A Firefight In Afghanistan - 2006
An e-mail home from Cpl. Scott Tank, USMC - March 21, 2006
(Edited for content.)
Hey, Saturday night at 0100 I got into my 1st firefight, Sunday night at 2000 I got into my second. We took a group of female medical officers from the army up to the Neristan Mountains to do what they call a Med Cap,they hand out medicines to local villagers. I had a soldier in the back who I really liked, a Lt. Col medic and a female Major, the soldier was their bodyguard. It was freezing cold and pissing on us the whole time, we were surrounded by mountains. My Plt Sgt. and I were sleeping in the back of this truck with a blue tarp over us. I had been asleep for a couple hours I think. We had a fire team of Marines on top of a mountain in an OP on our left flank, and Afghan army on a hilltop to our right flank. I had post on 50 cal soon so I tried to sleep. At 0100 I heard the loudest thud impact ever! It landed in the middle of our patrol base. I hopped out of the back of the truck, then another thud and another, then AK shots coming from the front, then the 50 and all the crew serves were going off in the direction of fire. We returned fire with our mortars, they dropped about 10 on us, we dropped 26. All I could see was tracers coming from us and tracers coming from them and bright bursts coming from them on the mountain top. I ran to my truck took a knee and dropped a full mag into the muzzle burst in about 10 seconds. Some f^*ker was shooting at my truck 100 yards in front of me from a hilltop. When I tried to exchange I dropped the mag on the deck and the spring inside popped out and my rounds flew out in the air. The impacts from the mortars were right behind me and to the left of me on the hilltop by my Plt's M203. It lasted about 20 minutes. The echo from the mountains made it that much more intense. We called seize fire, and did a count and body sweep, we took no casualties.
The next day the medics did their shit and we rolled out. Just before we left the XO got intel from the village mayor that there was about 30 guys waiting for us on the other side of the mountain. The roads are the worst roads I've ever driven on. They are about the size of a humvee with a straight cliff on the left side. We roll out and about 4 hours into my Plt Sgt's steering column on his truck breaks off so he can't steer. So we tow it. We can only do 5 mph, now nightfall hits. We are driving on this mountain in the dark and then a bright light and a mortar thud goes off behind my truck. So its started. The whole mountain for about 1 mile on my left side lights up with AK fire in random areas. We return with everything we've got, tracers everywhere. It was a sight to see as I'm positive you know. The female in the back busts out rosemary beads and starts praying out loud, as a rocket flies past the windshield above my vehicle. We are going to slow and can't step on it because of the towed vehicle in front of me. The XO stops the convoy, we kill the lights and engage. I open the door of my humvee and drop a mag into the muzzle blast again. We hit the head lights move forward a little more and kill the lights. I open the door again and drop another mag and a half and close the bullet proof door as they return. The scalding hot shells from soldiers gun in the back seat are falling into my flack and blouse burning my neck, legs, chest and stomach. This went on for about thirty minutes. The Afghan army was walking along side the vehicles and returning fire. We finally came around to the other end of the mountain and I could hear them hitting the 2nd convoy behind ours. We took no casualties. We took over a police station to hold up. I stood on the 50 for some of the night, freezing, soaked, scared, pumped and pissed off. We launched mortars at the mountain from our pause until morning. They handed out meds and we bounced and returned to base without out anymore f#*king bullshit. So that's what I've been doing for three days. We got quite the welcoming when we returned because everyone in the rear was listening to the net all night. We are going back out there on Friday. I will never forget these 2 nights....
Semper Fi
Love
Scott
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Thank You and God Bless
JUST AS VIETNAM WAS NOT JOHNSON'S WAR,
OR NIXON'S WAR,
THIS IS NOT BUSH'S WAR.
IT IS AMERICA'S WAR.
THESE WARRIORS ARE OUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS.
NOT JOHNSON'S, NIXON'S OR BUSH'S.
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