Original subtitles

That's gonna be pretty upsetting for him.

No one's ever dared to go in there.

You think that's gonna cause a ruckus?

Careful.

Get over here!

What is that?

R.P.G.

R.P.G.?

Oh my god.

That thing is straight out of China, like, yesterday.

Yeah.

How could they get out of China?

Yeah. That thing's brand spanking new.

I'm down here, on Objective Richmond,

and, uh, first platoon can't get to the first series of building.

They keep finding more ammunition.

They keep finding more mortar fuses.

They keep finding more stuff.

I don't know what it is.

It's a rifle. Bolt action of some sort.

What does that look like?

Six to seven R.P.G.'s, probably eight mortars,

a couple box of fuses...

Definitely an indicator that we caught them by surprise.

Break.

Hey, Zee?

What's up?

Give me eyes on that bridge at your eleven.

Get down around here now!

Get something in front of you!

Fuck!

We've got contact up on the hill for our fucking...

Holding six, moving three six.

Yeah. Roger. Where are you getting fire from?

What target?

I got shot...

Bostic's shot!

My name is Mike Boettcher.

For the past thirty-four years,

my job has given me a front row seat to history.

As a war correspondent,

it's taken me to some of the worst places on the planet.

Everything that I have achieved in my career has come at a high

price. It cost me my relationship with my

family and my son. I've missed Christmases,

birthdays, graduations...

You name it. So when it was time

for me to re-embed with U.S. Troops in

Afghanistan, my son, Carlos, decided he was coming, with

or without my permission. He said, "I need to know why you

chose your work over us." As much as I wanted to

say no, I realized this could be my last chance

to reconnect with my son. So off we went... together,

father and son. The only trick was...

we had to come out of there alive.

Looks like they attached two different wires to try

and make an I.D., maybe stretch out the wire

so they could get further away from us, when they

detonate, gives themself a better chance to get away.

For power? Where does it go to?

Right into the house.

Well, I know, uh, I know in his house. I can see that.

I meant, when it goes in here. Where is it

getting the power from?

Hey, Gould, Gould!

What were you saying again?

He's next to the vehicle. Why?

So you're a good luck charm?

Whoa!

Whoa! Son of a bitch!

Yeah, still warm, still warm.

Yeah, we got a bunch of these that we were just shot

at by the enemy from that hillside. This is

a Dishka round, uh, little over twelve

millimeter diameter, round, very deadly when it hits you.

Hey, I'll either go up, left, right, or back.

He's still too low!

Oh, nice. Good shot.

One person injured.

They are reporting everything's okay right now.

Good.

It's not gonna be okay.

They don't, they don't know what's about to hit 'em.

Roger that. I need to go to the left of that.

There's a rat drill on the left side of that.

Give me, uh, three shots rightthere for right now,

so we're gonna you right on her.

Yeah! Good hit!

Whoa, baby!

Two-zero-seven, dark knightfour-two.

It's good bombs, good bombs.

They see us. They've been watching us for awhile.

They're moving in position. They don't think we can harm them.

Uh, they just haven't fought us yet.

How close were those bullets coming to you?

You were close enough to hear the bzzzz go by, huh?

Gunfire buzzes when it's close enough to you.

It sounds like a bee passing over your shoulder,

and that's when we knew that things were serious.

Steve Lutsky, Colonel Lutsky.

Lutsky was this character who was larger than life.

He lived to be out front.

I expect these guys to risk their

lives to get the mission done. I mean, mission comes first.

I can't ask them to do something that I wouldn't do myself.

Now, that's not saying that I'mlooking for a fight,

but I can't sit in a truck and say,

"Hey, I want you to go risk your life."

It was a fight to stay alive when you were with Steve Lutsky,

because he was going to be at that pointy end of the spear.

And sure enough, we were.

Tag two, tag one, over. They saw three,

uh, possible insurgents. They went us to head

southwest along the ridge. Over.

They were regressing straight south from that location.

Staying in that low land ridge, they're probably

hiding somewhere out there, behind the rock

the rock line, break.

