Korengal Page #3

"Hey, the enemy's brought in

so many mines into the valley.

They brought in

30 hand grenades."

When you start hearing

that type of ammunition

coming into the valley

and the guys hear about it,

they start thinking

about the Ranch House,

because they know what...

they know the dramatics

of what happened up there.

Chosen company

was up at Ranch House.

That was the name of their...

their fire base.

And they got overran.

A few Taliban were going up

to one of the guard positions

in the Ranch House

saying they were workers.

And when one of the soldiers

went up there,

the enemy actually was...

As soon as they got within range

just opened up on them.

They were inside the wire

taking over guard positions.

Their P.L., Captain Ferrara,

had to call in gun runs

on that, uh...

on that compound and, you know,

separate the enemy

from the friendlies.

I definitely had concerns

that there would be

an attempt on Restrepo.

The Ranch House incident,

of course, reinforced that.

When I'd actually think of

we were about to get overrun,

would be at nighttime.

You have lots

of time on your hands.

You you start, kind of,

you know, mind-playing things.

I know it went through my mind,

not all the time,

but some nights

more than others.

There was one night

that I remember

that I was pretty

f***ing petrified.

I was afraid to go out,

you know to piss.

There's a little bit of a walk

to the piss tubes...

and we had heard that they're

going to do an attack on us

and it's going to come

from the north.

Everybody pulls guard.

Everybody thinks

about things like that.

Well, what if they came

from this direction?

How would they come over,

how would we react?

You start, you know,

running those scenarios.

If you were telling

somebody else,

they could probably point

out flaws in your scenarios,

tell you why that would never

or could never happen.

But, uh... you know, you still

make them up in your head.

This place always this quiet?

- What's that?

- Is it always this quiet?

Yeah.

Every now and then,

a couple people come through.

So this is the Lumber Yard,

what's called the Lumber Yard?

The Lumber Yard bizarre.

I always call it

the Lumber Yard, 'cause...

Lumber.

Where are you from, Donoho?

- California.

- Where in California?

- Redding. Way north.

- Oh, wow.

It's like Oregon, practically.

You take it back.

Take it back.

How come the people

in Oregon don't like

the people in California?

'Cause we're better

than they are.

The only good thing that came

out of Oregon is the Gerber.

- The Gerber is from Oregon.

- And Pemble-Belkin?

I don't know about

Pemble-Belkin.

Actually, uh,

we're supposed to party

when we get out of the Army.

Show each other the good side

of each state.

You guys are gonna

compare states?

You gonna visit him,

he's gonna visit you?

Yes. Sometime...

in the next ten years.

Probably when we get

out of the Army.

How come you joined?

Uhh...

I don't know.

No, uh, at first,

I wanted to become a sniper.

That was my main thing.

Then I wanted to jump out

of airplanes.

Uh... travel.

I wanted to travel.

That's about it.

What do you think of your

decision, you glad you're in?

Yes and no.

Did you count on

something like the Korengal?

Nope.

Definitely not.

I mean, would I rethink

my decision at the time?

Nah, I made a lot

of really good friends.

Lots of good friends.

Definitely good experiences

to tell the grandchildren.

Yeah.

I was in the Korengal Valley.

"Oh, we heard about that

in school."

That's what I want to hear.

I want to hear that.

"I heard about that."

Yes, you did.

Today's mission,

going down to Loy Kalay

in the vicinity of the mosque.

I think that the greatest ally,

the greatest thing

that we had for us going on

was the fact that we forced

the boys to go out continuously

to keep the enemy off his feet.

He could never get

into a rhythm.

He could never really predict

that this is the time

that they're going to be there,

this is the time

that they're not.

You'd hear the enemy

just going crazy

trying to figure out

where we were.

They usually ended up

finding out where we were.

But that type of ability to move

started setting the tone

in the right direction,

'cause they felt like

we were hunting them.

I'm sure Captain Kearney's

probably not

going to appreciate this one,

but there were a lot of times

when we went out

into an environment

where we knew was more, uh...

exposing than necessary.

Pretty much, hey, let's put

the food on the table.

See if anybody

wants to come eat.

You're definitely out there

with our cheese in the wind.

We're definitely bait.

The most kinetic place

for us now, Sir,

is directly in front of us,

Hilltop 1705...

The boys thought

I went out too much sometimes.

They had that heart,

deep-down feeling like, hey,

you know, he's just

making us go out there

just because he wants badges

and glory and stuff like that.

I don't care about any of that.

I thought the best way to keep

them alive was the offense.

Right before the patrol,

everybody would

just started gearing up.

A lot of times we'd have music

playing off an iPod

or something like that to get

everybody kind of pumped up

or chilled out or

whatever you need

'cause usually,

we'd be getting a firefight.

So gotta have a little

adrenaline already going,

but you still have to be calm.

I don't let the nerves

get to me.

Like, I don't want

to get nervous.

I try not to get nervous

before I go out.

Prior to us going out on patrol,

the biggest thing is, you know,

briefing your guys,

focusing guys in on, hey,

we're probably going to get hit.

We're going to move

into this village.

Like, oh, man, this village,

every time we go there,

we get engaged.

When we left the wire,

most of the guys were scared.

And what was going

through their mind

was that hopefully

I don't get to die tonight.

You know, hopefully

I live to see another day.

Either

we'd go down the east side

of Restrepo,

down behind this cliff side

or we'd go up on the west side

where you had to run

off the side of the road

right there,

because sometimes

they'd ambush us

before we could even

start the patrol.

We'd usually get

pretty spread out

so they can't just pinpoint

a small cluster of guys

and just take them all out

in one burst

if he can or something.

We'd search the road,

make sure nothings'

out of place,

scan the mountains,

scan the trees,

and as we're moving

we're actually thinking of, hey,

what can we run to next

in case we do get shot at?

Look for your next...

next spot you're going to go.

If they start shooting

right now, where you going?

Sh*t, I could tell you,

if somebody starts shooting

right now, where I'm going.

I'm going up over that desk.

No... no questions.

You're suspicious of everything.

You see a tiny hole in the

ground and you step on the hole,

you look around the hole,

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