[Dan]

part II

Three-story Implosion

The only break in the battle was when a bomb was dropped on a three-story building. The building exploded outward. "Good guy or bad guy, you're going to stop when you see that," said Morales. "It reminded me of the videos from 9/11 - everything starts flushing at you, debris starts falling - and everything gets darker."

"I was totally in the cloud of black smoke. I couldn't see an inch in front of my face," said Howard.

Plants recalls hearing the call for fire and wanting to see where the bomb was going.

"I was staring at it and saw the building go up," he said. "I remember looking up, and then all of this stuff starting coming down. All I could do was roll up tight and hug the cliff wall."

Sniper Turns Tide

The battle started to turn when Howard, a trained sniper, started picking the insurgents off. Howard was not in the lead element, and he had to fight his way up the mountain to come to the aid of his team.

The fight was not easy. He and the team of commandos he led up the mountain were under intense insurgent fire. They were getting hit with rocket-propelled grenades, small arms and machine-gun fire.

"We knew some of our guys were hurt and that we had to get to them," said Howard.

"We were pinned down," said Walton. "When the fire became so intense, we moved out onto a ledge against the cliff to protect our wounded. What turned the battle was Seth (Howard) and his element."

Howard directed the Afghan commandos to fire on insurgent position so that he could get into place with his sniper rifle and his recoiless rifle.

"They had been hunting us, and now they were getting hunted, too," said Walton. "We had been trying to return fire, but we couldn't find them. They were firing in a very disciplined manner. They were not hanging out windows or running at us."

As Howard and his element engaged the enemy, Walton knew time was running out. Reports from the air said more insurgents were moving in their direction. Everyone on the team had sustained some sort of injury, four of them critical, and the commandos had their share of injuries, as well.

"Everyone kept fighting, but there was a window closing on us," said Walton. "We knew we had to get out."

One Way Out

"Our higher command told us we had to get out of there," said Walton. "The weather conditions were closing in, and the window to be on the ground was rapidly closing. Most of the objective was gone at that point, but our casualties were mounting - we were in a mass-casualty scenario at that point - and they became our priority. We never thought of retreating. That was never an option."

"The weather was deciding factor," continued Howard. "When the weather rolled in we could be stuck there at least overnight, possibly for days. They couldn't fly in to get us, and we would have been stranded in completely hostile territory. That was not a plan for success, especially with the pilots observing another 200 insurgents moving in on us."

With their backs literally against a wall, and recognizing that they couldn't go down the same way they came up - the switchbacks they had climbed up were the primary focus of the insurgent fire - they began assessing another route for exfil.

Final Cliff-hanger

"We knew we couldn't go back the way we came, so our only option was going down the cliff," said Walton.

Had the team been healthy, that would have been a difficult scenario. But with the number of wounded and the fire raining down, it seemed impossible. But Walton knew he had to take the chance.

"We were completely pinned down. There was intense fire all around us. We couldn't leave the casualties. We were prepared to sit there and die with them, but we decided we were going to get them out of there," he said.

Sanders made the first climb down the mountain by himself. When he climbed back up the sheer face of the cliff, Walton had one question, "Do you think we can make it down?"

Sanders' reply put the climb in perspective, "Does it matter if they have broken necks or backs?"

"My question was will they live," said Walton. With Sanders' assurance that they would live, the team began the treacherous climb.

Master Sgt. Scott Ford, the team sergeant, set up the medevac and organized the less seriously wounded to carry the more critically injured down. While organizing the commandos, Ford was shot in the chest plate by sniper fire. He immediately got to his feet and continued to lay down suppressive fire. One of the insurgent snipers had Ford in his sights, and he shot him in the upper left arm, nearly severing it. With a tourniquet around his arm, Ford climbed down the mountain and continued to organize the medevac.

Morales said that the team made its way down the cliff hanging onto branches and rocks. Near the bottom of the cliff, most made a 20-foot drop. I remember seeing John (Walding) carrying his leg down. (Walding's leg had been amputed by sniper fire.)"

As the wounded made their way down the cliff, Howard, Walton and Spec. Michael Carter, a combat cameraman assigned to the unit, remained behind to lay down suppressive fire and retrieve equipment.

"There were a lot of guns around where everybody had been shot," said Howard. "It kind of became an issue that there were too many guns up there, and we didn't want to leave them in enemy hands."

Carter ran through a hail of fire to retrieve guns and other equipment. His own cameras had been shot up during the initial hours of the battle. He gathered equipment and began throwing it off the cliff, while Howard continued to pick off enemy combatants.

"The stars really aligned," said Walton. "Bullets were coming down from the side and behinds us, and we could hear guys yelling above us. An element that came to reinforce the team that was on the ground stepped out into the open and started firing and gave us the chance to get out. Seth was crazy enough to stay up there and cover us while we made the climb down."

Alone, with less than a magazine of ammunition left, Howard covered his team as they made their way down, and only after they were safe, did he leave the mountain.

"We didn't go into this mission hoping to make history. For us, it was just a regular mission - just like the one we had done the week before. Our goal is never to get into a fight, we'd rather sit down and drink some chai," said Walton. "We were hoping this mission would be the same, but we got into a big fight, and some of us got hit while trying to save each other. That's what we do."

The team as a whole is looking forward to returning to Afghanistan to continue its mission with the commandos.

"We think we sent a pretty big message to the insurgents. We let them know that we could penetrate their comfort zone. We told them there's nowhere you are safe that we aren't willing to come in and go after you," concluded Walton.

--usasoc--