My Fighting Season (2016) s01e01 Episode Script
Hunting Ghosts
1 [Explosion.]
Fucking Christ! [Gunshots.]
We got people running over there.
Hey, hey, those are friendlies.
Roger.
[Gunshots.]
Oh! Fuck! Shit.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa! - Get inside the building! Get inside! Those fuckers are firing mortars.
There is a war going on.
There is real fighting going on, every fucking day.
Everyone, 12:00 is a person.
[Gunshots.]
People are dying, defending your way of life.
That's why we're going over there and doing it.
We're doing it because we love our country, we love our families, and not everybody in this world is willing to protect that.
[Gunshots.]
Fuck you! Aah! We've got to go! They're fucking right on us! [Gunshots.]
You know, if somebody's going to lead the young paratroopers, um, in Iraq and Afghanistan, I wanna be the one that does it.
These young men are going to change.
And I wanted to make sure that I did my due diligence to make sure they knew or would get it right.
You know, give them that purpose, direction, motivation.
I believe in the construct of the military and what we are.
- Are you good? - Yeah! We are the 82nd Airborne Division in America's Guard of Honor.
And I just, I like being a part of that.
Hey, what took you so long? One of the major things that we were trying to do was show the civilians that it was okay to stand up.
Can we take a look? Behind your back.
Turn around.
If you let the Taliban seem strong, even though the Afghan people don't want to side with them, they will, and it's through fear.
So the Taliban did that to you, buddy.
[Speaking indistinctly.]
Definitely, man, and If you help us, we help you, too.
The Taliban, me personally, I fucking hate 'em.
We were there to bring the fight to the enemy and make them regret ever firing one shot in anger towards us.
And we did that every single day, multiple times a day.
[Gunshots.]
I got my finger on the trigger But I don't know who to trust When I look into your eyes There's just devils and dust [Gunshots.]
Man: I'm hit! We're a long, long way from home, Bobbie Home's a long, long way from us I feel a dirty wind blowing [Men shouting indistinctly.]
Devils and dust I got God on my side And I'm just trying to survive What if what you do to survive Kills the things you love Fear's a powerful thing, baby It can turn your heart black, you can trust It'll take your God-filled soul And fill it with devils and dust Sutton: We were moving into the Muqur District in southern Ghazni province, Afghanistan.
The major hub of local activity, markets, you know, exchange.
The area north of Muqur was collectively known as The Playground, and the initial intelligence reports that we got going in the country was that the, uh, the Taliban were very well seated in the area.
Hi, six, six.
We got it right here.
We determined that that was a training area for them.
Over here.
All right, watch 'em.
They were bringing in some heavy hitters into this area to get some training, probably to move up into the big cities to disrupt some bigger operations.
So we tried to make sure that didn't happen.
[Explosion.]
We started getting additional intelligence reports that we weren't necessarily fighting Afghanistan Taliban, but we were fighting a lot of foreign fighters.
These guys were not local.
They meant business, and they -- they aimed to keep control of the area.
My platoon initially got thrown together, and so they took a lot of fresh Joes just out of jump school and a lot of NCOs from particular units.
You know, everyone had to pitch in, and we don't really get to test any of it or figure out if anything worked well together.
We didn't get to go to ranges or anything like that, you know? They said, "Do it live.
" [Explosion.]
Man: Whoa! - We're still alive right now.
- [Chuckles.]
We don't know if we're going to be when we get back, but here we go.
They're given us a platoon full of brand-new guys.
And, like, there's only, like, three of us that have any combat experience.
So I didn't want to go.
I did not want to go to that unit to begin with.
Like, I tried everything in the world to get out of going to that unit.
Like, even vol-- when they would like -- Sergeant Major was like, "Who doesn't want to be here?" I was like Right here, I don't want to go.
I was approached with three other of my platoon mates by our then current First Sergeant, and he told us what it was about and what we'd be doing.
And of course, you know, us being privates, we said, "Hell, yeah, that sounds like a fun time.
" I remember when I first got the platoon, I got this collective group of young men.
And, you know, I'm introducing myself.
I remember saying to 'em, "you know, it's not a matter of 'if, ' gentlemen.
"It's a matter of when it happens, what are you gonna do? "What is the effort that you're gonna put in this process "to ensure the survivability of your teammates and just, you know, get into the cause of the platoon?" We're not out here to fuck around.
Men: Go! 3 June, 2012, we had route clearance had already gone out.
And when route clearance went through the area down Highway 1 looking for those IEDs, clearing the IEDs, we knew that within a 30-minute window to about three hours of the last vehicle passing, the Taliban would come right behind them and re-seed IEDs.
We had left the route clearance go through an area and then we would set off on our own mission of moving in to the Playground.
- Let's go! and disrupt that Taliban operation.
Sergeant Sutton was in control of half the platoon.
I was in control of another half the platoon.
We knew this is where we always needed to go to have any kind of action or effort against the enemy.
And so all of our movements in The Playground were movements to contact.
You guys ready? Anyone shows hostile intent, you fucking kill them.
- Fuck, yeah.
All right, let's go.
We're bound in as a team, okay? Bound on me.
We would mostly do bounding movements.
You know, one team would go forward, the other team would move ahead of them.
Ready? Let's go.
[Clattering sound.]
There was no cover.
There was no concealment.
The enemy was watching you walk up into their, you know, basically their backyard from a thousand meters out.
It was as hard and as fast as you could to the next point of maneuver.
Spread out, spread out.
- Yeah.
- Look for PID.
The Taliban were really elusive.
I think a lot of -- a lot of people use the term as "Ghosts" because they truly were.
This one, I've got no PID yet.
Westfall, Abbott, down 50 meters.
Eyes open.
We learned very quickly that we just had to get aggressive.
You know, kinda the old adage back in school.
You hear the stories, you know, the bully on the playground.
And sometimes you just got to get out there and walk right up to that guy and hit him right in the face, and that's exactly what we did.
Go! [Panting.]
Watch out for the civilians! It's always frustrating fighting an enemy that hides.
The Taliban looked like everyone else.
You want them to shoot at you when you're just trying to scare them up.
I got eyes on the blue door! You know you're walking into a shit storm.
Imagine how you would feel if you're riding around in your car and you know you're about to wreck.
You know it's coming.
It's gonna happen.
There's nothing you can do to avoid it.
So you might as well speed down the horizon.
[Wind blowing.]
[Gunshots, man shouting indistinctly.]
Shit! [Gunshots.]
- [Panting.]
- Keep running! [Gunshots.]
Aah! Where are they? [Man shouts indistinctly.]
Ah, shit! [Gunshots continue.]
Go and block! [Gunshots continue.]
- Aah! - [Man shouts indistinctly.]
They're fucking right on us! [Gunshots continue.]
Shit! [Panting.]
Move! [Gunshots continue, man shouting indistinctly.]
Come on, let's go! [Gunshots continue.]
You have 300 million different things going through your mind at one time when you get shot.
Where did it come from? Who was it? What part of the village? Are there civilians there? You got a whole lot of shit going on in your head, and then at the same time everything dis-fuck-appears.
Like, it becomes muscle memory.
That's why we train the way we train, so when the shit does hit the fan, our bodies just take over and do what we've been trained to do.
[Panting.]
Hey, they're moving! [Gunfire in distance.]
They were firing from rooftops and from a concealed position and definitely in a very small tree line like the leading edge of Khamat Kheyl.
We were able to gain PID and started returning fire on those known positions.
[Gunshots, men shouting indistinctly.]
- He's on the roof? - Yes! All right, motherfuckers.
Get [Shouts indistinctly.]
[Gunshots continue.]
Hey who's over there? Finally getting to our end state where we had some type of cover from the enemy fire, and I looked back, and you know, I see this inert form right in the middle of the engagement area.
[Gunshots continue.]
Hey, Marty's still out there! - Move your fucking ass! - Get over here! Get up! And it was Marty out there, RFO, our forward observer, laying out there in the dirt.
- Come on, Marty! - Come on, Marty! [Gunshots continue, man yells indistinctly.]
Hey, cover him! [Gunshots continue.]
- Come on! - Marty, let's go! - [Man shouts indistinctly.]
- Come on, Marty! - Come on! - Come on, Marty! [Grunting.]
- Come on, Marty! Let's go! - Come here, Marty! [Men shouting indistinctly.]
No, he's not! He's good! [Grunting.]
[Gunshots continue.]
[Radio chatter, man shouts indistinctly.]
The base elevation was over 8,000 feet.
You're carrying 80 pounds of equipment.
Now your guys are really starting to kind of hurt.
[Gunshots continue.]
- [Panting.]
- You good? Uh, in terms of, you know, catching their breath, being winded, you can be the fastest runner on the planet.
You know, you're moving with 80 pounds of gear over a kilometer and you're gonna get winded.
He just needs a couple of minutes.
He's good.
Marty, I swear to God, you lay down in a machine gun engagement area again - I looked over right there - [Man speaks indistinctly.]
Hey, trust me, we looked over, and we were getting fucking pinned the fuck down.
Holy dog shit.
That was close as fuck.
I had the fucking shit hit me in the face.
[Radio chatter.]
I looked back The Taliban I mean, it's my job to close with and destroy that motherfucker.
