All right, this is what's going on.
Me, O'Bizzle-- O'Bizzle.
- I got it, l got it, man I'm the narrator.
- O'Bizzle fo' shizzle.
Me, Peebs, and Kim.
Kim, you got something to say?
- Yeah, you got something to say.
- Kim?
You all know tonight
is going to going to be crazy.
Stupid crazy.
What's your sole mission, O'Byrne?
Man, to keep you out of hand.
You can't-- you can't tame the beast.
Peebs, tell them. How do we roll?
Got 'em. Got 'em.
Tune in next time
where we're going to be still loing life
and getting ready to go to w*r.
- What?
- All right, baby.
- w*r, Afghanistan, what?
- Say it again, baby, say it again.
- I didn't even sign my passport.
- Baby.
- I didn't even sign my passport.
- We're going to w*r. We're going to w*r.
We're going to w*r. We're going to w*r.
Roger.
Oh, we're f*cking hit.
- This is an lED, over.
- lED.
- Keep going, keep going! Keep--
- What was that?
- sh*ts.
- Eight o'clock.
- Get on that g*n!
- What are we doing?
Aim for that draw! Right now!
That way.
We gotta get out. We gotta get out of here.
We're getting out!
f*cking m*therf*cker.
sh*t, eight o'clock. 300 meters.
sh*t, eight o'clock. 102 meters.
You know what?
When they told me
I was going to the Korengal Valley,
l really didn't, uh, I didn't read
anything up on it. l didn't want to.
I wanted to go in there with an open mind.
The Colonel told me initially
they take fire every single day.
I was like, God, how the hell do you take
fire every single day from somebody?
You got to go out there and go k*ll
the damn enemy.
Quit being, you know, scared.
Go out there and get 'em.
And the Colonel and I
came up with, you know,
what we thought was going to be
our campaign plan and that, uh,
after two months of being there I would fix
it and that we wouldn't get sh*t at anymore.
The very first day, l remember coming in,
and one of the pilots and stuff,
and they said, hey,
if you look over there to your left,
uh, that's Pakistan.
You know, and we're like, you know,
we all, okay, that's Pakistan.
And then they're all mountains,
you know, high elevation.
And as you go in elevation,
it starts to get a little bit colder.
And then we go up into the Korengal Valley.
I remember looking out the little bubble
windows on the side, kind of just like this,
because I was right next to the window.
And I could see when the Chinook
had made a hard right turn into the valley.
I was like, holy sh*t.
We're not ready for this.
We flew around for about half- hour,
45 minutes above the KOP,
and you're just looking down there,
and you're like,
this is in the middle of nowhere right now.
You're away from everything.
Honestly, when I first got to the Korengal,
I was like, this is a sh*t hole.
My mindset was like, oh snap,
I'm going to die here.
l remember getting off the bird
and walking up the hill to the hooch.
Hey, Jones, you guys standing up
right there, you're wrong.
Come on, guys, better get moving.
And just sucking...
and thinking what are we doing?
It started getting dark,
and monkeys were howling,
And l thought they were Taliban.
And I thought, holy sh*t they're close.
Everybody's like,
oh, you're going to the Korengal?
And they feel sorry for you
and everything like that.
I'm like, dude,
it can't be that bad, you know?
I show up there
and you're burning your own feces.
You know, you're living in a tent.
I literally lived in a bunker, you know,
about that high, I couldn't even stand up in.
See b*llet holes all rattled into the Hescos
and when you look up, it's like,
I don't even know why I have Hescos here
because they're not going to stop the b*ll*ts
that are coming down from the mountains.
So I felt like l was--
I was like fish in a barrel.
They're gathering intel right now,
basically, on how to deal with us,
because they haven't--
there's no really research or intel
on how to treat us right now,
because they haven't had to deal with people
like us since World w*r ll and Vietnam,
you know, dealing with guys that are
coming back from 15-month deployments
with as much fighting,
you know, as we went through.
Hey, go on that ridgeline, f*cking now!
Hey, roger, I'm up here by OP four.
We're scanning and if we have to,
we'll move into contact.
I got myself, Riegel, and Thomas over here.
Roger, over.
Hey, I'm about to find this bastard,
and I'm going to k*ll him, over.
Okay, roger.
So it's coming from 1705 and 00.
We should be f*ring on those here
right now, break.
Hang it!
Fire! f*ring!
The Korengal Outpost is at the 6-3 gridline,
and then the 6-2 gridline--
the insurgency has, like, drawn
this imaginary line in the sand there,
and every time the guys
come out of Firebase Phoenix
and they cross the 6-2 gridline,
I mean, like, no sh*t, every time they cross
the 6-2 gridline, they get in contact.
So I want to extend the security bubble,
because wherever I can place troops
and wherever I can provide security
is where l'm going to be able to
have an influence on the populace.
The hard part is, is that they're so deeply
rooted down here because of family ties
and because of religious ideals, that getting
these people to push out the insurgency
and basically push out their family members
is going to be the hard part.
Right now the road ends
at the Korengal Outpost,
and where the road ends
is where the Taliban begins.
We've been getting reports that they've been
watching us throughout the day,
so the contact right now
I'd say is likely or imminent.
- Good to see you.
- Move southeast. It's this way.
Do you want chai?
We don't have time to sit down
and have chai tonight.
I just wanted to come in and talk to you
briefly about the project.
How many people are you actually
going to use to build the project?
What's up?
You see that last house, to the right of it?
Brownish f*cking bush
about f*cking 15, 20 meters to the right?
Yeah?
Someone turned around that corner,
saw us and went right back around, dude.
We're going to be moving in darkness.
You're going to be lead, so...
We could move now if you need to.
Okay, spread out.
I'm pushing up here.
Whoa, a tracer came right by here!
Hey!
There's fire coming. They're sh**ting.
Over there!
Where? Over where?
Tell me, sir, tell me.
Kim!