The problem was, the Taliban found us before we found them.

I'm up here!

The problem is, he had no idea where they were

firing from. The Soviets call them "Ghosts," and they

were. I mean, you couldn't... They were there. They were

somewhere, and they were shooting at us.

You couldn't see them.

Yeah.

Snipers firing from us, in the tree line

over there. Snipers firing at us from the

tree line just over there, behind some

cover, but not much.

They want us to go up.

Okay, okay.

Okay, I'm going.

Here we go.

Shit.

Carlos!

Carlos!

Carlos!!

I had no idea if he was alive or not.

I wasn't a reporter then. I was being a pop.

And the one thing I could not let happen was...

was to let my son die.

Carlos!

Carlos!

Carlos!

Carlos!

What the hell were you thinking?

I told you, don't leave my side.

This is a damn war zone, Carlos.

You okay? Well, you were covering me, as well, right?

Roger. Yes.

To the best of my ability, I was.

I thought you did pretty goodat covering me.

Thanks.

Hey, by the way, their aim sucks.

Okay, ambushes along the road are one of many

reasons construction's taken so long,

with mountainside... Fuck. I fucked up.

Ambushes along the road are one

of many reasons construction's

taken so long, with the mountainside providing

no cover, and insurgents offering no quarter.

All right. That was good.

Any suggestions?

We're getting ready to clearthat ridge line.

Uh, at least one of them got hit.

Uh, we saw him go down, so we're gonna check

for bullet trails and, uh, see if we can find him.

A.W.T. has nothing on him right now.

You all right?

These are the first houses that they would bring him to.

The guy who's wounded?

Yeah.

Hear any of the shooting?

Yeah, we heard the fighting.

One of them was wounded, so you may

have them come down and cometo your house for help.

I understand, Polesh and Wally, that you're going to help them.

Did they come to your house?

He says you can search, uh, the houses.

Oh, they already are. They're up there searching right now.

Watch your head.

What the hell is this?

I, I don't think you're Taliban, but I think you

turn the other way when Taliban come through.

We had to arrest the insurgents and tell them

they're not welcome here. 'Cause I want your

children to be safe. I want you to be safe too.

I need a roger.

Yeah, we're in route at this time. A, uh, actually

developed this situation for what we need, we

need to know when you think we should come in from the

south, and do it right past, past the way, north. Over.

Six four, roger.

That'll be six-four-six.

Go, go, go, go!

The American convey was traveling this direction.

The other way, civilian vehicles.

They slowed down when the convey passed.

So did a suicide bomber, and inside his car,

he has six hundred pounds of high explosives.

After we realized what happened,

we pushed out of the blast zone.

I got out of the truck. We realized it was a "vee-bid."

There was a lady off to the side, next to a, uh, kalat,

and uh, she was screaming that her kids were dead.

I started calling for the medic over the radio,

and we just started treating them, did everything we could.

Private Richter, how long you been in the Army?

Uh, exactly a year, sir. That was the first

actual, uh, trauma casualty I'd... in my care, sir.

And, uh, it didn't need to happen.

One-oh-one over sixty, pulse seventy-two.

One two saturation was one hundred percent.

I looked at the eyes of the medics, and you could see it.

They weren't gonna let him die.

The name of the child? We were more

concerned about saving his leg than

getting his name.

The family has a patient over here.

Doing okay. He's supposed to be going,

hopefully, to the O.R. today.

Going back to the O.R. today?

I'm very happy that he kept his leg.

We go out of our way to make sure

people like Sadich don't get hurt.

In the end, does it change Afghanistan?

Probably not, but it saved that kid's life,

and maybe that kid will change Afghanistan someday.

Get well. We'll see you.

I got a son, Jake, who's ten years old.

Can you imagine?

No.

Did it sink into you that you had saved a child's life?

It did, but uh, that's, that's what I'm here.

That's why all these guys that are out here do what they do.

It's 'cause they just wanna help.

Afterwards, ground unit came up by and

thanked us, and that was probably the biggest

reward, uh, that I've ever had, is having the

ground unit come by and say thank you.

