The musings, rants and random ideas of your very own irmeleeman5995.

• 5Oct 08

  At sea, in air, on land (part 2 of 3)

  Yay, meleeman's back with his second SEAL blog! Don't all jump up and read it at once

  Meleeman's note: As with the first one, if not more so, this is way too long for me to read through and proofread. Sorry lads, but you'll manage, right?

  So in the last entry I detailed what makes a SEAL a SEAL. They're definitely some of the most impressive soldiers in history, and now that you all have a good understanding of that, I can in good conscience detail the narrative that the novel focused on.

  In 2005, Marcus and some other SEAL operatives were in Afghanistan. They were just there to be there; just doin' what they do best. The story, though, is found in one mission, or rather, one target. His name was "Ben Sharmak" in the book, he didn't reveal his name in the book, but I think you can actually find the real name here. I think Ben was still alive when he wrote the book, but has since been killed later.

  But I'm getting ahead of myself. Ben Sharmak there was the target. He was a very important, high up Taliban individual. I have since lent the book to a friend, so I can't be certain, but I think Sharmak himself was the one Marcus mentioned for being a notorious explosive user, constantly targeting US Marines in his attacks. But aside from his deadly explosives, he was also just plain ol' high up and important. Their mission was to get ahold of him and capture if possible, kill if not. Pretty straight forward, right?

  Sounds like a very simple, too good to be true objective. At least, that's the impression I got. Is there really just a target elimination mission that is ever so simple? I asked myself. Apparently so...At any rate, here the military is in the treacherous mountain ranges of the Hindu Kush, trying to get ahold of good intel on Sharmak's position. There was 2 or 3 false starts for the mission before the final go, due to information flaking out; as in, no longer accurate because of Sharmak moving around.

  At long last, however, the mission was finally a go. The four SEALs, being Marcus and his buddies Mikey, Axe, and Danny, were put down at night time high in the peaks of the Kush. It was dark, windy, and rainy. Perfect, right? They were forced to trek through the unkind terrain about four miles to their position. Their goal: take up an auspicious firing position in the mountain cover, take out Sharmak with one of their Mark 12s, and retreat safely. The issue posed was that Sharmak commanded a force of estimated 80-140 men with him, and if anything went wrong, or possibly even if it went right, the four man squad would have to deal with them. No worries, though, right?

  The problem was, a group of three Afghan shepherds found the poor SEALs in those mountains. Not good, right? The men were then posed with a terribly tough decision. The harsh and militarian decision was to outright kill the three Afghans, one of whom was a boy of maybe 17. That's what they all wanted to do, and what they knew was all but the only choice. But the rules of engagement in all their wisdom would see them tried in the US later for murdering non combatants, and it would almost certainly condemn them all to death or jail. So, as tough as it was, they knew they couldn't kill them.

  Then again, why not call HQ? If they sanction the termination of the civilians, then the soldiers can't get in trouble. Or maybe they'll just tell the SEALs what needs to happen? Either way, it couldn't hurt.

  After trying the radio continuously, though, the four man squad could not manage to raise HQ at all! I wish I had the book now to quote it, but the radio man (Axe I think) said something along the lines of "It's working fine, there's nothing wrong, it's just like no one's there." The SEALs were furious. Hung out to dry doesn't quite cut it, you know? In the backs of their heads, they all knew what had to be done. They had to let the shepherds go. They didn't make the decision easily, but it was potentially die here in the mountains or potentially die in the US. Not much of a choice, right? So they took their chances in the fight.

  Now, before I go on, a few people have asked me why they didn't like, tie up the shepherds or anything like that. That's actually a very good question. I have zero idea, and Marcus mentioned nothing of the sort in the book. My guess? If they thought of it, there probably wasn't a way to. *shrug* Would have worked better than what they ended up doing...

  The shepherds were left on their way, and the SEALs at least excercised some intelligent strategizing here. They fell back, taking up a prime defensive position to counter the onslaught that was going to close on them in the coming hours. It's good they thought of that, you know? Better than sitting there and hoping for the best.

