Kill Zone

As the weather heats up in Afghanistan, so do attacks on American and Afghan forces.

He had made the speech almost every day, every time 1st Platoon went outside the wire. Lt. William Mariani could do it in his sleep.

"If you're not in the kill zone, don't go in the kill zone. If you're in the kill zone, drive through the kill zone. If the vehicle in front of you is disabled in the kill zone, push that vehicle out of the kill zone. If there are injured in that vehicle, drive to opposite side of where they're taking contact, evacuate the injured from the vehicle and move out of the kill zone."

The morning of March 16th, Mariani would more than just say those words. He and his platoon would have to live them.

* * *

The 10th Mountain Division's 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry, Alpha Company took over Forward Operating Base Tillman from the 82nd Airborne in February. But they have made "enemy" contact more frequently than any unit in the region.

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, the weather is getting warmer and Taliban or al-Qaida fighters are no longer hindered by snow and ice blocking their entry from Pakistan.

Second, Alpha Company's commanding officer, Capt. Chris Nunn, does not subscribe to a "hold down the fort" strategy. Stabilizing the area, he believes, means making sure the villages in the area see an American military presence in support of the emerging Afghan National Army forces.

There have been assaults on observation posts and attacks on patrols, all met with fierce counterattacks that included Humvee-mounted machine guns and  Mark 19 grenade launchers, as well as artillery and sometimes even air support.

If the enemy attacks were just probes against the new unit to measure their mettle and firepower, there were probably few doubts about the unit's capabilities.

Aside from a roadside bomb, the unit did not encounter any enemy contact during my recent embed. But the day I left, the unit experienced a fierce firefight. The incident, recounted below based on an after-action report, highlights the dangers of being caught in a kill zone - an area of battle where casualties have occurred or where a commander plans to force an enemy to concentrate. It also illustrates the level of resistance Alpha Company is up against in the area, and the tactics being employed by what's believed to be Taliban and al-Qaida remnants in the area.

* * *

On the morning of March 16th, accompanied by a few squads of Afghan National Army troops riding in Ford Ranger pickup trucks, Mariani's platoon test fires their weapons. Then the convoy of humvees heads outside the wire, to the southern Khowst area in Spera District.

According to the unit's after-action report, the platoon starts taking small arms fire at 0600 zulu (about 10:30 a.m. local time).

Lt. William Mariani

Mariani, a West Point graduate from Buffalo, is as laid back as a California surfer — until circumstances require otherwise. This morning is one of those occasions, as an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) just misses his vehicle, the lead humvee, by two meters.

Mariani orders his driver, Pfc. Cory Rambo from California, to drive out of the kill zone. Rambo, a skilled driver used to threading these narrow mountain passes, floors it and pushes them out 200 meters from where they first took fire.

Mariani gets a radio call from Staff Sgt. Jose Rodriguez: an Afghan National Army pickup truck is stuck in the kill zone. It is receiving RPG and small arms fire and one Afghan soldier is dead.

Using his vehicle for cover, Rodriguez quickly sets up a mortar tube and base plate and begins firing 60-mm mortars toward the high ground to the east, where the enemy fire was coming from.

But then Mariani gets another radio call from Staff Sgt. Eric Wynn. His humvee has been hit with an RPG round that peeled back the front passenger window. Wynn has shrapnel wounds to his face. His Mark 19 gunner, Pvt. Channing Moss, has pieces of the RPG's tail-fin booster protruding from his right thigh.

Mariani orders Rambo to take the humvee back into the kill zone to the disabled Afghan Army pickup. They pull alongside the pickup, evacuate eight Afghan soldiers from the burning the wreckage and once again push out of the kill zone.

About 300 meters south of the kill zone, another humvee, this one occupied by Staff Sgt. Jonathan Peters and Sgt. Andrew Siebert, also begins taking small arms and RPG fire. But Rodriguez's 60-mm mortars seem to be finding their mark, and the attackers break off the ambush and begin retreating east over a hill.

Mariani has already radioed for a Medevac and a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) to come to their assistance. Rodriguez clears a landing zone and marks it with red smoke. When the Blackhawk helicopter arrives, Staff Sgt. Wynn and Private Moss are loaded on board, along with two wounded Afghan soldiers Mariani and his team had pulled from their vehicle.

Cpt. Chris Nunn (left)

Once Alpha Company commander Cpt. Chris Nunn arrives with the QRF team, the units, along with Afghan Army soldiers, begin clearing the ground surrounding the kill zone.

On the high ground to the east, the troops find what they describe as infiltration routes heading northeast, back toward Pakistan. Along the footpath they discover shell-casings for AK-47 assault rifles, as well as blood trails. Further up, another squad finds a backpack and a signal mirror, as well as two RPG launchers and two bags of food hanging in the trees, indicating that the attackers may have been camped in the area for a few days.

Other units find fighting positions littered with hundreds of RPK machine gun casings. Two of the humvees in Mariani's convoy have flat tires that are changed. But when Staff Sgt. Wynn's humvee is inspected it's discovered that it had been hit not with one RPG, but three — including two directly to the windshield.

Once Cpt. Nunn determines the area is clear, the units head back to Forward Operating Base Tillman, with Wynn's vehicle and thoughts of what they had experienced closely in tow.

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