This series of meetings over two days involved more than 800 representatives of the people of Nuristan, and had the goal of bringing order and economic development to the region. Follow-up attacks attempted by Taliban forces were subsequently thwarted by U.S. It took place while First Lieutenant Kaine Meshkin (not in the film) was leading a patrol to Observation Post Fritsche. 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. [32] Staff Sgt. It looked just like our outpost on the day of the battle. Brown would also note that it was a failure of leadership on Porter's part because of Porter's absolute refusal to explain to his troops why the mortars were being limited. 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. [5][7]:53141 Observation Post ("OP") Fritsche was attacked simultaneously, limiting available support from that position. The shops name means house of culture.. [7]:1238,1368,18191,407, From August 8 to November 25 of 2006, strenuous efforts were made to supply and expand the PRT by supply convoys using the Landay-Sin valley road from Naray FOB. Seven other Americans and one ANA soldier were wounded. [9], Bravo Troop, 3rd Squadron "Destroyers", 61st Cavalry Regiment manned COP Keating. It could not be seen or supported with indirect fire due to the multi-level and complicated terrain. 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. Located near the border with Pakistan in the Afghan province of Nuristan, COP Keating was the scene of a coordinated attack by as many as 300 Taliban fighters who stormed the exposed base. Combat Outpost Keating is best known as the setting of the Battle of Kamdesh which occurred on October 3rd, 2009.. After an attack on October 3, 2009, where the base was nearly . 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. Director Rod Lurie is himself a West Point graduate and an Army veteran. Some who fled even handed their weapons to Taliban fighters. David Porter (February 1, 1780 - March 3, 1843) was an officer in the United States Navy in the rank of captain and the honorary title of commodore.Porter commanded a number of U.S. naval ships. Keating was permanently shut down three days following the attack. The PRT site resembled the bottom of a funnel. Yes. Their checkpoints[11] and "taxes" was used to finance AAF operations. A common misconception is that the Taliban are primitive fighters who lack the necessary skills to be effective in battle. Without adequate support, they were left to fight for their lives against overwhelming odds. Rather off-topic but wasn't Poe at that moment demoted by Leia beforehand? For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Operation Deep Strike began on May 5, 2006. I only heard of it being a thing last year, never actually looked up when it actually happened. Despite overwhelming odds and volume of injuries, MAJ (R) Cordova was able to . prosthetic makeup effects administrator: Millennium FX. Keating's story was in the news again earlier this year; he was portrayed in the movie "The Outpost," which tells the story of one of the bloodiest battles in the war in Afghanistan. So if you see the film when it comes out over the Fourth of July weekend, know that you are not just watching a war movie. These troops were ambushed on the Naray-Kamdesh road and shot up badly enough to prevent their arrival in Kamdesh. The Outpost real story confirms that rocket-propelled grenades and mortars caused the camp to catch fire. He later set up the tactical satellite radio to coordinate air support and medevac. 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. On Oct. 3, 2009, the odds were against U.S. troops at Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan's Nuristan province, located just 10 miles from the Pakistan border. A deliberate withdrawal had been planned some time before the battle began, and the closing was part of a wider effort by the top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, to cede remote outposts and consolidate troops in more populated areas to better protect Afghan civilians. 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. Captain Bostick was killed by a rocket propelled grenade. A United States Special Operations forces soldier on the Syria-Turkey border in. Quick reaction forces (QRF) from 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment did not reach the outpost until 7:00pm that day, while insurgents remained in parts of the outpost as late as 5:10pm. Those guys were amazing. Captain Benjamin Keating Born: May 31, 1979 Birthplace: Sanford, Maine, USA Death: November 26, 2006, Kamdesh, Afghanistan (injuries suffered when vehicle turned over) Milo Gibson Born: November 16, 1990 Birthplace: Australia Captain Robert Yllescas Born: October 7, 1977 Birthplace: Guatemala City, Guatemala . Shot in the head by a Taliban sniper after being wounded by RPG fire. 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. My soldiers and I had been sharing stories since Oct. 3, 2009, when our 53 cavalry scouts fought off more than 300 Taliban fighters bent on overrunning Combat Outpost Keating in Nuristan, Afghanistan. As seen in the movie, the road in Kamdesh collapsed underneath the truck, throwing Keating from the vehicle as it rolled over a cliff, sending both himself and the truck down toward the Landay-Sin River. Even some of the dialogue is taken word for word from real life. The punishments reflect a recent trend in Afghanistan to hold military commanders accountable for battlefield failures. 