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[silence]

[birds chirp]

[tense music] [chattering on radio]

[gunfire popping]

[tense music]

[music continues]

- My name is Justin Roberts.

My wife, daughter and I are currently

stationed in Rose Barracks, in Vilseck, Germany.

But for three years, I was assigned as chaplain

to the 2nd 327th Infantry Battalion.

[gunfire popping]

Also known as No Slack.

Since I returned from the deployment,

I've struggled with a numbing depression

and I've wondered what kind of father

and husband I'd be if I couldn't shake this.

General MacArthur once said that old soldiers

don't die, they just fade away.

And that's what I felt like.

Like a part of me was fading away.

During the last New Year's fireworks celebration,

I was home with my wife and daughter.

Before the fireworks were through,

I was on the ground weeping.

I wasn't shaken by the explosions,

but with an overwhelming sadness.

I started thinking about the guys I served with in No Slack

and wondered if they were experiencing

any of the same things.

I wanted to understand what was happening,

and what I could do to get better.

[melancholy music]

My wife and daughter accompanied me

to Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

There I planned to spend a couple of weeks

reconnecting with the soldiers I served with

and their families.

I hoped our dialogue would benefit them

and provide insight into my own issues.

After not seeing most of them for three years,

I thought I'd reintroduce myself

in a familiar setting.

Oh my goodness.

We got a whole collection of No Slackers in a church.

That's a miracle.

[laughing]

This is not gonna be a typical sermon.

If you were expecting I was gonna be

guilt-tripping you or anything like that,

it's not gonna be that today.

This is more like a confession.

When I showed up to No Slack, as many of y'all know,

chaplains can't carry weapons,

so I decided to carry a camera.

I went out on the missions and I captured

a lot of these moments that would change my life,

but it wasn't the photos and it wasn't the video

that changed my life.

It was understanding the stories behind 'em.

I captured people doing some courageous things,

some valorous things.

I was going through the deployment

asking the question why?

Why are they doing these things?

What is driving these guys to risk their lives for others?

And even after they've been wounded,

why in the world would they come back to this hell?

Part of the answer might lie in No Slack Battalion's

proud history.

[dramatic military music]

No Slack is part of the legendary 101st Airborne Division,

and a central component of the United States'

World War II force.

- What defined them is the Battle of the Bulge,

where Germany came through and bulged the line.

They fought and defeated the Germans

that were up against them.

[blades whirring]

- [Justin] Later, the Civil Rights Movement

found the 101st Airborne defending the Little Rock Nine,

who were the first African-American kids

to attend a segregated school.

During the Vietnam War, No Slack spent more time

in combat than any other battalion.

- No Slack is a great battalion.

I have some family that served with 101st Airborne, as well,

so it's good to part of a great story.

- [Justin] Most of the No Slack soldiers that I met

had their stories begin in Iraq

where they initially faced combat.

Through our conversations, I wanted to recount

the deployment to Afghanistan, so together,

we could process some of the things we experienced.

At the time, we didn't realize that we were

headed to our biggest fight since Vietnam.

- Going to Afghanistan, none of us have been there before.

I've done three Iraq tours.

I knew how they were and everybody new

that went over there said it was totally different.

- The soldiers in Iraq were very used to

very close combat fighting in urban areas

and we had to be a lot more mountains focused

and Afghanistan was a lot more far ambush.

The [speaking foreign language] as the Soviets

called it, the ghost of the mountains,

were always behind the rocks,

greater than 300 meters away

and that was a training challenge

to take a very good unit who did extraordinarily well

three straight deployments to Iraq

and shift mentally to get ready to go to Afghanistan.

- Alright, here we are in beautiful Afghanistan.

We're about to get into in our house.

- Everything Afghanistan was just a lot more committed.

In Iraq, it seemed like it was just punks there

to fight for a couple minutes and run away.

- They never went toe to toe.

Afghanistan, they stopped.

They fought.

They were prepared to die for their belief.

- [Soldier] RPG.

RPG!

[crashing]

- [Justin] Afghanistan is known as the graveyard of empires.

No country has ever won a war there.

- [Wright] We were in the Kunar Province.

- [Justin] What was that like?

- The worst place I ever been.

- We walked into, my analogy was the red arrow,

pointing on Asadabad, the provincial capitol.

The time we were coming in, the previous

two units had seen a significant increase in enemy activity.

- Here we are, we finally made it to FOB choice

after many days of travel.

Right now, as I'm talking to you, we have been under fire.

- [Vowell] Kunar always been contentious in history.

- It's the one area that, in any war since the Khan Era,

has never been conquered.

The Russians were stopped in their tracks

in the Kunar Province.

- [Vowell] Kunar, Nangarhar were the footholds

for the Jihad in the 1980s.

- It's a warring culture.

They're raised to fight.

- They seemed experienced?

- Very experienced.

You could tell by age and also by their tactics.

- They would shoot at you and try to fix your position

and then start maneuvering on you.

They were actively trying to kill you.

- They were extremely tenacious.

They were seasoned.

- How many generations in the Afghanis have been at war

with each other, with other enemies.

- The same rat lines that the insurgents moved on

in the 1980s were the same ones they used against us.

- [Wright] Fathers taught their sons how to fight

in these fighting positions.

It was nothing new.

They worked against the Russians,

so why change what works?

- [Soldier Over Radio] Roger, we also have contact

from the [staticky mumbling] over.

- [Soldier] Fargay's hittin' us.

[staticky chattering]

- We're an army that can see you from left, right

and especially down to up, so they learned

our weapons systems probably as quickly as we did

and how to defend themselves against it.

They have thermals and then they have

a blanket to cover them.

We have technology advantage and firepower advantage.

They had a--

- Home field advantage.

- Yeah.

- Osama Bin Laden had camps up in Kunar.

Why?

That's where you can train.

That's where people can't get to you.

You don't need all of Afghanistan

to have a trans-national terrorist state.

That area, pretty close by are some airfields.

You can export your terrorism anywhere.

[speaking foreign language]

- [Justin] One of the men who trained Osama Bin Laden,

Qari Zar Rahman, made the mountains of Kunar Province

his base of operations.

We knew him as QZR.

- The perception of QZR is he's just

some rag-tag Taliban guy.

That is incorrect.

He is Al-Qaeda and TTP Taliban.

The Pakistani military had him in custody in '08, '09,

let him go.

If you go on YouTube to this day,

you can see him being interviewed by Pakistani journalists.

Total sociopath, Soprano-esque.

He was truly a dangerous man.

[tense beat music]

Coercing, physically kidnapping,

beheading Afghan villagers.

When he goes in there and takes five village elders,

brings them to the mountains and beheads them,

what's a village of 30 people gonna do?

Everybody's okay, we get it now.

We're a QZR fan.

The guy's not gonna stop.

- He ruled with a very iron fist and he was organized.

- He was the one who was pulling the strings

on the suicide bombers in Asadabad.

- Heading for the center of governments.

- [Vowell] He was the ringleader

of operations for AQ and TTP.

- [Soldier] Watch out, let him go.

[horn honking]

Push it, you push it.

- We come into May, that's about the start

of the fighting season.

The snows have melted from the passes.

The fighters come down into the populated areas

and the coercion begins and the attacking begins

and we thought we're gonna go into the fighting season

right as the time they were.

We're both gonna meet that together.

They were ready ahead of us.

- What was the first couple months like?

- A living hell.

All the terrorists moved from Pakistan

straight into the Korengal and while they were in there,

they would train and then they'd come

and attack us, kinda like their graduation present.

[speaking foreign language]

- We got hit pretty hard.

We took losses early on, particularly Alpha Company

and their very contentious fight they had

at COP Monti up in Asmar.

- You join the infantry to fight.

You don't join it to sit back, so when you want

the fight, it's there out at COP Monti.

- [Justin] why was COP Monti such a contentious place?

- [Vowell] It sits on a very key transit point

for insurgent fighters.

- When you're goin' on patrol, you're going one way

and you're coming out one way,

so it's a very easy choke point to set up ambushes.

- [Justin] Within the first few weeks,

the soldiers of No Slack found out

just how complex these ambushes can be.

[gunfire popping] [yelling]

- What had happened was, the insurgents had

crashed two jingle trucks together

and had set 'em on fire.

[booming]

- It was parked perpendicular to the road.

And the truck was just long enough to block the road.

I was like, this is on purpose.

There's a cliff to my left, a river on my right,

a village on the other side of the river

and then another ridge-line on the other side

of the village.

- We ran forward to see what was going on and--

- I hear this crack.

[gunfire popping]

We all just kinda stopped for like, a split-second.

And then I hear Santorini yell out, "Sniper!"

We just took off at a dead sprint.

- We were taking fire from the village

directly across from us as well as,

there's like a gully that ran up

back towards the east where we're taking

some pretty effective PKM fire from this guy

that was at least 600, if not 800, meters away.

Right in the entire side of the humvee.

- And you see the rounds hittin' the ground.

I saw 'em coming towards me and I was like,

oh man, I gotta move.

- Sergeant Hargen was directing fire from the vehicles,

you know, .50 cal MAR-19

pretty much hittin' all the positions

where we were takin' fire from.

- [Soldier] I got ya!

