10 Green Berets to Receive Silver Star for Afghan Battle

After jumping out of helicopters at daybreak onto jagged, ice-covered rocks and into water at an altitude of 10,000 feet, the 12-man Special Forces team scrambled up the steep mountainside toward its target -- an insurgent stronghold in northeast Afghanistan.

"Our plan," Capt. Kyle M. Walton recalled in an interview, "was to fight downhill."

But as the soldiers maneuvered toward a cluster of thick-walled mud buildings constructed layer upon layer about 1,000 feet farther up the mountain, insurgents quickly manned fighting positions, readying a barrage of fire for the exposed Green Berets.

A harrowing, nearly seven-hour battle unfolded on that mountainside in Afghanistan's Nuristan province on April 6, as Walton, his team and a few dozen Afghan commandos they had trained took fire from all directions. Outnumbered, the Green Berets fought on even after half of them were wounded -- four critically -- and managed to subdue an estimated 150 to 200 insurgents, according to interviews with several team members and official citations.

Today, Walton and nine of his teammates from Operational Detachment Alpha 3336 of the 3rd Special Forces Group will receive the Silver Star for their heroism in that battle -- the highest number of such awards given to the elite troops for a single engagement since the Vietnam War.

That chilly morning, Walton's mind was on his team's mission: to capture or kill several members of the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) militant group in their stronghold, a village perched in Nuristan's Shok Valley that was accessible only by pack mule and so remote that Walton said he believed that no U.S. troops, or Soviet ones before them, had ever been there.

But as the soldiers, each carrying 60 to 80 pounds of gear, scaled the mountain...

I don't have an answer for you. The good people who volunteer are better people than I ever was when I was in what passed for my prime. About all I can offer is what remains (IMHO) the greatest speech in English, rather an excerpt:

...But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Shinseki did away with the ‘green’ berets and everyone was to wear black so everyone would be equal.

Fortunately, you are misinformed. Qualified members of US Army Special Forces still wear the same rife-green beret that they have (unofficially) since the 1950s and (officially) since it was awarded by Executive Order. In fact, generals can't change that, they'd have to get a new XO.

Also, the Airborne forces (primarily, the 82nd Airborne Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade) still wear the red beret, as do those who serve in SF but are not SF qualified.

The Rangers, the original owners of the black beret, were permitted to change to a tan beret after much protest, including a Ranger march on DC.

Gen Rick Shinseki did not cover himself in glory when he gave the leg Army a "social promotion." He made the decision unilaterally and then wouldn't defend it publicly, hiding behind his sergeant major, Jack Tilley's, skirts. It was an astonishing display of moral cowardice and, given the lie after lie Tilley deployed to defend the stupid move, reflected poorly on Tilley's integrity, and Shinseki's judgment and integrity.

But, we're now into the fourth generation or so of new privates (and LTs) who have only known the black-beret Army. The berets didn't turn the pogues into Rangers, but seven years of combat for all has done wonders for the quality of training and preparedness in the whole army, including the combat support and service support troopies.

I wish Shinseki well in his role in VA but don't trust him, and as I've said, have a low opinion of his judgment and integrity. I've been privileged to serve under generals who would throw their stars in the dumpster before they'd lie to their officers and men. And I've served under Shinseki. The Venn diagram shows no intersection, dig?

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

PS: I didn't note who the poster was, but as far as Arc Lights are concerned: we're trying to win this war, not lose it. The Russians used the Arc Light approach (there are still depopulated ghost towns in the western desert between Kandahar and Shindand) and see where it got 'em? They lost 13,000 of their own people and hundreds of thousands of their Afghan allies, they laid waste the entire land, and both the bad (takeover) and the good (modernization) that they were trying to do didn't get done.

So yes, sometimes we send men to sneak into a village, they pad up on their feet or HALO in, and grab one guy who's a troublemaker, or one group of guys, and sometimes stealth doesn't work and there's a fight on.

But we can't just blow hob out of the place. Think about this: our guys knew there was an enemy there. How did they know? Did they have a friend or many friends in the village that snuck word out, perhaps? Should we kill our loyal friend to get a bad guy? Should we kill half his extended family? And turn them, in their grief and rage, into more enemies? Or should we take some risks, standing on our legs like men, and show them that we do not shrink from what it takes to beat them at their own game?

PPS: neverdem, many thanks for the ping. - C18F

Why should we send our sons to die for BO, Rahm E., Reid, Pelosi, et all?

M'dear, you're asking the wrong question, and this is pretty close to what you will hear if you ask those stalwart young Pointers of your acquaintance.

Nobody fights for any politician, let alone such empty suits as those you name. Look at the people around them -- passive-aggressive dweebs who shrank from military service but play tough guy, grifters like Rahm Emanuel. You don't swear an oath to any man, but to the Constitution, and that and the flag and your unit's symbols and traditions give you something to be proud of, without the taint that corrupt politicians bear.

Everybody fights for his unit and men, for the guy beside him, for the gutsy guys you can read about all the time at defenselink.mil or better yet USASOC News Service. To serve with guys like the ones in this story is all the reward any real man needs. You're in the right unit when you have to put in 100% just to keep up, and you worry that the other guys are too good for you (while they all have just the same worry themselves).

Remenber, these Special Forces soldiers are the beneficiaries of generations of trainers and mentors who soldiered through some bleak times for the regiment and served under some pretty contemptible politicians. Where would they be if all of the leaders had quit under Carter, or Clinton? The politicians are, to an SF operator, a factor like the weather. You can't change it so you adapt to it as best you can, and if it's really bad, hunker down and wait for it to pass.

If, God forbid, your son or your friend's should fall, he will not have fallen for "unbelievable corruption." He had fallen in fealty to his oath and in the traditions of his other parents, the Army and the Long Gray Line; and even as the lifelong ordeal of mourning begins for one family, another mother's son steps into the phalanx in his place.

We all come into life owing God one death. The soldier is a rara avis in that he can have some say in the manner in which that divine debt is repaid.

I hope this helps you, even if only a little. I understand and sympathize with your concerns and fears. May Fortune continue to smile on your son for many, many years.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

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