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Tal Afar, Sept. 04-05 2005
My platoon was sent into Tal Afar to capture some HVT's. We were tasked with hitting three houses that night. Just a back story, this town was off limits to the reg. army guys. They rode with hatches down due to snipers, an officer had been killed the night before. They only traveled on one road thru the city and around the city. Lots of foreign fighters. After Fallujah, this was one of the last holdouts that remained. It was surrounded by reg. Army.
First house, outskirts of the city. Snipers kill 3 guys on the roof as we are clearing the house. Grenades and explosives vests are found on them. Thank god for snipers!
Next House. 500 m away. I thought to myself that they had to have heard the .308 go off, be extra careful, they are probably awake. The streets of Tal Afar are extemely narrow, our Strykers couldn’t fit. They offloaded us, and we began to walk silently towards the obj. Security was shit tight, every window, every door had a barrel in pointed in it. Plan was that once we secured the house our air would come on station. i was in the third assault team ( we has two four man teams, and 1 five man team, + headquarters of approx. 15 dudes.) As the breach was being set, a helicopter flew over the objective house. Now on the way up to the obj., it was passed down from the predator that there were three males on top of the roof sleeping.
The door to the house opened and then shut just as quickly. Sgt. E., yelled breach compromised, and burst in, followed by a five man assault team. All I remember from kneeling outside the house was hearing two thunderous BOOMS and cries for a medic.
This was it. Combat. What we have trained for 3 years for. I distinctivly heard the cries of one of my friends. I sprinted past stunned comrades. I squeezed thu the door and saw my buddy grabbing at his leg. " James, where ya hurt buddy?" he was screaming in pain so I knew he had an open airway. Training kicked in, so I did my head to..... "BOOM!!!!!!" ...... toe. A grenade went off behind me.
We were in a fatal funnel, a hallway that opened out to a courtyard, that had some stairs to the right and a room off to the left about 20 ft away. I wish I could draw it but I cant on here so bear with me.
Fuck! I am going to die. Fuck it! Training kicked back in. it was so wierd, I did not even have to think about what to do, it just happened. I didn’t see any blood but when I touched James's leg, he screamed. "hold on buddy, hold on, you will be fine," was all I could tell him. I got my leatherman out and cut open hit pant leg and saw a huge gash on his leg , along with what looked like shotgun pellets. All of a sudden, just like in Blackhawk Down, blood squirted all over my face. I was like WTF!!!! I grabbed his tourniquet but he had those new CAT ones with the platic turn in the middle. They are shit when you have massive amounts of blood on your oakley gloves. I couldnt get a tight squeeze on it. Knowing that my friend was bleeding out, i grabbed my ratchet and put it on and yanked, put a "t" on his forehead, and elevated his leg on his helmet. I cant remeber if i started an iv or not before the other grenade went off but it threw me off balance and I landed right on his leg. He passed out. I tried a sternum rub, slapping him, nothing. “MEDIC!!!!!!” He was busy with 5 other rangers wounded in the hallway.
A buddy of mine J. B., who used to play football for Ole Miss with Eli Manning, was working on a fellow Ranger, Tim, right next to me. All of a sudden we heard a tink..tink..tink.. it sounded real close. Jeff and I looked behind us and there at both of our heels is a fucking grenade. I jump on James to shield him, and I wait to die. Again. Still waiting..... It didn’t go off. Jeff and I just looked at eachother and went back to what we were doing, saving our friends. A medic finally made it to me, and my sqaud leader grabbed me and my teammate Kyle to clear the rest of the house, something which in hindsight we should have done when this shit first happened. We go out into the courtyard.
There are friendlies behind us and as we go into the first room on the right, they go up the stairs. The first room is a short room, a bathroom, and we head to the next room on the right. This room is much larger. Now I am the #2 guy and we went in and it was clear. We looked for tunnels, and found none. On the way out, I became the #3 guy, so I had rear security on the opposite room in the courtyard which was not cleared yet, and the rooftop which was connected to the whole block. As I am pulling security, I see 3 guys setting up a machine gun. It had 2 drums on it. They couldn’t see me. Being a private, and frozen with fear for this is now the third time I am facing death in the face in less than three minutes, I was looking for direction. Instead of firing, I yelled for my squad leader to help me, to let guys know behind me we had a massive threat which they had no idea was there. No answer. I yelled again. They didn’t shoot at me and there was still no answer. Now I knew that behind me was clear and there were friendlies on the roof, so I shined my tac-light being that was the only light in the house.
I realized I had made a fatal error, and they now had a reference to shoot at, so I ducked back into the room I came out of with my assault team.
I was scared shitless. There was a machine gun less than 15 ft away and I was by myself. Right there is where I became a Christian. I flipped down my nods, turned my laser on, and said a prayer. I thanked God for the parents I had, for the life I had, and I asked him to watch over my girlfriend(now my wife)and to take care of her. I asked him to guide my shot. I knelt at the window I was crouching behind, and shot the guy behind the gun in the throat. I saw his head lurch back, and his two buddies didn’t like that too much cause they started to shoot at me and throw grenades. They sprayed wildly. I did not know at the time but, one of my buddies got shot, more guys got fragged, it seemed to last forever, and since my squad leader had asked for my sordins, i had no ear-pro. The sound was deafening and my ears still ring every day 4 years later. The firing stopped, and I looked up and saw they were in fact surpressing us to cover their movement to the rooftop. As they were climbing the wall, I fired a full mag at them and saw them fall on top of the roof. One guys started to get up but I heard a sniper take care of him.
iI reloaded and looked out of the door I was in, and yelled a password phrase to let my mates know I was coming out. Our CSM, and our dog handler covered my movement out. I mad it out of the house and caught my breath. I noticed my squad leader directing Strykers down the street. So, was he out here the whole time? I had to get accountability of my team. My team Leader was wounded, squad leader was wounded and directing strykers, and Kyle. Where the fuck was Kyle? I saw my buddy M. H. and he was at the door of the house. I told him my predicament, how I couldn’t find Kyle, so he recommended we go back inside. Wait. "I don't want to go back in there M. "We have to," he replied."Well shit give me five seconds."
We went back in and find Kyle, lying next to the steps. When they began firing the machine gun, he was on his way up the stairs and got shot in the back with an exit wound that missed his heart by millimeters. He was being attented to by a superb medic, and our battalion PA. We got all our wounded out, collected all the sensitive items, and killed 4 insurgents and captured our guy in the process. No one died, but that night will remain with me to the day I die.
17 purple hearts, 2 silver stars, 9 bronze star w/ V device, 1 house