Read One Million Steps: A Marine Platoon at War Online
Authors: Bing West
One Million Steps: A Marine Platoon at War (35 page)
[3] I appreciate life more 52%
Belief in God:
[1] I believe in God, his rules and heaven 65%
[2] I’m so-so about God and hereafter 25%
[3] Probably a myth 10%
Why did you join the Marines?
[1] role model of a relative 12%
[2] discipline & toughness 40%
[3] straighten myself out 40%
[4] learn a trade 8%
PART II:
Enemy: I have seen
[1] 1–3 Taliban 12%
[2] 5–10 Taliban 14%
[3] Over 10 14%
[4] Over 20 60%
[Note: at the time of the survey, the average Marine had conducted over 65 patrols. Obviously, many of the same Taliban were seen on different occasions. In about one patrol in three, the average Marine saw one Taliban.]
Enemy Casualties: I have hit
[1] 1–2 Taliban 45%
[2] 3–5 28%
[3] 6–10 10%
[4] Over 10 17%
[Note: the sniper section accounted for all the kills in the “Over 10” category. In total, the Marines believed they had hit with small arms fire 221 of the enemy. It cannot be judged how many were actually hit, or how many others were hit by mortars, bombs, and helicopter gunship runs. Even if the individual estimates are cut in half, it is probable that 3rd Platoon by direct and indirect fire killed close to 200 Taliban over the course of 400 patrols.]
PTSD. In your squad, how many do you believe have or will have PTSD?
No one 25%
One 18%
Two 18%
Three or more 36%
Average guess March of 2011: 6 among the 51 Marines in 3rd Platoon have or will experience PTSD
[Note: the 2014 actual number was 3 with PTSD diagnoses.]
Afghan Soldiers vs. Taliban
[1] Taliban better fighters than Afghan soldiers 37%
[2] Both sides are about the same 43%
[3] Afghan soldiers are better 20%
View of Afghan people
[1] can’t trust; they support the Taliban 36%
[2] people OK, but intimidated by Taliban 58%
[3] worth fighting for; they’re aligned with us 6%
Endgame
[1] Afghan people will side with government against Taliban 20%
[2] We can train Afghan soldiers so they can defeat Taliban 25%
[3] When we leave, Afghanistan will remain a mess 55%
3RD PLATOON, KILO COMPANY, 3RD BATTALION, 5TH MARINE REGIMENT AT SANGIN, AFGHANISTAN
1ST SQUAD
Cpl. Porfirio Alvarez
Cpl. Chatchai Xiong
Cpl. Juan Palma
Cpl. Anthony Gonzales
Cpl. Dylan Nordell
Cpl. Edwardo Soto
Cpl. Victor Valdez
Cpl. Clayton Cook
Cpl. Darin Hess
Sgt. Dominic Esquibel
LCpl. Brandon Weese
MORTARS
Sgt. Joshua Byram
Cpl. Mike Domico
Cpl. Christian Wall
Cpl. Jim Parvin
Cpl. Zach James
Cpl. Philip Chronis
Cpl. Paul Sharon
Cpl. Leland Vaughan
Sgt. Joe Myers
LCpl. Ryan Echelbager
2D SQUAD
Sgt. Alex Deykeroff
LCpl. Timothy Wagner
LCpl. Trevor Halcomb
LCpl. Mike Williamson
LCpl. Aaron Lantznester
Cpl. Armando Espinoza
LCpl. John Payne
LCpl. Oscar Orozco
Cpl. Richard Hur
LCpl. Zachary White
ATTACHED
RTO LCpl. James Helton
HM3 Juan Hernandez
HM3 Stuart Fuke
Engineer LCpl. Colbey Yazzie
Engineer Cpl. Kameron Delany
HM3 Emmanuel Gonzalez
Staff Sgt. Nicholas Tock
Cpl. Kacey Harmon
HM3 Redmond Ramos
HM3 Stephen Librando
3RD SQUAD
Sgt. Phil McCulloch
Cpl. Jaceon Skramstad
LCpl. Kyle Doyle
LCpl. Leonard Rausch
LCpl. Adrian Barbiera
LCpl. Jeffrey Rushton
Cpl. Sam Saephan
LCpl. Brett Stieve
Sgt. Clint Thoman
LCpl. Patrick Walker
LCpl. Juan Dominguez
MACHINE GUNS AND COMMAND
LCpl. Jorge Ortiz
Cpl. Jeremy Moreno
LCpl. Robert Baskins
LCpl. Cole Christopher
LCpl. David Hickle
LCpl. Juan Covarrubius
Cpl. William Lefevers
Lt. Cameron West
Staff Sgt. Siege Amey
Lt. Vic Garcia
Staff Sgt. Matthew Cartier
LCpl. Joseph Miller
Sgt. Ryan Krochmolny
SNIPERS
Cpl. Jacob Ruiz
Cpl. Royce Hughie
Cpl. Jordan Laird
Cpl. Jeff Sibley
Sgt. Brandon Rokahr
LCpl. Willie Deel
Cpl. Brett Sullivan
Cpl. Kevin Henson
Cpl. Sloan Hicks
Sgt. John D. Browning
Cpl. Logan Stark
Sgt. Kevin Smith
Sgt. Matt Abbate
INTRODUCTION
1
“moral obligation”
George W. Bush,
Decision Points
. New York: Crown, 2010, p. 205.