This all-woman crew who put any men I've known to shame.

I call it, you know, the band of sisters and a little brother.

We just consider ourselves just soldiers, like, like

everyone else, and to us, it's really not a big deal.

The countdown to hugs and kisses, and this is Chloe.

She's so cute!

I'm a mom. I understand how every other mom feels,

and if I was in her shoes, that I'd want those people

to help my son or daughter out as much as possible.

Kids are the ones that usually give all

the good information. Taliban do the same

thing, from what we've experienced.

They'll usually go tell the kids where they

put in an I.E.D. The kids seem to be the, uh,

the best guys to utilize for references.

I talked to some kids here on scene.

They confirm Taliban had placed an I.E.D.

here about, uh, forty-eight hours ago.

The villages are the ones that actually came to us,

and, and A.U.P. and reportedthis I.E.D.

In my mind, I mean, that's a very positive

step. Seems like they're starting to kind of, you

know, support the government a little bit more.

Naw, I love doing this.

Really?

Yep.

Why?

'Cause right now, my job is to help protect

these guys, make sure they don't get hurt.

Yep, got the pressure plate.

Hey, they found the pressure plate.

Pressure plates on both sides and

a power source for each pressure plate.

Wire running off to the side. There's a little hole

dug right there, with the wires running down into it.

It's about twelve to fourteen inches in diameter.

In this area, we haven't seen charges that big.

It would have done some damage too.

Yeah, it's pretty, it's a pretty large charge.

But uh, we've definitely located, uh, one

pressure plate at this time. Uh, exploiting

with the robot.

Front line traced to the pressure plate, Victor

Bravo seven-eight-one-niner, plate.

Holy hell.

How much you think was in there?

Forty to fifty pounds. I'd say probably closer

to the fifty pound range.

Tell all the kids that they need to

stay away from that area, 'cause

there still could be some stuff out there.

They're doing a lot more patrolling around this area,

and they'll continue to focus specifically around this area,

now that we know that bad guys are putting I.E.D.s.

My intent is for us to get in there, and

then get out of there in one piece.

Yeah.

Well, my, my intent is always, is also to

get out of there in one piece, so.

But let's not do anything fucking stupid, huh?

We have a mission tonight, from here,

past those mountains, into the always

dangerous river valley.

I believe in each and every one of you,

and I love each and every one of you.

You're the most precious resource that America has.

Trust in your brothers, dedicate yourself to

American battalion and our mission.

Your measure is not found in how

much time you have on this earth.

It's what you do with the time that you've had.

These people have suffered for too

long. Change the course of history

in Afghanistan.

We had marched for days with the

Marines. It was summer, and it was hot.

One hundred thirty degrees. Unbelievable.

And we did it all carrying more than eighty pounds

of gear on our back. We ran out of everything.

We ran out of food. We ran out of water.

And then, we got, finally, to the location that

we're supposed to capture.

This could be Gulf Company's new home. They're

looking for headquarters to establish their

presence down here, and we're going in to check.

It's been eerily quiet. We haven't had a bullet

fired at us in over twelve hours.

This is it!

Okay, let's get a team up there.

Next team, coming up!

Roger. Fox One is clearing the area right now.

Go! Go!

Hot, hot!

Go! Let's go, go, go, go!

Go, go, go, go!

Oh my god.

What is this here?

This is, uh, nitrate to, uh, make I.E.D.s.

And this is pure heroine down here, you said?

So what do we have here?

Walled compounds like this one fill Helmand Province,

providing valuable cover for Taliban, and for Marines.

Marines say the objective of this mission was met -

to plant their presence here and to make a statement to

the Taliban that the Marines are not leaving.

We knew that we'd accomplished our mission,

and I was up all night feeding stories back to

ABC. I was exhausted. Everyone was.

And the Marine commander said, "We gotta go another ten miles."

There is a squad that's surrounded. Someone

else has to go, and Carlos came to me, as I was

suiting up, and said, "Pop, if you do

this, you're gonna die." I was just too tired.