[gunfire popping]

[excited chattering]

Thank God, I don't see anything now.

- The dude who was shoulder to shoulder with me right here,

like his left shoulder was touching my right shoulder

gets shot in the left arm.

- The trucks are on fire and they,

obviously, you can't get by them, so we're tracking

through different options of what we're gonna do.

Luckily, we had a wrecker with us.

We were trying to talk through options

of whether or not the wrecker could

push those vehicles out of the way somehow

or tow 'em out of the way, or you know,

what was gonna happen exactly.

It was a difficult situation though,

'cause the trucks were so hot.

I mean, if you got with 20 feet of those things,

you had to shy away.

- [Justin] While under fire, the company's mechanic,

Staff Sergeant Earl Mason, took decisive action.

- So, Mason was a stud and you know,

burnt himself hooking up these trucks

and pulling them out of the way, thank God,

so we could drive by.

[clanking] [chattering]

- [Soldier] Go, go, go.

- The terrain itself is so conducive to

dismounted insurgent travel.

You don't have stand off space.

An enemy can get real close to you

and make that contact.

We had our worst firefight since Vietnam

over and over again in Afghanistan.

- In June, we had the bloodiest month since TET of 1968.

- We were doing a traffic control point

in a village called Larshotan and the job was

to check all the local traffic coming back and through.

Andrew Looney was a team leader,

designated marksman of my platoon.

Looney came up to me and was like, "Do you see this?"

And there was a single female by themselves

in a bright colored burka walking towards us

and we just kinda looked at each other and I'm like,

"Well, are we gonna shoot her or not?"

'Cause we just knew that women aren't alone there

and no one really wears bright colors

so, we called up and they said we don't have PID.

- [Justin] Without a target being positively identified

as a threat, the rules of engagement do not allow

soldiers to open fire.

- I took a knee looking over the, I guess a little wall,

looking out and she came up and detonated explosives

on her person.

It was a devastating explosion.

I was probably 10 meters or less away from it.

Everything faded to white and there was no sound,

which could have been the explosion, but I was in

this place where really, nothing existed

and I felt like I was connected to God or whatever great

spiritual thing, whatever's out there.

I came back into my body, there was blood all over me

and I didn't think it was mine 'cause nothing hurt,

so I tried to roll over.

I realized there was blood pouring down my face

and I didn't have my helmet on, so,

I was patting my head and I realized

there was a hole in my head so I stuck a finger

with Nomex gloves on through my skull

and pulled it out and saw bits of my brain matter and

got up to go run to work on my guy

and I took a step or two and fell.

I realized my feet and my knee and my legs weren't okay.

[tense music]

- We got a call that they needed a quick response force.

Our platoon was on duty for that.

We were told that there was a suicide bomber

at a checkpoint manned by U.S. soldiers

and that there was a couple dead.

- Two Americans got killed, maybe a dozen children.

I feel really responsible for all of that.

I'm not over not taking that shot.

I'm not over everything that happened because of that.

My friends would be alive.

I would not have gotten injured.

Lot of kids wouldn't have gotten killed.

I've done a lot of work to get over that day

and it's gotten better, but I don't know

if it'll ever be okay.

I don't think it will.

- Biggest thing I remember is pulling up

and seeing what was left.

You could tell by the size of her feet that she was young.

- It turns out, I believe, she was mentally

challenged 14 year old Pakistani girl.

- In the moment, I tried to stay focused on

maintaining security and finding what we can.

We spent most of that day searching for a head

to try to identify who she was.

That was the biggest thing for me is in

seeing the age.

- When they choose more to trust people

or to engage people, I'm generally interested

in human beings but it's a lot different

when you have to look at everyone,

even the smallest children and wondering

if they're trying to kill you.

- And I know she didn't go into it

probably hating Americans.

Most suicide bombers are put in this position

because their family is threatened.

They fess up and their family gets executed.

It really hurts knowing people are put

in those positions, especially at that age.

- Yeah.

- You know, especially at that age.

That's...

It's inexcusable to use someone in that way.

The rage I was feeling was focused towards

the people who put this girl in that situation,

who strapped on that vest,

who told her where to walk,

who told her when to pull the trigger.

- [Justin] Some of the hardest decisions ever made

happen on the battlefield.

Another medic across the valley was faced

with a difficult choice.

- There was this one gentleman that I remember

riding up on a bike and nobody rides up on bikes.

After an IED happens, nobody, everyone's hiding.

They're not gonna be there.

But one gentleman came and rode up on a bike.

Fast forward to [mumbling],

the firefight happened, we're doing our BDA,

and we get to this character

and he's looking familiar to me

and I didn't know who he was

and he looks at me like, I know you from somewhere.

We had seen each other around, doing our patrols

and he was shot in the chest, he was dying.

He was kinda struggling for air,

but the rules are, have to treat him

and try to save his life.

They can do whatever they want with him if he survives,

but I need to treat him and save his life.

So, I patched him up and he started breathing again

and he was, it was like night and day.

His vitals were up and he was good,

but the terp came over and started talking to him

and I guess this particular gentleman

was in charge of the IEDs that were around us,

the IED that hit me, as well.

I'm looking at him like,

you blew me up, you blew me up

and you just took out my buddy

and I'm gonna save your life,

but I'll never forget that.

It was just so weird.

Such a weird feeling, like I needed him to be alive

and I took care of him and I did that.

The attitudes around me was like,

if you mess up that procedure, we're okay with it

and he could die and that was fine.

At that point, I looked at him as here's this human being

and he's so scared.

I couldn't bring myself to do that.

do that to human being and enemy or not.

Hopefully, it's looking good for him, but,

we'll be updated soon.

He ended up surviving.

I feel good about treating him, you know?

I feel good about what happened.

[speaking foreign language]

[booming]

- Frustration was mounting among the troops of No Slack,

and rage was building as the casualty count rose.

What's going through your head through all of that?

- Am I gonna make it outta here?

Seemed like everybody I knew was dying.

Our Alpha company hit a pressure plate, killed a friend.

First Sergeant Barton sent out one of the platoons

to pick up the remains.

Four guys fit in one body bag.

- It was my old first sergeant, my friends,

medical platoon sergeant, time he knew,

I knew everyone and he asked me if I could

identify what was left and it broke my heart

more than anything in my life

to see these people I loved in that condition.

And pretty much every time I close my eyes,

I see them there.

[melancholy music]

- Only thing we could find was shirts with names on it

and the rest was just...

... horrible.

- My last words with First Sergeant Barton

I was saying bye to him.

Knocked on his door.

I heard Black Eyed Peas music playing.

[chuckling]

And almost every single time he saw me,

he say, "Chaplin, how's Jesus doin'?"

- Yeah.

- He's doing good, First Sergeant.

- He was loved by everybody.

- He was.

- You lose soldiers all the time, but,

when they're people you really know,

you start questioning.

- At that time, that first month,

I didn't have the full side picture

of just how stressed the unit was.

- [Justin] The battalion lost soldiers during

every week of June, 2010.

Despite this, the troops of No Slack persevered.

- Every time you lose somebody, you just get

a little bit more angry.

It makes you fight harder.

[melancholy music]

- [Justin] Lieutenant Colonel Vowell and the leadership

knew they had to turn the tide, so they designed

a bold operation.

- We were at a point where had so much enemy activity

that was so effective against Afghan population,

Afghan military and against us.

It's intuitive.

We've got to do something about it.

We're gonna have to take the fight to them.

Clearing from villages, from the mountains,

the enemy that had just festered as a cancer

about to infect the provincial capitol.

- There are IEDs in the area.

Their main task and purpose is to alert other groups

of coalition activity in the area.

- Out by a city called Asadabad, there's a valley

and in that valley there's a little village called Daridam.

And we got reports that the insurgents were staging

back there and they were gonna come down that valley

and take Asadabad.

So, we made an offensive, called it Strong Eagle One.

- The battalion had companies on the ridge-lines

over watching the valley and HHCs responsibility

was to march into that valley.

- The plan was to begin entering the valley at sunrise

so we have proper visibility to fight.

[speaking foreign language]

- They farmed there.

They built the structures there, so they know

where to defend from and where to move to.

- Not only were they more aware of the terrain,

but they've also fought this fight once before.

- The Russians had gone in there before

and got slaughtered.

I think everyone knew, it's like okay, someone is gonna die.

- We only had a single road that winded

the side of the mountain.

This was the only way to get in there

and we had to fight for it.

- As soon as we got there, floods of people

just started walking out of the valley.

Families, kids, as soon as you saw that, you knew.

It was like, okay, the fight is coming.

- So, we're fully aware of what we were getting into.

No, I take that back.

We thought we were fully aware.

You'll never be ready for what happened that day.

- [Soldier] I spotted a guy.

I think they took out the guy.

And supposed to be up here and to the left.

- [Wright] We were supposed to walk

about two or 300 meters

in front of the vehicles to search

for possible IED triggermen so that way

the vehicles could continue to move up

the road as we all did.

- And then all of a sudden, we just started

hearing the gunfire.

[gunfire popping]

- [Soldier] Hey, Garrett, we're moving.

- From the top of the mountain, across the mountain,

deeper into the valley.

- How many people do you think you were up against?

- Too many to count.

Attack weapons teams, helicopters

just started making their gun runs.