  The other question asked to me was, "If they're sitting here on a mountain, staring at the town through sniper scopes, how did they even get challenged? They had like every advantage." Truth be told? They got taken from behind. The Taliban snuck up behind them, coming all the way around the mountain from the other side. This was, in my uneducated opinion, was the final kiss of death for our valiant troops. They went from being huddled up with a good defensive position on top of the mountain to being flanked from behind from even further up the mountain. Height advantage? Bye. Element of surprise? Reversed on them, at best. A fight ensued, and it's arguably the only reason I'm writing this blog.

  There's those events in movies, books, and games that just seem to good to be true. Perhaps within the realm of possibility if all the circumstances were met, but what are the odds of that? A fight that just could never happen? A battle never won in reality? They're pretty prevelant in entertainment. It's cool to see something awesome happen, becuz it's the stories that never happen in reality that are cool to see elsewhere. This was that fight. I swear it was like a story of four stranded SPARTAN IIs in Halo's universe.

  The final body count for the Taliban wasn't revealed in the book, but Marcus's rough estimates made on the battlefield put the total Taliban taken out at maybe 90, out of 140-160 at the start. (Again, I'm sorry if that's inaccurate, I can't confirm that, but I'm pretty certain that was his estimate.) The SEALs were just untouchable. They opened up with M4s and their Mark 12s (which, for the record, fire on semi auto, so they were practical in a combat scenario) at the tidal wave of Taliban soldiers who continued to round the mountain side and filled in the gaps of their fallen allies. Even when the SEALs were literally out in the open calmly moving to cover amidst thousands of bullets, they managed to tag countless enemies each, while remaining unscathed. The Taliban guys are very untrained, and more or less won battles from sheer volume of fire, not precise shooting.

  That fact alone is what let the SEALs perform so well in this terribly lopsided fight. It would be like standing there with 150 guys shooting at you with their eyes closed. You gotta be careful, but the amount of people you can get all depends on how well you keep your cool and shoot true. And because of the SEALs' intense training, that is exactly what they did, even when faced with such staggering odds. It's not like they stood in the wide open forever, though. They quickly and steadily began descending the mountain, going to cover, taking out enemies, moving down, etc. Their goal, and only hope of living, was to totally descend the mountain and fall back onto flat ground where they very realistically could combat the entire enemy force and win. Or, even better, fall back into the town itself, shack up in a building, and have a turkey shoot. Even with the endless supplies of RPGs being launched at them, a few inches of solid wall could save them from a lot. So, amidst chaos, confusion, death, and bullets, the four men managed to formulate their loose plan and begin to carry it out.

  Of course, they didn't just sit down and take their situation without attempts to call in backup. They took up some cover in a cave, or maybe in some rocks, to establish connection with HQ, hopefully to call in some helicopters with enough firepower to level a town. Unfortunately, there was no response again, with the mountain landscape interfering with the signal. The SEALs decided to make a brave move; to use a cell phone to make a call to base. The bravery is found in the fact that in order to do so, they had to break cover, which spelled nearly certain death.

  Murphy took up the task, running out into the fray to make a telephone call. Thankfully, he got patched through alright, and desperately pleaded for any support they could get, saying that the SEALs were dying out there. He even got shot in the back during the call. He got up off the ground, picked his rifle back up, along with the phone, and continued to fire his assault rifle one handed while completing the phone call with uncanny calm. The conversation ended shortly after, and then Murphy was shot again in the stomach. He fell onto his back this time, and within moments, multiple Taliban soldiers had approached him and unloaded more ammo into him. If he hadn't already died, he was certainly gone now.

  Meanwhile, another one of their teammates, Mikey, had been shot, five times (I think). One blew his thumb off, there was a few elsewhere, and finally he got shot in the neck. By that point, he fell down and wasn't moving. Now, as with a lot of soldiers, SEALs are strongly compelled to retrieve bodies of their fallen in combat, only, with the SEALs, it's basically a rule. They're dedicated to the grave. Marcus went into the fray this time, with the rocky mountain walls surrounding him doubling the lethality of the bullets coming towards him, serving to ricochet rounds even after missing initially. However, despite the chaos, he went out and began dragging Mikey to safety. This is amazing.

