from
Phil Carter's Intel-Dump
I honestly don't know what to say about this, it's open for comments. It's posted in it's entirety.
"Vox Taciturn pointed me towards this story, which has been making the rounds in the last couple of days. A breathtaking story that points out heroism and great leadership."
The nutshell is that Michael Yon, a freelance reporter attached to LTC Kurilla's 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, went out on a patrol with LTC Kurilla and his troops. During the patrol, the LTC and some of his soldiers chased an insurgent back an alley and cornered him in a store.
LTC Kurilla took the lead and attacked, during which he was wounded.
Kurilla tried to motivate his junior soldiers to take on the terrorist, but they seemed to have frozen up and didn't move out. Kurilla was exposed, wounded and in danger of taking more rounds.
His senior enlisted, CSM Prosser showed up and engaged the terrorist, but it looked like he'd also been taken down (actually, he was in the middle of hand-to-hand w/ the guy, holding him by the throat).
The other soldiers still were not backing their leaders up, so Yon grabbed Prosser's M4 and waded on into the fight. He actually just about got everyone killed when he hit a propane tank. "A" for bravery, "F" for stupidity and execution.
Prosser ended up subduing the insurgent and Kurilla was medevaced and is doing fine.
VT asked me whether there was any problems with Yon, a mere civilian, picking up a weapon and taking on an insurgent.
The first issue is status. Yon is not a "civilian employee accompanying the force", which would grant him protected status under whatever agreements were in place between the US and Iraqi governments regarding soldier and civilian employee activities. The usual rule is that civilian employees can have weapons with the permission of the theater commander (such as in Iraq) for self-defense purposes only, such as a pistol.
Yon is also not a contractor accompanying the force, meaning they are not covered by any DOD agreements. Their company will usually negotiate with the Department of State and the Iraqi government for permission to have self-defense weapons. There will also be special agreements in place for the contractors to have some sort of special technical status. Yon, however, is just a mere civilian and is subject only to Iraqi law.
The second issue, then, is whether Yon's actions constituted some sort of crime under Iraqi law. Honestly, I couldn't say yea or nay. Assuming Iraq has some sort of self-defense or defense-of-others provision, then he'd be OK. But the battalion's executive officer was right -- don't do it again.
Reminds of a story I heard coming out the beginning of OIF -- a Bradley unit had a retired CSM as one of the contractors supporting the Bradley vehicles (ie., maintenance and logistics). Somehow, the retired CSM had talked his way into becoming gunner on one of the vehicles and was ready to roll off into the desert when some senior officer found out and put the kibosh on the CSM's plans. The poor guy was apparently very dejected when he was told the only "gun" he was going to get was the sidearm strapped to his leg, and for self-defense, only. No attacking Iraqi troops.
In reality, Yon tried to do the right thing and ought not take heat for it. However, the real heroes of the story are LTC Kurilla and CSM Prosser -- true leaders leading from the front and putting themselves in harm's way.
Hope that answers your questions, Captain V.