b__Rad
08-12-2010, 04:49 PM
Sgt. Carlos Farias served in Charlie Company, 1st Platoon, 1-508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. He was deployed to Afghanistan from January 2007 to April 2008. “I wrote [this] days after the event,” he wrote in an email. “The day was hell. … I documented it to help me get over the situation, a venting process if you will. It did help some but even at that for weeks I could not sleep fearing that either one of the members of my team or myself would die in the coming missions.” Photo credit: Spc. Tyler Harrell.
***
Well it was the morning of the 6th, D day to be in fact, June 6th 2007 and we were south of Musa Qala and the Kajaki dam. Wake up was at 0120 and that was shitty on my part cuz I couldn’t fucking sleep all night and only got a couple of good hours during the day. So damn hot that you couldn’t really sleep well and if you did you woke up dehydrated as hell.
Anyways we get ready and move out to our link up point with 2nd plt., about 0300, we stage inside the abandoned compound while 2nd provided over watch for our movement. So we move out in our standard military wedge formation, our squad, 1st squad picking up the rear with my team trailing. It was me, R–, A——–. and G——. G—— and R– had the SAWs and A——– had the SMAW-D (a bad motherfucking rocket launcher). So we round the wall we had in front of our initial foothold that 2nd was in and move out to the buildings we had to clear. My bad I meant to mention before that this was suppose to be a “Raid.” Nothing too crazy, a get in, get what you need and get out kind of thing.
Alright where was I, ok we round that wall and keep in mind 3rd squad is way in front. We walk about 100 meters into a farm field surrounded by hadji compounds when BAM BAM BAM BAM, AK fire was coming from our 2 o’clock. Tracers filled up the black night. We didn’t know where it was exactly coming from. Then D—- saw the fucker running. They fired at him but missed and lost him for a sec cuz he ducked down into a ditch. Not too long after that piece of fuck ran again and D—- put a burst right in his chest. He shook a sec then fell to the ground dead.
Bout this time our squad moved into the building we had to our right and had to clear it. I don’t know how to explain the fear that I experienced being first man through a door, being a Team leader, and clearing these compounds. P—- took the first door on the right and I leapfrogged him and took the next one down. D——- and someone else took the left side that had a huge wooden door. I get to my door and look at R– and I tell him “hit it” and he kicks it in.
I rush in despite my fear and turn on my tac light. Its next to impossible to clear a compound with just night vision. Fuck the video games how you can see clear and shit. You can’t. You have to white light, and the double edge of that sword is if there is enemy in there he see’s your light and knows exactly where to shoot when you can’t see him cuz its too dark. So I get in and see the main open area and scan as quick as I can while moving forward, check my corners like crazy, so scared there was going to be a sonofabitch waiting there.
Once I’m all the way in I notice there’s a shitload of doors and yell out to my squad leader “SSG B—- I need more help securing this compound.” Thankfully I got D——-’s team cuz that huge door needed to be blown down with C4, but someone else was taking care of that. We clear that compound and I left M—— in there to make sure nobody came in from the outside to try to kill us. They blew down the heavy wooden door and we cleared that other compound. Keep in mind there was exchanging of fires the whole time this was happening. A——– and G—— got on top of the roof to see where it was coming from and fought. At one point I heard A——– empty his whole mag trying to suppress em.
We were in that area for a good while and I decided I should go up on the roof to help them out cuz SSG B—- wasn’t giving me any more guidance, it was pretty much sit tight and wait for further instructions. I get on the roof and was asking “so where is it coming from” and both were “hey see that 2 story compound, I think its coming from the 2nd story window.” So we keep an eye on it and we hear off in the distance the firefight 2nd Plt was in. They came up to help and were to our east. We couldn’t fire that way and help them cuz we would’ve endangered their lives with friendly fire. So with the combat high we had me and G—— bullshitted a little bit. “Hey how many respawns do you think we get this round?” and I was like “haha, man I dunno” (respawn is a term in many videogames that when you die you “respawn” back to your start point and continue playing).
