|
|
|
BS6's Dude
Group: Community Supporter
Last Login: 12/10/2008 4:45 PM
Posts: 3,050,
Visits: 4,292
|
|
ANACONDA HERO TO BE AWARDED SILVER STAR FOR HEROISM
TSgt Keary Miller’s Silver Star has been a long time coming.
Keary is an AFSOC Pararescueman, a PJ, the PJ Team Leader who was part of the recovery team that went in after Navy SEAL Neil Roberts, who fell from his helicopter after an aborted landing at Takhur Ghar in Afghanistan, an area now known as Roberts Ridge. Several soldiers and airmen are only here today because of Keary’s heroic actions on the ridge top during the early morning hours of March 4, 2002,and the 15 hours that followed. TSgt Miller is not THE hero, but he is certainly A hero. They all were. This ANACONDA story is well known by now. In fact everyone’s story has been published…except Keary’s. For some reason, his story was kept quiet. But his actions speak to why he is one of the heroes that stand out from the rest in the battle of Robert's Ridge. When you hear what he did, you'll wonder why it's ONLY a Silver Star. About the only thing he didn't do was die.
Keary was 5th or 6th out of the helicopter when it crash-landed on the ridge after being hit by RPGs and heavy small arms fire. Two soldiers in front of him were killed outright and another two were WIA. His PJ teammate SrA Jason Cunningham, and the Army Ranger medic, Corey, were still inside and began treating the casualties who were shot before they could even get out. By the time Keary made it out, they already had three KIA and two critically wounded. Keary was the guy who yelled to the other Rangers who were running out to immediately hit the deck when they got out – he directed them on which way to go to avoid becoming casualties themselves.
Keary was now on the ground to the rear of the aircraft amid chaos. Enemy fire seemed to be coming from every direction and in fact, that was about right. The heaviest was coming from the one o’clock, 70 meters from the nose of the helo, and less intense fire from the 3 and 5 o’clock positions. Terrain on the left side of the helo was very steep; nowhere to go over there. He and 3 others were pinned down behind the only cover they can find, a small outcropping of rock about 10 inches high. They were Army Rangers, a USAF TACP, and Keary. They all returned fire. The Rangers quickly got rid of the threat to their right, but they still took intense fire from the one o’clock position.
They needed some air support. They would need comms to get the close air support (CAS) and immediate evac they needed. The TACP had dropped off his radio 30 meters from the rear of the helicopter while dodging incoming rounds and was now engaged in returning fire. Keary was the guy who grabbed the radio and made the initial calls to pass a status report and scream for emergency evacuation. He was the guy that made sure his combat controller teammate was already talking to fire support aircraft, which started pounding the area with CAS. The answer back was the area was still too hot for an exfil bird to get in.
They were only 15 minutes into what was to be an ordeal that would last all day and most of the next night. Keary returned to the helo to help treat the wounded, with fellow PJ Cunningham and Army medic Corey. He could see that the cockpit area was burning.
Keary and Jason had already been on two other hairy combat rescue missions prior to this and were familiar with each other’s way of doing business. They were both also familiar with the altitude and cold of the Afghani mountains.
“How ya doin’ Jason?!”
“I’ve got a chest (wound) and two bleeders…me and Corey got it covered!. The copilot is hit. He’s up front on the ground!”
At this point all casualties were still inside the helo and they were still under pretty intense fire.
Keary was the guy that went to get the copilot. He dashed to the front of the helo, still taking small arms fire, and found the copilot bleeding pretty badly with a broken leg. He placed a tourniquet on the bleeder, but the snow was too deep to drag him back by himself. So he ran back, grabbed the tail gunner and guided him back again to the front of the helo. Together they dragged the copilot back to the rear of the aircraft through knee-deep snow to (relative) safety where Keary continued the medical treatment. Keary was the guy who exposed himself twice to enemy fire to recover his copilot. Saved his life.
