Saving Pvt. Pepi

The Australian:

"GET to the wall, spread out, spread out."

A wounded Australian soldier serving in Afghanistan has returned home for ongoing medical treatment...

The words can be heard amid the clatter of automatic weapons fire. There is a brief pause, more sustained firing and another Australian voice: "We will stay here and we will cover their arse. We'll maintain this wall."

As bullets slam into mud-brick walls, the same voice is heard again: "Medic, go with (call sign) Bravo and carry Pepi's pack."

The exchange, captured on video and released yesterday by the Australian Defence Force, illustrates the dangers and daring on display as Diggers take the fight to the Taliban during the Afghan winter.

The Pepi referred to during the heat of battle is Private Matthew Pepi, who took a bullet to the leg, fired from an AK-47.

The Defence Department said yesterday that a mild winter had allowed Australian SAS troopers, commandos and their Afghan allies to continue combat operations in the south of the country.

It said that, in the past three weeks, members of the Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force and Special Operations Task Group had been in the thick of things in the notorious Chora and Baluchi valleys in southern Oruzgan.

There had also been several roadside bomb attacks targeting Australians, although no Diggers had been injured.

But on December 28, Private Pepi, of the Darwin-based 7th Battalion, was wounded during a two-hour gun battle.

The fighting appeared to have taken place around a mud-walled compound set in a grove of fruit trees in a river valley.

Private Pepi was wounded as he tried to move to a new firing position during the attack.

His injury was not life-threatening, and he has since returned to Australia where he is recuperating after first being flown for treatment in a German military hospital.

...

While I am sure this firefight was meaningful to those involved, it is not clear from the reporting how it impacted the situation in Afghanistan. But, it does prov e the Diggers are in the fight and aggressively going after the enemy.