Seconds later we get a burst of AK fire that ricocheted on the metal light pole next to us right over our head. He goes “OHH SHIT!” and sends 5.56 down their way. A——– does the same, and I fire a couple their way too before I remember “oh yeah! I have a grenade launcher.” So I yell “prepping 203!” and send 3 HEDP their way. First one was close and the other 2 were a little off, but either way if they were trying to get away, it definitely cut off their route. We suppressed them because we didn’t take anymore fire from that way and hung out for a while on the roof.
SSG B—- then yells “hey Farias get off the roof,” so I do and grab the guys and get down. I left A——– and G—— inside that compound and was seeing what was next. F—– was there in the corridor we first came in and looks at me lips quivering. “Sgt. Farias its game on man, we have one friendly KIA in the platoon, I heard on the radio, its game fucking on.” I was in total disbelief and was thinking no way, there’s no way man, impossible. Then wishful thinking later F—– came back saying “wait I think its just an enemy KIA,” which then gave me a false sense of relief. Just minutes later SSG B—- says “Farias take you, F—– and S– and go see the PL. Go now.” So I grab them up and haul ass, their way.
It was about 100 meters down and then you hook a left. They were on the wall which had holes in it. When we make that left W—— looks at me and says, “watch that hole right there!” I didn’t fully understand why just yet. I keep running up and I see R——- there with a look on his face that he wanted to cry and kill someone at the same time. I kept goin up to Lt. R——- and he says “SGT. Farias, we have one friendly KIA, its SGT. ——-. Get up there and help pull security.”
I could not, I would not believe it … I couldn’t believe what I heard and even more so when I saw him lying on the ground. He was dead. There was blood everywhere, he got shot through the right eye. I couldn’t fucking believe it. I was fucking looking right at him and I was thinking that’s not him, that’s not him, that’s not fucking him … his head was still twitching. He was dead. I don’t remember how long I stared at him but T—– finally snapped me out of it yelling at me saying “HEY! EYES ON THE PRIZE, EYES ON THE PRIZE” I snapped out of it and brought S– and myself to pull security to the west.
They picked him up and I saw the back of his head, bloody, with an exit wound. I really don’t want to explain but for documental purposes I must. It was dark red with black hues around his eye, almost like someone just got a bucket of blood and poured it all over him. The back of his head I did see but not up close. It was horrible, it was a dark crimson mess of flesh. God bless him. D—- said when he assessed his vitals he pulled him near and grabbed the back of his head, froze, felt his hand go into his head and looked at R——- and said, “He’s dead.”
The fear you feel from all this is immense, but Thank God that we train so hard. I don’t believe I could’ve done it if it wasn’t for our training. My legs were jello and my head was spinning and felt like Hell, actual biblical Hell opened a portal and demons were flying all about, but you have to keep a cool head, you must if you have any hope to survive and keep your buddy alive … and I fucking knew I didn’t wanna see anyone else die.
As soon as SSG W—– said, “were goin to fucking level this place,” I snapped, went into a blind crazy rage for a couple of minutes telling S– to kill everything in sight. W—– yelled at me to calm down (and he’s a crazy scary bastard) and I yelled right back at him “I AM FUCKING CALM!” I can’t believe I said that. The stages of grief were setting in. Me and K——- are pulling security on a small dirt mound making sure no fire came from our west while F—– was helping with ——-, get his IBA off so they could carry him back. F—– was dry heaving the whole time. I don’t blame him. T—– finally got ——- on his shoulders and ran him back to the first building we were in.
Next thing that happened was SSG W—– looks at me and S– and says “we gotta go now, back to the CCP” (first building we were in). I was goin to tell him to go first and we have him covered but before I even got a word out, BOOM! RPG (rocket propelled grenade) hits 10 meters on our right, right on the wall. “We got to go NOW,” so I pick up S– and myself and haul ass, dead sprint with all 35 – 40 lbs of gear on back 200 meters to the foothold. I was so fucking scared cuz I thought the RPG knocked down the wall and they were going to fire through the dust and smoke. Thank the Good Lord they didn’t.