- [McGinnis] Tens of thousands of rounds were being fired

in every direction from both sides.

- We weren't safe anywhere.

- [Soldier] Get your gun up here, go, go.

[gunfire popping]

[booming]

We gotta keep moving.

- I don't feel like we were any more than about

30 minutes in, so we hadn't been walking very far

and it was a deep valley.

- And I remember already being exhausted,

had to have been pushin' 100 degrees

by like, nine in the morning.

[gunfire popping]

Sheesh.

- [Wright] I keep hearing from different directions.

[gunfire popping]

- And where the scouts were going,

we already knew that we were gonna be isolated

and essentially alone.

- It was Sergeant Schneider, two sniper teams

and a recon team and then it was myself and Captain Mott.

- [Brookshire] We were supposed to take a piece of land

where we could overwatch the rest of the valley,

watch the infield and clear everything up.

- We got off the helicopter and pretty sure

we were in the wrong spot.

The PL looked at the map, figured out

where we needed to go and we started moving.

Problem was, we had skidco's

loaded with water, .50 cal, anything we might need.

Grenades, we had to drag those up and down

the hills to get to our location

and for probably about 100, 200 meters,

we were moving in the daylight,

which is never good, because you're being watched.

- [Brookshire] The spot we ended up taking was

on the rock outcropping on the very edge of this cliff.

Once we got there, that's when hell broke loose.

- There was multiple positions firing on us

and we couldn't pinpoint any of them.

[gunfire popping]

- [Soldier] There's someone on that ridge-line

right there.

You see him moving?

- It gets to a point where the noise is just

so constant that you just blank it out.

[gunfire popping]

- You had gotten used to getting shot at,

so it felt normal.

- And then you have to start communicating

with everybody around you to make everything work.

We were all on our stomachs and faces trying

to get around these rocks, 'cause every time

you'd even like, peek up, it was just like,

rounds hittin' off the rock beside of you.

Well-aimed single shots just kept coming' at us,

coming at us and that's what grazed Captain Mott's

head whenever he fell down the mountain.

- He fell down, I wanna say, 300 plus meters.

I don't even think any of us saw it happen.

Before too long, somebody was like,

hey, where's Captain Mott?

And then I think Sergeant Schneider looked over

the edge of the mountain and saw him

still falling down the mountain and was like,

oh my God, that's Captain Mott right there.

- Sergeant Schneider kept yelling down to Captain Mott

trying to get him to move his hand

or sit up or say something.

- I'll never forget it 'cause it was Sergeant Schneider

and he called me and said they were surrounded

and they were engaging people that were trying

to drag Captain Mott away.

We called up a nine line for him.

We were told the bird was in route.

- The amount of gunfire and how hostile it was,

they just couldn't get the bird to us.

They'd get kinda close and they'd have to back up

because of the gunfire and eventually,

probably the best pilots I've ever seen

put the PJs down and they went and got him.

[helicopter blades whirring]

- I wanna say it was about a half hour

after Captain Mott got hit.

I had just called in his medivac

and felt almost a nudge, felt like somebody had pushed me

or something and low and behold, I sprung a leak,

so I waited for a pause in the gunfire and I said,

"Hey, Sergeant, they shot me in the chest."

He stops, he takes a knee next to me

and he put chest seals on both the entry and exit wound

and then he rips off my sleeve

and I've got entry and exit wounds in my tricep, as well.

So, he puts a tourniquet on my arm,

and then they called in my medivac.

- [Brookshire] Seemed like it took hours to get

the medivac for Litchfield.

- Because of the rough terrain, it couldn't land.

They grabbed me and they started running me

towards the bird and immediately after we stand up,

that bird starts getting lit up like the 4th of July

and I remember thinking to myself,

I'm gonna feel really bad if one of these guys

gets shot trying to help me out.

Luckily, that didn't happen.

We got to the bird and they threw me in the air

and the medic reached down, grabbed my arm,

pulled me in and the bird immediately took off.

I wanna say it was high noon, at least,

by the time I got medivac'ed.

- [Justin] Captain Mott and Private Litchfield's

engagements were just the beginning.

The day was gonna get a lot worse.

- We start pushin' into the valley,

and one of our platoons report back they have one KIA

and his name was Eric Shaw.

[sniffling]

- First Sergeant Wright took it pretty hard.

I know him and Shaw were really close.

- He was one of my squad leaders

and came and worked for me when we were in HC.

We were friends.

- [McGinnis] Sergeant Shaw had deployed late because

he stayed to see his third child be born

and he had only been in Afghanistan for,

really, a couple of weeks at that point.

- Came under pretty massive hellgun fire

and led his men back to safety and,

an Afghan fell and he ran back to save him

and was fatally wounded.

- He got hit by an RPG in the face.

His head was...

split.

You couldn't even tell it was him.

The only way I knew it was him was his name-tag.

Called in a medivac, ran out to medivac

and remember begging the guy to take Eric,

so we put Eric on the bird, they flew away.

- That was like being...

Literally, I mean, punched.

I waited until after the funeral to tell our daughters.

I wanted to let them be kids for as long

as possible before they knew what it was like to,

to not have Daddy anymore.

To know that he's not coming home.

[melancholy music]

- [Justin] Losing Staff Sergeant Eric Shaw

and another soldier, Sergeant David W. Thomas,

was devastating.

No one could have foreseen what would happen next.

- We started taking rounds from a building

that was about 800 meters from us,

and we couldn't make it stop.

We heard over the radio that there was

an incoming bomb drop.

I remember we sat down in a circle

to prepare for the blast, 'cause even at 800 meters,

you can feel it.

- 25 seconds.

- Everyone knew where that bomb was gonna land

and you're watching and watching

and all the sudden, boom!

[whistling] [booming]

Everyone's like, didn't we have guys there?

- We were laughing and joking, and I remember

making a face at one of my guys and he made

a face back at me and we started to hear the jet come in.

Then his face changed.

It was ghost white and he started screaming

because he watched the bomb fall out of the sky

and land right behind me.

- There was a massive explosion and some guys

were as close as 20 feet.

Kill radius on those bombs are 50 meter,

if I recall correctly.

- I remember thinking, oh my God, we just lost a platoon.

- We were so close to the blast

that we were engulfed in flames.

We had minor burns in our mouths, throats

and the 500 pound bomb that we got hit with

is an incendiary round.

- I just remember seeing a wall

of dirt and dust and silence.

- It was so quiet that I thought I was dead.

I was certain I was dead.

I was positive I was dead.

- We started calling in medivac.

We had four, five medivac'ed, but everyone survived.

- How is that possible?

- I have no idea.

- It was a miracle.

I don't know how they didn't really take any casualties.

- None of us had any penetrating trauma.

No shrapnel, all of us with our limbs.

[somber music]

It was a miracle.

- I'm not a religious person, but someone

was over watching us that day

because that company had holes

all through their pants from bullets.

We had mortarmen run around and bullets

actually hit the mortar rounds in their backpacks.

- [Justin] The battle waged on,

but the worst was behind us.

Early on the morning of the third day,

our forces made it to the village of Daridam.

- Getting to Daridam was decisive.

The enemy did exactly what we thought we'd do,

coming at us on the flanks, and we'd shoot 'em up,

defusing their defenses away from where

they wanted to defend, bring the fight to a time and place

where we wanted to and be ready for it.

Worked well.

- We had two deaths, but everybody came together.

We got that mission and we succeeded.

- [Justin] How did y'all feel when you got

to that village finally?

- Relieved, made it.

I just took a valley that has never been taken before,

and I walked it.

That's victory.

I just wanna go back and take off my clothes,

just tear 'em off and stand naked in my tent

and enjoy every minute of it.

- [Justin] The success of Strong Eagle One

gave our soldiers, the Afghan army and the government

some much needed breathing room.

- We did, physically, turn the tide of what would happen

throughout the rest of that fighting season.

We killed a lot of bad people and we stayed there

for the next 30 days and owned it.

- [Justin] Victory came at a cost, however.

Private Litchfield was rushed to the hospital

for his injuries,

and Captain Mott's status was uncertain.

- They dragged me in, laid me on a table,

and one of the medics started saying,

"We might have to take his arm."

And he immediately turned around and started to walk away.

I used my good arm to grab him, as he was walking away

and I said, "Hey, sir, my arm is just fine.

"You're not gonna take this arm away from me.

"I'm a rock guitarist, you can't do that to me."

Ten minutes later he comes back and says,

"Good news, we're not gonna have to take your arm."

I was like, damn right.

And then an hour later, Captain Mott gets rolled in.

- Guys said I look like I was dead,

'cause completely covered in blood.

It was all dry, they could see my skull.

- I think his tongue was swollen up.

He was trying to talk but couldn't.

They kept asking him his name.

You can imagine the guy with a tongue

the size of his fist trying to say the word Kevin.

So, somehow I deciphered it and I turned

and looked at the doctor and I said,

"That's Captain Kevin Mott.

"I can give you everything but his social and his birthday."

- My mom got a phone call.

Mrs. Mott, we're calling to inform you

that your son was injured in Afghanistan.

He was shot in the head and we're not sure

if he's gonna make it.

Mom just hangs up the phone and falls over crying.

So, my dad gets home a little while later,

called the number back.

