The Battle of Pump House Flanders

[iowamarine12]

i remember Flanders fondly . I thought Capt Murphy was the Company Commander then course that was like in June or July 2006 maybel later not for sure

[C6R]

Really Roberto? I wouldn't have mentioned anything otherwise, but since you brought it up, maybe you can explain what your guy was doing running through an open courtyard, across the front of two forces that were actively engaging each other at close range. We're still trying to figure that out. Inquiring minds want to know. No one else found themselves in that position; not even the guys who came from the .50 cal in the wall bunker. Also, we did find bodies. They were under the trucks.

[homemovies64]

He's my high school principle at Pequot! Thanks so much for all your service to our country and being a great principle!

[Gonamez]

Another great video!

[Bleachlover121]

He is my principle at my high school. You're amazing Mr. Rankin. Thank you for making our school a better place. and protecting our country. Much thanks.

[TheDevenrocks]

@Bleachlover121 oh your at Pequot Lakes High School? im gonna come find you now hahaha

[Bleachlover121]

He is my principle at my high school. You're amazing Mr. Rankin. Thank you for making our school a better place. Much thanks.

[robertohermar]

this is the real story i was with 1 MHG Engineers and two of my boyz were out there Cpl Churchill and Lcpl Escoto who was shot in the gutt by one of the army fucks that was spraying and praying when the marines controled the pumphouse it was 4 posts 24/7 but the army made it 2 and 4 at night, the next day myself and Cpl Ford went to replace our Marines and repair the pumphouse and another group of Marines and Army looked for bodys and found none so fuck this guy and his story

[js0k]

A Mud Duck!!.....Love Ya from a Cheese Head!!! Thanks for all you guys do!

[redmar79]

I didn't hear the whole thing but it was wild even though we were pretty far away from it.

[dagestanec37]

this one wil be cut by Terrrrorr and send  to his house ,

[marchav88]

He said the post werent man'd 24 hours a day...when I was there LIMA 2nd plt. 3/10 we had 3 shifts within 24 hours. No problems just some indirect fire..Wonder why. Marines v Army..?

[DobermansRock]

Young Cpt'n needs to put his fuckin Kevlar on.

[samanthareann]

chip rankin is the principal.

[samanthareann]

he's the principal at my high school.(:

[kong8765]

was or is? lol. i mean its possible if hes in the reserves or somethin.

[Etremor1]

I saw the whole thing happen from my post on the South Gate of Camp Falujah. Nothing against him, but he has no idea what hes talking about. Don't know if he was told to make up what happened, but don't believe half of whats said in this interview.

[Airyk33]

You have some damn good vision considering how far from the post Flanders is. I'm sure there wasn't a good reason you were sitting in towers while we patrolled the battlespace.

[Footballgeak]

Chip Rankin is the Dean of Students at my high school. He's goin to be the principal next year. He's a cool guy.

[cwarp]

I had Chip as a teacher in HS, Litchfield HS is a lesser place with out him

[majormayhem1]

Really?

[Footballgeak]

yeah, he's fun to have around. You feel pretty safe when he's there!

[CoorsFanZach]

The army is no longer at the pumphouses, or in karmah either...the marines had to take over for them

[C6R]

The pumphouses always were Marine controlled...we had them because we were a company attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and that was one of missions they gave us. When we cycled back home it was just natural that it would be turned over to a Marine unit again.

[C6R]

Weird. I never noticed that before. Bowden screwed up..the battle was on 12 Aug 2006...not 2007. We had already left Iraq by August 2007.

[lazarte4]

5th BN/14th Marines received contact the very same way..at that very pumphouse in 06. mortars to the south and heavy weapons to our flanks. looks like they even put up some fencing to make the place look nice..

HM3 Lazarte

[C6R]

(I'm a member of this platoon the video is about) Barney got hit less than a week later too. I was on that one. None of us had heard anything about the previous attacks that had been made, not even when we would specifically ask about it, until AFTER we had already been engaged. Funny; MI gives you all the info you might need after it would have been useful. Anyway, we did alot of work on the outposts after they got hit. You'd be amazed at how safe, and comfortable, both the outposts are now.

[badkarma8485]

This is not in violation of UCMJ

[erictheweb]

SmallSoldier02-

This interview is not a violation of any rules UCMJ or otherwise. CPT Rankin is commenting in general terms about an engangement that happened 6 months prior to the interview. This is history, and he is not revealing anything about the current operational state of this FOB or it's defenses.

[smallsoldier02]

Let's agree to disagree on this one. From an intel analyst point of view, any description in whole or in part of a successful insurgent attack on US forces, regardless of the fact that the attack occurred in the past, constitutes, although indirectly, a means of providing intelligence to the enemy. The Iraqi insurgency spends millions of man hours studying video interviews like this one to gauge the success of past operations. What you call history, in general terms or otherwise, is damaging.

[C6R]

Wait a tic...as a member of that platoon I take personal offence to the implication that that was a "successful" attack. Not only did the attackers not take the outpost, which was the objective, they failed at the cost of 2 destroyed vehicles and many dead and wounded, whereas we held the outpost at the cost of only 2 wounded, one of which was returned to duty. To even begin to call that a successful attack is absurd.

[Nyctomancer]

The matter here isn't whether or not the attack was successful. The issue is that all the information he just gave us can be valueable when planning another attack. He tells us where the reinforcements come from, battle tactics, how we post guards, and more. Any enemy would be ecstatic to get their hands on that kind of info. The entire video is in violation of operational security. And a captain narrating, no less.

[C6R]

Indeed it would be...if the information was still relevant...but it isn't. The entire pumphouse was changed from the ground up almost as soon as the last round was fired. Nothing he says in the video is in any way reflective of how the pumphouse is run today. As far as where reinformcements come from, there is one passable road going to that outpost from one base. It doesn't take a military genious, or youtube for that matter, to figure out where reinforcements come from or the route they take.

[Supportrtroops11]

@redmar79 ARMY AND MARINES ONE DEADLY ASS COMBINATION

[smallsoldier02]

This Army Captain should not be giving the names of soldiers, number wounded, numbers of soldiers at a particular post, or any information that could assist the insurgency in Iraq. This is a violation of the UCMJ and this video should be removed immediately.

[KevinMcDonough16]

I'd like to see more of this type of video really helps to knwo what is going on over there