He said, "I'll go. Not you."

That's my son... saying he'll go in place of me.

And he went, and I stayed.

Hey, do I got any friendlies over there?

Right or left?

Uh, go left of the compound. Keep going

all the way over. You got the dude in

the white turban that keeps looking at us?

Yeah.

Naw, it's definitely not them.

All right.

Set south, southwest.

While movement through the fields

and canals is slow, every step the Marines take is

one closer to securing peace in Helmand Province.

Here at Camp Koshtay, the work

continues. The Marines are now in the position

of setting up this base, in the heart of this town

called Koshtay, which was a Taliban stronghold.

There's a copper wire. Where is it?

Oh, yes. And it's running up to that compound there.

A patrol this morning found an I.E.D.

We're walking towards it. They cut the command wire,

which is a wire that runs to a device that would trigger

the bomb. Hopefully, that is the only command wire.

Command, three two.

When you enlisted, you didn't

ask for this job, did you?

Negative.

The villagers did not come. The Taliban

did not attack. But the question now is - where is the Taliban?

Stand by!

Hey, we got two people, six hundred meters away

from us, moving southeast.

Hey!

Yeah?

Fuck!

Huh?

Hey, what is he talking about?

Send your traffic, O.P. Rock.

I got pan left.

Shoot him, dammit!

I shot that motherfucker that walked by the compound

down there. I don't know if I fucking hit him or not.

Saw him running with a fucking A.K. in his hand.

I don't know if I fucking hit that son of a bitch.

Shoot him!

Hey, guns and ! Let's go, go!

I hit that son of a bitch.

Go!

Did you see those fuckers?

Just last night, the platoons of Gulf Company

Two-Eight Marines were attacked by small arms

fire eleven times, uh, resulting in two concussions.

It was very lucky that, uh, there were no major

casualties, or no deaths on this march south here.

Mike Boettcher for Nightline, Camp Koshtay, Afghanistan.

Stand by!

What's up?

We got smoke.

Look straight down the road here is where everyone is.

Hey, one, twos, move in!

Open it up!

Okay, let's go.

Let's go, let's go!

Hey, let's go!

We're taking fire! We're taking fire!

All I heard on the radio was that they were in trouble,

and he was surrounded, and there were Taliban all around,

and they were taking fire constantly.

Start suppressing! Let's use suppress across the way.

Good luck!

Let's go, let's go!

Over there!

Gill!

I had no idea what was happening.

I felt completely helpless. I didn't know what to do.

I thought I'd never see my son again.

Yeah!

Go, go! Hey, let's go!

Let's go, dudes!

Yeah, more smoke, bro!

Fuck yeah, brother!

Hell, yeah.

Hey, let's go. We're up, bro.

Being reunited with Carlos after that... to see

him alive... was the best damn

thing I've ever seen. The best.

Initially, I was scared going into it. We heard

that there was gonna be gunfire directed at us,

all the way down, and so there was, but after

the first few explosions, after the initial contact, after

the initial rat-tat-tat of the A.K.-47s coming at

us, uh, the adrenaline almost fades and you being to

grow, if not numb, then used to it.

Carlos grew up real fast, and I was so proud of him.

My time is almost over, and now it's Carlos's

turn, and I believe my son is going to be a better

storyteller than I ever was. It's his turn.

We want you to meet two people

who are unlike any other, the only team of journalists

to embed for one solid year, on the front lines, with

the troops here, and not only that - they're father and son.

They are Mike and Carlos Boettcher.

And about twelve minutes into it, I was

just dying. I was just, my whole, it was like

the thing where your whole body overheats,

and I started to feel like asthmatic, which, probably

'cause I smoke too much, but it was just way too much.

Yeah, yeah, you gotta... See, my joints

have a limited shelf life, so that's why

you don't see me hitting the gym.

Yeah, true.

Carlos's time was up, and after everything

we'd experienced here, it was going to be

tough to watch him go back to the States without me.

You wake up every morning, facing death,

and you cherish every moment you're with

the people you're with, and here I was, with

my son, and ironically, in a war zone, we reconnected.