Hey, wait, wait, wait.
We're maneuvering towards the enemy.
We're moving towards the enemy.
As we were bounding up to the village, we saw that we could very easily cut off the enemy's route with vehicle support.
Roger, I need two vehicles.
If you approach from the north side of the village you follow that route south.
Break.
We had known that the Taliban likes to hit us and try to draw us into the fight.
And they try to egress or break off of the village of Khamat Kheyl.
- Where are they? - [Man shouts indistinctly.]
So we immediately call up to Sergeant Matejek telling him to take two vehicles and start flanking the enemy's position while we kept them more or less distracted or focusing their fires on us.
Ha ha ha, this is the fun time.
10 vehicle one in the small D.
In vehicle one.
We knew it was coming, and like clockwork, my gunner was like, "let's go.
" So me and Max took off, and I was in the lead vehicle and between 500 meters and about 1,000, we actually gained PID on three motorcycles with two individuals on each bike.
Possibly ID'ed them, a couple of them got RPGs, couple more had AK-47s.
And my gunner was kind of -- he asked, "What do I do?" and I said, "Shoot 'em.
Go.
They just shot at us.
Go.
Don't miss.
" [Laughs.]
You know? [Gunshots.]
You hear on the radio traffic that Braden Matejek is there scooping around the backside of Khamat Kheyl.
They get PID on the enemy breaking off the objective with weapons, and they start to engage the enemy.
Alpha! Let's go! Spread it out.
Keep in your own lane.
[Grunting.]
Hey, if you got eyes on it, fucking engage! They got eyes on us! [Shouting indistinctly.]
Watch my left.
Motorcycles are about a klick to the south.
All right, keep moving.
Keep going.
Come on, Braden! Go! On this building.
[Gunshots.]
[Explosion.]
[Exhales.]
What the fuck was that? It was big.
These are meters.
One down for seven! Hey [Shouts indistinctly.]
One down, so that's seven down, so it's Cold Steel 7.
Come in.
It's possible one got hit by an IED.
- Are you serious? - Yeah.
Big boom.
No come, and they said it's possible.
AWC over.
1 Delta.
7 Delta.
[Shouts indistinctly.]
I can't get him fixed! It's truck one and seven.
We tried raising them both already.
No answer.
[Speaks indistinctly.]
Get ahold of 7 Delta or 1 Delta.
[Panting.]
I was like what am I going to do now? Like, I mean, we're all goddamn 2 kilometers from the trucks right now.
They just hit at an IED.
I can't get caught with them on the radio.
I didn't know if somebody's knocked out or if somebody's dead.
I mean, my next thing is, like, well, all right, pick the fuck up.
We're going over there.
We want to make sure my boys are all right.
Roy, all right.
I want you on the right side, Roy.
Peterson, I want you guys on this corner right here before that vehicle, all right? We developed a plan that my team would flank around and do bounding movements to where we would possibly cut off any enemy while they're egressing out of the area.
And Sergeant Sutton's element would push through directly to them.
[Speaks indistinctly.]
on the left.
Spread out.
- This way! - Got it! [Grunts.]
We finally got communications with Braden Matejek at the down vehicle and he said, "Yep.
I'm a mobility kill.
"We're good.
We're green, green.
" So all of our efforts at that point was now directed towards getting to Matejek's down vehicle, establishing security and then recovering the vehicle.
- See anything? - Yeah.
I got it.
Was it right there? Yeah, someone keeps sticking their head back and forth right here in this alley.
- All right.
I saw this guy in all white.
Keeps standing out.
Okay.
I asked that man to go back home.
Okay.
We need to keep moving! Unless we see weapons, we've got to get to their position.
We saw perceivably enemies coming out of the area on motorcycles, but they weren't armed, to our knowledge.
They were too far away for us to stop.
You can't just shoot a guy because they're on a motorcycle where they shouldn't be.
That's not good enough.
Move directly to their location.
We need both minesweeping elements.
I'm going to need the dog also.
Matejek, you good? [Indistinct conversations.]
I fucking leaving you alone for 15 minutes, you asshole.
- I planned to.
- You guys good? - Yeah.
- How big was it? Uh, one.
I need a video of all of this fucking Roger.
Got it.
But I hate you guys.
[Indistinct conversation.]
At the base of the Wadi, they had laid a pressure plate IED.
The miner alert over on the front of the truck missed it and then it hit on the passenger's side of the vehicle, and you can't really describe it.
It happened so quick and so fast.
I mean, it's weird.
The one thing that I remember very vividly was how slow time actually does get in instances like that.
I don't know how your mind can process it.
But the instant that I felt it blowing up, it was just like, well, am I going to die here? Slice it.
- The shirt? - Yeah.
The two suffered concussions, minor to moderate traumatic brain injuries but with head injuries, you never know.
If you have a serious enough concussion, a bleed, one moment they can be standing there talking to you, the next, on the ground having seizures.
Hey, Porter, I want you and Peterson right here behind this berm facing back our direction of travel, okay? We set up the 360-degree security on location, directed Staff Sergeant Myers to start making assessment of recovering the vehicle and then basically called for QRF or the Quick Reaction Force out of FOB Muqur -- Charlie Company 1504 -- because they had heavy wreckers.
They're gonna have to be escorted out, you know, to be able to recover the vehicle.
It's an interesting place to put it.
Really.
This is the only way we can get down to Wadi.
- Was it? - Yeah.
The reason it's so crucial to get that vehicle back is that the Taliban could get their hands on it.
They can strip it.
They can use the metal for other IEDs.
They can use the tires.
They can rig the whole thing and turn it into one big IED.
It's -- it's really just one big security risk to leave it there.
Hey, there's movement in that wood line.
Which part? Middle, left or right? - The middle.
- Roger.
Steel 6, steel 7.
Go ahead.
Send it.
Yeah, hey, we got some movement in this wood line to my 12 I'm now static.
I'm pretty far away from the road.
I've got a very large vehicle asset that is not gonna move anywhere.
And, you know, there's the question.
It's just you out there against the Taliban, you know, what do you do now? Hey, you got PID? Um, so at that point I wanted to get so aggressive with the men on the ground that they wouldn't want to come back for more.
Hey, Sergeant Gardner.
Hey, we got a motorcycle, 12:00.
Sergeant Sutton said we got to go out and do a recon.
So of course I jumped on that.
Go on send it.
Now it looks like everything All right, go ahead and push past it.
Provide security for the far side.
Push past about 50 meters.
And I don't feel too lucky because this is the whole thing.
I hope this isn't rigged.
Hey, 6 Romeo, this is 1.
It doesn't look U.
S.
to me.
It doesn't look like our mortars.
Over.
- Keep going.
- That's it! - Scan it.
- Scanning.
[Explosion.]
Fucking Christ! [Gunshots.]
What do we got?! [Gunshots.]
Hey, Kent, get ready.
I wanna push up to this berm.
Hey! Right side, push up to that berm! Let's go, man.
Come on, drag it.
Left side, collapse in on me! We got contact, 200 meters at 12:00.
Over.
Stay low! Keep eyes up! [Panting.]
Hey, watch my right flank! Sounded like it was coming from more over there.
12:00.
- How far out? - About 150 meters, 175 meters.
Terrain feature? Right on the other side of those trees.
6-1, initial contact was on the other side of the trees.
About got 150 meters to our 12:00.
Over.
Yeah, sarge was in it.
He's right there? Yep.
The enemy had circled back around right into the village that we had just cleared through in order to get to MatejekError 502: Bad Gateway in the open that we had as a security measure.
- Let's go.
- [Man shouts indistinctly.]
I gathered another small maneuver element to go get 'em, to run down their throat to get 'em off of us because we knew what the Taliban were looking to do is lock you down.
We knew that you had to get aggressive.
We're going to get in your face.
You can try, but we're going to bring it, we're coming for ya.
I don't see any more movement over there.
Yeah, it blew up about 50 fucking meters close to me.
You don't have time to stop and think about things, or you know, cuddle up into a little ball and start wishing you were somewhere else.
- I think I got him.
- You got him? You see something? White man dress? You have to go back into that leadership role.
You have to be able to lead 'em.
And so that's all that flashed through my mind.
So I immediately started getting an assessment of the situation.
Over there, in the middle.
- Yeah.
- About four of 'em.
- Yeah.
- Right behind there.
All right, you guys are ready to go get some? Yep.
All right, we're going to bound with them.
Come on.
Reload magazines.
Get prepped.
Tell me when you're ready.
Let's go, Campbell.
Let's go.
Spread out.
They got us covered on the right side.
Get down! - Where's that -- - [Man speaks indistinctly.]
[Gunshots.]
Come on, dude.
Come on, come on.
[Gunshot.]
Hey, get down next to us.
Push.
Come up.
[Gunshots.]
Hey, let's go, pickup, we're coming up here.
Watch flank, watch flank.
I got front.
Right to that corner Dude, right there, that berm.
- Ugh.
- Come on.
Go, go, go! Right there in that hole.
Go right in front of you.
Hey, we got a tree line over there.
It's our guys? - Cease fire.
That is ours.
- Yeah.
Hey, we got friendlies to the south! Good times.
[Chuckles.]
Shit never gets old.
Four packs, 2:00.
Two have motorcycles.
