Misc A War Story for Memorial Day

Cheater5 · 09:41 AM

This is unbearably long and I'm not sure how this will be received, and frankly it’s more for me than for anyone reading it. Our country, our society, is war-weary. Not from actual fighting as only .05% of our population has donned a uniform during the last 15 years; but tired of the ceaseless hero worship, running death tolls, and combat sortie film footage/war porn. This message isn’t political, and if it turns out that this has to be moved to the D.C. forum, then I find it sad that people on both ends of the spectrum cannot show restraint for one thread.

They call it the ‘fatal funnel’; it’s the most dangerous position when entering a room or building, and is the cone-shaped area that leads from the outside in for the assaulter. It’s a killing ground, and defenders will concentrate fires and obstacles at this critical entryway to prevent the assault team from gaining a foothold. You’ve all seen it; a four man team ‘stacked’ up outside a building or room preparing to enter in a controlled rush (“slow is smooth and smooth is fast”) and the Number One Man is the most vulnerable. He’s the first to expose himself and has to clear the fatal funnel to allow Number Two, Three, and Four Man into the room to bring their weapons to bear. What was once the practice of elite SOF units became a drill passed down to the regular Infantry and requires hundreds if not thousands of repetitions to learn in multiple scenarios. It’s incredibly hard, despite whatever skills you’ve mastered on your favorite first-person shooter game. Sometimes, due to casualties and the chaos of combat you find yourself in a four man stack with people you’ve never drilled or rehearsed with. And you make eye contact with each man, line up, and go. Right now.

Sean Sims. Every time I hear his name or think about him my jaw clenches, my breath catches and I look down. He was a military brat as the son of an Army Colonel, but he wasn’t a brat. He was a really good kid. He was calm, intelligent, respectful and could have pal’d around with other wholesome boys like Beaver Cleaver catching pollywogs and sleeping with his baseball glove underneath his mattress to break it in. Sean said sir and ma’am to the 18 year old cashier at Wal-Mart or the custodians at his high school in Korea. There wasn’t a pretentious bone in his body; he didn’t even know how to brag or even fake it.

He’d went to Texas A&M, was a company commander in the Corps of Cadets and graduated with a mechanical engineering degree before going straight into the Army as an officer and finishing at the top of his Infantry Officers Course. Ranger school didn’t faze him much; (‘yeah, there were some tough days I guess’) and he went to the 101st Airborne for his first assignment before asking for Germany as a Captain for his second tour in 2000. Afghanistan kicked off and was a fight for SOF and ‘light’ units like the 101st and 82nd Airborne due to the difficult terrain. Germany was a ‘heavy’ unit; they rode armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M1 tanks in the 1st Infantry Division (Big Red One). And then, Iraq happened.

Captain Sims commanded ‘A’ Company, 2nd Battalion 2nd Infantry Regiment (Ramrods), and in November of 2004 found themselves attached to the Marines for the assault on Fallujah; if you recall this was soon after the Blackwater team was ambushed and their charred remains were hung from a bridge. Fallujah would be some of the heaviest urban combat our forces encountered since Hue City in 1968. It was house to house, room to room, clearing thousands buildings littered with IEDs and snipers. Constant chatter of machineguns, artillery, mortars or attack aircraft 24 hours a day. In the first 10 days, Alpha Company had over two dozen wounded, but none killed.
On the morning of Saturday November 13th, Sean went forward with a small team grunts and his attached Air Force combat air controllers (JTAC- Joint Terminal Attack Controller) so he could find a location to call in close air support. The best place to do so is to position yourself above ground; find a rooftop that overlooks your avenue of approach (where you want to go) and designate targets. JTACs can work magic and bring attack aircraft within 30 yards of your position with a gun run, or a precision guided munition; in Fallujah it was a common leap-frog tactic. Isolate a building with tanks or Bradleys, use the close air to kill fleeing targets or reinforcements, move the infantry team in to ‘clear’ the building (the close fight). The four man stack technique, with teams passing through one another over and over again. It was time to ‘stack up’ for Captain Sims and his ad-hoc team.