2
“squeezed into extinction”
General Tommy Franks,
American Soldier
. New York: Easton, 2004, pp. 338, 377.
3
opium
Alissa Rubin, “Opium Cultivation Rose This Year in Afghanistan, U.N. Survey Shows,”
New York Times
, November 20, 2012.
4
“The central theme”
Brig. Gen. Edward Butler, quoted in Bing West, “With the Warriors,”
National Review
, March 7, 2011.
5
“Sangin was no safer”
Patrick Bury,
Callsign Hades
. London: Simon & Schuster, 2010, p. 281.
6
“ringed in”
Ibid., p. 281.
7
“stop referring”
Gretel C. Kovach, “Darkhorse Battalion,”
San Diego Union-Tribune
, April 23, 2011.
8
“I have pulled”
Christian Science Monitor
, December 6, 2006.
9
“I’m pleading with you”
Robert Johnson, “How to Work a Room Like Badass 4-Star Marine General ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis,”
BusinessInsider.com
, September 25, 2012.
10
“We can’t”
Admiral Mike Mullen, House Armed Services Committee testimony, September 10, 2008.
11
“diminish”
Anne E. Kornblut, Scott Wilson, and Karen DeYoung, “Obama Pressed for Faster Surge,”
Washington Post
, December 6, 2009.
12
“I urge our troops”
Admiral Mike Mullen, Pentagon briefing, December 10, 2009.
13
“We’ve got a government”
David E. Sanger, “A Test for the Meaning of Victory in Afghanistan,”
New York Times
, February 13, 2010.
14
“We [Marines] can’t fix”
Gen. James Conway, Pentagon press conference, August 14, 2010.
15
“biggest mistake”
Robert M. Gates,
Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War
. New York: Knopf, 2014, p. 340.
16
“He [Conway] insisted” Ibid
.
17
“Marine-istan”
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Marines Gone Rogue,”
Washington Post
, March 14, 2010.
18
“It’s a hard pill”
Tom Coghlan, “American Marines Pay Heavy Price in Fight for Sangin,”
The Times
(London), December 6, 2010.
CHAPTER 1: SHOCK
1
he wrote to the families
Lt. Col. Jason Morris, letter to 3/5 families, October 13, 2010.
2
“Colonel Morris looked”
Excerpt from the YouTube video “For the 25,” posted by Logan Stark, May 5, 2013.
3
Lance Cpl. John Sparks
The Story of the 3/5 Darkhorse Marine Battalion in Sangin, Afghanistan
, p. 18.
4
killing four Marines
Corp. Justin Cain hailed from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where a motorcycle club escorted his casket through town.
In Eugene, Oregon, at the funeral of LCpl. Joseph Rodewald, hundreds wore a red jersey with his number, 33, honoring his passion for football.
The Boy Scout troop in St. Charles County, Missouri, turned out at the Church of the Shepherd to say good-bye to LCpl. Phillip Vinnedge, who had once dressed up as the Easter Bunny to entertain children.
Pfc. Victor Dew of Granite Bay, California, left behind a fiancée. His mother said that his desire to join the Marines was “every mother’s worst fear,” but she understood his determination. “Victor joined the Marines,” his father said, “to be on the front lines, where he felt he could make a difference.”
5
five fatalities
Marine Corps Times
, October 18, 2010.
6
a squad of thirteen Marines
This was Sgt. Decker’s squad from 1st Platoon.
7
second squad
Sgt. Nick Glidden from 2d Platoon.
8
Covered by
Abbate suggested they head to Building 29 in P8T, 600 meters north of Fires.
9
since he was three
Rockford
(Ill.)
Register Star
, October 15, 2010.
10
trusted his judgment
Los Angeles Times
, November 21, 2010.
11
Ceniceros
“Irvin admired the strength of character of the Marines,” his sister said. “He wanted to be in the Marines because he was the same way.”
Times Record
(Fort Smith, Ark.), October 19, 2010.
12
eight killed
Marine Corps Times
, October 18, 2010.
