[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 142 (Tuesday, September 9, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1736-E1737]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO 173RD AIRBORNE PARATROOPERS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JO ANN EMERSON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 9, 2008

  Mrs. EMERSON. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize and to submit for 
the Record a story concerning the events of July 13, 2008, and an 
account of the heroics of the paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne. 
Reports such as this one remind every American of the bravery, the 
courage, and the willingness to sacrifice of every servicemember in the 
U.S. Armed Forces--but this tale is an exceptional example. I am 
honored to share it with you and with the American people.

       I'm sure you heard about 9 soldiers being killed in 
     Afghanistan a couple of weeks ago. As AP reported it, it was 
     a ``setback'', the ``newly established base'' there was 
     `abandoned' by the Americans. That, of course, was the extent 
     of their coverage.
       Steve Mraz of Stars and Stripes and Jeff Emanuel tell the 
     rest of the story. Emanuel, who went out and dug into the 
     story sets the enemy force at 500 while AP sets it at 200. 
     Frankly I'm much more inclined to believe Emanuel than AP.
       July 13, 2008 was the date, and Jeff Emanuel, an 
     independent combat reporter sets the scene:
       Three days before the attack, 45 U.S. Paratroopers from the 
     173d Airborne [Brigade Combat Team], accompanied by 25 Afghan 
     soldiers, made their way to Kunar province, a remote area in 
     the northeastern Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, and 
     established the beginnings of a small Combat Outpost (COP). 
     Their movement into the area was noticed, and their tiny 
     numbers and incomplete fortifications were quickly taken 
     advantage of.
       A combined force of up to 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters 
     quickly moved into the nearby village of Wanat and prepared 
     for their assault by evicting unallied residents and 
     according to an anonymous senior Afghan defense ministry 
     official, ``us [ing] their houses to attack us.''
       Tribesmen in the town stayed behind ``and helped the 
     insurgents during the fight,'' the provincial police chief, 
     told The Associated Press.
       Dug-in mortar firing positions were created, and with that 
     indirect fire, as well as heavy machine gun and RPG fire from 
     fixed positions, Taliban and al Qaeda fighters rushed the COP 
     from three sides.
       As Emanuel notes, the odds were set. 500 vs. 70. Even so, 
     Emanuel entitled his article, ``An Alamo With a Different 
     Ending.'' The 500 terrorists apparently didn't realize they 
     were attacking US Army paratroopers.
       The unit in question was 2nd Platoon, Company C, 2nd 
     Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne 
     Brigade Combat Team, led by 1LT Jonathan Brostrom.
       The first RPG and machine gun fire came at dawn, 
     strategically striking the forward operating base's mortar 
     pit. The insurgents next sighted their RPGs on the tow truck 
     inside the combat outpost, taking it out.
       That was around 4:30 a.m.
       This was not a haphazard attack. The reportedly 500 
     insurgents fought from several positions. They aimed to 
     overrun the new base. The U.S. Soldiers knew it and fought 
     like hell. They knew their lives were on the line.
       The next target was the FOB's observation post, where nine 
     soldiers were positioned on

[[Page E1737]]