  Mikey swiped Marcus's hand away, picked up his rifle, got up off the ground, and began to fall back while firing, on his own. After four shots, one of which was in the NECK! These SEALs are insane. So they took up more cover and resumed repelling the never ending waves of enemies. By now the body count is astounding. The SEALs are taking out an unholy amount of the Taliban cannon-fodder.

  Pardon the memory failure, but I forget what bridges the events, but somewhere along the line, the valiant Mikey is shot, once more, for a total of five times, in the very base of the neck. This shot downed him for good, although when I read that, I still wasn't too sure he was out of the fight yet. After four times, once in the neck, and he was still fighting at full capacity? Like I said, entirely too good to be true. Only, it is true.

  Then, Marcus and Axe fell back even more, sticking to the original plan. They were still a considerable distance from the bottom, but it was their only shot. At this point, Axe is holed up in some sort of cave, and Marcus was out doing something when he returned to the cave to find Axe with a wound in his head.

  Unfortunately, the four had taken an unbelievably nasty spill down the mountain (the first of a few, actually). Basically, they came to a miniature cliff of sorts, and they had no choice but to jump off and roll down the almost sheer mountain side to a flat spot. Marcus equated it to a ski slope, only they were tumbling, it was rocky surface, and they were going break neck speed with no way to stop (that's the kicker). When they all crashed at the bottom into a heap on top of each other, Marcus had thought that none of them should have been able to live through it. And, like I said, there's a few more of similar ordeals later.

  AT ANY RATE, during the spill, Marcus had actually lost his medical supplies, among other things (his helmet!). So he had to sit and stare hopelessly as his brother in arms Axe was suffering from a wound that was basically beyond repair. He said in the book that even in the best medical care in the world, he probably wouldn't have lasted an hour. But Axe was as defiant as any of them, and while he was bleeding pretty bad and couldn't really fight at full capacity, he had his pistol ready and was ready to go out fighting. It's that kind of determination that makes these men so incredible.

  They didn't get much time to do any more damage because an enemy RPG struck ground just mere feet short of their position. Marcus was literally flung into another tumble by the blast, and Axe was, to his knowledge, killed in the explosion. It was revealed later that Axe had emptied his pistol clip when they found his body, meaning he had in fact lived on even longer and taken the fight to them until his last breath.

  Meanwhile, Marcus's rocky trek down the mountain left him face down in a massive ditch, and curious enough, lacking pants. Better to get your pants blown off by an RPG than to die.

  But yeah, like I said, he was face down in a huge ditch, to the point where when he first regained his bearings, he thought he might have gone blind cause he couldn't see. Then he realized he was upside down, and the hole was deep enough where he went unnoticed by the Taliban. They totally didn't see him. Eventually he climbed out and began a slow crawl to a rock formation in which to shelter himself. He barricaded himself in, and he was protected on all sides, save one, where he obviously looked out with his sniper rifle (which, in a series of miracles orchestrated by the guy upstairs, was still right with him through all he had done). Anyways, he waited there for, I dunno, eight hours? Just sitting. Waiting.

  By now, he was parched, and had no water whatsoever. He said that his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth, so he couldn't speak even if he had a reason to, and he guessed that trying to detatch it would rip skin off the roof of his mouth in the process.

  This just keeps getting better and better. How amazing are all these circumstances? The fact the SEALs were able to accomplish even half of what they've done so far is nothing short of a miracle, but also an undeniable testament to their training. However, it's not over yet, as Marcus is eager to prove, and he continues to do some amazing stuff solo next.

  First thing he did was take out a Taliban soldier who had been patrolling the battlefield, looking for Marcus, a few hours after the battle ended. Marcus lined up a shot and blew his head straight off. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed!

  So, Marcus happily shot two more Taliban guys who got too curious. It was great, he got one in the head again, and double tapped one in the chest before he could scream. I think he deflated his lung or something crazy like that.

