Though I am not a member of the Recon Community and would not present myself as such, I believe I can shed some light on your questions.
1) The series is based on a book written by an embedded Rolling Stone reporter who spent most of his time with a team of enlisted, none of which were above E-5 in pay grade. This does skew the perception of officers somewhat. It's also a television drama, which means just that; characters and situations are dramatized.
2) The officers were portrayed as extremely glory hungry, and there is an element of truth to this, but there is an important fact that you have to consider, namely that the 2003 invasion was based on the doctrine of "Maneuver Warfare" which focuses on bypassing prolonged and bloody engagements with the enemy in favour of decapitation strikes against his command and control. This kind of warfare is extremely aggressive, and extremely mobile, some would even say reckless. The officers were under constant pressure from their superiors to deliver results, ending the invasion as quickly as possible was seen as the best way to minimize unnecessary casualties, both friendly and civilian. Weather or not this strategy was effective is a hotly debated topic.
3) 1st Recon was operating outside of its normal role of moving ahead of the main force covertly in order to identify and potentially raid enemy formations and positions. Instead it had been tasked essentially to harass and tie up as many enemy units as possible so that other elements could either encircle them, or bypass them completely in an effort seize Baghdad. First Recon's doctrine is not built around moving around in Humvees, and in fact the battalion had to scavenge and refit several vehicles from other units, as prior to the invasion it didn't even have the Humvees it needed for this task.
4) Two of the officers that receive the most unfavourable portrayals ("Captain America", "Encino Man") were not themselves part of 1st Recon prior to the invasion. Captain America and Encino Man were essentially rear echelon intelligence officers, neither of them had seen combat before or had been trained for the kind of combat 1st recon specializes in, and after the invasion they were returned to their previous assignments.
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dubyahsrobotminion
9 years ago
Rolling Stone was in a truck with only one Marine above E-5 (Iceman who was a SSgt.) but he was pretty well exposed to Lt. Fick and his whole Platoon. Rolling Stone was also pretty in with Capt. America's Platoon. He was a direct witness to many of Capt. America's and Encino Man's exploits. And lets be honest here, the jury is not out on those 2. They have been convicted of idiocy without a shadow of a doubt by a jury of their peers, not just outed by Rolling Stone. SSgts Kocher and Colbert are pretty good judges if you ask me. Colbert, now a Master Sgt., has pretty much a stellar reputation. Some of the Encino Man supporters say Rolling Stone 'latched' onto Dbags and got tainted. Colbert is hardly a Dbag, nor is SSgt Kocher.
You're taking a dump and they call GQ do you pinch it off or finish your business?
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Deftone315
9 years ago
Did you not see what the poster above you wrote? Captain America/Encino Man were simply intelligence officers, which requires them to stay undercover. They are there to observe the military, so their individual idiocy is a moot point.
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