Modern American Snipers (7 page)

The efforts of India's team leader, Delta sniper Kris Kosem, and Mako 31's 24STS CCT attachment, Andrew Martin, were recognized with the awarding of Silver Stars. It's reasonable to assume those were far from the only medals awarded to AFO troops for their participation in Operation Anaconda; troves of commendations earned by JSOC operators deep enough to stock a museum remain classified.

However, the story of Operation Anaconda did not end with Juliet, India, and Mako 31—not by a long shot.

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Back at Bagram Airfield, Task Force 11 got antsy when the action of Operation Anaconda proved hotter than it had anticipated—particularly for its wayward AFO subcomponent. Motivated to work its forces more deeply into the mix, General Dailey's in-country deputy, Air Force Brig. Gen. Gregory Trebon, along with ST6 commander Joe Kernan, sent forth “reinforcements” from Task Force Blue to swoop in and assume control of the air strike operations from AFO.

The new arrivals at the Gardez safe house were directed by Lieutenant Commander Vic Hyder, who two months earlier had evoked unwanted comparisons to SEAL Team Six's riotous past. On New Year's Eve of '01, a group of SEALs, led by Hyder, blasted through Afghan militia checkpoints in a reckless “joyride.” The vehicle was fired upon and its driver struck, forcing the DEVGRU operators to pull over and surrender their equipment to the tribesmen in humiliation.

Now Hyder came with a group of SEALs looking to seize rather than surrender. Although Lt. Col. Blaber had been informed to the contrary, upon arrival, Hyder was not only in command of the teams he brought with him, but also the AFO recon teams already in position. And at TF 11's behest—and in direct opposition to Blaber's recommendations—he immediately set about replacing them with the three new ST6 teams (despite their lack of familiarity with the terrain and the situation).

Complicating matters further, both Hyder and Blaber believed they were in command, and, unbeknownst to Blaber, the two did not use shared communication channels as subsequent events rapidly unfolded.

Of the three SEAL teams preparing for immediate insertion, two, Mako 21 and Mako 22, consisted of assaulters. Both were emplaced without resistance, although, lacking the specialized training and equipment required for an operation of this sort, they produced rather mixed results.

A third team, Mako 30, consisted of the other half of Red Squadron's recce element that Blaber had earlier requested but been denied. This Black Team sniper element was tasked with the most challenging and potentially pivotal of the operation: the 10,469-foot peak of Takur Ghar, which teased a dominant overwatch position towering over the entire valley below.

The seven-man team was led by a SEAL named Britt Slabinski. “Slab,” a wiry-framed and reflective sniper in his midthirties, was the converse of the stereotypical image of a Navy SEAL.

He was joined by heavy metal aficionado Stephen “Turbo” Toboz, and Kyle Defoor, an avid motorcyclist and relative newcomer to recce. There was also a member of the secretive ISA, along with Air Force Technical Sergeant John Chapman of the 24th Special Tactics Squadron. The team was rounded out by three additional SEALs, including thirty-two-year-old Neil “Fifi” Roberts, sporting curly red hair and an M249 SAW.

Blaber knew and respected Slabinski. The two had operated alongside one another extensively prior to 9/11 in Bosnia and elsewhere.

After the two had conferred, Mako 30 planned to infiltrate some thirteen hundred yards short of their ambitious objective, providing them adequate time to complete the demanding four-hour climb with the advantage of night on their side.

This was later scrapped, however. Multiple delays had encouraged a decidedly dicier approach, and instead of marching to the peak, they chose to shift their intended LZ (landing zone) directly to the top of the mountain. This was viewed as extremely dangerous for any number of reasons—not the least of which it would signify their placement to any nearby fighters. Making matters even more dire, there was compelling evidence that suggested the “nearby” fighters would be even closer than that, with an entrenched al-Qaeda force thought to have already claimed ownership of the prized turf.

In their earlier discussion, Blaber urgently argued against an impetuous attempt of this nature. However, despite retaining notional authority, he had since been removed from the loop and was unaware of this late development. Slabinski requested that the operation be pushed back to the following evening; however, he was overruled and instructed by Task Force Blue's TOC in Bagram to immediately go forward with the daring—arguably reckless—mission plan.