The first friend I lost was Vimoto,
and that was right at the beginning
of the deployment. That hit hard.
And then a month after that, I lost Restrepo.
The day that Restrepo got k*lled,
it came across the net
that we had troops in contact.
Then they called back in
and said that we have a casualty.
I need you to give me fire, Cortez.
We didn't know who it was, because nobody
was saying anything over the radio.
When you hear someone's hit,
your first reaction
is just like, f*ck, like, no.
And then you start going through your head
all the people that you know out there
and wanting to eliminate your friends
and the people that were closest to you--
you know, not this guy.
Not this guy. Not this guy.
You know, your heart just sank.
You were like, f*ck.
I mean, it was Doc Restrepo.
He was sh*t in the neck twice...
but he was stable,
so that was a relief for us.
We say, okay, he's going to be okay,
because we looked at him.
when he gets on the aircraft,
he's still breathing.
But he, it hit his, um, artery in his neck,
and he bled out.
He bled out on the helicopter ride
to the emergency room
where they take you when you get sh*t.
- This is the big danger area right now.
- Okay.
Because if we're here
and they start opening up on us...
You're in between.
But if we clear down, you guys could
use my weapons squad as an indicator
for where they are,
and that's your right limit of fire, man.
sh**t anything up the mountain.
I would say since we haven't been down here
and we don't know what's in here,
I'm going to f*cking assume the worst,
because it's near Kalaygal,
and that they have fortified fighting
positions throughout here.
Okay.
What were we doing in the Korengal?
Our purpose in the Korengal--
they had a road,
and the intent was this road to go through
the Korengal and go out to Chowkay Valley
to be able to connect the locals
where they can have an easy route
up towards the Pech River Valley.
And our job there was to try
to sustain the security for the personnel,
to allow them to build that road.
You know, five, ten years from now,
the Korengal Valley is going to have
a road going through it that's paved.
And we can make more money,
make you guys richer,
make you guys more powerful.
What l need though,
is l need you to join with the government,
you know, provide us with that security
or help us provide you guys
with that security.
And I'll flood this whole place
with money and with projects
and with healthcare and with everything.
Remember last week when we said that
everything that happened in the past
when Captain McKnight was here--
we're kind of, like, wiping the slate clean.
Captain Kearney's got a new slate.
Let's put it behind, and let's get on
with what we've got to do now.
Growing up in Oregon, I wasn't allowed
to have sugar 'til I was, like, 13,
because my mom was a f*cking hippie.
And she's always have us doing, like,
little hippie children things, I guess--
making, like, homemade paper or painting
something or going, like, on nature walks.
It was a nice childhood.
I just wasn't allowed to have toy g*ns
or anything like that,
like boys should have, l guess--
little toy g*ns or, like, violent video games
or watch any violent movies at all.
Like l had a toy squirt g*n that was
a turtle, and my parents took it away
because it said "squirt g*n"--
it had "g*n" on there.
Fire!
Right now priority...
For the first few months of the deployment...
we'd get rocked hard. They'd hit us from...
They'd ambush us at 360 degrees.
I remember thinking, you know, holy sh*t,
did everybody from the entire country
come to this valley?
Is nobody else fighting anymore?
ls every bad guy in my face?
Oh, sh*t!
m*therf*ckers.
In the entire country of Afghanistan,
we dropped something close
to 70 percent of all the ordinance.
All the bombs that were dropped
at that particular time
were dropped in the Korengal Valley.
As CNN dubbed it one day
when Bush saw it
and said, you know,
the ugliest place on Earth--
the Korengal Valley.
But to my family,
I never really told them much
until about halfway into the deployment.
I didn't tell them when Vimoto d*ed.
I didn't tell them
when Sergeant Padilla lost his arm.
I didn't tell them when Pisec got sh*t.
I didn't tell them when Restrepo got k*lled.
And then when Restrepo got k*lled was
a few days before my mom's birthday also.
So I had to... I had to suck it up
when I called my mom on her birthday
and act like everything was okay and say
"Hey, Mom, happy birthday," you know,
like, "Yeah, I am doing really good out here,
everything's fine."
The change came when we in OP Restrepo.
In the middle of the night we put up
a firebase on top of the place
that they had used as their enemy kinetic,
you know, point of att*ck,
or of origin of their att*ck,
for the last 15 months.
We walked up the Spur
with shovels and picks.
We worked all though the night just
to make a small semicircle to chill in.
We slept for maybe a couple hours each,
started doing it again.
That day we got in five, seven firefights.
Everybody good?
- Yeah, we're gonna--
- Yeah!
We'd dig. They'd sh**t at us.
They'd see us digging,
building this new place. They'd sh**t.
We'd sh**t back. Once it lulled down,
we started digging again.
When the boys built that base,
the Taliban, or the AAF forces in the valley,
they were completely in shock.
It was like a middle finger sticking out.
And they realized once they could not knock
off OP Restrepo, we had the upper hand.
They started becoming afraid.
Eat some, turban head!
Hey, hit the bottom right.
Hit the bottom right of the village.
- Get this!
- Bottom right. Go right more.
Hey, Solo, that's you.
I'm not sh**ting over everybody.
- Let's go, let's go!
- He's down in the draw!
- He's down in the draw.
- Down in the draw.
How close?
Buno, get your coms up.
Make sure you got f*cking SAW
and a.203 with you.
- You're taking Wilson, Cortez.
- Cortez.
Don't worry, I'll...
Don't worry. There's very few
that l just straight up hope don't make it.
A month or two into it, it was still
a shitty place. We were covered in dirt,
digging all the time, getting in firefights,
like four or five firefights a day.
And so we-- the majority of us really didn't
feel like it should be called OP Restrepo.
it was just a shitty place. It was just...
It just didn't resemble
the type of person that he was.
Scuffing up my notes.
