Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize and to submit for the Record a story concerning the events of July 13, 2008, and an account of the heroics of the paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne. Reports such as this one remind every American of the…
Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize and to submit for the Record a story concerning the events of July 13, 2008, and an account of the heroics of the paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne. Reports such as this one remind every American of the bravery, the courage, and the willingness to sacrifice of every servicemember in the U.S. Armed Forces--but this tale is an exceptional example. I am honored to share it with you and with the American people.
I'm sure you heard about 9 soldiers being killed in
Afghanistan a couple of weeks ago. As AP reported it, it was
a ``setback'', the ``newly established base'' there was
`abandoned' by the Americans. That, of course, was the extent
of their coverage.
Steve Mraz of Stars and Stripes and Jeff Emanuel tell the
rest of the story. Emanuel, who went out and dug into the
story sets the enemy force at 500 while AP sets it at 200.
Frankly I'm much more inclined to believe Emanuel than AP.
July 13, 2008 was the date, and Jeff Emanuel, an
independent combat reporter sets the scene:
Three days before the attack, 45 U.S. Paratroopers from the
173d Airborne [Brigade Combat Team], accompanied by 25 Afghan
soldiers, made their way to Kunar province, a remote area in
the northeastern Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, and
established the beginnings of a small Combat Outpost (COP).
Their movement into the area was noticed, and their tiny
numbers and incomplete fortifications were quickly taken
advantage of.
A combined force of up to 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters
quickly moved into the nearby village of Wanat and prepared
for their assault by evicting unallied residents and
according to an anonymous senior Afghan defense ministry
official, ``us [ing] their houses to attack us.''
Tribesmen in the town stayed behind ``and helped the
insurgents during the fight,'' the provincial police chief,
told The Associated Press.
Dug-in mortar firing positions were created, and with that
indirect fire, as well as heavy machine gun and RPG fire from
fixed positions, Taliban and al Qaeda fighters rushed the COP
from three sides.
As Emanuel notes, the odds were set. 500 vs. 70. Even so,
Emanuel entitled his article, ``An Alamo With a Different
Ending.'' The 500 terrorists apparently didn't realize they
were attacking US Army paratroopers.
The unit in question was 2nd Platoon, Company C, 2nd
Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne
Brigade Combat Team, led by 1LT Jonathan Brostrom.
The first RPG and machine gun fire came at dawn,
strategically striking the forward operating base's mortar
pit. The insurgents next sighted their RPGs on the tow truck
inside the combat outpost, taking it out.
That was around 4:30 a.m.
This was not a haphazard attack. The reportedly 500
insurgents fought from several positions. They aimed to
overrun the new base. The U.S. Soldiers knew it and fought
like hell. They knew their lives were on the line.
The next target was the FOB's observation post, where nine
soldiers were positioned on
a tiny hill about 50 to 75 meters from the base. Of those
nine, five died, and at least three others--Spc. Tyler
Stafford among them--were wounded.
When the attack began, Stafford grabbed his M-240 machine
gun off a north-facing sandbag wall and moved it to an east-
facing sandbag wall.
Moments later, RPGs struck the north-facing wall, knocking
Stafford out of the fighting position and wounding another
soldier.
Stafford thought he was on fire so he rolled around,
regaining his senses. Nearby, Cpl. Gunnar Zwilling, who later
died in the fight, had a stunned look on his face.
Immediately, a grenade exploded by Stafford, blowing him
down to a lower terrace at the observation post and knocking
his helmet off. Stafford put his helmet back on and noticed
how badly he was bleeding.
Cpl. Matthew Phillips was close by, so Stafford called to
him for help.
Phillips was preparing to throw a grenade and shot a look
at Stafford that said, ``Give me a second. I gotta go kill
these guys first.''
This was only about 30 to 60 seconds into the attack.
Kneeling behind a sandbag wall, Phillips pulled the grenade
pin, but just after he threw it an RPG exploded at his
position. The tail of the RPG smacked Stafford's helmet. The
dust cleared. Phillips was slumped over, his chest on his
knees and his hands by his side. Stafford called out to his
buddy three or four times, but Phillips never answered or
moved.
``When I saw Phillips die, I looked down and was bleeding
pretty good, that's probably the most scared I was at any
point,'' Stafford said.
``Then I kinda had to calm myself down and be like, `All
right, I gotta go try to do my job.' ''
The soldier from Parker, Colo., loaded his 9 mm handgun,
crawled up to their fighting position, stuck the pistol over
the sandbags and fired.
Stafford saw Zwilling's M-4 rifle nearby so he loaded it,
put it on top of the sandbag and fired. Another couple RPGs
struck the sandbag wall Stafford used as cover. Shrapnel
pierced his hands.
Stafford low-crawled to another fighting position where
Cpl. Jason Bogar, Sgt. Matthew Gobble and Sgt. Ryan Pitts
were located. Stafford told Pitts that the insurgents were
within grenade-tossing range. That got Pitts' attention.
With blood running down his face, Pitts threw a grenade and
then crawled to the position from where Stafford had just
come. Pitts started chucking more grenades.
The firefight intensified. Bullets cut down tree limbs that
fell on the soldiers. RPGs constantly exploded.
Back at Stafford's position, so many bullets were coming in
that the soldiers could not poke their heads over their
sandbag wall. Bogar stuck an M-249 machine gun above the wall
and squeezed off rounds to keep fire on the insurgents. In
about five minutes, Bogar fired about 600 rounds, causing the
M-249 to seize up from heat.
At another spot on the observation post, Cpl. Jonathan
Ayers laid down continuous fire from an M-240 machine gun,
despite drawing small-arms and RPG fire from the enemy. Ayers
kept firing until he was shot and killed.
