The Battle for Marjah Page #2

Hey, what did they f***ing hit?

There's just trees blocking it.

That building out there, there's

sporadic fire coming from.

We've got f***ing good eyes

on this cocksucker right here.

I don't like being here.

- Huh?

- I don't like being here.

- In this house?

- Not really.

Why?

It's too f***ing small, close to

a f***ing attack position,

perfect range for rockets and mortars,

easy f***ing distance to judge.

So it would be pretty easy to bracket.

I'm sure we won't stay here long.

That's where

they're f***ing dipping from.

He was in there shooting potshots

from that crack right there.

Piece of sh*t!

Over, baby.

All right, fall back in real quick.

All right, we're right here.

First, he's gonna f***ing fire

a jab into Building 20.

All right.

That door, I ain't all about

going through it,

because they can f***ing

probably run back and forth.

Not kosher.

So, clear 20 and 21.

And f***ing fire another damn b*tch

into the f***ing Building 19.

Because if they have a f***ing

machine gun right here,

they just killed

the f***ing entire platoon.

God damn.

Damn it!

I can't f***ing move in this sh*t.

Covering maneuver.

Haul ass.

Whoa!

Tell 'em we're getting shot at

from behind us.

Yeah.

Exact same building.

Go, go, go, go, go, go.

Go, go, go.

Go, motherf***er!

Jesus!

Holy f***.

Oh, my God!

Dude, you got to drop bombs.

Bombs don't miss.

That's what I'm saying, bro.

What's this gunmanship?

They wouldn't get closer

than 600 meters last year.

These guys are like 150 meters,

if closer.

And they're...

They've got effective fire.

Last year, it was just

straight sporadic.

Never hit anything really.

That's my little boy.

I miss him.

How old is he?

He's 5 months.

I miss him.

I'll be home to him soon.

How much time did you spend with him

before you came here?

About 2 months, 2 or 3 months.

Not too bad.

He's gonna be big

when I get home. I can't wait.

Was that us?

Was that US that shot?

What's going on?

What the f***?

- What have we got?

- I was pissing!

Tried to hit the medevac bird

with a RPG.

They f***ing missed.

They were shooting at the one bird.

They had the medevac

on the ground over there,

and then the other one

was drawing fire.

Motherfuckers, man.

I'm telling you.

Crazy, crazy.

Taken fire from 25.

What's your direction of movement?

- Ready?

- Yeah.

All right, here we go.

F*** you, cocksuckers!

We're going to f***ing blow them up.

They're probably like,

"Oh, look at our RPGs."

Imagine how that felt.

Southern Afghanistan,

Operation Moshtarak,

meaning "together,"

moving deeper into Marjah.

As a way to show their joint

control of the operation,

U.S. Commander

Stanley McChrystal

and Afghan general Shir Mohammed Zazi

held a press conference together.

While this is

an Afghan-led operation,

I think it highlights

the special partnership

that we've developed

that I'm very proud of.

And I would ask for the media

to watch the bravery of

Afghan National Security Forces.

We will shift

the emphasis of our mission

to increasing the size

of Afghan security forces,

so that they can eventually

take the lead

in securing their country.

This is not Marine companies

here and Afghan companies here.

This is squad and squad,

platoon and platoon

going out together.

There's a brotherhood there

of great trust

and cooperation between us.

And this isn't fluff, this isn't talk.

I mean, this is the real deal.

The Marines have great respect

for the Afghan Army,

and I think that's reciprocal.

- All right.

- Thank you.

Next question.

Kadir, you've got to be

the first one going in.

To the front!

Right behind the...guy.

There. Go.

Up front. Go.

Hey, to the right, to the right.

Go.

Hey, Rolo!

Get up here!

Little p*ssy ass.

Rolo, kick the door in,

and move out the way,

and they're gonna go in, okay?

Yes, you kick the door and move,

and they're gonna go in.

Go in as soon as he kicks the door.

Go, go!

Get the f*** in there!

Get the f*** in there.

Get the f*** in there.

Watch the corners.

Watch the corners.

Go, go, go, go, go, go.

Let's go.

Come on, let's go.

Hey, let's go.

Get in there.

Go in there.

Kick that b*tch.

It's locked.

Get in there.

Get in there.

Is it Clear?

- No good?

- Good.

It's good?

No one in there?

Real good.

No Taliban, okay.

That was a police station,

but you can tell

some other people moved in.

Taliban, Taliban.

Taliban.

Taliban. Taliban.

That's opium.

The Opium ball, which is then

processed into that.

This is about $60,000 U.S.

This is ammonium nitrate,

to make ammonium nitrate aluminum,

which is known as ANAL.

It's IED-making material.

It's my understanding that Alpha

and Charlie got minimal contact.

I mean, they've got sporadic stuff,

but it sounds like everybody,

all the fighters kind of stuck

in the center of town.

There's about 250 of them left,

and it seems like

they're all right here.

We're the only show in town

from what I understand.

So we flew in, met some

pretty significant resistance

right up front.

After we landed,

within a couple of hours,

we were attacked from 360 degrees

while we continued to push up

and seize our little foothold

of the village here.

And we lost an engineer

that was trying to bring up

breaching equipment.

You know, and I'm the one

that Called back

and told him to get the APOBS,

bring it up here.

And somebody, you know...

I can't remember who it was...

somebody was arguing with me

on the radio

about how heavy the fire was,

and I told them I don't care,

get the APOBS up here,

we've got to get into the objective.

And about a half-hour

after the incident,

I found out that doing that, you know,

one of the Marines had been killed,

had been shot, you know, in the back,

as he was moving out

to get that piece of gear.

We always go into these fights,

we know...

You know, in a fight like this,

I know that I'm gonna lose Marines,

but this guy was doing exactly a task

that I told him we needed to do,

and, you know...

he get killed doing it.

So that's...

That was definitely the lowest

point I've had so far.

That...that took me awhile

to reconcile in my head.

And we move on now to Afghanistan

and the massive battle

to clear the Taliban stronghold

of Marjah.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says

the Taliban is being squeezed.

Our hope is clearly

that this is creating

a certain amount of discontent, worry,

turmoil within the organization,

such that it is.

Whoa!

Holy f***, that's right there.

Hey, it's in the bazaar.

He's blowing up the bazaar.

Roger.

Okay. Come on.

So they're hitting it short,

which means they're going to be

adjusting on us.

- Yes.

- Keep f***ing down!

Holy f***.

There's a bunch of propane tanks

on fire.

The gas station's

about to f***ing blow up.

Get back.

What's he got?

They're trying to close in.

A Taliban spokesman insisted

that insurgents were resisting

and the town remained

under their control.

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