  After a little while longer, he decided to get back on the move. However, one thing Marcus was quick to tell us was how his large profile made him a less than prolific mountain climber, and he frequently would slip and/or fall in the mountains. Now he was pretty badly wounded, exhausted with no water, and lacking pants. He crawled on all fours all over the place, and that didn't even help that much. Not to mention, all the aforementioned things made him easier to track through the mountains than a bear leaving Reeses Pieces in a trail. He actually made note of a group of Taliban who he was certain were tracking him at their leisure, possibly even using Night Vision Goggles stolen from Russians a few years prior to spy him from afar. They were basically toying with him.

  That was a mistake.

  He lures them into a trap, placing himself behind a small outcropping of rocks that offer ample cover to take them out from a distance. Here's how Marcus stands at this point. His back is killing him, which is because of what he later finds out was three cracked vertebrae (OW!). He also has a large gash on his forehead, and whenever it gets opened back up, it bleeds right into his eyes. He tore his right side rotator cuff (something in your shoulder) and he was also shot in the left leg, high up, near the glute.

  This happened when Marcus finally found a source of water. It was a waterfall, maybe thirty feet high, and at the bottom was obviously a pool from which he could drink. He found this at the top of the falls, though, and when he began his descent down, the Taliban guys tracking him shot him, right in the leg. He began another long, paaaaaiiiiinful journey down the mountain side, trying to slow himself down from what would surely this time be death. He ended up safe though, but he had lost all his ground, his water source, and now he was shot. Time to start over.

  After much more arduous climbing, however, he was at his rock formation, eargerly awaiting payback from what he figured was a two man, sniper/spotter team. He finally got a visual on the one with the rifle, and silently dropped him with a shot to the heart. So far, this is just more insane performance by a critically wounded man who has every advantage stacked against him. He did all this while shot! But it's not over yet.

  Little did he know, the two man team was one of three, and the two remaining men were right behind him. Behind him, and actually a little ways above him. They didn't know where Marcus was hiding, and when Marcus finally heard them and located their position, he took action. In one swift movement, which he recalled took maybe a second, he had revealed a grenade, ripped out the pin, heaved it at the spot right in between the two men above him, and rolled around to the opposite side of his rock cover in time for the grenade to annihilate the two Taliban intended for it.

  Is that not insane?! To call this guy my hero would be like calling the Master Chief...my...hero...ok bad example.

  At any rate, he eventually finds his way to water. But for the life of him, the man cannot stay out of trouble. Upon finally taking some water in, he's stumbled upon by more Afghanis weilding AK47s. Just his luck right?

  ....By now, some of you might have noticed this is reallllllly long, and that I said part 2 of 3 instead of 2. That's because I took a lot longer with this than I anticipated, and by now I doubt any of you are still reading it. If you got this far, congratulations, and I think you just got influence gained But yeah, uh, three times is the charm, right? It'll be up sometime soon. And, my normal blog update will be as well, with info on soccer wins, airsofting adventures, and probably impressions of Brisingr which I still haven't started Anyways...

  Until next time, I've been irmeleeman5995, saying the NFL is lame, and that's a mouthful to say (and gonna get me shot)!

  • Posted Oct 5, 2008 5:46 pm GMT
  • Category: Other
  • 1 Comment
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 28Sep 08

  At sea, in air, on land (part 1 of 2)

  Greetings Gamespotters. Brent bashfully....wishes he could keep going in his introduction with clever alliteration. Eh, I'm not a poet, who needs alliteration?

  In the past few blogs I've been mentioning a book I've been reading. The book is called Lone Survivor. It's about the only SEAL in a team of four who survived a mission gone wrong in Afghanistan in 2005. I told you all how insane I thought the book was and that I considered writing a full blog on it. Well I'm donewith the book, and I decided I'm going for it.

  I'll go in the order the author Marcus went in as he wrote the book. He started by setting up the situation in Afghanistan, what they were doing, why they werce there, introducing his teammates, etc. He also loosely outlined a lot of nuances to Muslim culture, and, more specifically, the Taliban and al Queada that are so hated in our country, yet it seems no one knows why. 9/11? Sure, but it goes much deeper than that, and Marcus makes it very clear why he personally prefers shooting them first and asking questions later, and why many others do as well.

