After an attack on October 3, 2009, where the base was nearly overrun, and 8 Americans and 4 Afghan defenders were killed, the base was abandoned and demolished by a bombing from an American B-1 bomber on the night of October 6th, 2009. It was one of many reasons Cordova was later awarded the Silver Star. Gul Mohammed Khan, the government administrator for Kamdesh District, lived at the intersection of the Landay-Sin and Darreh Ye Kushtoz rivers. Lardner, Richard (Associated Press), "Command Failures". Not exactly, but in researching The Outpost's historical accuracy, we learned that a similar incident happened the year prior, in 2008, involving more than just one dog. Colonel Pat Donahue, the former commander of the 3rd BCT, believed that the Nuristani population was essentially neutral, hostile to any outside groups, and so isolated that resources allocated to the region would be wasted. The first effort was made by First Lieutenant Dave Roller. Between each take, the director and actors paused and turned to Cordova, who offered feedback to make the scene match his memory. The first soldier to arrive had profuse bleeding from the skull. Regrouping there, they pushed out teams to retake much of the outpost. Jake Tapper, author of the bookThe Outpost, wondered the same thing when he embarked on his research. [7]:334,501,92,98. I'll have to give it a read sometime. My soldiers and I had been sharing stories since Oct. 3, 2009, when our 53 cavalry scouts fought off more than 300 Taliban fighters bent on overrunning Combat Outpost Keating in Nuristan, Afghanistan. While there are numerous accounts of bravery that day, two Medals of Honor and nine Silver Stars (two have since been upgraded) were awarded. On his way, he stopped to offer first aid to wounded troops. One of the casualties was a bright young specialist named Stephan Mace, whom Cordova kept alive for nine hours by transfusing fresh blood from other soldiers, himself included. . Given that her reticence led to her subordinates acting on their own initiative resulting in her plan failing, not really. He decided that American soldiers' "battle rattle" war gear gave the impression of soulless killing machines. To make amends with the woman and her family, Meshkin agreed to shoot a shaggy brown dog named Franklin. I witnessed the making of The Outpost, a film about the day my unit fought off 300 Taliban fighters who tried to overrun our camp in Afghanistan. Justin Kulish was conducting a routine patrol in his B-1 bomber about an hour away when he got the call that Keating was in trouble. Eight aviators were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for helping defend the base. Resistance in Nuristan revolved around a specific group of Islamic fighters known as Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin or HIG. The pilots landed at a nearby base and then limped the aircraft to an airfield for repairs, separating me and a small contingent of soldiers from the outpost. Furthermore, Camp Keating's location, surrounded by mountains on three sides, exposed helicopters and the outpost's garrison to insurgent fire. The landing zone was placed on the other side of the river on a rocky peninsula jutting into the river near Urmul. One officer in Afghanistan who was familiar with the attack on COP Keating said he had mixed feelings about the criticism leveled against the camp's commanders. The Outpost real story confirms that rocket-propelled grenades and mortars caused the camp to catch fire. He was the last commander of Combat Outpost Keating. The steep mountains rendered two dimensional maps and landmarks useless. It seemed that it would get extremely intense, with a lot of fire, a lot of RPGs hitting the wall, and then it would die, McMurtrey told Air Force Magazine in 2011. On Oct. 3, 2009, the odds were against U.S. troops at Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistans Nuristan province, located just 10 miles from the Pakistan border. [7]:21530, The closeness of the action, and coordinated fire from both sides of the valley indicated that the attackers in this ambush were different from the groups that had been using sporadic, long range, harassing fire. After assisting with securing the OP from potential follow on attacks, members of the Quick Reaction Force descended from the mountain's peak to COP Keating on foot. [26] The attack accelerated those plans, with the troops' departure taking place so quickly after the battle that some munitions were abandoned. Follow-up attacks attempted by Taliban forces were subsequently thwarted by U.S. prosthetic makeup effects administrator: Millennium FX. I have my own war stories from that day, but watching one of my best friends relive his on set was the closest I could come to fully understanding his heartache and pain. After an investigation, four officers in the chain of command were disciplined for their failure to adequately support the base. [17], Coalition forces received three human-source intelligence reports sometime before the battle indicating that insurgents were planning an attack on the outposts. The note was signed "Mullah Omar". [2] Combat Outpost Keating is best known as the setting of the Battle of Kamdesh which occurred on October 3rd, 2009. Keating died while serving at the base in 2006 and it was . ", was Keating's assessment. I'll just quote this part from Staff Sergeant Romesha's Medal of Honor citation: Folks Media Madness is full of arguments over TLJ, we don't need to import that headache into the War Room. Thomas Rasmussen fought back and was knocked off his feet by a rocket-propelled grenade. His death had a traumatic effect on the morale of 3-71 Cav. Urdu and Pashtun HIG warriors brought arms and ammunition from Pakistan. It's a solid 10/10 read: No hot food, No fire support. Because the reports had not been verified by other intelligence sources, such as electronic intelligence, the reports were discounted. Keating was permanently shut down three days following the attack. In the process, the truck rolled over him and ended up almost fully submerged