One Million Steps: A Marine Platoon at War (34 page)

2 Abbate killed; 60mm and 2 gbus; sector P8Q

2 Abdul Ahad captured; fired RPG at platoon

3 (Co. log) Old Breed 3-1 under fire; calls 120s; sees icom spotter and takes shot; finds ppied

6 (Co. log) 3-2 at 787 540 takes mg, rpg, calls hellfire; two hour fight

8 3-3 in Q1D pid TB call 60s; saw MAM on cycle w icom; shot cycle; man alive, no icom, let him go

9 3-2 vs one ak; dicker in trees; sniper killed

9 3-3 in Q1D at 0900; gets LN to show compound where Tb occupy 0500 to 0900 daily; clear ten bldgs.; get hit by mg; sh 1 in contact to north and some stray 40mm; constant bounding and sbf with no joy; rtb 1600

9 3-2 dfl 1030 to P8Q; crosses huge canal running east-west; questions 2 on cycle; Banshee 3 drops spotter; hit by 7 in
treeline; mg suppt and try to flank; Williamson uses at 4 at compound; en carrying off wounded; vargas (don’t have this guy) uses 40mm; used hellfire on bldg. 52

10 3-2 finds ied; Delaney and wagner and Harmon blow it up

10 3-2 “sensitive situation in Jackson”??? ordered to rtb

10 3-3 on 3-2 flank detain a guy with money and cell phone

11 3-3 in Q1D find two ieds; kill two running away in ditch; bldg. 42 Q1A find icom parts and atm tube and rounds in the corn

13 3-2 sniper shoots ied emplacer

14 LN leg taken off by ied

14 3-3 ordered to rtb due to issue with local officials

16 Sgt Esquibel 3-1 was the squad leader tasked to cross route carrot into southern green zone. 3-3 Sgt McCulloch and myself had a support by fire established and the maneuver element was clearing structures to west. 3-1 was initiating an Apobs to clear a suspected enemy mine-field on route carrot, when the enemy initiated an ambush from multiple directions catching 3-1 and the remainder of 3-3 in a massive hailstorm of bullets. Sgt mac, yazzie, and myself utilized the buildings to run 500 meters towards to flank the enemy in minutes. I used 60mm mortars to suppress enemy positions while we subsequently silenced and cleared them.

Cpl Xiong leads 60mm thru ied-cleared path to bring fire on enemy, treeline Carrot? 3-1 Palmer and Hess terrific ssgt cartier with us; Palma took Vallens from nervous engr and led us

18t platoon moves overnight to pb America, estab at 1100

22 depart America to Q9L at PhaseLine India drop excel and f18 gun runs on spotters; in treeline found 2 kia, one ak with 30mm ubgl and battery pack for ied; searched corn outside mosque; found rpg, 4 rockets, ied ak rounds; burned corn and set off another ied. Rtb 1700

23 3-1 engr loses his Vallen in canal

23 3-3 ptl from America; Yazzie get bad feeling, digs and finds lamp wire leading to 30 lbs explosives and 1016? jug [pressure cooker wrapped in plastic]

26 3-3 from America crosses rope bridge, meets nice family, enters bldg. 103 104, 109 finds one pp in front of firing hole in window and then another on back wall; blow one and leave other for eod. EOD brought to scene to destroy remaining IEDs

26 3-1 dfl America to Jackson

27 3-1 dfl America to blow ieds found by 3-3; found two more

28 3-2 dfl Jackson; Delaney and Wagner find three ieds and one command wire ied in gravel along Helmand river

28 3-3 dfl America; yaz finds and blows 3 pp ieds

29 at pb fires, en with scoped rifle duels watch standers

29 3-3 in p9L sector with ana; bldg. 41 Mcc and yaz find one ied; ana find a bag of pps; blew the bag in place

29 3-1 dfl America 29 pax, dog and donkey, spotter on west bank of river

30 3-1 blows five ieds found by other sqds

30 3-1 night ptl w Garcia; saw two flashlights; palma falls into icy water to chest; no complaints thru night; covered in ice in morning; still leads ptl back

31 3-2 cpl hur killed ied emplacer bldg. 35 P9L

1 3-1 routine dfl America

2 3-2 hit ied Walker or Harmon? It was a sniper attachment from India, single amp at ankle, can’t remember his name.

2 3-1 last ptl from America

2 3-1 last ptl from America

2 3-2 pp ied found; lcpl meirini mangled foot; danger ranger evacd him;?? not reported as wia on plt list

2 3-1 found 3 ieds daisy chain; Palma clears rooftop to drop in; search long line of motorcyles at foot bridge

3 3-3 calls 60s twice in p8q; finds pkm shells in bldg.

