AAF operations were expanding, supported by Taliban organizations in Pakistan. Director Rod Lurie is himself a West Point graduate and an Army veteran. My soldiers and I had been sharing stories since Oct. 3, 2009, when our 53 cavalry scouts fought off more than 300 Taliban fighters bent on overrunning Combat Outpost Keating in Nuristan, Afghanistan. But he was ineffective in actually making the men understand why/how he came to certain decisions. The elder considers this to be a bad omen and demands that there be retribution. Their checkpoints[11] and "taxes" was used to finance AAF operations. [7]:298304, By October 2007 the elders and mullahs of the Kamdesh area had been inspired by Rahman to gather at Kamdesh for a mass meeting, or shura to plan the future of Nuristan. Located along a riverbank in Kamdesh, Afghanistan, the base was surrounded by steep mountains. [15], The Allies planned to close COP Keating by August 2009, but the move was delayed because of other military operations in a nearby district. It's true that some of the Taliban fighters casually strolled through the camp, believing they had won. The Battle of Kamdesh took place during the war in Afghanistan. prosthetic makeup effects administrator: Millennium FX. According to one account, Hill without hesitation picked up a Latvian sniper rifle and eliminated the target at a distance of over 300 meters., 1st Lt. Andrew Bundermann, de facto ground commander, worked to slow the fire in the operations center and salvage equipment. While exploring the movie's historical accuracy, we confirmed that during the real-life Battle of Kamdesh, Taliban fighters got inside Outpost Keating. He became the fourth surviving soldier from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts to be awarded the Medal of Honor due to courageous actions during the battle. Shane Courville; Cordova; George Arvidson as Cordova. Captain Matthew Kaplan, CW3 Ross Lewallen, CW3 Randy Huff, CW2 Gary Wingert, CW2 Chad Bardwell, and CW2 Chris Wright were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for conducting close combat attacks on the Taliban during the battle. Sylvanius Broward in the movie is a fictional name for a real captain, Mel Porter. Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Army.When the battle ended after more than 12 hours, eight U.S. soldiers were killed and another 22 wounded. The latest acronym for attackers used by the Americans was AAF, for anti-Afghan fighters. [9], Bravo Troop, 3rd Squadron "Destroyers", 61st Cavalry Regiment manned COP Keating. He was managing care for five Americans and seven Afghans, treating gunshot wounds, head injuries, shrapnel wounds, chest and abdominal wounds, eye injuries and broken legs, all in a makeshift station. Several days after the battle, U.S. aircraft bombed the location in an effort to destroy any munitions that remained. Keating was killed in November 2006 when he volunteered for a dangerous mission to drive an army truck loaded with supplies up to the camp, along treacherous 200-foot cliffs. It may not display this or other websites correctly. prosthetic makeup effects sculptor: Millennium FX. It seemed that it would get extremely intense, with a lot of fire, a lot of RPGs hitting the wall, and then it would die, McMurtrey told Air Force Magazine in 2011. Jake Tapper, author of the bookThe Outpost, wondered the same thing when he embarked on his research. Captain Sylvanius Broward (Kwame Patterson), whom the men refer to as "Broward the Coward," shoots the dog to appease the elder and calm the situation. The note was signed "Mullah Omar". Furthermore, Camp Keating's location, surrounded by mountains on three sides, exposed helicopters and the outpost's garrison to insurgent fire. Given that her reticence led to her subordinates acting on their own initiative resulting in her plan failing, not really. Moreover, again according to Romesha, the officer who was in charge until very shortly before the battle, Captain Melvin Porter, was criminally incompetent and allowed the perimeter defenses to fall into decay, despite repeated requests from Romesha and his friends to improve them. These subgroups were in turn divided into clans and sects, depending on lineages and the interpretations of individual religious leaders. Despite overwhelming odds and volume of injuries, MAJ (R) Cordova was able to . Keating died while serving at the base in 2006 and it was . The military had planned to relocate the outpost in August 2009, but the resources needed for such a move were tied up elsewhere. The 13-hour battle to re-take Combat Outpost Keating from an assault by 300 Taliban fighters on Oct. 3, 2009, was a team effort. It was this delay that proved fatal to some of the troops stationed at COP Keating. This includes Scott Eastwood's character, Staff Sergeant Clinton Romesha, telling the men, "We're taking this bitch back," after the camp is partially overrun by Taliban fighters. The idea was to stop the insurgents' supply lines coming in from Pakistan. 