The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor
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Information about the attack on Wanat came from interviews with Ostlund, Kennedy, and Queck, as well as several other sources: the Army’s official “AR 15-6 Investigation Findings and Recommendations into the Incident at Wanat, August 13, 2008”; a study by the staff of the U.S. Army Combat Studies Institute, Wanat: Combat Action in Afghanistan, 2008 (Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2010); and the first draft of the latter, U.S. Army Combat Studies Institute document. Other resources included Greg Jaffe, “The Battle of Wanat,” Washington Post, October 4, 2009, and Mark Bowden, “Echoes from a Distant Battlefield,” Vanity Fair, December 2011.
Information about 6-4 Cav’s coming into Afghanistan was taken from interviews with Spiszer, Markert, and Nelson.
In interviews, Kolenda and Hutto described their farewell.
David Roller’s email home was provided by him.
Chapter 21: Chess with No Rules
Biographical information about Rob Yllescas came from interviews with his widow, Dena, who also shared many of his emails and pictures home.
Details about Yllescas at the outpost were provided by Mazzocchi, Meshkin, Safulko, Tucker, Briley, Victorino, and others.
Details about various attacks on the outpost were offered by Mazzocchi, Meshkin, Safulko, Tucker, Briley, Victorino, and others.
Biographical information about Meshkin was taken from interviews with him.
Biographical information about Mazzocchi came from interviews with him.
The meeting with Abdul Rahman was described by Meshkin and also covered in a memo obtained by the author.
Briley related his thoughts in an interview.
Casualty information came from an ISAF memo obtained by the author.
Biographical information about Safulko was provided in interviews with him.
The incident involving Franklin was decscribed by Meshkin.
Chapter 22: After He Finished Washing the Blood Off
Information about the October 13, 2008, shura was taken from an ISAF memo obtained by the author.
Information about the October 25, 2008, attack was provided in interviews with Mazzocchi, Tucker, Safulko, Meshkin, and Briley.
Information about the attack on Yllescas came from interviews with Tucker, Briley, Safulko, Mazzocchi, Walker, and Victorino.
Information about Yllescas’s early medical treatment was furnished by Brewer and Cuda.
Information about the medevac that was sent to get Yllescas came from Spiszer, Markert, and Nelson.
Mazzocchi’s interaction with the local man whose wife was wounded was described by Mazzocchi in an interview.
Information about Amin Shir came from an interview with Walker. Information regarding his current location was provided by Victorino.
Dena Yllescas described in several interviews how she learned of her husband’s injury. She also contemporaneously expressed many of her thoughts and feelings in her blog at http://yllescasfamily.blogspot.com.
Mazzocchi’s conversation with Commander Jawed was recalled by Mazzocchi in an interview.
The shura meeting was described in interviews with Meshkin, Mazzocchi, and Tucker.
Information about Pecha’s assignment to the outpost was provided by Pecha in interviews.
Markert’s feelings were expressed in interviews with the author and also relayed in a contemporaneous email to a fellow officer.
President Bush’s bedside visit was described by Dena Yllescas; information was shared with his office. Bush’s jog with Christian Bagge was reported in Richard Benedetto, “Amputee Iraq Vet Fulfills Wish, Jogs with Bush,” USA Today, June 27, 2006.
Chapter 23: What Was Wrong with Kaine Meshkin
The November 2008 attacks on the outpost were described by Pecha, Meshkin, Mazzocchi, Safulko, and Tucker in interviews.
Information about Rob Yllescas’s medical treatment was provided by his widow, Dena, in interviews and in her blog at http://yllescasfamily.blogspot.com.
The excerpt from “You Save Me” by Kenny Chesney, written by Brett James and Troy Verges, from Chesney’s 2005 album The Road and the Radio, is used by permission.
The description of the craniotomy procedure was based on information from the Web site for the Mayfield Clinic for the Brain & Spine, http://www.mayfieldclinic.com/PE-Craniotomy.htm, and was reviewed by Ron Warnick, M.D., and Mary Haverbusch, R.N.