  Througout his first few chapters, he alludes to the SEALs in a somewhat haughty manner. So what. SEa, Air, and Land? Big deal. They're just swimmers and parachuters. At least, that's what I used to think. I knew they weren't pushovers, but he refers to them like they're like the top 1 or 2 special forces team in the entire world. Acknowledging this as a bit of a hefty claim, he offered to clue us in as to why he feels entitled to call the SEALs nothing short of invincible.

  He lets us in on their training. Oh boy, did I hope he would, and he does. Like four chapters' worth. Bear with me if I start to ramble. His training began at age 14. In his smalltown Texas area lived a retired Green Beret, one of the legendary warriors in the US military who belong to the Army branch. This ex GB took it upon himself to take people around Marcus's and his twin brother Morgan's age, 14, and train them to become special forces members, if that was what they chose to do as a career. Out of 12 trainees, only 6 remained after, like, 1 or 2 weeks. After that, though, they trained ferociously. Marcus himself learned talents like staying alive in the wilderness, became very talented at swimming, and also just plain ol' worked out. He trained for a long time, though I now forget just how long, but when he finally enlisted in the Navy (at 21 I think), he was pretty prepared.

  So, now starts the official, military training. There was a week long boot campish training just for joining the Navy. It was in Colorado (much to our Texan's horror) and it was pretty basic, though frighteningly cold. After completing it, he was flown to Coronado, California, where every SEAL in history has gone for the duration of their training. It's Cali so it's nice, but the water is frigidly cold...always. The first thing they do there is Indoctrination, or Indoc. This is a two week training that is fairly intense but only a glimpse of what is to come. They started with 164 trainees at Indoc, and by the end of the 2 week course, 98 remained. The rest couldn't handle it, as few can, and dropped out voluntarily.

  So, two weeks down, Indoc done. I could be incorrect in saying this, but after Indoc, I think you'reconsidered a Navy SEAL. Now you have to rough it through a bunch more stuff to see if you really want to be a SEAL. The next phase of the training is called BUD/S. Basic Underwater Demolitions/SEALs. The name doesn't apply a TON as far as I know, I think it finds its roots in the basis of today's SEALs, which were Navy teamsback in the 60s that specialized in locating and detonating bombs underwater to create safe passage. Which SEALs can still do, but I don't quite know how much BUD/S focuses on just that.

  BUD/S is pretty long. It's hard to say how long because there are three phases to BUD/S itself and sometimes they're 'seperated'. But it's fairly long, 8 or so weeks?

  It's also hard as any Olympic training. Indoc ends; BUD/S begins the next day. Before lunch? The 98 left over became like 64. Before lunch. On the first day. More than 30 people dropped out. It's INSANE. They basically make you do push ups and sits ups until you basically can't eat afterwards. Do you know how tired you have to be to not want to eat? Getting off the pavement took such effort that it was like mentally and physically straining. Much less picking up a fork and CHEWING...

  ...You know, I still don't feel like I've given that first day enough justice. They basically sat for four hours doing pushups and situps until 1/3 of their ranks quit on the spot. There are some of the toughest people ever, and it only took like four hours to get rid of them at BUD/S' commencement.

  There's a lot of stories to be told of BUD/S. There was a guy who showed up to Indoc and didn't know how to swim (does he even know what SEALs are?) There was another whose physician told him never to submerge his head underwater. Then there's swim buddies, log excercises, etc. But the biggest, baddest challenge is Hell Week. Hell Week is infamous. Four or five weeks into BUD/S, Hell Week starts. It consists of five straight days of physical training. Five. STRAIGHT. Days. To paint the picture for you most accurately, I'll summarize Marcus's experience for you.

  For one, the instructors knew that in anxious anticipation for Hell Week, no one would be able to sleep the night before. So they don't. They give the trainees a break, let them stay up all night eating pizza and watching movies, drinking beers (I think..), just hanging out. What the instructors did not tell them is WHEN the playtime would end and when Hell Week would begin...or HOW it would happen.