We get on top of the roof which went up and down like waves and a tall 5 ft wall that we could barely see over to see where these fuckers were. We exchange rounds for a while and we find that they were in the 2 story building we took contact from before. SSG W—– tells A——– who was right next to me “SMAW-D, hit that building.” Finally he gets to use his SMAW-D after hauling it everywhere. So he preps it and gets it set up “BACK BLAST AREA CLEAR.” I’m covering my ears and opening my mouth for the concussion and I hear the boom. “GOD DAMN THAT WAS A GOOD SHOT!!!!!” W—– yelled. A——– fucking nailed it, right in the 2 foot by 4 foot window from nearly 150 meters away. If anything was alive in there it wasn’t anymore.
Soon enough the F-15’s were flying overhead ready to JDAM the fuck out of this place. Man did the sound of those jets sound good. They did a gun run and then dropped em. I figure the pilot wanted to have some fun too. After about 2 JDAMs we got off the roof and were waiting for another to drop and when it did we were goin to the building. THE building we were taking fire from, the same one A——– lit up with the SMAW-D. And guess who was in the lead, yeah, yours truly. Don’t get me wrong I was scared, the most scared I have ever been in my life. I’m surprised looking back on it that I could stand up with my cream of wheat legs. They were so damn weak. We don’t even get a bombs away call, just a BOOM, and we were like fuck, alright use the smoke for cover, we got to go now.
So I head out back and run towards the building. I hit a wall before a 150 meter sprint through a farm field, waited for everyone to catch up and for S—— to open up with his M240B machine gun. SSG B—- says “go Farias go,” and I run as fast as I can despite my gelatin legs. All the while cracks of 7.62 were goin over my head delivered by our weapons squad. If you think firing a gun is loud, you don’t even know how loud that crack of the round is screaming by your head when it breaks the sound barrier when they’re flying towards you.
Out of breath I reach the compound and kick it open, so fucking afraid, especially after seeing ——-, that some bastard was goin to be hiding somewhere, like I’d be looking at one place and he’d pop out of the other while my back was turned or that he’d get the jump on me. I don’t know how to explain that fear, my buddy G— from back home probably said it best, its an “impending sense of doom.” I was nauseated this whole time, dehydrated, scared shitless, but had to keep going. I had a damn team to lead. It was so fucking hard, at times you just want to quit, and hearing they received ICOM traffic that Taliban was saying they were goin to hide in the compounds and ambush us didn’t help. I just kept telling myself that it was just Satan or one of his demons wanting me to quit. I used that for motivation along with my guys I had to lead as well. I was fishing for anything to keep me going.
About this time the firefight had stopped and we had to clear around a 800 meter by 700 meter square area of compounds and buildings. Mind you we were nearly “black” on water. That means empty whether it be black on ammo or whatever. All the compounds we cleared didn’t have anyone in em, if there was they wouldn’t be safe, that is all I will say. I remember clearing one area and seeing spots where enemy had pre-positioned RPG’s so they could hit us and keep running. We cleared one spot where there was a camouflaged fighting position, and then I point and round a corner and see a lone grenade sitting by itself. I told B—- that we really shouldn’t go near it and we didn’t, we took the long way around.
After about 3 hours of clearing we reach a northern most point of our objective and finally get cut a break for a little bit. I really needed it. I checked my pulse and it was over the roof. 120 bpm, sitting down resting. I don’t even want to know how high it was at its peak. I was so surprised I didn’t become a heat casualty.
So after about 20 min. of sitting down, W—— comes rushing into the main part where we all were and says “hey we gotta guy walking through the field!” So we asked “well does he have a weapon?” And he says “uhh I dunno, heh” and goes back. “Oh Shit he does have a weapon!” And with no further ado all of us in unison yell “WELL FUCKING SHOOT HIM!!!!!!!!” So S—- lets off a burst from his SAW and misses, that fucker went behind the wall. The hornets were stirred up once again, everyone is goin crazy, more guys are on the roof, and even more were cluster fucked in the opening, bloodthirsty to avenge our fallen brother.
