The fight at COP Keating

Richard Lowry has the details on the fighting at the combat out post that cam under attack earlier this month.

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First Lieutenant Andrew Bundermann, the Red Platoon leader, was still asleep, as were most of his men, when the attack started. “That’s incoming,” a soldier told Sergeant Eric Harder as they lay in their racks. Red Platoon’s troopers quickly responded to the attack. Soldiers on watch started returning fire as everyone dressed, grabbed their gear and ran to their assigned stations. Gunners ran to the Troop’s HMMWV gun trucks, infantrymen manned their fighting positions, leaders rushed to the Tactical Operations Center (TOC), and mortarmen headed for their mortars to try to suppress the enemy fire coming from the mountains above.

The COP was taking a lot of indirect fire and RPGs were hitting everywhere on the compound. Sergeant Harder could hear rounds fired from the high ground hitting the roof of the barracks. The enemy attacked from three sides with RPGs, a couple of Russian-made B-10 recoilless rifles, accurate sniper fire, and machine guns. If American troopers went out in the open, they were vulnerable. The enemy had a commanding view of COP Keating.

The Afghan National Army soldiers wanted nothing to do with this fight. They cut and ran, leaving the COP’s main gate undefended and the Cavalry Troopers to fight off the attack on their own.

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This is the fight where we took 8 KIAs. Lowry fills in a lot of the blanks left in the news reports. Some very brave men defeated the Taliban that day.