"They make us look like idiots. We're not idiots!" a first lieutenant exclaimed after seeing the TV depiction of soldiers' reactions to an I.E.D.
"Bogus" was the preferred adjective among the eight soldiers.
"Thank God that's over," said a master sergeant as the credits rolled.
"In real life, training takes over. Not in Hollywood," said Sgt. Dan Purcell.
The flags on the trip wires got an "F": roadside bombs in Iraq are typically hidden in watermelons, hay stacks, animal carcasses -- not marked for easy viewing. "A flag to mark an i.e.d.? What is that -- like 'don't land here'?"
"You do not, under any circumstances, pull off on the side of the road. You stop in the middle."
One [soldier screening the show] said a young soldier [on the show] who brags about slitting the throat of a child sentry "makes us look like murderers."
Master Sgt. Jeff Clayton complained that cameras deliberately dragged out the death scenes of Iraqi insurgents after a firefight, lingering unnecessarily on the carnage. "It made me sick."
The Camp Murray soldiers dismissed the military firefights as "bull---- " ("Where is the air support? Where is the armor support?")
And where, soldiers asked, were the scenes of soldiers building schools, Iraqi kids waving American flags?