Feels like longer than forever, yeah
My home is now a distant land
If l had one wish, I wish I could be
Back on that rock
in the middle of the sea
My heart is calling me to the islands
Blue skies and tropical breeze
I want to go back home
Swim in the Pacific sea
You can take the boy from the island
But not the island from the boy
The island stays in your heart
I'll never forget where l'm from
Oh, no, I'll never forget
Where l'm from
Sir. How you doing, sir?
Good to see you again.
Good seeing you again.
Welcome to the KOP.
I'd like to take you up over there, sir,
maybe just try to give you
the once over the world here.
This is the southern Korengal.
This is, uh, l guess you could call it,
this is the w*r zone.
This is where it's all happening.
This is where the majority of the population
of the Korengal lives
and probably about 90% of the fighting.
If you look just to the south here
to that third spur that you see down there,
which is called Honcho Hill, that is like
the enemy-- I guess you could say--
limit of advance for us.
Like, we can't go
any further south than that.
- What do you call it-- Honcho?
- Honcho Hill.
- Honcho Hill.
- You follow that spur,
and you go all the way up here,
Sergeant Major,
- and you might be able to see that--
- The tip of the...
that top of the OP.
You can see all the bee huts and stuff.
That's OP Restrepo.
Everything south of that
is the enemy sanctuary.
Battle 6, Battle 2-5,
I have around 15 up near Restrepo.
Nothing out of the ordinary as far
as movement in the southwest today.
Nothing but women and children
out tending to the fields and crops.
Enemy assessment-- we've got the AAF
are in the final stages to start their att*ck
and moving and getting everything in place.
Last 24, conduct a movement
to contact into Loy Kalay,
separate the AAF from the populace
in order to spread new lO themes.
Hey, Cunningham, on a side note,
how's the fam?
How's the what?
- The fam.
- The family?
Billy.
Good. They're pretty good.
Were they happy to see your crazy self?
Yeah, yeah, it was a good time, man.
Got to hang out at the ranch
and everything like that, you know?
Got to see pretty much everyone
in the family almost.
Your family owns a ranch?
Of course.
Like cows and pigs and chickens
and horses ranch?
No.
Like what kind of ranch, then?
It's like a ranch
just with like land, you know,
with gates and stuff and trucks and whatnot.
Some g*ns, some wildlife,
you know, that you sh**t at.
Okay, so it's just a whole bunch of land
that they k*ll stuff on.
Yeah. It's kind of like this.
Yeah, but we're not hunting animals,
we're hunting people.
Hearts and minds.
f*cking feed tray.
Yeah. We'll take their hearts,
and we'll take their minds.
All right, listen up. Today we're going
to conduct a movement to contact.
The purpose is to talk to the locals
about some lO themes,
as far as the road construction team
coming in.
Get some workers from their village
to take part in that.
Talk about the cow incident.
- Also...
- It was delicious.
Talk about anything out of the ordinary
as far as AAF moving in through their area.
See if they can give us
any information on that.
Anyone have any questions?
Guys, it's gonna suck, but I'm going
to work you guys into the ground.
I need you guys to go out there
and do a patrol in the village
because l need you to keep
the enemy off his toes.
l need you to go out there
and push the enemy back
so we can buy some white space,
so you guys can go back up there
and work your asses off
filling up these sandbags
so that you guys, when do get hit,
you get hit but you got
something to hide behind.
And the best defense is
who has the greater offense.
3-3-4.
6-1-4-9.
Elevation 1-5-7-9.
And we are set in Koringal.
What's your father do?
A shepherd? What do you do?
Are you a shepherd, too?
Let me see your hands.
Your hands.
He's got pretty clean hands
for being a goat herder.
Where'd you get that watch, man?
You guys got a lot of goats?
60 goats.
60 goats?
That's pretty wealthy, right, Abdul?
Yeah.
Well, what do you know about
the people in Kalaygal?
He says...
Roger, we haven't found
anybody else to talk to.
We're going to start pushing back now.
Hey, 2-2, this is Bravo 1.
Start pushing out towards the trail.
Oh, f*ck.
What have they got?
Oh, I guess a guy running.
- A guy running?
- Yeah.
Hey, Liz!
Lookit. See?
We've seen a guy run from that house
once or twice before.
I just don't like the way it is.
I don't like how it feels right now.
You want him watching towards
the village or down in the draw?
- Towards the back side of the house.
- Watch the back side of the house.
Hey!
Sit down.
They found a BDU top.
I've got eyes on it right now, over.
Hey, keep on searching
this whole house. Search.
Yeah, yeah, like this, good. Okay.
Who does this belong to?
Never mind.
Hey...
"lf I go with you,
I'm not going to go with you right now.
- I will come back to the KOP."
- No, no, he's going-- he's coming with us.
This guy, he was already at the house.
This guy came up later, saw us,
and starting taking off running.
I got him, and ever since he started doing
what he's doing now.
Hey, tell these guys I'm gonna sit them
in my truck, they need to sit on their hands.
Right now what we're tracking
came in the valley on April the 11 th.
There's fifteen 107-milimeter rockets,
several cases of PKM and AK a*mo.
The fear is always there,
especially at night when you can't
see what's coming at you.
When we started there, we only had
maybe fourteen guys up there.
I mean, it doesn't take much.
A few a*t*matic weapons will keep,
you know, a squad pinned down,
while they could easily come up
from a side and flank you
and, you know, go basically clear house.
Nobody's going to help you.
You're in no man's land.
The KOP is only seven hundred,
eight hundred meters away,
but that might as well be
in a different country
because they're not getting to you.
Not in time.
KOP's taking indirect right now.
KOP's taking indirect.
Can't see sh*t what they're doing.
Day sight. lt's something.
Better than anything else we got.
I need more f*cking 240 here!
One's by Karingal, the other's by Dallas.
Right up there.
The birds we love.
Okay, roger, he's pretty much worked
the Honcho Hill ridge.
Want to push him southeast up to 3-0,
just southeast of that.
Big firefight, great.
f*cking packing up rounds.
