He wasn't supposed to be there.
Jason Cunningham, a pararescue man, was trained to go into the hairiest situations to bring wounded out.
But the Army Rangers — with whom Senior Airman Cunningham was working — didn't think they would need him.
The Rangers didn't know what the mission would be that March night in Afghanistan in 2002 — only that some special forces were in trouble and they had to bail them out.
With limited space aboard the helicopter, the Rangers wanted to bring more of their own shooters.
Cunningham and two other Air Force special operations guys said nuts — and sneaked aboard the Chinook at Bagram Air Base.
Once aloft, it was too late to leave them behind.
"You train for years. So the last thing you want to do is play chess in the barracks," said Malcolm MacPherson, an ex-Marine and journalist, who in his book "Roberts Ridge" documented the intense battle to follow.
Tragic miscues and faulty communication systems would send that Air Force and Ranger team straight into an al-Qaida and Taliban ambush. In some of the fiercest fighting of that war, Cunningham proved his worth, braving intense fire to make sure 10 wounded Americans made it home alive.
He gave his own life in the process on that 10,240-foot-high mountain known as Takur Ghar — and would land the Air Force Cross, the highest award for an airman short of the Medal of Honor.
Cunningham, born March 27, 1975, grew up in Carlsbad, N.M. He joined the Navy after high school. While stationed in Italy, he met a Navy-enlisted woman, Theresa de Castro, who became his wife and mother of his two daughters.
After a year out of the service, he joined the Air Force in 1999 and completed pararescue jumper training in 2001.
By 2002, he was in Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11. And in the early morning hours of March 4, Cunningham and the Rangers were going in to rescue a member of the SEALs, the Navy's elite combat team.
Operation Anaconda was the largest battle of the war to date. Al-Qaida and Taliban forces were massing in the remote Shah-i-Kot valley. U.S. and Afghan forces planned to clear them out.
The Chinook flying the SEAL team to the Takur Ghar peak the night of March 3 found an enemy bunker instead of an expected deserted patch of snow and rock. Machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades crippled the helicopter. As it veered away, Petty Officer 1st Class Neil Roberts fell out the back.
The SEALs went back for their comrade, but met fierce resistance. They took more casualties and had to retreat down the mountain.
The confusion of battle and radio failures meant that Cunningham and the Rangers called in to help knew almost none of this. They expected to land nearby, pick up the SEALs and go home.
Instead, they were given the coordinates for the peak — the deadly kill zone. The sun was coming up. And the enemy was waiting.
As their Chinook — code named Razor 1 — came in to land, RPG and machine-gun fire slammed into the chopper and knocked out the right engine. It fell 10 feet to the ground. Both pilots were wounded by small-arms fire. One of the helicopter's side gunners was killed.
The Rangers, knocked to the ground by the crash, staggered out the back ramp. Enemy fire killed two fast. The survivors began a desperate attack uphill against the entrenched enemy only 60 feet away.
Cunningham and an Army medic immediately treated the wounded.
The downed Chinook soon caught fire. Soldiers later said the chopper was a bullet sponge, soaking up enemy rounds.
A second Ranger team managed to reach the first. With combined forces — and bombs and machine-gun fire from Air Force jets — the Rangers knocked out the bunker.
Cunningham and fellow medics moved the wounded from the burning Chinook to a seeming safe zone.
But the enemy counterattacked. The new casualty collection point outside the helicopter suddenly came under enemy fire.
Cunningham and Army medic Cory Lamereaux couldn't move the wounded by themselves. So they picked up rifles and fought back. For 40 minutes, they kept up the fire before both were hit.
Two bullets hit Lamereaux in the gut, just below his body armor. It was painful, but he would live.
Cunningham was hit once in the small of his back.
He shouted to Lamereaux, "I think I'm OK," according to MacPherson's account of the battle.
He wasn't.
The bullet tore through his liver. He was bleeding internally.
Sporadic fighting would continue throughout the day on Takur Ghar — the peak dubbed Roberts Ridge, after the lost SEAL.
Cunningham's condition sank. The Rangers called for an evacuation helicopter. But the enemy had knocked several helicopters out of the sky. The Americans couldn't risk another chopper and crew until nightfall, five hours away.
It was too late. Cunningham slipped away around 6 that night, 90 minutes before helicopters came.
They brought 10 wounded men off the mountain. Rangers also carried home the bodies of Cunningham and six others, including Roberts, the SEAL they went to rescue.
Operation Anaconda continued for 19 more days in and above the Shah-i-Kot Valley. The Army says hundreds of al-Qaida and Taliban forces were killed. Eight U.S. troops were killed, including the seven at Takur Ghar.
Cunningham was buried at Arlington (Va.) National Cemetery just days after the battle. Since 2004, the compound that houses Air Force personnel at Bagram Air Base has been called Camp Cunningham.
Jared Marquis lauds his brother-in-law, saying Cunningham's heroics inspired him to join the service.
"We don't forget in the Air Force the people who came before us," said Marquis, "and paid the ultimate sacrifice."
No comments:
Post a Comment