  The instructors turned out the lights, busted in the only doors to the place, and started firing blank M4 rounds into the air. "Welcome to Hell, gentleman," said one instructor over the chaos. At any rate, the trainees all dove for cover, scared out of their minds. Well, I guess startled is the more appropriate term. Any of them who could think clearly knew there was nothing to be SACRED of, but it's certainly startling. One of them, however, wasn't thinking so clearly, and he ran in a panic out off the baracks into the ocean surf and tossed around wildly. End of your nerves, right?

  The objective was to listen to a high pitched whistle that could be heard over the commotion, go to the source, and ring the bell. So, with much strife, the trainees did it. But that was just the beginning. Literally. They were forced to do the most physical training in one, week long period of the entire training up until that point, with little to no rest or sleep. By the end? People were hallucinating from sleep deprivation. One fell out of a raft into the San Diego Bay, and when he was finally retrieved after five minutes of rowing IN WATER, he still did not know he had ever moved. Marcus himself pointed out that if you, for example, had a thought of your mother sitting next to you handing you a forkful of steak, but upon looking to your left and right did not see her there, that you would in fact be perplexed.

  It was utter brutality. Running, lifting logs, hearing orders incorrectly and doing the wrong stuff, all sorts of stuff to just pummel your body and mind into oblivion. Argueably the meanest thing the instructors did was tell all the trainees that the end of their Hell Week (Sunday morn til Friday eve) was not in fact the end. Basically, they were telling the trainees that Friday was Thursday. No one objected, how would the trainees know? So when the instructors finally told them they were done, no one believed them. They were bewildered. All in all, the 64 or so guys that made it through the first day of BUD/S was down to 30 something by Hell Week's end. 164. 98. 60 some. Then 30 some. Miles and miles of running. Obstacle courses. Swimming. Pushups. Situps. Frigid water, where the trainees are constantly told to "Get wet and sandy" to freeze them up and get lathered in coarse, annoying sand. The work is unforgiving. The strength and endurance required is unparalleled. This training is insane.

  So, there's Hell Week in a nutshell. BUD/S ends (I think? It's very unclear to me) and more training goes on. One other anecdote from SEAL training is the pool competency test story, directly after Hell Week I think. Basically, the trainee goes underwater in a pool, along with two instructors. You all have SCUBA gear on, but a lot of good it does you. The instructors grab you and hold you underwater while basically abusing you. First thing they do? Rip your mask off underwater. While being held down and thrashed about, you have to reattatch your mask, and I think you have to do something to drain water out of it a certain way too. Then they take your airhose, connected to the tank on your back, and unplug it. Still being abused underwater, you have to reach around behind your back and reattach it. Last, they repeat this, but they tie a knot in the hose too! You have to untie the knot or else reattatching the hose will do nothing.

  The problem arises when they tie knots that are just plain old tight. You know that shoelace that you accidentally tied wicked tight? Well that's bound to happen. They understand. You make a gesture underwater that says "It's too tight, lemme resurface and start over." So, they let you. But, but, but, the instructors judge whether or not they agree with your call. If not....uh oh. Marcus made this call during his test. The instructors did not approve. So he failed the test and normally would have been severely punished, but seeing as like 25 out of 30 guys failed it, he wasn't roasted. Just had to retake it.

  Here the SEAL trainees are, 8 weeks into training their butts off, and they haven't even touched GUNS yet! Well, that's about to change. They stay in Coronado, but gone are the beaches. Out come the mountains, the forests, the wilderness, and the survival. They're taught how to read and make maps, navigate in the wilderness, track objectives, live off the wild, and that sort of thing. This is also where they get into the nitty gritty- room entry/clearing, demolitions, weapons training, extensive weapons training , that sort of thing. It's basically taking them, fresh out of being turned into ridiculous water operators, and turning them into one of the, if not the best ground fighting force on the planet. They can fend for themselves in water, now they can do it on land.

  (It was pointed out that for SEALs, water isn't just a moot point, it's a sanctuary. While water is only a nuisance to most military forces, the SEALs rejoice in water. They're trained extensively in it. Diving for best streamlined shape, endurance swimming, treading water loaded with up to, if not more than 100 pounds of gear, holding breath underwater...everything.)