That was fun, though, man, that was fun.
You can't get a better high.
It's like cr*ck, you know?
You can sky dive or bungee jump
or do, you know, kayak,
but once you've been sh*t at,
you really can't come down.
There's nothing, you can't top that.
How are you going to go back
to the civilian world then?
I have no idea.
Hey, did you hear me go cyclic?
- I had the barrel smoked!
- Did you hear me?
Yeah, what the f*ck was that first
batch about, cuz?
You was crazy as sh*t with that.
Hey, soon as I popped my head up,
holy-- Guess who.
And you just slid down the stairs.
- Common game planning. l was like...
- Get down!
The flight path over...
He's an excellent cook,
by far the best cook in the Korengal,
definitely.
Came up to Restrepo one time,
cooked us fresh cow,
same-day cow.
That was a good day.
Jonesie, you want another grill, man?
You all right?
No, l don't like to f*ck on a full stomach.
Dude, we're on TV.
Come in here for the real thing.
Don't fight it, don't fight it.
Why don't they mess
with you anymore, man?
I was one of the first ones
that got messed with to begin with.
Well, look at him, look how sexy he is.
I mean, look at this guy.
He's a beautiful man.
I'd f*ck him back in the States.
Let's talk about the road
between Omar and Kandalay.
What guy?
Who did we detain?
He says that you detain a guy.
Haji Se, Haji Se.
Naiim was dropped off
by another local in Kalaygal
who told us that he was bad
and that he was working with Sadikula
in the--
what the f*ck is Sadikula
in charge of, Rudy, the Mujahadeen?
Yeah, he's working with the Muj.
And, he was working
with the Mujahadeen.
I told you guys from the very get go
that if somebody says that they're bad,
I have to investigate it.
So now NDS is talking to him.
He's not in jail.
He's not being treated bad,
he's being talked to
and asked questions.
I think we've been pretty upfront
about how we handle people
that we talk to and question.
We've been pretty fair.
l'm not like Jim McKnight
where l take all these guys
and stick them in Bagram
and they never come back.
He says were happy you're here,
you're doing very well,
but he's saying that you detained
Mohammed Youssef before,
now Mohammed Youssef
didn't come back.
Rudy, who the f*ck
is Mohammed Youssef?
Mohammed Kalam's son,
the guy that cut the worker's heads off.
That's because I saw the video
where he cut their heads off.
I saw him do it.
I saw him with my own two eyes.
You're not understanding
that I don't f*cking care.
And the thing that's sad to me is that as
much as Captain Kearney go down there
and conduct different Shuras
and tell them about the positives
about what we can do to help them,
it seemed like it didn't go anywhere.
You know?
It seemed like everything that he-
We took one step forward
and it seemed like
they took two steps backwards.
We've got three village elders
just come down and they want to talk.
Not sure what they want
to talk about yet.
It's a good sign.
It's the first time it's happened
up here at OP Restrepo.
We've had people come in--
elders come in and say before
that they wanted to provide some information,
but never shown up to us,
you know, come back and talk to us.
So this is a positive sign.
Do you hear about the cow that--
- The cow?
- Yeah, the US soldiers k*ll it.
- They k*lled--
- Yeah.
So they came because of that.
They want to get information
about the cow that--
He is the owner of cow.
All right, the cow?
The reason why we k*lled it
because it ran into our constantine wire
and it was m*nled
inside the constantine wire,
so we had to k*ll it
to put it out of its misery
because if we would have got it out,
it would have been useless.
- That's why we k*lled it.
- They are asking because it was illegal.
- lllegal?
- Yeah, illegal.
- To k*ll it?
- Yeah.
- What do you want to do?
- Just tell them.
What do they want us
to do about the cow?
Do they want to be
reimbursed somehow or--
He says that it is up to you,
if you want to pay money for that or--
How much does a cow cost?
It's going to be like four
or five hundred dollars,
which is going to be twenty,
twenty five thousand Afghani, over.
Did we k*ll this cow?
Well, it was tangled up in a wire,
pretty much dead.
324 ended up cutting it up. Over.
We're not going to be able
to give him money in exchange for his cow.
But what we can give him
is the rice, the beans, the sugar.
Now, the HA that they will receive
is going to be, you know,
the weight of the cow.
Whatever the weight of the cow was
will be the weight of return of HA
as far as rice, beans, sugar.
- ls that good?
- They want money.
We're not going to be able
to give them the money.
If that's all he came for,
he's not going to get it.
626 perstat, I have 20 at Restrepo,
15 at the KOP, 4 at OP1,
4 on leave,
6 ANA and one terp
at Restrepo, break.
Talk louder, nobody
can hear you down here, over.
626 perstat,
I have 20 at Restrepo,
15 at the KOP,
4 at OP1,
4 on leave,
1 photo journalist,
6 ANA, and 1 terp--
I didn't know they had algebra two.
Yeah! Burning the poop!
Got the black man
on the burning the poop detail.
Hey, man, just watch yourself, God damn it.
Second platoon k*lled that cow
and now I gotta pay for it.
I still wanna see Spanky
and Vaughn go at it.
- Vaughn would f*cking destroy Spanky.
- Let's go get him.
Vaughn!
Vaughn, you're going
to b*at Spanky's ass!
He's coming up here,
you better not lose.
Dude, if you lose, so help me God.
It's going to reflect poorly
on me if you lose.
You better not let
that cherry bitch b*at you.
Make him tough.
Get him, get him.
- Vaughn.
- What's up, dude?
- Come on, fight back!
- You're such a little bitch.
All right, go ahead.
- Stretch them out.
- What the f*ck, Spanky?
You gonna let him
f*cking manhandle you?
- Let him get tired.
- Flip over, man.
Yeah, there you go!
Nice, there you go.
You suck!
Battle of the cherries.
We're not talking about cherry
in the army either,
we're talking about cherry at life.
