Acts of Valor: U.S. Navy SEAL's Story of Heroisim

ACTS OF VALOUR

U.S. NAVY SEAL'S STORIES OF HEROISM

STEVE STONE

Copyright © by Steve Stone 2016

Steve Stone has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

Published by Digital Dreams Publishing 2016

PROLOGUE

It was late 2011 in Afghanistan, we heard the sounds of rifle and automatic gunfire along with the whizz of RPGs being fired in the late afternoon. The sounds of sporadic heavy dull explosions could be heard coming from the direction of a group of U.S Army Rangers on the outskirts of Asadabad. This is a mountainous region of the Hindu Kush Mountains about eight miles northwest of the Pakistani border.

We knew the U.S. Rangers had gone in to locate a HVT (High Value Target) in that area. On hearing the sound of battle, I glanced over to team leader for the acknowledgment to get knitted up and ready to move out. With one nod the team sprang into action, grabbing their body armour, helmets and M4 rifles. We ran to our vehicles from the rest area, which was just hard compacted earth with a few chairs and tables underneath a couple of trees. As we ran we were still fastening up our body armor.

With comrades under fire every second counted. The driver’s got in and fired up the 6.5 litre V8 diesel engine - revving their engine ready to accelerate away when we were all on board. The radio was chattering away in the background; information was being fed through from Command to my team leader. More information was coming in about the size and position of the insurgents pinning the Rangers down. All we knew was the Rangers had run into a large contact. As we got a better picture a plan was formulated as we sped towards the Rangers. I was sweating profusely and my heart raced at the thought of my first firefight in Afghanistan.

As we got near, rifle fire and small explosions could be heard echoing both over our radios and outside giving a very short delay between the sound outside and in our headsets. This sound was the shouting, screaming and crying, together with the sound of our motor vehicles. It was an amazing volume of noise that was filling everyone's ears. We could see from our location numerous plumes of dark gray billowing smoke rising up into the clear blue sky in the direction we were racing towards. This was it, my first real contact, this was not a training exercise or part of BUD/S this was the real thing. I felt sick as the nerves kicked in. I had to prove myself in battle and prove to myself that I truly was a SEAL warrior. I had a job to do and lives depended on my actions. The Rangers had taken their first casualty and it was our job to get everyone out alive while neutralizing a few more insurgents.

We split the three vehicles in two, one vehicle flanked the left hand side of the Rangers and the other two moved up to support the Rangers. The main source of fire was from a compound roof with light machine gun fire and RPGs raining down on the Rangers. A compound is just a low mud building, which is usually built in a square with a central open area and rooms around the perimeter. The walls are quite thick and is a heavy duty structure that can take some pounding from small arms fire.

The plan was to use the .50 Cal M2 heavy machine gun to draw fire away from the Rangers. Four of us would flank round to the right and enter the compound from the rear clearing it before finally taking out the insurgents on the roof. The plan sounded straightforward and simple enough. The biggest issue was avoiding civilians or spotters who could alert the insurgents in the compound that we were closing in. Using as much cover as possible we shuffled along the side of buildings and crouched low as we dashed across roads. Finally, we made it to the rear of the compound, a single insurgent spotted us - just as he raised his AK-47 up to us. A burst of fire from Dingo on my right neutralized the target.

We pushed forwards, towards the main door and prepared to breach it. With the door breached we followed each other closely weapons pointed over each other shoulders as we moved into the first room and fanned out. It was all out speed now - going from room to room killing any insurgents and avoiding the two children and single female living there. We worked our way up to the roof. The insurgents were now in a bit of a frenzy knowing we were almost upon them. Clearing would be the most dangerous element, as the moment we got onto the roof, fire would rain down on us. The best way was to get covering fire from below and chuck a grenade onto the roof directly were we intended to enter. The grenade would either kill or injure the insurgents or cause them to scatter left or right, giving us the precious seconds we needed to neutralize them.

