Bravo Two Zero
A classic on the realities of the small unit for Sunday viewing that I brought up in the last Scout Course. Lots of lessons and one of the top among them, you should be training in communications.
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had never heard of this movie thanks for sharing it
You’re welcome! It was mandatory viewing for us.
Watched it for the first time just now. Yes some lessons there. I guess the first is to be thankful you were not in the SAS in the first Gulf War. What a Goat Fuck planning session, there was none. Guess these knuckle heads were planning on a whim and luck? Well thats how the movie portrayed it anyway. (I do not believe thats how it went, maybe so maybe not.).
It’s sucks to be light infantry, your “too light to fight, too heavy to run”. Human pack mules basically.
Three legged stool, SHOT-MOVE-COMMUNICATE. With out all three your severally risking failure.
Any good comms guy would not leave without checking and double checking, then triple checking. With backups to the backups. How about a stupid hajjie cell phone with a local SIM card? Aahhh there is cell service, (S-2 S-6 Comments? crickets!). (Any SPC 4 had them)
The higher command really screwed the mission. The orders coordination, intelligence and supply were hosed from the get go. The other teams cleaned out the supply room? Really? (again its a movie.)
After you hit the SP and cross the FLOT the OPORD is what you adjust from, stick with the Mission Statement and Commanders Intent.
Cavguy
the movie sucked so bad i almost turned it off half way in. Was it the movie that sucked or the team leader? Ive never seen a team behave like that. (Well maybe a kids little league baseball team.)
I’m surprised you didn’t note the baseplate compass on the M16. That was always good for a laugh.
Its a made for TV movie, but, the major events pretty much were as they happened. Many steps were skipped in the planning process, chief among them commo and personnel recovery (PR). That’s why its referenced as much as it is in Army SOF doctrine. Funny thing about that is that Navy SPECWAR completely glossed over all the same lessons with Operation Red Wings (which civis know as Lone Survivor).
For all those preppers or militia types planning on running patrols, if they don’t have these two basic needs squared away, commo and PR, this flick is a good warning as to what will happen. And this is best case scenario.
The book by McNabb was required reading when I was still on a team. It showed how everything could go wrong. The book by another of those in the mission has a different perspective on many of the decisions made. I have never seen the movie.
5
Read the book back in 02. Those poor guys were sent into a completely unknown environment with not much. They had no idea what they were getting into. and not having the current comms frequency to call in…… Even today I remember Andy’s statement that if they all had slings to keep their rifles on them, the outcome would have been different.
Unfortunately the youtube video has been taken down…
Yeah I just noticed that. I’ll work on finding another one that’s complete.