Oh, Mr. Mott, we're sorry.

We need you to pack your stuff to go to Germany

to say goodbye to him, you know?

That was obviously really hard for them to deal with.

- [Justin] Captain Mott miraculously survived

his devastating injuries, but his gruesome

incident was just one of many.

Captain Doug McGinnis endured his own personal hell

in the Kunar Province.

- We were resupplying Afghan border patrol station

right on the Pakistan border trying to get

more soldiers out to them and they could only get

aerial resupply 'cause Taliban had surrounded

their base, so I get on the bird

and I have my translator with me

and coming in there's a small helicopter landing zone.

I mean, it was sheer drop-off on the sides.

We land and get all the border patrol guys out.

Next thing I know, there was a yellow flash

and it felt like I got hit in the head with a bat.

I looked up and I see

my interpreter and he was

just cut in half.

What happened was an RPG had went into him and exploded,

so knocked everyone out.

I was thrown against the wall and back down

and I remember looking down and I realize I'm on fire.

With all your kit and everything like that,

I can't really roll, so I'm just kinda rolling

back and forth and I slapped the flames out on myself

and I look up, there's two guys

dragging out the door gunner.

They're carrying him and his legs are kinda draggin'

behind, just mangled and I remember reaching

with my left arm to try to pick up his legs

so they wouldn't drag and my arm's not working.

I couldn't pick it up.

Five Americans with about 20 ABP on the border

of Pakistan surrounded by Taliban

and my translator's obviously dead.

It starts going through my head, I'm like,

those ABP, are they gonna turn on us?

Use us as a bargaining chip to save themselves?

There's a good chance we could end up in Pakistan.

I didn't think I really realized how messed up I was

'til a lot later.

Over 33% of my face is just burnt.

Both my eardrums are blown out.

I didn't know that I had lost the tip of my nose,

shrapnel had taken the tip of my nose off,

shrapnel went into my arm and broke my ulna bone

and then I had burns all over my body

from when I was on fire.

- [Justin] Back in the States, Tim Low

worked diligently to rehabilitate his injuries.

- Since I got back from Afghanistan, I spent

40 hours a week for months going to medical appointments,

in and out of the TBI clinic.

[gunfire popping]

- [Soldier] I'm gonna go back the red team.

I'll be right back.

- Truly I wanted to be back in the unit.

I wanted to be with the guys.

That's where I was supposed to be,

but I just couldn't run anymore.

I rolled my ankle three, four times a day

just walking around and I didn't think

I could carry people any more.

I knew I just didn't measure up.

I didn't meet the standard,

couldn't get out of bed in the morning, just never slept.

I started showing up late to work

and I started having all of these consequences for that.

Those were really dark days.

I got through that somehow, didn't hurt anybody or myself.

- [Justin] Doug McGinnis also came back to the States

for rehabilitation, which was its own grueling experience.

- I remember gettin' back to San Antonio,

and they were like, hey, we're gonna send you

to the burn center.

They put me in this room and they laid me on this,

kinda like a tub kinda thing.

They had to scrub my wounds,

and that was the most painful thing in my life.

Every morning, I'd have to go into the shower

and I would sit on the stool,

and they would literally just scrub

the dead skin off and I would just sit there

and look at the drain and watch my blood

kinda like, go down the drain and just

feeling this absolute horrible pain

and just being like, just end it.

I just want this to stop right now.

- [Justin] Meanwhile, Captain Mott

and Private Litchfield grew close during the recovery.

- Litchfield was one of the brand new soldiers

that we had before we deployed.

We actually called him "Lipstick" just to mess with him.

He's got some pretty funny stories about me

when I was in the hospital when I was hurt.

I would yell in my room, "Litchfield!

"Lipstick!"

Like a good little soldier, come running down

the hallway to come talk to me.

Sir, what do you need?

- He said, "I want a soda."

And I was like, well, the doctors say you can't have soda.

He said, expletive the doctors.

And so I think I went and got him a Dr. Pepper

or something and brought it back

and I think the doctor yelled at me,

but I was like, what are you gonna do?

Shoot me?

- [Justin] Though Captain Mott kept a good

sense of humor, his injuries were no laughing matter.

- He had some sort of cast on his chest,

almost looked like a medieval piece of armor

except it was plastic.

- Fractured four vertebrae in my lower back,

fractured a rib, fractured an ankle,

tore my labrum in my shoulder, the top and the back.

Had 50 sutures and staples to put my scalp

back together and TBI.

I know my parents were kinda freaked out

when I first got back.

My mom would find me in the dining room.

She's like, what are you doing here?

It's like, I came here for something,

but I'm not sure what it is.

Also, initially I had a lot of trouble eating.

Chewing and swallowing was very difficult for me

as a result of the TBI.

I have back pain, like, literally every day of my life.

- [Justin] Captain Mott's injuries were debilitating

and he was fortunate to escape with his life.

Others weren't so lucky.

Shortly after Strong Eagle One, QZR came back

with a counter-attack claiming his first victim.

- Me and my brother were talking.

I don't even remember how we got on that conversation,

but it was...

What'll happen if one of us don't come back?

Right before we left, Mama pulled me in her room

and told me that she had a dream last night

that we would go on deployment

but one of us won't come back.

And she feared that it was Anthony.

My main thought after it happened was

now I have to, not only pick up my brother,

escort him all the way back around the world,

but I also have to go back home

and tell my mother she was right.

When I finally talked to my mother over the phone,

she asked me if I was still coming home

and I told her

I brought him over here.

I'll bring him back,

but I don't wanna mourn my brother's death.

I'd just rather celebrate his life,

how he was.

My brother was the best guy I've ever known.

- [Justin] There's an army regulation that allows

the last surviving son to remain stateside

in the instance of a sibling's death.

What made you want to come back to Afghanistan?

'Cause you didn't have to.

- My thought came down, goin' well,

I lost a brother, but I had a whole battalion

of brothers still left over there.

- Missing the camaraderie and brotherhood,

it's not surprising to find many soldiers

looking to get back in the fight.

Seems like these guys who go through hell together

are willing to go back through hell together

because they can process it together.

- Soon as the bullet hole closed up in my arm,

I went to my nurse case manager and I said,

"Get me outta here."

And I lied to his face and I said, "I can do 42

"push ups right now.

"I need to go back to Afghanistan,

"take me back to my unit now."

- Why?

- Oh man, that's a complicated question.

Why?

- You sit back in the hospital and it's a depressing thing,

knowing that your guys are still there.

I remember people talking to me.

I say well, I'm gonna go back,

and they looked at me and they're like, really?

'Cause we were thinking you were gonna face

a med board and get out.

Uh, no.

- That's why I joined the Army was to go to Afghanistan

and fight this nation's enemies.

- And the other part is, I will not be defeated.

- Going back was interesting.

I don't even think I was there an hour

and Sergeant Nollicher walks in and he asks me,

"What's the second stanza of the Ranger creed?"

I told him, Sergeant, I don't know.

And he said, "Then do push ups."

And then I got down on the ground and I started

doing push ups and it was probably one of

the happier moments of my Army career

was when he told me to do push ups

just because he looked at me like a soldier

and he told me to do push ups.

So, I mean, that's what going back was like.

It was awesome.

- I remember the doctors were like,

Kevin, looking at your stuff here.

Potentially, you could leave the Army,

almost get like, medically retired.

I was like, fuck no.

- You almost died and you were

severely wounded and still with injuries.

Why go back?

- I just wanted to help out the team,

help out the family.

- [Justin] What was that like, to see

these guys coming back?

- Happiest thing in the world.

Boys are back.

- To see Kevin again in Afghanistan.

It's like, alright, I'm back with family.

- Captain Mott, he walked into the TOC

and said First Sir, I'm ready.

Put me in.

Sir, you just got shot in the head

and fell off a mountain.

I'm not putting you back in.

And he said, "What? You scared?"

He said, "I'll do whatever it takes just to stay here."

- I mean, I woulda cleaned the bathrooms

if that's what they needed me to do.

- But I can't let these guys, my guys,

be over here without me when I know I can be here,

so that's what made me really respect him.

And just happened that I had a platoon open up,

so we gave it to him.

- I spent the six month mark actually,

with my injury here doing stuff, so...

[chattering] [mumbling]

- You're in a hurry to get back to this.

- Exactly.

I made the choice before I deployed the first time

to Afghanistan, before I shot, this is what I gotta do

to help my guys and getting ready for

Strong Eagle Three,

I told 'em, we're gonna go out there

and we're gonna friggin' crush it.

- [Justin] In March of 2011, Lieutenant Colonel Vowell

received sudden information about a Taliban base

harboring an unknown number of insurgents

near the Pakistan border.

He decided to coordinate a massive operation

which would become known as Strong Eagle Three.

- Had intelligence that kinda told me,

QZR and other associated groups are starting

to come back in now.

Strong Eagle Three was born of that,

Preventing the enemy from gaining any purchase

in 2011 back in Kunar.

[all mumbling]

- Strong Eagle Three was our effort to prevent

the 25th IDs of ever having a Strong Eagle One,

to save lives.

- Timing, though, the perception is it's horrible.

It was two, three weeks away for some folks.

Getting on a plane and going home.