Keep your eyes on that location.
I'll call it up.
6-1, four individuals, 2:00.
There's two motorcycles staged over there.
Over.
Our next down is that wall corner.
Roger.
- Well - Right there, 3, 2, 1, hit it.
[Grunting.]
[Shouts indistinctly.]
If you don't return fire, you're gonna be on the receiving end of that bullet.
And you can definitely know how close it is by the snaps of the bullet itself.
And the louder the whiz, the -- the faster you might want to run.
[Chuckles.]
All right, who's over there? Hey, Sergeant Hernandez, who's over there? [Man speaks indistinctly.]
Fucking two or three.
All right, I'll be over.
Okay, moving across the field.
[Gunshots.]
Go up top! [Gunshots continue.]
- Watch out.
- Sergeant Hernandez.
- Watch out.
- Go, go, go.
Go, go! Come on, let's go! Go, go.
[Gunshots continue.]
Being out there, getting shot at, it's not like some shooting video game.
You get shot once, you're done.
Where are they?! [Shouts indistinctly.]
[Gunshots continue.]
- Hey! - Let's go.
- Go, go.
- Go, go, go.
As we are giving chase, we keep pushing further northeast.
We kept running into additional, basically small miniature ambushes from the Taliban.
They hit us with RPK, PKM, and it was -- it was getting real.
Um, the guys were exhausted, but we were driving 'em.
We were driving hard.
We wanted them.
We wanted to get the guys that had done this to us.
Somebody's shooting.
Is that us shooting? Coastal 6, this is Coastal 7.
Come in.
That's our Bravo.
We finally got the RCP package and the engineers back to the truck to do the recovery process, and we had two other elements out there maneuvering on the enemy.
So, the thing I was concerned about the most was one of my guys getting hurt.
There's lots of people over there.
[Panting.]
On the other side of that mat, to the right of the [Speaks indistinctly.]
- Roger.
- See 'em? - Yeah, I got him.
- Got any weapons or anything? Negative, just an old guy and some kids.
Vehicle, I mean, it's just a fucking truck.
But, I mean, a dude's life is a dude's life.
That's -- that's the shit that you're worried about.
You're not even worried about your damn self.
You're worried about your brothers.
That compound, there was a runner.
He ran into the compound.
Over.
You're breaching.
I'm entering.
Let's go! Stack on me! Got a padlock.
[Shouts in foreign language.]
[Men speak indistinctly.]
- Let's go.
- I got you.
- Left.
- Now right.
- Need more! - Need more! [Panting.]
Stay short.
Don't overcommit.
[Man shouts indistinctly.]
Get the fuck out here! Abbott, go forward.
Secure there.
Bring them back to this corner.
They were shooting at us? [Speaking native language.]
We are not going to Where are they? Where are they? Were they in here? - Yeah.
- Were they in here? - We don't know nobody - [Speaking native language.]
- Were they outside? - [Speaking native language.]
I got it.
Let's go, Alpha Team.
Push outside the compound.
The terp's fucking telling us that these civilians are saying that we got fire from over here.
Yes.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
Hey, fucking lock it down tight, wedge formation.
Go around the outside.
Check the perimeter, Abbott.
- You get a DID, execute.
- Fuck, yeah.
All right, I wanna clear this first.
One more time.
Clear.
Oh, that's a trench.
It's fucking [Speaks Indistinctly.]
Exactly.
It's got some fucking traffic pattern.
I don't know.
This could have been an ex field route, yeah.
You ready? I gotta attack light.
Let's do it.
- All right, we're going down? - Two going down.
See, this bitch is deep.
Stairway all the way down, rope.
Rope going down.
I guarantee this is where they fucking went.
Yeah, it's possible, man.
We -- We're way overcommitted, though.
We cannot go down here.
All right, pull it.
We're taking this bitch next time.
It didn't matter how fast we were, you know, we were bogged down by all this gear and equipment.
They have the ability to, you know, run out there in shorts, a T-shirt, or a bed sheet, you know, grab their weapon, fire at us.
Go throw it in a hole somewhere.
And they're not gonna stay there and fight.
They're gonna remain elusive.
They're gonna remain those Ghosts.
Keep pushing forward.
I got a footprint here.
Got me? I got that.
Got a casing.
Looks just like R-760, right? Looks like a PKM round to me.
Yeah, these guys are getting fucking ballsy.
All right, keep eyes on.
Yeah, in a sec.
Uh, I went around a corner and found a radio.
I mean, it was just perfectly sitting in the middle of the street, and you know, everything just, like, screams at you that -- that -- that -- that doesn't belong there.
I don't see anything headed to you.
And so, you know, I did what any infantry man would do, is I ran up and I kicked it to see, you know, what would happen.
[Chuckles.]
Here's hoping.
No, we can't.
I was just hoping it wasn't gonna blow me up, you know.
So, obviously the thing we did was pick it up.
And what we did is we just clipped it onto the interpreter's vest and we said, "hey, you're gonna run this thing on scan.
"If something pops up, you need to stop it right there "and you need to start relaying everything in real time what they're doing.
" And I mean, you know, that probably, honestly, saved our lives.
As we were closing the distance on that southern village, just south of that major engagement area, The Playground, the enemy breaks off the objective.
They start spreading off to the north and to the east.
And I was like, hey, I'm not going any further.
This is it.
We're not chasing these dudes down.
There's no way we're gonna get 'em.
They're hopping on motorcycles.
[Panting.]
Hey 6, it's 1.
I got four, including myself.
Two at the north side.
Yeah.
Roger.
My fucking radio took a shit.
Okay.
My radio went down, And so we knew that we needed to link back with the main effort, the main group.
We moved up to Sergeant Sutton.
Hey, give me security at the 6.
Sounds like something coming up the ridge.
Alpha Team, security, 6.
In my mind, I was thinking, hey, I'm keeping the enemy off the down vehicle in a casualty.
Um, just about the time I was thinking that, I heard gunfire and an explosion at back at the down vehicle.
[Gunshots.]
[Explosion.]
Get inside the building! Get inside! [Explosion.]
Fuckers are firing mortars! That was an RPG.
Didn't you hear [Imitates explosion.]
That's true.
We need to get the fuck out of here.
All right, go and see if you can get PID where it come from.
Tell his fucking ass to get inside the building! Hey, they're heading back this way! They're coming back this way! We didn't know if we were taking mortar fire.
We didn't know if it was an RPG.
We didn't know what it was.
It was just chaos.
Like, I can't put it any other way than sheer chaos.
Like, it was just nuts.
I've never experienced anything like that in my entire life.
7, this is 6.
Cold Steel 7, Cold Steel 6.
I'm on the radio and Cold Steel 7, Cold Steel 7, Cold steel 6, no answer.
My level of intensity kicked up a bit, simply because I'm not getting an answer.
I just heard an explosion.
I got gunfire and then something obviously happened back down at the vehicle.
- What's up? - [Speaks indistinctly.]
Got it.
Yeah.
Cold steel 7, cold steel 6.
1 Delta, 7 Delta, this is Cold Steel 7, come in.
We got people running over there.
Hey, hey, those are friendlies.
- Roger.
- Oh, fuck! - Hey! - Get down, Graham! Graham, stay where you're at! [Explosion in distance.]
We're in a static position.
We're being shot at.
Like, we're getting ambushed, and I can't move.
I can't pick up my guys and go charge the enemy like I wanted to do or maneuver on them.
I'm sitting at one spot and I feel like the entire insurgency element is around me, and there's not a fucking thing I can do about it.
Listen, tell the fucking gunner to face, fucking get rear fucking security.
Tell those fucking guys to fucking stop.
[Gunshots.]
Oh, shit! - Where was that? - Left, fucking 2:00.
It's frustrating.
It's infuriating, like especially for somebody like me.
Like, I'm used to getting on the ground running, like, hey, let's go take the fight straight to them.
Like, you don't have to come find me.
I got you taking.
I'm coming for you.
Cold Steel 6, Cold Steel 6.
Cold Steel 7, Cold Steel 6.
At that point, I'm preparing to take the small dismount element and run as fast as humanly possible and aggressively as possible back to that location to support.
But I finally got radio contact with Sergeant Myers.
He responds, you know, "6, this is 7.
I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.
" I'm like, "hey, what happened? What happened? what happened? You need help? What do you need?" All right, Roger.
Make sure you keep eyes on that fucker We stopped the recovery progress.
We put all guys out, made sure they had cover and all that.
We started fighting back.
[Gunshots.]
Sergeant Myers is firing from his corner right now.
Don't go out there.
Hey, let's move up to this next berm.
We'll get better eyes on him.
1, 2, 3 move.
You got the motherfucker? I mean, The Playground -- it sucks.
It's wide open terrain.
Uh, there's no cover.
It's full of thorns.
So when you're we getting down trying to not get your ass shot off like you're falling in thorns that are this fucking long.
Like, The Playground was created by Satan him-fucking-self.
Like, that shit sucks bad.
I knew that we had a Puma out there with us that day, and I had started asking, "I want the Puma in there.
I want it in there, I want it there, now, now, now.
" [Whirring.]
Crazy motherfuckers.
- [Man yelling.]
- Come on! 'Cause that's our eyes on the sky.