  As far;and goes, they're all turned into ace marksmen, well versed in a vast array of guns, that sort of thing That all speaks for itself.

  They go on to do other stuff as well. SEALs learn crazy martial arts, and if I'm not mistaken, CQC, the moves Snake uses in MGS games. The ones that are so lethal that only miltary pesonnel are allowed to learn it. Those. They go to sniper school at the famed Fort Benning, Georgia, and they go to this equally famed parachute school whose name eludes me. Basically what I'm getting at here is they don't just get trained to swim alright, shoot ok, and parachute marginally. They go to where the Marine's most hardcore snipers train, to where the best High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) jumpers in the country learn, that sort of thing. The Navy SEALs aren't Spore, 5 mediocre games rolled into one They're all the best games rolled into one

  So, I'm starting to sound really stupid forgetting some of these specific names and lengths of training phases, but let it be known that from start to finish, SEAL training can take up to 3 years before deployment; longer if you drop out and come back later to restart. It's brutal and instense, as I hope you've learned from my scanty overview, but despite the hardships, it turns you into one of the most disciplined, talented, and capable soldiers on this planet. To close on the training note, here's a list of "specialties" that a SEAL may end up specializing in one or more of:

  • Sniper
  • Breaching
  • Surreptitious Entry (note from meleeman: stealthy operation, basically)
  • Electronic and Media Exploitation
  • Technical Surveillance
  • High Threat Protective Security (PSD)
  • Advanced Weapons Training
  • Advanced Driving Skills (Urban/Rural/Security)
  • Advanced Climbing/Rope Skills
  • Advanced Air Operations: HALO/HAHO/Jumpmaster/Parachute Rigger and Packer
  • Diving Supervisor
  • Range Safety Officer
  • Instructor School
  • Leadership School
  • Foreign Weapons
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicle / Precision bombing Operator
  • Language School
  • Advanced Special Operations

  Sounds good, right? Yes, yes it does. Can you imagine what sort of things you learn in specialized DRIVING courses in the Navy SEALs? I can...oh boy I can...

  OK I'M DONE FOR NOW. That's part 1 of 2 of meleeman's SEAL blogs. I'll do the second one later.

  Gaming is speeding up. Still no TFU for meleeman, but he recently got back into Halo 3 with some pals. They added THIRTY achvmnts to that game. I though it was 15! Anyways, it's cool becuz half of them all focus on getting stuff in the second map pack released, and the other half all focus on the unreleased Mythic map pack! I was like "Wah-wha-wha-WHAT??" Lol. I love you Bungie. Other than that, Far Cry 2 comes out...soon...I'm getting antsy.

  Reading is speedy too. I finished Lone Survivor, obviously, and I now get to start Brisingr when I get around to it...can't wait

  Movies, nothing, though I want to see Righteous Kill, Miracle at St. Anna, and the new Leo DiCaprio/Russel Crow flick looks pretty good I'd say.

  School sucks. Spanish projects, english assignments, math tests, APMEH cl@ssess...I never get a breeaaaak. But, nothing too bad. No failing tests or whatever.

  Writing is still ****fied. I've been busy (ya think?) and meant to start transferring the undisclosed project to the laptop today, but then I began writing this blog Got side tracked

  That's all from the front! Good night/day to you all (that was for you Foolz3h What's the morning lookin' like down there? )

  Until next time, I've been irmeleeman5995 saying hoo-yah to the Navy SEALs, and that's a mouthful to say!

  • Posted Sep 28, 2008 6:34 pm GMT
  • Category: General
  • 3 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 20Sep 08

  So here I am, and boy do I need clever titles

  *Spider-Man tone* Meleeman, meleeman, does whatever a...a...yeah I don't have any clever openers left either. Let's dive right in, shall we?

  So, school. School's...fine. Been doin' fairly well on tests and whatnot. Got a 92 on our first APMEH test! I was like, picking my jaw up off the floor after I saw that one. We took a test in Geometry, and I feel pretty good about it. Which, unfortunately, often ends up boding poorly when I get it back. Then when I think it got botched to pieces, there comes the 95. Typical of biology last year, for example, but I haven't seen a grade yet so we'll see what happens.

