In the Company of Heroes: The Inspiring Stories of Medal of Honor Awardees From America's Longest Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq by James Kitfield

Author:James Kitfield [KITFIELD, JAMES]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Military, history, Middle East, Iraq, United States
ISBN: 9781546085799
Google: IZEszQEACAAJ
Publisher: Center Street
Published: 2021-11-15T23:44:50.417915+00:00

Chapter 11

Last Man Standing

Army Specialist Kyle J. White

First Lieutenant Matthew Ferrara and his paratroopers stared in surprise as the men of the village of Aranas continued to file into the crowded room to hold a shura, or consultation, council with the Americans. While these were normally small meetings with a handful of village elders, the shura on November 9, 2007, was attended by what looked like every village male of fighting age and above. They wanted to know how U.S. troops could make their lives better, and they listened to everything Lieutenant Ferrara had to say through his interpreter. The “Sky Soldiers” of 1st Platoon, Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade started to believe they really could do some good with this outreach.

When the elders of Aranas first invited the U.S. troops to a shura council there was a lot of suspicion in the battalion headquarters. Combat Outpost Ranch House, situated on the mountain overlooking the village in the Waygal Valley, had been attacked and nearly overrun months earlier. Eleven U.S. soldiers were wounded, leading to the closure of the outpost. U.S. commanders suspected that the elders of Aranas had colluded in the attack, and ever since there had been little communication with the village.

The night before the meeting, fourteen paratroopers from 1st Platoon and a squad of Afghan National Army soldiers had entered Aranas under the cover of darkness, bunking down in an American-built schoolhouse in the center of the village. The schoolhouse was obviously not being used, an apt metaphor for the well-meaning but often misguided U.S. civil affairs projects designed to win, if not the hearts and minds, at least the grudging cooperation of the local populace.

On the morning of November 9, the scheduled shura council was repeatedly pushed back. The Americans were told that morning prayers among the elders had run longer than anticipated. First Platoon was getting antsy by early afternoon, and then seemingly every man in the village showed up to hear what they had to say. Lieutenant Ferrara was encouraged by the big turnout, and detailed other projects besides the schoolhouse that the United States could help launch in the village. Then he was interrupted by Sergeant Phillip Bocks, a Marine Embedded Training Team member. The no-nonsense Bocks said his Afghan interpreter was hearing nearby radio chatter in a language he didn’t even recognize. What the hell could that mean?

“Sir, I think it’s best that we leave immediately,” Bocks told his commander.

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