You know, I mean we can throw the Puma up in the air and we could see the battlefield as it's happening.
So, it's a huge piece of equipment for us to have.
Like, it's kind of a game changer in a way.
Who is that? He's in the fucking middle of the Does he know we're taking fire over there? I'll be honest without training to throw that thing, it's a little difficult, especially when you're in full gear all weighed down.
You can't move your arms like you normally would.
Hurry up! Shit! It's a PKM.
I was in that --that dugout hole with Sergeant Myers and Doc, and I had the IV in my arm and the fire fight still raging on in the background.
I was like, this has got to go up.
And, you know, I gotta help these guys.
So I was like, "get this out of my fucking arm.
" And I took it out and I ran.
I got my ass out of the hole, and I took off running towards the truck which the platform was in.
I was like, "Chief, let's go.
You know, we gotta get this thing up in the air.
" So he comes around.
He's like, "thank God.
" Hey, cover my ass! Yeah, I got you! [Gunshots.]
Come on, fly, motherfucker.
- Yeah! - Come on.
[Gunshots continue.]
Good job, Patton.
All right, we got a camera.
Cold Steel 6, Cold Steel 7, Puma is in the air.
I say it again, Puma is in the air.
It was a good successful attempt the first time, thank God, 'cause I wasn't feeling like getting shot that day.
[Laughs.]
Um It's pretty -- it's pretty hectic when you're out there and you hear the cracks of bullets going by you.
So it's an interesting feeling, I guess.
[Chuckles.]
You just kind of go through the motions and don't stop.
Stay mobile.
Damn, dude.
I'm bleeding like a bitch.
My blood's pumping so hard.
You need something Rip a piece of my shirt.
It's not bleeding.
It's 'cause I got it held off.
Sergeant Matejek, uh, was crucial.
He was the only guy that knew how to launch it, so he got up even though he was injured and under contact launched the UAV.
And that helped us because we were able to know where the enemy was.
- [Exhales deeply.]
- Hold that.
Pressure.
Pressure, pressure.
Oh! Motherfucker, that hurts.
They are brand-new soldiers.
And the way the guys adapted to us, it was sheer phenomenal Like, that it doesn't happen like that.
Like, we were very unique, uh, for that to happen and everybody to mesh so well and go out there and do what we did as effectively as we did it.
Hey, face over that way.
[Gunshots.]
Oh, shit.
Where was that? Hey, we got guys moving up on our right.
[Men's voices echo.]
I don't know, man.
Like, I loved the dudes so much.
Like, um, all the guys -- they're -- they're phenomenal.
I wouldn't have traded them for anything.
We won't -- we won't be able to maneuver on them.
[Radio chatter.]
Getting that asset in the air was just phenomenal.
It was really great for us that day.
When I saw that the Taliban were jumping on motorcycles and basically clover-leafing our position and then sending additional assets back to hit Staff Sergeant Myers.
I had realized I had made a small tactical error and that is I overextended at this point.
I had a down vehicle, you know, we're out here in this big fight.
It's like, the audacity of these guys.
Okay, got it.
You want it? Here we come.
As a measured part of a response against an armed enemy when we're in contact, basically, you know, you're doing a warm-up swing with a very large bat by bringing in an aircraft at 800 feet above ground level.
That's what we're gonna do.
- Hey, they're moving.
- I see 'em.
When you call in a B1 at 800 feet AGL, maybe dropping a high payload explosive anywhere around, that gives pause for effect.
And a lot of times, upwards of 90% of the time that we call in a show of force, the enemy would back off.
Bring your element! [Engine roaring.]
Hey, we need to get going.
We got to get the fuck out of here.
- [Speaks indistinctly.]
- I got it.
As soon as they hear planes or helicopters coming in or overhead, they're done.
They quit everything.
Because they know it's only a matter of time before they make a step in the wrong direction, and everyone's on top of it.
So that's the point where they decided to call it quits for that day.
Hey, I got you guys.
Let's go.
Come on.
Hey, everybody, get over here! You're all good? [Engine rumbling.]
They gave up, and we got the vehicle recovered after all the sheer chaos.
Finally got the truck recovered.
We were toast at this point.
Like, we're tired.
Like, we were ready to get the fuck out of there.
We were done that day.
- I'm tired.
- Yeah.
It's been a long day.
You know, we get in that kind of fight, we're out there for hours, and it's just constant coming at you.
You know, you want to have something at the end of the day, and it's like, yeah, this is what we did.
That corner! Um, the frustrating part of it is that they were damn good at pulling their casualties off the objective and cleaning up what they did.
Because they didn't want to set those patterns for us to develop.
They are savvy fighters.
By no means whatsoever the Taliban that we're fighting that area were they slouching.
They had to have picked up the fucking rounds, man.
- They do every fucking time.
- I know.
When I was in Afghanistan the first time, when we got ambushed and my buddy got killed, there were 60 of them.
And we still couldn't -- like they were all shooting at us, for 90 minutes straight.
And they still pick up all the shit.
All they found was blood.
No brass, no link, nothing.
It's fucking ridiculous, man.
It kind of takes it away from you, like, going out there, getting your positive identification, taking your shots, dropping -- Knowing you dropped a guy and then you maneuver to where he was at, and gone.
There's nothing.
I mean, they've been fighting wars since the dawn of time.
[Chuckles.]
I mean, they fought off the Russians in the '80s.
They fought off who before that, I mean.
Those dudes have been at this a long time.
They know what they're doing.
They're very smart, don't ever fucking think they're stupid because they're not.
Every day I come closer and closer to dying.
- [Chuckles.]
- 3 June was a success on a couple of different levels, you know, primary victory out there is that, yeah, we beat the enemy back.
You may have punched us, you know, gave us a little bit of a black eye, but we gave it back to you.
And it wasn't until later, we had radio traffic from the Taliban that were saying that we killed upwards of 14 that day and wounded seven, I believe.
We did something, you know, we beat those guys back.
I was able to take that back to the platoon, and that was a bit of a release.
All: You broke the rules Now I'll pull out all your pubic hair Muthafucka You muthafucka Kyle betrayed me, then he lied, tried to hide And I died deep inside, and you know the reason why I'm gonna kick your ass From here to right over there Oh, yeah, muthafucka When we got back to the FOB, you can see 'em decompress.
[Laughter and cheers.]
On the FOB, we definitely get creative.
And there were those nights where you're just restless, you don't even -- you know you don't have a mission tomorrow so you're like, I mean, let's have some fun.
I'll never forget those moments.
[Laughter.]
It was all in good fun, too.
This is what we do on a daily basis.
[Shouts indistinctly.]
Get it! [Laughs.]
Oh! Oh! Oh! Go, go, go! Go, go, go! - [Cheering.]
- Oh! Tag him in! Oh! Whoa! I mean, shit, we're all kids, in a way, out there, especially dealing with some heavy shit.
And we let loose.
Like, we're doing dumb shit, like, you got one guy dancing with a coconut bra on and a grass skirt.
And you got a guy over here playing a guitar.
And you got another guy standing on top of the roof of the chow hall screaming.
Like, it's -- it's madness, man.
Uh [Chuckles.]
- Ready? - Ah, this was a stupid idea.
Bitch, where's my sandwich? Bitch, where's my sandwich?! - Ohh! - [Yelling.]
[Laughter.]
We have little fuckery games.
Like, we play this game called "Manchester.
" Like, if somebody says, "hey, I'm gonna -- I got this, "you know, like whole fucking box of, like, Cheetos or whatever, I'm gonna eat all these in one sitting.
" "Manchester.
" Like, you either have to do it right then, or you can get slapped.
And being slapped by a full-grown man fucking hurts.
Ohh! [Laughter.]
You know, you just turn inward and you look at those privates and you look at your soldiers and you look at your teammates.
You look at your brothers, and you can't help but not love 'em and say, this is why we do it.
This is it.
This is why we're here.
It's for these men that I'm surrounded by, and I love them, and I want to protect them.
And at all costs, I'm gonna give them everything I have.
You know, these are the kids that raised their right hand and said, "I'm gonna serve my country.
" And from every background that you can think of, you know, here they are in the middle of Godforsaken nowhere Afghanistan, having just been in some serious gunfights and the most dire situations, and and you just love 'em for it.
You just love 'em for it.
Yeah, it's an honor and a privilege for me to -- to be able to have these positions of authority and be able to lead soldiers.
It's amazing to me -- amazing that somebody knows what they're getting into, knows that there is a war going on and they still volunteer anyways.
That's -- that's where you have your pride.
I wish people would just understand, like, what it takes, even just have enough nuts to get up off the damn couch, put down that video game controller, go to the recruiting station and go fight for your way of life.
For a kid to do it? Dang, man, it blows my mind.
I remember specifically I gave this little girl a Pop-Tart and a little bottle of water.
And this little girl couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old, a small little thing.
And she had her little baby brother with her, just toting him around everywhere.
It was -- It was really humbling to see what this little girl did when she opened the Pop-Tart.
She didn't take the bite, the first bite.
She didn't take any bites.
The whole purpose of getting that Pop-Tart was to feed her little brother.
It was a -- it was a neat moment to see.
You're so focused on the nasty things that happen when you're over there.
You gotta kind of keep an eye out for the beautiful things that happen as well.