Cpl. Pruitt Rainey radioed the FOB with a casualty report,
calling for help. Of the nine soldiers at the observation
post, Ayers and Phillips were dead, Zwilling was unaccounted
for, and three were wounded.
Additionally, several of the soldiers' machine guns
couldn't fire because of damage. And they needed more ammo.
Rainey, Bogar and another soldier jumped out of their
fighting position with the third soldier of the group
launching a shoulder-fired missile.
All this happened within the first 20 minutes of the fight.
Platoon leader 1st Lt. Jonathan Brostrom and Cpl. Jason
Hovater arrived at the observation post to reinforce the
soldiers. By that time, the insurgents had breached the
perimeter of the observation post.
Gunfire rang out, and Rainey shouted, ``He's right behind
the sandbag.''
Brostrom could be heard shouting about the insurgent as
well.
More gunfire and grenade explosions ensued. Back in the
fighting position, Gobble fired a few quick rounds. Gobble
then looked to where the soldiers were fighting and told
Stafford the soldiers were dead.
Of the nine soldiers who died in the battle, at least seven
fell in fighting at the observation post.
The insurgents then started chucking rocks at Gobble and
Stafford's fighting position, hoping that the soldiers might
think the rocks were grenades, causing them to jump from the
safety of their fighting hole.
One rock hit a tree behind Stafford and landed directly
between his legs.
He braced himself for an explosion. He then realized it was
a rock.
Stafford didn't have a weapon, and Gobble was low on ammo.
Gobble told Stafford they had to get back to the FOB. They
didn't realize that Pitts was still alive in another fighting
position at the observation post. Gobble and Stafford crawled
out of their fighting hole.
Gobble looked again to where the soldiers had been fighting
and reconfirmed to Stafford that Brostrom, Rainey, Bogar and
others were dead.
Gobble and Stafford low-crawled and ran back to the FOB.
Coming into the FOB, Stafford was asked by a sergeant what
was going on at the observation post. Stafford told him all
the soldiers there were dead.
Stafford lay against a wall, and his fellow soldiers put a
tourniquet on him.
From the OP, Pitts got on the radio and told his comrades
he was alone.
Volunteers were asked for to go to the OP.
SSG Jesse Queck sums up the reaction to the call: ``When
you ask for volunteers to run across an open field to a
reinforced OP that almost everybody is injured at, and
everybody volunteers, it feels good.
There were a lot of guys that made me proud, putting
themselves and their lives on the line so their buddies could
have a chance.''
At least three soldiers went to the OP to rescue Pitts, but
they suffered wounds after encountering RPG and small-arms
fire, but Pitts survived the battle.
At that time, air support arrived in the form of Apache
helicopters, A-10s and F-16s, performing bombing and strafing
runs.
The whole FOB was covered in dust and smoke, looking like
something out of an old Western movie.
``I've never seen the enemy do anything like that,'' said
Sgt. Jacob Walker, who was medically evacuated off the FOB in
one of the first helicopters to arrive. ``It's usually three
RPGs, some sporadic fire and then they're gone . . . I don't
where they got all those RPGs. That was crazy.''
Two hours after the first shots were fired, Stafford made
his way--with help--to the medevac helicopter that arrived.
``It was some of the bravest stuff I've ever seen in my
life, and I will never see it again because those guys,''
Stafford said, then paused.
``Normal humans wouldn't do that. You're not supposed to do
that--getting up and firing back when everything around you
is popping and whizzing and trees, branches coming down and
sandbags exploding and RPGs coming in over your head . . . It
was a fistfight then, and those guys held 'em off.''
Stafford offered a guess as to why his fellow soldiers
fought so hard.
``Just hardcoreness I guess,'' he said. ``Just guys kicking
ass, basically.
``Just making sure that we look scary enough that you don't
want to come in and try to get us.''
Jeff Emanuel summed the fight up very well:
``Perhaps the most important takeaway from that encounter,
though, is the one that the mainstream media couldn't be
bothered to pay attention long enough to learn: that, not for
the first time, a contingent of American soldiers that was
outnumbered by up to a twenty-to-one ratio soundly and
completely repulsed a complex, pre-planned assault by those
dedicated enough to their cause to kill themselves in its
pursuit.
That kind of heroism and against-all-odds success is and
has been a hallmark of America's fighting men and women, and
it is one that is worthy of all attention we can possibly
give it.''
Of the original 45 paratroopers, 15 were wounded and The
Sky Soldiers lost 9 killed in action in the attack. They
were:
1LT Jonathan Brostrom of Aiea, Hawaii SGT Israel Garcia of
Long Beach, California SPC Matthew Phillips of Jasper,
Georgia SPC Pruitt Rainey of Haw River, North Carolina SPC
Jonathan Ayers of Snellville, Georgia SPC Jason Bogar of
Seattle, Washington SPC Sergio Abad of Morganfield, Kentucky
SPC Jason Hovater of Clinton, Tennessee SPC Gunnar Zwilling
of Florissant, Missouri.
Of the 9 that were lost, Sgt Walker says:
``I just hope these guys' wives and their children
understand how courageous their husbands and dads were. They
fought like warriors.''
They fought like warriors.
Last week, there were 9 funerals in the United States. 9
warriors were laid to rest. 9 warriors who had given their
all for their country.
All proud members of a brotherhood that will carry on in
their name. They fought and died in what most would consider
impossible circumstances, and yet they succeeded. A nameless
fight in a distant war which, until you understand the facts,
could be spun as a defeat. It wasn't. And it is because of
the pride, courage and fighting spirit of this small unit
that it was, in fact, a victory against overwhelming odds.
And there's little doubt, given that pride and given that
fighting spirit, that they'll be back to reestablish the
base, this time with quite a few more soldiers just like the
ones who ``kicked ass'' the last time there.