Operation Vanity Snob

Isolated and operating alone after parajumping into enemy-occupied Atapo, A1C Snuffy found and occupied a position of overwatch, identified numerous enemy locations and called in tactical air against them, while communicating the location of captured pilots to the marine landing force.

Carried the pilot on the first drop so i didn't have to, also got hit by a recoilless as a result, good work Snuffy.

Putting the safety of airforce pilots before his own, even when they are DEAD. Yes, Snuffy.. he’s dead.. DEAD. Shed a tear, grab his dog tags and get on that fucking Helo.

Fire support rearguard keeping advancing enemy back far enough to extract while squad had heavy casualties.

Nice variation of missions on this run, it was interesting seeing it from a ground pounders POV as well.

RDX performed her role excellently on multiple occasions, providing covering fire and suppression without being instructed to do so, allowing for safe extraction of wounded squad member.

So I would like to bring attention to SA Howser's excellent work in building better inter-service ties between the different branches operating from Maxwell field always willing to go out of his way to help others no matter the job needed. His work in building these ties can only help the different Branches be able to more effectively and closely work together on operations going forward.

Providing medical assistance whilst under heavy fire, putting the safety of his squad before that of himself.

For courageous daring, ensuring the Airforce always hits its mark. Be that by rocket, bomb or Bronco.

Following orders, proving to be both a reliable member of the squad and an example for others to follow. Recommend promotion to PFC.

SSGT Grym, United States Marine Corps, distinguished himself by outstanding meritorious service as platoon SNCO , 1st Platoon, Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines during Operation Vanity Snob on 21 January 2024. While conducting a joint personnel recovery operation, SSGT Grym was operating in the Last Man position, covering the retreat of his squad towards their exfil helicopter. In this role he not only managed to hold off a hostile counter attack, but also recovered the wounded Capt Scatter from his crashed Bronco, and carried his wounded body to the Jolly Green where the medics were waiting to work on him. The distinctive accomplishments of SSGT Grym reflect great credit upon himself, the United States Marine Corps, and the Department of Defense.

Excellent and rapid heavy fire support.

Excellent accuracy during the second deployment, engaging the enemy within moments from landing and suppressing defensive positions. Furthermore, dogged determination in the face of enemy armor, repeatedly striking an enemy T34 on approach to the rest of the squad.

Providing accurate and devastating fire with 20mm allowing the squad to advance and overrun an enemy position with minimal loss.

PFC Leroy, United States Marine Corps, distinguished himself by outstanding meritorious service as SANDY Flight Lead, 1st Platoon, Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines during Operation Vanity Snob on 22 January 2024. While conducting close air support during a joint personnel recovery operation, PFC Leroy executed multiple gun and rocket attacks against an enemy Platoon sized element. With friendly forces heavily suppressed by North CheltNam fire, he efficiently rendered them combat ineffective. His quick thinking and steady guns ensured the survival and recovery of two downed aircrew, and the successful extraction of the entire team. The distinctive accomplishments of PFC Leroy reflect great credit upon himself, the United States Marine Corps, and the Department of Defense.

Pvt Torrent, United States Marine Corps, distinguished himself by outstanding meritorious service as SANDY wingman , 1st Platoon, Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines during Operation Vanity Snob on 21 January 2024. While conducting close air support during a joint personnel recovery operation, a PAVN T-34 tank charged friendly forces. Placing the safety of friendly ground forces over his own, he executed an emergency rocket attack destroying the enemy armour. His bravery ensured the survival and recovery of two downed aircrew, and the successful extraction of the entire team. The distinctive accomplishments of Pvt Torrent reflect great credit upon himself, the United States Marine Corps, and the Department of Defense.

Rapid rescue of Scatter, even as extraction on the way.

Immediately before extraction, while the Jolly Green was on final approach, Capt Scatter crashed his Bronco close north of the village while trying to destroy a T-34 tank endangering the extraction. MSgt Kent immediately, with no regard for his own safety and without support, ran from the LZ into the jungle to retrieve Capt Scatter, apply immediate lifesaving medical aid, and carry him to the Jolly Green, certainly saving his life.

Excellent and rapid heavy fire support.

4 kills despite not seeing any chelt!

Locating and saving Cpt Pointer and getting him up while repelling enemy close assault.

During close assault operations in the town of Atapo, Cpl Morse, at great risk to herself, repeatedly closed with enemy strongpoints and armoured vehicles to mark them with coloured smoke grenades to mark for airstrikes, greatly improving the response time and accuracy of those strikes and removing threats to her unit.

