the movie jarheads

[lawgurl]

I just watched the movie "JARHEADS" and Im curious as to how accurate the events in the movie were portrayed. Was it true that the marines over there never saw face to face combat and that the only arabs they ran into were on Camels? Also I would like to know if the government really made the marines take special pills to circumvent the affects of the gas poisionings. That was shocking to me. I thought it was an interesting movie but maybe underplayed the danger that the soldiers were really in. I appreciate that you men fight for others rights to life, liberty and happiness but I just feel that Bush did not need to send so many troops over there, just as in operation Iraqi freedom, I was surprised to see how many troops died and how young that you men really are! Its a terrible war that I dont even think we belong in. I cant even imagine the fear and terror of being out there on that battle field, I guess thats why not a lot of women are in the war. Well Ill stop rambling for now. lol. To all you who fight for our country, I hope you all go on to live happy healthy lives. Thank you again.
Cori~

[RichardLowry]

As you have demonstrated, JARHEAD was extremely misleading. When I watched it, I thought that it gave the impression that there was no real fighting in Operation Desert Storm. In fact, one of the largest tank battles in history was fought in Operation Desert Storm and the Marines met with resistance in Southern Kuwait when they breached the Saddam Line.

The Iraqis actually counterattacked the Marines on at least two occasions. The Iraqis almost overran the 1st Marine Division's Forward Command Post on the second day of the ground war. Many Marines fought gallantly in Operation Desert Storm.

Yes, the military did issue pills that would counteract the effects of some of Saddam's WMD. The military had decided that it would be better for their soldiers to take a pill than to die a horrible death from nerve gas.

As for the number of troops sent; Operation Desert Storm was an overwhelming victory. One of the reasons for this lopsided victory was that the Iraqis could not counter the sheer number of forces arrayed against them. If we would have sent that many troops to OIF, it might have been possible to bring law and order to Iraq much faster than what we have done this time around.

Unfortunately, the military had been drawn down to such an extent that it was impossible to send eight combat divisions to participate in the invasion of Iraq.

[Dagger X-Ray]

Richard summed it up as well as I could have…if not better. I recommend his book Gulf War Chronicles.

I was in the 1st Infantry Division of the US Army and "Yes" we had to take the pills, I took them myself and may even still have some amongst my stuff from way back then.

Jarhead only showed you the supposed experience of those few Marines as opposed to the rest of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and other Coalition forces. I for one saw.....oooooh about a million times more "war" than the movie Jarhead depicted. Watch some of the other movies out about Desert Storm for some additional ideas of what it was like (Courage Under Fire and Three Kings are the ones that come to mind right off). Understand that even those movies leave out lots and lots of details and lots of examples of what it was really like. There were days when I saw dozens and dozens of destroyed Iraqi military vehicles (tanks, artillery, BMP's, transports, and so on) not to mention the hundreds of AK-47's laying all over the place for us to just run over when Iraqi soldiers surrendered to US Forces and just dropped their weapons where they stood and walked away.

I saw so much more death than Jarhead showed and their depiction of the daytime was significantly different than what I remember. My unit was on the edge of the oil fields (within 1/4 mile) and while we had an oily substance on most everything, we weren't covered in it like they were in the movie....but then again that was us. The next unit might have been soaked in it.

I sit here and remember one time trailing 2/16 Inf, 3/37 and 4/37 Armor at about 2 miles after a major tank battle, this would have been within the first 1-2 days of the ground war. We passed tanks that had been hit within minutes before we came through. Tanks on fire, tanks with secondary explosions from the unexploded tank rounds inside going off. I saw many tanks with the turrets either blowing off or having already blown off. I saw tanks and artillery half buried to help hide them that our tanks still destroyed.

These pics were taken on the Road to Basrah, about 1/4 mile away from what was nicknamed "The Highway of Death" just outside Safwan later in the day of the cease fire:



I took some pics of a Russian made ZSU-23 that I got a chance to climb in but the pics did not turn out. This thing looked brand spanking new and hadn't been painted to match the desert colors yet. It was still light gray, the seats weren't torn, none of the gauges were broken...I bet this thing hadn't seen any service other than driving to wear it got abandoned.

It was located only a few yards from the tanks above.

Read through threads within this website, http://www.gulfwarvets.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi
http://www.gulfweb.org/ and so on and you can piece together your own mental picture of what went on over there.

[bilbo37]

Awesome pictures there.

[Dagger X-Ray]

I got a chance to climb around both of those tanks, couldn't resist exporing. We didn't dare climb inside as there were hand grenades and 7.62mm ammo laying loose all over the place inside. Was still neat actually climbing onto a tank and checking them out.

