Wurzbach took his role as the interim team sergeant seriously.
He began collecting the sworn statements from the soldiers, and handling paperwork—something Ford would normally have taken care of.
But Wurzbach also had concerns about the future of the team. They were so badly shot up. Would they go home? Would they stay in Afghanistan? What was next for the team?
After waiting for a while, he decided it was time to speak to his commander.
He told the commander that there was a rumor that the team would be going back to their original firebase outside of Kabul and would switch out early. He paused before adding, “Having just heard of this—but I’m pretty certain that I speak for everyone on our team—if you do that you’ll have a real big problem on your hands. We’re not done. We’re still the mission company. We’re still combat effective. We can conduct missions and we’re ready to go. Let’s start working our next target. We may need a little help. But let’s get ready to roll. Let’s get back on the horse. We’re not going to put our tail between our legs and go home. It’s not going to work that way.”
The commander said he’d figured that would be the sentiment.
And so the team—sans Ford, Morales, Behr, and Walding—stayed in Afghanistan and conducted a few missions. They were mostly minor operations, and a few months after the Shok Valley battle, the team was redeployed to the United States.