WEBVTT - Salvatore Giunta Didn’t Want to Be a Hero 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.480 Hey everyone, We've put together a survey for listeners of 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:06.760 Medal of Honor and we want to hear from you. 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:09.240 Tell us what you love about the show, what we 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:12.760 can improve on, or stories you think we've missed. We're 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.840 committed to making this show even better and you can 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:20.040 help to take the survey. Visit bit dot lee slash 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:27.320 mh survey. That's bit dot l y slash mh survey. 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:41.479 The link is also in our show notes below. Pushkin, 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.480 the staff sergeant, sat at his desk at the United 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:52.640 States Army base in Vicenza, Italy. It was September of 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:58.600 twoenty ten. His name was Salvatore Genta, and he was 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:03.200 waiting for a phone call. Just the thought of the 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:06.800 call made him queasy. He was pretty sure what the 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:10.000 news would be. There had been rumors about it for years, 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:14.720 rumors that he preferred not to think about. They were 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:18.479 too upsetting. But the day before he'd learned that the 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:22.360 call was definitely coming, so he asked his wife to 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.800 sit in the office with him. She watched his face 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.759 as he watched the phone. Sao was twenty five years 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:33.560 old and had been a member of the Army in 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:38.199 the one hundred and seventy third Airborne Brigade. For seven years. 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.720 He had seen some of the worst and most relentless 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:45.720 fighting in all of Afghanistan. He had been in the 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:49.320 Corangall Valley. The soldiers called it the Valley of Death 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.880 for good reason. It had been a nightmare. But it 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.720 was a nightmare that Sal had been willing to take 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:02.400 part in, excited even unlike this call. He wasn't excited 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:08.880 about this at all. And then the phone rang. Sal 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.959 took his wife's hand. He answered the phone and a 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:18.440 voice said, please hold for the President of the United States. 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:22.840 I'm j R. 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:28.399 Martinez and this is Medal of Honor. Stories of Courage. 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.200 The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:35.680 the United States, awarded for gallantry and bravery and combat 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.799 at the risk of life, above and beyond the call 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:42.280 of duty. Each candidate must be approved all the way 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.640 up the chain of command, from the supervisory officer in 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:48.760 the field to the White House. This show is about 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:53.560 those heroes, what they did, what it meant, and what 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:57.200 their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.519 When Sal Junta finished that phone call with the President, 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.040 he looked up and saw it wasn't just his wife 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:09.480 sitting in the room. There were maybe fifty people packed 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.920 into an office that only had space for five deaths. 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:18.440 They were there because Sal, their low key, unassuming friend, 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.200 was going to be the first living Medal of Honor 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:30.720 recipient in almost forty years. Sal's friends, his coworkers, his wife, 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:35.240 they were all so proud. But you know who wasn't proud. 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:53.040 Sal Junta Sald deployed to Afghanistan for the first time 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.760 in two thousand and five. He was twenty, a super 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:00.640 gung ho dude who literally couldn't wait to get into action. 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.720 I remember when they told us we had our orders 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:08.000 to go to Afghansian. I remember I was, it's excited 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:10.520 to go to war. This is what I came to do. 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.480 He had been trained for battle, which is exactly what 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.599 he wanted, though if you asked him just a couple 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:22.560 of years earlier, he wasn't sure what he wanted. Back then, 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.359 he was working as a sandwich artist at the subway 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:27.200 shop near his family home in Iowa. 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.440 I was about to graduate high school and I didn't 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.200 have a plan. And I heard a radio commercial come on, 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:37.040 and I said, come on down. See the recruiter, get 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.320 a free T shirt. I want a free T shirt. 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:40.960 Who doesn't want a free T shirt? I'm working at somebody. 