The ZSU-23 I was talking about was impressive, it is a mobile anti-aircraft system with (4)23mm cannons, I don't remember seeing any ammo on it though.

This is what a ZSU-23 looks like, this one is all desert painted where the one I saw was still gray.
I wouldn't be surprised if the ZSU I saw was sitting stateside somewhere due to the exellent condition it was in.

[silent warrior]

I served with Cold Steel in the storm. Jarhead was disgraceful and to my brothers that Iserved with during those days of hell. Our company/plt saw action up close and all around us. We were the lead assault element for 2nd Marine division. The real heroes are the ones who did not come back and men that did their job as only as hounbds from hell have always done. There is a much better storyline than Jarhead out there. Especially from the USMC side.

[RichardLowry]

I agree with you SW. I tried to tell the story of the Marines of Desert Storm in "Gulf War Chronicles." My next book, "Marines in the Garden of Eden" is due out on June 6. It tells the story of the 2d Marine Regiment's battle for An Nasiriyah. It was the first major battle of OIF.

Both books tell the real story of Marines at war in the Middle East. They are nothing at all like "Jarhead."

SF

[3rdcavtrooper]

Just thinking I shook hands with those Marines.......lol. Well I don't think they spent all day thinking about their girlfriends. We did some cross training with the marines up on the border and they were nothing like the movie. FYI...Courage Under Fire was to be about the 3rd ACR except after we got all the uniforms set up, someone came in and showed the director a 2nd ACR patch and he thought it was "so cute". The Tech Rep was an armor CPT. in the California National Guard that never made it to Iraq. The SCO from 2nd ACR applied for the job and this genius said that he didn't have any qualifications. "Its not who you know, its who you b***".

[3rdcavtrooper]

Just thinking I shook hands with those Marines.......lol. Well I don't think they spent all day thinking about their girlfriends. We did some cross training with the marines up on the border and they were nothing like the movie. FYI...Courage Under Fire was to be about the 3rd ACR except after we got all the uniforms set up, someone came in and showed the director a 2nd ACR patch and he thought it was "so cute". The Tech Rep was an armor CPT. in the California National Guard that never made it to Iraq. The SCO from 2nd ACR applied for the job and this genius said that he didn't have any qualifications. "Its not who you know, its who you b***".

[Cpl Pettit]

Although not directly involved in the fighting (we were tasked with the helo borne assault on Faylakah Island which was not needed)
I have to say that I was extremely disappointed with this movie.
It seems like more of a Chick-Flick (no offense intended)
Was not at all impressed with the way this unit was potrayed.

[DEVILDOC]

I AGREE WITH THE DEVIL DAWGS ABOUT THIS MOVIE. IWAS A CORPSMAN WITH 1ST BN 2ND MARDIV COMPANY "C" I BELIEVE CPL PETIT AND I SERVED TOGETHER. IWAS DOC NEWSOM,PAUL B. GOOD TO SEE YOUR STILL KICK'N CPL PETIT. TELL THOSE FELLOW MARINES ABOUT OPERATION EASTERN EXIT AND THE FIRST TIME A NIGHT TIME MIDAIR REFUELING WAS DONE NOT ONCE BUT TWICE SO WE COULD GET THERE AND SAVE THE 200 SUMODD PEOPLE THE BRASS DIDN'T TELL US ABOUT IN THAT GODFORSAKEN PLACE.HELL WE'RE LUCKY WE DIDN'T RUN OUT OF FUEL NAD CRASH IN THE OCEAN DON,T YOU JUST LOVE WHEN THE CORP TRIES THE EXPERIMENTAL SHIT OUT AT OUR EXPENSE ESPRIT DE CORP!

[smathews]

as with evryone else all those movies are a load of you now what,,I served with the 1st mar div/7 th marines,attatched to task force ripper.we were part of that tank battle that only lasted minuets. but so much was destroyed and iraqies killed it was unreal. bodies,blown up vehicles,and surrendering troops, everywhere.

[jerry424]

I was in a support unit (don't hate me) and spent most of the war in the rear. It was mostly boring, periodically terrifying, and "Jarhead" seemed to put that across well. Of course, no film ever made will capture the experience of war, and if one did, why the hell would anyone go see it?

[Headhunter15E]

A movie showing our war would be mostly vehicular I was the "Artist" in A trp 1/7 Cav. depictions of combat troops in this type of film are insulting.
It would be like depicting an Experienced Emergency room nurse being shown fainting from seeing bood.We were experts at what we did.


Anybody seen Jody Passeno?

[Dagger X-Ray]

Did you do drawings? If so do you have any copies that you could post pics of here? We would love to see some of the artwork.