הטליבאן תקף את בסיס בסטיון, גרם לנזקים ב-200 מיליון דולר

Marines recall 'surreal' attack at Afghan camp
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012...bastion-attack/

As insurgents swarmed the hangars, Raible ran to the gunfire with his pistol and a phalanx of Marines to rally the counterattack. Sgt. Bradley Atwell, an electrical systems technician, also sprinted to help.

If the Taliban’s video clips purporting to show preparations for the attack are authentic, the assailants plotted in front of a white-board sketch of the base identifying concentrations of aircraft. They rehearsed with wire cutters and fencing, made wills and recorded last words. “We sacrifice ourselves in the name of Almighty Allah,” one said in English on camera

Then 15 men dressed in a hodge-podge of outdated U.S. Army uniforms crept to the edge of the base closest to the airfield on a moonless night, evading notice by motion detectors, infrared sensors, human and canine patrols and overhead surveillance

Raible, commanding officer of Marine Attack Squadron (VMA) 211 out of Yuma, checked on Marines in the barracks. Then he pulled on his body armor and drove toward the gunfire and his burning jet fleet with his aviation maintenance officer and fellow pilot, Maj. Greer Chambless, 35, of Albany, Ga.

They parked near the hangar and hustled through enemy fire across 300 feet of open ground to reach a group of Marines. Raible yelled for volunteers to push on past the maintenance building, toward enemy fighters attacking the flight line and other Marines from his squadron. More than he needed agreed to go. He took eight.

Shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade that exploded overhead ended up killing Raible and Atwell. Capt. Kevin Smalley, 29, of Ossining, N.Y., a Harrier pilot who flew with Raible that night on his last combat mission, was in the next building over coordinating a medevac for two wounded Marines when he learned that his commanding officer had been killed in action. “He was a very brave and very great man,” Smalley said. “His actions that night saved the lives of 50 of his Marines and inspired them to repel the attack from the Taliban.”

By organizing a fierce counterattack on the flight line, he “scared the Taliban into hunkering down into their own positions and not looking up for awhile.” That allowed dozens of Marines caught in the line of fire to move to a more secure location and limit the enemy’s advance, Smalley said.

The Camp Pendleton air crews took off amid shooting flames, explosions and billowing black smoke rising from refueling stations and burning jets. The pilots navigating through both darkness and blinding brightness from the fires tried foremost to avoid shooting friendly forces on the ground battling clusters of insurgents.

Staff Sgt. Steven Seay, a Huey crew chief, set in on the squadron perimeter with night vision goggles and a 240 machine gun they normally use on the helicopter. When he saw a rocket-propelled grenade shoot from a concrete bomb shelter toward the flight line, he opened fire. Coalition troops the enemy fighters were targeting also fired back, helping the helicopters pirouetting overhead spot the insurgents.

But the actions of Raible, the Harrier commanding officer who rushed to the flight line to lead the counterattack, the air crews that managed to avoid killing any of their own and all the support Marines who send pilots into combat but rarely see it themselves — it was nothing less than heroic in the eyes of their commanders. On that night, every Marine truly was a rifleman, Marine leaders said.

At Raible’s memorial service at Camp Bastion, Gen. John Allen, head of the NATO coalition in Afghanistan, said, “Without hesitation in a moment of great uncertainty and danger, he ran to the sound of guns. He organized his Marines, and they fought like Marines have always fought. He was a Marine who embodied the courage and the bravery of this storied squadron. He was your skipper, he was your friend and he was like family to so many of you.”

דוגמא המסמלת אולי יותר מכל את הקומרדיות של הנחתים

In Afghanistan, Raible had his Marines paint the “Vengeance” patch of HMLA-469 on one of his Harriers in memory of seven Marines killed in a mid-air helicopter collision in February. After he died the Camp Pendleton helicopter squadron returned the honor by having the VMA-211 “Avengers” patch painted on the side of one of their AH-1W Cobras.

Attack on Camp Bastion: The Destruction of VMA-211
http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/...ion-of-vma-211/

Whatever the organizational outcome, the Sept. 14, 2012 attack on Camp Bastion is arguably the worst day in USMC aviation history since the Tet Offensive of 1968. The last time VMA-211 was combat ineffective was in December 1941, when the squadron was wiped out during the 13-day defense of Wake Island against the Japanese. Eight irreplaceable aircraft (the AV-8B has been out of production since 1999) have been destroyed or put out of action – approximately 7 percent of the total flying USMC Harrier fleet. Worse yet, the aircraft involved were the AV-B+ variant equipped with the APG-65 radar and AAQ-28 Litening II targeting pods – the most capable in the force. Given the current funding situation, it’s likely that the two damaged AV-8Bs will become spare parts “hangar queens” and never fly again. A Harrier squadron commander is dead, along with another Marine. Another nine personnel have been wounded, and the nearby Marines at Camp Freedom are now without effective fixed-wing air support.

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