So It's one of the best and worst places you can be.
Fucking Christ! [Gunshots.]
We got people running over there.
Hey, hey, those are friendlies.
Roger.
[Gunshots.]
Oh! Fuck! Shit.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa! - Get inside the building! Get inside! Those fuckers are firing mortars.
There is a war going on.
There is real fighting going on, every fucking day.
Everyone, 12:00 is a person.
[Gunshots.]
People are dying, defending your way of life.
That's why we're going over there and doing it.
We're doing it because we love our country, we love our families, and not everybody in this world is willing to protect that.
[Gunshots.]
Fuck you! Aah! We've got to go! They're fucking right on us! [Gunshots.]
You know, if somebody's going to lead the young paratroopers, um, in Iraq and Afghanistan, I wanna be the one that does it.
These young men are going to change.
And I wanted to make sure that I did my due diligence to make sure they knew or would get it right.
You know, give them that purpose, direction, motivation.
I believe in the construct of the military and what we are.
- Are you good? - Yeah! We are the 82nd Airborne Division in America's Guard of Honor.
And I just, I like being a part of that.
Hey, what took you so long? One of the major things that we were trying to do was show the civilians that it was okay to stand up.
Can we take a look? Behind your back.
Turn around.
If you let the Taliban seem strong, even though the Afghan people don't want to side with them, they will, and it's through fear.
So the Taliban did that to you, buddy.
[Speaking indistinctly.]
Definitely, man, and If you help us, we help you, too.
The Taliban, me personally, I fucking hate 'em.
We were there to bring the fight to the enemy and make them regret ever firing one shot in anger towards us.
And we did that every single day, multiple times a day.
[Gunshots.]
I got my finger on the trigger But I don't know who to trust When I look into your eyes There's just devils and dust [Gunshots.]
Man: I'm hit! We're a long, long way from home, Bobbie Home's a long, long way from us I feel a dirty wind blowing [Men shouting indistinctly.]
Devils and dust I got God on my side And I'm just trying to survive What if what you do to survive Kills the things you love Fear's a powerful thing, baby It can turn your heart black, you can trust It'll take your God-filled soul And fill it with devils and dust Sutton: We were moving into the Muqur District in southern Ghazni province, Afghanistan.
The major hub of local activity, markets, you know, exchange.
The area north of Muqur was collectively known as The Playground, and the initial intelligence reports that we got going in the country was that the, uh, the Taliban were very well seated in the area.
Hi, six, six.
We got it right here.
We determined that that was a training area for them.
Over here.
All right, watch 'em.
They were bringing in some heavy hitters into this area to get some training, probably to move up into the big cities to disrupt some bigger operations.
So we tried to make sure that didn't happen.
[Explosion.]
We started getting additional intelligence reports that we weren't necessarily fighting Afghanistan Taliban, but we were fighting a lot of foreign fighters.
These guys were not local.
They meant business, and they -- they aimed to keep control of the area.
My platoon initially got thrown together, and so they took a lot of fresh Joes just out of jump school and a lot of NCOs from particular units.
You know, everyone had to pitch in, and we don't really get to test any of it or figure out if anything worked well together.
We didn't get to go to ranges or anything like that, you know? They said, "Do it live.
" [Explosion.]
Man: Whoa! - We're still alive right now.
- [Chuckles.]
We don't know if we're going to be when we get back, but here we go.
They're given us a platoon full of brand-new guys.
And, like, there's only, like, three of us that have any combat experience.
So I didn't want to go.
I did not want to go to that unit to begin with.
Like, I tried everything in the world to get out of going to that unit.
Like, even vol-- when they would like -- Sergeant Major was like, "Who doesn't want to be here?" I was like Right here, I don't want to go.
I was approached with three other of my platoon mates by our then current First Sergeant, and he told us what it was about and what we'd be doing.
And of course, you know, us being privates, we said, "Hell, yeah, that sounds like a fun time.
" I remember when I first got the platoon, I got this collective group of young men.
And, you know, I'm introducing myself.
I remember saying to 'em, "you know, it's not a matter of 'if, ' gentlemen.
"It's a matter of when it happens, what are you gonna do? "What is the effort that you're gonna put in this process "to ensure the survivability of your teammates and just, you know, get into the cause of the platoon?" We're not out here to fuck around.
Men: Go! 3 June, 2012, we had route clearance had already gone out.
And when route clearance went through the area down Highway 1 looking for those IEDs, clearing the IEDs, we knew that within a 30-minute window to about three hours of the last vehicle passing, the Taliban would come right behind them and re-seed IEDs.
We had left the route clearance go through an area and then we would set off on our own mission of moving in to the Playground.
- Let's go! and disrupt that Taliban operation.
Sergeant Sutton was in control of half the platoon.
I was in control of another half the platoon.
We knew this is where we always needed to go to have any kind of action or effort against the enemy.
And so all of our movements in The Playground were movements to contact.
You guys ready? Anyone shows hostile intent, you fucking kill them.
- Fuck, yeah.
All right, let's go.
We're bound in as a team, okay? Bound on me.
We would mostly do bounding movements.
You know, one team would go forward, the other team would move ahead of them.
Ready? Let's go.
[Clattering sound.]
There was no cover.
There was no concealment.
The enemy was watching you walk up into their, you know, basically their backyard from a thousand meters out.
It was as hard and as fast as you could to the next point of maneuver.
Spread out, spread out.
- Yeah.
- Look for PID.
The Taliban were really elusive.
I think a lot of -- a lot of people use the term as "Ghosts" because they truly were.
This one, I've got no PID yet.
Westfall, Abbott, down 50 meters.
Eyes open.
We learned very quickly that we just had to get aggressive.
You know, kinda the old adage back in school.
You hear the stories, you know, the bully on the playground.
And sometimes you just got to get out there and walk right up to that guy and hit him right in the face, and that's exactly what we did.
Go! [Panting.]
Watch out for the civilians! It's always frustrating fighting an enemy that hides.
The Taliban looked like everyone else.
You want them to shoot at you when you're just trying to scare them up.
I got eyes on the blue door! You know you're walking into a shit storm.
Imagine how you would feel if you're riding around in your car and you know you're about to wreck.
You know it's coming.
It's gonna happen.
There's nothing you can do to avoid it.
So you might as well speed down the horizon.
[Wind blowing.]
[Gunshots, man shouting indistinctly.]
Shit! [Gunshots.]
- [Panting.]
- Keep running! [Gunshots.]
Aah! Where are they? [Man shouts indistinctly.]
Ah, shit! [Gunshots continue.]
Go and block! [Gunshots continue.]
- Aah! - [Man shouts indistinctly.]
They're fucking right on us! [Gunshots continue.]
Shit! [Panting.]
Move! [Gunshots continue, man shouting indistinctly.]
Come on, let's go! [Gunshots continue.]
You have 300 million different things going through your mind at one time when you get shot.
Where did it come from? Who was it? What part of the village? Are there civilians there? You got a whole lot of shit going on in your head, and then at the same time everything dis-fuck-appears.
Like, it becomes muscle memory.
That's why we train the way we train, so when the shit does hit the fan, our bodies just take over and do what we've been trained to do.
[Panting.]
Hey, they're moving! [Gunfire in distance.]
They were firing from rooftops and from a concealed position and definitely in a very small tree line like the leading edge of Khamat Kheyl.
We were able to gain PID and started returning fire on those known positions.
[Gunshots, men shouting indistinctly.]
- He's on the roof? - Yes! All right, motherfuckers.
Get [Shouts indistinctly.]
[Gunshots continue.]
Hey who's over there? Finally getting to our end state where we had some type of cover from the enemy fire, and I looked back, and you know, I see this inert form right in the middle of the engagement area.
[Gunshots continue.]
Hey, Marty's still out there! - Move your fucking ass! - Get over here! Get up! And it was Marty out there, RFO, our forward observer, laying out there in the dirt.
- Come on, Marty! - Come on, Marty! [Gunshots continue, man yells indistinctly.]
Hey, cover him! [Gunshots continue.]
- Come on! - Marty, let's go! - [Man shouts indistinctly.]
- Come on, Marty! - Come on! - Come on, Marty! [Grunting.]
- Come on, Marty! Let's go! - Come here, Marty! [Men shouting indistinctly.]
No, he's not! He's good! [Grunting.]
[Gunshots continue.]
[Radio chatter, man shouts indistinctly.]
The base elevation was over 8,000 feet.
You're carrying 80 pounds of equipment.
Now your guys are really starting to kind of hurt.
[Gunshots continue.]
- [Panting.]
- You good? Uh, in terms of, you know, catching their breath, being winded, you can be the fastest runner on the planet.
You know, you're moving with 80 pounds of gear over a kilometer and you're gonna get winded.
He just needs a couple of minutes.
He's good.
Marty, I swear to God, you lay down in a machine gun engagement area again - I looked over right there - [Man speaks indistinctly.]
Hey, trust me, we looked over, and we were getting fucking pinned the fuck down.
Holy dog shit.
That was close as fuck.
I had the fucking shit hit me in the face.
[Radio chatter.]
I looked back The Taliban I mean, it's my job to close with and destroy that motherfucker.
Hey, wait, wait, wait.
We're maneuvering towards the enemy.
