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Mission 2 - Detail
Operation Anaconda

By the end of February, 2002, Allied forces had planned an operation to crush remaining Taliban and al-Qaeda forces based in the Shah-i-Kot mountains near Gardez. Troops from the 10th Mountain were helicoptered into positions March 2. The plan called for friendly Afghan forces and Green Beret troopers to assault some 200 to 400 enemy fighters, and drive them toward the 10th’s blocking positions. But the enemy wasn’t waiting where they were supposed to be - and there were many more of them than expected. The 10th Mountain landed right in the middle of a firestorm of mortar and small arms fire as Al Qaeda and Taliban attacked from different points, defying several attempts to clear the area with bombings and close air support. The 10th Mountain held out against a barrage of attacks, and by the time they were flown out that night, they’d seen one of the heaviest days of fighting in the entire Afghan campaign.

Just before dawn, coalition troops descended into place - landing in a 70 square mile area in the valley near the Shah-i-Kot mountains. Surrounded by 12,000 peaks and small patches of snow, they felt the chill from the tail end of a brisk Afghan winter - with temperatures still near 20 degrees.

The men of the 10th Mountain, who were expecting a long, relatively uneventful day playing the waiting game, instead stumbled on an area that contained the greatest concentration of enemy forces in the entire valley. Within a few minutes, al-Qaeda fighters left their cave hideouts, and began to dump highly-accurate mortar fire onto the Americans. Expected Afghan einforcements never arrived. Some of the Americans were able to hit the terrorists with their M4 carbines and M249’s, and an early attack by a B-52 scored a direct hit onto an enemy position and temporarily shut down their attacks. But Apache gunships attempting to destroy other enemy forces were riddled with groundfire, and ultimately beaten back after two attempts to rout the Al Qaeda. The enemy stayed in place and attacked the US forces, at times from all sides, in a brutal 18-hour struggle. Worse, the hostile terrain gave a tremendous edge to defending forces - - Afghans had used it in April 1986 to wipe an entire 400-man Soviet commando team. The soldiers of the 10th Mountain now faced steep odds against their very survival. The Americans dug into a depression in the ground - called "the bowl" and began a deadly game of fire and maneuver around the bowl with encroaching enemy who would get within 30 yards of the US line, and ultimately wound dozens of men from the 10th.

US forces returned fire to enemy positions in the ridges, launching more than a dozen mortars, and attempting to bring down one al-Qaeda sniper who constantly harassed them between shots. Meanwhile, the top brass at headquarters began to realize what was happening, and planned for more airstrikes. During the early afternoon there were several attempts to bomb the enemy positions with B-52’s and F-16’s, but by 3 pm, the strikes fell off, and the enemy soldiers - many of them completely unscathed - came out to pound the Americans with a withering hail of grenade, rifle, and mortar fire.

But the tide turned at night - AC-130 "Spectre" gunships flew alongside the ridges, using their infrared sensors to find the al-Qaeda forces and scorch them with 105-mm cannon fire They were followed by the return of the B-52’s, which brought a barrage of 2,000-pound missiles that lit the dark sky to the cheers of US soldiers.

American casualties turned out to be light, and in the days that followed, 200 to 300 additional US troops flew in with Marine Cobra helicopters to sweep through the Al Qaeda base and kill hundreds of enemy fighters. Air power would prove more crucial later as the US brought B-1 bombers, F-15 fighter jets, and A-10 attack plans to wipe out enemy positions. And there would be many more firefights. But the men of the 10th Mountain were vital on that first day in bringing down an important enemy stronghold, and proving that US forces could win the ground war.