The compound we were in this time had a section with large 30 ft walls with slits big enough to stick your rifle out of. No question about it, that was built to fight out of. Thank God we got to it first. I say that because the next events were astonishing when you think about it. A couple of hadji’s on motorcycles were riding towards us from the north about 150 meters away. SSG W—– gave them a warning shot to stop and when they didn’t he said “light em the fuck up!!” A wall of 5.56 hit them, both falling down off the motorcycles, one tried playing dead for a second and tried getting back up only to be put down once again with much violence. So much violence that it exploded the gas tank on the bike lighting both of them aflame. Behind the wall they made a left on to come our way were 5 more bikes with 2 fuckers each.
Now this is why I say it was astonishing because for the fact that these were Taliban fighters, these were the reinforcements coming to our compound, the compound designed to be a fighting position stronghold. If we were there 30 minutes later than we were, it would have been bad. 30 minutes doesn’t sound like a long time but fuck you, time goes into an impossible warp, it seems its going slower than slow yet when you gotta time hack, its never enough time. Mind you we had a shitload of compounds to clear. So don’t give me shit.
Anyway our FO (forward observer, they call in mortar fire and close air support) calls in mortars, lands one right one top of the fuckers on fire and later I found out he came over the radio saying “I’M A FUCKIN PIMP!!” This is especially funny cuz F—- (our FO) is such a mild mannered, quiet, down to earth kinda guy. Anyway he mortared the hell out of them and the bastards on the 5 bikes. All dead. That was taking place more north eastern of the compound we were in. Now it switched to the west almost immediately. AK and RPK fire was going right over our heads once again, at times for the guys on the roof it was hitting the roof. One round hit right in between R–’s legs and ricocheted over A——–’s head. Not long after that it was literally inches over SSG W—–’s head.
So of course naturally the gears of 3rd plt started turning again, smoothly despite the dirt and blood and wear that was put on them. LT and F—- called in mortars, weapons had the 240 in action suppressing, M——, D—- and S—- pushed up bravely under fire to get a better vantage on them and return effective fire, R——- was lobbing 203 rounds their way. These Taliban were not your run of the mill, they could shoot and fight better than your usual. I had one motherfucker in my sights in the compound north of the area we were getting fire from. In fact there were two of them, one in a white man dress and another in a brown one. I fired at the one in white but he went behind the wall. A little while later the brown man dress guy popped out and I put my red dot on his head and fired. I’m not sure if I hit him or not but he did go down behind the wall and telling from the motion of his body he either fell to his knees or ducked. But he didn’t do the usual “jerk”ing motion of when a round flies by you to duck for cover. I really, really hope I shot him right in the back of the head.
LT was a kid in a candy store at this point. I say that cuz we had the F-15’s back in action dropping the notorious JDAMs. The first 2 dropped and blew the fuck out of a couple compounds. There was still an insurgent in there cuz we got ICOM traffic saying “the Americans are getting close, they dropped a bomb right next to our building.” Dumb fuck, what little he fucking knew. So after that dumbass pretty much told us where to bomb next the pilot comes over the net saying in not so many words, uhh hey, I got this other bomb, you want me to drop it? I mean it’s just a hop, skip and button push away. So again like I said, LT, kid in a candy store on a shopping spree. We drop 2 more JDAMs and still mortar the hell out of it, and yeah they stopped firing, finally things quieted down.
All in all as a platoon, we did well. I’m proud of every single guy. Keep in mind for 3/4ths of the platoon this was our first big firefight. Nobody freaked out, everyone’s head was in the game scanning, watching each other’s back. SSG W—– complimented us and that’s saying a lot coming from him. Even more so we got compliments from a British SAS general along with our own division general, Major General R——–. In our platoon we had 20 guys at the time fighting. Upper chain of command estimated about 35 Taliban casualties. 15 to 20 by our hands, the rest from mortars and JDAMs. The day of June 6th, D-Day for us as well, brought our platoon closer together. Really close. I finally, truly understand the term brothers in arms, and everything that comes with it. We may not be blood, but by blood we came together.