In interviews, Mazzocchi, Safulko, and Pecha shared information about the plans for the outpost after Yllescas’s death.
Meshkin recalled his response to Yllescas’s death in interviews. His interactions with Dena Yllescas were described by both of them.
Information about the plans made by George and Brown was offered by both men in interviews.
Brown’s outreach to Kolenda and Pecha was recalled in interviews by all three men.
The attack statistics were provided in an ISAF memo obtained by the author.
Chapter 24: The Puppies
The January 2009 attacks on the outpost were described in interviews with Pecha, Meshkin, Mazzocchi, Safulko, and Tucker.
Information about the Kamdesh radio station was offered by Bodmer and Markert.
Details about President Obama’s plans for Afghanistan were provided in official announcements by the President; in interviews with White House advisers Denis McDonough and Ben Rhodes, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, and Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell; and by other, unnamed sources.
Mullen’s and Gates’s views of McKiernan were described by unnamed Pentagon sources.
Events at the February 15, 2009, shura were recounted in an ISAF memo obtained by the author.
Pecha and Tucker’s meeting with the contractors was recalled by both men in interviews.
Information about the cost of various projects was furnished by an unnamed source.
Safulko told the story about the dogs’ turning and their subsequent end in an interview.
The unrealized plans for a new observation post, to be named after Yllescas, were described by Pecha, Markert, Spiszer, and Victorino.
Information about the attack on Bari Alai came from interviews with Spiszer and Markert. Pirtle’s concerns, expressed to his parents, were first reported on HDNET’s “Dan Rather Reports: What Happened at Bari Alai,” on September 12, 2011. Wade Zirkle of the Fox News Channel claimed on May 15, 2009, that the ISAF was investigating whether the ANA might have been involved.
The email from Brown was provided to the author by Brown.
The closure of COP Lybert was described in an interview with Spizer and also in Michael Gisick, “Fateful Day Brings Post Back to War’s Reality,” Stars and Stripes, September 25, 2008. In an interview, Cheryl Lee Nussberger recalled her concern over the enemy’s propaganda video about the closure of the base named after her son.
Chapter 25: Pericles in Kamdesh
Information about 3-71 Cav’s arrival at the outpost was taken from interviews with Bundermann, Burton, and Cordova.
Safulko recalled his conversation with Kirk in an interview. Kirk’s schedule was shared by his wife, Gavin-Kirk, in an interview. Information about Kirk during his time with 1-91 Cav came from interviews with Kolenda and Springer.
Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, translated by Richard Crawley (London: Dover, 2004).
Information about the attack that wounded Shane Scherer was gleaned from interviews with Scherer, Witherington, Cordova, and Safulko.
Sources for Book Three
A major source for the information presented in book 3 was the November 3, 2009, “AR 15-6 Investigation re: COP Keating Attack of 3 Oct 09 Department of the Army,” by Major General Guy Swan III, along with its supporting documents, obtained by the author. These are collectively referred to as the “Swan report” below.
In addition, the following individuals were interviewed for book 3:
Jonathan Adams
Vanessa Adelson, mother of Stephan Mace
Armando Avalos
Kyle Barnes<
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Janpatrick Barroga
Jordan Bellamy
Kirk Birchfield
John Breeding
Brad Brown
Connie Brown, mother of Vernon Martin
Jory Brown
Shane Brown, a Burlington, North Carolina, police staff sergeant
Andrew Bundermann
Cashet Burks, girlfriend of Vernon Martin
Ronald Burton
Stephen Cady
Ty Carter
Dan Casey
Kerri Griffin Causley, mother of Chris Griffin
Christopher Chappell
Chris Cordova
Shane Courville
Martins Dabolins
Kevin Daise
Josh Dannelley
Nicholas Davidson
Noor Din
Seward Dinsmore, uncle of Josh Kirk
Mark Dulaney
Faruq (not his real name)
Ed Faulkner, Sr., father of Ed Faulkner, Jr.