We're moving towards the enemy.
As we were bounding up to the village, we saw that we could very easily cut off the enemy's route with vehicle support.
Roger, I need two vehicles.
If you approach from the north side of the village you follow that route south.
Break.
We had known that the Taliban likes to hit us and try to draw us into the fight.
And they try to egress or break off of the village of Khamat Kheyl.
- Where are they? - [Man shouts indistinctly.]
So we immediately call up to Sergeant Matejek telling him to take two vehicles and start flanking the enemy's position while we kept them more or less distracted or focusing their fires on us.
Ha ha ha, this is the fun time.
10 vehicle one in the small D.
In vehicle one.
We knew it was coming, and like clockwork, my gunner was like, "let's go.
" So me and Max took off, and I was in the lead vehicle and between 500 meters and about 1,000, we actually gained PID on three motorcycles with two individuals on each bike.
Possibly ID'ed them, a couple of them got RPGs, couple more had AK-47s.
And my gunner was kind of -- he asked, "What do I do?" and I said, "Shoot 'em.
Go.
They just shot at us.
Go.
Don't miss.
" [Laughs.]
You know? [Gunshots.]
You hear on the radio traffic that Braden Matejek is there scooping around the backside of Khamat Kheyl.
They get PID on the enemy breaking off the objective with weapons, and they start to engage the enemy.
Alpha! Let's go! Spread it out.
Keep in your own lane.
[Grunting.]
Hey, if you got eyes on it, fucking engage! They got eyes on us! [Shouting indistinctly.]
Watch my left.
Motorcycles are about a klick to the south.
All right, keep moving.
Keep going.
Come on, Braden! Go! On this building.
[Gunshots.]
[Explosion.]
[Exhales.]
What the fuck was that? It was big.
These are meters.
One down for seven! Hey [Shouts indistinctly.]
One down, so that's seven down, so it's Cold Steel 7.
Come in.
It's possible one got hit by an IED.
- Are you serious? - Yeah.
Big boom.
No come, and they said it's possible.
AWC over.
1 Delta.
7 Delta.
[Shouts indistinctly.]
I can't get him fixed! It's truck one and seven.
We tried raising them both already.
No answer.
[Speaks indistinctly.]
Get ahold of 7 Delta or 1 Delta.
[Panting.]
I was like what am I going to do now? Like, I mean, we're all goddamn 2 kilometers from the trucks right now.
They just hit at an IED.
I can't get caught with them on the radio.
I didn't know if somebody's knocked out or if somebody's dead.
I mean, my next thing is, like, well, all right, pick the fuck up.
We're going over there.
We want to make sure my boys are all right.
Roy, all right.
I want you on the right side, Roy.
Peterson, I want you guys on this corner right here before that vehicle, all right? We developed a plan that my team would flank around and do bounding movements to where we would possibly cut off any enemy while they're egressing out of the area.
And Sergeant Sutton's element would push through directly to them.
[Speaks indistinctly.]
on the left.
Spread out.
- This way! - Got it! [Grunts.]
We finally got communications with Braden Matejek at the down vehicle and he said, "Yep.
I'm a mobility kill.
"We're good.
We're green, green.
" So all of our efforts at that point was now directed towards getting to Matejek's down vehicle, establishing security and then recovering the vehicle.
- See anything? - Yeah.
I got it.
Was it right there? Yeah, someone keeps sticking their head back and forth right here in this alley.
- All right.
I saw this guy in all white.
Keeps standing out.
Okay.
I asked that man to go back home.
Okay.
We need to keep moving! Unless we see weapons, we've got to get to their position.
We saw perceivably enemies coming out of the area on motorcycles, but they weren't armed, to our knowledge.
They were too far away for us to stop.
You can't just shoot a guy because they're on a motorcycle where they shouldn't be.
That's not good enough.
Move directly to their location.
We need both minesweeping elements.
I'm going to need the dog also.
Matejek, you good? [Indistinct conversations.]
I fucking leaving you alone for 15 minutes, you asshole.
- I planned to.
- You guys good? - Yeah.
- How big was it? Uh, one.
I need a video of all of this fucking Roger.
Got it.
But I hate you guys.
[Indistinct conversation.]
At the base of the Wadi, they had laid a pressure plate IED.
The miner alert over on the front of the truck missed it and then it hit on the passenger's side of the vehicle, and you can't really describe it.
It happened so quick and so fast.
I mean, it's weird.
The one thing that I remember very vividly was how slow time actually does get in instances like that.
I don't know how your mind can process it.
But the instant that I felt it blowing up, it was just like, well, am I going to die here? Slice it.
- The shirt? - Yeah.
The two suffered concussions, minor to moderate traumatic brain injuries but with head injuries, you never know.
If you have a serious enough concussion, a bleed, one moment they can be standing there talking to you, the next, on the ground having seizures.
Hey, Porter, I want you and Peterson right here behind this berm facing back our direction of travel, okay? We set up the 360-degree security on location, directed Staff Sergeant Myers to start making assessment of recovering the vehicle and then basically called for QRF or the Quick Reaction Force out of FOB Muqur -- Charlie Company 1504 -- because they had heavy wreckers.
They're gonna have to be escorted out, you know, to be able to recover the vehicle.
It's an interesting place to put it.
Really.
This is the only way we can get down to Wadi.
- Was it? - Yeah.
The reason it's so crucial to get that vehicle back is that the Taliban could get their hands on it.
They can strip it.
They can use the metal for other IEDs.
They can use the tires.
They can rig the whole thing and turn it into one big IED.
It's -- it's really just one big security risk to leave it there.
Hey, there's movement in that wood line.
Which part? Middle, left or right? - The middle.
- Roger.
Steel 6, steel 7.
Go ahead.
Send it.
Yeah, hey, we got some movement in this wood line to my 12 I'm now static.
I'm pretty far away from the road.
I've got a very large vehicle asset that is not gonna move anywhere.
And, you know, there's the question.
It's just you out there against the Taliban, you know, what do you do now? Hey, you got PID? Um, so at that point I wanted to get so aggressive with the men on the ground that they wouldn't want to come back for more.
Hey, Sergeant Gardner.
Hey, we got a motorcycle, 12:00.
Sergeant Sutton said we got to go out and do a recon.
So of course I jumped on that.
Go on send it.
Now it looks like everything All right, go ahead and push past it.
Provide security for the far side.
Push past about 50 meters.
And I don't feel too lucky because this is the whole thing.
I hope this isn't rigged.
Hey, 6 Romeo, this is 1.
It doesn't look U.
S.
to me.
It doesn't look like our mortars.
Over.
- Keep going.
- That's it! - Scan it.
- Scanning.
[Explosion.]
Fucking Christ! [Gunshots.]
What do we got?! [Gunshots.]
Hey, Kent, get ready.
I wanna push up to this berm.
Hey! Right side, push up to that berm! Let's go, man.
Come on, drag it.
Left side, collapse in on me! We got contact, 200 meters at 12:00.
Over.
Stay low! Keep eyes up! [Panting.]
Hey, watch my right flank! Sounded like it was coming from more over there.
12:00.
- How far out? - About 150 meters, 175 meters.
Terrain feature? Right on the other side of those trees.
6-1, initial contact was on the other side of the trees.
About got 150 meters to our 12:00.
Over.
Yeah, sarge was in it.
He's right there? Yep.
The enemy had circled back around right into the village that we had just cleared through in order to get to MatejekError 502: Bad Gateway in the open that we had as a security measure.
- Let's go.
- [Man shouts indistinctly.]
I gathered another small maneuver element to go get 'em, to run down their throat to get 'em off of us because we knew what the Taliban were looking to do is lock you down.
We knew that you had to get aggressive.
We're going to get in your face.
You can try, but we're going to bring it, we're coming for ya.
I don't see any more movement over there.
Yeah, it blew up about 50 fucking meters close to me.
You don't have time to stop and think about things, or you know, cuddle up into a little ball and start wishing you were somewhere else.
- I think I got him.
- You got him? You see something? White man dress? You have to go back into that leadership role.
You have to be able to lead 'em.
And so that's all that flashed through my mind.
So I immediately started getting an assessment of the situation.
Over there, in the middle.
- Yeah.
- About four of 'em.
- Yeah.
- Right behind there.
All right, you guys are ready to go get some? Yep.
All right, we're going to bound with them.
Come on.
Reload magazines.
Get prepped.
Tell me when you're ready.
Let's go, Campbell.
Let's go.
Spread out.
They got us covered on the right side.
Get down! - Where's that -- - [Man speaks indistinctly.]
[Gunshots.]
Come on, dude.
Come on, come on.
[Gunshot.]
Hey, get down next to us.
Push.
Come up.
[Gunshots.]
Hey, let's go, pickup, we're coming up here.
Watch flank, watch flank.
I got front.
Right to that corner Dude, right there, that berm.
- Ugh.
- Come on.
Go, go, go! Right there in that hole.
Go right in front of you.
Hey, we got a tree line over there.
It's our guys? - Cease fire.
That is ours.
- Yeah.
Hey, we got friendlies to the south! Good times.
[Chuckles.]
Shit never gets old.
Four packs, 2:00.
Two have motorcycles.
Keep your eyes on that location.
I'll call it up.