The eight-man JSOC team was ferried into position above the peak of Takur Ghar aboard a 160th SOAR MH-47E Chinook. Ignoring still more warning signs on approach, the Night Stalker set the bulky tandem-rotor craft down on top of the mountain. Within moments, the night sky strobed with a barrage of intense RPG and small arms fire.

The crew immediately reacted and wrenched the unwieldy helicopter back into the air in hopes of limping it to a safer landing zone. However, Petty Officer 1st Class Roberts was already preparing to disembark, one foot off the ramp. The DEVGRU operator was knocked off balance and he slipped out of Toboz's grasp and into the blackness ten feet below.

Moments later he found himself all alone on the mountain peak, lying in the snow and surrounded by a pack of fanatical jihadists closing on his position. At that instant, the remainder of his team was helplessly drifting away from him in a crippled Chinook, which had suffered massive damage to its electronic and hydraulics systems in the onslaught.

The DEVGRU sniper element frantically requested for immediate reinsertion in hopes of saving Roberts but Anaconda's ineffectual command and control (at multiple levels) magnified an already dire situation.

A second Chinook arrived at the scene of their controlled crash, but they were ordered back to Gardez. This was due to an unwillingness to abandon the downed helicopter's crew when nearby friendly forces were mistakenly believed to be an advancing pack of enemy combatants.

Roberts's condition and predicament were a mystery. A soupy-thick fog of war had enveloped the chaotic situation as AC-130Hs and various ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) platforms had changed stations and were scrambling in hopes of locating the abandoned SEAL.

After hauling the spare 160th crew back to Gardez, the remaining five from Six and their CCT were finally allowed to charge back to Roberts's aid. However, it was already too late. The precise details of his demise have been debated. There is some speculation he died almost instantly while other reports claim he fought off a mob of onrushing attackers for as long as thirty minutes, undone only after his M249 had jammed and he had run through his secondary weapon's ammunition and stock of grenades.

Additionally, the manner in which he was killed is unclear. The rumor mill is filled with (allegedly) Predator-feed-informed anecdotes that range from an execution-style bullet to the head to tortuous brutalization at the hands of savage enemies.

Unaware that Roberts had already been killed, Mako 30 touched back down on Takur Ghar in hopes of a hasty rescue. They immediately split into three pairs and were engaged straight away in intense, close-range combat. Several al-Qaeda gunmen were dispatched in the opening frenzied moments, but the hopelessly outnumbered recce force quickly took casualties. Three of the DEVGRU commandos were wounded—including Toboz, who took a round from an RPK “Super Kalashnikov” to the left calf, ripping a baseball-sized chunk out of his lower leg.

Tragically, the 24STS Combat Controller, Technical Sergeant John A. Chapman, joined Roberts as KIA (killed in action) on the peak of Takur Ghar, downed in the firefight (though there remains some dispute concerning the particulars of Chapman's death as well).

Forced to make a desperate escape, the JSOC snipers leapt over the crest of the peak and plowed down a seventy-degree embankment at speed before clambering to cover hundreds of feet below.

SEAL Team Three sniper Brandon Webb was aboard a QRF (Quick Reaction Force) helicopter at Bagram Airfield and heard the confused radio calls as the operation spiraled deeper and deeper out of control. Ready to race to the mountain to support the cornered DEVGRU element, his Task Force K-Bar team was ordered off the helo in order to make room for an Army Rangers QRF just prior to liftoff—further evidence of Operation Anaconda's shattering miscommunication and lack of coordination.

Webb later observed the footage captured by an MQ-1 Predator drone of the battle atop Takur Ghar.

“Part of the feed is just burned into my mind,” Webb said. “These guys sliding down this mountain with their kit.… I'm not sure what the pitch would have been, but it was incredibly steep.”

The Ranger Regiment-led QRF, which was split between a pair of Chinooks, attempted to assist the SEALs. However, one of the helicopters was mistakenly directed into the firing lines of the awaiting AQ combatants atop the peak while the other flew to Gardez before finally inserting some eight hundred meters away (now with SEAL officer Vic Hyder, who joined in the rescue effort).

The QRF ultimately took “Roberts Ridge”—as the deadly peak would come to be known—but not before the lives of five additional American warriors were taken.

While the Rangers aboard the second QRF scurried to the ridge, Hyder went in search of Mako 30.

