Obama's Army Captain Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

It appears that conservatives have gone a little nutty over Senator Obama's story from last night's debate regarding an Army Captain who was serving in Afghanistan and described having to capture Taliban weapons.  Well, Jake Tapper has got the goods and this story checks out.

I called the Obama campaign this morning to chat about this story, and was put in touch with the Army captain in question.

He told me his story, which I found quite credible, though for obvious reasons he asked that I not mention his name or certain identifying information.

Short answer: He backs up Obama's story.

The longer answer is worth telling, though.

The Army captain, a West Point graduate, did a tour in a hot area of eastern Afghanistan from the Summer of 2003 through Spring 2004.

Prior to deployment the Captain -- then a Lieutenant -- took command of a rifle platoon at Fort Drum. When he took command, the platoon had 39 members, but -- in ones and twos -- 15 members of the platoon were re-assigned to other units. He knows of 10 of those 15 for sure who went to Iraq, and he suspects the other five did as well.

The platoon was sent to Afghanistan with 24 men.

"We should have deployed with 39," he told me, "we should have gotten replacements. But we didn't. And that was pretty consistent across the battalion."

He adds that maybe a half-dozen of the 15 were replaced by the Fall of 2003, months after they arrived in Afghanistan, but never all 15.

As for the weapons and humvees, there are two distinct periods in this, as he explains -- before deployment, and afterwards.

At Fort Drum, in training, "we didn't have access to heavy weapons or the ammunition for the weapons, or humvees to train before we deployed."

What ammunition?

40 mm automatic grenade launcher ammunition for the MK-19, and ammunition for the .50 caliber M-2 machine gun ("50 cal.")

"We weren't able to train in the way we needed to train," he says. When the platoon got to Afghanistan they had three days to learn.

They also didn't have the humvees they were supposed to have both before deployment and once they were in Afghanistan, the Captain says.

"We should have had 4 up-armored humvees," he said. "We were supposed to. But at most we had three operable humvees, and it was usually just two."

So what did they do? "To get the rest of the platoon to the fight," he says, "we would use Toyota Hilux pickup trucks or unarmored flatbed humvees." Sometimes with sandbags, sometimes without.

Also in Afghanistan they had issues getting parts for their MK-19s and their 50-cals. Getting parts or ammunition for their standard rifles was not a problem.

"It was very difficult to get any parts in theater," he says, "because parts are prioritized to the theater where they were needed most -- so they were going to Iraq not Afghanistan."

"The purpose of going after the Taliban was not to get their weapons," he said, but on occasion they used Taliban weapons. Sometimes AK-47s, and they also mounted a Soviet-model DShK (or "Dishka") on one of their humvees instead of their 50 cal.

The Captain has spoken to Sen. Obama, he says, but this anecdote was relayed to Obama through an Obama staffer.

I find that Obama's anecdote checks out.

Anyone who thinks that the war in Iraq hasn't done severe damage to our interests in Afghanistan and our ability to deal with terrorism is really just deluding themselves.

Comments

[TJ]

OBAMA IS A PATHOLOGICAL LIAR
HE STEALS SPEECHES AND LIES
HE PROMISES AIR IN A CAN......
HE'S A PIED PIPER.

if media is investigating mccain, why not OBAMA

THIS GUY ACCUSES OBAMA OF GAY SEX WITH HIM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=sVeFVtcdSYY

http://youtube.com/watch?v=sVeFVtcdSYY

[OG]

The reason that gay guy's story is not getting any attention is because it has been proven to be false. It has been verified that the guy was locked away in a mental health facility during the time period he claims to have been with Sen. Obama!

Better luck next time.

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I would like to say this is so much crap. When I went to Afghanistan, everything I had from body Armour to my M-16 was brand new. Furthermore, everyone I ever met was fully equipped. The only thing people bought on their own was the occasional after market accessory such as a combat sling. If some Spec Ops guys are occasionally using an AK, it is because they want to, not because they have to.Apparently neither the Obama or his wife have any advisers to keep them from saying something stupid when they deviate from the script.

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