God Bless you ——-. We would give anything in the world to have you back. We love you. Please if you read this say a prayer for him, his wife and two kids. Don’t take anything or anyone in this world for granted. One day you’ll be bullshitting with him and the next he’s gone. You don’t know and you won’t know … every second counts.
This is also further proof that MW2 DOES get joked about in the service..
***
Well it was the morning of the 6th, D day to be in fact, June 6th 2007 and we were south of Musa Qala and the Kajaki dam. Wake up was at 0120 and that was shitty on my part cuz I couldn’t fucking sleep all night and only got a couple of good hours during the day. So damn hot that you couldn’t really sleep well and if you did you woke up dehydrated as hell.
Anyways we get ready and move out to our link up point with 2nd plt., about 0300, we stage inside the abandoned compound while 2nd provided over watch for our movement. So we move out in our standard military wedge formation, our squad, 1st squad picking up the rear with my team trailing. It was me, R–, A——–. and G——. G—— and R– had the SAWs and A——– had the SMAW-D (a bad motherfucking rocket launcher). So we round the wall we had in front of our initial foothold that 2nd was in and move out to the buildings we had to clear. My bad I meant to mention before that this was suppose to be a “Raid.” Nothing too crazy, a get in, get what you need and get out kind of thing.
Alright where was I, ok we round that wall and keep in mind 3rd squad is way in front. We walk about 100 meters into a farm field surrounded by hadji compounds when BAM BAM BAM BAM, AK fire was coming from our 2 o’clock. Tracers filled up the black night. We didn’t know where it was exactly coming from. Then D—- saw the fucker running. They fired at him but missed and lost him for a sec cuz he ducked down into a ditch. Not too long after that piece of fuck ran again and D—- put a burst right in his chest. He shook a sec then fell to the ground dead.
Bout this time our squad moved into the building we had to our right and had to clear it. I don’t know how to explain the fear that I experienced being first man through a door, being a Team leader, and clearing these compounds. P—- took the first door on the right and I leapfrogged him and took the next one down. D——- and someone else took the left side that had a huge wooden door. I get to my door and look at R– and I tell him “hit it” and he kicks it in.
I rush in despite my fear and turn on my tac light. Its next to impossible to clear a compound with just night vision. Fuck the video games how you can see clear and shit. You can’t. You have to white light, and the double edge of that sword is if there is enemy in there he see’s your light and knows exactly where to shoot when you can’t see him cuz its too dark. So I get in and see the main open area and scan as quick as I can while moving forward, check my corners like crazy, so scared there was going to be a sonofabitch waiting there.
Once I’m all the way in I notice there’s a shitload of doors and yell out to my squad leader “SSG B—- I need more help securing this compound.” Thankfully I got D——-’s team cuz that huge door needed to be blown down with C4, but someone else was taking care of that. We clear that compound and I left M—— in there to make sure nobody came in from the outside to try to kill us. They blew down the heavy wooden door and we cleared that other compound. Keep in mind there was exchanging of fires the whole time this was happening. A——– and G—— got on top of the roof to see where it was coming from and fought. At one point I heard A——– empty his whole mag trying to suppress em.
We were in that area for a good while and I decided I should go up on the roof to help them out cuz SSG B—- wasn’t giving me any more guidance, it was pretty much sit tight and wait for further instructions. I get on the roof and was asking “so where is it coming from” and both were “hey see that 2 story compound, I think its coming from the 2nd story window.” So we keep an eye on it and we hear off in the distance the firefight 2nd Plt was in. They came up to help and were to our east. We couldn’t fire that way and help them cuz we would’ve endangered their lives with friendly fire. So with the combat high we had me and G—— bullshitted a little bit. “Hey how many respawns do you think we get this round?” and I was like “haha, man I dunno” (respawn is a term in many videogames that when you die you “respawn” back to your start point and continue playing).
Seconds later we get a burst of AK fire that ricocheted on the metal light pole next to us right over our head. He goes “OHH SHIT!” and sends 5.56 down their way. A——– does the same, and I fire a couple their way too before I remember “oh yeah! I have a grenade launcher.” So I yell “prepping 203!” and send 3 HEDP their way. First one was close and the other 2 were a little off, but either way if they were trying to get away, it definitely cut off their route. We suppressed them because we didn’t take anymore fire from that way and hung out for a while on the roof.