Vaughn here is very cherry at life.
But we're making him into a man.
That's all that's important here.
...we talked about the road being built.
Continued to hear from the elders
that they don't want
to give up any workers,
despite what it is that you
all have been telling me.
So if you guys get these local--
that are willing to do that
to come and start getting
them jobs immediately,
to bypass all the elder--
l don't think--
I think they're just--
If we really f*cked them up
like they said,
then they are just chilling,
trying to recuperate.
It's just like what we would be doing.
You know, seven--
eight dudes wounded,
I mean seven dudes wounded,
one dude dead,
we wouldn't be going out strong.
We'd be resting at Blessing right now.
You know what I mean?
That's what I think
they're doing-- resting.
Are you wondering why it is so quiet?
Yeah, it's got me baffled right now.
Baffled or worried?
Just confused.
I am at a loss for words right now.
He's worried.
He's worried. He's scared.
Most scared.
Or worried. Whatever.
Yeah.
I'd have to say Rock Avalanche.
If l had to pick a moment,
I'd probably say Rock Avalanche.
Operation Rock Avalanche
was the low point for me personally.
I saw a lot of professional
tough guys
get weak in the knees.
I'll go ahead and orient you guys
to the different LZs that are out there.
Up on Divpat where the C2 element
will be located is LZ Cubs.
The Taliban
or the AAF forces in the valley,
they got very, very audacious
and tenacious during Rock Avalanche.
Physically putting their hands on soldiers,
able to get so close to us
that they can k*ll my soldiers,
steal the equipment,
and still get away.
I mean...
that's ballsy.
We'll be releasing with Wildcat One,
somewhere between Busch and Coors.
Moving in on Rock Avalanche
with going into areas like Yaka China
or up on the top of the Talisar.
Those are areas
we haven't previously been,
you know, during the deployment.
North goes that way
toward Sergeant Rougle,
south is this way towards me
and the First Sergeant.
To go in there not ever having
laid eyes on the area,
hearing the stories
about guys who'd gone prior to us
getting f*cked up down,
you know,
in areas where they
literally shouldn't have been in.
We're going to be moving out
of HLZ Cubs into HLZ Polk.
ln Rock Avalanche we knew
the expectation that we was going
to get engaged going up there,
but we all knew that.
In the location where we was actually going
to conducting this operation and stuff,
was where the bad guys,
their safe haven was at.
: They wasn't coming to you.
Sometimes you had to go out there
and reach out to them.
Go into program,
go into your radio configurations,
and then where it says
SINCGARS or basic,
change that to ANDVT.
- Coming after you, m*therf*cker.
- Right here, bitch?
Let's do this, m*therf*cker!
l'm coming back.
I'm coming back, don't worry.
Do you get nervous
before something like this?
I get nervous for the guys.
I get nervous for myself.
I mean, I just--
I just called my mom and dad
and I'll try calling my wife
before I take off,
just one last "I love you"
to all of them.
And, you know, the guys,
that's the hardest thing is like,
you know, if something happens to me,
there's not much I can do
about it or anything like that.
But it takes a little bit out of you
every time you see one of your boys
get hurt or you lose one of them.
It's really like a big family.
We flew in the middle of the night.
Guess what, they're not
quiet helicopters that we fly.
The enemy's awake now.
What the f*ck are the Americans
doing flying over us right now?
So now everybody's on
their radio's, l'm sure,
you know, "Hey, the Americans
are heading this way."
So we got on the ground
and we were already being told,
be on alert, you know,
everybody knows we're here.
If we could get one going
from west to east into that draw, over.
It's real hot.
- All right, break.
- Coming out.
I'd like you to come in
for one more re-att*ck.
Come down in elevation in that draw
and fill right there in the center, over.
So you did hit the target.
This house right there.
This is the aftermath of what AH-64s do.
Good old att*ck helicopters.
He said that there is
five guys already dead
and ten of the females and kids already,
they are injured, you know.
Show me which of them is the Taliban.
There is no Taliban.
Damn it.
You know?
I need to know better.
I need to figure this stuff out better
so that l can do this,
so that l'm not k*lling these people
and not making them mad.
I mean, first impressions
are the lasting impression.
That's the first time anybody's been
in Yaka China, and what do l do?
I k*ll a bunch of bad guys,
but in the same instance,
I'm k*lling five locals
that may not have been
the ones that pulled the trigger,
but in some way shape or form,
were connected to them.
There you go.
Dishka?
Afghan dishka,
not American dishka, right?
This is divorce paper.
- What?
- Divorce paper.
- Di-wars?
- Paper, yeah.
- What does that mean?
- Divorce.
Like some woman you getting married
then you're going to get a divorce.
- Divorce papers?
- Yeah.
Okay.
Who owns the house?
Did you ask him where the p*stol was?
Eight RPG heads.
One, two, three, four boosters.
Got four boosters,
three batteries, shotgun.
This is Colonel Ostlund,
he's my boss,
you know, the one I always tell you.
We brought the Colonel
down there to talk to them,
and we did that because
basically we felt bad
for the fact that we injured
some of their kids
and that we k*lled
some of the locals.
The ACM that comes in
and gives you five dollars
to carry this stuff
around the mountains
and tells you that
you're doing a jihad
and go fight the Americans
is doing nothing for you
except making you a sl*ve
for five dollars
as he hides on a mountain,
because he won't fight my soldiers.
These foreigners,
they don't fight my soldiers.
They hide on a mountain in a cave,
under a rock and talk on a radio
and pay your sons
a small amount of money
to go ahead
and sh**t at my soldiers
and my soldiers
end up k*lling your sons.
But this is the deal we'll make.
Everybody needs a job,
and we're going to try to bring
progress here and some jobs,
and Captain Kearney will talk
to the Shura on Friday
about some job projects.
The whole time we were there,
we were thinking, "Okay.
When's it coming?
When's it coming.
They're going to hit us.
When's it going to happen?