CHAPTER 2: LEADER LOST
1
“Wow, my son’s unit”
Los Angeles Times
, November 21, 2010, and NPR, November 1, 2010.
2
honor man
The Oregonian
, October 18, 2010.
3
“I have decided”
Lt. Col. Jason Morris, letter to 3/5 families, October 18, 2010.
4
“At the time”
Tom Bowman, “Afghan Success Comes at High Price for Commander,”
NPR.org
, October 30, 2011.
CHAPTER 3: WITH THE OLD BREED
1
Seven out of ten civilian casualties
Associated Press, November 26, 2010.
2
Karzai had pointed
as reported by CNN, July 27, 2010.
3
The sentry
Lance Corporal Kane was shot. Abbate, Ruiz, Sibley, and Laird then left the outpost.
4
the summer of 1966
Capt. Francis J. West, Jr.,
Small Unit Action in Vietnam
. U.S. Marines monograph, p. 5 (also New York: Arno Press, 1981).
5
“Despite taking”
Lt. Col. Jason Morris, letter to 3/5 families, October 25, 2010.
6
“There is nothing out of the norm”
Marine Corps Times
, October 20, 2010.
CHAPTER 4: LEADERS FOUND
1
he decided
Shortly after taking over, Garcia sent Esquibel’s 1st Squad to a cemetery north of Fires, searching for a path through the minefields along the edge of Route 611. The Radio Battalion intercept team at Inkerman warned Esquibel that Taliban were watching and talking excitedly over their Icoms. At the edge of a cornfield, the Marine at point, LCpl. Victor Valdez, saw two men crouching over a PKM not twenty-four meters away.
“Machine gun!”
The Marines went flat and bullets zinged in a dozen different directions. Once the Marines began plunking .203 rounds into the corn, the PKM gunners pulled back. Thinking they were under mortar shelling, the Taliban ran to the nearest compound. Garcia came forward from Inkerman with a quick reaction force. The two squads maneuvered slowly toward the compound. The intercept team radioed that inside the compound a man was calling for help over his Icom. His comrade had been hit in the chest and blown up by a .203 explosive. But by the time the compound was reached, the Taliban, both alive and dead, were gone.
2
covering fire
In late October, compass readings from several radio intercepts pointed to an enemy position on an azimuth of 300 degrees from Fires, which pointed at Compound 2 in sector Q1E. Esquibel went out, divided his squad into two maneuver elements, and closed on the compound from two sides. They killed one shooter and in the corner of a shed found a bag full of 12.7mm rounds. The 12.7 was a heavy Russian machine gun called a Dishka, a World War II antiaircraft
weapon. The Taliban almost never made the mistake of shooting at helicopter gunships. Instead, they used the 12.7 to harass combat outposts from positions a mile away. The Marines’ seizure of the cache meant a month-long round-trip to Pakistan for the Taliban to resupply. The successful patrol confirmed Esquibel’s faith in his methodical approach.
CHAPTER 5: TOE-TO-TOE
1
Costing $500,000 each
www.money.msn.com
, January 23, 2014.
2
outdoorsman
Denver Post
, November 6, 2010.
3
“He is with God now”
Arizona Republic
, November 9, 2010.
4
No American squad dared to live
There were some exceptions, like Maj. Jim Gant of the Special Forces; see Ann Scott Tyson,
American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant
. New York: Morrow, 2014.
5
xenophobic tribesmen
Meanwhile, Afghan president Karzai railed against the American presence among the villagers, adding greatly to an atmosphere of distrust. The Afghan soldiers admitted that they did not know who among them would, on a whim or conviction, murder them as they slept. The high command issued a countrywide order that an armed American soldier keep watch over Afghan soldiers at all times.
6
That night, the Marines ate Stacy
The next day, 2d Squad was patrolling east of Fires when they saw a set of wires. Uncertain which wire to cut, the squad called an engineer team from Inkerman. While waiting, Sergeant Dy and Corporal Laird casually questioned a few passing farmers. Stevie, their shrewd translator, whispered that the farmers were subtly gesturing toward three men standing off to one side. When Stevie approached them, one nervously replied with a Pakistani accent. The three were flex-cuffed. After the engineers arrived, they uncovered an intricate network of seven IEDs.
7
Lt. Gen. John Kelly
Speech in St. Louis, November 11, 2010; see Appendix A.
8
In London, the
Sunday Times
“We were there for four years,” said a British veteran, “and we’d already tried what they are now trying, which is obviously not working judging by the casualties.” Miles Amoore, “US Humbled in Bloody Sangin,”
Sunday Times
(London), December 12, 2010.
9
Gen. James Amos
Tom Bowman report, NPR, October 31, 2011.
