A-Stan Firefight Audio

[Deuterium]

Heard this the other night. The whole program is pretty interesting but lasts about an hour. If you want to hear audio of a real ambush it starts at 29:45. Pretty sure this is a SF team. You can hear a 240 and a .50 talking to each other.

http://www.thislife.org/ra/254.ram

[ChuckThunder]

Heard this the other night. The whole program is pretty interesting but lasts about an hour. If you want to hear audio of a real ambush it starts at 29:45. Pretty sure this is a SF team. You can hear a 240 and a .50 talking to each other.

http://www.thislife.org/ra/254.ram

You at first hear either the 240 and/or enemy fire then you hear the pluck, pluck, pluck of the ma duce. Great audio, thanks. :D

[HooyahCQB]

They might be SEALs. Sounded like the leader was screaming for the afghan dude to tell 'chief' to get everyone back in the vehicles.

[Deuterium]

They might be SEALs. Sounded like the leader was screaming for the afghan dude to tell 'chief' to get everyone back in the vehicles.

Nahhh. Chief, as in Warrant Officer. Fortunately (or not depending on your perspective) every team has one.

[HooyahCQB]

good point, but there are WO SEALs too!

[Apogee]

Any idea how they recorded it?

[96B]

Last January, we brought you a special show about a California teenager, Hyder Akbar (pictured), who travelled to Afghanistan, his family's homeland, for the first time. His father had moved back to work for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Hyder brought along a tape recorder, and his audio diary, produced by Susan Burton, won the Silver Award for Best Documentary at the 2003 Third Coast International Audio Festival. This summer, Hyder returned to Afghanistan, to the rural province of Kunar where his father is now governor. In this new audio diary, Hyder has amazing access to all sorts of things few reporters get to see: U.S. forces interrogating a suspected terrorist, soldiers trying to mediate between the new Afghan government and local people, and more.

Sounds like they were riding in HMMWVs. Did anyone else notice that once they sped away from the "ambush" it took all of about 40 seconds for them to get to wherever they dropped off the kid? They also sounded suprisingly natural and calm when they dropped them off like it was some field trip. Must be some real badasses...

[springwheat]

Any idea how they recorded it?One of the Americans was carrying his new iPod ;)

[ShotOver]

How big is the file, and what program do i use to play it?

[earl]

Can't tell how large it is, it streams from the website, but it's 1h long.

I think this link should work, to download the free RealOne player -

http://www.real.com/R/RC.120103r1cp_home_dl.bodymain.img..R/forms.real.com/real/realone/realone.html?dc=121712161215&beta_bypass=true&bbits=true&&src=120303realhome_1_3_2_1_1,120103r1cp_home_dl

[ShotOver]

Thanks man :D

[Salty Dog]

pretty interesting

[NcDeuce]

Good clip

[Trident-za]

Deuterium, thanks man. I found that whole clip very interesting. (it was a bit of a bugger listening on 56k from Africa - I think they still use smoke signals for international bandwidth, but well worth it )

[front]

Downloadable MP3 clip (6.1M) of the ambush here:

http://www.iolfree.ie/~frontacsb/misc/HyderAkbarExcerpt.mp3



http://news.boisestate.edu/newsrelease/122003/1204npr.html

"What happens when an American teenager moves from the Bay Area to the governor’s compound in rural Afghanistan? Hyder Akbar, an 18-year-old Afghan-American, spent the summer of 2003 in Kunar, one of Afghanistan’s most volatile regions. He took a minidisc recorder to document his experiences, recording even as he ducked for cover on the floor of a U.S. Special Forces Humvee during a 20-minute ambush.

Boise State Radio’s NPR News 91 will broadcast Hyder’s extraordinary recordings on the national program, This American Life, hosted and produced by Ira Glass, at 2 p.m. Dec. 14 and 19. These dates coincide with the convention at which Afghans will ratify their new constitution.

Hyder’s powerful work of first-person journalism includes an eyewitness account of a secret U.S. military interrogation of suspected terrorist Abdul Wali, who later died. Wali remains one of only three prisoners to die while being held by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and Hyder became personally involved in the aftermath of his mysterious death.

Last spring, Hyder’s father was appointed governor of Kunar, a rural province with a lingering Al Qaeda presence that borders the tribal regions of Pakistan. Hyder joined his father and his uncle, a one-eyed war-hero, in Kunar in June. Because Hyder speaks fluent Pashto, he became an unofficial teenage embed, traveling with and translating for the U.S. Special Forces while recording their interactions with the Afghan villagers they mean to liberate and protect.

In addition to providing an unusual glimpse of the U.S. military at work, Hyder discovers that the reality of Afghanistan is much different than what has been reported. He witnesses Afghanistan’s newest challenge, something barely noted in the American media: the return to power of Afghan Communists. Hyder interviews survivors of a little-known 1979 massacre during which Afghan Communists gunned down 1,200 people in, it is said, a half-hour. Standing atop the mass grave, a survivor bursts into tears and explains to Hyder how the ground underneath shook with people buried alive, trying to get out.

Before Sept. 11, 2001, Hyder lived the life of a regular American high school kid: he hung out with his buddies, listened to U2, shopped at Banana Republic. But then everything changed. Hyder’s father, a scion of an Afghan political family, sold the family business and left for Afghanistan where he became President Hamid Karzai’s chief spokesman. Hyder joined his father in Kabul for several months during the summer of 2002. Recordings he made in Kabul were turned into an award-winning documentary, Come Back to Afghanistan, which aired on This American Life in February 2003.

Hyder is the first American teenager to spend significant time in Afghanistan as a civilian. He provides a personal and accessible perspective into a country that many Americans still think of as backwards, full of caves and bearded holy warriors. He is also one of few people to have witnessed the reconstruction of Afghanistan (or lack thereof) from both Kabul and the countryside. He sat with President Karzai in his office and with jailed Al Qaeda suspects in one of Afghanistan’s most remote regions. From palaces to prisons, Hyder’s experience of the country is uniquely complete.

Hyder is now back in the States, attending college in California."

[Cpl Stumps]

Any chance "Chief" Refers to the rank Chief Petty Officer or Master Chief in the U.S. Navy?

[JunglistSoldier]

"you give me your ****ing thumbs up!"

[ShotOver]

Awesome, thanks for the MP3 mate :D