6-1, four individuals, 2:00.
There's two motorcycles staged over there.
Over.
Our next down is that wall corner.
Roger.
- Well - Right there, 3, 2, 1, hit it.
[Grunting.]
[Shouts indistinctly.]
If you don't return fire, you're gonna be on the receiving end of that bullet.
And you can definitely know how close it is by the snaps of the bullet itself.
And the louder the whiz, the -- the faster you might want to run.
[Chuckles.]
All right, who's over there? Hey, Sergeant Hernandez, who's over there? [Man speaks indistinctly.]
Fucking two or three.
All right, I'll be over.
Okay, moving across the field.
[Gunshots.]
Go up top! [Gunshots continue.]
- Watch out.
- Sergeant Hernandez.
- Watch out.
- Go, go, go.
Go, go! Come on, let's go! Go, go.
[Gunshots continue.]
Being out there, getting shot at, it's not like some shooting video game.
You get shot once, you're done.
Where are they?! [Shouts indistinctly.]
[Gunshots continue.]
- Hey! - Let's go.
- Go, go.
- Go, go, go.
As we are giving chase, we keep pushing further northeast.
We kept running into additional, basically small miniature ambushes from the Taliban.
They hit us with RPK, PKM, and it was -- it was getting real.
Um, the guys were exhausted, but we were driving 'em.
We were driving hard.
We wanted them.
We wanted to get the guys that had done this to us.
Somebody's shooting.
Is that us shooting? Coastal 6, this is Coastal 7.
Come in.
That's our Bravo.
We finally got the RCP package and the engineers back to the truck to do the recovery process, and we had two other elements out there maneuvering on the enemy.
So, the thing I was concerned about the most was one of my guys getting hurt.
There's lots of people over there.
[Panting.]
On the other side of that mat, to the right of the [Speaks indistinctly.]
- Roger.
- See 'em? - Yeah, I got him.
- Got any weapons or anything? Negative, just an old guy and some kids.
Vehicle, I mean, it's just a fucking truck.
But, I mean, a dude's life is a dude's life.
That's -- that's the shit that you're worried about.
You're not even worried about your damn self.
You're worried about your brothers.
That compound, there was a runner.
He ran into the compound.
Over.
You're breaching.
I'm entering.
Let's go! Stack on me! Got a padlock.
[Shouts in foreign language.]
[Men speak indistinctly.]
- Let's go.
- I got you.
- Left.
- Now right.
- Need more! - Need more! [Panting.]
Stay short.
Don't overcommit.
[Man shouts indistinctly.]
Get the fuck out here! Abbott, go forward.
Secure there.
Bring them back to this corner.
They were shooting at us? [Speaking native language.]
We are not going to Where are they? Where are they? Were they in here? - Yeah.
- Were they in here? - We don't know nobody - [Speaking native language.]
- Were they outside? - [Speaking native language.]
I got it.
Let's go, Alpha Team.
Push outside the compound.
The terp's fucking telling us that these civilians are saying that we got fire from over here.
Yes.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
Hey, fucking lock it down tight, wedge formation.
Go around the outside.
Check the perimeter, Abbott.
- You get a DID, execute.
- Fuck, yeah.
All right, I wanna clear this first.
One more time.
Clear.
Oh, that's a trench.
It's fucking [Speaks Indistinctly.]
Exactly.
It's got some fucking traffic pattern.
I don't know.
This could have been an ex field route, yeah.
You ready? I gotta attack light.
Let's do it.
- All right, we're going down? - Two going down.
See, this bitch is deep.
Stairway all the way down, rope.
Rope going down.
I guarantee this is where they fucking went.
Yeah, it's possible, man.
We -- We're way overcommitted, though.
We cannot go down here.
All right, pull it.
We're taking this bitch next time.
It didn't matter how fast we were, you know, we were bogged down by all this gear and equipment.
They have the ability to, you know, run out there in shorts, a T-shirt, or a bed sheet, you know, grab their weapon, fire at us.
Go throw it in a hole somewhere.
And they're not gonna stay there and fight.
They're gonna remain elusive.
They're gonna remain those Ghosts.
Keep pushing forward.
I got a footprint here.
Got me? I got that.
Got a casing.
Looks just like R-760, right? Looks like a PKM round to me.
Yeah, these guys are getting fucking ballsy.
All right, keep eyes on.
Yeah, in a sec.
Uh, I went around a corner and found a radio.
I mean, it was just perfectly sitting in the middle of the street, and you know, everything just, like, screams at you that -- that -- that -- that doesn't belong there.
I don't see anything headed to you.
And so, you know, I did what any infantry man would do, is I ran up and I kicked it to see, you know, what would happen.
[Chuckles.]
Here's hoping.
No, we can't.
I was just hoping it wasn't gonna blow me up, you know.
So, obviously the thing we did was pick it up.
And what we did is we just clipped it onto the interpreter's vest and we said, "hey, you're gonna run this thing on scan.
"If something pops up, you need to stop it right there "and you need to start relaying everything in real time what they're doing.
" And I mean, you know, that probably, honestly, saved our lives.
As we were closing the distance on that southern village, just south of that major engagement area, The Playground, the enemy breaks off the objective.
They start spreading off to the north and to the east.
And I was like, hey, I'm not going any further.
This is it.
We're not chasing these dudes down.
There's no way we're gonna get 'em.
They're hopping on motorcycles.
[Panting.]
Hey 6, it's 1.
I got four, including myself.
Two at the north side.
Yeah.
Roger.
My fucking radio took a shit.
Okay.
My radio went down, And so we knew that we needed to link back with the main effort, the main group.
We moved up to Sergeant Sutton.
Hey, give me security at the 6.
Sounds like something coming up the ridge.
Alpha Team, security, 6.
In my mind, I was thinking, hey, I'm keeping the enemy off the down vehicle in a casualty.
Um, just about the time I was thinking that, I heard gunfire and an explosion at back at the down vehicle.
[Gunshots.]
[Explosion.]
Get inside the building! Get inside! [Explosion.]
Fuckers are firing mortars! That was an RPG.
Didn't you hear [Imitates explosion.]
That's true.
We need to get the fuck out of here.
All right, go and see if you can get PID where it come from.
Tell his fucking ass to get inside the building! Hey, they're heading back this way! They're coming back this way! We didn't know if we were taking mortar fire.
We didn't know if it was an RPG.
We didn't know what it was.
It was just chaos.
Like, I can't put it any other way than sheer chaos.
Like, it was just nuts.
I've never experienced anything like that in my entire life.
7, this is 6.
Cold Steel 7, Cold Steel 6.
I'm on the radio and Cold Steel 7, Cold Steel 7, Cold steel 6, no answer.
My level of intensity kicked up a bit, simply because I'm not getting an answer.
I just heard an explosion.
I got gunfire and then something obviously happened back down at the vehicle.
- What's up? - [Speaks indistinctly.]
Got it.
Yeah.
Cold steel 7, cold steel 6.
1 Delta, 7 Delta, this is Cold Steel 7, come in.
We got people running over there.
Hey, hey, those are friendlies.
- Roger.
- Oh, fuck! - Hey! - Get down, Graham! Graham, stay where you're at! [Explosion in distance.]
We're in a static position.
We're being shot at.
Like, we're getting ambushed, and I can't move.
I can't pick up my guys and go charge the enemy like I wanted to do or maneuver on them.
I'm sitting at one spot and I feel like the entire insurgency element is around me, and there's not a fucking thing I can do about it.
Listen, tell the fucking gunner to face, fucking get rear fucking security.
Tell those fucking guys to fucking stop.
[Gunshots.]
Oh, shit! - Where was that? - Left, fucking 2:00.
It's frustrating.
It's infuriating, like especially for somebody like me.
Like, I'm used to getting on the ground running, like, hey, let's go take the fight straight to them.
Like, you don't have to come find me.
I got you taking.
I'm coming for you.
Cold Steel 6, Cold Steel 6.
Cold Steel 7, Cold Steel 6.
At that point, I'm preparing to take the small dismount element and run as fast as humanly possible and aggressively as possible back to that location to support.
But I finally got radio contact with Sergeant Myers.
He responds, you know, "6, this is 7.
I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.
" I'm like, "hey, what happened? What happened? what happened? You need help? What do you need?" All right, Roger.
Make sure you keep eyes on that fucker We stopped the recovery progress.
We put all guys out, made sure they had cover and all that.
We started fighting back.
[Gunshots.]
Sergeant Myers is firing from his corner right now.
Don't go out there.
Hey, let's move up to this next berm.
We'll get better eyes on him.
1, 2, 3 move.
You got the motherfucker? I mean, The Playground -- it sucks.
It's wide open terrain.
Uh, there's no cover.
It's full of thorns.
So when you're we getting down trying to not get your ass shot off like you're falling in thorns that are this fucking long.
Like, The Playground was created by Satan him-fucking-self.
Like, that shit sucks bad.
I knew that we had a Puma out there with us that day, and I had started asking, "I want the Puma in there.
I want it in there, I want it there, now, now, now.
" [Whirring.]
Crazy motherfuckers.
- [Man yelling.]
- Come on! 'Cause that's our eyes on the sky.
You know, I mean we can throw the Puma up in the air and we could see the battlefield as it's happening.
