More Micheal Yon in Afghanistan

[Anthony_Scott]

Some excellent photos and article:

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/eight-years-after-911.htm

Enjoy!

[Snipey]

"The PKM is a common enemy weapon that packs a wallop. It can penetrate our helmets. Untrained fighters typically will fire high during night time, or in places of limited visibility such as in the corn. Good fighters often use “grazing fire,” so that even when the enemy is lying flat the gun can get hits. During our ambush on 20 August, four days earlier, the enemy had used good fire discipline and it was only due to pure luck that none of us were killed. Our guys are better shots and more tactically sound, so whereas the terrain definitely belongs to the enemy, when firefights actually start, the smart money is on the Brits or Americans, not the Taliban. They might kill a few of us, but if they stick around and fight we will wipe them out."

Thanks for these :D And that quote also sums it up nicely.

[Anthony_Scott]

No problem, that is what I am here for!:D

[Anthony_Scott]

This time he is with USAF Pararescuemen (or Pedroes) since UK-MOD cancelled his embed:

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/pedros.htm

[Cross]

Does anyone know why the MoD cancelled his embed?

He's clearly a talented reporter, who tells it like it is.

It's easy to assume that he wasn't 'towing the propaganda or political line'; but I wonder if his style revealed just a little too much info?

[Anthony_Scott]

He's clearly a talented reporter, who tells it like it is.



You got it right. He ran afoul of the PC MoD paper-pushers. But that is that just an educated guess, nothing more.

[redcoat2]

I’m not sure what to make of the Yon embed cancellation business. There has been lots of politically driven speculation in Internet forums about Government ‘cover ups’ and ‘liberal conspiracies.’

There has also been a lot of talk about MoD 'bureaucrats', ‘pen pushers’ etc. It may be true that most people at the 'Ministry of Defeat' are civilian ‘bean counters’, but I think the MoD ‘Media Ops’ people responsible for A-stan are from the military: officers from the Regular Army and PR specialists from the Territorial Army based at PJHQ Northwood. AFAIK any decision to cancel Yon’s embed would have been taken by a military officer in the field or at PJHQ.

PR specialist Major Paul Smyth of the MoD making a news report:

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/6151/modpenpusher.jpg

Yon was originally well regarded by the Army hierarchy, but it is rumoured that he has fallen out of favour with some people. He has claimed that the West is “losing” in A-stan when as far as the Army is concerned we are “making progress.”

[Snipey]

Yon was originally well regarded by the Army hierarchy, but it is rumoured that he has fallen out of favour with some people. He has claimed that the West is “losing” in A-stan when as far as the Army is concerned we are “making progress.”

If that's true, and it probably is, that's ridiculous. I haven't seen anything, except high quality from Yon. Nowhere in his photo captions, or reports, does he say "we're losing in A-Stan". If he expresses his personal view, then that's his own damn personal view. As long as you do quality work, your personal views shouldn't get you fired.

[redcoat2]

Yon was originally well regarded by the Army hierarchy, but it is rumoured that he has fallen out of favour with some people. He has claimed that the West is “losing” in A-stan when as far as the Army is concerned we are “making progress.”

If that's true, and it probably is, that's ridiculous. I haven't seen anything, except high quality from Yon.


He was personally selected for British embeds in Iraq and A-stan because of the high quality of his work.


Nowhere in his photo captions, or reports, does he say "we're losing in A-Stan".


First sentence of this report (http://www.michaelyon-online.com/new-afghan-war-frontline-correspondent-says-fight-has-morphed-–-but-we-still-can-t-afford-to-lose.htm).

The report was picked up by sections of the UK press with an axe to grind with the Government. They emphasised the ‘losing’ part without mentioning the ‘we can’t afford to lose part.’ He was misrepresented basically – but you can expect that from some of the media.


If he expresses his personal view, then that's his own damn personal view. As long as you do quality work, your personal views shouldn't get you fired.


A lot of journos did quality work during the Vietnam War. Unfortunately it was some of this media reporting that helped to lose it.

I’m not so sure he was ‘fired’ as such. He was given a three week embed which was extended to five weeks. Most embeds only get two weeks max. I suspect that his time was up. The Army isn’t run for his convenience. The Media Ops Officer responsible for A-Stan says that his embed wasn’t ‘cancelled’ at all. He has also said that he is welcome back another time.