During the first Democrat debate of the 2016 race, Democrat candidates were asked who their biggest enemy is, and who they were proud to call an enemy during their political career.
Most of the Democrat candidates offered various groups of our fellow countrymen as their “biggest enemy” – Lincoln Chafee went with the coal lobby, Martin O’Malley opted for the Second Amendment-supporting NRA, Sanders ran with Wall Street and the insurance industry, and of course, Hillary Clinton said she was most proud to call Republicans her enemy.
But it was Jim Webb’s response that seemed the most pro-American, pro-military, and pro-patriotism in nature, and is probably a reason he could never survive in the field of anti-American Democrats.
Jim Webb’s biggest enemy? The real-life enemy he encountered in Vietnam. But the way he responded was epic, something the Washington Free Beacon referred to as ‘Beast Mode.’
Via the Business Insider:
The Democratic presidential candidates were asked to name the enemy that they are proudest to have made during Tuesday night’s CNN debate.
Four of the candidates offered typical Democratic bogeymen: the insurance industry, the coal lobby, Wall Street, and the National Rifle Association.
But former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Virginia), a decorated Vietnam War veteran, decided to list a literal enemy.
“I’d have to say the enemy soldier that threw their grenade that wounded me,” Webb said. “But he’s not around right now to talk to.”
This was an apparent reference to the incident that earned Webb the Navy Cross.
That incident is an absolute must read. Webb was in Beast Mode before Beast Mode was cool.
Via the Military Times:
On 10 July 1969, while participating in a company-sized search and destroy operation deep in hostile territory, First Lieutenant Webb’s platoon discovered a well-camouflaged bunker complex which appeared to be unoccupied.
Deploying his men into defensive positions, First Lieutenant Webb was advancing to the first bunker when three enemy soldiers armed with hand grenades jumped out. Reacting instantly, he grabbed the closest man and, brandishing his .45 caliber pistol at the others, apprehended all three of the soldiers.
Accompanied by one of his men, he then approached the second bunker and called for the enemy to surrender. When the hostile soldiers failed to answer him and threw a grenade which detonated dangerously close to him, First Lieutenant Webb detonated a claymore mine in the bunker aperture, accounting for two enemy casualties and disclosing the entrance to a tunnel.
Despite the smoke and debris from the explosion and the possibility of enemy soldiers hiding in the tunnel, he then conducted a thorough search which yielded several items of equipment and numerous documents containing valuable intelligence data.
Continuing the assault, he approached a third bunker and was preparing to fire into it when the enemy threw another grenade. Observing the grenade land dangerously close to his companion, First Lieutenant Webb simultaneously fired his weapon at the enemy, pushed the Marine away from the grenade, and shielded him from the explosion with his own body.
Although sustaining painful fragmentation wounds from the explosion, he managed to throw a grenade into the aperture and completely destroy the remaining bunker.
How badass do you have to be to use a claymore mine, a device used primarily for defensive purposes, to take out someone tossing grenades in your direction?
Jim Webb-level badass.
Comment: What do you think of Jim Webb’s response to his biggest enemy, or the responses given by his Democrat colleagues during the debate?