The sniper element had been engaged for hours on end as they attempted to fight their way back to safety. Slabinski controlled the chaos throughout, alternately urging his men on and shredding through packs of assailants via the liberal application of surgical fire courtesy of “Barney”—his 7.62mm semi-automatic rifle.

Webb later discussed the day's events with Toboz. “When they got down to the bottom of the mountain, [Toboz] just wanted to lay down and die. But that Slab guy just smacked him in the face.
‘Dude, get your shit together.'
They basically patched him up but Turbo had lost a lot of blood. He said that literally Slab would drag him for a while and then run into the woods for, like, twenty or thirty minutes and Turbo would just hear a bunch of gunfire. And then he would come back and move Turbo again. He did this a bunch of times. He just told me, ‘That guy is a fuckin' hero.' Literally, he would run off, just picking off guys, run back, until the helicopter extracted them.

“Turbo said it was surreal. The guy was a fucking maniac.”

Hyder finally tracked down his SEALs. In addition to Slabinski's astonishing proficiency and heroism, the recce team had been sheltered by the combined firepower of a circling AC-130H Spectre gunship, F-15E Strike Eagles, and a CIA MQ-1 Predator drone that happened to make aviation history that day by executing the first-ever instance of UAV ground-to-air support.

Though wounded—Toboz in mortal danger—the SEALs completed a six-hour, fifteen-hundred-meter march to escape. Unable to make contact with the Task Force Blue TOC by radio, Hyder resorted to placing a call via satellite phone to DEVGRU's compound in Dam Neck, Virginia, so that they could pass along word and arrange for their extraction.

Like Operation Anaconda as a whole, the Battle of Takur Ghar proved to be a mixed victory. It was undeniably an awesome display of courage under fire by the Black Team sniper element along with the 1/75 Rangers who bravely came to their aid. However, it was just as clearly an utter C2 (command and control) debacle. Multiple opportunities to avoid or correct mistakes were missed—mistakes that were instead compounded with tragic results.

In the weeks following Operation Anaconda, the CIA tracked down a collection of foreign fighters who had escaped the onslaught in the Shah-i-Kot Valley. Initially spotted by a U.S. Navy P-3 Orion and then passed off to a CIA-controlled Predator drone, the convoy was positively identified as being among the forces that had scattered in the wake of Anaconda.

They were subsequently redirected by a joint CIA/Afghan ground team as they attempted to race for the Pakistan border. Successfully shepherded back into play, the convoy was subsequently intercepted by a heliborne SEAL Team Six strike force that included Mako 30 sniper element leader Slabinski.

The DEVGRU SEALs disembarked from the 160th SOAR choppers and proceeded to annihilate their terrorists with measured fury, leaving no survivors among the fleeing Chechen terrorists while absorbing no additional casualties.

The loss of Roberts—the first SEAL killed in the Global War on Terror—was a turning point for DEVGRU. This was particularly the case for Red Squadron, who would earn a reputation inside the special operations community for taking no prisoners.

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Toboz first joined the Navy in '91 after drifting through a couple of colleges and being inspired to seek a new start after reading Richard Marcinko's memoirs,
Rogue Warrior
. After becoming an operator of SEAL Team Six himself and later being maimed on the battlefield, he continued to demonstrate his dedication and desire.

Toboz was awarded a Silver Star and Purple Heart for refusing to give in despite his life-threatening injuries. He continued to serve as an inspiration long after that fateful day.

Following multiple surgeries to his lower leg, Turbo ordered the doctors to amputate and fit him with a prosthetic leg. Like Delta operator Brad Halling before him, Toboz returned to active duty, redeploying to Afghanistan nine months later.

However, unsatisfied with operating at 95 percent, Toboz changed paths and instead passed his wisdom downrange: he became an instructor for the U.S. Navy SEAL Sniper Course.

Neil Roberts was awarded the Silver Star posthumously, while John Chapman received the Air Force Cross posthumously.

Vic Hyder received a Silver Star for the critical role he played in Mako 30's rescue and recovery.

Kyle Defoor was awarded the Bronze Star for valor. He left DEVGRU in '03 and took on training positions with Blackwater and Tigerswan before later establishing Defoor Proformance Shooting.