- This sucks, dude.
- I'm just going to double check it.
ICOM chatter right now
coming out of Chappadara,
a guy named Obed's talking
to the elders,
and apparently said that the elders
are in charge of what's going on.
The elders basically want
jihad down here in the Korengal,
and whatever they want, they'll--
they're here to assist,
so we'll see what happens.
But it doesn't sound
very good for us, huh?
Hey, Sergeant Patterson,
I found four fighting positions
over there, AK-47s.
I'm going to push to this next hilltop.
I'm also getting ICOM traffic
that there may be enemy close to us.
Getting intel saying that they've got eyes
on three to four US personnel
and they're getting close to them.
So they've got eyes on us
and it can be anywhere,
this high ground there,
there's some more spurs back there,
there's one we crossed
to an open patch back there.
They could have easily had eyes on us
when we were moving in.
What the f*ck was that?
Did you hear that?
It might be the birds, sir.
sh**ting?
Am l just jumpy?
f*cking Christ, monitor this.
Sergeant P...
do we got guys in these
pine trees right here?
Do we?
When the att*ck finally happened,
I remember it was myself
and my team
on the south eastern corner
of basically the area
that we were covering.
We got ambushed, like,
just every single position got hit
at the same time pretty much.
They placed a PKM a machine g*n
down into our position
and one orientated
into the scout position,
and just rained down hell.
I just look over to my right
and I see rounds breaking
branches off the tree.
They were sh**ting RPGs at us,
they were sh**ting
pretty much everything.
When l got hit,
it actually came
with enough force
that it rolled me forward.
You know, initial thought was,
"What happened?"
I felt pain, you know,
placed my hand there
just underneath my IBA
because that's where I felt,
you know, the initial pain,
pulled my hand out,
saw blood, knew l was hit.
I looked up in time from all fours
to watch a guy come over the crest
probably about 35-45 meters
to fire an RPG directly at me.
lnitial thought was, "Wow,
this is the last thing l'm going to see,"
because the guy was so close.
And, you know,
the round came in, exploded.
Took shrapneI all throughout
my body, but...
kind of did--
after the expl*si*n, like,
"I'm still here, I'm still alive,"
and then proceeded to basically roll
down the mountain into the bushes.
And they were all up in position,
I could hear them talking to each other.
To our north we heard somebody
yelling for a medic.
I was the first one that heard it.
I yelled back to Sergeant Hoyt,
telling him if I could go
and see who who it was.
Myself along with Cortez
started moving--
we started bounding towards where
we heard the guy yelling from.
We didn't know who it was.
I got to the wounded and found out
it was Vandenberge.
I yelled back it was Vandenberge
that was wounded, bring a medic.
He was just bleeding real bad.
His whole left side of his body
was this real dark red color.
And all he kept on saying was,
"Hey, help me, guys. Help me."
just rocking back and forth.
Saying "I'm bleeding out,
you gotta save me. l'm dying."
Just stuff like that.
Started handing him
gauze, tourniquet.
Just started packing
the wound with gauze.
l had my finger
knuckle-deep in his arm.
Ended up stopping the bleeding.
I'm asking,
"Where are the guys at?
Where's the Taliban at?
Where's the enemy at?"
Last time he saw them,
they were 20 feet away.
And just was I was
going to give him an lV,
Sergeant Stichter
and Doc Old got there
and carried on from there.
Sergeant Patterson and all them took over,
and I pushed out with Cortez.
We didn't bound,
we didn't do anything,
we just ran in a straight line
and got to Rice as quick as we can.
At that point I kind of realized,
"Hey, l'm stable.
"You know, I been here
ten, fifteen minutes.
I'm still breathing,
I'm not going into shock."
Kind of evaluating myself.
So basically just gave them orders to--
"Hey, you need
to maneuver your guys.
And push up
and clear across that hilltop."
As l went up,
I didn't see anyone there.
I took a knee and set up security,
and when I turned to my right,
I saw Sergeant Rougle just laying there.
I ran up and I saw
Sergeant Rougle's body
and it didn't even click.
I ran past him.
I saw his face, how it was,
kind of messed up.
I wanted to cry, but didn't.
I was shocked, honestly.
I was shocked because I saw
Sergeant Rougle just laying there.
It was-- It was chaos.
And when we finally had a second
to stop and think,
that's when l realized that
one of my good friends
had gone, you know,
and I started hearing about
Sergeant Rice, Vandenberge.
I didn't even know that they
had been hit at that point.
And...
I need a--
Yeah, time out. Hold on.
I'm just trying to keep
my train of thought.
Have that box ready.
Have the next g*dd*mn box ready.
Hey, I need immediate
suppression on 2251.
They enemy's pushed up
on the high ground--
We're not getting sh*t.
512255, if we've got A-10s,
I want g*n runs from east to west
coming in, okay?
The hill's been taken over by the enemy.
That hill right here?
WiIdcat's hill.
All right, we're going to go around
to the east and go around.
Hey, Abdul!
Get the f*ck over here!
tell these guys we're pushing up
on this f*cking ridge.
Hey, he wants us to go up
over this hill and bum rush it.
There's f*cking dudes right there.
If we do that, we're going to have
to f*cking lay down some--
We're going to have
to lay down fire first.
- Yeah, but we--
- We can't get a hold of them.
We don't know where they're at.
That's why we have
to lay down fire first.
Look, they took fire
from right over here.
Okay?
Hey, who's down?
We got Sergeant Rougle and them up?
Hey.
What?
Where they at?
Just keep down.
- Get down.
- What?
- What's going on?
- Just chill out, dude.
- Chill the f*ck out out.
- Who's over there?
Oh, my God.
Shut up.
Move, man.
Is Sergeant Rice still alive?
- He's alive?
- He's going to make it.
- There's nothing we could do.
- Where's everybody else?
Hey, we've got friendlies here
and friendlies to your six, right there.
Vandenberge all right?