Me again Mom

Forgive the handwriting tonight, but I just had to sneak up to a flamethrower tank so I could mark it for airsupport to destroy. I had to get much closer than I wanted to, but I was on a slope beneath it, so it couldn’t depress its barrel low enough to get me. Or I’m telling myself that at least so I can sleep tonight. I can’t really describe the dichotomy of SAR detail. Hours, sometimes days of sorting bolts and shifting rocks, interspaced with short periods of adrenaline fuelled terror. This morning we got the call that an A4 (that’s a Skyhawk, flown by the navy) had gone down and we needed to go find that pilot and bring him home. It’s always a him, so I guess the women pilots just don’t get shot down. Only explanation I can think of.

It was a long flight north in the helo, then our pilot took a while finding an LZ to put us down in, all the while we were taking groundfire. I won’t lie to you Mom, but I thought we were going to be shot down at one point, we were that dinged up by the time we got down in the river valley. We had a good idea where the pilot was though, he was hiding in a narrow gorge, and yes, that means we were jumping up hill to go get him. There was a hostile village between us and him though, so we had to clear that out first, then try and find a path with air assured us they could see, that would take us up. Unfortunately their directions to it were a bit vague, so I was halfway up and doing what I thought was an excellent impression of the mountain goats back home before I got called back down to take the actual path. Might have been better sticking as I was mind, as there was a hostile machine gun post half way up said path, yet no one had been firing on me on my scrambling route.

Once we got up as far as the pilot and parajumpers were hiding we engaged a lot of hostile infantry we had to deal with, but thankfully a load of them were far enough away that our supporting skyraiders could keep their heads down with attack runs. At one point a bunch of them snuck up behind us though, which slowed us down and kept the medics busy. We did eventually get moving back down the hill though, in a sort of rolling retreat, where people stopped to provide cover until everyone was past them, then running down the hill past the next people who’d stopped. It worked okay, until they started hitting us with something heavy. I thought it was a mortar but apparently it was a recoilless rifle, either way though a shot from it hit too close to the pilot we were rescuing and he didn’t make it. We did end up rescuing a different pilot though, as Captain Scatter Sir crashed while taking out the recoilless and Sarge had to haul him out to the jolly green. It was a good thing he did though, cos if that gun had still been active when we took off it could have easily destroyed our helicopter.

You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t mentioned any tanks yet. Yes, tanks plural. They’re still to come, but we did at least get a bit of downtime back at base before the sirens sent us scrambling again.

This time we were sent to the town of Attapeu, where two pilots were in hiding, and in short order, a parajumper joined them as his chute failed to open on the way down. We landed south of the river from the town, and had to choose between swimming the river, or skirting round the long way and crossing a bridge into town from the west. Fortunately we picked to go for a swim, as the air support kept taking continual fire from the west meaning there was likely some sort of military camp there. Unfortunately there was something nasty in the water, and there’s a couple of us feeling distinctly off after being immersed in it.

When we made it out of the water we were a short way to the east of town, and the airforce had already put some ordinance there to clear the way into the town for us. This did include some that was a little closer to us than I’d’ve liked, especially as we didn’t get any warning, but it was far enough away to be okay, and they moved it further away when requested. Bagpipe (I think) killed a hostile truck, but behind it was the flamethrower tank I mentioned earlier. Bagpipe definitely hit that, but didn’t manage to do much to it, so we had to call in air support, and that meant marling it. I was north of the road with Howser, one of our medics, and as we were downslope we could sneak towards it without it being able to see us. I threw one of my red smoke grenades at it and within seconds it was hit by something from the air. It wasn’t enough to kill it though, so we had to remark. That was enough to disable it and RDX, our Seabee, rocked up and stuck a satchel charge on it to make sure.

It was then a case of sweeping through the town to try and find our missing airmen. I won’t lie, town clearance isn’t my strong point, and I quickly lost track of where exactly we were, but thankfully there was one main east west road so as long as we were pushing the right way along that we couldn’t go too far wrong. The Sarge then wanted me to call in a resupply, but thankfully by then I’d worked out where the church was, and called it in on that position. Some might say ‘the Lord Provides’ afterall. What I should have done though was let the airforce boys covering us know it was inbound. For some reason I thought they’d talk to each other but apparently not, as there was almost a mid-air collision. One to remember for next time.

By this point, those who had more of a clue of what was going on had found the aircrew and we started to think about heading home, so of course the Chelt decided that this was the perfect time to send in another tank. It was moving too fast for air to take out before it got amongst us, and it even ran over Avalanche as it tore through us. Mr Scatter Sir tried to take it out and ended up crashing into the cliffs to the north of town, but Mr Kent went to rescue him so he ended up in the chopper with us on the way home for the second time today. Fortunately, one of the Skyraiders, Torrent I think, managed to take out the tank and from then on it was a case of pulling back through the town to the helo as a few Chelt on foot tried to stop us.

All told we rescued two of the three pilots we were dispatched to today, and then Snuffy and Mr Scatter Sir twice, so I guess that goes down as a win, and I’ll take all of those I can get.

I hope the winter isn’t too harsh this year

Morse