Guard Soldiers Fight 'Battle of the Boneyard' in Afghanistan
By Master Sgt. Bob Haskell, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service
ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 28, 2003 – Army National Guard infantry soldiers held their ground and gave back everything they were getting during a firefight with Afghan militants who ambushed them outside the capital city of Kabul in western Afghanistan shortly after midnight on Oct. 12.
One soldier, Lt. Col. Thomas Brewer, was injured when he took two hits in the chest of his bulletproof vest during the Battle of the Boneyard, so named because the action took place among the remains of armored vehicles left in the dumping ground by former Soviet Union soldiers.
About a dozen Army Guard soldiers eventually got in on the fight. No other American troops were hurt during the desert engagement that lasted for about an hour under a full moon.
The action demonstrated the value of Army training for National Guard soldiers, giving them the skills to handle themselves in close combat.
Brewer still is in Afghanistan and is said to be recovering from his injuries, which included a nicked shoulder and bullet fragments in one of his knees.
Georgia Army Guard Maj. Thomas Hanley was briefly pinned down by enemy fire punctuated by green tracers before dashing to safety under the covering fire of his comrades.
"I can't figure out why I didn't get hit. All of our training paid off when we needed it," Hanley recounted at the Army National Guard's Readiness Center in Arlington, Va., 10 days after the engagement that resulted in the capture of 17 Afghan militants and multiple enemy weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, according to his report.
Three additional militants, also suspected of taking part in the ambush, were later arrested after seeking medical attention for gunshot wounds at local hospitals, the report stated.
"Most of us didn't know each other very well, but there was not one of us who did not help save someone else," Hanley said. "All of us are proud that we did what we did and survived. And we took some terrorists off the battlefield."
The situation began at 12:40 a.m. on that October Sunday when a single shot from a battle-scarred, three-story building apparently was fired at five Guard soldiers traveling in two pickup trucks through the boneyard toward the Kabul Military Training Center, according to three of those soldiers.
Hanley, Rhode Island National Guard Lt. Col. Kevin Gouveia, who is a retired police lieutenant, and Florida National Guard Master Sgt. Thomas Siter, who serves full-time at Fort Benning, Ga., provided the detailed accounts of how the quiet ride after a long day of training escalated into an ambush and a pitched battle between Army Guard soldiers and former members of the Afghan Militia Force.
Brewer, who is helping to oversee the training program for the new Afghan National Army, and Oklahoma National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Donald Longfield, one of the trainers, were the others who initially came under fire.
Ironically, they were ambushed after observing a night training ambush conducted by Afghan National Army junior officers and noncommissioned officers who were going through a combat leaders course.
Brewer ordered the two vehicles to stop and the soldiers to take cover in the boneyard behind the abandoned, battered armored vehicles. Then he led Hanley and Siter to a low stone wall about 35 yards from the large building to determine whether this was an attack or if it was safe to drive on. Brewer and Hanley had radios.
"Brewer made his way beyond the wall to confirm the suspected enemy situation," Hanley wrote, and was hit by enemy fire as shooting from the building intensified and as the Americans fired back. Hanley lost radio contact with Brewer for a few minutes, but explained that he and Siter refused to leave Brewer behind.
"Oklahoma Sioux, talk to me. Come on, talk to me," Hanley recalled speaking into his radio, hoping -- praying -- that Brewer would answer.
Meanwhile, Gouveia was firing at the building, and Longfield was radioing for help near the two parked trucks.
Over the next 45 minutes, according to Hanley's account, five more Army Guard soldiers and a Gurkha soldier, members of a quick-reaction force from the Vermont Guard, arrived from the site of the combat leaders course. Brewer regained radio contact with Hanley, and in a weakened voice plotted his route of escape over the wall. Siter ran back to the position near the trucks under Hanley's covering fire. Hanley was pinned down by a barrage of enemy fire before summoning the strength to run and crawl back to the trucks, as the other friendly soldiers poured fire into the second- story room where the enemy troops were located.
Hanley then divided the force into two teams and told everyone the route Brewer would follow back to their location.
"Shots snapped back and forth between the large building and the line of friendly teams as Brewer appeared climbing and stumbling over the stone wall," Hanley reported. "He ran unsteady, hunched over, dragging his weapon, head down and limped toward safety. Gouveia ran toward Brewer off to the right, along with the Gurkha, aiding Brewer back to safety."
Longfield, meanwhile, had contacted higher headquarters on the radio and requested quick-reaction forces from the Kabul Military Training Center, which was about two miles away, and from Camp Phoenix, which was about five miles away.
Four soldiers, three of them military police, arrived at 1:33 p.m. and were split between the two teams. Brewer coordinated the reinforcements' arrival over the radio. One of the military police soldiers fired an illumination grenade into the enemy position.
"Seeing clear troop movement, both teams blanketed the building with suppressive fire," Hanley wrote. "Light enemy return fire persisted but ended quickly. After that, limited semi-automatic shots were exchanged between the building and the two fire teams. Ammunition and water were distributed (between) the two teams and sectors of fire were established along with left and right limits. The group would now hunker down to wait for quick reaction force support."
That came at 1:48 a.m. as 19 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division pulled in, armed with heavy machine guns and automatic grenade launchers. Medics treated Brewer in their ambulance. Members of an International Security Assistance Force arrived at 2:35 a.m., according to Hanley's report.
By then the shooting was over, and 10th Mountain soldiers cleared the large building and smaller buildings in the compound after daybreak. That's when the 17 Afghan militia troops were taken prisoner, and rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 rifles were discovered.
The long night was over. Brewer already had been evacuated, and the other Army Guard soldiers were ordered to Camp Phoenix for debriefings and recovery, Hanley said.
The three soldiers interviewed for this report claim that their years of infantry, ranger and Special Forces seasoning certainly paid off, even though none had been in combat, including Gouveia who served for 23 years on the North Smithfield, R.I., police force.
They do have their own perspectives of the incident.
"I was in a rage. I can still hear the 'Whack! Whack! Whack!' of the bullets going by my head," said Hanley about what seemed like an eternity pinned down near the wall. "I was amazed at how quickly everyone got into the business of fighting. It was like we all decided it's grown-up time, so let's do this right," he added. "I learned that there are times when you have to give your faith to others. You have to believe they will fight to save you."
Siter, who has been a ranger company first sergeant and who has trained rangers at Fort Benning during his 17 years in uniform, said, "It seemed almost like a well-rehearsed battle drill on a live-fire range. But the silhouettes were shooting back.
"I learned to never take anything for granted," added Siter, who commanded one of the two fire teams that night. "Never assume that everything is OK, that it can't happen to you."
Gouveia stressed the value of realistic training.
"It validated the idea that training should be as realistic as possible, that commanders should make sure their soldiers are properly trained," explained Gouveia, who served for about 20 years in an Army Guard Special Forces line company. He now commands the 243rd Regional Training Center in Rhode Island.
He will return to Afghanistan in November, Gouveia explained, as part of the staff from the Rhode Island and Texas regional training centers that will help train Afghan National Army soldiers.
He will never forget, Gouveia said, how their training made it possible for the Army National Guard soldiers who barely knew each other to come together when the chips were down and work "like a rifle company that had been together for 10 years."
He also recalled how it felt to return safe and sound to his wife and his son and daughter in Rhode Island on Oct. 17. "Home", Gouveia said, "looked pretty darned good."
(Army Master Sgt. Bob Haskell is assigned to the National Guard Bureau.)
