Thursday, March 17, 2022

Hình ảnh từ chiến trường Ukraine nơi mà một người Mỹ gốc Việt bỏ lại sau lưng mẹ hiền và sự nghiệp để đi chiến đấu cho một đất nước mà Hiếu Lê chưa bao giờ đặt chân đến

“ Căn cứ mà tôi đang ở đã bị tấn công bởi 30 tên lửa và tôi đã may mắn lấy được áo giáp và vũ khí của mình trước khi tên lửa phá hủy , phần này của căn cứ chỉ dành cho các học viên nên chỉ một số người có vũ khí và chịu trách nhiệm về sự an toàn của những người khác.
Sau những trận tấn công khốc liệt của Nga thì rất nhiều tình nguyện viên nước ngoài quyết định không muốn chiến đấu nữa và bỏ cuộc. Trong số 23 người lính đặc biệt trong lều của tôi, chỉ còn lại 7 người. Tôi quyết định rằng tôi sẽ ở lại và tiếp tục chiến đấu.
Sau khi đám cháy được dập tắt, chúng tôi lo ngại về việc lính dù Nga sẽ thả xuống, vì vậy chúng tôi đã chiếm các vị trí phòng thủ và hy vọng chúng tôi có thể rút ra khỏi đó theo lệnh của cấp trên. Không có cuộc sơ tán nào đến, tất cả chúng tôi quyết định ngủ trong rừng để không bị tên lửa và các cuộc không kích nhắm mục tiêu.
Tôi đào một cái hố để ngủ và che nó bằng tấm lót poncho và lá chết để tản nhiệt khiến máy bay không thể nhìn thấy tôi. Sau khi nhận được tin rằng sẽ không có lính dù Nga, tôi đã có thể thư giãn và nghỉ ngơi một chút.
Qua cuộc trao đổi vội vàng Hiếu Lê cho biết Sinh ra và lớn lên tại Oakland , California trong một gia đình Việt Nam tị nạn Cộng sản sau khi Sài gòn thất thủ năm 1975. Năm nay Hiếu 30 tuổi ,mẹ và ba Hiếu đã chia tay nhưng ngay từ những ngày còn nhỏ Hiếu luôn mơ ước được là một người lính trong quân đội Hoa Kỳ .
Khi ra trường trung học Hiếu đã thực hiện mơ ước của mình phục vụ trong Lục quân từ năm 2010 tới năm 2017. H từng được điều sang Afghanistan chiến đấu. Sau khi xuất ngũ, Hiếu quay trở lại Afghanistan với tư cách nhà thầu quân sự chuyên về lĩnh vực tình báo tác chiến. Năm 2020, Hiếu sang Colombia- một quốc gia Nam Mỹ, mở một nhà hàng Việt có tên District 1 tại thành phố Medellín.
Destiny hỏi Hiếu “ Mẹ em nói gì khi em từ giả gia đình sang Ukraine ? “ Hiếu ngưng type một hồi rồi nói “ Mẹ rất buồn vì không thay đổi được quyết định của H và gọi H là “ mean Hero “
Destiny hỏi thêm tình hình bên đó giờ thế nào . Xin để nguyên câu trả lời :
“The conditions are unlike anything I've ever experienced before. There's very little support compared to what we're used to with the US. Also a lack of discipline within the Foreign Legion
The Ukrainians impressed me though. What they managed to put together in the time they had is incredible”
Ngưỡng mộ tinh thần chiến đấu , xem nhẹ cái chết nơi sa trường nên D có hỏi H là chị muốn gởi chút quà H có nhận không ? Hiếu vui vẻ cho email và Destiny cũng đã xin phép em ấy cho D để email lên đây vì chắc sẽ có nhiều người cũng muốn chia sẻ tinh thần ủng hộ Hiếu đây là email của Hiếu Hieuhuule@gmail.com
Trước khi nói lời tạm biệt Hiếu nói “ nếu sợ chết thì em đã không đến đây ….”
Destiny Nguyen
( ghi vội sau cuộc trò chuyện với Hiếu Lê cách đây 1h 3/17/2022 )
Mời xem một bài báo Mỹ đã nói về Hiếu :
Nguồn FB Destiny Nguyen.

















 
Finally reached the border crossing I had to take from Poland into Ukraine. After getting picked up at an undisclosed location and changing vehicles once, I arrived at another yet undisclosed location in the dead of night to rest and begin training for a couple days. After training, we will deploy according to our group and specialties to the frontline. I got placed with a team of Portuguese Special Forces, so I will be doing my best to keep up with them. It's likely we will be working together as a team towards the front.
Its good that I ended up in the same tent as these guys because I was previously surrounded by a couple guys who look like professional soldiers (Portuguese SOF), a lot of guys who look like drunks, and probably a fair number who have no business being here at all.
I'm going to turn off location services and turn on airplane mode and keep my phone in airplane mode most of the time. I'll only turn in data when it's safe to do so. So you guys will probably go a long time before hearing from me in some cases as the Russians can see detect cell signals and send artillery that way. Only time it's safe to use is when I'm Ina dense population center where you can't tell if the signal is refuge, local, or military.
I was lucky enough to get interviewed by Danish National Television while I was in Poland, so maybe I'll be able to share that with you guys when I see it.
Thanks for all the love and support, I really appreciate it.
Also here's the TV segment. My part is at 14 min 44 sec













 
Collected what equipment I could get my hands on and kissed my family in California goodbye. It was sad to see my mom cry because I love them but my resolve is as hard as steel. I'm going to Ukraine to help the people there and hopefully it won't be long until there's peace in Europe again.
The next couple flights will be taking me out of the US and onwards to Europe. I did the travel as cheap as I could, so it'll take me a long time to arrive in Poland where a friend will drive me to the border crossing I need to link up with my Ukranian military contact on Thursday. The long layovers are a small blessing because every stop in Europe has me meeting my old colleagues from Afghanistan who will meet me for a meal and give me a place to sleep for the night. Not to mention help me fill what's missing from my supplies.
With any luck, maybe the war will be over before I even arrive.
If you'd like to help me out with my expenses and travel, you can donate to my PayPal at stevenhuule@gmail.com or Venmo @Hieu-Le-1 last four 1158
 




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.
‘They own the long clock’ — How the Russian military is starting to adapt in Ukraine

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.

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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.

An Army vet’s realization in Ukraine: ‘So horrible or heartbreaking that you can’t continue’
Hieu Le arrived in Ukraine in March as an international volunteer. He decided to leave after a long mission into enemy territory to recover the body of a Georgian soldier. (Facebook photo.)

“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.”

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Jeff Schogol
Jeff Schogol

Jeff Schogol is the senior Pentagon reporter for Task & Purpose. He has covered the military for 15 years. You can email him at schogol@taskandpurpose.com, direct message @JeffSchogol on Twitter, or reach him on WhatsApp and Signal at 703-909-6488. Contact the author here.

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