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Ambush!
NARRATOR: AN ELITE INFANTRY GROUP...
...PINNED DOWN BY THE TALIBAN...
They're shooting from that crack right there!
Oh beep!
NARRATOR: BATTLE FOR THEIR LIVES IN A CLOSE QUARTERS AMBUSH.
This is about the hairiest situation I've ever been in.
DAN SHAKAL: Anyone who says they're not scared is full
of beep.
NARRATOR: AND... Get down!
NARRATOR: ...AFTER REPEATED ATTACKS FROM AN ENEMY COMPOUND
We need beep fire over there!
NARRATOR: ...THE MARINES TAKE REVENGE
Rapid fire!
JOSH VANCE: We knew we were gonna go take a beep on
the Taliban's lawn.
NARRATOR: THEIR FOOTAGE.
THEIR WORDS.
Go beep mental!
NARRATOR: THEIR WAR.
GREGORY LUCAS: There were only a few instances in which I wrote
a letter to my wife because I thought that there would be a
good chance that I wouldn't come home and this was definitely
one of them.
July 18th, we got a mission stating that we were gonna make
a major movement into a place that was called Mongah Zoldag,
a small city where the Taliban had originated.
We knew it was a dangerous place.
JUSTIN BLACK: That was a pretty, pretty key piece of terrain.
We had to go down there and show the enemy, the Taliban,
that you don't own this place, the Afghanis own this village.
Swing around.
JUSTIN BLACK: That day we had the ANA with us.
Hey, let's go, let's go, let's go.
We had gotten intel from the get go that there might be an ambush
set up, didn't know where, so that was kind of a crap shoot
whether it was gonna be right around the bend or a kilometre
down the way.
GREGORY LUCAS: My team led the way for this mission. Go.
I was the front man. We were far up.
You don't want to be grouped together or else you become
a larger target.
JUSTIN BLACK: There's always that little birdie chirping in
your ear, you're like something doesn't feel right here.
Two-two Alpha lets pick it up a little bit.
Have those dudes search them and go.
We are sitting in a beep narrow *** alley way and we got people
on the other side of this wall.
JUSTIN BLACK: I was in charge of my squad and we didn't know
where the threat was, whether it be right, wrong,
I made the decision to go down the canal.
You said we're taking the east side?
So in case, if one of them gets in contact we're both not
in contact.
GREGORY LUCAS: I had a reporter, Dan Shakal, with me.
My team went about a hundred meters forward of the rest
of the platoon.
Hey bring it in. Tighten it up a little bit.
GREGORY LUCAS: We needed to move forward and scout the area
to clear a safe route for the rest of the platoon.
DAN SHAKAL: I was walking with Lucas,
we were at the very front.
All of a sudden...
Ambush! They're in the trees!
They just opened up on us. Get back in to town.
GREGORY LUCAS: We were lining this canal with one team
of Taliban about thirty feet from us southwest.
We had another team of Taliban engaging us from about fifty
meters behind us.
The platoon was trapped. It was a close quarters ambush.
The statistics for close quarters ambush are typically
around 85% death rate, to a 15% survival rate.
Pull Back: We're in an ambush, west side of the canal.
They're in the trees!
JUSTIN BLACK: There were some trees pretty much up against
the wall of the canal, that was a good place for the Taliban
to take cover from and return fire.
DAN SHAKAL: There's nowhere to go.
Them guys just fought it out.
Hey! Are you guys okay?
I need a magazine!
DAN SHAKAL: Their training kicks in instantly.
Get that gun team up here!
Black was firing right away, Lucas was right on top of him.
He was lighting them up pretty good.
The only thing that was going through my head was,
I need to gain superiority over these guys in order to push
them back.
They say if you come upon a predatorial animal you want
to make yourself as big as possible to scare them away.
That's what you do during fire superiority.
You lay it on the line.
Yeah! Eat that beep!
Hey, you have friendlies down here running.
GREGORY LUCAS: Unfortunately, because myself and my team were
so close to the Taliban, the only weapons we could use were
small arms weapons...
...small hand grenades, and things of that nature.
Trying to limit their advance.
Big weapons have such a large kill radius around them.
We didn't want to make any friendly casualties.
We had to fight the old style and fight our way through it.
Two-Six do we have eyes on the eastern wall?
They're shooting from that crack right there. Come on.
DAN SHAKAL: At one point was a crack in the wall,
which was right across the canal from us.
Lucas knew they were coming so he threw a frag in.
Frag out!
Anyone who says they're not scared is full of beep.
There's bullets impacting feet or inches from you.
Are you getting all this?
GREGORY LUCAS: We got a lot of bullets flying around us.
I had rounds, just about ricocheting off my helmet
on all sides.
What side of the canal?
I knew that I may not be able to get out,
but you put those feelings on the backburner.
...to the left!
Every man needs to be a part of that team and do their job
a hundred percent in order to get everybody out.
I need eyes on the eastern side of the canal!
They're advancing on us, over.
