What could make a veteran USMC gunnery sergeant get all sentimental? Why, his shoulder-fired Javelin weapon system of course, in the aftermath of the battle for Fallujah. Read his admiring letter to the manufacturer via The Braden Files:
As I activated the BCU, I felt the nervousness set in as I was worried the missile would be unable to fly through the seemingly impenetrable mess downrange. Just as I triggered the launch, an insurgent ran out into view, looked up at me, and then attempted to run back into the position. Situation resolved.Posted by Alan at March 26, 2005 09:14 AMI have to tell you, Sir, that the missile came out, ignited its flight motor, began its ascent and rose to the point where I thought, "There is no way this missile will be able to make that dive." The missile traveled to an altitude higher than my fourth story position, and then dove like a Stuka, beautifully weaving its way though the mess of power lines as if it could see them, and impacted on the EXACT center of the track gate solution. At that moment I was sure that there were some men and women (all of you) whose brilliance, incomprehensible to me, would have to be honored. It took the Marine Corps hours upon hours to make me proficient with the simple old M16 rifle. It took all of about two hours to make me combat effective with the Javelin. I watched my Marines fire the missiles from enclosed positions, from atop HMMWV's, with track gate solutions that would surely cause the BST to notify us to "Seek other employment" and that magnificent missile made one Super bowl touchdown after another.
We are grateful to you for this fine weapon system and for a Marine Corps that would care about us so much that it would go without somewhere else so that we, the infantrymen, could bring this weapon to battle against the enemies of the United States. Imagine the effect on morale when during the worst combat conditions and things don't appear to be going so well, for every Marine to look up to see a Javelin on its merry way toward the hardest enemy position around with full knowledge that they do not have to worry about that anymore. More.