Stars and Stripes
Sgt. Jacob Walker and Spc. Tyler Stafford talk about the attack
Soldiers recount deadly attack on Afghanistan outpost
Everything was on fire. The trucks. The bazaar. The grass.
It looked surreal. It looked like a movie.
That was July 13. That was when Stafford was blown out of a fighting position by an RPG, survived a grenade blast and had the tail of an RPG strike his helmet.
That was the day nine Chosen Company soldiers died.
It was just days before the unit was scheduled to leave the base.
“It was some of the bravest stuff I’ve ever seen in my life, and I will never see it again because those guys,” Stafford said, then paused. “Normal humans wouldn’t do that. You’re not supposed to do that — getting up and firing back when everything around you is popping and whizzing and trees, branches coming down and sandbags exploding and RPGs coming in over your head … It was a fistfight then, and those guys held ‘ em off.”
Stafford offered a guess as to why his fellow soldiers fought so hard.
“Just hardcoreness I guess,” he said. “Just guys kicking ass, basically. Just making sure that we look scary enough that you don’t want to come in and try to get us.”
CNN
“It’s gonna be a bloodbath,” fallen soldier told father
Cpl. Gunnar Zwilling suspected that his days were numbered last week, while he and his band of brothers in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team prepared for a mission near Wanat, Afghanistan.
Cpl. Gunnar Zwilling had a bad feeling about his final mission in Afghanistan, said his father, Kurt.
“It’s gonna be a bloodbath,” he told his father, Kurt Zwilling, on the phone in what would be their last conversation.
The Defense Department on Wednesday identified the U.S. soldiers killed Sunday when their outpost was overrun in Afghanistan.
1st Lt. Jonathan P. Brostrom, 24, of Aiea, Hawaii.
Sgt. Israel Garcia, 24, of Long Beach, California.
Cpl. Jonathan R. Ayers, 24, of Snellville, Georgia.
Cpl. Jason M. Bogar, 25, of Seattle, Washington.
Cpl. Jason D. Hovater, 24, of Clinton, Tennessee.
Cpl. Matthew B. Phillips, 27, of Jasper, Georgia.
Cpl. Pruitt A. Rainey, 22, of Haw River, North Carolina.
Cpl. Gunnar W. Zwilling, 20, of Florissant, Missouri.
* Pfc. Sergio S. Abad, 21, of Morganfield, Kentucky.
There’s nothing I really can add to the above, nor do I feel I should.
The interviews at the links and the video, by the soldiers, are the reality.
RIP Young Brothers