Vandenberge's already--
He's stable right now.
That ain't Sergeant Rougle.
You're lying, right, man?
Why would I lie about
something like that?
Where'd he get hit?
I got to see.
Don't look at him.
ls it bad?
Tell me, dude.
Tell me, dude.
It was quick.
It was quick.
There was nothing we could do, bro!
Where the bad guys at?
Battle Six Romeo, this is two-six.
I've pushed to the site
of the KIA, break.
Right now we have the hilltop.
It's in the same vicinity as my last grid.
Right now we're going
to move the wounded in action--
there's two of them--
back to LZ Eagles.
When Captain Kearney
told me up by the LZ
that Staff Sergeant Rougle was k*lled,
it was gut wrenching.
You know, there's different
levels to quality of fighters.
He was one of the best,
if not the best.
And l think that was what was tough
for a lot of people was,
you know, kind of knowing that
in the back of their mind,
well, if the best guy we have
out here just got k*lled,
where's that put me?
What's going to happen to me?
What's going to happen
to the guy to my left, to my right?
Hey, we're going down here
to get the wounded first.
- Hey, let's go.
- Let's go.
It was a coordinated att*ck.
They drew all our attention
over to there from here.
These guys over here
also returning fire from there.
They f*cking flanked them.
You can see where the path is here
where the f*ckers came up.
Okay, where's this f*cking compound?
I want it destroyed.
Let's go.
- Stichter, destroy it now.
- Yes, sir.
After we go ahead
and get the KlA out of here,
I want gunmetal to search
directly to my west.
Hijar believes that he has a blood trail,
I want them to be getting
down low to try and PlD
and see where this guy's stopped.
It's likely that where
we find this son of a bitch
is where we find everybody else.
Hijar, make sure he understood that.
Watch the pine trees.
Just on the north side of that,
you can see a house on the corner.
As it cuts like that?
It comes almost like an L shape.
- See the terraces right there?
- Got it.
Okay, now, the f*cking
far southeast side,
there's a f*cking-- there's a dude
on the roof down in that house.
- About a thousand meters.
- Roger.
Hey, Raeon's got a guy
to our northwest
on top of a building
walking around, over.
- Any other info?
- No.
He was looking up this way,
and he just came off the roof,
and he went back in his house.
Roger, acknowledge.
Raeon, next time you see that dude,
take his head off.
Where's that range finder at?
He was a good dude, man.
Sergeant Rougle?
- You want a real cigarette?
- Yeah.
I'm worried about the rest of the guys.
They've been taking it real bad.
One Alpha's kind of
blaming it on himself
because we couldn't
push over the top,
but the thing he's got to understand
is they f*cking--
He was dead instantly.
There's nothing you can do right there.
Actually, l can't even sleep, honestly.
I've been on about four or five
different types of sleeping pills
and none of them help.
That's how bad the nightmares are.
I prefer not to sleep
and not dream about it,
than sleep and...
just see the picture in my head is...
pretty bad.
That actually stuck with me
for the rest of the deployment.
Stuck with me through
coming back here to Italy.
I still obviously haven't...
figured out how to deal
with it inside.
The only hope
I have right now is that
eventually l'll be able
to process it differently.
I'm never going to forget it.
Never going to even let go of it.
l don't want to not
have that as a memory
because that was tone of the moments
that makes me appreciate
everything that I have.
Steiner?
Steiner, come on!
Not yet. Not yet.
Still working to try to bring about
the Korengal
to get the road moving here.
Are you really drawing
the Korengal Valley?
lt's the only thing
I know how to draw.
I just send it home in letters.
Just draw.
So do you have a songbook or something,
or an exercise book to practice with?
You just f*ck around?
Yeah I'm just f*cking around.
You need one of those books,
with the charts on them.
Yeah, I need-- that would be nice.
Restrepo was teaching me that stuff,
but he-- he taught me like a few,
but l wrote just one, a C chord,
but, you know, I don't know.
I still have his--
I actually still have
one of his Flamenco books
or whatever it is.
How to play guitar flamenco,
you know.
He was amazing on guitar.
- It was just beautiful music.
- It was amazing.
He used to grow
his fingernails out real long,
and put like nail hardener.
So we always used
to get on him about that.
Yeah, but-- with his teeth--
"yeah, but can--
"can you play the guitar
like me, yo, son?
Shun?"
Twenty seven May,
movement to contact west of Restrepo.
Task disrupt, purpose prevent AAF
from building mass fires on Restrepo.
That concludes my report. Over.
- How long till he gets tired?
- Hump him, Walker.
Ow, my hip.
Is he squeezing you
with his f*cking mammoth legs?
- Heart punch, heart punch.
- There you go, film Walker.
Walker!
I think they just changed,
didn't they?
I just want to see.
- Walker.
- I'm bored.
Say something to your wife.
Dude, you know you want to.
Hey, babe, I miss you.
Can't wait to get home and--
Hurry up, hurry up!
Do you want to know
when you're going home or not?
All right, what's been told
to the wives is
we'll be back in Italy,
not out of country,
back in Italy between
August 4th and 7th.
So look at your f*cking watch.
Two months from today
and counting down.
That's bad news if you're
one of those dudes that's like,
"f*ck, I love it here and I wanted
to wait till September
and get an extra thousand dollars."
And if that's you, I don't care.
f*ck you.
We're going home.
Today things were a little bit hectic.
We found out that one of our sister
companies, Chosen Company,
up north of Camp Blessing,
starting a new base lost nine soldiers
and had an additional twelve US wounded
and an thirteen additional ANA
that were wounded.
Hey, is this everybody?
We got the Mortars?
We got Second Platoon?
Okay, hey, listen up.
I'm going to talk to you guys
a little bit about
some of what happened
up with Chosen Company.
I want you guys to mourn,
and then l want you guys
to get over it and do your jobs.
Okay?
First-- Hey, Proctor,
why did you come in the army, man?