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:42.160 I want a free T shirt. Of course I want 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:42.640 a T shirt. 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:47.400 It was the right radio ad at exactly the right time. 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:50.839 Sal went to the recruiting center for the T shirt, 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:53.760 but he came out of it with a life plan. 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:56.279 This is my chance. I can make a difference, and 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.400 I can do it everywhere, but not in Cedar Rappids, Iowa. 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.440 And at that time I was ready to go somewhere else. 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:03.400 The Army's gonna take me everywhere except for here. So 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:05.880 I'll just jump on this bandwagon and see where it goes. 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:10.280 He decided to join the one hundred and seventy third Airborne, 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.240 which meant he would potentially be jumping out of a 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:17.120 plane straight into combat and. 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:19.880 Eighteen years old. I don't know much, but the Army 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:22.599 said I could spit, I could swear, I could shoot guns, 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:24.360 and they'll pay him one hundred and fifty bucks extra 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:27.760 to jump out of planes. Patriotism slash one hundred and 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:29.440 fifty dollars to jump out of a plane A month. 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:30.040 I'm in. 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.640 But once Sal got to Afghanistan. He realized that combat 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.520 wasn't quite what his eighteen year old self had pictured. 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:44.520 Sal and First Platoons spent most of their time at 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:49.560 Ford Operating Base. Below. It was in southern Afghanistan. It 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:53.400 was an isolated spot, nestled in the valley between the 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:58.560 soaring peaks of the Hindu Kush Mountains, surrounded by almond 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:03.760 and apricot orchard. But Below itself was like most of 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:09.160 the bases in Afghanistan, pretty bleak, a mud hut turned 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:13.240 into a makeshift fortress, guys sleeping eight to a room, 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:18.800 and constant attacks from the Taliban. Sal and the rest 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:23.000 of the soldiers got really close, really fast. That'll happen 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.599 when you're living in such tight quarters far from anyone else. 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:29.279 You only get thirty four other people to talk to, 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:32.400 So you see these people seven days a week. There's 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:35.839 no one else you can talk to or be with. 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:38.280 No psychiatrists. Gets as steep as we got on the 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:40.360 side of the mountain. We just because we had nothing 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:40.800 else to. 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:46.440 Do, nothing to do but talk and joke and go 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:51.440 on patrols and get shot at, which meant watching your friends, 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:54.160 your brothers get hurt. 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:59.200 It didn't take long into my first deployment into Afghanistan 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:03.040 before I really your emotions in war are a lot 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.679 different than your emotions watching war on TV. And death 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.000 is real and the hardships are painful. It's not just 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.560 painful to watch. That's truly painful on you and your boys. 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:18.280 Sal was still all in even after he got shot 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:22.840 through the leg in a firefight, but slowly his gung 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:28.560 ho attitude was beginning to change. About three months into 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:33.200 his deployment, and Id took out a humpy, killing four 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:37.640 soldiers and maiming a fifth. They were all members of 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:44.320 Sal's company, Company B. They were men he knew. Sal 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.360 went to the bomb site to help clean up, and 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:54.720 seeing the bodies was well traumatic for everyone. And just 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:58.000 a few days later, a different squad from bey Lowe 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:02.280 was out on patrol and one of those men, a lieutenant, 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:04.240 was shot and killed. 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:08.080 We lost one of our lieutenants. And now that's five 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:09.640 in like a span of a week. And I was 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:11.600 already having a tough time kind of stomach and what 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:15.200 happened to the first four and my team years sent 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.440 me down. He goes, this is it. This is exactly 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:19.520 what war is. It's not going to get any better. 