- I remember talking to Sergeant Near Joggins, like,

I would really not get my feelings hurt

if we just didn't do this.

Three weeks out, you start thinking to yourself,

you know what?

We're gonna make it outta here.

Yeah, what's that, a little cupcake there?

- Oh, it's a muffin actually.

- [Wilson] It's a power cake?

- Power cake.

- [Wilson] Power muffin?

- [Mott] Exactly.

- [Soldier] That's his nickname, Muffin.

- [Wilson] Powermuffin?

- We need some calories here to get ready

for this mission.

- We were going into two known enemy sanctuaries

and strongholds, Sarowbay and Barawolo Kalay.

They were divided by 9,000, 10,000 foot mountain range.

- We're actually going to the home location

of one of the main bad guys in this area,

leads a lot of operations against us.

- [Mott] Barowolo Kalay was the main objective.

That's like, was QZRs hometown, like where he grew up,

his base.

- Those were the real guys.

Those are the believers.

- No one never, ever dared go up there.

- The Russians hadn't even been up there.

[speaking foreign language]

QZR made some audacious statements.

"They'll never come up here."

Well, we did.

- We have the gunners, tow trucks looking

[mumbling] and look up at the ridge-line

so that can kinda throw them off

and make it more careful movement,

which may buy us a little bit more time

and buy the cliff a little bit more time, alright?

If you're gonna land by helicopter on tops of mountains

at like, 8,000 feet and they're gonna walk

down to villages to clear them out.

[helicopter blades whirring]

Later that night, two or three in the morning,

literally, every company was on the mission.

My platoon, which was 3rd Platoon,

and the 1st Platoon, we were gonna walk down

and then clear the village in the area

where we thought that they had their command center.

- We were the main effort on our objective,

so you know, you have everybody on the high grounds

and then more or less, we're clearing through.

- We were trying to find a way to walk down there.

It was really, incredibly steep.

- I was on point for the platoon,

my platoon was on point for the company

and one of my guys, in the middle of the night,

slips and does like, a front flip 10, 15 feet down

and catches himself somehow.

Talked to Sergeant AC, I'm like,

we try to go down this at night,

somebody's gonna break their fuckin' leg,

so we went out until first light,

then made our way down.

[chattering on radio]

- [Soldier] What's happening now?

- [Mott] So, we push into the village.

- Cleared through our first set of houses

pretty easily, me and Sergeant Arrechaga,

just talking to each other real quick

and we're just like, hey man, we can get this done today.

- The enemy went to the trees and the rocky areas to hide,

and that's where they tried to attack us from,

for the next nine days.

- It wasn't supposed to be nine days long.

It was supposed to be three days long.

Push came to shove and we were out there for nine days.

So, Mott, what'd you find?

- Rifle parts and ammo.

some mortar rounds.

Looks like an RPG round right there.

You can see how they tried to conceal it.

We're clearing through and we start finding stuff.

RPGs, mortars, rifles, all kinds of stuff.

It's crazy.

I was talking with Sergeant Arrechaga,

he's like, hey sir, we gotta keep moving.

I was like, yeah man, I know.

I was like just push up to next set of kalots.

So, I stayed with all the explosives,

cataloging all of it, taking pictures

and prepping it to blow and I told

Sergeant Rich to move his helmet down to where I'm at

so that we can watch for Sergeant Arrechaga to move forward,

so we had, both had a platoon and a half, basically.

Sergeant Arrechaga with the front group of guys,

and Sergeant Rich with the trail group of guys.

- It's kind of a weird feeling because

the weather started to go bad and nothing

had happened yet.

- AC called over the radio again.

Hey, sir, we're gonna keep moving, and I agreed 100%.

- [Vowell] You get bogged down in one spot,

it completely blows your momentum.

- You provide opportunities for the enemy to attack you

and capitalize on you getting stuck,

so they were walking to the next set of buildings.

It was a little bit farther downhill,

so they had to pass a draw.

It's kinda like a u-shaped thing

and if you're on top of the mountain

and you look down the draw, it's like a really great

sightline if you just look down.

So, Arrechaga at that time gets to the draw,

it starts to rain and the Afghans drop their stuff

and put their raincoats on.

He's like, what the hell you guys doin'?

Keep movin'.

As the Afghans drop their bags and took out

their raincoats and put 'em on,

the enemy was up there with a machine gun

and they opened fire and from what I understand,

he was hit in the first volley of fire.

Sergeant Trim, he was a specialist, young guy at the time,

saw Sergeant Arrechaga get shot and ran forward

and started pullin' him back and when he did that,

Trim got shot in the arm that he was pulling back

Sergeant Arrechaga with.

- Trim and AC fall.

I could hear him clear as day.

He said, "AC got hit."

- What'd he do?

He just switched his hands, grabs him,

and pulls him back to a little bit of cover.

- Trim's got a hole in his arm, AC's got shot

through his back.

I started rippin' off AC's gear,

put some bandages on him and everything.

It's not even bleeding.

[gunfire popping]

Where is one six Romeo?

- [Byerly] Scalpton, I hear their barrack going off up top

and then ATF fire and then everything erupts.

- Beak Hill's in a fire fight on top of the mountain.

Scouts are in a firefight on top of the mountain.

C-Co's in a firefight in the other valley

and A-CO is in a firefight north of us.

- [Byerly] Everyone in the entire battalion is in contact

at the exact same time.

- It sounded like the valley was getting ripped apart.

- I've never heard so much gunfire in my entire life.

And we had been in a lot of firefights,

but that was by far the worst.

- What's the 155 and the 105 saying?

[gunfire popping]

- I remember looking out of the building

trying to figure out what was going on

and where it was coming from and AC got hit and went down.

There are only so many resources available

to help everybody, so Wilson and Trim

set up security, they're still gettin' shot at.

I mean, the rounds are impacting all around us.

- If you're up in deployment like we had seen Taliban,

but for the most part, our engagements

were long distance, 600, 800 meters

and looked back up the draw and there's a dude,

no shit, like 50 meters from where we were

and they got high ground on every single side of us.

It's the first time in my life I had to make peace

with the fact that I was gonna die.

[chattering on radio]

Fuck!

Goddammit!

- [Soldier] What happened?

- [Brookshire] Three casualties.

Fucker!

- Once that came over the radio, Sergeant Sizemore,

Sergeant Mendez, Sergeant Rich, Lindskog were going.

Lindskog, as soon as they said there were casualties,

he grabbed his bag and they went.

- He didn't know us.

Of his own volition he decided you know what?

These are my soldiers.

I am their medic, I'm going down to that draw

and I'm gonna do what I can.

- So Sizemore, Sergeant Rich, Mendez and Lindskog

all run down there through tons of machine gun fire.

Lindskog immediately runs over and starts

taking care of people.

So, he does his best to patch up AC, Sergeant Arrechaga

and just kinda take care of him and there was

an Afghan that was shot, too, so Mendez

starts working on the Afghan, trying to save his life,

so, Mendez gets shot right over the heart,

but luckily, he's wearing his body armor,

so his plate stopped it.

He got shot twice, like boom boom.

Lindskog sees this and immediately runs over

and starts taking care of the Afghan

and this dude, he was in bad shape.

- And I thought he was dead because he's laying

on his face with his eyes open staring at me.

- And they're just doing the best they can

to save this guy's life.

So, as Lindskog is finally patching up

this Afghan guy who got shot three times,

Lindskog gets shot, really like in his armpit.

- Sergeant Sizemore came over the radio

saying that Lindskog's hit too, now.

- [Byerly] 12 of us down here, four or five people got shot.

- Sizemore and Mendez went over and tried to help Lindskog.

- He's still telling Sizemore and Mendez

what they need to do for the casualties.

He's telling them what to do to him, to fix him.

- [Mott] He fought for about 30 minutes before he died.

- I always think in my mind like, what could I have done?

Probably think about this every day.

- He passed away to Sergeant Sizemore holding him.

I remember hearing him mumbling something

and eventually, I'm looking down, what is he saying?

He keeps saying "I'm sorry." to me.

- [Mott] He apologized and then passed away.

That's a pretty low point.

-I sat next to AC pretty much the entire time.

Just kinda checking on him.

He's in pain, yeah, but he's still coherent,

so if we can get a bird in there,

get him outta here, he's gonna be alright.

- We watched as the medivac birds came in.

Before they even get in the valley, one PJ bird gets shot.

We see the other bird come in.

It kinda turns and comes to a hover.

- [Brookshire] Hovered maybe 50 feet above my head.

- [Mott] And you can see the guy standing in the door,

ready to get lowered down and just a burst of PKM fire.

- You could see the rounds pinging off it

and then it just immediately lifted back out.

- [Mott] We see the bird kinda move back slowly,

just flying away low to the valley.

- [Brookshire] The helicopter lifted off.

There's not gonna be another one coming for awhile.

- We realize we're not gonna get any help right then.

It was gonna be awhile 'til we actually did get help.

- We're at the bottom of a hill.

We''re running low on ammo.

We got casualties.

I looked at Trim.

We started getting out hand grenades,

just waiting for it to come.

- You were with me and we started running

over there to try and help out.

Talked with Rich on the radio.

You want me to come down there?

He's like, no if you come down here,

you're just gonna get shot, so,

that'll make things worse, so just stay up there.

