Hero Stories from the Afghan Battlefield

I wanted to share the story of my friend, N.P. He is a decorated war hero, currently deployed in Afghanistan. 

I found out yesterday that he had yet another brush with death while "defending" our country in this seemingly never-ending war. When will this region see peace? When will our heroes come home?

He emailed me the account he's been sharing with his fellow military friends. I've added wiki photos and bracketed {explanations} of certain guns, cities and words after researching terms I didn't understand. This email affected me differently than his other 'war-stories' I've heard in the past. I don't know why. Maybe the detail? Maybe the amazing odds he beat by staying alive.

Meet one of our military heroes, my friends. If you think your day was rough....read through his story and be grateful for your daily blessings. And yes, we are indeed blessed.  

Amy, here's what happened:

The platoon built "a bunker" 150m NE into the fields off Yawale {Route Yawale, a road riddled with IED attacks} from a bend in the road that our platoon would be the first to man. We did this so we could see someone moving up to attack before they engaged.

We've been getting slammed on Yawale--they killed D. {fellow soldier} with an 82mm there last week, and we lost a few guys from another company there a few days ago. So I said I'd man it first, to make sure it was safe and properly made...which is good, otherwise I'm sure we'd have a bunch of dead soldiers right now.

Anyways, so I manned the bunker along with G. and S. {fellow soldiers}. The bunker was at ground level, only 3 ft by 4ft...SMALL. We were surrounded on three sides by grape rows and corn fields, and all you could see was one field heading to Malangian {city in Afghanistan outside Kabul}. It was horrible. Blind spots and dead space everywhere. Anyone could walk up to the bunker without us knowing.

So I quickly said NO WAY, this bunker will not work. If I were the enemy I'd be planning a complex attack right now. I got word from the higher ups that I either could stay there, or I could come out of the bunker and go lay in a field for the next 14 hours and cook in the sun. Nice choices.

Thank God I'm not lazy, because I said to hell with it, I'd rather go lay in the sun then lose one of my guys to this stupidity.

M249

So I sent the other two back to the vehicle with all our assault bags and the heavy gun (we had a ton of equipment out there), and I stayed back to cover them by myself. They weren't gone 5 minutes when the right side of the bunker was slammed by an 82mm recoilless round {keep in mind, the B-10 rifle this round comes from is a Soviet weapon, out of date in the 1980's}, blowing me out the left side opening.

It rocked me pretty damn hard. It also blew the M249 machine gun out the front opening, so I jumped up, grabbed that gun and just charged the treeline where the enemy was reloading the gun, and sprayed him from about 50 meters away. He definitely wasn't expecting me to do that. He went down, but as soon as He did, I was under heavy fire from nearly every direction.

I ran back to the bunker to call for backup, but as soon as I picked up the radio, it was shot out of my hand and the bunker came under intense fire. One round hit me in the head, ripping my helmet off my head. The rounds destroyed the bunker. I don't know how I wasn't hit.

G.'s' gear was in there and it was riddled with rounds right where he would've been sitting if I hadn't sent them away. 

My armor was getting smacked by ricochets everywhere. 

M203 Grenade Launcher

A smoke grenade on G.'s backpack exploded so I jumped back out of the bunker (I'd rather be in the open than in a bullet magnet), and started engaging all the positions. I picked up S.'s 203 grenade launcher and shot a guy, not sure if I hit him or he just jumped off the roof. But, he stopped firing which was all I cared about at the moment.

AT4 Rocket Launcher

I tried firing an AT4 at the building I was getting lit up from, but OF COURSE, the damn thing misfired, so I threw it down and bounded towards the building with the M249. The entire time I was falling everywhere...my head was pretty rocked.

I fired a smoke and marked the enemy for CCA (close combat attack support), and the helicopters started lighting the Tangos {I'm guessing a nickname for the Taliban?} up as they ran away.

Not long after that, my squadron finally made it to me and pulled me out. I don't really remember anything after that until I woke up in the hospital. My shoulder is pretty messed up from when the 82 hit the bunker, I have a black eye and nose, my neck feels like it got twisted completely around from the whiplash of the bullet hitting my head, and I guess I rolled my ankle, though don't really remember when. I have bruises and scrapes EVERYWHERE, but other than that, I'm okay! 

Good times, huh? 

N. , you are a hero. THANK YOU for your mental and physical toughness. You are 4+ combat deployments into this war, experienced countless situations similar to this, and still, your humor (at least on the outside) is the same. Much love and safety to you, my sweet friend! Be safe. Be well. Know that we support you and your fellow soldiers. Please share this with them, and know that we pray for you!