
It's a very interesting book, and it shows that much of the fighting in Iraq is house to house, with the Marines clearing one house after another while the insurgents hardly ever move out for a frontal attack, but usually lay wait in ambush inside the fortified houses (Would be great to see a map designed for this type of fighting).
One of the things that I was not aware of was how drugged up most of the insurgents were, and how this greatly affected their ability to survive even when shot multiple times. There were several instances were insurgents were shot 10-20 times and they just kept going on fighting as if they weren't even hit! One particular insurgent had to be shot 30 times with M16 fire before he would die.
As the Marines went along clearing house after house, they would uncover large stashes of Adrenaline and Cocaine mixed in with the weaons caches. The insurgents were so wired that they were like zombies, and despite their lack of body armor, they could take bullet after bullet and yet fight on relentlessly.
There was one instance where the Marines fired a rocket into an insurgent bunker and the entire house collasped under the impact and the site was scorched with temps up to 1500 degrees F, and they were sure nothing could have survived the explosion, but yet 3 insurgents remained alive under the rubble and grasped out for their weapons and began firing again, much to the amazement of the Marines.
So while reading this book, I thought that perhaps the insurgents in PR should have body armor to represent their ability to take bullets as a result of their drugged up state. It seems that it would make it more realistic.
If anyone is interested in the book, you can find it on Amazon
It's a very interesting book, and it shows that much of the fighting in Iraq is house to house, with the Marines clearing one house after another while the insurgents hardly ever move out for a frontal attack, but usually lay wait in ambush inside the fortified houses (Would be great to see a map designed for this type of fighting).
One of the things that I was not aware of was how drugged up most of the insurgents were, and how this greatly affected their ability to survive even when shot multiple times. There were several instances were insurgents were shot 10-20 times and they just kept going on fighting as if they weren't even hit! One particular insurgent had to be shot 30 times with M16 fire before he would die.
As the Marines went along clearing house after house, they would uncover large stashes of Adrenaline and Cocaine mixed in with the weaons caches. The insurgents were so wired that they were like zombies, and despite their lack of body armor, they could take bullet after bullet and yet fight on relentlessly.
There was one instance where the Marines fired a rocket into an insurgent bunker and the entire house collasped under the impact and the site was scorched with temps up to 1500 degrees F, and they were sure nothing could have survived the explosion, but yet 3 insurgents remained alive under the rubble and grasped out for their weapons and began firing again, much to the amazement of the Marines.
So while reading this book, I thought that perhaps the insurgents in PR should have body armor to represent their ability to take bullets as a result of their drugged up state. It seems that it would make it more realistic.
If anyone is interested in the book, you can find it on Amazon
.