Kimmett was wrong, then he was right.

[kdalton]

Okay, I have been digesting the last four chapters of Season 3 over and over again, debating with myself regarding Michael and Kimmett's actions. The whole back half of the season was a tragic chain of events that cost the lives of over 100,000 people and nearly saw humanity's end.

It is my interpretation that Michael asked or suggested the LA mission which directly caused the death of Captain Long and her recon team. I can understand why he suggested it, but the decision to send in that team directly led to ... the attack on Boulder because Kimmett ordered the Chinook to Boulder instead of Irwin because it was his injured niece on board. If he had not done that, the Little Ones would never have gotten near Boulder.

Once things got out of hand, Kimmett made the right call to nuke the city. It was the only way to be sure. Michael talked him into waiting on it. That ensured some of the turners got into the convoy. This meant Irwin's fate was sealed.

Kimmett's first error, though, was to place the civilian population so far away from Irwin that the base could not offer immediate support when needed. Boulder was a massacre waiting to happen.

Then Kimmett nuked himself and Irwin, killing all the other Little Ones in the process. So in the end, Kimmett was justified. Had better decisions been made at the beginning, though, all of it could have been avoided or mitigated.

Just saying.

[Kc]

That's pretty right on. No one is 100% right in any situation, and of course hindsight is 20/20. It's a small detail but the original mission was to find a route to a safe harbor. Whether that was Michael's plan or Kimmets has yet to be seen.

[kdalton]

The distance between Irwin and Boulder reminded me of the early American Army blunders in Tunisia in World War II. The commander had set up two strong points - like battalion sized - to slow the German advance, but they were so far apart they couldn't mutually support each other. Thus, the Germans were able to defeat both one at a time.

It would be interesting to see if there were any Navy ships that were immune from the carnage. Sure would be nice to have a Battalion Landing Team roll in.

But nothing is ever that easy, is it, KC? :rolleyes:

[kdalton]

And another thing, why wouldn't Kimmett have established an FOB halfway between the two at an airport with some fuel stores already in place? Put up Texas barriers around the perimeter, guard towers, and put up some barracks. Put in a couple of search and rescue crews and some ground staff. Add a security element. Was it really that hard? Just rotate out the personnel every few weeks to keep them from getting stir crazy.

[scbubba]

Reading these I began thinking about Kimmett and his background. Going off the cuff I can't recall whether it's ever mentioned if he has been Active Duty with any deployments to Afghanistan or Iraq (recent or back in the 90's) or if Kimmett is Guard or Reserve with very little command experience.

I get the impression that, whether Kimmett was Active Duty or not and whether he was deployed to combat areas, I think he's 100% REMF. His command experience is either in the classroom, the boardroom, or the parade ground.

So, the strategic and tactical errors he made could have been rectified if he was the type that listened to the experienced and smart people that worked for him. But that's one of the key character traits he has: Kimmett is the smartest person in the roon and everyone should know and respect that....

The reality is that he's not the smartest person in the room. Not even close. But his desire to maintain that image lead to a long string of errors that ended up with two really large BOOMs....

[kdalton]

Good point. And unfortunately he never thought there would be a large scale attack on Irwin apparently, because the Bradleys had limited munitions on hand despite the fact that there were bases in helicopter range for supply runs. Sure it would have taken fuel, but he committed the sin of assumption. He assumed Irwin's remoteness was a guarantee of safety.

On a sad note, seven Marines were killed at one of those bases today:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/19/us-usa-nevada-explosion-idUSBRE92I0FB20130319

God bless their families.

[scbubba]

On a sad note, seven Marines were killed at one of those bases today:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/19/us-usa-nevada-explosion-idUSBRE92I0FB20130319

God bless their families.

Amen.

Thanks for sharing the news. I hadn't seen that yet.

[Kc]

And another thing, why wouldn't Kimmett have established an FOB halfway between the two at an airport with some fuel stores already in place? Put up Texas barriers around the perimeter, guard towers, and put up some barracks. Put in a couple of search and rescue crews and some ground staff. Add a security element. Was it really that hard? Just rotate out the personnel every few weeks to keep them from getting stir crazy.

There were other outposts and soldiers in the field. We're not privy of where they were.

[kdalton]

But with the dialog, it would seem that the choppers had to land at Boulder and refuel or they could not make it back. This indicated there was no FOB refuel option available.

I am not criticizing the story. I am criticizing the command decisions Kimmett made.

Basically I am just trying to illustrate how big an blowhard he actually was. ;-)

CJ puts him to shame. I worked on all this while in a work meeting staring at a map of the United States and tracing the flight path of the Chinook and the air response teams visually instead of listening to a power point presentation.

Where was that thread about "you know you spend too much time thinking about WA" again. :rolleyes:

[Kc]

But with the dialog, it would seem that the choppers had to land at Boulder and refuel or they could not make it back. This indicated there was no FOB refuel option available.

I am not criticizing the story. I am criticizing the command decisions Kimmett made.

Basically I am just trying to illustrate how big an blowhard he actually was. ;-)

CJ puts him to shame. I worked on all this while in a work meeting staring at a map of the United States and tracing the flight path of the Chinook and the air response teams visually instead of listening to a power point presentation.

Where was that thread about "you know you spend too much time thinking about WA" again. :rolleyes:

Oh, no, you are correct there were no refueling stations between the two bases, but then again they didn't need them either as helicopters were not the regular mode of transportation between the two bases, the plane was. However, that didn't pan out.

And there's no such thing about "spending too much time thinking" ;)

[kdalton]

Right, but then again, Kimmett wasn't asking "what if" enough. Basically he was a micro-manager given his leadership style and the example of his orders to keep anyone new in lock down until he got back from Pantex. Micro-management leads to macro-screwups.