Sizemore is injured.

He's got shrapnel.

Sergeant Richardson, my acting platoon sergeant, shrapnel.

Lindskog had already died and Sergeant Arrechaga

was getting worse and...

It was hard because he was in a lot of pain

and it took probably about another hour

for another medivac to get out there.

- We load up AC skid count.

He starts complaining about his hands and feet being cold.

- Started losing feeling in his fingertips

and stuff like that and they picked up AC,

took Trim out also and flew back

and got them to medical care.

AC made it into Asadabad, got into

the operating table there and got out of

his first surgery and...

I guess he started to crash after they wheeled him out,

so they tried to wheel him back in but,

you know, unfortunately, he died.

That's was pretty crushing.

The casualties just started adding up.

[chattering on radio]

[mumbling]

We're not gonna be able to get over there anytime soon.

- [Soldier] Whose was it?

You a medic?

[chattering on radio]

- [Justin] Brian Burgess and Dustin Feldhaus

were caught in an ambush by the Taliban fighters

hiding in the trees.

After spending a majority of the day

tending to the wounded, medic Brit Jacobs

was called in to help.

- In the middle of treating Feldhaus,

Feldhaus gestured over to where Sergeant Burgess was at.

Kept looks just desperation, glow stick,

get over here please now, please get over here.

So I run over there to Sergeant Burgess

and I see that he's unconscious and he comes in

and then goes out.

You couldn't see it was so dark that you just

had to feel him.

They're the blood sweeps and in the middle

of a blood sweep I lost my hand.

My hand was inside of his thigh

and Kevin put a tourniquet on.

I hoped to tighten it, make sure we were good there

and he's looking up.

He's just looking straight up like,

he says, "Where's my chariot?"

And I kept trying to find a pulse somewhere

and I couldn't find one and I'm thinking to myself,

why are you talking right now?

Medivac finally arrived and PJs were amazing.

They came down there and they were taken away

and I just couldn't stop thinking about

Brian and that question, 'cause for whatever reason

I was thinking, he meant something more than just a medivac.

When he was asking me, "Where's my chariot?"

And I didn't know exactly what he meant by that,

but I just tried to keep him in the game

and comfort him and say help is on the way.

I'll never get that out of my mind.

That was day one.

- [Justin] The Battalion also lost Frank Adamski

and Jeremy Faulkner along with Ofred Arrechaga,

Brian Burgess, Jameson Lindskog and Dustin Feldhaus.

The number of fallen rose to six.

- It's very difficult to have a semblance of good morale

when you've had friends and leaders killed in combat.

- Roger, tracking, we had one WIA and one KIA

for our 1st platoon and six casualties,

six WIA and one KIA for 3rd platoon.

Two of those were A and A, over.

- Arrechaga was on there, Lindskog was on there,

Burgess, Faulkner, everybody.

So, I went back to where my guys were at

and we were talking about the next day.

We were gonna move down to where Sergeant Arrechaga

and those guys were trying to get to the first day

and I'm talking with the lead team leader.

He's like, sir, I don't wanna get anybody killed tomorrow.

With AC being gone and Lindskog dying in front

of everybody, it wasn't good.

[chattering on radio]

[hissing] [booming]

I know you were there and that was actually really

helpful having the chaplain there

to talk with everybody and kinda keep the mood positive

and focus on the mission.

Sizemore's injured, Richards is injured,

Mendez' chest is bruised up from getting shot

twice in the plate, but Sergeant Sizemore,

Sergeant Rich, Sergeant Mendez sucked it up

and they stayed.

[chattering]

- Absolutely, sir.

What year?

- [Mott] The third day came up and we had to go

to that next set of buildings.

- [Brookshire] Through the ambush area

where second squad was at,

we're starting to see who got hit and all the other guys.

[booming] [gunfire popping]

- [Mott] We were walking downhill and there were insurgents

above us and they started shooting at us.

- [Brookshire] The first group of guys

gone to another firefight

and everyone was in a firefight again.

- The team leader and his guys were pinned down

and I talked with the team leader on the radio.

I'm like, what do you need?

Can you move?

He's like, sir, we're stuck.

Said alright, these guys need help.

[booming] [gunfire popping]

Hey wait, ready?

Great, we're gonna go down there and free Alpha.

Alright, you're coming and you're coming.

- Captain Mott takes charge.

You know, whenever he says it, he means it.

- They're shooting at us the whole time

we were running down, and finally,

we got back behind this big rock.

Yell out to 'em, hey man.

We're gonna shoot.

When we shoot, you come back here.

Hold to right, covering fire!

You guys come to me!

[gunfire popping]

So, we push back to this set of buildings,

this little village.

We're gonna need to get the rest of the platoon

down here and 1st platoon and we're getting

kinda stretched out here.

There's a lot more [mumbling] than we thought there were.

Making things a lot difficult, a lot slower.

They move back and just kept moving, kept moving.

After the third day, most of the stuff was done.

- Morale kinda boosted up a little bit.

- [Mott] We still got shot at each day, I remember.

The distance between the villages was like,

really large, like 300, 400 meters.

So we ended up just running in buddy teams,

across the open as fast as we could.

We'd get shot at sometimes trying to

go to one set of buildings.

[gunfire popping]

[chattering]

- [Byerly] And then that was where we pretty much

took control of the valley and we started

crushing the spirits of the Taliban.

- [Mott] I remember it was like, day five

and we had a call like hey, enemy radar traffic

intercepted says we're cold, tired, wet and hungry.

We don't know why the Americans are still here.

- And at that point, I would have stayed there

for another week just to freakin' do some more damage.

All it was was payback and whenever we got them

on the run, that's where we just kept giving it to 'em.

- [Mott] So, fourth, fifth, sixth day we cleared

the buildings and then two American platoons

and two Afghan platoons walking out.

- And then we were off the mountain finally.

- That was the end of Strong Eagle Three.

- Whether you're the rock at the bottom

of the mountain or at the top of the mountain,

you know that you're doing your part.

Those that were here before us did their part.

Those who come in after us will do their part.

I think that we did our work.

- [Justin] Though the loss of life was heartbreaking,

Strong Eagle Three was a very successful operation.

- Ultimately, we executed to perfection.

- Outside of the towns, we had set up battle positions

and blocking positions knowing

they were gonna try run out, so they went

to the middle ground.

Outside of the towns, but couldn't get up the mountain.

By the time we got to the higher elevation,

got in there, a lot of the enemy had just flat run.

Surprise was decisive for us.

In weeks prior, we did a lot of socializing,

faking the funk about where we were actually gonna be.

We do something over here a lot and the enemy sees that,

and all the sudden we come at three o'clock

in the morning over here, we win.

Going into those villages, that had never happened before.

No one had ever been in those.

They weren't expecting that.

You have disrupted for an indeterminate amount of time

their operations in the area.

- A lot of people did a lot of amazing things

during Strong Eagle Three.

Sizemore, Richardson and Mendez,

they all had shrapnel, they all could have been

medivac'ed if they wanted to but they made

the decision to stay.

Sergeant Wilson, or Specialist Wilson at the time,

Sergeant now, he was a team leader.

His squad leader got medivac'ed

and his other team leader got medivac'ed

so he was a young specialist in charge of a squad

by himself all of a sudden and he stepped up big time.

Jameson Lindskog, he was a young medic,

hadn't been on that many missions.

You know, his first time being a medic for a platoon

and first mission he was on with us and...

He runs down through machine gun fire,

takes care of people and literally with his last

dying breath he apologizes for not being able

to fight anymore and...

And dies.

Where do we find guys like this, you know?

- [Justin] The sacrifices made by these and other soldiers

tangibly change the nature of the Afghan conflict.

QZRs network was disrupted and he was reported killed

in a U.N. air strike on August 21st, 2013.

- To this day, whole Afghan army securing the place

and now they've got the ability on the backs

of what soldiers like in No Slack did to not lose

against the Taliban.

- Strong Eagle Three, these major things we did

gave them the breathing room where they can start

doing the coin fight, which is really how you win

in the long run.

- You're there to help create a peaceful environment

for people, so how do you do that?

The battleground is the people.

On a very micro level in one province

in the country of Afghanistan, the people liked us

and everywhere we went they knew who we were

and they flocked to talk to us.

- We talked to farmers.

They just want their kids to go to school.

They want healthy livestock, healthy crops.

Sounds like prosperity to me.

They want just something better than what they had.

- The bad guys didn't want us there

specifically because the people did.

- It's uprooting the enemy out of those villages,

not letting them put guns in people's faces

and bullying them around.

- [Justin] Flushing the Taliban from their base

of operations gave the Afghan people

an opportunity for freedom

they hadn't experienced in decades.

But it came at a great cost.

- Jameson Lindskog and Sergeant Arrechaga both had families.

- What's going through your mind whenever

they were doing the notification?

- I just so badly wanted to believe that they were lying

or that they were at the wrong house,

but they're right there and they're saying

my husband's name, which is not an easy name.

It's weird, you can prepare yourself for the worst

all day long, but it's nothing like

when it actually happens.

I mean, one moment, those people say he's dead

and everything I know is over.

You know, all of our plans for the future, they're gone.

He's gone.

They went with him.

