From the Fact Check Desk: Obama's Army Anecdote

[RamboLiberal]

Jake Tapper:

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I called the Obama campaign this morning to chat about this story, and was put in touch with the Army captain in question.

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Prior to deployment the Captain -- then a Lieutenant -- took command of a rifle platoon at Fort Drum. When he took command, the platoon had 39 members, but -- in ones and twos -- 15 members of the platoon were re-assigned to other units. He knows of 10 of those 15 for sure who went to Iraq, and he suspects the other five did as well.

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Also in Afghanistan they had issues getting parts for their MK-19s and their 50-cals. Getting parts or ammunition for their standard rifles was not a problem.

"It was very difficult to get any parts in theater," he says, "because parts are prioritized to the theater where they were needed most -- so they were going to Iraq not Afghanistan."

"The purpose of going after the Taliban was not to get their weapons," he said, but on occasion they used Taliban weapons. Sometimes AK-47s, and they also mounted a Soviet-model DShK (or "Dishka") on one of their humvees instead of their 50 cal.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/02/from-the-fact-3.html

I haven't read them yet but Tapper has links in his article to the wingnuts with their shorts in a twist saying this is not true.

[shadowknows69]

1. I drove taxi on Fort Drum for two years

and I heard many similar tales to this from soldiers. I don't know the exact details but one guy I talked to said there were frequent delays or fuck ups in shipping supplies to them.