bottom of three steep mountains. soldiers had been fatally attacked there before. in 2007, private chris pfeiffer. in 2008, camp commander captain rob yeskis. and near there a different camp commander, captain tom boss tick. as lethal as its position was the outpost s terrain. the camp was named for lieutenant ben keating, killed when his truck rolled over the treacherous side of the road leading to the camp. i knew it was a bad spot, and i knew that previous commanders had expired there. but to sit there and dig up every little detail on it, you know, it just it wasn t healthy for the guys to be exposed to that kind of information. so you r very first day at combat outpost keating there was an attack and a soldier with the
happen. tell me why it s so important to you that the enemy not get their hands on a dead american soldier. why does that thought bother you so much? because they re ours. i mean, to give closure to the family, you know, to have their son one more time. i mean, i m we re not going to leave someone behind. never going to do it. the men retrieved the bodies of justin gallegos, vernon martin, and chris griffin. but enemy fire kept them from rescuing sergeant john breeding
rifle that had belonged to an afghan soldier and walked outside. i remember seeing three guys walk right by the entry control point. three taliban. i mean, like they thought they d already won, you know, strolled in like johnny on the block. and i sat there and it threw me for a second, you know. just one of those are you serious moments. they didn t see you. they had no idea i was sitting there. got this russian sniper rifle still, and they were less than 100 meters away. this is a give-me. this is a freebie. posted up and dropped the guy in the middled. elsewhere on base, private chris jones encountered a similar scene. i look up, and they look like workers, you know. they can t be workers. they got guns on them.
platoon leaving, shane scherer, got a massive head wound. other guys got sprinkled with shrapnel. to have that instant, you know, action and that reality check right off the bet really helped set the tempo to know what to prep the guys for, but it also gave you that instant sense of, we re not over here selling girl scout cookies, guys. we re in a real fight. romesha and his men knew it was not a question of if there would be a major attack but when.
0 i did not think i would ever be guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier. we need to realize your freedom isn t free. it really isn t. thousands of soldiers have died for our country. i don t look at it just as three unknown soldiers i m guarding, i look all the soldiers that gave their live for this country. october 3, 2009. a storm of bullet s rockets, grenades and mortars rained down on a u.s. outpost in eastern afghanistan deep it in a valley. the taliban had found a perfect target, keating. studied by the enemy since it was set up three years before as seen in the taliban s own video. time and again since the post was kraicreated in 2006, its defenses were tested by the taliban. but on that october morning in 2009, the enemy staged its fiercest attack yet. the high ground and their vastly superior numbers gave the taliban a huge advantage. eight americans would be killed in a battle that lasted from dawn till dusk and would come to symbolize the end of a military strategy to