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:24.520 And that was when I truly felt that I was 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:31.360 in the army. I was an emotional, hurt, straught alone paying, 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:35.880 which I hadn't felt before. Three months into Afghanistan, I 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.720 was no longer excited. I had more of a zest 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:43.079 than ever to do my job. But it wasn't because 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:44.920 I was excited to do it. It was because this 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:48.920 is what we trained to do, and all the excitement 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:49.320 was gone. 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:55.440 Sal made it through the rest of that deployment, fighting 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:59.880 and sustaining and doing his job, and after a year 0:08:59.920 --> 0:09:03.760 he returned to the base in Italy. Finally he would 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.880 have a break from combat, and even better, he'd get 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:12.640 to see his girlfriend, Jennifer Mueller. They had met at 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:16.240 the very start of Sal's time in Italy before he 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:20.760 deployed to Afghanistan. Back then, she was a student from 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:25.320 the University of Iowa doing a semester abroad. Now Jen 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:28.559 had graduated and moved to an apartment near the base. 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:34.040 The two were happy, thinking about the future, and then 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:39.000 Sal got the news Company B was returning to Afghanistan. 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:44.360 Sal's attention shifted from his future a future with Jen, 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:50.319 back to his buddies in first Platoon. That brotherhood of soldiers. 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:53.240 He knew he had to be his best for them, 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.079 and his best was going to have to be pretty great, 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.480 because soon enough the Company B was on their way 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:17.800 to the Corngau Valley. When sal arrived in the Corangaul 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.120 Valley in May of two thousand and seven, he knew 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.840 immediately that this deployment would be different. 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:27.920 It was like nothing that I had never seen in 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:29.240 Afghanistan before. 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:35.840 The valley itself looked lush and green, beautiful, even peaceful. 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:37.679 It wasn't. 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:42.040 It was all so harsh terrain. Even the little bushes 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:45.680 were sharp, all the little animals bit or stung or 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:47.400 poisoned in some way. 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:52.719 The steep hillsides were covered in dense brush, which provided 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:56.959 the ideal hiding spots for insurgents, and they were well 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.000 armed and itching for a fight. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.439 We were at the bottom of a valley with mountains 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:07.200 just cheer straight, straight up and down on every single side, 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.000 and every single place you're going to fight, you are 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.480 at the bottom and they are at the top, and 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:14.079 you are open and they are covered. 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.640 There was literally no safe place to be an American 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:23.080 in the Corngall Valley. The roughly thirty five men of 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:27.319 Sal's platoon lived at fire Base Vegas. It was a 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:31.360 mud hut about the size of a three car garage, 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:36.560 no running water, spotty electricity, and very little protection from 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:41.040 constant enemy fire. For a shower, a hot meal, or 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.840 a phone call home, the guys would have to go 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:47.960 all the way back to the main base corn Gall outpost. 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:52.079 It was a multi hour walk where they'd be shot 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.440 at all the way, so they didn't go that often, 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:58.360 which meant Sal couldn't talk to Jen very much. 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.000 She remembers it well, I remember the two months for 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:04.280 I heard from him, and then it was every month, 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.240 and when you get a phone call, it's fifteen minutes. 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:10.000 When a month or two goes by fifteen minutes. 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:12.600 Is like a second. But at least Sal was there 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:16.440 with people he adored, the guys he thought of as family. 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.560 One was Josh Brennan, who'd been a football player back 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:24.640 in high school in Oregon. He was all endurance and toughness, 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:27.600 though he also had a way of making everyone around 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:31.400 him feel at ease. He was alpha team leader and 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:33.120 Sal was Bravo team leader. 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.160 I'd been with Brennan for maybe four years, and four 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.040 years with roughly thirty five guys. So in the Army 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:43.199 everyone gets to be your buddy and you'll love him 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.040 like a brother, because that's how it's set up. 