His men were beat tired. They’d been conducting combat operations for nearly 10 straight days with only catnaps here and there, and MREs hurriedly choked down with stale water from their camelbacks. They needed to get to the roof top of the two story building across the street. Sean looked at his men splayed around him in the room. The Air Force guys were carrying heavy, cumbersome HF radios and spare batteries along with the same weapons and ammo his men were. His small team of infantrymen were sitting with legs wide open, filthy, exhausted, at the end of their rope. He made the decision- he’d go first. The CO was Number One Man. They formed two teams, and his would make the dash across the street first and he’d be the first man into the fatal funnel. “All right boys- ready? Follow me.” were the last words he spoke.

Into the blacked out doorway he went, but unfortunately Number Two Man was delayed a few seconds. It really wouldn’t have mattered as Sean was killed only about ten feet into the room as he charged the man shooting at him. When it was over he lay there, still. The call over the radio stating they had a casualty, a KIA, was met with open weeping by his men when they heard his call sign to identify Sean as the man killed. He made sure he spoke with every one of the 150+ men in his Company before they deployed to combat. He knew their wives and girlfriend’s names; their children’s names. Sean would let them talk and ask questions about where they grew up. He was soft spoken and introspective and was a genuine human being. He was a man for others.

I have tears in my eyes while I write this. This essay is not well written and I know it. It’s a ham-fisted attempt to remember my friend today. He left a wife and son behind that he only knew for five weeks. If he could live again, Sean would still go first. So here’s the obligatory ‘dead guy’ quote to tie this all together, because Mark Twain says it better than I could with a fraction of the words.

“Unconsciously we all have a standard by which we measure other men, and if we examine closely we find that this standard is a very simple one, and is this: we admire them, we envy them, for great qualities we ourselves lack. Hero worship consists in just that. Our heroes are men who do things which we recognize, with regret, and sometimes with a secret shame, that we cannot do. We find not much in ourselves to admire, we are always privately wanting to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.”

**TimBone** · 05-30-2016, 09:47 AM

RIP, Sean. You paid the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you.

Let's keep this one out of DC, guys.

**Buehler445** · 05-30-2016, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimBone

RIP, Sean. You paid the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you.

Let's keep this one out of DC, guys.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Thanks for sharing.

**Trivers** · 05-30-2016, 09:57 AM

God Bless Sean.

And thank you Cheater5 for sharing...and for your service.

**Easy 6** · 05-30-2016, 10:29 AM

God bless him and those like him, I hope his wife eventually finds someone worthy of his memory to help raise their son

**Bowser** · 05-30-2016, 10:35 AM

So sorry for the loss of your friend and your hero. If only we could all be a fraction of the man he was. Thank you for sharing this story.

Chiefshrink · 05-30-2016, 10:36 AM

John 15:13 - "There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."

Sean did for his men what his Lord and Savior did for all humanity.

Kman34 · 05-30-2016, 11:07 AM

So sorry for the loss of your friend...I would like to thank you and all others in the military for your service to our country...I would also thank the families for their courage and sacrifices....

Simply Red · 05-30-2016, 11:10 AM

Very appreciative for this touching thread and thank you.

MIAdragon · 05-30-2016, 12:39 PM

Rest in peace brother.

WilliamTheIrish · 05-30-2016, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MIAdragon

Rest in piece brother

Ummm... Maybe an edit is in order here.

WilliamTheIrish · 05-30-2016, 12:51 PM

Tragic story cheater. Was his actually a guy you served with?

stevieray · 05-30-2016, 12:57 PM

SALUTE

Lonewolf Ed · 05-30-2016, 01:02 PM

I have the utmost respect for men and women like this, those who make it back home and those who do not.

Cheater5 · 05-30-2016, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

Tragic story cheater. Was his actually a guy you served with?

Yes, I got to know Sean when I was stationed in Italy with the 173rd Airborne, and we came up to Germany quite often for training. I wasn't in 2-2 (his unit) when he was killed, but pieced everything I know about his death from first hand accounts.

