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MSG Anthony Pryor, the 'Unsung Hero.'
[Task & Purpose] In January 2002, less than four months after the official launch of Operation Enduring Freedom, before conventional forces were deployed beyond the confines of Kabul, the so-called Global War on Terror was almost exclusively waged by a small group of commandos in the remote mountains, deserts, and villages of Afghanistan.Master Sgt. Anthony S. Pryor of Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group was one of those commandos. On Jan. 23, 2002, Pryor's detachment received orders from U.S. Central Command to conduct a night raid on a suspected al-Qaeda compound in a remote area of southern Afghanistan. Their mission was to take over an old school house while the enemy fighters slept. But almost as soon as they entered the compound, their position was compromised, and they found themselves under intense gunfire, some of it from less than 25 meters away. "After the initial burst of automatic weapons fire, we returned fire in the breezeway," Pryor’s teammate, Sgt. 1st Class Scott Neil, told an Army reporter. "It was a mental spur -- after we heard the words 'let's go;' everything just kind of kicked in." Posted by: Besoeker 2016-03-19 |
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