PUT YOUR MOUTHPIECE IN
Everybody in Afghanistan ought to know we’re coming in and hell’s coming with us.
—FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
ROBERT MCFARLANE (Face the Nation, October 28, 2001)
Growling, barking, and hissing jolted us awake the next morning. A pack of wild dogs was fighting close by, just on the outer edge of the perimeter between my truck and Smitty’s.
Brian rolled off the hood of the truck with the first growl, his rifle at the ready. We slept on the hoods of our trucks to avoid camel spiders and vipers. It looked like the dogs were fighting over a large stick. But when Brian and I got closer, we realized that the stick was an arm, probably from one of the Taliban soldiers killed in the fighting the day before.
The pack was a mix of Afghan wolfhounds and mastiffs brought over by the Russians and bred for fighting and protection. They towered over most rottweilers and had the temperament of pit bulls with roid rage. I didn’t want them coming any closer. I’d seen them maul ANA soldiers in the past and wasn’t going to take any chances now.
“Shoot that SOB before he comes over here,” I told Brian, locking eyes with the leader, a massive gray animal with dirty, matted fur and a wild look in its eyes.
Without saying a word, he shouldered his rifle and fired. The bullet clearly passed through the dog, which shot its attention to us, but it didn’t seem to notice the bullet. Brian raised the rifle again and fired. The second round slammed into its chest. The dog staggered back, howling, and dropped dead, scattering the rest of the pack. But they wouldn’t stay away long. The fresh kill would be difficult to resist, and I knew they’d be back after a while to tear it apart too.
As the sun peeked over the mountains, I started packing up my sleeping bag and gear. My mood turned foul when I realized the dogs had cost me nearly an hour’s sleep. We made our preparations using night vision and made sure the Afghans knew the plan. Finally, Jared radioed the countdown to start the engines. As before, all eleven trucks started at once, like the beginning of a NASCAR race.
Dave racked the charging handle on his Browning twice to ensure the new .50-cal round was seated cleanly in the chamber. Brian fiddled with his kit, leaned his rifle out the window, and stuffed bottles of water beside his seat. I cradled my machine gun and reached back to make sure my rifle, boxes of fresh magazines, new rockets, and water bottles were in place. It was just a formality, but touching them eased my mind. I popped in a piece of cinnamon gum and tapped the can of Copenhagen in my pocket. Dagga tse dagga da; it is what it is.
We were ready.
“Talon 31 elements, give me an ‘UP’ when you are ready to go.” All three trucks responded in kind over the radio, and I called Jared to let him know we were ready.
“Eagle 10, this is Talon 30, request permission to kick off,” Jared called back to the TOC.
In my mind I could see Bolduc sitting in front of the monitors in Kandahar waiting for the show to start. Predator drones buzzed overhead, giving him a bird’s-eye view of the action. Modern commanders can now watch a battle unfold live from complete safety, but we knew Bolduc wanted to be out here with us, not watching the action on a monitor. But on this day, the Predator was as close as he could get.
Assault on Sperwan Ghar (September 5, 2006)
Enemy Counterattacks (September 5-10, 2006)
Detail map below depicts the numerous fields, irrigation ditches, and compounds surrounding the hill known as Sperwan Ghar.
Initial assault position.
SFC Stube and SFC Mishura hit an IED.
This is where SSGT Voss’s rescue of SFC Stube took place during the attack on Sperwan Ghar.
Schoolhouse that ODA 26 and CPT Hodges’s team had to assault.
Sperwan Ghar.
This was the primary location of the Taliban concentration and was the focal point of the assault. Whoever owned Sperwan Ghar owned the southern half of the valley.
Compound and stronghold of a high-ranking Taliban commander, Hafiz Majid. As we assaulted Sperwan Ghar, horrendous fire poured into our flank from this location, which also had a direct line of fire to SSGT Voss as he tried to rescue SFC Stube.
“Talon 30, this is Eagle 10, permission granted.”
I grabbed the black radio hand mike clipped to the sun visor above my head.
“Put your mouthpiece in for this one, boys, cause it is gonna hurt.”
Brian just nodded his head. Nothing more needed to be said. I squeezed the handset again. “All Talon 30 elements, truck 1 is moving.”
