Man, how in the hell did I miss this??? I musta been on a week long drinking binge or something. err, wait. I'm always on a drinking binge. :P

WoW! I hate that ET left that way but I have to agree that if you poke the snake it's gonna bite ya. There are way too many red blooded American patriots here for anyone to have a chance at winning an argument concerning the US Military or it's actions.

i was there
 

alright, first off, i was in Iraq during opperation Iraqi freedom. i am a 14E{PATRIOT enhanced opperator/ maintainer} stationed in Ft. Bliss TX with the 108th ADA BDE. So I beleive I have a little bit more knowlege about this subject than most. And what I beleive is that PATRIOT did it's job and more. Of course there were some screw ups {they were all over the t.v.} but, what you didnt hear about were the succeses. While in Iraq and Kuwait, PATRIOT units were forced to do things that it was not made to do.For instance, the first night of the war we{B- BTRY} were told to move forward in an ammount of time we have never move before.We were succesful at moving or ''jumping'' as we call it in a record shattering time. Then of course was the sand. if you have never experienced sand like this, it is the consistancy of baby powder. the mixture of sand and wind caused our equipment to malfunction more than we would like to addmit. there were other problems that i just cant talkabout but, PATRIOT performed better than our commanders could have ever asked and more than you will ever know. in the long run, if we save one base from one SCUD, I feel it is worth it. Just ask a marine with the 1st MEF if they were glad to have us

Good to hear something from someone that was there. Ya'll did and are doing a good job. We're proud to have ya'll on our side.

Patriot Batteries
 

to eviltechie:
I'm a DEP (Delayed Entry Personel) recruit for the US Army, and my job is Patriot Missile Enhanced Operator/Maintainer. In short, I make the missiles work and ready to fire. The Patriot missle is a continuous rod warhead, with proximity fuses. It does not require a hit with the enemy weapon in order to destroy it. As for the A&E special, I will admit I haven't seen it, but since you think the government lies about weapons (as well they should), how much do you think the media really knows about them? For example, in order to even begin your training on the missile system, you must qualify for a Secret security clearance. If you want an instance in which the Patriot did it's job, and very well, I might add, look to the downing of the British Tornado fighter during the (most recent) war in Iraq. Granted, that was an allied plane, but it's IFF transmitter had failed, disallowing it to braodcast as an ally. The Patriot saw an 'enemy' contact and launched accordingly, so it did it's job. Don't get me wrong, I feel bad for the pilot(s) and the families, but that's my example. (Any one feel free to correct any mistakes I made)