8 killed 27 wounded[5] 4 killed 10 wounded. In this December 2012 interview, MAJ Melvin Porter, US Army, Signal; discusses his deployment to Afghanistan as a company commander for 3-61 Cavalry (CAV) in 2009 through 2010 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). U.S. air support directed by Sgt. Anthony Parker. He was the last commander of Combat Outpost Keating. Not exactly, but in researching The Outpost's historical accuracy, we learned that a similar incident happened the year prior, in 2008, involving more than just one dog. Area of Operations. Seven other Americans and one ANA soldier were wounded. Military commanders had already decided to close the base the previous summer, but delayed doing so because of other operations. Email us at atwar@nytimes.com. From November through January 2008 members of the Shura traveled the villages of the Kamdesh area, informing the residents of the support agreement and stating that the era of holy war was over, and that local government would bring peace and prosperity. The following day, insurgents kidnapped and murdered Fazal Ahad, an elder from Badmuk who was attempting to end the Kom/Kata tribal disagreements by arranging a meeting in Kamdesh. Another example of his leadership failure was his failure to tell his troops why he was banning hot meals at the base. The logistical location of the outpost, which was located deep in a valley surrounded by three steep mountains, put the soldiers at an enormous disadvantage. Despite the efforts of two Latvian military advisors, First Sergeant Jnis Lais and Corporal Mrti Dboli,[21] who tried to convince the Afghan National Army forces not to flee,[22] the Afghan defenders quickly broke and ran. Porter appeared to not want to actually lead his company nor was appearing to be up for another deployment. The movie does take liberty with the way it portrays previous commanders of the outpost, 1st Lt. Ben Keating and Capt. [20] Observation Post Fritsche was attacked simultaneously, limiting available support from that position. Combat Outpost Keating is best known as the setting of the Battle of Kamdesh which occurred on October 3rd, 2009.. After an attack on October 3, 2009, where the base was nearly . Understandable discrepancies emerge when a book that covers four years at a remote mountain outpost is compressed into a two-hour production, but the film unquestionably captures the essence of the soldiers sacrifices, as well as the love we feel and the sorrow we share. American outpost in Nuristan, Afghanistan, List of post-Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipients, "Latest Medal of Honor brings COP Keating battle back into spotlight", "A Medal of Honor recipient's ongoing burden", "COP Keating battle begins, Medal of Honor nominee Romesha takes action", "This Netflix series will tell the stories of Medal of Honor recipients", "The Battle of Kamdesh, which netted two Medals of Honor, is coming to the big screen twice", "Sony Enlists Director Daniel Espinosa, George Clooney's Smokehouse For 'Red Platoon', https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Combat_Outpost_Keating&oldid=1137949129, Military installations of the United States in Afghanistan, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 7 February 2023, at 06:20. Benjamin D. Keating (31 May 1979-26 November 2006) was a US Army Captain who served in the US 61st Cavalry Regiment during the Afghanistan War. But I never told the story from my own perspective. The movie does a good job of capturing the nerve-racking tension of being posted at Combat Outpost Keating. Ty M. Carter pauses during a patrol outside Combat Outpost Keating, Afghanistan, where he was deployed with the 61st Cavalry Regiment in 2009. Four U.S. Army officers were reprimanded for "inadequate measures taken by the chain of command." Despite some condensing with regard to the timeline and a fictional character or two (Pfc. Stoney Portis, an officer in the Army and a Ph.D. candidate at Duke University, is a guest contributor to the At War newsletter. They did their jobs, and Im here because of what they did, but air support was definitely a must.. After Keating's death, a "Night Letter" appeared on the door of the Upper Kamdesh mosque on April 29, 2007. The first effort was made by First Lieutenant Dave Roller. This strategy