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| Afghanistan |
| The Battle of Roberts Ridge: "Everybody working together and the good Lord is what got us home." |
| 2003-01-28 |
| Sources: Newsday and Best of the Web. Air Force Staff Sgt. Kevin Vance earned the Silver Star for his conduct in a firefight at Takur Ghar, elevation 10,200 feet, during Operation Anaconda last March. His after-action report has surfaced on the Internet, and it makes for compelling reading. Some excerpts: At 0140z I had noticed we were flying in circles around the mountaintop because I had noticed the same terrain twice. As we were circling about the third time, we were hit with a rocket-propelled grenade [RPG] around 0145z. There were sparks on the right side of the aircraft and we started to shake violently. Then our helicopter just fell out of the sky about 15 feet to the ground. After the first RPG hit us to when the helicopter hit the ground, I do not remember specifics of what happened, it was a blur. . . . By the time I was able to get off of the aircraft, three of our team members were already dead. . . . These three deceased members survived the initial crash without injury, but had died from enemy fire. Their names were Marc Anderson, Brad Crose, and Matt Commons. . . . I was shooting an M4. At first, my priority was to keep engaging the enemy to hold them back and then to seek assistance for close air support [CAS] on the radio. My radio, a PRC 117F, was still in my rucksack. There was a combat controller [CCT] with us named Gabe Brown who was behind me a bit. I turned around and yelled at him to work on getting communications running; he was already was working on it. . . . First, we shot M203 rounds at bunker. A M203 is a grenade launcher that fits on a M4/16. As the squad leader and team leader shot M203s, I stood up and provided covering fire. When he would stand up to fire a grenade at the bunker, I would standup and shoot at the bunker to cover him. I did the same when the crewmembers would run for more ammo. We tried throwing fragment grenades at the enemy but it they were too far away and the bunker was on the backside of the hill. The enemy threw fragment grenades at us but they landed 5-10 feet in front of me, buried in the snow and blew up. . . . When the crewmembers would run back to the aircraft for more ammo, I would standup and shoot at the bunker to cover them. They were also taking M203 rounds and magazines off of the KIA and bringing it to us. The crew pulled off insulation from the aircraft to wrap the casualties in to keep them warm. Then four of us (myself, the platoon leader, squad leader, and team leader) started to assault the tree area where the enemy was coming from while the M240 gunner suppressed it. The CPT Self, the platoon leader [PL], was in charge. Once we realized that it was a bunker, a couple of enemy came out from behind a tree and took shots at us. We were moving slow because the snow was up to our knees and we were going uphill. The platoon leader finally said let's back up and rethink this. We backed up because we could not afford to lose any more guys. The combat controller yelled that we have F-15s on station. The Platoon Leader was next to me and we discussed it. Then F-15s were overhead and the combat controller was directing them to the enemy according to my instructions. I told the combat controller to have the F-15s to strafe the bunker and have them come in from our right to our left. . . . The fighters did some more gun runs and the enemy was still jumping up shooting at us. The enemy was moving on us from behind us (we didn't know this at the time) but the majority of enemy were firing at us were on the hill near the bunker area. We killed seven of them. The last time I saw anyone move in the bunker, I was scanning the hilltop and I saw the upper half of an enemy behind some bushes. I shot three times, got down and stood back up. This was the last I had seen him. I never went over towards that bunker so I cannot confirm if I had killed him. Then we shot some more bombs in the bunker area. I told CCT to direct them to shoot down the backside of the hill north of us. I thought it was better to have them shoot downhill with the first one so we could walk him in to the target. The first bomb hit the backside of the hill and then I told him to bring it up and hit the tree over the bunker. The second one hit the tree dead on and split it in half. The fire from the bunker area ceased. Sgt. Vance and his team were evacuated after thirteen hours. The Newsday account carries this postscript: Vance was to attend Tuesday's State of the Union speech, according to the Air Force, which turned down Associated Press requests to interview him. The military has awarded two Air Force Crosses, nine Silver Stars, eight Bronze Stars for Valor, 19 Bronze Stars for support and other decorations to personnel who fought at Takur Ghar, [a spokesman for U.S. Special Operations Command] said. The Silver Star awarded Jan. 16 to Vance, now stationed at Fort Benning, Ga., officially recognizes his "notable and unusual acts of singular bravery." Thank you Sgt. Vance, and the members of your team, for putting it on the line for us. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #4 Next time,we take the safe route and carpet bomb them with the thing they fear the most:soap. |
| Posted by: Hugh Jorgan 2003-01-29 00:10:26 |
| #3 meant that in a good way, btw, before I catch flak |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-01-28 18:01:33 |
| #2 Proof positive that, interservice rivalry aside, there's tough sons-of-bitches in all branches |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-01-28 18:00:37 |
| #1 Yes. Thank you. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-01-28 17:27:08 |