SSG B—- then yells “hey Farias get off the roof,” so I do and grab the guys and get down. I left A——– and G—— inside that compound and was seeing what was next. F—– was there in the corridor we first came in and looks at me lips quivering. “Sgt. Farias its game on man, we have one friendly KIA in the platoon, I heard on the radio, its game fucking on.” I was in total disbelief and was thinking no way, there’s no way man, impossible. Then wishful thinking later F—– came back saying “wait I think its just an enemy KIA,” which then gave me a false sense of relief. Just minutes later SSG B—- says “Farias take you, F—– and S– and go see the PL. Go now.” So I grab them up and haul ass, their way.
It was about 100 meters down and then you hook a left. They were on the wall which had holes in it. When we make that left W—— looks at me and says, “watch that hole right there!” I didn’t fully understand why just yet. I keep running up and I see R——- there with a look on his face that he wanted to cry and kill someone at the same time. I kept goin up to Lt. R——- and he says “SGT. Farias, we have one friendly KIA, its SGT. ——-. Get up there and help pull security.”
I could not, I would not believe it … I couldn’t believe what I heard and even more so when I saw him lying on the ground. He was dead. There was blood everywhere, he got shot through the right eye. I couldn’t fucking believe it. I was fucking looking right at him and I was thinking that’s not him, that’s not him, that’s not fucking him … his head was still twitching. He was dead. I don’t remember how long I stared at him but T—– finally snapped me out of it yelling at me saying “HEY! EYES ON THE PRIZE, EYES ON THE PRIZE” I snapped out of it and brought S– and myself to pull security to the west.
They picked him up and I saw the back of his head, bloody, with an exit wound. I really don’t want to explain but for documental purposes I must. It was dark red with black hues around his eye, almost like someone just got a bucket of blood and poured it all over him. The back of his head I did see but not up close. It was horrible, it was a dark crimson mess of flesh. God bless him. D—- said when he assessed his vitals he pulled him near and grabbed the back of his head, froze, felt his hand go into his head and looked at R——- and said, “He’s dead.”
The fear you feel from all this is immense, but Thank God that we train so hard. I don’t believe I could’ve done it if it wasn’t for our training. My legs were jello and my head was spinning and felt like Hell, actual biblical Hell opened a portal and demons were flying all about, but you have to keep a cool head, you must if you have any hope to survive and keep your buddy alive … and I fucking knew I didn’t wanna see anyone else die.
As soon as SSG W—– said, “were goin to fucking level this place,” I snapped, went into a blind crazy rage for a couple of minutes telling S– to kill everything in sight. W—– yelled at me to calm down (and he’s a crazy scary bastard) and I yelled right back at him “I AM FUCKING CALM!” I can’t believe I said that. The stages of grief were setting in. Me and K——- are pulling security on a small dirt mound making sure no fire came from our west while F—– was helping with ——-, get his IBA off so they could carry him back. F—– was dry heaving the whole time. I don’t blame him. T—– finally got ——- on his shoulders and ran him back to the first building we were in.
Next thing that happened was SSG W—– looks at me and S– and says “we gotta go now, back to the CCP” (first building we were in). I was goin to tell him to go first and we have him covered but before I even got a word out, BOOM! RPG (rocket propelled grenade) hits 10 meters on our right, right on the wall. “We got to go NOW,” so I pick up S– and myself and haul ass, dead sprint with all 35 – 40 lbs of gear on back 200 meters to the foothold. I was so fucking scared cuz I thought the RPG knocked down the wall and they were going to fire through the dust and smoke. Thank the Good Lord they didn’t.