Once back at the rear, Keary was one of the guys that started gathering remaining ammo from the helicopter and from the KIA, and redistributing to the other security positions. There were still good weapons on the aircraft, so Keary was the guy who pulled the tail gun off the helo and placed it and one of the crewmembers in a security position to the south.
Keary had been in combat before. He had the situational awareness, the "SA”, to know what was happening – and he knew what he had to do. They were receiving sporadic mortar fire, not real accurate yet, and couldn't tell from where. But he knew the sound and feel of the mortars - they were getting closer and closer to the grounded helicopter. He knew they would soon have to get the casualties out of the helo before it was hit. (The mortars were being fired from another enemy position about 300 meters away, which was eventually destroyed by an air strike.)
The firefight was still blazing with the enemy bunker at the one o’clock position, but fire was suppressed to the southeast, so this gave Keary an opening to move the casualties. He was the guy to make the call to get their casualties to a safer area. Keary, Jason, and Corey carefully moved the casualty collection point (CCP) 30 meters to the southeast of the helo. They had 3 KIA and 4-6 WIA at this time, with three being critical.
After some on-target air power and a few Ranger assaults, the enemy bunker was finally blown into oblivion. They were now four hours into their mission. With the main enemy threat gone, Keary and the Ranger security team leader made the call to move the CCP to better cover to the north, off the nose of the helicopter. Keary moved one of the walking wounded to a security position and supplied him with weapons and ammo before returning to move more wounded. It was at this time when their southern CCP was hit with RPGs and a 20-minute barrage of small arms, coming from down the ridge to the south. When Keary returned, he found that his two teammate medics were hit. Keary was now the only medic not wounded. He was the guy now with the responsibility for 14 casualties. Now the battle would be against time and the environment.
Keary spent the rest of the time on the ridge tending to the wounded. He made several trips back to the helo to gather remaining medical supplies, blankets, anything that would help. In a last ditch effort to fight the elements, Keary had all men that could move, go to tear the insulation from the helicopter wreckage and bring it back to keep the wounded as warm as possible while they waited for evacuation. He did all he could, even when they ran out of medical supplies.
The last radio call said they wouldn’t be evac’d until nightfall and he knew it would get cold - deathly cold. They had used up the supply of whole blood, all IV fluids were gone, they were out of bandages, and the temperature was near freezing. They were in the snow, at 10,000 feet altitude. He relayed back that the casualties would not last that long. And he was right - it would be too long a wait for his buddy Jason. Keary worked on him until he could do no more, but Jason died from internal bleeding an hour and a half before evacuation arrived.
Although Keary will tell you he was not THE hero that night, we all know he was A hero, and by his actions that night, I would say he stood out amongst them all.
|
|
|
|
|
Trooper
 
Group: Past PNET Supporter
Last Login: 9/25/2008 7:46 PM
Posts: 624,
Visits: 328
|
|
| Outstanding!! From the sound of it, IMO he should have been put in for the Air Force Cross. Just can't say enough about those PJ's
|
|
|
|
|
Jumpmaster
Group: Past PNET Supporter
Last Login: Yesterday @ 8:51 PM
Posts: 1,376,
Visits: 679
|
|
| im reading the book "none braver" which talks about the pj's in afghan...those guys are serious studs..didnt know how much training they really went thru..my hats are off to them...
|
|
|
|
|
Seasoned Vet
Group: Community Supporter
Last Login: Yesterday @ 5:24 PM
Posts: 5,814,
Visits: 4,143
|
|
HOOAH!! Thanks for sharing that JR!! Need to hear all of the Heros Stories from A-stan and Iraq!! They all deserve our recognition!!
Abraham Lincoln (quiet, reserved and selfless): “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here” -Gettysburg Address
Obama (egotistical): “Now the world will watch and remember what we do here”
|
|
|
|
|
BS6's Dude
Group: Community Supporter
Last Login: 12/10/2008 4:45 PM
Posts: 3,050,
Visits: 4,292
|
|
If you guys want to learn more about PJs, CCTs and CWTs, you can check out the USAF Special Tactics website at:
www.specialtactics.com
|
|
|
|