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. [9] The Americans "declared the outpost closed and departedso quickly that they did not carry out all of their stored ammunition. Aaron Dove, pilot and weapon systems officer of one of the F-15E aircraft coordinating close air support, were also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. American outpost in Nuristan, Afghanistan, List of post-Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipients, "Latest Medal of Honor brings COP Keating battle back into spotlight", "A Medal of Honor recipient's ongoing burden", "COP Keating battle begins, Medal of Honor nominee Romesha takes action", "This Netflix series will tell the stories of Medal of Honor recipients", "The Battle of Kamdesh, which netted two Medals of Honor, is coming to the big screen twice", "Sony Enlists Director Daniel Espinosa, George Clooney's Smokehouse For 'Red Platoon', https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Combat_Outpost_Keating&oldid=1137949129, Military installations of the United States in Afghanistan, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 7 February 2023, at 06:20. The pick up zone for Able Troop 2nd Platoon was called PZ Reds, located on the side of an 8,000-foot mountain. [6], The films The Outpost and Red Platoon are based on the events that occurred in the Battle of Kamdesh. In the movie, a dog that some of the soldiers at the outpost are taking care of bites a visiting Kamdesh village elder. Such administrative punishments are seen as career-enders if they are made a part of a permanent personnel file. 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. Staff Sergeant Vernon Tiller, the most senior mechanic, was in the passenger's seat when it went over the cliff. Soldiers Dead in Bold Attack in Afghanistan", Attack on Afghan outposts kills 8 soldiers, "U.S. ignored warnings before deadly Afghan attack", "U.S. Military Faults Leaders in Attack on Base", "Courage at Keating: 2 Medals of Honor, 1 DSC, 8 Silver Stars for standout B Troop", "Army releases report on battle at Combat Outpost Keating battle", "Afghan insurgents pushed into U.S. base, official says", "Strategic Plans Spawned Bitter End for a Lonely Outpost", "Defense.gov News Release: DoD Identifies Army Casualties", "Defense.gov News Release: DoD Identifies Army Casualty", "Insurgents breached U.S. outpost in battle", The Gazette: Mom works to help Carson soldiers honor battle bonds, "They 'weren't going to get beat that day' the Medal of Honor recipients who held COP Keating against all odds", "US premiere of film about Battle of COP Keating and Latvian soldiers | Aizsardzbas ministrija", Latvijas Televzija: Videofilma "Afganistna. 3-71 Cavalry conducted many successful combat missions in the area surrounding the camp and repelled various attacks on the base. [17], Coalition forces received three human-source intelligence reports sometime before the battle indicating that insurgents were planning an attack on the outposts. That doesnt mean anything should be taken from the guys on the ground. It seemed like the entire COP was burning [70 percent did].. U.S. soldiers reported that none of the Afghan defenders held their positions. (The main aid station was too heavily damaged to remain in operation.). Keating saw these programs as producing mixed results. Outnumbered and outgunned, the soldiers fought. On Oct. 3, while Cordova was in the aid station keeping Mace alive, I was fighting to get back with a company of reinforcements. In Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming, Jonathan Shay calls this form of catharsis the communalization of grief, in which trauma survivors tell their stories and listeners can listen, believe and remember. This is when the circle of healing is complete. Several days after the battle, U.S. aircraft bombed the location in an effort to destroy any munitions that remained. Soldiers with 1st Plt., B Trp., 3rd Sqdn., 61st Cav Regt., 4th BCT, 4th Inf. (Multiple explosions near the ammo supply set off a series of fires at the post.). Or invite someone to subscribe through this link. The fire was so intense they had to toss smoke grenades for concealment, just to get . Why would the U.S. military put an outpost at the base of three Afghan mountains that were teeming with Taliban fighters who were eager to kill U.S. soldiers? By now, Porter had strained relations with nearly all of his subordinate leaders. Much of this is the result of the real-life Battle of Kamdesh veterans who were involved in the film, both as technical advisors and actors. The basic approach to victory by the PRT involved three steps: Nicholson hoped the PRT would seed a process to be developed by the Nuristanis rather than imposed from the outside. It was adapted for the screen by Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy (Patriots Day and The Fighter). Shane Courville; Cordova; George Arvidson as Cordova. Mawlawi Abdul Rahman was a local elder impressed with this new approach. And appearing Holdo's subordinates were well aware of the plain. Eventually, supporting aircraft scattered the attackers; while air support provided decisive results. The difference there being the writers seemingly supporting her reticence to explain anything. To make amends with the woman and her family, Meshkin agreed to shoot a shaggy brown dog named Franklin. Combat Outpost Keating was a small American military outpost in Nurestan Province, in Afghanistan. The assassin was later found in Urmul and appeared to have the assistance of one of the Afghan day laborers at Camp Keating and the acquiescence of Urmul's elders. Fallen Heroes 3-61 Cavalry, 4th BCT, 4th ID. I was not on the outpost when the battle kicked off. The Taliban surprised the outpost with mortar fire and a massive infantry assault which partly overran and nearly destroyed COP Keating, and, while the Americans and their allies held off several Taliban attacks on the base in the bloodiest battle in Afghanistan since the 2008 Battle of Wanat, the outpost was shut down shortly after and its depot As a result, the depot was looted by the Taliban. In Afghanistan, MAJ (R) Cordova was involved in the Battle of Kamdesh at Combat Outpost Keating on the 3rd of October 2009. Because the reports had not been verified by other intelligence sources, such as electronic intelligence, the reports were discounted. Formalized