It was worth the risk to be a father again.

But, I think, deep down, as afather,

I was relieved that Carlos was headed home,

because I knew where we weregoing next

was one of the worst places you could go in

Afghanistan. It was the heart of darkness.

Q.Z.R. controls the entire

northern part of our area of operation.

He controls, uh, the fighters, the

equipment, uh, the training, everything.

He's our number one target. It's an

extremely important mission.

Now, you're gonna have a lot of young, inexperienced

fighters, who want to go to toe to toe with an American,

and they'll get their ass handed to them, because

they don't know what they're doing.

They just graduated that,

so they've been instilled with that bullshit

extremist philosophy. They don't know any better.

Let 'em come to you. Let 'em come to you.

We can't just air strike them. It would do no good

to kill him or our enemy, along with civilians, so

we have to go in, put boots on the ground,

and root these guys out.

As a leader, you have to, as my

son calls it, manning up, so... that's what, that's what I did.

This is gonna be the final nail in the coffin against

this asshole. He's going down. His abilities to

fight in the future are gonna be extremely degraded. We're

gonna create a lot of good things for the people

that don't have the reach of security forces or

governments as a result of this. That's all I got.

Necessarily prepared for exactly what it

was gonna be like, but some of us

had the worst in mind, mentally prepared

that way, so we wouldn't have

any surprises.

After almost dying, why would you

wanna come back to this hellhole?

I think it was... a personal thing, on a level that,

you know, I wasn't gonna let these guys beat me.

I've been through quite a few fire fights.

I'm not different than anybody else.

I wanted to get back, get back in the fight,

whether it be sitting in this three shop, you know,

doing paperwork or whatever, I wanted to come back.

We landed at three in the morning,

and all of us were tense.

Now, based off the map, it looked like there was a,

a trail that we could have taken to head.

Pretty sure it does not exist at all.

It just some trickery the imagery showed.

I'm glad we waited til daybreak to actually move,

because somebody would have actually

broke their leg or, or worse.

Hey, Ramone, take the low trail!

Going through the kalats, uh, you can tell,

men, men did live there. They just weren't there,

and the, uh, excuse they gave of that they were,

um, day workers in Jalalabad, you know,

is completely ridiculous.

Hey, Zee?

What's up?

Give me eyes on that bridge at your eleven.

That shit sounds like it's right in front of us.

Yeah, it does.

We have landed in the hornet's nest.

Stay down. Stay behind Jim Coper.

This was command and controls for the Taliban,

right there in that valley.

And they were gonna make us pay.

Hey, we gotta start getting them in this fucking kalat.

Can we get the fucking sixties up on this fucking hilltop?

Yeah, they're working on it right now.

All right, this is, this is them right here,

above phase line white, this is us

down here, the grid liner section.

They're righthere. They got packs

moving up and down this ridge line,

generally east of them.

They're there! I saw 'em moving!

Fizzo?

Yeah?

Make shit start blowing up!

R.P.G. seven!

R.P.G. seven!

Oh, shit!

In this muddy, friggin' hillside, we were surrounded,

and I thought, "What's it gonna feel like when

the bullet comes through me?"

Go ahead, one-six Romeo.

Six-three-six, stand by.

Three pads, two urgent, one priority.

Break, break, break, break!

Yankee, Delta, zero, four, niner, three, eight,

six, five, four, one, three, zero.

I was sitting there on this

mountainside, hearing their radio calls come in.

"We need choppers now. These guys are gonna die."

Dammit. I need that Medevac now.

And you knew... choppers weren't coming.

Tell them, "Hey, the bird's coming, the bird's coming,

just hang in there. The bird's coming."

After awhile, you... the person saying

it is getting tired and under-sure, and the

person hearing it is getting tired and under-sure.

Star cluster?

There he is!

Medevac's inbound?

Yeah. They're in the valley.

Hell, yeah!

You pull in, turn sideways, and...

ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You just get lit up.

Made multiple attempts, until the

bird was, you know, it was damaged so

bad, it actually had to go and land

for immediate maintenance.

