The Ambush within the East
T his was a routine Saturday convoy, set to ship provides to a different base.
5 humvees and 6 Afghan Nationwide Military (ANA) gentle pick-up vans moved out of Ahead Working Base Bostick early
Saturday afternoon, Oct. 18, 2008. Bostick is a joint Military-Ma-rine base that instructions and companies 4 smaller fight outposts; it’s caught nicely up within the mountains north and east of Asadabad, and fewer than a mile from the Afghanistan-
Pakistan border. There is just one primary street, typically two lanes huge, that snakes by the closely wooded space. The Marines are led by Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin T. “Ty” Edwards, the senior Embedded Coaching Workforce chief, mentoring the Afghan Military’s 2/2 Kandak.
“You know the way heavy armored humvee doorways are—with a wounded arm I used to be having bother attempting to muscle the door open to get out when abruptly, Blam! We obtained hit by an RPG. I used to be knocked sideways. The humvee was rocked and crammed with awful-tasting smoke. I might see blood on my different arm, and it felt like
I had blood throughout my again. Doc was grabbing his support bag, and he and I started to bail out. I regarded over and noticed that Hakimi was already out. He’d taken my rifle and bolted; his door was hanging open.
The convoy set off with 4 Military humvees within the lead, adopted by the ANA pick-ups, with LtCol Edwards’ humvee positioned towards the rear. Marine First Lieutenant Morgan “Sean” McQuiston was manning the M240G medium machine gun within the humvee turret; Navy Hospital Corpsman First Class Stephen Albright was driving; native interpreter Hakimi was sitting within the again; and LtCol Edwards was the
“We ran behind our humvee and hugged the berm on our proper. I obtained on the radio, and obtained maintain of [Army 2Lt] Lorenz, and advised him we had been wounded. I might see the Military gun vans have been about 500 yards up the street. They have been placing out a whole lot of machine-gun hearth. I might hear Lorenz speaking to his increased [command] and heard that their QRF [quick reaction force] was on the way in which. The colonel was nonetheless mendacity within the street, not shifting, and I believed he was lifeless.
ANDRE W LUBIN
car commander. The convoy had been LtCol Ty Edwards (above) resets the defenses at
on the street for lower than an hour when it Fight Outpost Kamu within the Gowardesh Valley. Ed-
entered a sweeping S-curve on the slim wards was severely wounded in an Oct. 18 ambush
freeway.
and evacuated. He continues to enhance throughout what
The next narrative is from 1stLt
will probably be an extended restoration. First Lt Sean McQuiston
McQuiston, as associated to Leatherneck three
(beneath), manning a turret machine gun in a humvee
days after the struggle:
in the course of the ambush, additionally was severely wounded.
“I heard RPG hearth forward of me, however I
couldn’t see any unhealthy guys. However I noticed the
“The incoming hearth decreased, and abruptly Hakimi ran as much as me. Colonel Edwards [was] nonetheless alive, he advised me, and mentioned that when he bailed out of the humvee with my rifle, he ran to the colonel to guard him, and he’d been attempting to lift the ANA on his radio to get some assist.
“I rallied the ANA with some ‘once I shoot, you shoot’ hand gestures, and it appeared to work. We obtained rounds going out, and Doc ran out to work on the boss. Colonel Edwards was unconscious however nonetheless respiration, Doc advised me. He’d been shot in
Military humvees forward of me firing on a hill about 300 yards off to my 2 o’clock, so I swung my turret over and shot possibly 50 rounds in assist.
the pinnacle, and I known as for a CASEVAC [ca-sualty evacuation].
“The Military humvees then drove off, which is their TTP [tactics, techniques and procedures], whereas the ANA dismounted from their vans and hugged a berm to the best of us. The ANA automobiles are unarmored; you may’t struggle from them. Lieutenant Colonel Edwards jumped out and went ahead to work with the ANA. I’m nonetheless up within the turret, placing out rounds. There’s machine-gun hearth coming in on us, however it’s not heavy. However abruptly it elevated, and I obtained hit within the left arm.
“Lorenz’s ahead observer had been calling in grid coordinates for hearth missions, so now the Military’s 120 mm mortars from Bostick have been touchdown. The mortarmen did good … and the Military’s QRF was on the way in which. Their Blue Platoon [reaction unit] known as and advised me they’d be arriving in 5 mikes [minutes]. After they got here across the nook, their .50-cals and Mark 19s opened up, and so they actually lit up the hill. They sounded actual good.
“So I ducked down within the turret, lower my sleeve open and managed to cease the bleeding and placed on a bandage. The firing stored growing in depth. It was pinging off our humvee, and the home windows have been getting all shot up … elements of my 240 have been falling in my lap; it was being shot to items. Then I noticed the boss fall. He went down onerous, like he was dropped. The firing was nonetheless very heavy. ‘Doc’ started to creep the truck ahead, in search of defilade so we might get out and assist the boss. We ended up pulling ahead of the place he was mendacity by 20 to 30 yards.
ANDRE W LUBIN
“When the QRF rolled up, they grabbed the boss, the wounded ANA, and us into their humvees and introduced us again to COP [combat outpost] Lions Den. The medevac birds have been already within the air from J-bad
[Jalalabad], and so they took the boss to Bagram.”
This quick 15- to 20-minute motion value two Marine, two Military and three ANA wounded. After-action intelligence signifies the as-yet unidentified enemy suffered 30 or extra killed and wounded within the firefight, which is a wonderful instance of the temporary and cruel preventing in Afghanistan.
—Andrew Lubin