as "The Commitment of Mutual Support" the agreement also provided the Shura would provide local security in return for an end to uninvited American military searches of local towns and mosques. [7]:327328 The nearest attack helicopters were located in Jalalabad, a thirty-minute flight away. In May 2016 CBS News profiled Staff Sergeant Romesha, after he published an account of his experiences at the base, entitled Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor. The camp was defended by a combined force of 140 U.S. and Afghan soldiers. Unlike Donahue, Nicholson was a supporter of COIN in addition to seeing Kamdesh as a decisive control point. They should had just followed their fucking orders. Breaches occurred at a latrine area close to the perimeter wire; also the main entrance where civilian Afghan security guards were overwhelmed; and from the eastern sidewhere Afghan National Army soldiers were stationed. This includes Scott Eastwood's character, Staff Sergeant Clinton Romesha, telling the men, "We're taking this bitch back," after the camp is partially overrun by Taliban fighters. Click here for complete coverage of the Afghan war. Lurie, a West Point graduate and Army veteran, listened to what I had to say and agreed to let me visit the set. "It is one of the most well-planned and carefully choreographed attacks in the history of the Afghan war," Tapper told NPR. Justin Gallegos' Silver Star was later upgraded to a Distinguished Service Cross. The military's failure to close Combat Outpost Keating earlier likely contributed to the Battle of Kamdesh, which resulted in eight U.S. soldiers losing their lives, while 27 others were left wounded. Despite the efforts of two Latvian military advisors, First Sergeant Jnis Lais and Corporal Mrti Dboli,[21] who tried to convince the Afghan National Army forces not to flee,[22] the Afghan defenders quickly broke and ran. The report concluded that it was the lack of adequate defenses that made Keating "an attractive target" for the Taliban. The first effort was made by First Lieutenant Dave Roller. Given its proximity to Pakistan, Combat Outpost Keating was part of a counter-insurgency strategy. | Trademarks and service marks of VFW. "We're surrounded, and we're sitting in a bowl," Porter said on "Good Morning America" today. Captain Sylvanius Broward (Kwame Patterson), whom the men refer to as "Broward the Coward," shoots the dog to appease the elder and calm the situation. JavaScript is disabled. The enemy was obviously superior in numbers but not superior in discipline, professionalism and fighting skill, Col. Randy George, of the 4th BCT told the Colorado Springs Gazette in 2011. These groups could clash violently over water rights, pasture, and religious beliefs. American military operations in Kamdesh were affected as soon as units began gathering for deployment in the area. This was a re-deployment from the Cowkay and Korangal Valleys to Kamdesh. Air Force Capt. He discussed their common values as leaders of families and communities working toward a better future. It was only then that I truly appreciated how important the listeners role is in the healing process. His wounds were severe and while he was initially in and out of consciousness, he died before they could get him back to the outpost. Keating was killed in November 2006 when he volunteered for a dangerous mission to drive an army truck loaded with supplies up to the camp, along treacherous 200-foot cliffs. Then tragedy struck again. Keating died while serving at the base in 2006 and it was . Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, View Video of Taliban Fighters in the Camp. The outpost's depot was promptly looted by the insurgents and bombed by American planes in an effort to destroy the lethal munitions left behind."[10]. As they filmed one take after another, Cordova clenched his jaw and swallowed back tears, reliving the most traumatic day of his life. Once OP Fritsche soldiers gained control of their mortar pit, Sgt. Relief had been slowed in reaching COP Keating due to a lack of available aircraft and density of terrain. The Soviets had to contend with a rebel group known as the Dawlet of eastern Nuristan. [18], At about 3:00a.m. on October 3, over 350 Taliban backed insurgents ordered all Kamdesh villagers to leave the area. An officer also received administrative punishment for his role in a delayed artillery response to an ambush last September on a joint U.S.-Afghan patrol that left four Marines and nine Afghans dead. Defense officials confirm that two senior officers who oversaw the forces at COP Keating have received administrative punishments that could impact their careers. The soldiers left so quickly that they didn't take all of the ammunition. After dispensing with the enemy, QRF continued their descent and entered the outpost at approximately 7:00pm. He was the last commander of Combat Outpost Keating. In the process, the truck rolled over him and ended up almost fully submerged in the river. Tiller was also thrown from the truck but his injuries weren't nearly as severe. From November through January 2008 members of the Shura traveled the villages of the Kamdesh area, informing the residents of the support agreement and stating that the era of holy war was over, and that local government would bring peace and prosperity. 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. As I neared the camp that evening, Cordovas voice crackled through my radio and asked for more blood donors. [4] She noted two claims the military put forward in its report: first, the resources to relocate the base had not been available because the brigade was concentrating on guarding a village that Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, considered strategically important. That doesnt mean anything should be taken from the guys on the events that occurred in the movie a. 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