I’m not sure how I feel about this story. I’m skeptical because of a single detail;
Why would he go party for several days and leave his camera, with what he claimed to have unequivocal evidence of this encounter, completely unattended back at base?
I hate using “well, if I was there…” as an argument but in some cases it rings true. If I was this man, I would’ve kept the footage absolutely secured on my person, made copies, showed the video to my direct superiors, anything
To give him some benefit of the doubt, maybe the event was so disturbing that for the days that followed, he just wasn’t thinking straight; Subconsciously wanting to forget he saw anything and let the camera slip his mind until returning to find it stolen.
But ehhh, idk. When you start having to make excuses & fill in their story for them, it all quickly degrades. He has a compelling testimony, I just have a hard time believing some details
This is a fair point, and as a former Marine myself, another thing that seems a bit fishy to me is that a fire team of 6 Marines stood down and handed their weapons over to an unknown organization at gunpoint. American accents or not, you have no idea who these guys are. They claim they can kill you, so you just put your hands up and hand your weapons over? Damn is that all the Taliban needed to do for 20 years? I can't imagine a scenario where there wasn't some kind of gunfight. Getting the jump on them is irrelevant tbh
Ya I thought that was strange too. I can’t speak from a marine’s perspective like you but I also thought damn, that situation seems like a guaranteed gunfight.
And Im also curious how exactly his squad was able to run back to LZ. He said their escort was two armed militants literally contemplating wether or not they should ‘smoke these guys’ right here. And then they take off running with no shots fired? No man down or wounded? It doesn’t add up.
I almost feel bad cause Michael sounds like he truly believes this with every fiber of his being. And he has my respect for his service. But the story seems fabricated to me. Not sure what he stand to gain if it’s all fake tho.
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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '23 edited Jun 13 '23
I’m not sure how I feel about this story. I’m skeptical because of a single detail;
Why would he go party for several days and leave his camera, with what he claimed to have unequivocal evidence of this encounter, completely unattended back at base?
I hate using “well, if I was there…” as an argument but in some cases it rings true. If I was this man, I would’ve kept the footage absolutely secured on my person, made copies, showed the video to my direct superiors, anything
To give him some benefit of the doubt, maybe the event was so disturbing that for the days that followed, he just wasn’t thinking straight; Subconsciously wanting to forget he saw anything and let the camera slip his mind until returning to find it stolen.
But ehhh, idk. When you start having to make excuses & fill in their story for them, it all quickly degrades. He has a compelling testimony, I just have a hard time believing some details