in the river. The outpost was manned by 54 American personnel from B Troop, 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, who faced greater than seven-to-one odds in the battle. As they filmed one take after another, Cordova clenched his jaw and swallowed back tears, reliving the most traumatic day of his life. [7]:1238,1368,18191,407. Captain Bostick was killed by a rocket propelled grenade. Staff Sergeant Vernon Tiller, the most senior mechanic, was in the passenger's seat when it went over the cliff. Meanwhile, back at the aid station, Cordova learned that the first medevac would not arrive until after 7:30 p.m. A critically wounded soldier needed a blood transfusion in order to survive. Enemy forces controlled the landing zone, which prevented the wounded from being lifted out. The report said that there were as many as 47 attacks in the five months prior to the deadly assault, 10 in the 30 days prior to the mass attack. The report, released to the public in June 2011, concluded "inadequate measures taken by the chain of command" facilitated the attack, but praised the troops fighting at the base for repulsing the attack "with conspicuous gallantry, courage and bravery. Here's what else we covered in this week's newsletter. Keating was killed in November 2006 when he volunteered for a dangerous mission to drive an army truck loaded with supplies up to the camp, along treacherous 200-foot cliffs. The movie does take liberty with the way it portrays previous commanders of the outpost, 1st Lt. Ben Keating and Capt. Matthew McMurtrey a cyber systems operator was attached to the 61st Cav and woke at6 a.m. that day to the walls of his bunk shaking, alerting him to the attack. Does this give anyone else flashbacks to he purple hair admiral in The Last Jedi? [35] Capt. The wounded Americans condition immediately improved after the first unit of blood, as did the spirits of all those in the aid station. These subgroups were in turn divided into clans and sects, depending on lineages and the interpretations of individual religious leaders. [7]:95,268. Keating saw these programs as producing mixed results. From left, Martin Malchev as Specialist Cody Floyd; Jack Kalian as Staff Sgt. Eventually, supporting aircraft scattered the attackers; while air support provided decisive results. In December 2006, it was renamed Camp Keating after the death of ABLE Troop 3-71 Cavalry 10th Mountain Division's Executive Officer Benjamin Keating, who died November 26, 2006, while conducting combat operations south of the camp. Plans were drawn up in the summer of 2006 by the US Army's 10th Mountain Division as part of Operation Mountain Lion. Such administrative punishments are seen as career-enders if they are made a part of a permanent personnel file. This agreement did bring down the level of combat in the Kamdesh area. Actor Milo Gibson, the son of Mel Gibson, portrays Capt. Outnumbered and outgunned, the soldiers fought. New roads would be the final stage, built and maintained by local contractors. The movie does a good job of capturing the nerve-racking tension of being posted at Combat Outpost Keating. [5][10] Two USAF F-15E fighter bombers circled overhead, led by Captains Mike Polidor and Aaron Dove and their wingmen, 1st Lt. Justin Pavoni and Captain Ryan Bone, for almost eight hours, helping coordinate airstrikes by 19 other aircraft. A base at the bottom of a valley surrounded by hills which are. At 6 a.m., Oct. 3, 2009, Combat Outpost Keating in Kamdesh District, Nuristan Province, Afghanistan, came under complex attack by an enemy force estimated at 300 fighters. The latest acronym for attackers used by the Americans was AAF, for anti-Afghan fighters. Constant ambushes and firefights along the road to Naray did little to relieve Keating's doubts. [2] Two Americans, Staff Sergeants Clinton L. Romesha and (then Specialist) Ty Carter were awarded the Medal of Honor for their role in defending the base.[3]. Porter appeared to not want to actually lead his company nor was appearing to be up for another deployment. He was thrown from the truck, which rolled over him and sank into the river. Several of the dogs that hung around the camp were with them, one of which supposedly bit an old woman working in a field. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. [7]:803,945,11620, While attempting the pickup, a Chinook transport helicopter crashed in the darkness at 10:09 PM when the rear rotor hit a tree, and the helicopter slid down the slope and over a cliff, exploding in flames and killing all the crew and passengers. The 13-hour battle to re-take Combat Outpost Keating from an assault by 300 Taliban fighters on Oct. 3, 2009, was a team effort. [39] The Netflix documentary series, Medal of Honor, includes an episode detailing the actions of Clinton Romesha and Ty Carter.[40]. [33] 1st Lt. Andrew Bundermann's Silver Star was upgraded to a Distinguished Service Cross as well. Yes. On the whole the AAF was a broader based and more formidable force in 2007 than before the American invasion, and represented a significant escalation. When I learned that my U.S. Army cavalry troops war story was being made into a major motion picture, I worried that a Hollywood account of the battle would be inaccurate. Avalos began directing indirect support to help the defense of COP Keating. Harder, from Minnesota, just 29, was in charge of a small team of soldiers at the combat outpost, COP Keating. The soldiers left so quickly that they didn't take all of the ammunition. [30] In the report released to the public, the U.S. Army concealed the names of the four disciplined officers. For their heroism, 2 Medals of Honor, 9 Silver Stars and 21 Bronze Stars were awarded. Need to know. [7]:28,41,908,123, The area had not been occupied by any conventional US forces prior to 3-71 Cavalry's takeover, although Special Operations forces operated in the area on a very limited basis. Michael Polidor and Capt. Something had to be done to bring Nuristan on to the American side. 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