We get on top of the roof which went up and down like waves and a tall 5 ft wall that we could barely see over to see where these fuckers were. We exchange rounds for a while and we find that they were in the 2 story building we took contact from before. SSG W—– tells A——– who was right next to me “SMAW-D, hit that building.” Finally he gets to use his SMAW-D after hauling it everywhere. So he preps it and gets it set up “BACK BLAST AREA CLEAR.” I’m covering my ears and opening my mouth for the concussion and I hear the boom. “GOD DAMN THAT WAS A GOOD SHOT!!!!!” W—– yelled. A——– fucking nailed it, right in the 2 foot by 4 foot window from nearly 150 meters away. If anything was alive in there it wasn’t anymore.
Soon enough the F-15’s were flying overhead ready to JDAM the fuck out of this place. Man did the sound of those jets sound good. They did a gun run and then dropped em. I figure the pilot wanted to have some fun too. After about 2 JDAMs we got off the roof and were waiting for another to drop and when it did we were goin to the building. THE building we were taking fire from, the same one A——– lit up with the SMAW-D. And guess who was in the lead, yeah, yours truly. Don’t get me wrong I was scared, the most scared I have ever been in my life. I’m surprised looking back on it that I could stand up with my cream of wheat legs. They were so damn weak. We don’t even get a bombs away call, just a BOOM, and we were like fuck, alright use the smoke for cover, we got to go now.
So I head out back and run towards the building. I hit a wall before a 150 meter sprint through a farm field, waited for everyone to catch up and for S—— to open up with his M240B machine gun. SSG B—- says “go Farias go,” and I run as fast as I can despite my gelatin legs. All the while cracks of 7.62 were goin over my head delivered by our weapons squad. If you think firing a gun is loud, you don’t even know how loud that crack of the round is screaming by your head when it breaks the sound barrier when they’re flying towards you.
Out of breath I reach the compound and kick it open, so fucking afraid, especially after seeing ——-, that some bastard was goin to be hiding somewhere, like I’d be looking at one place and he’d pop out of the other while my back was turned or that he’d get the jump on me. I don’t know how to explain that fear, my buddy G— from back home probably said it best, its an “impending sense of doom.” I was nauseated this whole time, dehydrated, scared shitless, but had to keep going. I had a damn team to lead. It was so fucking hard, at times you just want to quit, and hearing they received ICOM traffic that Taliban was saying they were goin to hide in the compounds and ambush us didn’t help. I just kept telling myself that it was just Satan or one of his demons wanting me to quit. I used that for motivation along with my guys I had to lead as well. I was fishing for anything to keep me going.
About this time the firefight had stopped and we had to clear around a 800 meter by 700 meter square area of compounds and buildings. Mind you we were nearly “black” on water. That means empty whether it be black on ammo or whatever. All the compounds we cleared didn’t have anyone in em, if there was they wouldn’t be safe, that is all I will say. I remember clearing one area and seeing spots where enemy had pre-positioned RPG’s so they could hit us and keep running. We cleared one spot where there was a camouflaged fighting position, and then I point and round a corner and see a lone grenade sitting by itself. I told B—- that we really shouldn’t go near it and we didn’t, we took the long way around.
After about 3 hours of clearing we reach a northern most point of our objective and finally get cut a break for a little bit. I really needed it. I checked my pulse and it was over the roof. 120 bpm, sitting down resting. I don’t even want to know how high it was at its peak. I was so surprised I didn’t become a heat casualty.
So after about 20 min. of sitting down, W—— comes rushing into the main part where we all were and says “hey we gotta guy walking through the field!” So we asked “well does he have a weapon?” And he says “uhh I dunno, heh” and goes back. “Oh Shit he does have a weapon!” And with no further ado all of us in unison yell “WELL FUCKING SHOOT HIM!!!!!!!!” So S—- lets off a burst from his SAW and misses, that fucker went behind the wall. The hornets were stirred up once again, everyone is goin crazy, more guys are on the roof, and even more were cluster fucked in the opening, bloodthirsty to avenge our fallen brother.
