Korengal Page #5

Shooting a LAW...

I love shooting LAWs!

A LAW is

a light anti-tank weapon.

It's a bazooka?

One, pull the pin.

Pin.

Step two,

remove rear cover and strap.

Three, it says "Pull open

until it locks here."

Four, release safety.

Five, you're going to aim it.

And then six,

you're going to squeeze that

right there to fire it.

When I started

out during the deployment,

I carried a 203...

that's a grenade launcher...

and I loved being a 203 gunner

just 'cause I like things

that go boom.

The louder the booms...

because, traditionally,

the enemy that we're fighting

is more afraid

of the booms than they are

the death.

The 50-Cal

is the biggest machine gun

we had up there.

Some guys are Mark guys,

some guys are 50 guys.

I'm a 50 guy.

The 50 is the sexiest weapon

the Army's got.

It's loud, it shoots a whole

hell of a long way.

They say, that round

only has to be

within 18 inches of you,

to sear flesh.

That's bad-ass.

When you shoot that thing,

it'll rock your world,

it just...

it's a giant machine gun.

What's not to like

about a giant machine gun?

You sit out there at Restrepo,

and you just dwell

about being out there.

Damn, I'm at f***ing Restrepo.

I'm in Afghanistan, meh.

You might as well

get over with...

it's not going to do you

any good.

Hey, guys!

I mean, our quality

of life was what we made it.

Whatever we could hump up there

or whatever we could do

for ourselves is what happened,

you know, and that's what gave

us our ability to survive.

Is that heavy?

No, Sir.

You got Marlboro Reds,

Cunningham?

Yes, I do!

Six cartons of f***ing

different flavors.

You know what that means?

Smoke up!

I got a chair, too.

What's the chair for?

The chair's

for the platoon, man.

I stole that fair and square

from a Sergeant First Class

in Kuwait.

Mother f***er's crying now.

He ain't got no chair.

Sergeant First Class Elder.

We got your chair, man.

We got your chair, brother.

Sorry.

They eventually

slung us up a generator,

a gas generator with a big...

big blivott of fuel

so we could run electronics.

There it is!

The fan, the fan!

Nice! Nice!

It was OP Restrepo.

It was our place.

It's all we had.

Go!

I told you.

I said "generator."

Is it weird being on leave?

You guys, you guys are out there

and you're, you know,

in a swimming pool or whatever.

I mean, you deserve the leave,

but does it feel weird?

I don't know,

it sucks being away.

'Cause you're thinking

like, what happens

if something happens

to somebody you know?

But it's nice being home.

Yeah.

It's hard coming back

'cause like...

The hardest part's probably

saying goodbye to your family.

Like walking through the gates

to go into the airport,

or to go through security,

all your family's

just standing there

kind of crying,

and then you got to...

you got to make that step.

Once you get through there,

then it's easy to come back.

How was your leave?

It was excellent.

I got to see my family.

I spent more time than I

usually do with my family.

You know, I thought

me and my fiance

were going to have a lot

of problems, and we didn't.

We were arguing a lot

before I went on leave.

Like, I was pretty much...

I was pretty much...

We were both pretty much on

the verge of leaving each other.

It was just a combination

of being stressed out here

and not wanting to get shot

and never seeing your family

and everything and then,

you get home,

and it's just like...

you know, you're like, "Yes!"

You can go get drunk

and f***ing have fun

and party out and stuff.

When you go home,

is there someone

you talk to about it all?

I didn't talk to anyone.

I can't talk to my mother 'cause

she worries enough as it is.

And, well, family

is just always family.

And I couldn't talk to them.

My stepfather's actually

been in the Army before.

He somewhat understands

what I've been going through,

but I didn't want him

worrying either,

seeing that I couldn't sleep

and...

just more of a chore

for them back at home.

What about, like, friends?

You know, male friends,

like, close friends?

No, I mean... No.

Actually, I just stayed

to myself for the most part.

I went out, had fun,

but didn't really tell anybody

about my problems back here.

See, Hoyt, it's important

to remember...

Make sure they get behind cover.

- Got eyes on them.

- You do?

Right above Lumber Yard.

Say about 100 meters to the

right as you're walking up it.

There is a dude in f***ing...

I don't know, maybe BDUs, black.

Okay.

He's underneath

the tree in the shade?

I think that might be a cow.

But right behind that,

about f***ing five feet,

something just popped up over,

looked over here,

and then f***ing

popped back down.

I guess it's more of...

prefer to fight

on my terms type deal.

Like, fighting here

and stuff like that,

that'd be perfectly fine

with me, but like,

those times where

you have to get

in the f***ing low ground

and sh*t like that,

it's like I don't really

look forward to those

as much as I used to.

So this feels pretty good

here, like, we're good?

Yeah, I mean, it's not bad.

I got a tree that is okay.

You got some rocks up there

and sh*t like that so...

ls there anything about

this you're going to miss?

Shooting people.

It's always fun shooting.

Is there anything

you miss about Restrepo?

The firefights,

I ain't going to lie.

The firefights...

but we miss the firefights

in Restrepo or in the Korengal,

period.

I think a lot of us

kind of miss that adrenaline.

And I don't personally

talk to astronauts

or you know

any kind of extremists,

but until you hear

the snap of a bullet

go by your head

or hit your head...

There's nothing else like it.

All right,

we're getting engaged again,

because our guys are moving.

F***ing blowing my

God damn eardrums out!

Toves is f***ing having a blast.

Oh, sh*t!

- Your turn!

- I'm on f***ing fire!

Hey, Solo!

Two on three! Lumber Yard!

See any metals,

f***ing smoke them!

Roger that!

Aye-aye, motherfuckers!

F*** you!!

Toves!

Come on!

Get some!

You want to f***ing...

you want to shoot again, man?

Yeah, but my barrel's

kind of hot!

So's mine, dude.

So I'm going to let it

cool down for a little bit.

Look at that f***ing sh*t!

That is intense!

What the f*** is that?

That was awesome!!

It was a bomb, baby!

Whooo!

Look, f***ing dude's over there

f***ing on fire!

That's the sh*t, dog!

- Aww.

- That's it?!

Dude, my eyes are so powdery.

That was pretty intense!

I really don't think we took

too many rounds.

It was just f***ing awesome

just shooting again.

I think if you ask

anybody about the adrenaline,

that adrenaline rush

from those firefights?

It was a feeling that we got

to know quite well,

you know, and got to like.

Some fights go bad,

you know, if you lose friends,

people get hit,

it doesn't feel great at all.

But you know, when you've had

a nice firefight,

stuff was close, and you know

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