Cody Floyd
John Francis
Jeremy Frunk
Megan Gavin-Kirk, widow of Josh Kirk
Randy George
Robert Gibbs
Robert Gilberto (not his real name)
Justin Gregory
Damien Grissette
Eric Harder
Olivia Hardt, widow of Josh Hardt
Mary Henry, mother of Eric Harder
Jon Hill
Robert Hull
Jeff Jacops
Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post, who was incredibly generous with his time, his impressions from the period when he was embedded with 3-61 Cav, and his reporting on the aftermath of the October 3, 2009, attack
Chris Jones
Kellan Kahn
Bernadette Kirk-Bonner, mother of Josh Kirk
Kyle Knight
Jeffrey Kology, a Burlington, North Carolina, police investigator
Zach Koppes
Janis Lakis
Brad Larson
Ross Lewallen
Amanda Marr, former wife of Justin Gallegos)
Brittany Martin, widow of Vernon Martin
Stan McChrystal
Brendan McCriskin
Denis McDonough
Matthew McMurtrey
Aaron Miller
Sarah Faulkner Minor, sister of of Ed Faulkner, Jr.
Jake Miraldi
Geoff Morrell
Dante Paradiso
Melvin Porter
Stoney Portis
Ted Priester
Tom Rasmussen
Ben Rhodes
Daniel Rodriguez
Dan Rogers
Clint Romesha
Debbie Routson, mother of Kevin Thomson
Ben Salentine
Justin Sax
Mike Scaparrotti
Cason Shrode
Jayson Souter
James Stanley, Jr.
Keith Stickney
T. G. Taylor
Albert “Cookie” Thomas
Jessica Tingley, sister of Josh Kirk
Nick Paton Walsh
Stuart Webb
Rob Wilson
Jordan Wong
Cynthia Woodard, mother of Michael Scusa
Christopher Wright
Brad Zagol
Chapter 26: The General’s Competing Considerations
Heraclitus’ precise words, as quoted in G.T.W. Patrick’s Heraclitus of Ephesus: The Fragments of the Works of Heraclitus of Ephesus on Nature (Chicago: Argonaut, 1969), were “Into the same river you could not step twice, for other
The description of Porter’s command was drawn from interviews with Porter, Brown, and myriad troops and officers from 3-61 Cav, as well as from the Swan report.
Mullen’s and Gates’s views of McKiernan were passed along by unnamed Pentagon sources.
McKiernan’s telling Gates, “You’re going to have to fire me,” was reported in Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Pentagon Worries Led to Command Change,” Washington Post, August 17, 2009.
Gates’s and Mullen’s remarks were taken from a transcript of the May 11, 2009, press conference.
The assessments and views of McChrystal were taken from interviews with McChrystal and other, anonymous Pentagon officials.
The June 2, 2007, exchange between Senator Lindsey Graham and McChrystal was taken from a transcript of the hearings. This was first noted as a troubling moment for White House officials in Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), a conclusion that was later confirmed by White House officials. McChrystal shared his views in an interview.
A certain wariness toward the White House in general and Vice President Biden’s office in particular was reflected in interviews with anonymous Pentagon officials.
Greg Jaffe’s interview with McChrystal ran in the Washington Post on June 16, 2009, and was entitled “Gen. McChrystal, New Afghanistan Commander, Will Review Troop Placements.” Woodward’s story appeared on July 1, 2009, also in the Washington Post, under the headline “U.S. Says Key to Success in Afghanistan Is Economy, Not Military.”
Plans for the closure of COP Keating were related in interviews with George, Brown, Scaparrotti, McChrystal, and other, anonymous officers and NCOs.
Biographical information about Breeding was provided by him in interviews.
Information about the mortar pit came from interviews with Breeding, Rodriguez, and Barroga.
Information about Kevin Thomson was gleaned from interviews with his fellow troops and his mother, Debbie Routson.
Disagreements between Porter and his troops were reported in interviews with Porter, Jones, Rasmussen, Breeding, Romesha, and others.
Biographical information about Romesha came from interviews with him.
McChrystal’s July 6, 2009, tactical directive was issued by NATO/ISAF.
Information about the attack that wounded Jacops was taken from interviews with Jacops and Cordova.