DAN SHAKAL: Lucas could see them getting closer because they
would set up a new firing point.
He tried to limit their advance and push them back.
But they kept firing.
GREGORY LUCAS: Justin Black just about got hit in the face.
From what we saw in the video, if he hadn't ducked down,
probably would have taken a few rounds in the face.
JUSTIN BLACK: That was actually pretty close.
A lot closer a call than I wanted to experience,
that's for sure.
GREGORY LUCAS: It was a close quarters ambush.
We needed the type of firepower to drive the enemy back.
We had to fight in order to be able to move back.
So that we could free up a large enough radius in order to launch
those big weapons: the mortars and RPGs.
I need eyes on the eastern side of the canal!
They're advancing on us, over.
This is definitely the most serious situation I've been
in all the fire fights that I've been in.
DAN SHAKAL: It was scary as hell being in that little hole.
This is about the hairiest situation I've ever been in,
my life. All my tours. No beep.
They're advancing.
GREGORY LUCAS: My team was so close to the Taliban.
You're diving and ducking from bullets.
Justin Black just about got hit in the face
JUSTIN BLACK: It was a lot closer call than I wanted.
GREGORY LUCAS: I knew that we were still in heavy contact,
and we needed to do something to get them to push back in order
to apply some other tactics.
We can't do anything right now, except for sit on our ***.
Whenever we got into combat, I loved to shoot the 40mm grenade
launcher.
Some of the guys gave me the nickname of 40 millimetre.
Shooting grenades is one of the best ways to get the enemy to
become afraid and change their mind about the type of moves
they're making on us.
*** yeah!
DAN SHAKAL: Those grenades definitely limited
the Taliban's movement.
We're starting to limit their advance.
Gentlemen get ready. Stay low...
...stay real beep low, alright.
It's going to be right up on this wall.
DAN SHAKAL: After grenades shooting at them,
the gunfire died down a bit.
We'll probably set mortars up, we're getting a gun team up
right now.
GREGORY LUCAS: We finally had a good chance to move back,
in order to launch the mortars and gain superiority over
these guys.
Hey we're getting ready. Lay suppressive fire for us.
DAN SHAKAL: We waited for suppressive fire from the rear
to get us out of this tight spot.
Keep it moving.
Once that happened, Black ordered us to run up the wall.
Come on! Move, move, move.
We ran up the canal.
They were shooting at us on the way,
but we had to get out of there. It was a bad place to be.
Two-Six.
They're still shooting at us. Yeah they are. Woo!
GREGORY LUCAS: The fact that we made it out alive was a miracle
in itself.
The moment when we were running back to another piece of cover
in order to launch the mortars, we encountered a friendly Afghan
National Army soldier in the process of shooting an RPG.
Oh beep. Watch the RPG blast.
DAN SHAKAL: If you're behind one of them things when it goes off,
it could put a hurting on you.
Hey cover your ears, cover your ears.
Cover your mouth Cover your ears.
RPG. RPG....
Beep!
GREGORY LUCAS: We basically just pulled out the big guns and went
from the small arms to launching mortars.
I want to take a team over here to the west. Roger.
Don't push it too far south.
We're going to shoot 81's. Roger.
DAN SHAKAL: We were dropping mortars on them at the original
firing point where they opened up on us.
Dropping 81s on them. We lit them up pretty good.
They had called in an A-10 strike.
Once them guys hear that jet up there, they get out.
JUSTIN BLACK: You know we scared them away with our overwhelming
force.
After that we just kind of regrouped and started walking
back to the strong point.
You have a good time? Oh, good time.
Good time, beep yeah. You good, you good.
JUSTIN BLACK: Man that was pretty wild.
For everything like that to happen, the way it did,
is pretty intense.
DAN SHAKAL: Later it hit me, holy beep, the Taliban,
they were just inches, you know, away.
How they didn't kill me and Lucas, I have no idea.
GREGORY LUCAS: I beat the odds, somehow, someway.
Hey Vance, you're good out there, right?
Yeah, we're good over here.
JOSH VANCE: Herati is the main village to the south
and it was the kinetic launch point for the Taliban.
AJ MANGLONA: The Taliban would use the actual village to launch
patrols and ambushes.
JEFF BADGETT: We kept getting hit by Herati, hit, hit, hit,
over and over again.
We learned that they don't sleep in this village,
you know they just come and fight us from it because
it's a great spot.
JOSH VANCE: We were told you can go down there an meet them head
on, that was letting the dog off the chain.
We knew we were going to go take a beep on the Taliban's lawn
and we like beep on their lawn.
This is gonna be interesting. Yeah.
JOSH VANCE: Our Lieutenant shows up with the British squad
and all the ANA, Afghan National Army.
Our mission was to hold back the Taliban and push
them farther south.
We were going to move southwest and swing right
of the Herati wall.
AJ MANGLONA: The Herati wall blocked the actual village
of Herati.
We didn't know what the terrain was like behind the wall
or what was going on.