Sunlight streaked through the valley. The light was a blessing for the ANA, who didn’t have night vision, and a curse for us all, because now the Taliban could see us coming. We slowly passed the mounds of empty shell casings that marked where Dave’s team had pried us out of the ambush two days ago. The grape hut where we spotted the Taliban scout on the first assault came into view. Hopefully, the Taliban would be still asleep or praying when we got to the hill.
No such luck. The speaker systems in the local mosques that usually announced morning prayers began a call to arms.
“Contact front!” Dave shouted. He dropped down in the turret as bullets cracked around the truck.
“Talon 30, this is Talon 31, contact front. Troops in contact!”
Bill wasn’t in the mood to screw around. Calling for us to stop, he snatched the Goose recoilless rifle from his truck, darted out, and took a knee. From behind our truck I heard someone yell, “Back blast area clear!” and then “Oh, shit!” from the back of the truck, as the high-explosive rocket streaked past my door at nearly a thousand feet per second and slammed into the mud compound.
“GO! GO! GO!” Bill yelled before the dust settled. Now we had the initiative, at least mentally. If the Taliban wanted to fight it out today, by God, they’d get all they wanted.
We shot through the dozen or so shallow irrigation ditches crisscrossing the open field and drove quickly toward the berm at the base of the hill. The fire was sporadic and we managed to make it past the point where we had been stopped two days earlier. Had we really just caught the Taliban off guard? Maybe they thought we weren’t coming back. Sometimes lightning does strike twice in the same spot. Either way, it was a good sign.
We stayed off the main road leading over the berm to the hill. If there were any mines or IEDs, they would probably be on the road. When we came to the base of the berm I jumped out and took cover behind a twenty-foot-tall earthen mound. I motioned for my Afghan machine-gun teams and shouted commands in Pashto. This was one of those times my seven months in language school came in handy. An Afghan soldier carrying a Russian PKM machine gun cursed as enemy fire kicked up dirt all around us. The rate of fire increased steadily. The Taliban were awake now.
We had to clear a new berm, not visible on the two-year-old imagery on my computer, before we could get a clear field of fire. I crawled to the top and saw a set of compounds and a building to my right. Towering over us was Sperwan Ghar.
The ashy gray hill stood nearly sixty feet tall, looming over the small U-shaped building we’d seen on the map. There were six smaller structures at the base of the hill, all collapsed, as well as several old rusted Soviet trucks and a water tank. I caught a glimpse of movement in the windows of the main building.
I crawled back about a yard from the crest and gave the final assault call. Nearly two dozen Special Forces soldiers and ANA soldiers sprinted off their vehicles toward the safety of the berm. An ANA soldier plopped down beside me, set up his machine gun, and started firing while Bill collected the remainder of the ANA machine gunners and moved them into a line with my position on the berm.
“You—fire north to first building! You—take ammunition to machine gunner. You—protect right side machine gunner from Taliban,” I screamed in Pashto. No doubt the grammar and pronunciation weren’t perfect, but no one gave a shit at that point.
The return fire picked up and soon a maelstrom of fire rained down on us. Tracer fire zipped so close I could reach up and touch it. Rounds exploded in the dirt near my head. I rolled on my back to try to see where it was coming from. Rounds hit from the right, front, and rear of the berm. I raced back to my truck and grabbed my M240. Leaning over in the seat, I shouted at Brian to move up. “Drive up the side of the berm and just crest the top so Dave can fire! No matter what, stay off the road.”
Brian ground the gears into place and crept up the berm until Dave opened up with his .50 cal, swinging the massive machine gun from side to side to keep the fighters’ heads down. The rounds punched through the walls of the buildings. There would be no back room for the enemy to hide in. Jumping out of my truck, I dashed along the base of the berm toward some Afghan soldiers huddled behind it. Grabbing a PKM machine gun from an ANA soldier, I crawled with it up the hill and stopped exactly where I wanted it, fixing the bipod legs in position. I fired a ten-round burst, showing the Afghan gunner behind me where to shoot, motioning for him to fire in an arc. He flashed a quick smile, nodded, and went to work.
I wanted to get back to my truck and my gun. I ran along the backside of the berm, dirty, salty sweat pouring down my face. There was no covert way to get there. Rounds kicked up the dirt around me. Bullets cracked, passing way too close to me, to everyone. I needed to get down soon, before one of these assholes got lucky.