Fuck! Dammit!

A kick in the balls, more than anything.

As soon as we got 'em here, we just lost 'em

again. Um... So we had to wait again.

It was a very low moment, because you knew...

nothing could get there to you. You were on your own.

Nothing could get there to you. You were on your own.

It went through everybody's mind that, you know...

this might be the day. This, this might be the day.

You don't know who you are, how far you will

go, until that moment, when you know

someone is dying, and if you don't get there,

they're going to die, and you may die trying to save them.

And that's what these soldiers did.

Hey, tell 'em, tell 'em I want a gun run from

fucking west to east, running up this spur here.

Arrechaga and the lead section had already started

moving, roughly twenty minutes before.

It probably took a couple minutes before,

uh, they got ambushed. The insurgents that

were attacking certain Arrechaga realized

that they had caught 'em in a bad spot.

In the draw. Hey, they're in the draw, Meyers.

Roger, sir. Nine-five-nine- th hr re ee e, hey,

we got eyes on 'em in the draw now. Over.

Hey! We'll provide coverage fire. You guys come to me!

Cease fire!

What's that?

What I heard was, uh, A.C.'s down. My

men need help. It just clicked into

my head. It was like muscle memory.

You just run, you just run to them.

Hey, Wade, get ready!

Ready, sir!

All right, let's get moving.

Let's go, let's go!

In the middle of this battle, Specialist Lindskog,

this timid young man who you wouldn't

expect would do anything heroic,

runs through a hail of gunfire, to try to save

his fellow soldiers and another Afghan soldier.

Let's go, let's go!

Move!

Go!

Move, move, move, move, move!

Go," he grabbed his bag and took off running.

He didn't ask a single question.

He just grabbed his bag and

stayed right behind me.

I looked back and I saw him grab his, his,

his, uh, his side. He was our medic.

Lindskog was coherent enough to

talk to Sizemore and tell him,"Hey do this

for thay guy, do this for that guy."

He wanted to do everything he could

to give us medical advice, while he

was hit, on how to treat him.

He treated three people in, like,

a matter of ten minutes.

Oh, he was fully alert. He talked,

up until the point he passed, uh, actually

apologized for not being able to hang on.

When he was sitting there bleeding out, he

apologized... for dying.

Go ahead, three-six.

Roger.

How do you process that?

As a reporter with a camera...

You don't.

Fucker!

Roger, we don't know...

Give me this radio. Get it on battalion.

When we gun it, a three hundred and

sixty degree fire fight, coming down on our

current position. You should have it, right?

Fuck, dude!

I tried to let you know as, soon as I saw it.

Okay, listen up. Prepare to copy, all right?

I got two urgent surgicals. They're

at building one-three-zero.

I could tell by A.C.'s tone of voice that, uh... I'm, I'm

pretty sure he didn't think he was gonna make it out of there.

Looked to A.C. like, "A.C., this is gonna hurt."

At that point, he was like, "I don't care. I'll

take the pain. I just wanna get out of here."

He actually, you know, did us the big A.C. smile.

Couldn't explain, in words, how I felt...

After helping them out, having to run down there,

all that effort... and you know, the only

thing that I could question myself,

which I try not to do, is I could

have ran faster, you know.

Watch it!

Go, go, go, go!

Go, man!

Shit.

It's definitely exposed.

Get back.

Come on. Get farther in there.

Hey, go in the fucking doors.

Hey, Kent!

Loaded, sir.

He's right here.

All right, breathe.

Who else was with us?

Albright?

Two, three, four, five...

Hey, where's, where's Meyers?

He, he, he didn't make it up.

Hey, Meyers! Meyers!

This is Strong Eagle Three.

Position. Uh, wasn't... wasn't that easy,

uh, this time, as, as it has been

in other operations.

He actually had to fix his boot. His shoelace

was busted, so we were just joking around a little bit.

Let's talk about the seven layers of hell.

Yeah. Right here in Afghanistan.

Well, I think we're at about layer four or five now.