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:49.960 Sergeant Eric Ga Yadado was their squad leader, smart and 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:55.680 cool headed, a perfectionist, and a brilliant fighter. Their medic 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:00.439 was Hugo Mendoza. At twenty nine, he was a decade 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.880 older than many of the guys at Vegas. He was 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.000 from Texas and had joined the Army to take care 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:13.120 of people as a first responder. Brennan, Gayadro, Sal and 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:20.200 Mendoza were really close, but still it was hard. The 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:22.840 men had to wear helmets and body armor all the time. 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:26.800 They'd risk getting shot at, even going to the latrines. 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.600 They would hike out for daily patrols, and each one 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:35.680 was slow and hard up steep trails covered in loose shale. 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.640 One wrong step and you could fall to your death. 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:42.240 Sal felt his body start to fall apart from the 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.920 lack of sleep and the stress of non stop fighting. 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.000 We get shot at every single day, sometimes multiple times 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:49.320 a day. 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:53.720 And then in late October of two thousand and seven, 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.560 the men were told were going on a new kind 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:03.840 of combat mission. They called it Rock Avalanche. It was 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.400 going to be the most ambitious operation the Corngall Valley 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:12.160 had seen, deploying four separate companies at the same time, 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:18.240 some four hundred men along with their support. The goal 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:22.880 was to move directly into Taliban strongholds. They'd look for 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:26.200 weapons and try to shut down travel routes for the insurgents. 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:32.000 Rock Avalanche would begin the night of October nineteenth. That night, 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:36.040 for the first time, Sal heard his captain wish them luck, 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.520 and he knew that meant they needed. 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:42.840 Rock Avalanche took us to where the bad guys were. 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:44.600 That was our job. 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:48.960 Sal's company went to the southwestern part of the valley, 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:55.120 traveling by helicopter. Their destination was a Taliban stronghold through 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:58.000 which weapons and money flowed in and out of the 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:01.960 Corngall Valley. It was like striking at the head of 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:02.520 the snake. 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.480 We got in some contact for a couple times each day, 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.200 you know, maybe four or five gun fights, usually small 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:11.640 arms RPGs. 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:16.960 And then on October twenty third, three men from Company 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:21.400 B were shot, one fatally. So in the very week 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:24.320 hours of the twenty fifth, Sal and the rest of 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:28.520 first Platoon went to support Second Platoon, which was going 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:32.640 to a village near the shooting. In the four days 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:35.560 of the mission, the men had slept fewer than ten 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:40.600 hours total. First platoon marched for two or three hours 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:44.000 until they reached their assigned position around five a m. 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:49.040 It was a spot called Hancho Hill. They would stay 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:52.160 there while second platoon worked its way through the village 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:55.320 trying to get information about what had happened at the shooting. 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:58.200 Second latoon was going to go into the village, and 0:15:58.240 --> 0:15:59.520 then we were going to be on one of the 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.600 side weeks over watching the village so if anything anyone 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:04.880 started coming from the outside to come and attack them 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:06.440 in the village, we already have the high ground. 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:12.960 Sal's platoon, that's first platoon, stayed there all day, not 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:18.680 talking much, trying to keep vigilant, knowing that the insurgents 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:19.480 were close. 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:24.760 And we sat there twelve hours, fourteen hours, just watching 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.920 and waiting, and the whole time we're thinking, okay, somewhere here, 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:30.320 there should be somewhere down here. 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.760 What they didn't realize was that a group of at 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:38.480 least a dozen enemy fighters had crept up behind them 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.640 and were waiting patiently for First Platoon to start moving 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:47.680 back towards Corungall outpost. There was only one path they 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:48.240 could take. 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.400 The sun went down, the commander said we're going to 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:54.600 pull out. We'll go back. There was probably a two 0:16:54.640 --> 0:17:00.320 and a half hour walk back to the Corngall outpost. 