Brown’s presentations to McChrystal and others were described in interviews with Brown, McChrystal, George, Scaparrotti, and others. McCrystal’s competing considerations were summarized in interviews with McCrystal, Scaparrotti, George, and Brown.
The account of Bodmer’s time alongside 3-61 Cav was taken from interviews with Bodmer, Brown, and Shrode.
Information about Operation Mountain Fire in Barg-e-Matal came from interviews with McChrystal and George.
For book 3, I interviewed more than fifty of the troops stationed at COP Keating and OP Fritsche on the day of the attack, including Adams, Avalos, Barroga, Bellamy, Birchfield, Breeding, Jory Brown, Bundermann, Burton, Cady, Carter, Casey, Chappell, Cordova, Courville, Dabolins, Daise, Dannelley, Davidson, Dulaney, Floyd, Francis, Frunk, Gilberto, Gregory, Grissette, Harder, Hill, Hull, Jones, Kahn, Knight, Koppes, Lakis, Larson, McMurtrey, Portis, Rasmussen, Rodriguez, Rogers, Romesha, Salentine, Shrode, Souter, Stanley, Stickney, Thomas, and Wong. Descriptions of the camp itself and the general esprit de corps were elaborated from interviews with all of them. After-action reports written by all surviving troops informed this section of the book.
Biographical information about Kirk was gathered from interviews with his wife, Gavin-Kirk; sister, Tingley; and uncle Dinsmore. The email from Kirk was shared by Gavin-Kirk. The description of Kirk in battle came from 3-61 Cav troops.
Biographical information about Zach Koppes was provided by him in an interview. The “hang fire” incident was described in interviews with Wilson, Romesha, and Koppes.
Chapter 27: The Deer Hunters
Biographical information about Ed Faulkner, Jr., was furnished by his father, Ed Faulkner, Sr., and sister Faulkner Minor. Law-enforcement incidents from Faulkner’s youth were summarized by Shane Brown of the Burlington Police Department in an interview.
Events involving Nelson were recounted by anonymous members of 3-61 Cav.
> The incident with Faulkner and the hashish was described by Hill, Francis, and other members of 3-61 Cav.
Biographical information about Salentine was provided by him in an interview.
Biographical information about Rogers came from an interview with him.
The conversations between Hill and Salentine were recalled by both men in interviews.
Information about Walsh and Webb was drawn from interviews with both men. Their report, which featured the exchange that began “Do you ever think to yourself, ‘Why am I here?’ ” as well as other quotes in this section, aired on August 17, 2009, and was accessed on the http://www.channel4.com Web site.
Various family members of 3-61 Cav troops shared their concerns about their loved ones’ wasting away. Joshua Hardt’s statement, “We barely have food,” was cited by his wife, Olivia Hardt, in an interview.
Biographical information about Joshua Hardt, details about his relationship with his wife, and emails to her were provided by Olivia Hardt.
Information about 3-61 Cav’s activities outside of COP Keating came from interviews with Brown and George.
Observations related to the voting at Urmul and elsewhere were provided by officers and ranking NCOs of 3-61 Cav, including Brown, Shrode, and Hill. Information about alleged voter fraud at Barg-e-Matal came from Pentagon and State Department sources.
Biographical information about Justin Gallegos was shared by his ex-wife, Amanda Marr.
Biographical information about Eric Harder was provided by him in an interview.
Information about Vernon Martin came from interviews with his mother, Connie Brown; wife, Brittany Martin; and girlfriend, Cashet Burks. Grissette and Thomas recounted conversations they had with Martin in interviews.
Differences between Porter and Hull were recalled by both men in interviews.
Tensions between the White House and the Pentagon were described in interviews with officials on both sides, as well as by McChrystal and Kolenda. Woodward’s article, accompanied by the redacted version of McChrystal’s report, was published in the Washington Post on September 21, 2009, under the headline “McChrystal: More Forces or ‘Mission Failure.’ ” Nancy Youssef’s story “Military Growing Impatient with Obama on Afghanistan,” was published on September 18, 2009, by McClatchy Newspapers.