I heard, like, a couple Afghanis talking, like,

really quiet, just a couple whispers,

and they were right in the trees above

us, and I asked Sergeant Burgess,

like, we don't have no A and A right next to us, right?

And he said, "No," and soon as, soon as he said no...

I heard, I heard 'em flip their, flip their weapon

to fire, and started opening up on us.

I'm looking at the trees, just, you know...

They're literally in the trees firing

down at us. What is, what kind of

crazy crap is that?

I started shooting up in the trees, 'cause

they were directly above us, and

it was all pretty much chaos from there.

We made a plan to get

the hell out of there, and, and make sure

we radioed it forward to the rest of

the element, which we did, and we

all got up out of there, and unbeknownst to

us, the gun team stayed behind, including

Smith, Mark Gonzalez, uh, Jeremy Faulkner...

Go, man!

That's when Jeremy was, uh, shot and killed.

We can't fucking move, and we're

waiting on this stuff... Hey!

[indistinct yelling

I heard my buddies saying

that they were hit.

I heard the radio go on, and I heard

someone kind of whimpering. No one

told me that there were casualties.

I knew, because of that whimpering.

Dusty Feldhaus, he was hit at least

five times.

...and he was apologizing as if, you know, he had

something to, to apologize for. I mean, naw, don't...

you know, "I'm sorry." What are you sorry for?

So... you're a freaking hero. We love you.

Yep. Yeah.

We miss you.

My daughter is Makayah.

She turns four next month. My, my son

is Xander. He turns three in January.

Cool. You miss 'em?

I do.

How much?

A lot.

All right, Feldhaus, show us how to fight.

They're dying.

And they're fighting, not for some war on terror.

They're fighting for their buddies.

What kept you going?

The rest of these guys.

We all kind of saw it in us to, to, to try to

be strong, if, if not for us, for, at

least, you know, the guy beside us.

I stayed there, even though, I should...

my, my instinct was to get the hell out of there,

but I stayed there for all my guys, my squad, my,

my platoon, stayed there for the bastards.

They're sacrifices are not going to be forgotten.

Got, um, hoisted out, and that was,

that was good, all three of them.

Continue getting to traffic.

We found a bunch of enemy weapons, enemy I.D.s, so...

found the radio station.

John, what, what are you cooking there, dude?

Um, I'm cooking up, uh, paratha.

What? Paratha?

Yeah. Paratha.

Paratha.

Paratha.

Paratha.

Yeah. Paratha.

Paratha.

Looks good.

Inshallah.

You want some, Jim?

Yeah.

Yo!

Hoosa had one whole bread, man.

Hoosa had, he already had his own.

As a leader, you gotta put it

out of your mind and keep going,

and keep moving on for the guys,

so they don't, uh, they don't get all

tripped out and stuff, so... just keep going.

Sure was.

The goat's named Roman.

Roman?

Yeah, Roman.

And, uh, this is a gift for Captain Maud.

Is that your new friend?

It is my new friend.

I'm gonna name him... Pep.

You okay, Pep? How are you?

Go back to your mama. Go back to your mother.

Ooh!

First fly! You got it on camera! Good.

Yay!

You have a problem with a fucking chicken.

The chicken flew up here and he

just made him, like, reject it.

Damn.

Like, I've never seen someone just up that fast in my life.

It was a rough day.

Sure was.

How do you think today's gonna go?

Hopefully, better than it was yesterday.

This went on for nine days.

Hey, we got forty-five seconds til a bomb drop.

Motherfuckers.

Six-four, roger.

Take that! Yeah!

Yes!

I don't think they liked our bombs.

I don't think they did either.

Do you know why you've done

this for twenty-two years?

Sir, I do not know why I've done it for

twenty-two years. I've just, I've enjoyed it, and I've

just kept doing it and... As long as I can stay

healthy and keep doing it, I'm gonna keep doing it.

I can't see myself doing anything else.

Even after a mission like this.

I think that we made a huge difference here,

that we reduced the insurgent credibility

here. We went right in their back yard,

right in their home town, and, and succeeded.