  Soccer has been...difficult. We played our first league game on Tuesday. It was our rival, McDonogh, or however you spell that godforsaken name. Last year we:

  Beat them at home

  Lost to them away

  Ended up playing them, at their field, in the championship, and losing when we REALLY should have won. Loads of BS, I'll link you to the blog I covered it in way back yonder. Here it is.

  So this time, we were ready to take them on. Our field. A good field. A nice field. And with a team that gets better by the minute. We had a tough game in our 6-0 loss to a public school team last week, but we were ready for anything after the practices we went through in between the two games. Here's a short portrait of the game for you guys.

  First half, we dominated. No other word for it. Utter domination. We had the ball probably 85% of the first half. We just couldn't get the ball in the net! It was embarassing. We could have had probably 3 goals that half. Second half rolls around. A lot of our starters were sitting for no reason and never came back in. The rest of us were getting tired. Our offensive starters were all sitting. We switched a good midfielder with a good defender and they didn't adjust to their roles well. Just..a few things that shouldn't have mattered all added up, and we couldn't hold them off. Make a long story short, they scored a goal so miraculous that I thought it went over top of the goal and came down on the net outside. Nope. Right over our keeper's fingers and then right under the cross bar. I dunno how he did it, but the guy scored, and we couldn't give them any back. So, we lost.

  1-0. I couldn't believe it. They knew we should have won. We knew it. Coach knew it. But whatever, we'll be them next time, right?

  I think so. Becuz two days later on Thursday, we played the third best team last season, whereas McDonogh was second. We pulverized them, Baltimore Lutheran. 3-0 game, I think it might have even been more on a good offensive day, but we made some good goals, played smart and well, and we hung in there. Speaking of hanging in there, I started and played all of both games Big change from last year. The bigger change is that I'm actually playing really well Last year I just didn't deliver solid field work, but I'm growing into the defensive role and it's working out fine now.

  I haven't been watching many movies lately, but I saw Inside Man a few nights ago for the first time in a long time. I really enjoy that movie. I also forgot how long it was!

  Gaming is a bit of a drastic change. One day I'm Vegasing, the next day I'm tired of all the games I have, the next day I decide to FINALLY restart and beat Assassin's Creed once and for all, and the next day, TFU comes out and I'm playing it at Steve's house. I played from the first mission to the mission where you escape the medical lab. I'm fairly impressed with the game so far. I think some of the level design is much like Star Wars Bounty Hunter, where the gameplay was sweet but I couldn't bear the boring or annoying levels. TFU isn't nearly as bad as BH was, but there are definitely parts of Raxus Prime and Felucia that I don't particularly care for. One other thing is that I was playing on Steve's file, and he's already beaten it twice, so I had a huge array of powers and moves to use and I got it all too fast, so I was trying to get accustomed to everything at once and as a result couldn't do anything particularly well. Still, I love the gameplay, the moves, fighting Rancors...etc, etc, etc...

  Books. Ah, books. I got Brisingr today. I'm very glad, I've only waited for it for like three years. But alas, I won't be reading it juuuuuuuuust yet. I have to finish Lone Survivor first, becuz I refuse to ever read more than one book at once. Drives me nuts. Anyways, LS is REALLY, REALLY good. Like, REALLY good. I'm loving it so far, and I'm ecstatic that he's going so in-depth about their training. I'm sorry, but my views of the Navy SEALs went from "yeah they're pretty hardcore spec ops guys" to "they have my utmost, most tremendous respect", to the point where I don't think the President of the United States could attain it if he ended world hunger and created hydrogen powered cars. Yeah. I admire them that much. Just read the book, right now, just do it. It's called Lone Survivor, it's about a Navy SEAL, and it's one of the most fascinating things I've ever read in my life. I might do a whole blog on it soon.

  Until next time, I've been a trying to find time for AC and writing a secret project irmeleeman5995, and that's a mouthful to say!

  • Posted Sep 20, 2008 8:01 pm GMT
  • Category: General
  • 5 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg

See Previous Blog Posts