Luckily, everything went according to plan, our far superior training and skills helped. I went out onto the roof and turned right - my sights immediately found an insurgent. Two shots saw him drop to the floor like a heavy weight. The rest of the team simultaneously took out the other insurgents. I had acted almost on instinct and this is where all the training I had, came to fruition. The Rangers could move up to their main objective and we could help get the injured Ranger out of the area and onto a helicopter. This is what I joined up to do and trained hard for…

CHAPTER ONE – AFGHAN HEAT

A nation hungry for revenge post 9/11 finally got their man with the success of Operation Neptune Spear. Osama bin Laden was no more. However, this came at a price with the unwanted attention that continues to this day. SEAL Team Six is now an international superstar, not too dissimilar to how the British SAS arrived into the public domain following the Libyan Embassy Siege in London in 1980. However, the flip side to this new found fame, is that it aids recruitment and makes potential terrorists fully aware of the capabilities of SEAL Team Six, possibly enough to make them think twice before taking them on…

Operation Enduring Freedom launched on October 7, 2001 with U.S. troops, allies and Afghan Northern Alliance. This was just under a month since 9/11. Afghanistan was seen as a legitimate target due to the terror network using Afghanistan as a training base with the Taliban government more than happy to facilitate them.

A series of aggressive assaults undertaken by Special Forces including SEAL’s, Army Ranger’s, Green Beret, British SAS amongst others. An amazing amount of air support was thrown in with drones and manned aircraft. The insurgents were no match for the Special Forces or even the conventional forces backing them up. Within a few weeks the Taliban Government had been ousted. Most of the senior leaders fled to Pakistan. At that point between 60 to 80% of the active Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents had been either killed or pushed away. Many to the boarder of Pakistan or high up into the Afghan mountains. The main objective had been achieved in weeks and maybe that should have been the cue to leave. Instead of spending more than ten years trying to nation build. The trouble with Afghanistan is its strong tribal culture that has withstood Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, British Empire and even Russian occupation. Afghan people hate being occupied – independence matters more to them than anything. Even if they hate the current government, occupation goes against everything the Afghan people believe in. The concern was that the moment we left the Taliban would creep back into power. But, we could have just gone in and removed them again. Which is exactly what will happen as the Taliban start to take back areas of Afghanistan.

As they say hindsight is 20/20 vision. In the end bin Laden needed to be caught and the terror network he had established needed to be dismantled. Although in doing so we seemed to have created a new bunch of nut jobs in the form of ISIS, who have reached new heights of hideous behaviour towards fellow human beings.

I was on a daytime patrol in the heat of the day. Taliban are highly active in Helmand Province area due to the poppy fields they main source of income. We patrolled past a deserted compound and came towards an irrigation ditch. Up ahead was a rickety wooden bridge and an intersection. This was an ideal point to plant an IED and perform an ambush. The bridge could easily be crossed on foot or motorbike. Lieutenant Kane split us in two. Half of the team would stay back and half would continue to patrol. The idea was to let the patrol continue and any insurgents think we had gone. Once out of sight we crawled from behind the compound wall we had concealed ourselves behind and began to move up towards the intersection. As we got close we could hear voices speaking in Pashto, maybe four or five. My heart began to race and my mouth went dry. We got eyes on a group of five insurgents. Four had AK-47s and one had a PKM light support weapon. We all take the U.S. Forces Rules of Engagement seriously. They state never to target non-combatants, but at the same time give us the right to defend ourselves from attack or threat of attack. The hardest part of the War in Afghanistan is working out at times who the enemy is when they all dress in similar clothes. Carrying an AK-47 is a good giveaway, but they sometimes conceal weapons. Opting to get up close and personal before opening fire or setting off an explosion. This can make it hard. Let's not forget that the Taliban have families too. We may well have denied a father of his son, or children of a father. The fact is though; they would not think twice about killing us or even innocent people. TV and games make firefights look exciting and full of action. The reality is they are scary no matter how many you have been in. What you do is use the fear to give you the edge over your enemy. Once in battle I am too busy locating targets and getting rounds down to even notice my fear.

As soon as we had all acknowledged the Taliban position we stood up with guns blazing away. These though we're all aimed shots as they cracked through the air. Everything was now in slow motion like some form of slow time switch. If you have ever played the Max Payne video game, with its ‘bullet time’ you will know exactly