Green Berets Recount Deadly Taliban Ambush

Special Forces Troops Tell 60 Minutes Taliban Fighters Better Organized Than They Expected





Text Size:  A  A  A
Play Video
PlayVideo

Ambush In Afghanistan

U.S. Army Special Forces say they were shocked by military tactics used by Taliban fighters who ambushed them near Kandahar, Afghanistan, in their first account of the unreported battle. Lara Logan reports. | Share/Embed


Answers.com

(CBS) "Seeing Hernandez propped up at that ridiculous angle was absolutely inspiring," says O'Connor. "You could see the tracer rounds actually flail the wall in front of him. And he'd duck down and then pop back up and tracer rounds were coming, they were whizzing right by our heads."

"Were you amazed by Hernandez, what was he was doing?" Logan asks.

"I was. I was," O'Connor says, tearing up.

"Brendan says he's never seen anything more inspiring or motivating than that moment when he laid eyes on you," Logan tells Hernandez.

"And I’d say the same thing about him," Hernandez replies.

While Hernandez was firing from the ladder, O'Connor started to crawl under fire across an open field to rescue the two wounded Americans. With no cover, his thick body armor made him an easy target.

"I actually pulled back to cover, to a covered position and removed my body armor," O'Connor remembers.

O'Connor says he couldn't get low enough, and was still under fire. "There was exchanges of fire going on at all times," he remembers.

Maj. Ford said everyone watching O'Connor crawl 90 yards across the open field without his bullet-proof vest couldn't believe what he was doing.

"They described to me watching the machine gun fire go right over his body, seein' it hit grass that he was crawlin' through and seein' it mow some of that down, the fires were so heavy it was literally cutting some of the grass in different spots," Ford explains.

It took an hour and a half for O'Connor to reach Fuerst and Binney. From a rooftop, Master Sergeant Thom Maholic was single-handedly holding down a group of advancing Taliban who were threatening the rescue operation.

"They were coming to take that compound that Thom was holding. And he would stop them by killing them or wounding them. And eventually they gave up their assault," Ford explains.

"Did Thom make it possible for you to get out?" Logan asks O'Connor.

"Absolutely," he replies.

Asked if he couldn't have done it without him, O'Connor says, "Absolutely not."

Then Maholic took a bullet in the head. Abram Hernandez rushed to his aide but there was little he could do. Maholic died in his arms.

Joe Fuerst also died as Sgt. O'Connor tried to carry him to safety. At this point, other members of the team, including Staff Sergeant Brandon Pechette, began to think no one would make it out alive.

Asked if he was afraid, Pechette tells Logan, "I was, at a point. There was a lull. When I heard that Thom Maholic and Joe had passed it was kind of a point where we're like, 'Well, we're still surrounded, you know? What are we gonna do? Well, we’ll keep fighting.' So, I pull out a notebook. Wrote a little quick note to my wife. Said goodbye and said, 'Well, if I'm goin', I'm takin' as many as I can with me. And we're gonna fight as bravely as we can.'"

After nearly two days of fighting, two men lost and one seriously wounded, the Green Berets were almost out of ammunition.

Continued

   1  |   2  |  3  |   4  >







Text Size:  A  A  A

Comments [ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not CBS News stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

Back To Top Back To Top



Feith: Iraq Attack Was Preemptive
Pentagon Insider Douglas Feith Tells 60 Minutes Attack On Iraq Was Anticipatory Self-Defense; Not 9/11 Retaliation

Section Front Page  |  RSS RSS