What do you do?

- The hardest thing for me to deal with

was why on Earth would you send somebody

who's two weeks away or three weeks away

from coming home out on to a mission?

And then it wasn't until later that I found out

that he asked to go.

- Then we get back and meet Seana, Sergeant Arre's wife

and Austin, his son.

Just meeting Donna and Matt Walker, Jameson's parents.

You know it was really great to meet them,

but also hard at the same time.

I was responsible for her husband and their son and...

I let 'em down.

- What makes you think that?

- Platoon leader's responsible for everything

his platoon does or fails to do

and we failed to bring Jameson

and Sergeant Arrechaga home safely.

- [Justin] Yeah.

- So.

- You think the families feel that way?

- No, they've been actually pretty great.

It's helpful to talk with them

and kinda be involved a little bit

and seeing their lives, but, it only helps so much.

- I don't know what more you could have done

and I don't think you failed them at all.

You're an amazing leader.

I know what that is now.

I know what that looks like.

And it's from walking with guys like you.

- Captain Mott, I guess you can call him, like, Iron Man.

he's pretty much badass.

I mean, for being shot in the head

and falling off a cliff, breaking your back,

ankle, lacerations all over his head

and for him to come back shows a lot

about his character.

- [Justin] As Austin is gonna be growing up,

what do you want him to remember about his dad?

- Really just, his dad was an awesome guy.

He was really like dad for a lot of soldiers, you know?

Everybody loved him, he had a great sense of humor.

He had this huge, this smile,

that you couldn't help but smile when you saw him

with a big smile on his face.

His dad was a great leader, he was a great soldier

and somebody I feel really fortunate to have known.

[melancholy music]

- The reason I wanted to do this so much

is because the last sermon that I actually did

was a memorial.

After that was over I praying my own room,

most secret tears.

I've prayed over our loss, I've prayed for the families.

Who had soon receive the terrible news.

[melancholy music]

- The memorials, I don't like doing one.

Now I gotta do six.

- [Wright] We were so close to going home.

Some guys, couple weeks.

To lose lives that close, that was hard.

- I think it's one of the things that just eats at you

inside that,

I can't get it out of my head.

- Every person I ever talk to thus far since I been here

on this little trip has been nothing but regret.

Every single person.

I think that's the curse of war.

- [Mott] 'Cause you always think,

maybe I could have changed something.

- Strong Eagle Three, that operation took from us

some great soldiers.

The way that that affected us right before

coming home was tough.

- And now comes the question of how do we come home?

How do we come home from the battlefield?

In war, I saw this constant thing behind

every act of valor, there was a heart of love,

a heart of brotherhood behind it

and then as you try to come home,

it's not so simple then.

It's harder.

During the deployment, one out of four No Slack

soldiers were wounded.

Some servicemen and women were coming home

with wounds that weren't strictly physical,

and the residue of war can be just as deadly

as the war itself.

- When I was injured, we were on a patrol

out to Bidel and I felt a couple stings

in my arm and as I looked right,

there was kinda like, rolling flame towards me.

So, as I open my door, a RPG hits the front

of my truck, threw shrapnel everywhere.

I walked away with three cigarette burn holes in my arm

and that was all I had and I don't remember months after.

I remember the blast, I remember that night,

I remember going to bed, but that's it.

- As the protective equipment gets better,

the experience gets more horrifying.

People are surviving these more and more violent situations.

- Ended up getting medically retired from my injuries.

I fell into this deep, deep depression.

I just wasn't coming out of it.

- [Justin] Injured or not, adjusting to life

after combat is a complicated endeavor.

What I was concerned about is like,

your transition back home.

- I'm still transitioning back home.

- Transition's rough.

Gunfire is not a very sought out skill

in the civilian sector.

- When you're gone from your families for three years

or you're going through intense combat multiple times

you lose friends or get wounded,

coming back, reintegrating and becoming

a human being again is a challenge.

People do that differently.

- You get into a routine of wake up, grab a weapon,

let's go put my flip flops on, grab my hygiene bag

so I can go brush my teeth 50 feet outside my building

rather than walking five feet to my bathroom.

You're waking up, you're like, why am I

in a bed with clean sheets and it's comfortable?

- That was one of my biggest hurdles coming into

the civilian world was flipping the switch, you know.

It's okay, you don't need to be watching

everyone in this crowd.

- Coming home, the transition is how do I stop

feeling is today my day to today is a day.

[gunfire popping] [chaotic chattering]

- You'll never match the rush you got in combat.

- It was exhilarating, almost out of body.

- It's like a drug, it's addicting.

Combat is addicting.

- I loved everything about it except the getting shot part.

[gunfire popping]

- Get some!

Oh man, oh, this is intense.

Oh my God.

I think, we're good, totally fired again.

Whoo!

- Every time you get into a fire fight,

you learn how to control that adrenaline,

that rush gets better.

- When everything goes right and no one gets hurt,

combat was one of the best feelings I've ever felt.

- You hear about a lot of guys dying in motorcycle

accidents and car crashes because they're

driving crazy, lot of that is guys trying

to match that rush again.

- That emotional roller coaster cannot be duplicated.

- There's nothing in the civilian world

that's gonna match that.

It's like driving at 100 mile an hour for a year

and then just being dropped into a room

that you're not moving at all.

- I had to learn like, how to deal with

the slow pace of civilians.

Walking in the mall, everybody's slow.

- I'm very out of place in the civilian world.

Most of the people my age just don't understand

how to show up and work.

It's been really difficult for me to respect

people for being children when they're in their 20s.

- Everybody complaining about

six or seven people in line at Starbucks

and you're never gonna get your coffee.

People said I was a different person.

I didn't see it.

- I always have to catch myself whenever

I first get back from a deployment.

That first month, I still have that

kind of sick humor, I guess,

and I'll forget my audience and I'll be sitting there

and just telling a story and be like,

yeah, we picked up a head or did something

and everyone's just kinda looking at you like,

oh my God and you're saying, had to be there.

I guess you could say it's like a coping mechanism

to kinda get through it.

- I was able to readapt myself and I would say

it took a couple months.

People treated me like I was a person,

not a monster.

- [Justin] Soldier after soldier agreed.

Acclimating to civilian life is an unexpectedly

jarring challenge.

- One of the standing issues that I've always had

with coming back and re-integrating was,

you go and see a health provider,

and it's not even a counselor,

it's just a contract individual who,

you walk in and you say, "Are you gonna hurt yourself?"

No.

Check.

Do you want to hurt anybody else?

No, I wanna go home, be with my wife, drink a beer

and whatever.

No, alright, you're gone.

Later on down the road, you find that the stress

in his life or her life starts to affect

their ability to make rational decisions.

You think that you're fine and there's nothing wrong

and I know those individuals,

yet when the roach commercial comes on,

they're over there weeping.

- We have soldiers do the most God-awful stuff.

You have to absorb when you kill somebody,

you watch somebody die.

- If you haven't been here, I can't tell ya about it.

- Try to come up with ways to describe it.

I mean, I can tell you what it sounds like

when a bullet misses your head by a few feet.

But until you hear that, you don't understand it.

- What your body goes through is incalculable.

- And then when you get home, you try to live

with all this and some spouses just don't wanna hear it.

Some spouses wanna hear it all.

- What's my wife gonna tell me?

She can put her arm around me, you know,

so can my mom and all that stuff, that's great.

I know they love me.

But they don't understand.

- She just looked up at me and said, "Why do you do this?"

- My traumatic brain injury caused marital problems

and I was the type of person who said no to counseling

and said no to anybody trying to help me.

- That was me.

I didn't need anybody's help.

I was the Command Sergeant Major.

- [Justin] Yeah.

- Ten feet tall and bulletproof.

- If there's any stress fracture, I call it,

in a relationship, girlfriend, wife, husband,

whatever, it's exacerbated by combat

and that caused a lot of divorces.

- Me and my wife were having some serious issues

and we ended up separating about six or seven

months after I got back from Afghanistan

and subsequently, I got a divorce.

- I'm not sure we did the best we could have

as an army, or as a battalion where I could affect

it to help that.

We did programs, we had a lot of people involved,

lot of counseling, lots of classes,

but I think everybody just assumed

they're gonna come back together with kids and family

and friends, it's all gonna be great again.

But it wasn't.

- I had to go to Fort Drum, New York for a couple of years.

So that was rough, because we also had our son together.

You know, going a whole year without seeing him.

That was a real low point in my life.

- The relationship with my kids has been

affected in such a way that I don't even have,

I mean, they don't even know I'm their father.

I have a four year old and a three year old that

don't even know my name.

I chose to get help and go home.

I feel like for nothing because even though

I did it for my girls, I don't even have my girls.

They call somebody else Dad,

doesn't matter who tells me and who hugs me

and tells me it's okay, it's not okay.

Last thing I think of when I go to bed is my kids.

I just love 'em to death and I just can't wait

for the future, man.

And that's the only thing that motivates me

to keep going.

I know I will have a future with them.

- [Justin] Solving some of these heartbreaking

problems isn't often as simple as just offering help.

- There's a massive amount of people in my life

who love me for me and the thing is,

I have to allow them to be there.

I don't allow it, for whatever reason.

- I don't really relate to anyone I knew

before the army.