It's hard to tell families that their

sacrifice quantifiably made a difference,

'cause they're ten thousand miles away,

and you're trying to explain that to 'em,

and their husband, their father, their

son is, is, is, uh, is not coming home.

Attention!

Staff Sergeant Sizemore is also receiving a second

bronze star Medal of Valor for Operation Strong Eagle Three.

Time to reflect on how we can best carry their memory

forward, and ensure their sacrifice is for a greater

good, and that we'll never let their memory fade.

It was hard. I knew all of them, and as

a task force commander, it's very difficult to, to

know that the orders you gave for combat cost us.

They gave their life for what they believed in and

for their buddies. It's our responsibility to

remember their courage, their commitment, and their heroism.

Every soldier in No Slack knows that

if that time comes, that the honor and

respect is bestowed on them, for their

ultimate sacrifice will always be met.

Sound off for roll call!

Sergeant Mendez?

Here, Sir Major.

Sergeant Trickendaus?

Here, Sir Major.

Specialist Lindskog?

Specialist Jameson L. Lindskog?

Lindskog was a young guy. You know,

who knows what he could have brought to the world.

Cary Fruthers, as he, himself, needed

urgent care. This is heroism defined.

Sergeant First Class Arrechaga?

Sergeant First Class Ofren Arrechaga.

He was the rock for the platoon. He was the,

uh, humor. He was always the, the happy

guy. He always had a smile on his face.

These bonds are so close that...

you're not gonna leave somebody out there to

get shot or die by themselves. You're

gonna run out there and help them,

no matter what.

Staff Sergeant Frank Adamski.

Staff Sergeant Frank E. Adamski.

Sergeant Adamski was a husband, father,

a squad leader, and my best friend.

Staff Sergeant Bryan Burgess.

Staff Sergeant Bryan A. Burgess.

The last thing Sergeant Burgess said to

me was, uh, "Where's my chariot?" He was

talking about the Medevac bird.

About the sixty that was hovering above us.

"Where's my chariot?"

And I said, "It's right here."

Specialist Dustin Feldhaus.

Specialist Dustin J. Feldhaus.

We went through thick and thin together,

and though I am sad that he's gone, I'll

always cherish the memories that I have shared with him.

I love you, Mouse. Rest in peace, brother.

P.F.C, Jeremy Faulkner.

P.F.C. Jeremy P. Faulkner.

With such a famous last name, I told him he should

live up to it. He gave back to me,

and no kidding, he told me, quote,

"I'm gonna make history, sir, not write about it."

You'll always be remembered, and

you'll always be loved by all the bastards.

Rest in peace, Remy.

It becomes, uh, to a point, that it gets to be enough.

All these men, his men, dead.

He didn't know the camera was rolling.

He hung back the whole time. When

no one else was around, he walked up, and he

let the tears of this entire war come out, right there.

And I could do nothing...

but cry, myself.

You sit down and you come to grips with

your life. But you have to realize that

what you've done is something important.

And you hope you've left something behind.

We only do this to make a difference.

That's why you constantly keep going back,

keep fighting, keep trying to tell these stories.

Otherwise, my whole life's been for nothing.

You know something? It's been for something.

It has.

I think I have an I.E.D. on you.

We'll have to dig and find out.

Dude.

Is she still following me?

Yep.

Good luck with that tractor.

Hey, buddy. How you doing?

High, high five. There you go!

Fist bump! No fist bump?

No.

Oh. I'm hurt.

Mott, hold the tea cup up and said, "America."

"America."

Yeah! Whoo!

What do you miss most about home on Fourth of July?

Spending time with my family.

But I have my new family here, so I'll spend quality

time with my new family. To everybody

back home, I miss you and I love you.

What kind of message would you wanna give

Americans about what you've been doing here,

and on this Fourth of July?

I'd say, uh, to support the troops. It's, uh, it's

pretty tough, being out here.

We're so blessed with what we have back in the States,

and I just hope everyone remembers that back home.

Puts a different perspective on what it means to be American.