The picture above is taken in June of 2010 at Kandahar Airfield. Sean's unit was remissioning to Kandahar City and I was getting ready to head to southern Kandahar for our own mission set. Sean was in month twelve of his thirteenth month deployment. He agreed to stay an extra month at the request of the Battalion Commander and run the S-4 shop. "Sean, please run our S-4 shop for the last month. No contact, just paper work, it wont be any big deal." Sean being the amazing kid he is said, "Absolutely Sir." Sean had already had a fairly rough deployment. He was an executive officer when one of his platoon leaders, 1LT Sal Corma USMA 08, was killed by a pressure plate half a click from their forward operating base. He had been personally selected to command a small unit in Bala Murghab after two paratroopers had drown in a river and the Army needed to recover their bodies. He successfully accomplished this mission even though his unit was severely outmanned. He had watched, while leading a patrol, as an Explosive Ordinance tech accidentally stepped on a secondary IED and was thrown lifeless into the air, be thou at peace. To say the least, he was tired but said yes to staying on to help the Battalion.
July 14, 2010- Our training meeting usually started with a monotony of pointless Battalion tasks, and I scribbled them down with little to no regard. But this morning the Company Commander walked in and said, "Hey, no missions today, full force pro. ANCOP- Hotel California in Kandahar City was overrun last night in a complex attack and RC South is currently on stand by." I froze, wait a minute, "Sir I need to see the casualty list." He said, "What?" I said, "Sir my brother is at that FOB (Forward Operating Base) I need to see the fucking casualty list."
July 13, 2010- My brother stood in the Battalion HQ (Headquarters) tent and brushed over some S-4 tasks. It was about 2100 (9:00 pm) and he was about done with dealing with the bureaucracy for the day. As he stood there he heard a massive explosion, and instinctively moved outside towards the bunkers. He ran outside quick enough to see Ak fire and RPG's flying. He then decided this was no mortar attack. He sprinted to his tent and was close lined by a low hanging rope, knocking him on his backside. He got up dazed but continued to the tent. He grabbed his gear and sprinted back to HQ. At this point RPG's were being fired into tents, AK's were being sprayed in every direction. He grabbed a fellow staff officer and started to counter attack. Buddy bounding, he watched as his buddy partner flew backwards from the impact of an AK round and slammed into a pole, as he turned he watched an insurgent throw a grenade towards him, he tried to get as low as he could behind the generator and braced. The concussion rocked him, and shrapnel went everywhere, but he was ok. He watched, as he countered attack, a man came running towards the HQ's, about 100 meters from him and blew himself up as he ran into the Chaplains Assistant. Four hours later the FOB fell silent, mass chaos ensued as in the pitch darkness they began to try and assess what was going on. Chris Goeke, USMA 2008, was one of the heroes lost that day. Several others lay lifeless or wounded. In a complex attack involving a vehicle IED breach, and multiple suicide vests, as well as RPG and AK insurgents, a nightmare had unfolded.
I prayed as my company commander handed me the casualty list. His name was not on it, but my heart ached when I saw Chris's name. A classmate that I was not extremely close to, but knew from IBOLC. A truly sad day for the US Army, but thankful that my brothers life was spared.
I am sure some of my details are off. I pieced this together from the critical incident report and what my brother is comfortable talking about. My brother has been there for me since the day I got injured. He flew in to meet me at the hospital, and two months earlier offered prayers when I was nearly killed by an RPG in July, 3 days after this attack. We have been attached at the hip since we were kids and what an honor to serve in the same country, at the same time, in the same province. When all else fails, or falls to the wayside, family is all you have and I can only hope that everyone is as blessed as I am to have such an incredible one. Thank you for listening.
Kyle - I rarely talk about that night...but I think about it everyday. Thank you for the post. Your blog is fantastic. Writing always helped me to take the weight of the world off of my shoulders over there. I hope writing these posts is as therapeutic for you as reading them is for me. -Sean
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