The attack on COP Keating resulted in 8 Americans killed and 27 wounded while the Taliban suffered an estimated 150 killed. During the highly risky convoy, the road collapsed under the weight of Keating's vehicle. Staff Sergeant William "Ryan" Fritsche was killed by rifle fire. Defense officials confirm that two senior officers who oversaw the forces at COP Keating have received administrative punishments that could impact their careers. In my moment of being the listener to a war story I previously told, I realized that The Outpost was as honest as any war story. It was this delay that proved fatal to some of the troops stationed at COP Keating. This agreement did bring down the level of combat in the Kamdesh area. It's a solid 10/10 read: No hot food, No fire support. Two days before the attack, I was en route to a mountaintop observation post when the helicopter I was flying in was hit by enemy fire. Capt. Benjamin D. Keating (31 May 1979-26 November 2006) was a US Army Captain who served in the US 61st Cavalry Regiment during the Afghanistan War. What if there was a country in place of the Bay of Biscay? Clint Romesha rallied his fellow soldiers by telling them, "We're taking this bitch back. The Allies stopped using the Kamdesh-Naray road. So first and foremost: The movie is based off the book of the same name. The first didn't take place at the camp. They performed heroically and bravely.. Ty M. Carter pauses during a patrol outside Combat Outpost Keating, Afghanistan, where he was deployed with the 61st Cavalry Regiment in 2009. prosthetic makeup effects administrator: Millennium FX. The following day, insurgents kidnapped and murdered Fazal Ahad, an elder from Badmuk who was attempting to end the Kom/Kata tribal disagreements by arranging a meeting in Kamdesh. ", was Keating's assessment. Regrouping there, they pushed out teams to retake much of the outpost. His actions saved the lives of several soldiers, and he alone accomplished the work of four medical professionals without stopping for food or sleep, the battle narrative aptly concluded. [2] A day after, on October 7, Taliban fighters were seen among the ruins of the outpost. Several days after the battle, U.S. aircraft bombed the location in an effort to destroy any munitions that remained. The camp was originally constructed to be a PRT (i.e., Provincial Reconstruction Team), called PRT Kamdesh, but due to extremely high levels of fighting in the area it remained a fire base instead of a PRT. For the most part, yes. [7]:28,41,908,123, The Nuristan provincial reconstruction team base was strongly recommended by Nuristani Province Governor Tamim Nuristani. Wed love your feedback on this newsletter. [18], At about 3:00a.m. on October 3, over 350 Taliban backed insurgents ordered all Kamdesh villagers to leave the area. In the end, as part of an effort by General Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, such remote outposts were closed so that more troops could be used to protect civilians in populated areas. I highly recommend picking up a copy as it goes into far far greater detail about the history and events leading up and during the battle. Something had to be done to bring Nuristan on to the American side. That doesnt mean anything should be taken from the guys on the ground. Years later, I still feel guilty for not getting there until nightfall, even if the circumstances were out of my control. . The soldiers heard over the radio, "Enemy in the wire The enemy is inside the camp." Mace survived long enough to be evacuated to a nearby medical facility. [7][8] The former of which is based on the book The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor by journalist Jake Tapper. Unconfirmed footage reportedly shows a short segment from a November 2008 battle at Combat Outpost (COP) Keating, in which ISAF troops attempt to defend the stupidly-placed position from an enemy that holds the high ground on all sides. "Reviewing and examining and improving are part of our process and when we do it from within, it is embraced," said the officer who asked not to be identified. A dog named Cali growled at the eldest son of an Afghan Security Guard, who would often come to the post with his father. In 2018, I flew on my own dime to Sofia, Bulgaria, to witness the making of the film based on Jake Tappers book The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor. Chris Cordova, an old friend and another veteran of the battle, came with me. A bus carrying employees of an Afghan television station was bombed in Kabul on May 30. are assisting Somali soldiers fighting Al Shabab, and by a health care system that utterly failed him, The case has irritated U.S. relations with a crucial military ally. Read more from At War here or follow us on Twitter. The movie is based on the 2012 nonfiction book The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor by CNN's Jake Tapper. Thomas Rasmussen fought back and was knocked off his feet by a rocket-propelled grenade. American forces formed a thinly held and poorly supplied picket line from Naray to Kamdesh along the river. The Outpost is a 2020 war film directed by Rod Lurie, based on the 2012 non-fiction book The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor by Jake Tapper, about the Battle of Kamdesh in the war in Afghanistan.It stars Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, Orlando Bloom, Jack Kesy, Cory Hardrict, Milo Gibson, Jacob Scipio, Will Attenborough, and Taylor John Smith. That process helped us heal, but a bad rendering of the battle would leave us talking about what the movie got wrong instead of what actually happened. He was thrown from the truck, which rolled over him and sank into the river. Colonel John W. Nicholson Jr., Commander of the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division, had observed that Kamdesh was located at a point where three of the valley systems from the Pakistan border in the north converged. "The investigation concluded that critical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets which had been supporting COP Keating had been diverted to assist ongoing intense combat operations in other areas," the report said. [5] Within two minutes of the beginning of the attack, American forces suffered their first casualty. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Div. On Oct. 3, while Cordova was in the aid station keeping Mace alive, I was fighting to get back with a company of reinforcements. [7]:1238,1368,18191,407, Despite recommendations not to drive the large supply vehicle, First Lieutenant Ben Keating took the wheel while returning an armored supply truck to the Naray FOB. In real life, there is no record of Porter shooting a dog.According to Jake Tapper's book, two real-life incidents inspired the scene in the movie. By all quantifiable metrics, my unit won the fight, but at a devastating cost: Eight soldiers died, 22 were wounded and our camp burned to the ground. A note was attached to his body which said: "Don't work with coalition forces. Written by CNN journalist Jake Tapper, he tells the story of soldiers living in the remote mountains of Afghanistan and Combat Outpost Keating. The report said the heroic action of American and Afghan soldiers contributed to a "severe tactical defeat for the Taliban" that resulted in as many as 150 Taliban fighters being killed. On that day, then-1LT Bundermann's leadership and heroic actions in orchestrating the defense of Combat Outpost Keating, helped prevent it from falling into the hands of a Taliban force of more than 400 fighters. It occurred on October 3, 2009, when a force of 400 Taliban assaulted the American Combat Outpost ("COP") Keating near the town of Kamdesh in Nuristan Province in eastern Afghanistan. Commanders of Camp Keating are disciplined for not taking proper measures that led to deaths of eight U.S. soldiers and the wounding of 22 others in a Taliban attack. A press release issued by the NATO military command in Afghanistan said Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the senior U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, had taken "appropriate action" against the officers after reviewing the report. [7]:803,945,11620, While attempting the pickup, a Chinook transport helicopter crashed in the darkness at 10:09 PM when the rear rotor hit a tree, and the helicopter slid down the slope and over a cliff, exploding in flames and killing all the crew and passengers. [9], Bravo Troop, 3rd Squadron "Destroyers", 61st Cavalry Regiment manned COP Keating. Matthew McMurtrey a cyber systems operator was attached to the 61st Cav and woke at6 a.m. that day to the walls of his bunk shaking, alerting him to the attack. On Oct. 3, 2009, the camp and its 53 soldiers were attacked by some 400 Taliban fighters. Clint Romesha, portrayed by Scott Eastwood in the film. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. American forces had already planned to pull out of the area as part of a plan to move forces to more densely populated areas, so closure of the base was imminent when the attack occurred. Yes. [7]:1238,1368,18191,407. Five languages and various dialects are spoken by these groups, rendering translators from other areas of Afghanistan useless. Loss of life was inevitable and the government. At one point, the insurgents even controlled the ammunition supply point. [36], On 11 February 2013, President Barack Obama presented the Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant Clinton Romesha, a survivor of the battle. He died when his. During the day-long battle at Combat Outpost Keating last Oct. 3, the base was temporarily overrun by an estimated 300 Taliban fighters. In 2006, HIG was actively resisting the Afghan government. They professed a Salafi version of Islam, and were hostile to any political rivals. He jumped up undeterred and ran through heavy fire to get more ammunition. Members of 10th Mountain Division's 1-32 Infantry Regiment were air lifted to the nearest helicopter landing zone on OP Fritsche and arrived at approximately 2:00pm, as recalled by a soldier on scene. In response to this, the local Afghan officials sent more government troops into the area. This separation of the landing zone, and the fact that the site was surrounded by mountains on three sides made the site unappealing because of the difficulty of mounting an effective defense. On July 20, 2006, 2:00 a. m. all of Cherokee Company and one platoon from Able Troop, 3-71 Cavalry Squadron dropped in two Chinooks on Landing Zone Warheit, a cornfield on a ridge near Kamdesh, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Howard to garrison the area. [7]:228,249,469, At the end of May 2007, Bulldog Troop, 1-91 Cavalry Squadron, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, arrived at COP Keating. It also said the commanders had become "desensitized" to reports of imminent large scale attacks because previous warnings had turned out to be on a much smaller scale. [20] Observation Post Fritsche was attacked simultaneously, limiting available support from that position. Haji Yunus, a village elder of Gawardesh and contractor for an electric plant, was kidnapped and murdered. [7]:1238,1368,18191,407, On August 8, 2006, 19 days after the first American landing, the PRT was attacked for the first time. [10], OP Fritsche was established to provide overwatch for COP Keating and was manned by a mix of US and Afghan national forces. On the whole the AAF was a broader based and more formidable force in 2007 than before the American invasion, and represented a significant escalation. The village leaders elected a representative council of 100 members to form a shura that would produce a regional security plan and obtain an agreement with the American military and the Afghan Karzai government. Rob Yllescas of Nebraska, in "The Outpost," which tells the story of real-life combat events from the War in Afghanistan. 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