4 3-3 24 hr stakeout p8q with nothing

5 3-3 find shooting room only 800m from pb fires

5 3-2 wagner and harmon find ied; Williamson and delany find another; 2 spotters killed; under fire, use smaws; kill another spotter

6 3-1 banshee kills cyclist with icom; Hess and Palma hit ied; palma limping lft foot; refuse medevac

6 3-3 zero

7 3-2 find toe popper; palma crossing roofs; p54g

8 3-2 finds ppied

8 3-3 get co info re en casevac to west in P8T—hit by PKM crossing river—Laaw used vs bldg. 34 p8q; brass and blood; more en firing; 60mm used; pinned; jfo to rotatrs 5 gun runs in tree line; hellfire vs bldg. 32 q5h; in rubble one en kiqa and 3 civ wia; again pinned; moved fwd; 60s vs bldg. 21 q5h; low on ammo; egress under fire; rtb

8 3-1 no. thru Taliban town near old pb bulldog; Harmon in lead; saw en; laird used at4; 3-3 moved up but dangerous geometries of fire; oriented shootout for gunrun; rpk fires continued; rtb

8 post 5 at pb fires engages en shooter

9 3-3 engaged in p8q; used 60s

9 3-1 banshee takes out spotter at 820m; en single shots; clear two compounds so cag and bbc can talk to lns

10 3-2 saw mam putting ied in canal; delany saw lamp wire, threw flashbang into hooch, capture mam; lantznester stepped on ied and ok

10 3-1 found laptop hidden at previous arms cache; in weeds
found two wht vans shot up. Cobras saw mams following us all the time.

11 at 1118 3-1 dfl w/ cariter and 23 pax because 3-3 in contact; find one ied; rtb

11 3-3 crossed bridge sw of bldg. 40 p8q; at bldg. 112 blew ied; pushed w and blew another; in contact; broke contact, reduced two more ieds; rtb p6411 at 1507 3-1 20 pax and bbc qrf to 3-3; Palma on rooftops despite turned ankle from ied on 6th

12 3-1 1206 dfl 19 pax and bbc; soto and cook shoot spotter at 600m; bolo brown Toyota no lic plate tries to stalk us; can’t get shot; pinned en mg between us and 3-3; got to bldg. 40; great en pos; cut down trees. Rubble and fire indicated en just left.

Cpl cook kills another at 440m with mk 12; two mams carry him off

12 3-3 in contact; also take pics of wanted bolo

13 3-2 dfl 1359 trails into p8q, where 3-3 in contact; get both sqds on line; remain with Garcia overnight at hideout

13 3-1 dfl 1400 w/23, 15 min after 3-3 and 3-2; heard 3-3 in contact; en mg 200 m front

15 3-2 ft appch from rear ruined chance of getting into 3-1’s gun fight but Sullivan grabbed a guy with a battery pack attached to his cycle

15 3-1 credits everyone p8q in fight mams in blk using families as shields—palma in fight hvy en in 7 pos; ana saw second en gang moving up; xiong led ft vs en mg; alvarex engaged; 60s shoot; got a coupe; Garcia adjusting fire

16 3-2 banshee shot at spotter at 400m

16 3-1 dfl 1020cook killed spotter at 375m’ families worried we won’t stay; at en kill, footprints of second guy; cash, names of talibs, petition to let prisoners go, bank acct number

17 3-3 nothing

18 3-3 p8q hit by hvy mg; called in rotors; found pkm brass

18 3-2 p8q dfl 0830 to destroy boats; find one ied, set off 2d; Marcum and sgt browning shaken up; delany pulled harmon back with broken leg

8 3-1 1015 23 pax and dog; palma at pt hacks thru vines; gonzalez with 117 calls in f18 Maker 32 as three t maneuver; yaz finds ied; use wolf hound icom triangulationto locate them 700 m to south; t saying bag is full where do you want to go? Meaing have ieds where go to lay them and avoid 3-1; casevac rodrigquez rolled ankle broken??/ cpl had with mk 12 kills one; icom cut saying: put in ied; you are safe

21 3-1 w 35 goes to Taliban Town across river; nothing; affluent family cooperative; destroy two boats and cables across river; CAG with us

22 3-2 dfl 0730 census atmos good when 1-3 hit two ieds

22 3-3 hit ppied; routine casualty kw5865 broken ankle

23 3-3 in Q1B find a man who teaches secretly out of his house; find ied

23 3-1 w 24 in Q1B; guy said t stayed in bldg. 91 for 8 days;

26 3-3 in P8Q finds two ieds with yaz

27 3-1 in Q1C w sgt dwyer cag who speaks Pashto; blow wall near pb fires for exfil

29 3-3 dfl fob Jackson to pb America??