     a tiny hill about 50 to 75 meters from the base. Of those 
     nine, five died, and at least three others--Spc. Tyler 
     Stafford among them--were wounded.
       When the attack began, Stafford grabbed his M-240 machine 
     gun off a north-facing sandbag wall and moved it to an east-
     facing sandbag wall.
       Moments later, RPGs struck the north-facing wall, knocking 
     Stafford out of the fighting position and wounding another 
     soldier.
       Stafford thought he was on fire so he rolled around, 
     regaining his senses. Nearby, Cpl. Gunnar Zwilling, who later 
     died in the fight, had a stunned look on his face.
       Immediately, a grenade exploded by Stafford, blowing him 
     down to a lower terrace at the observation post and knocking 
     his helmet off. Stafford put his helmet back on and noticed 
     how badly he was bleeding.
       Cpl. Matthew Phillips was close by, so Stafford called to 
     him for help.
       Phillips was preparing to throw a grenade and shot a look 
     at Stafford that said, ``Give me a second. I gotta go kill 
     these guys first.''
       This was only about 30 to 60 seconds into the attack.
       Kneeling behind a sandbag wall, Phillips pulled the grenade 
     pin, but just after he threw it an RPG exploded at his 
     position. The tail of the RPG smacked Stafford's helmet. The 
     dust cleared. Phillips was slumped over, his chest on his 
     knees and his hands by his side. Stafford called out to his 
     buddy three or four times, but Phillips never answered or 
     moved.
       ``When I saw Phillips die, I looked down and was bleeding 
     pretty good, that's probably the most scared I was at any 
     point,'' Stafford said.
       ``Then I kinda had to calm myself down and be like, `All 
     right, I gotta go try to do my job.' ''
       The soldier from Parker, Colo., loaded his 9 mm handgun, 
     crawled up to their fighting position, stuck the pistol over 
     the sandbags and fired.
       Stafford saw Zwilling's M-4 rifle nearby so he loaded it, 
     put it on top of the sandbag and fired. Another couple RPGs 
     struck the sandbag wall Stafford used as cover. Shrapnel 
     pierced his hands.
       Stafford low-crawled to another fighting position where 
     Cpl. Jason Bogar, Sgt. Matthew Gobble and Sgt. Ryan Pitts 
     were located. Stafford told Pitts that the insurgents were 
     within grenade-tossing range. That got Pitts' attention.
       With blood running down his face, Pitts threw a grenade and 
     then crawled to the position from where Stafford had just 
     come. Pitts started chucking more grenades.
       The firefight intensified. Bullets cut down tree limbs that 
     fell on the soldiers. RPGs constantly exploded.
       Back at Stafford's position, so many bullets were coming in 
     that the soldiers could not poke their heads over their 
     sandbag wall. Bogar stuck an M-249 machine gun above the wall 
     and squeezed off rounds to keep fire on the insurgents. In 
     about five minutes, Bogar fired about 600 rounds, causing the 
     M-249 to seize up from heat.
       At another spot on the observation post, Cpl. Jonathan 
     Ayers laid down continuous fire from an M-240 machine gun, 
     despite drawing small-arms and RPG fire from the enemy. Ayers 
     kept firing until he was shot and killed.
       Cpl. Pruitt Rainey radioed the FOB with a casualty report, 
     calling for help. Of the nine soldiers at the observation 
     post, Ayers and Phillips were dead, Zwilling was unaccounted 
     for, and three were wounded.
       Additionally, several of the soldiers' machine guns 
     couldn't fire because of damage. And they needed more ammo.
       Rainey, Bogar and another soldier jumped out of their 
     fighting position with the third soldier of the group 
     launching a shoulder-fired missile.
       All this happened within the first 20 minutes of the fight.
       Platoon leader 1st Lt. Jonathan Brostrom and Cpl. Jason 
     Hovater arrived at the observation post to reinforce the 
     soldiers. By that time, the insurgents had breached the 
     perimeter of the observation post.
       Gunfire rang out, and Rainey shouted, ``He's right behind 
     the sandbag.''
       Brostrom could be heard shouting about the insurgent as 
     well.
       More gunfire and grenade explosions ensued. Back in the 
     fighting position, Gobble fired a few quick rounds. Gobble 
     then looked to where the soldiers were fighting and told 
     Stafford the soldiers were dead.
       Of the nine soldiers who died in the battle, at least seven 
     fell in fighting at the observation post.
       The insurgents then started chucking rocks at Gobble and 
     Stafford's fighting position, hoping that the soldiers might 
     think the rocks were grenades, causing them to jump from the 
     safety of their fighting hole.
       One rock hit a tree behind Stafford and landed directly 
     between his legs.
       He braced himself for an explosion. He then realized it was 
     a rock.
       Stafford didn't have a weapon, and Gobble was low on ammo.
       Gobble told Stafford they had to get back to the FOB. They 