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:04.399 There were eighteen men from first Platoon walking in single file. 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:09.479 Sergeant Brennan was out in front. He shouldn't even have 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.040 been there. His time in Afghanistan had been up a 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:17.240 month earlier, but his contract had been extended. That was 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:20.520 very common at this point in the war, so there 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:26.120 he was walking point as usual. It went Brennan, then 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:30.480 Specialist Frank eck Roede, then Sergeant Gay Gadolo, then sal. 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.120 Sun was down, but the moon was big, and that 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:36.960 moon really does make a just a huge amount of 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:39.600 difference in what you can and can't see. 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:43.399 They hadn't gone very far when out of nowhere all 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:44.440 hell broke loose. 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:51.600 I've never seen before or since anything like what what happened. 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:55.240 It was basically I don't know the number of shots. 0:17:55.880 --> 0:18:00.880 Absolutely everything, every single inch of the air in front 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:04.080 of us, behind us was filled with tracers. 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.640 They had walked into an ambush. The enemy had arranged 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:12.639 themselves in an L shaped barrier. One short line of 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:16.600 soldiers directly in front of first platoon, and a longer 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:21.600 line along their left flank. It's a classic tactic meant 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.479 to create the most carnage and the shortest amount of time. 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:29.840 You really can't protect yourself from an ambush like that. 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:32.199 You just hope you don't walk into it. But the 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.040 way the train dictated, there was only one way we 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:35.720 could go down. 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:41.359 What happened next was total chaos. More tracers than there 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:45.000 were stars in the sky, the sound of bullets coming 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:47.760 from extremely close range. 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:49.960 Within the first five seconds, so I think pretty much 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:51.520 everyone had been shot somewhere. 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:55.480 The Americans were standing in the open and the enemy 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:59.200 was behind the rocks and trees. Essentially there was no cover. 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:02.440 A few shrubs and bushes, but there's nothing that's gonna 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:03.119 stop a bullet. 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:08.240 Sal got shot in the rib cage. Fortunately the impact 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:12.240 was absorbed by his protective vest. Another bullet went through 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.679 the assault pack that was over his shoulder, shattering the 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:19.480 weapon there. They had been in regular contact with enemy 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:23.080 fighters almost daily over the past six months, but this 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:28.199 was different, way more intense. Thousands of bullets ripped the 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.639 air from both sides. Then Sal saw guy out of 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:32.880 the get hit. 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:39.200 So I looked towards my leader, sar uncl Ardo, and 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:43.080 I just saw his head twitch and it wasn't like 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.200 what was that twitch? It was like something just hit 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:49.040 his head twitch and he dropped. 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:55.560 Sal's heart sank. He knew what that kind of head 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:59.879 twitch meant. He ran to Guyautlo through the bullets. When 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:03.560 he reached him, he saw immediately Guy Outada was alive. 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:09.879 The bullet had only grazed his skull. Guy Gadado scrambled 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:12.399 to his feet and he and Sal ran back and 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:16.720 jumped into a shallow ditch. They threw grenades, using the 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:21.440 explosions as covered to run forward, shooting at the enemy line. 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.560 Flashes of fire answered back from the trees. They threw 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:29.520 their grenades again, charging ahead, moving up towards ek Road 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:34.600 and Brennan. Finally they got to Ekro. He had been 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:38.119 shot twice in the leg, but he kept returning fire 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:40.000 until his gun had jammed. 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:42.639 When we went up, we saw that Croad and Nechrow 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:44.280 was on the ground and he said he'd been shot, 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:49.080 and he said that Brenna said he was shot as well, 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:54.159 and he's somewhere up ahead. I can hear this. 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:58.000 As I'm running, sal knew Ekroed had Guyautao with him 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:04.000 dressing his wound. He would be safe. There was nobody 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:05.200 better than Gay. 