29 3-3 finds two rifles ist plt lost in river??

31 3-2 Q1C VCP many avoid us easily on cycles; find one ied; atmos good; farmers preparing to plant poppy

1 3-2 finds two ieds

1 3-3 in P8Q finds p pied two and blows both 4 3-3 with eod blows 70 feet of trees

4 3-2 in riverbed; blimp spots guy w ak; found cache of ied material; blew two ieds

7 3-3 find cache 6pp, 300 lbs explosives 200 feet wire; soldering iron pr 775 544

8 3-2 finds 82mm mortar shell

11 pb fires takes fire from west

17 3-1 finds 3 ppieds

21 3-1 finds eight pounds explosive in pipe charge

24 3-3 in fight with en

27 3-3 in Q1D finds 4 ieds

1 3-3 crosses canal between P8T and P8Q; accurate PKM and Ak fire; rtb

2 3-3 P8Q found an 82mm mortar in a false wall 2 ob 3 wounds one en

4 3-1 shoots at one spotter with icom

5 3-2 same location; hit from Q5H; destroyed one ied; Wagner did good work with law; found two ppied

6 3-2 chased a guy in Q5G; under fire, 3-1 moved to support; hvy contact at bldg. 73 Q5H; called mortars and smoke; exfil; hit guy on cycle with wpn

7 3-3 under light saf in Q5G on line with Transformer; found one ied

8 3-2 bldg 7 P8Q cache found ak pkm, at4, 14 mortar rds; cpl bradach ied broke his foot 8 secdef at 3/5

13 3-3 #82 p8q pkm 200m north

16 3-3 to #26 p8q but weather turned air red so rtb with no contact

19 Esquibel hits IED and is evacuated

20 Doc Ramos and Yazzie evac’d

Staff Sgt. Siege Amey

Gen. James Amos

Col. Kevin Anderson

Capt. Peter Ankney

Gunny Lorenzo Arballo

Staff Sgt. James Archbell

Sgt. Joel Bailey

Jim Banion

Mushtaq Baqikhel (“Max”)

Capt. Richard Barclay

Capt. Chuck Beardsley

Lt. Col. David Bradney

Sgt. John D. Browning

Maj. Kirk Bush

Sgt. Josh Byram

Gunny Chris Carlisle

Maj. Mark Carlton

Staff Sgt. Cartier Coleman

LCol. Juan Covarrubias

Capt. Clay Davis

Lt. Col. Sean Day

Capt. Todd Eysenbach

Capt. Scott Foster

Lt. Col. Richard Fuerst

Maj. William Ghilarducci

Lt. Nick Gidden

Sgt. Nickolas J. Glidden

Lt. Col. Steve Grass

Capt. Hamid, ANA

Faisal Haq

Sean Heinz

Maj Hekmatulah

Sgt. Jordan Hintz

Lt. Kurt Hoening

Lt. Col. Jeff Hogan

Capt. Nicolai Johnson

LCpl. Jaspar Jones

Lt. Karl Kadon

Capt. Thomas Kearns

Maj. Travis Kelley

Father William Kennedy

Capt. Jimmy Knipe

Lt. James Koch

Col. J. T. LeBonne

Col. Craig Leflore

1st Sgt. Alex Leibfried

Staff Sgt. Edward Marini

Maj. Eric McDowell

Maj. Mcleash

1st Sgt. Jorge Melendez

Maj. Gen. Richard Mills

Col. Mike Moore

Capt. Pat Murray

Sgt. Joseph Myers

Capt. Reid Nannen

Maj. Mike Nesbitt

Capt. Geoff Newton

Capt. Timothy Nogalski

Ali Nor

Maj. Chris O’Donnell

LCpl. Jorge Ortiz

Brig. Gen. Jodie Osterman

Maj. Jennifer Parker

Lt. Chuck Poulton

Capt. Joshua Rogers, air kilo

Lt. Stephen Russell

Sgt. David Sarragoza

Patty Schumacher

Col. John Shaefer

Lt. Col. Dan Shipley

Amo Shuaraz

Cpl. Jeff Sibley

Sgt. Brandon Smith

Capt. Richard Stinnett

Staff Sgt. Nicholas Tock

Lt. Gen. John Toolan

Lt. Col. Stu Upton

Terry Walker

Maj. Walker

Capt. Kyle Walton

Brig. Gen. Wasea

Maj. Vincent Welch

Lt. Cameron West

Capt. Dan Wilcox

Maj. Steve Wolf

Paul Wood

Sgt. Maj. George Young

Capt. Andrew Zetts