The best man I ever knew

[MRM]

I thought of Leland's story telling us how the bomb he marked with chalk was used successfuly on the bad guys when I saw an article in yesterday's USA Today. I thought it was fun enough to share here.

Leland's told us in the thread "Is that a pelican over Kandahar?", I think started by Jack, that the bomb he marked was dropped on an unsuspecting group of bad guys. They thought they had the trick to fighting the Americans because they had been hiding in a cave and only came out when they thought the Americans had left. They didn't know that they were still being observed and jets were scrambled as soon as they showed themselves again, unloading supplies from a truck. The only warning they got would have been the "pop" the bomb made as it prepared to deploy, some thousands of feet above them.

In the USA today story there was a similar group of four bad guys dropping mortars on US positions in the mountain battle that is currently raging. Every time the US would fire artilery or call in an airstrike, the bad guys could hear the guns or planes before they hit, and would go underground until the bomb or shell exploded. After they felt the explosions they would come out and wave to the Americans.

So the artillery comander called in one more airstrike and ordered his guns fired at the very second that the bombs exploded - while the bad guys were under cover and when the concusion of the bomb would cover up the roar of the guns. It takes several seconds for the artillery shells to travel the distance.

Sure enough, the planes came, the bad guys ducked, the bombs fell, and just as the bad guys jumped back up to wave at the Americans, the artillery shells dropped right in the middle of them.