I don't talk to them.

It's hard to relate to family.

I work a civilian job now and

everyone thinks I'm just some mean, aggressive guy.

- It feels like the guy who I was before I left,

I don't even remember that guy,

so it's hard to fall back into anyplace.

- Everyone's like, well, you were a civilian before,

can't you just go back to that?

When I was a civilian before, I didn't

have all this experience I have now.

[booming]

Oh, shit.

RPG!

West ridge-line!

Man, we need suppression on this ridge-line.

[gunfire popping]

- Dealing with those memories and those emotions

and everything, I have my good days

and I have my bad days.

- There's some days you just wanna break down and cry.

There's some days you just wanna be mad at the world.

- I knew when I came home I wasn't right.

I mean, why did it affect me the way it did?

- Any veteran you see in combat

has these things to deal with.

We're not alone, but we are.

- [Justin] A lot of guys struggle talking in general.

- Nothing came out 'til a year after we got back.

Just one day, I just broke down in tears.

Just lied on the floor crying.

- Why do you think it stayed bottled up for so long?

- Probably 'cause it needed to at the time.

You're in a war.

You have to concentrate, so I just buried everything.

We get back home, it falls apart, though.

- Sometimes, it's really difficult to leave the house

just out of fear of fear.

- I'm on guard a lot.

Like, I know I'm safe.

I know I'm home, but, there's that small chance

that the one time I let down my guard,

is gonna be the time that it takes me out.

- Hardest thing for me is malls.

Just a lot of people.

You feel like something bad's gonna happen.

- I would get in my car to go drive somewhere,

moving with a purpose, had something really to do.

Get in my car, get going, forget what I was doing.

I wasn't lost, I just had no idea what I was supposed to do.

- I took a pretty catastrophic hit

and the bullet's still in my liver.

Had to learn how to walk again.

I mean, my mom gave me a bath, 'cause I couldn't do it.

My mom had to dress me, couldn't dress myself.

You know, I'm 23 years old and I can't do this stuff.

You're at your all-time low right there.

- I have no memory of my internal dialogue

from the day before, so any sort of self talk

that's motivating that can get me through

my day or get me through tomorrow, I lose.

For some reason, I'm happy and I'm like, yes,

everything's working, everything's great

and then before I know it,

I'm at this low where I'm not eating.

I'm not sleeping.

I avoid my responsibilities and I'll stay

in this extreme low for two weeks, three weeks

to a month and that fuels the post traumatic stress.

You just kinda walk in circles.

- And people hear this guy's got traumatic

brain injury or PTSD and they don't know

how to respond with that, I find.

- Some people are receptive to it, some don't really care.

- Had a doctor, white coat, diploma on the wall,

tell me about yourself and I start going

and I get into a pretty rough patch.

And he has the freaking audacity,

I know exactly how you feel.

To tell me he knows how I feel?

I became extremely angry and actually

had to leave the office.

- My highs and lows are extreme.

I can't pick and choose when the TBI comes,

so sometimes, it puts me down so negative

I spiral downward because I would like to think

that it's not there.

- [Justin] I felt these extremes personally.

Sometimes, it's hard to tell

when you're at a low.

- When you just think that you're raising

your voice just a little bit,

and you watch your little girl lay down

in the middle of the floor and start to cry,

you then turn and say, "Oh crap.

"I'm fucked up."

And you turn around and you go...

what now?

- When something bad happens, my first reaction

is to harm myself.

My first thought is to end it.

- [Justin] Statistics regarding veteran related

suicide are simply staggering.

It is currently the leading cause of death

in the military.

- You're on a new mission.

That mission is to save service members

from taking their life.

22 a day right now is the national statistic.

- And guys that we know?

- Mm hmm.

- And there's not like, an in to that road.

- I'm not sure what my future has for me.

Hope it turns out good, but either way

I'm not gonna give up on anything.

- I know if I let the PTSD stop me

from living my life, I personally lose the war

against the Taliban.

They have defeated me so I do not do that.

- I've always said that I'm not suicidal

and that I'm very pro-life.

I believe this is my only chance,

my only option, this is it.

- The only way that we can fix it is through

people who care.

- If you see a service member that's just down and out,

there's a lot of 'em out there that would

just appreciate a job, some of 'em.

Something to do.

- My advice to civilians would be

get to know these soldiers.

They're people in pain,

but you can't have a greater friend, I don't think,

than somebody who's been through all that

'cause you treat them right, they'll do anything

for you, help you out.

- [Justin] To me, one of the biggest questions

is how some of these soldiers dealt

with issues that I fought to resolve myself.

- I personally try to stay busy.

I went to school immediately,

started taking advantage of that.

- My personal therapy is my son.

Taking him to school, doing his T-ball,

just sitting outside with him,

drive his four-wheeler around the yard

or go dig in the dirt.

Sit over there and watch him pick up

a bucket of dirt and pour it on his head.

He's tickled me.

[chuckling]

It sounds not fun, but it--

- It sounds amazing.

Everyone seemed to struggle with different issues

and working out solutions in their own way.

I think my biggest problem was simply

admitting I had issues, whether it be to God,

or the people around me.

But finally, I figured out that it was through

these relationships that I could find hope.

- You need someone there for you, definitely.

It's nothing anyone should do alone.

- I urge everybody to, at least, re-evaluate themselves.

- The advice that I would give every service member,

take the time out to reach out for help.

- There's a stigma with people who seek help

and I didn't buy into it.

I know getting help and seeking help

and doing the weekly therapies

is the right thing to do for me and my family.

I know that.

- Confide in your friends, confide in people.

Find someone, 'cause if you let the numbness

continue after the mission, it tears you up.

- The only way I can heal is talking to you guys

that were there with us, you know?

- [Justin] After spending the last few weeks

reconnecting with the soldiers,

I thought it would be a great idea to celebrate

the 4th of July with them.

Independence Day is the day our nation found its freedom.

For me, it was the day that I figured out

freedom is something that we find together.

- It took forever.

It was like, 10 minutes to put the bandage on there.

Being able to release and be with people

I've been on the mountains with

has been so much better.

I've healed so much in the last two weeks.

- I'm not the only one feeling the guilt

and the isolation and the anxiety and depression

and regardless of whatever story it is,

we're all kinda feeling that same gut pressure,

that same weight.

- I think that guys are having a tough time

just need to talk about it and the best people

to connect with are other veterans

with similar experiences to see how

they're dealing with it.

- I talked to some of my other soldiers,

my old friends.

- I still talk with Byerly, talk with Wilson off and on,

all those guys.

- You can call an old buddy that you served with

10 years ago, say I need to talk.

It'll be like you never were apart.

- We talked about why people come in the Army.

It's not the same reason they fight for each other

when they're in it.

They're taking care of each other.

- That's what combat does to individuals.

It brings that bond together because now

you're beside each other, fighting for each other.

- The brotherhood to me is everything.

- It's like these guys are your brothers

and they're your fathers and you get the young ones

and it's like they're your sons.

- You see a guy come in, in a few years,

he's a sergeant and you watch him lead squads

and you're sitting there going,

I had a hand in that.

- [Soldier] Alright here.

Line formation here and here.

- The only way that you can really come back

from a war is with love.

It has to come from friends.

It has to come from family members.

It has to come from neighbors.

It has to come from the people that you were fighting for.

It has to come from each other.

That's the only way that we fully come home.

- [Soldier] This gentleman right here,

each one of these lanterns that will be lifted up

is a representation of each of our fallen

during our previous deployment to Afghanistan.

- I can't make sense of everything

that's gone on in this war, but I understood America

so much more on the mountaintops of Afghanistan.

What we stand for.

People coming from all types of backgrounds

and all types of races and religions

and all of these different individuals

coming together as brothers and sisters.

I witnessed that.

I saw that.

[crackling]

[booming]

I wish we could have that here somehow.

But I understood America on those mountaintops.

I was proud.

I was honored, and you made me feel that way.

After one of the memorials in June, 2010,

the artillery guys let us shoot off

a seven-gun salute in honor of one

of our fallen soldiers, Specialist Osborn.

The guys wrote on the shells before firing them

and on one of the shells the soldier wrote,

"Love never loses its way home."

For our veterans coming back, it's up to us

to make that true.

[booming] [melancholy music]

Right now, veterans in your community

are working on their transition home

and it can be a struggle.

That struggle is lessened by the veteran

organizations throughout America.

Many of these organizations are working hard

in your community to help our warriors

as they come home.

Your support will make a difference,

a powerful difference, in the lives of those

who have made incredible sacrifices for our country.

Thank you.

[melancholy music]

["Love Never Loses Its Way Home" by James Litchfield and Kris Grahn]

* It's not my job to live for the both of us *

* From our parting moment 'til I return to dust *

* The days we carry

* The weight we bear

* The trial by fire forged the bonds we share *

* Sometimes it's so hard

* But this story must be told

* Brother I tell your God

* Because love never loses its way home *

* I cannot find the words to describe *

* The look that I see in your eyes *

* I know that in due time

* You will once again feel hope swell inside *

* Our bond is so strong

* Not even time can break it

* It doesn't matter how long

* Tested and tried we can take it *

* Sometimes it's so hard

* But this story must be told

* Brother I tell your God

* Because love