A Picture Through Words...

Charlie-MIKE Operation Ridge Walk...

We were acting as the 1st Ranger Regiment B Company tasked with assaulting a small village with known enemy activity as well as an opportunity to kill or capture High Leadership of a Taliban leader. The high ranking Leader apparently wore military fatigues which would stand out of the ordinary garb. Phresh our Token Australian was our Squad Leader who allowed us to grab any extra mags, bandages, Epi while he made a plan with our Pilot ZeD.

We were to be inserted by helicopter to a landing spot on the ridge line outside of the village about 1 kilometer away. We would move on foot, flank and capture the enemy leadership inside the village and remove any threats. Eager, we loaded the CH-47 Chinook Transport Helicopter and was flown about 10 to 15 miles north on a high ridge line. I couldn't see the valley floor, all I could see were the other mountains and the sharp edge of the ridge we were on. I was assigned as the Red Team Leader of two others. As the village was described as heavily fortified by enemy Taliban. Knowing this Phresh acted cautiously and moved forward in a controlled manner. When we were about 500 meters from the village Phresh had me move my team to a flanking position in hopes to get eyes on the village before they saw us.

"It all went wrong so fast"

As we moved to begin a flanking position we identified a small Squad of men armed with Ak-47's moving diagonally towards us. Phresh informed us to hold fire in hopes to move past them. After a short time the squad moved past us and we continued to movement towards the objective. Then I heard it, the distant sound of an Ak-47 chattering at us from afar. I could immediately hear Kyle our Automatic Rifleman begin to open fire with his M-249 SAW. Then more AK-47's began to open up on us. We had intention of beginning the fight where we wanted it, but not today. As we bounded along the steep ridge walls, taking out what felt like multiple squads, the radio opened up; "I'm hit, I'm hit!". As soon as this had come over the net I heard our Medic Logan respond "I'm coming for you...". The soldier was patched up and we continued back on top of the ridge line where we located the outskirts of the village.

As we reached a small over watch position above the village, We were able to get guns on line, but only observed one male carrying a rifle in the open. I looked to Phresh and asked him "Heavily fortified?" in the hopes that Phresh was concerned that we didn't see many bad guys inside the village. Once we killed the one male in the open we moved fast, with the mindset: "Violence of action." Blue team - or Phresh's team provided brief cover as my team cleared the first house. Blue then moved onto the house to the right of us clearing it and pushing further into the village. There was no resistance from the enemy as there were roughly two to four enemy's inside, but this did not bother Phresh who remained calm in nature. We continued the task and cleared the village but were unable to locate the Taliban Leadership wearing the fatigues.

"They came in droves..."

As Phresh was our Squad Leader he carried the Long-Range Radio. Standing close by him I overheard Command ; Call sign "PapaBear" radio in that multiple Platoons were in bound on our location. We were set up. Intelligence from high up had been duped into sending us in with the intention of killing American Troops. Phresh finally broke character "F*cking CIA screwed us". Phresh barked commands for us to set up a hasty perimeter and advised us of incoming "baddies". We were posted up on a small rock wall that barely gave us cover. At the time we believed it was enough cover to hold a fire fight.

Then we saw them coming; through the sparse tree's and terrain we could identify 15 to 20 soldiers in the open progressing on our position. I heard Kyle click open the mic "It’s been a good f*cking war boys". We opened up on them as they were roughly 200 meters out, the constant sound of AK-47's and M-16A4's firing back and forth. I could hear Phresh's minor adjustment of commands coming over the radio and others reporting reloading or moving. Sometime during the engagement my team was tasked in attempting to move forward on the left side to flank the enemy. As we moved forward we were engaged by four enemy's in the open, I couldn't see them but I could hear the rounds hitting around me. I relayed to Phresh that we were pinned down and he quickly advised us to break contact.

As we barely escaped the contact and retreated back into the village I heard the worst outcome of the scenario. "LEAD IS DOWN, LEAD IS DOWN". I quickly took command and told everyone to get off the rock wall and take cover in the houses. Again, the Radio clicked "Shit, Poppy is down" and I watched as another Soldier grabbed him and carried his body to a house nearby. All other units reported in that they were still good on ammo, with minor injuries. I could hear Command attempting to reach Phresh over the long-Range Radio. As a Team Leader I was equipped with a PRC-152 which had medium range capabilities. I turned to the Long-Range Frequency and called out for any call sign. Everyone around me was firing back at the enemy as they continually progressed forward. Eventually I was able to make contact with Air Assets in the area "JACKAL (our call sign) this is Caesar, do you need Close Air Support assets??" I quickly responded with a Grid and within a minute I could hear and see an AH-64 circling our position. While we heard the support opening up on the enemy, we retrieved some of our Casualties and again regressed deeper into the village in a one-story house near where we initially entered through. After what felt like an eternity Phresh returned to life.

"The way home is close, but not that close..."

As we were all covering from one house I could hear Jake on the top floor roof calling out Targets. I saw Logan telling Poppy to hold on as he worked on him on the floor, with Medical litter everywhere. Guys were moving up and down the stairs to locate targets. The continual fire of the M16's and Ak-47's echoed through the village. Around this time our CAS announced it was leaving and that Transport would arrive roughly five mikes out. Soon after the CAS left I overheard someone on the radio yelling "They're danger close in the Village!" I looked out a window and right in front of me was a Taliban running to the entrance of the house, I quickly double tapped him and continued to watch outside.

Soon I could hear the familiar sound of the CH-47 Chinook coming in and Phresh's long range radio start chirping. I stepped outside briefly at the worse time. The Chinook went up in a ball of flame as it was roughly 10 meters off the ground and collided with the ground. I heard Phresh's long range open up telling him that Caesar 1-1 is down and that we need to move to a Safe location and establish a new LZ. We were 10-15 miles from the base, getting low on ammo and medical supplies, we were running out of time. Phresh called out to our element on the radio that we were going to move south on foot to make a hasty LZ. As we were running out the back side of the village Phresh called out to any units stranded or left over but there was no response. We would continue moving South while the Taliban made chase. Finally we were free of any contact and relieved to see that another CH-47 had landed on a steep angle of the ridge waiting for us. As we lifted off the enemy opened up again, I could hear roughly five to eight guns chattering from below. We had missed their push and I know we all felt really happy and warm to be inside the bird at that moment.