05-30-2016, 09:33 AM
Cheater5 Veteran Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Folly Beach, SC Casino cash: $4867550	A War Story for Memorial Day This is unbearably long and I'm not sure how this will be received, and frankly it’s more for me than for anyone reading it. Our country, our society, is war-weary. Not from actual fighting as only .05% of our population has donned a uniform during the last 15 years; but tired of the ceaseless hero worship, running death tolls, and combat sortie film footage/war porn. This message isn’t political, and if it turns out that this has to be moved to the D.C. forum, then I find it sad that people on both ends of the spectrum cannot show restraint for one thread. They call it the ‘fatal funnel’; it’s the most dangerous position when entering a room or building, and is the cone-shaped area that leads from the outside in for the assaulter. It’s a killing ground, and defenders will concentrate fires and obstacles at this critical entryway to prevent the assault team from gaining a foothold. You’ve all seen it; a four man team ‘stacked’ up outside a building or room preparing to enter in a controlled rush (“slow is smooth and smooth is fast”) and the Number One Man is the most vulnerable. He’s the first to expose himself and has to clear the fatal funnel to allow Number Two, Three, and Four Man into the room to bring their weapons to bear. What was once the practice of elite SOF units became a drill passed down to the regular Infantry and requires hundreds if not thousands of repetitions to learn in multiple scenarios. It’s incredibly hard, despite whatever skills you’ve mastered on your favorite first-person shooter game. Sometimes, due to casualties and the chaos of combat you find yourself in a four man stack with people you’ve never drilled or rehearsed with. And you make eye contact with each man, line up, and go. Right now. Sean Sims. Every time I hear his name or think about him my jaw clenches, my breath catches and I look down. He was a military brat as the son of an Army Colonel, but he wasn’t a brat. He was a really good kid. He was calm, intelligent, respectful and could have pal’d around with other wholesome boys like Beaver Cleaver catching pollywogs and sleeping with his baseball glove underneath his mattress to break it in. Sean said sir and ma’am to the 18 year old cashier at Wal-Mart or the custodians at his high school in Korea. There wasn’t a pretentious bone in his body; he didn’t even know how to brag or even fake it. He’d went to Texas A&M, was a company commander in the Corps of Cadets and graduated with a mechanical engineering degree before going straight into the Army as an officer and finishing at the top of his Infantry Officers Course. Ranger school didn’t faze him much; (‘yeah, there were some tough days I guess’) and he went to the 101st Airborne for his first assignment before asking for Germany as a Captain for his second tour in 2000. Afghanistan kicked off and was a fight for SOF and ‘light’ units like the 101st and 82nd Airborne due to the difficult terrain. Germany was a ‘heavy’ unit; they rode armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M1 tanks in the 1st Infantry Division (Big Red One). And then, Iraq happened. Captain Sims commanded ‘A’ Company, 2nd Battalion 2nd Infantry Regiment (Ramrods), and in November of 2004 found themselves attached to the Marines for the assault on Fallujah; if you recall this was soon after the Blackwater team was ambushed and their charred remains were hung from a bridge. Fallujah would be some of the heaviest urban combat our forces encountered since Hue City in 1968. It was house to house, room to room, clearing thousands buildings littered with IEDs and snipers. Constant chatter of machineguns, artillery, mortars or attack aircraft 24 hours a day. In the first 10 days, Alpha Company had over two dozen wounded, but none killed. On the morning of Saturday November 13th, Sean went forward with a small team grunts and his attached Air Force combat air controllers (JTAC- Joint Terminal Attack Controller) so he could find a location to call in close air support. The best place to do so is to position yourself above ground; find a rooftop that overlooks your avenue of approach (where you want to go) and designate targets. JTACs can work magic and bring attack aircraft within 30 yards of your position with a gun run, or a precision guided munition; in Fallujah it was a common leap-frog tactic. Isolate a building with tanks or Bradleys, use the close air to kill fleeing targets or reinforcements, move the infantry team in to ‘clear’ the building (the close fight). The four man stack technique, with teams passing through one another over and over again. It was time to ‘stack up’ for Captain Sims and his ad-hoc team. His men were beat tired. They’d been conducting combat operations for nearly 10 straight days with only catnaps here and there, and MREs hurriedly choked down with stale water from their camelbacks. They needed to get to the roof top of the two story building across the street. Sean looked at his men splayed around him in the room. The Air Force guys were carrying heavy, cumbersome HF radios and spare batteries along with the same weapons and ammo his men were. His small team of infantrymen were sitting with legs wide open, filthy, exhausted, at the end of their rope. He made the decision- he’d go first. The CO was Number One Man. They formed two teams, and his would make the dash across the street first and he’d be the first man into the fatal funnel. “All right boys- ready? Follow me.” were the last words he spoke. Into the blacked out doorway he went, but unfortunately Number Two Man was delayed a few seconds. It really wouldn’t have mattered as Sean was killed only about ten feet into the room as he charged the man shooting at him. When it was over he lay there, still. The call over the radio stating they had a casualty, a KIA, was met with open weeping by his men when they heard his call sign to identify Sean as the man killed. He made sure he spoke with every one of the 150+ men in his Company before they deployed to combat. He knew their wives and girlfriend’s names; their children’s names. Sean would let them talk and ask questions about where they grew up. He was soft spoken and introspective and was a genuine human being. He was a man for others. I have tears in my eyes while I write this. This essay is not well written and I know it. It’s a ham-fisted attempt to remember my friend today. He left a wife and son behind that he only knew for five weeks. If he could live again, Sean would still go first. So here’s the obligatory ‘dead guy’ quote to tie this all together, because Mark Twain says it better than I could with a fraction of the words. “Unconsciously we all have a standard by which we measure other men, and if we examine closely we find that this standard is a very simple one, and is this: we admire them, we envy them, for great qualities we ourselves lack. Hero worship consists in just that. Our heroes are men who do things which we recognize, with regret, and sometimes with a secret shame, that we cannot do. We find not much in ourselves to admire, we are always privately wanting to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.” Last edited by Cheater5; 05-30-2016 at 09:41 AM..
Posts: 3,074