To fight for my country, sir.
- To fight for your country?
- Roger, sir.
Did you expect that
you might get injured or die?
Absolutely, sir.
Anybody join not knowing that
that might be an option?
We lose PFC Vimoto on June 5th, 2007.
What happens the very next day
after that, Sergeant Buno?
We go out on patrols,
we get att*cked again.
Right.
July 22nd, we lose Restrepo, right?
What do we keep on doing after that?
Fighting.
We keep on fighting
and taking it to the enemy, right?
What do you guys think would have
happened if we had just stopped at Vimoto
and acted like
our predecessors before us
and we stood our ground there,
didn't go out there doing
our aggressive patrolling,
didn't go out there
and build OP Restrepo,
which I think we'll all venture to say,
like, pretty much changed the entire
dynamics of the entire valley?
You guys know what
would have happened?
The same sh*t that happened
today up at Chosen Company.
Now with Chosen Company,
they went into an area that they
knew was going to be contested.
They knew what they were getting into.
They've been talking about
going to Wanat since July of 2007.
We went there, they did it.
The f*cking only way to bounce back
from sh*t like this is to go out there
and make the individuals
that did this to us f*cking pay.
It's not to sit back here and hide.
It's not to go back down
to our f*cking rucks
and f*cking feel sorry for ourselves
and get snuggled up in our woobie.
We go out there, we find
the m*therf*ckers that did this
and we make them pay.
We make them feeI
how we feel right now.
For those of you guys that pray,
let's go ahead and take
a moment of silence in--
in remembrance the ten--
ten to nine soldiers that we lost today
and the families of them
and the families
of those that were hurt,
and then I'll let you guys go ahead
and get about your business.
Get down.
Oh, wow, you can't see sh*t now.
Hey, can I sh**t Sergeant Mac?
I'm I'm going to f*cking get him.
- Can I sh**t?
- Wait till he engages.
Wait till he engages,
then f*cking f*cking get him.
There he goes.
Low right, low right!
Low right!
- Hey, that m*therf*cker's done.
- Is he?
Hey, Olson, he's done.
Yeah!
A direct hit on that dude.
That m*therf*cker's done, man!
That m*therf*cker's done, dude!
f*ck you, b*tches!
Body parts falling apart.
The L-Ras, dude,
it was him running
and then him blasting into pieces.
- Yeah?
- Yeah, dude.
There you go, m*therf*cker,
sh**t at us again.
By the end, like I was--
I really didn't want to get overrun.
But l just wish they were closer
so l could have actually seen them
when I k*lled them.
626 perstat,
I have twenty Restrepo.
The only question I have is tonight,
are we going to be doing
an illum round for Doc Restrepo?
Today's twenty two July.
Over.
Yeah, we're planning
on doing the illum round.
One last thing, seventeen tonight
they're sh**ting for Doc Restrepo.
Seventeen tonight.
He's f*cking a little bit drunk.
I'm f*cking--
I'm a little bit drunk at this point.
And I see him--
I see him just eyeing everyone up,
just like this.
Who is that, Kim?
No, Restrepo.
Eyeing everyone up.
I come up to him
and I'm like, "What's wrong, bro?"
He's like, "Yo, bro,
I'm going to s*ab these fools, yo."
I'm like, I see it in his hand.
He's got the f*cking Gerber
out with the Kn*fe out,
f*cking closed up, just ready
to f*cking shank someone, dude.
I'm like-- and this is
after the night before
we ended up down in the f*cking
the steps of Rome f*cking train station,
and I was peeing, in my pants.
What we did to mark
the anniversary of our dead,
we sh*t off flares,
and where Restrepo d*ed,
we sh*t off flares.
You know, and kind of raise one up.
Say a prayer,
say a few words in your head
and you move on.
Did my last patrol hopefully.
Hopefully I don't get called
back out for something.
Fly out of here in a few days.
It's kind of strange thinking you'll never
come back to OP Restrepo again.
Yeah.
It's a good feeling, though.
It's been a long f*cking
deployment right there.
Leaving Restrepo?
It's too good to be true, you know?
We're going to die here.
lsn't that right, Henry?
- Roger, Sergeant.
- But we're leaving instead.
God's going to f*ck with our emotions
and k*ll us on the bird out.
I'm never coming back,
never coming back.
It's time to go.
That's heavy.
Goodbye, OP Restrepo.
I'm never going to have
to be here again.
Not that I didn't enjoy my time here,
but it's time to move on.
- Yes!
- See you later.
The high point for us was going home.
Getting out of there.
Going home, seriously.
No doubt about it.
Each one of my soldiers' face,
you can tell, going home.
We done our job.
We did what we were supposed
to have been doing
and we out of here.
The Korengal, as far as--
What did we we achieve?
I'm always going
to think about Restrepo.
BuiIding Restrepo was the single
most important event
for the Korengal.
And how...
how the boys did it.
Fighting.
And then turning around
and going back to working.
It makes us proud
when we see the news--
they still call it Restrepo--
knowing that, you know,
we painted it on the walls,
this is for Doc Restrepo.
The name fit the place after a while,
after it became built up,
after it became a better place.
But when l hear Restrepo,
I still think of the person.
You can't-- You can't tame the beast.
You know?
Got him.
Yeah, he got him. He got him.
He did get him.
Hey, Lex, what's going on tonight?
Just tell us.
Break it down, break it down.
All I want to do
is find a miniature zebra,
put a little tiny saddle on it and ride it.
There ain't no zebras on the pub crawl.
I didn't-- Miniature zebras.
My bad, there are miniature zebras.
What the f*ck?
Let's say goodbye,
let's say goodbye.
Hey, tune in next time where
we're going to be still drunk as f*ck.
Saying goodnight
to the bad guy, man.
The same time,
the same dope rhyme,
because we're going
to be still loving life
and getting ready to go to w*r.
Restrepo (2010)
Moderator: Maskath3