     didn't realize that Pitts was still alive in another fighting 
     position at the observation post. Gobble and Stafford crawled 
     out of their fighting hole.
       Gobble looked again to where the soldiers had been fighting 
     and reconfirmed to Stafford that Brostrom, Rainey, Bogar and 
     others were dead.
       Gobble and Stafford low-crawled and ran back to the FOB. 
     Coming into the FOB, Stafford was asked by a sergeant what 
     was going on at the observation post. Stafford told him all 
     the soldiers there were dead.
       Stafford lay against a wall, and his fellow soldiers put a 
     tourniquet on him.
       From the OP, Pitts got on the radio and told his comrades 
     he was alone.
       Volunteers were asked for to go to the OP.
       SSG Jesse Queck sums up the reaction to the call: ``When 
     you ask for volunteers to run across an open field to a 
     reinforced OP that almost everybody is injured at, and 
     everybody volunteers, it feels good.
       There were a lot of guys that made me proud, putting 
     themselves and their lives on the line so their buddies could 
     have a chance.''
       At least three soldiers went to the OP to rescue Pitts, but 
     they suffered wounds after encountering RPG and small-arms 
     fire, but Pitts survived the battle.
       At that time, air support arrived in the form of Apache 
     helicopters, A-10s and F-16s, performing bombing and strafing 
     runs.
       The whole FOB was covered in dust and smoke, looking like 
     something out of an old Western movie.
       ``I've never seen the enemy do anything like that,'' said 
     Sgt. Jacob Walker, who was medically evacuated off the FOB in 
     one of the first helicopters to arrive. ``It's usually three 
     RPGs, some sporadic fire and then they're gone . . . I don't 
     where they got all those RPGs. That was crazy.''
       Two hours after the first shots were fired, Stafford made 
     his way--with help--to the medevac helicopter that arrived.
       ``It was some of the bravest stuff I've ever seen in my 
     life, and I will never see it again because those guys,'' 
     Stafford said, then paused.
       ``Normal humans wouldn't do that. You're not supposed to do 
     that--getting up and firing back when everything around you 
     is popping and whizzing and trees, branches coming down and 
     sandbags exploding and RPGs coming in over your head . . . It 
     was a fistfight then, and those guys held 'em off.''
       Stafford offered a guess as to why his fellow soldiers 
     fought so hard.
       ``Just hardcoreness I guess,'' he said. ``Just guys kicking 
     ass, basically.
       ``Just making sure that we look scary enough that you don't 
     want to come in and try to get us.''
       Jeff Emanuel summed the fight up very well:
       ``Perhaps the most important takeaway from that encounter, 
     though, is the one that the mainstream media couldn't be 
     bothered to pay attention long enough to learn: that, not for 
     the first time, a contingent of American soldiers that was 
     outnumbered by up to a twenty-to-one ratio soundly and 
     completely repulsed a complex, pre-planned assault by those 
     dedicated enough to their cause to kill themselves in its 
     pursuit.
       That kind of heroism and against-all-odds success is and 
     has been a hallmark of America's fighting men and women, and 
     it is one that is worthy of all attention we can possibly 
     give it.''
       Of the original 45 paratroopers, 15 were wounded and The 
     Sky Soldiers lost 9 killed in action in the attack. They 
     were:
       1LT Jonathan Brostrom of Aiea, Hawaii SGT Israel Garcia of 
     Long Beach, California SPC Matthew Phillips of Jasper, 
     Georgia SPC Pruitt Rainey of Haw River, North Carolina SPC 
     Jonathan Ayers of Snellville, Georgia SPC Jason Bogar of 
     Seattle, Washington SPC Sergio Abad of Morganfield, Kentucky 
     SPC Jason Hovater of Clinton, Tennessee SPC Gunnar Zwilling 
     of Florissant, Missouri.
       Of the 9 that were lost, Sgt Walker says:
       ``I just hope these guys' wives and their children 
     understand how courageous their husbands and dads were. They 
     fought like warriors.''
       They fought like warriors.
       Last week, there were 9 funerals in the United States. 9 
     warriors were laid to rest. 9 warriors who had given their 
     all for their country.
       All proud members of a brotherhood that will carry on in 
     their name. They fought and died in what most would consider 
     impossible circumstances, and yet they succeeded. A nameless 
     fight in a distant war which, until you understand the facts, 
     could be spun as a defeat. It wasn't. And it is because of 
     the pride, courage and fighting spirit of this small unit 
     that it was, in fact, a victory against overwhelming odds. 
     And there's little doubt, given that pride and given that 
     fighting spirit, that they'll be back to reestablish the 
     base, this time with quite a few more soldiers just like the 
     ones who ``kicked ass'' the last time there.

                          ____________________