The compound we were in this time had a section with large 30 ft walls with slits big enough to stick your rifle out of. No question about it, that was built to fight out of. Thank God we got to it first. I say that because the next events were astonishing when you think about it. A couple of hadji’s on motorcycles were riding towards us from the north about 150 meters away. SSG W—– gave them a warning shot to stop and when they didn’t he said “light em the fuck up!!” A wall of 5.56 hit them, both falling down off the motorcycles, one tried playing dead for a second and tried getting back up only to be put down once again with much violence. So much violence that it exploded the gas tank on the bike lighting both of them aflame. Behind the wall they made a left on to come our way were 5 more bikes with 2 fuckers each.
Now this is why I say it was astonishing because for the fact that these were Taliban fighters, these were the reinforcements coming to our compound, the compound designed to be a fighting position stronghold. If we were there 30 minutes later than we were, it would have been bad. 30 minutes doesn’t sound like a long time but fuck you, time goes into an impossible warp, it seems its going slower than slow yet when you gotta time hack, its never enough time. Mind you we had a shitload of compounds to clear. So don’t give me shit.
Anyway our FO (forward observer, they call in mortar fire and close air support) calls in mortars, lands one right one top of the fuckers on fire and later I found out he came over the radio saying “I’M A FUCKIN PIMP!!” This is especially funny cuz F—- (our FO) is such a mild mannered, quiet, down to earth kinda guy. Anyway he mortared the hell out of them and the bastards on the 5 bikes. All dead. That was taking place more north eastern of the compound we were in. Now it switched to the west almost immediately. AK and RPK fire was going right over our heads once again, at times for the guys on the roof it was hitting the roof. One round hit right in between R–’s legs and ricocheted over A——–’s head. Not long after that it was literally inches over SSG W—–’s head.
So of course naturally the gears of 3rd plt started turning again, smoothly despite the dirt and blood and wear that was put on them. LT and F—- called in mortars, weapons had the 240 in action suppressing, M——, D—- and S—- pushed up bravely under fire to get a better vantage on them and return effective fire, R——- was lobbing 203 rounds their way. These Taliban were not your run of the mill, they could shoot and fight better than your usual. I had one motherfucker in my sights in the compound north of the area we were getting fire from. In fact there were two of them, one in a white man dress and another in a brown one. I fired at the one in white but he went behind the wall. A little while later the brown man dress guy popped out and I put my red dot on his head and fired. I’m not sure if I hit him or not but he did go down behind the wall and telling from the motion of his body he either fell to his knees or ducked. But he didn’t do the usual “jerk”ing motion of when a round flies by you to duck for cover. I really, really hope I shot him right in the back of the head.
LT was a kid in a candy store at this point. I say that cuz we had the F-15’s back in action dropping the notorious JDAMs. The first 2 dropped and blew the fuck out of a couple compounds. There was still an insurgent in there cuz we got ICOM traffic saying “the Americans are getting close, they dropped a bomb right next to our building.” Dumb fuck, what little he fucking knew. So after that dumbass pretty much told us where to bomb next the pilot comes over the net saying in not so many words, uhh hey, I got this other bomb, you want me to drop it? I mean it’s just a hop, skip and button push away. So again like I said, LT, kid in a candy store on a shopping spree. We drop 2 more JDAMs and still mortar the hell out of it, and yeah they stopped firing, finally things quieted down.
All in all as a platoon, we did well. I’m proud of every single guy. Keep in mind for 3/4ths of the platoon this was our first big firefight. Nobody freaked out, everyone’s head was in the game scanning, watching each other’s back. SSG W—– complimented us and that’s saying a lot coming from him. Even more so we got compliments from a British SAS general along with our own division general, Major General R——–. In our platoon we had 20 guys at the time fighting. Upper chain of command estimated about 35 Taliban casualties. 15 to 20 by our hands, the rest from mortars and JDAMs. The day of June 6th, D-Day for us as well, brought our platoon closer together. Really close. I finally, truly understand the term brothers in arms, and everything that comes with it. We may not be blood, but by blood we came together.
God Bless you ——-. We would give anything in the world to have you back. We love you. Please if you read this say a prayer for him, his wife and two kids. Don’t take anything or anyone in this world for granted. One day you’ll be bullshitting with him and the next he’s gone. You don’t know and you won’t know … every second counts.
This is also further proof that MW2 DOES get joked about in the service..