Ex-US Army Vet Quits Ukraine After 2 Weeks
“I do feel embarrassed to be leaving so soon after arriving"
Source: Task & Purpose
After spending 13 hours hiking into enemy territory and back to retrieve the body of a Georgian soldier who had been killed near Irpin, Ukraine, U.S. Army veteran Hieu Le knew that his war was over.
Not long after recovering the fallen soldier, Le resigned from Ukraine’s legion of international volunteers. “My team was very supportive since they saw how deeply affected I was by recovering his body,” he told Task & Purpose. “Physically I feel fine, but I also feel like I have these invisible wounds on my soul.”
Le served as an M1 armor crewman from 2010 to 2017, during which he deployed to Afghanistan in 2012. In a previous story about surviving a Russian cruise missile attack on his training base, he asked to be identified by his first name only, but on Monday Le gave Task & Purpose permission to use his full name.
On Monday evening, Le was enroute to western Ukraine along with wounded comrades and other international volunteers who had resigned. He was leaving a war that he had just joined nearly two weeks ago.
“I do feel embarrassed to be leaving so soon after arriving, but have you ever seen anything so horrible and heartbreaking that you can’t continue? It was like that for me,” he said.
His departure coincides with upheaval within the international legion, which was intended to allow foreigners to fight the Russians. But Task & Purpose correspondent Andrew Milburn has revealed that Ukraine abruptly discharged the first volunteers who signed up for the unit after their mediocre performance in battle.
Now the Ukrainians are rethinking how they recruit foreigners by focusing on highly trained combat veterans, such as snipers, a Ukrainian general officer told Task & Purpose on condition of anonymity.
It’s clear the vetting process for the international legion leaves much to be desired. Le said he was billeted with volunteers who made dubious claims about being former special operators, yet they lacked any semblance of discipline or professionalism.
“They live the day high on amphetamines, testosterone, steroids, and who knows what other drugs they’ve smuggled into the war zone,” Le posted on Facebook. “They essentially do whatever they want and the Ukrainian military officers either allow it or are powerless to stop it.”
Le originally came to the war zone because he was unsure if he could live with himself if he didn’t help the Ukrainians. What he found was the mission to recover his fallen comrade’s body was the toughest military experience he had ever faced. “Today’s mission was the one that broke me,” he wrote on Facebook afterward.
He and the other volunteers loaded up anti-tank mines and anti-armor missiles for the 8-kilometer hike to the Georgian soldier’s last fighting position, he wrote on Facebook. On the way, they encountered what appeared to be Russian soldiers. They didn’t want to fight and yelled “Glory to Ukraine,” so the two sides passed each other without incident.
They found the soldier and Le wrote the man’s name, passport number, and date of death on a piece of cardboard that he put with the body. Then they had to drag the body back to friendly lines, which included carrying him past Ukrainian forces along improvised plank bridges.
“That was actually the hardest part: watching the look on everyone’s faces as the body of our fallen making its way through the friendly forces,” Le wrote on Facebook. “Then they looked me in the eye, his blood staining my uniform, while I helped to carry him this last part. Nothing was said between us, but the sentiment was profound and unexplainable. As we made it up the hill to the top of the bridge, the ambulance met us and we put him into a body bag and saluted the ambulance as it drove off.”
When the mission was over, Le couldn’t stop weeping for 10 minutes as he fought to regain his composure, he said. His mission to help the Ukrainians was now over too.
“In the time I’ve been in Ukraine, I survived cruise missile strikes, constant shelling from artillery, moving through hostile territory, cold down to my bones, sickness, hunger, and the anguish of recovering our war dead,” Le wrote on Facebook. “I am tired in my bones. I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to stay in Ukraine, but I feel that I’ve done my part and am satisfied that it’s more than most.”
Summarised : after been in Afghanistan I felt invincible and thought US soldiers are the toughest bad-asses around.
Entering this war I suddenly realised what it is fighting against a professional well-trained ruthless army instead of some poorly trained cave dwellers….
thars where I realised it ain’t a movie and I am a coward for killing innocent brown people but then shitting my pants and go back home once I am dragged into a real war.
LMFAO 🤣 yankees go home
In the other article he has a mongol hat on. The fool is larping Genghis Khan.
I think that there is an insider at the New York Times which is why they are validating the Hunter Biden laptop as being authentic.
Why else would they do this? They don’t care about honesty, and they want to do whatever they can to protect their messiah Joe Biden.
But it seems that the evidence on the laptop is just too damning and I think that they know that the government is coming for Hunter.