depended upon extending government control by building and maintaining provincial reconstruction team bases. After Keating's death, the camp was renamed Combat Outpost Keating in his honor. [5] Within two minutes of the beginning of the attack, American forces suffered their first casualty. American military operations in Kamdesh were affected as soon as units began gathering for deployment in the area. It was one of many reasons Cordova was later awarded the Silver Star. The other two mountains that surrounded the actual outpost were inserted with CGI. [8] In addition, Afghan national forces manned checkpoints and roadblocks at various locations around the area. The report found that a "mindset of imminent closure" led the unit to not improve the outpost's defenses despite intelligence reports that warned of a possible attack by "a large enemy force.". Combat Outpost Keating was a small American military outpost in Nurestan Province, in Afghanistan. [8] The Coalition forces withdrew from the base shortly after the battle. When it came to infiltration from Pakistan, and setting ambushes, HIG was regarded as the most skillful. Mace survived long enough to be evacuated to a nearby medical facility. The outpost itself also needed to be accessible by road since most of the helicopters were being used in Iraq and were unavailable. Some who fled even handed their weapons to Taliban fighters. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. During this battle Taliban members outnumbered US forces in a staggering 5 to 1 ratio and was considered one of the bloodiest battle of the War. Extending control further along the river was expected to counter the AAF expansion and activity in the summer of 2007. In Afghanistan, MAJ (R) Cordova was involved in the Battle of Kamdesh at Combat Outpost Keating on the 3rd of October 2009. While there are numerous accounts of bravery that day, two Medals of Honor and nine Silver Stars (two have since been upgraded) were awarded. On the whole the AAF was a broader based and more formidable force in 2007 than before the American invasion, and represented a significant escalation. The soldiers left so quickly that they didn't take all of the ammunition. At 6 a.m., Oct. 3, 2009, Combat Outpost Keating in Kamdesh District, Nuristan Province, Afghanistan, came under complex attack by an enemy force estimated at 300 fighters. The smaller U.S. force ultimately beat back the attack after a fierce hours-long battle where Apache helicopters, that raced to assist the besieged soldiers, made all the difference. By all quantifiable metrics, my unit won the fight, but at a devastating cost: Eight soldiers died, 22 were wounded and our camp burned to the ground. The punishments reflect a recent trend in Afghanistan to hold military commanders accountable for battlefield failures. The Soviets had to contend with a rebel group known as the Dawlet of eastern Nuristan. The pick up zone for Able Troop 2nd Platoon was called PZ Reds, located on the side of an 8,000-foot mountain. Urdu and Pashtun HIG warriors brought arms and ammunition from Pakistan. ", Yes. Located near the border with Pakistan in the Afghan province of Nuristan, COP Keating was the scene of a coordinated attack by as many as 300 Taliban fighters who stormed the exposed base. Nicholson and officers of his command believed that much of the flow of weapons and troops from Pakistan could be stopped at Kamdesh. [7]:1238,1368,18191,407, From August 8 to November 25 of 2006, strenuous efforts were made to supply and expand the PRT by supply convoys using the Landay-Sin valley road from Naray FOB. Given its proximity to Pakistan, Combat Outpost Keating was part of a counter-insurgency strategy. [10], OP Fritsche was established to provide overwatch for COP Keating and was manned by a mix of US and Afghan national forces. Soldiers with 1st Plt., B Trp., 3rd Sqdn., 61st Cav Regt., 4th BCT, 4th Inf. Those guys were amazing. [The airspace above] Keating was packed full of jets, so we knew this was not an ordinary engagement, Kulish told Air Force Magazine. Clint Romesha, portrayed by Scott Eastwood in the film. Gul Mohammed Khan, the government administrator for Kamdesh District, lived at the intersection of the Landay-Sin and Darreh Ye Kushtoz rivers. The brigade was busy guarding another village, and numerous other resources had been consumed looking for Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. soldier who was held captive by the Taliban after he deserted his post on June 30, 2009. While this is indeed alarmingly frequent, the movie makes it seem like the attacks are happening daily. 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