As I dove into my truck, Hodge staged the assault force behind the line of machine guns.
“Hodge, it’s Rusty. There’s a slight depression on the far side of the berm that you can use for cover,” I radioed. Procedural call signs and normal radio procedures take too long in the midst of a firefight. You say what needs to be said.
The assault force could set up in the defilade while we fired into the enemy positions, but they would still have to charge straight over the berm, into the teeth of the fire, and then clear a school built on a little plateau partway to the summit of the hill, which we couldn’t leave occupied by the enemy. “This school was donated to the people of Afghanistan by UNICEF” was clearly painted over the doorway.
“Now, go! Go! Go!” Hodge screamed.
His commands were quickly lost in the roar of machine-gun fire coming from both sides. It looked like a microcosm of the storming of Omaha Beach. The twenty Special Forces and ANA soldiers bolted over the hill at a full sprint, enveloped in the cloud of dust they threw up. From where I was poised behind my gun, the assault seemed to unfold in slow motion. I could see the rounds cut through the dust cloud, impacting in wisps nearby.
Two ANA soldiers tripped and fell in a dusty tumble. One managed to get to his feet and keep running. The second did not. Another ANA soldier hopped the last few feet to the depression on one leg, his screams barely audible as blood spouted liberally. It was a femoral wound. An ANA medic crawled to his aid as a small group of soldiers sprinted for the side of the white schoolhouse.
They threw themselves against the wall, weapons targeted on the open doors and windows. We continued to fill the rooms with fire. Before they could seize the hill, they had to push the Taliban fighters out of the school, one room at a time. We had no idea how many rooms or fighters they faced.
“Rusty, stop firing or shift your guns left toward the hill,” Hodge called over the radio.
“Shifting left!” Dave and Brian adjusted immediately. Bill, who was now positioned with the ANA machine gunners to my right, began turning their fire to the enemy fighting positions on the hill itself.
No fighters remained in the school—any that had been there must have taken off after seeing the assault force, choosing to flee and fight another day.
On his signal, Hodge’s team burst out of a side exit and began their scratching, sliding assault up Sperwan Ghar. I could not help but be impressed as I watched Hodge, at forty-one, ascending the hill with his NCOs and ANA soldiers.
“Talon 30. Talon 31. Where is our air support?” I radioed Jared.
“I don’t know,” Jared responded, a beat before we both heard the TOC come over the radio with the word that we’d have fighters and Apaches to us soon. Fanning out, Hodge’s team worked their way up the side of the hill, hunched over with their weapons at the ready, clearing small caves and avoiding the spiraling road, wary of mines. Sure enough, halfway up the hill, there was a muffled explosion and an ANA soldier crumpled, shrieking in pain, his ankle a mass of bloody flesh. A medic on Hodge’s team made a beeline for him, despite the threat of more mines. Steve, my team’s medic, hopped into an ANA truck and took off toward their position.
“Mines!” Hodge screamed over the radio. The assault stalled. Mines tended to have that effect. The assault team wedged themselves into small washouts in the side of the incline and tried to fire back at the Taliban positions above. Others probed for mines. I called Bill on the radio.
“Link up with 26 and push over the hill now!”
Bill motioned to Taz and his squad to follow and took off at a sprint. I knew if anyone could pry the enemy off the hill it was Bill and Taz. Bill led Taz and his squad up the hill as Hodge’s men covered them. Soon, everyone was out of the washouts. Hodge’s team literally dragged the Afghans toward the top, firing at defenders above. As they neared the crest of the hill, I saw several hurl hand grenades over the lip. Crashing explosions were followed by automatic rifle fire, then more crashing explosions. I felt absolutely helpless.
One small ANA soldier scurried up the hill like a mountain goat. It was Taz. He crested the hill and fired his AK from the shoulder like a lifetime professional. He knelt at the top, near a Special Forces soldier who was struggling to find a footing under the immense weight of his equipment. Taz fired intermittently, controlling his expenditure of ammunition, until the Special Forces soldier steadied himself. Side by side they walked forward toward the bunkers, covering each other.
A few minutes later, the call came over the radio. It was Hodge.
“We own the hill, but I don’t know for how long. There is a hell of a lot of movement down there. Do you copy?”
We had Sperwan Ghar. Now we just had to hold it.