In fact, the attorney for Hunter’s baby mama said that he fully expects him to be indicted. It makes sense that he would honestly, especially after his buddy Devon Archer was sentenced to prison time.
reported,
Clint Lancaster, the attorney for the mother, Lunden Alexis Roberts, also told CNBC that he previously handed over “a significant amount of Hunter’s financial records” to federal investigators to comply with a subpoena for those files.
Lancaster said he and Roberts were interviewed by an assistant U.S. attorney, an FBI agent and an IRS agent — “one that carries a badge and gun” — more than a year ago about Biden in Little Rock, Ark., where Lancaster practices law.
“I expect him to be indicted,” the lawyer said about Biden. “Just based on what I saw in his financial records, I would be surprised if he’s not indicted.”
Despite that expectation, Lancaster said that both he and his client Roberts “don’t want Hunter to go to jail.”
“It’s not my goal, much to the unhappiness of many people in the Republican Party,” said Lancaster, a supporter of former President Donald Trump who in late 2020 worked on a legal challenge to results that showed Biden had won the state of Wisconsin that year.
Now, I think that Hunter will ultimately get let off the hook just like Hillary did, but the Biden name will finally be tarnished.
Its far bigger than this. Look to the usual suspects and who actually runs America. ALL occurs for their benefit.
Not tactful but very true….
Too bad he didnt stay a bit longer. Nice sack of fertilizer for the soil, he is
He finally is awake to the fact that we, the USA, commit war crimes on a daily basis.
All war is criminal by your faggot emotions. Men kill. It’s what a man does. Kill and reproduce. Women and homosexuals like you complain about the reality they cannot face. You should go die somewhere with a toy in your posterior and a tab of fentanyl to chew one
Summary this guy is a murderer / executioner and a coward and quit because its no fun for him when the victims can shoot back
No,,, I don’t have any sympathy for this idiot. Most of the recent ‘wars’ America ‘fought’ have been Shock and Awe where the Air Farce blows “everything” away. Maximum civilian death, maximum damage to infrastructure. (These are both defined as war crimes),,, Then they waltz in and mop up any unlucky survivors. Fallujah anyone?
The US military is a high tech military… remove the tech and you have a bunch of barely trained, uneducated, highly propagandized individuals that think they’re all Rambo’s. A woke group of morons that think a 5’4″ 120 pound female can take on a 6’2″ 210 pound male. Need proof? Check out who is winning all the trophy’s where a Transvestite male that ‘identifies’ as a female is competing. Talk about stupid, but that is the West today. If a female can do one pull up and five pushups she is ready to take on Ivan! She will end up on her back but they’ll blame Ivan,,, not the crazies that put her there.
Between guys like the one presented here and the clot shots that are taking out many troops, (83 at Ft Bragg alone over a year,,, more to come!) the US is out of the game. All it has is an Air Force with F35 junk and a Navy that can’t seem to stop running into things.
What then makes it dangerous? They have nukes,,, and Neo Cons.
All prophesied in the Bible. America is “Babylon the great” and the “hammer of the whole earth” is going down.
The “lady of kingdoms” turned on the Lord and judgment is coming fast and furiously.
Better to get under the wings of the Lord. Christians, be sure you are saved and not just think you are: https://bit.ly/32pnt83
As disturbing as that work is it is not uncommon for soldiers in Battle. I would say this man should not be in the military.
Why would he go on FaceBook with his story ?
Yet, someone is holding up progress in Harkov and Mariupol.
This the American Army in a nutshell. Half these bozos can’t even pass a PT test while on active duty, they have no marksmanship skills, know no field-craft, and think roughing it is going without Starbucks and Burger King for a couple of days. So he sees one dead body and is now scarred for life?
I’M RUTIN FOR PUTIN
i guess killing folks in Afghanistan was a lot more like Hollywood fun
No Army M1s were ever deployed to Afghanistan, very few were sent and all of them belonged to the 1st Marine Division. So, this meatball with a million hours of Call of Duty gameplay is full of shit. How does it feel engaging a real army for a change? Be grateful you were not blown to a million pieces, you loader…
LOL and this is still not a war
Just a Russian Peace Keeping Operation.
Imagine what a Russian war would look like
OMG I need my safe place and blanky
This is not a combat infantry soldier. Fat boy should have stayed home and served lattes. The only joy on the battlefield is the rape and pillage apres battaille. Any other kind of feelings are foreign to a true fighter.
In a few words – WTF?
To reinforce the sentiments of other posters here, what exactly was this clown expecting to encounter in a war zone?
No sympathy is forthcoming, because none is deserved.
This guy is a certifiable moron. A candidate for the Darwin Award.
It’s a great pity this fat ugly ignorant imbecile survived… unlike the villagers he undoubtedly murdered when deployed in Afghanistan..
don’t forget these useless characters are reflective of Uncle schmuels military menagerie..
what a fucking clown show…