So, it's a huge piece of equipment for us to have.
Like, it's kind of a game changer in a way.
Who is that? He's in the fucking middle of the Does he know we're taking fire over there? I'll be honest without training to throw that thing, it's a little difficult, especially when you're in full gear all weighed down.
You can't move your arms like you normally would.
Hurry up! Shit! It's a PKM.
I was in that --that dugout hole with Sergeant Myers and Doc, and I had the IV in my arm and the fire fight still raging on in the background.
I was like, this has got to go up.
And, you know, I gotta help these guys.
So I was like, "get this out of my fucking arm.
" And I took it out and I ran.
I got my ass out of the hole, and I took off running towards the truck which the platform was in.
I was like, "Chief, let's go.
You know, we gotta get this thing up in the air.
" So he comes around.
He's like, "thank God.
" Hey, cover my ass! Yeah, I got you! [Gunshots.]
Come on, fly, motherfucker.
- Yeah! - Come on.
[Gunshots continue.]
Good job, Patton.
All right, we got a camera.
Cold Steel 6, Cold Steel 7, Puma is in the air.
I say it again, Puma is in the air.
It was a good successful attempt the first time, thank God, 'cause I wasn't feeling like getting shot that day.
[Laughs.]
Um It's pretty -- it's pretty hectic when you're out there and you hear the cracks of bullets going by you.
So it's an interesting feeling, I guess.
[Chuckles.]
You just kind of go through the motions and don't stop.
Stay mobile.
Damn, dude.
I'm bleeding like a bitch.
My blood's pumping so hard.
You need something Rip a piece of my shirt.
It's not bleeding.
It's 'cause I got it held off.
Sergeant Matejek, uh, was crucial.
He was the only guy that knew how to launch it, so he got up even though he was injured and under contact launched the UAV.
And that helped us because we were able to know where the enemy was.
- [Exhales deeply.]
- Hold that.
Pressure.
Pressure, pressure.
Oh! Motherfucker, that hurts.
They are brand-new soldiers.
And the way the guys adapted to us, it was sheer phenomenal Like, that it doesn't happen like that.
Like, we were very unique, uh, for that to happen and everybody to mesh so well and go out there and do what we did as effectively as we did it.
Hey, face over that way.
[Gunshots.]
Oh, shit.
Where was that? Hey, we got guys moving up on our right.
[Men's voices echo.]
I don't know, man.
Like, I loved the dudes so much.
Like, um, all the guys -- they're -- they're phenomenal.
I wouldn't have traded them for anything.
We won't -- we won't be able to maneuver on them.
[Radio chatter.]
Getting that asset in the air was just phenomenal.
It was really great for us that day.
When I saw that the Taliban were jumping on motorcycles and basically clover-leafing our position and then sending additional assets back to hit Staff Sergeant Myers.
I had realized I had made a small tactical error and that is I overextended at this point.
I had a down vehicle, you know, we're out here in this big fight.
It's like, the audacity of these guys.
Okay, got it.
You want it? Here we come.
As a measured part of a response against an armed enemy when we're in contact, basically, you know, you're doing a warm-up swing with a very large bat by bringing in an aircraft at 800 feet above ground level.
That's what we're gonna do.
- Hey, they're moving.
- I see 'em.
When you call in a B1 at 800 feet AGL, maybe dropping a high payload explosive anywhere around, that gives pause for effect.
And a lot of times, upwards of 90% of the time that we call in a show of force, the enemy would back off.
Bring your element! [Engine roaring.]
Hey, we need to get going.
We got to get the fuck out of here.
- [Speaks indistinctly.]
- I got it.
As soon as they hear planes or helicopters coming in or overhead, they're done.
They quit everything.
Because they know it's only a matter of time before they make a step in the wrong direction, and everyone's on top of it.
So that's the point where they decided to call it quits for that day.
Hey, I got you guys.
Let's go.
Come on.
Hey, everybody, get over here! You're all good? [Engine rumbling.]
They gave up, and we got the vehicle recovered after all the sheer chaos.
Finally got the truck recovered.
We were toast at this point.
Like, we're tired.
Like, we were ready to get the fuck out of there.
We were done that day.
- I'm tired.
- Yeah.
It's been a long day.
You know, we get in that kind of fight, we're out there for hours, and it's just constant coming at you.
You know, you want to have something at the end of the day, and it's like, yeah, this is what we did.
That corner! Um, the frustrating part of it is that they were damn good at pulling their casualties off the objective and cleaning up what they did.
Because they didn't want to set those patterns for us to develop.
They are savvy fighters.
By no means whatsoever the Taliban that we're fighting that area were they slouching.
They had to have picked up the fucking rounds, man.
- They do every fucking time.
- I know.
When I was in Afghanistan the first time, when we got ambushed and my buddy got killed, there were 60 of them.
And we still couldn't -- like they were all shooting at us, for 90 minutes straight.
And they still pick up all the shit.
All they found was blood.
No brass, no link, nothing.
It's fucking ridiculous, man.
It kind of takes it away from you, like, going out there, getting your positive identification, taking your shots, dropping -- Knowing you dropped a guy and then you maneuver to where he was at, and gone.
There's nothing.
I mean, they've been fighting wars since the dawn of time.
[Chuckles.]
I mean, they fought off the Russians in the '80s.
They fought off who before that, I mean.
Those dudes have been at this a long time.
They know what they're doing.
They're very smart, don't ever fucking think they're stupid because they're not.
Every day I come closer and closer to dying.
- [Chuckles.]
- 3 June was a success on a couple of different levels, you know, primary victory out there is that, yeah, we beat the enemy back.
You may have punched us, you know, gave us a little bit of a black eye, but we gave it back to you.
And it wasn't until later, we had radio traffic from the Taliban that were saying that we killed upwards of 14 that day and wounded seven, I believe.
We did something, you know, we beat those guys back.
I was able to take that back to the platoon, and that was a bit of a release.
All: You broke the rules Now I'll pull out all your pubic hair Muthafucka You muthafucka Kyle betrayed me, then he lied, tried to hide And I died deep inside, and you know the reason why I'm gonna kick your ass From here to right over there Oh, yeah, muthafucka When we got back to the FOB, you can see 'em decompress.
[Laughter and cheers.]
On the FOB, we definitely get creative.
And there were those nights where you're just restless, you don't even -- you know you don't have a mission tomorrow so you're like, I mean, let's have some fun.
I'll never forget those moments.
[Laughter.]
It was all in good fun, too.
This is what we do on a daily basis.
[Shouts indistinctly.]
Get it! [Laughs.]
Oh! Oh! Oh! Go, go, go! Go, go, go! - [Cheering.]
- Oh! Tag him in! Oh! Whoa! I mean, shit, we're all kids, in a way, out there, especially dealing with some heavy shit.
And we let loose.
Like, we're doing dumb shit, like, you got one guy dancing with a coconut bra on and a grass skirt.
And you got a guy over here playing a guitar.
And you got another guy standing on top of the roof of the chow hall screaming.
Like, it's -- it's madness, man.
Uh [Chuckles.]
- Ready? - Ah, this was a stupid idea.
Bitch, where's my sandwich? Bitch, where's my sandwich?! - Ohh! - [Yelling.]
[Laughter.]
We have little fuckery games.
Like, we play this game called "Manchester.
" Like, if somebody says, "hey, I'm gonna -- I got this, "you know, like whole fucking box of, like, Cheetos or whatever, I'm gonna eat all these in one sitting.
" "Manchester.
" Like, you either have to do it right then, or you can get slapped.
And being slapped by a full-grown man fucking hurts.
Ohh! [Laughter.]
You know, you just turn inward and you look at those privates and you look at your soldiers and you look at your teammates.
You look at your brothers, and you can't help but not love 'em and say, this is why we do it.
This is it.
This is why we're here.
It's for these men that I'm surrounded by, and I love them, and I want to protect them.
And at all costs, I'm gonna give them everything I have.
You know, these are the kids that raised their right hand and said, "I'm gonna serve my country.
" And from every background that you can think of, you know, here they are in the middle of Godforsaken nowhere Afghanistan, having just been in some serious gunfights and the most dire situations, and and you just love 'em for it.
You just love 'em for it.
Yeah, it's an honor and a privilege for me to -- to be able to have these positions of authority and be able to lead soldiers.
It's amazing to me -- amazing that somebody knows what they're getting into, knows that there is a war going on and they still volunteer anyways.
That's -- that's where you have your pride.
I wish people would just understand, like, what it takes, even just have enough nuts to get up off the damn couch, put down that video game controller, go to the recruiting station and go fight for your way of life.
For a kid to do it? Dang, man, it blows my mind.
I remember specifically I gave this little girl a Pop-Tart and a little bottle of water.
And this little girl couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old, a small little thing.
And she had her little baby brother with her, just toting him around everywhere.
It was -- It was really humbling to see what this little girl did when she opened the Pop-Tart.
She didn't take the bite, the first bite.
She didn't take any bites.
The whole purpose of getting that Pop-Tart was to feed her little brother.
It was a -- it was a neat moment to see.
You're so focused on the nasty things that happen when you're over there.
You gotta kind of keep an eye out for the beautiful things that happen as well.
So It's one of the best and worst places you can be.