Is that the wall right there? Yeah.
Straight through the trees?
JOSH VANCE: It was gonna be a short patrol to make our
presence known....
Short patrol. Man, were they wrong.
We were gonna do a patrol.
We were going to move southwest.
Kind of swing right of the Herati wall and see what
we could find.
JEFF BADGETT: Herati was a real beep hole of a little town.
There's this huge wall there and it was a great area to ambush
us from.
JOSH VANCE: Our lieutenant shows up with the British squad
and all the ANA Afghan National Army.
We stepped off on patrol when all hell broke lose
Bleep. Get down!
They're *** close. Get down!
JOSH VANCE: We get rocked. Hard.
We need fire, south!
We need xxxxxx We need beep fire over there!
Start moving!
When we get hit, disjointed is a good word to use.
We've got a firing position from the southeast.
East and south.
It was no longer an L shaped ambush like we're used to.
On the direct front, on the direct right of the patrol.
Beep!
We got hit harder than normal. Hit hard from the Herati wall.
JOSH VANCE: It was a U shaped ambush.
We were hit on three different sides at once.
JEFF BADGETT: It's one of the worse ambushes ever
to be caught in. Guys!
We need L-Shape!
JOSH VANCE: We proceed to return and exchange fire
for the next hour. Christ Almighty.
We were all guns up. Safeties off.
Let's get some beep rounds down!
Get in that corner with your machine gun.
Beep kill someone!
Major, we're taking fire from the north.
We're still pinned down to the east!
That's it. Beep kill people!
JEFF BADGETT: The Taliban they had moved right behind our lines
JOSH VANCE: The further south we move,
the closer you're getting to the Taliban who have devoted
their entire life to trying to kill you.
Get down!
RPG!
JOSH VANCE: It got bad real fast.
Casualty - shot in the neck!
And that's when our buddy in the British armour team got shot
in the neck. Ahh!
They called back to get him out of there by a heliborne medevac.
Roger. Do you got an ETA for that chopper? Over.
The medevac chopper tried to land more than once and got shot
up every time.
Where's this beep bird?
There it is. Here it comes.
The air is coming in! Go beep nuts!
And for the next two hours, The medevac chopper still couldn't
land.
What we got?
JEFF BADGETT: We knew someone got hit,
but we didn't know exactly how bad or any of that.
You kind of have to put it out of your mind and keep fighting.
AJ MANGLONA: When the chaos ensues...
RPG!
...you hear nothing but the sound of your voice and
the chatter on the radio.
Move right, right, bye bye bye.
JOSH VANCE: We swung to our direct west which was behind our
position because we were facing east and the enemy had shifted
behind us again.
That was about the fifth time that day.
You're beep joking. You Marines!
Aim for the flankers! We need beep fire over there!
We were trying to hit targets where we could,
but it was very difficult. Keep it deliberate fire.
One every six seconds.
AJ MANGLONA: The biggest challenge of this particular
firefight was the Herati wall.
Open Fire!
JEFF BADGETT: There's this huge wall there that's probably
ten foot tall.
It has trees all in the inside of it on the backside so
they can climb these trees and be in great cover behind a foot
thick wall.
Unless you hit them directly on top of them,
it's not going to phase them a whole lot.
Stand by for grenade!
AJ MANGLONA: We had a lot of the automatic weapons,
the SAWs and the two forties and we would fire them into the tree
lines and it wasn't doing anything effective.
On three.
One. Two. Three. Pull back!
AJ MANGLONA: Someone's fighting from wall level,
they're actually fighting twenty feet off the ground.
It makes them even harder to see.
JEFF BADGETT: The biggest rounds that we have are barely gonna go
through this.
You know, we needed more help.
Beep! RPG! Yeah!
JOSH VANCE: We had to have serious air cover come in just
to hold them back,
Start moving!
and to get that British soldier out of there.
Start moving! Give him cover.
Here comes the bird.
It's literally on your right shoulder now.
When it comes in here, we'll just go beep mental.
All section Marines.
Start serving everything you beep got. Stand by.
The bird's coming in, go beep mental!
JEFF BADGETT: It took us hours, but they finally medevaced out
the wounded soldier.
RPG. Yeah. Beep.
Keep going! He's up!
JOSH VANCE: Once we got our wounded out,
the gloves came off.
RPG! Beep do it!
AJ MANGLONA: Shot multiple small ammo rounds at the wall and
nothing happened, so ultimately we knew that we had to take
the wall down.
JOSH VANCE: HIMARs are highly mobile artillery rocket systems.
Yeah. What now beep?
We call them Thor's hammer. They make a loud sonic boom.
That's gorgeous.
They dropped nine of those in a row on the Herati wall.
JOSH VANCE: Needless to say, it shut up the Taliban for a while.
That was their safe haven. Big crater right there.
To blow it to smithereens and rip it out was our punch
to the gut to the Taliban.
This is our playground now, you are not welcome.
You need to find a new home and go back to whatever hell hole
you crawled out from.