05-30-2016, 09:47 AM	#2
TimBone Mostly Ignored Join Date: Jul 2013 Casino cash: $8499985	RIP, Sean. You paid the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you. Let's keep this one out of DC, guys.
Posts: 18,096

05-30-2016, 09:57 AM	#4
Trivers Always ask 'Why?" Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Two Rivers, Wisconsin Casino cash: $2072400	God Bless Sean. And thank you Cheater5 for sharing...and for your service. Last edited by Trivers; 05-30-2016 at 10:11 AM..
Posts: 2,929

05-30-2016, 10:29 AM	#5
Easy 6 pie is never free Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: the drivers seat Casino cash: $3447775	God bless him and those like him, I hope his wife eventually finds someone worthy of his memory to help raise their son
Posts: 91,968

05-30-2016, 10:35 AM	#6
Bowser sorta mod-ish Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: KC North Casino cash: $3191616	So sorry for the loss of your friend and your hero. If only we could all be a fraction of the man he was. Thank you for sharing this story.
Posts: 101,054

05-30-2016, 11:07 AM	#8
Kman34 My Mamma Says Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Glass Cage Of Emotion Casino cash: $1691786 VARSITY	So sorry for the loss of your friend...I would like to thank you and all others in the military for your service to our country...I would also thank the families for their courage and sacrifices....
Posts: 13,952

05-30-2016, 11:10 AM	#9
Simply Red You Sweetie! Join Date: Sep 2005 Casino cash: $2021206219 VARSITY	Very appreciative for this touching thread and thank you.
Posts: 71,691

05-30-2016, 12:39 PM	#10
MIAdragon Someone pass the antifreeze Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Miami (North Cuba) Casino cash: $1317819	Rest in peace brother. Last edited by MIAdragon; 05-30-2016 at 07:46 PM..
Posts: 15,776

05-30-2016, 12:51 PM	#12
WilliamTheIrish Champion Golfer Of The Year Join Date: Aug 2001 Casino cash: $5800607	Tragic story cheater. Was his actually a guy you served with?
Posts: 34,659

05-30-2016, 12:57 PM	#13
stevieray best in the biz Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Under Pressure Casino cash: $2305273	SALUTE
Posts: 71,356

05-30-2016, 01:02 PM	#14
Lonewolf Ed Veteran Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Olathe, KS Casino cash: $10606233	I have the utmost respect for men and women like this, those who make it back home and those who do not.
Posts: 3,774