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:08.840 Gottivo, and so I just kept on running, and I 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:10.919 thrown all my grenades. I only had three with me, 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:14.280 and there was no more grenades, and I was already 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:15.080 running forward. 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.440 It was up to him to find his friend Brennan. 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:22.760 He knew Brennan was in danger, but he seemed to 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:23.800 have disappeared. 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.959 And when I ran up and I couldn't. I couldn't 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:32.359 find Brennan where he should have been. My just cut 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:35.560 to the left and I just started going closer to 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:39.720 the shooting. I cleared through some there was some low shrubs, 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:42.320 and I was just running. I wasn't shooting. I was running, 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:49.520 and I came out this part hungs my dreams. 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:58.280 Suddenly it got quieter, and that's when he saw two 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:02.359 people moving away away from him, carrying something. 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:05.520 It's crazy. I don't know how anyone else got up 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:08.880 here before me. I mean, this all happens like this, 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:13.240 and the moon's full and so you can see, you 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:15.960 can see very well, but I can't understand what is 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:18.280 going on in front of me. It's I got a 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:24.840 little bit closer, I realized what was going on. I 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:29.000 looked back, and it's just this side of a mountain 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:32.639 in Afghanistan, and it's almost This is a perfectly clear patch, 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:36.000 and the moon couldn't have been any more beautiful, and 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:37.520 life couldn't have been any scarier. 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:44.960 Then Sal understood he was looking at two enemy soldiers, 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:50.680 and that thing between them was a person tied by 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:52.680 his hands and feet. 0:22:54.400 --> 0:23:00.720 Brandon, He's smarter than me, stronger than me, he's faster 0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:04.640 than me. He's a better shot than me, and that's 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:05.760 who's getting carried away. 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:10.840 Sal shot one of the insurgents and killed him. He 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:14.120 dropped on the spot. Then he hit the other one, 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:18.720 who limped away and disappeared down the cliff side. Sal 0:23:18.920 --> 0:23:20.120 ran to Josh Brennan. 0:23:20.720 --> 0:23:22.960 I grabbed Brennan, and I just turned around and ran 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:24.800 as fast as I could back the way I just 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:25.439 came from. 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:29.480 He dragged Brennan to cover, hearing the bullets continued to 0:23:29.560 --> 0:23:33.720 pop and zing around him, and then once they were 0:23:33.720 --> 0:23:36.280 in a safer spot, he was able to look closely 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:42.240 at his friend. He had multiple gunshot wounds the bottom 0:23:42.320 --> 0:23:44.040 left side of his jaw, was gone. 0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:47.800 I tried to see what's wrong with Brennan, and he's moaning, 0:23:47.840 --> 0:23:51.920 and he wasn't doing so good. But he was alive. 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:55.240 He was still talking and I think he was shot 0:23:55.240 --> 0:23:58.160 probably about seven times, and it looked like maybe an 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:01.040 REPG burst up on the ground, shrapnel to his face 0:24:01.119 --> 0:24:05.600 and took his a good portion of his jaw. The 0:24:05.720 --> 0:24:07.480 just complaining that he had something in his mouth, but 0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:08.760 it wasn't that he had something in his mouth, and 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:10.760 he says didn't have his mouth. 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:18.400 Sal started calling for medical help. None came. Where was Mendoza. 0:24:19.800 --> 0:24:24.119 Then the entire ridge began to shake. An American b 0:24:24.320 --> 0:24:29.119 one was dropping bombs. There had been bombers and Apache 0:24:29.160 --> 0:24:33.920 helicopters buzzing overhead, and now the enemy and first platoon 0:24:34.280 --> 0:24:39.840 were separated enough that they could finally fire. All that time, 0:24:40.560 --> 0:24:45.480 Sal waited with Brennan, trying to stop the bleeding, talking 0:24:45.480 --> 0:24:50.800 to him about home, trying to comfort him. Keep him alive. 0:24:52.560 --> 0:24:56.280 You'll be okay, he told them, You'll get to tell 0:24:56.320 --> 0:25:04.200 your hero stories. Brennan smiled. Eventually a metic arrived. It 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:10.760 wasn't Mendoza. Sal wasn't sure where Mendoza was. Sal stayed 0:25:10.800 --> 0:25:13.840 with Brennan until he was loaded onto that Medovac helicopter. 0:25:15.040 --> 0:25:16.959 He took him away, and hey, Brennan was still with 0:25:17.000 --> 0:25:19.040 it when you left, and his heart rate was low, 0:25:19.119 --> 0:25:20.760 but it wasn't. It wasn't. 0:25:20.800 --> 0:25:24.840 Over All Sal could do was pick up his gear 0:25:25.560 --> 0:25:28.000 and hiked the hours back through the valley to the 0:25:28.080 --> 0:25:33.679 Corngall outpost. As he went, he played the day over 0:25:33.960 --> 0:25:38.320 and over again in his head, thinking about what he 0:25:38.359 --> 0:25:43.840 could have done differently, holding out a desperate hope that 0:25:43.920 --> 0:26:05.879 Brennan would survive. Many hours after that brutal firefight, Sao 0:26:06.080 --> 0:26:10.840 was back at base, still holding out hope, and then 0:26:10.880 --> 0:26:14.600 he heard the news his friend Josh Brennan had passed 0:26:14.600 --> 0:26:18.640