Blind Eyes, Black Hearts - A GWOT Story (On Hold)

Chapter 4, Part 1 - Rangers Lead the Way

CHAPTER 4

Rangers Lead the Way

1 Rifle Company is 120 men strong, consisting of 4 platoons. Three of them were rifle platoons and the other one was a weapons platoon. A rifle platoon was divided into 3 squads of around 8-12 men each, and those squads were divided into smaller teams of 4-5 men. A return to my old ranger unit after graduating college and the green-to-gold program was one of the most prestigious appointments in my life. My knowledge in the field seemed to be counted upon by my superiors, and I am grateful for that.

Deployment to Afghanistan came in January, and our mission was to be posted in this damp outpost FOB in the goddamn mountains near the Pak border. D Company, 1/75 Rangers were deployed to support Special Operations in finding weapon caches and disrupting Taliban operations in the area.

One day we were sent on a major sweeping of the area.

And boy did we sweep.

-          2LT Rick Salvade, in his memoir.

1/75th Rangers

Kunar Province, Eastern Afghanistan, Near the Pak Border

1248 Hours, 27th June 2007

Our target was a village on the other side of the hills. Recon in force was the objective, so Dagger 1 and Dagger 2 along with the weapons platoon, Dagger 4 came in via humvees and dismounted when the first shots were fired. – 2LT Rick Salvade

Dagger 2 was the callsign for Second Lieutenant Rick Salvade’s platoon who were in the process of assaulting a suspected Taliban hillside stronghold. Two platoons, full force, mounted in unarmored humvees, were originally on a reinforced patrol to check out this suspected hillside Taliban village, but then, they took fire from a tree line 500 meters away. And from that moment, they knew the threat was real. The man leading the patrol, Captain Killbride, told the two platoons to dismount and engage the enemy on foot. But instead, everything turned around for him. The half-company was pinned down by numbers twice their size, and they were absolutely trapped.

Salvade, was pinned down by both machinegun and sniper fire.

It was his chance to prove himself as a commander in the field.

***

A sniper bullet whistled pass Rick’s headphone-covered ears. Two snipers and a machinegun team were pinning down 1st Squad (Dagger 21), and 2nd and 3rd squad were not managing better. 2nd Platoon, or Dagger 2 had been engaged in a heavy firefight with Taliban positions for 30 minutes straight, without receiving new orders from Dagger Actual, Captain Killbride. Lieutenant Salvade was pretty annoyed by the Captain’s static maneuvers, that was the main reason why his platoon is now stuck under heavy fire and not moving. According to his studies in Ranger School and Infantry Officer School, he was supposed to unfuck himself.

Salvade was stuck with 1st squad of his platoon, and could not distribute himself to the rest o f his platoon due to heavy fire.

The snipers were hidden in the treeline that covered the hill they were supposed to search, and the machinegunners were seen clearly from where Rick was taking cover. 200 meters, West. He thought. Doesn’t seem like the usual lot of untrained Taliban. Lines of large rocks lie on Rick’s right flank, which was empty and could be used to maneuver, but in front of him wasn’t more than an empty waste of sand and wild grass, that ended with a set of Taliban RPK and a dozen AKs.

“Sir we need to move!” Shouted Staff Sergeant Damian Henderson, 1st Squad’s leader. The squad of 12 men were taking cover behind a steep bump of sand dotted with grass, while the enemy snipers were unseen, and enemy machinegunners continuously fired upon Dagger 21.