Rescue on Roberts Ridge

Army Chaplain: "Heavenly Father, we read in sacred scriptures that there is an appointed time and place for everything under the heavens.  Today is a day for war... Soon the coalition of nations will send forth troops to find those who seek terror over peace, and hatred over love. Lord, I ask your blessing on this aircraft. May all these helicopters soar as on eagles’ wings and bring us safely to your rendezvous with destiny, a world secure in peace."

Stone Phillips Anchor • Profile

Prayers were not enough to keep a helicopter from being shot out of the sky by al Qaeda fighters.  The wreckage left behind on a his mountain top in a remote corner of Afghanistan — now known to the U.S. army as “Roberts Ridge” — is a reminder of the young soldiers who died, keeping their promise to “never leave a fallen comrade.”

Stone Phillips, Dateline anchor: Leave no man behind.

Former Ranger Captain Nate Self: No question.

Former Ranger Captain Nate Self was aboard that helicopter, leading his men deep into enemy territory to rescue a missing soldier.

Phillips: Big price in this case.

Self: A lot of people don’t understand it, they don’t think it’s worth it. It’s worth it. 

Nate is back home now in Texas with his wife Julie and their two sons.  But what happened on that distant ridge top is never very far away.  

Phillips: You’ve been thinking about it a lot and dreaming about it?

Self: I dream every night that I’ve always got a gun in my hands.  There’s always something that has to be done, there’s always somebody shooting at me. And, you know—I kill people every night. It’s been almost three years since it happened.

Three years since a series of command failures and tragic miscommunications, sent Nate and a team of Army Rangers into an al Qaeda ambush.

Wounded during the battle, Nate was among the lucky ones who made it out alive.  If only his psychological wounds healed as quickly.

Julie Self, Nathan’s wife: Nathan has told me that, in one of his times of being upset, that maybe he should have just died that day. And for me, that’s hard to understand and you know, “How can you think that? You have two kids, and me and for him to say that he should’ve just died,  what do you say to that?

A graduate of West Point, Nate became a ranger, and in December 2001, received his captain’s bars. He was 25 years old, one of the army’s youngest at that rank.

Julie Self: He’s known as being, I don’t want to say perfect, but he strives to be excellent at everything he does. But very humble. He just always seemed to know what path he wanted to take. And if there was something he wanted he was gonna go get it.

Julie had never worried much about Nate’s safety until 9/11. When the U.S. launched its war on terror, Nate knew the Rangers would play a key role.

Phillips: So that you would soon be on a plane headed for Afghanistan was not a big surprise.

Self: No.  Not at all.  I don’t think there are many places in the army, at least prior to 9/11, many places in the army where the use of force, the sense of killing, is more palpable than it is in the Ranger regiment.  I mean it’s apparent, on even the youngest guys’ faces.

Specialist Oscar Escano was one of those young guys.

Specialist Oscar Escano: Nate Self is sort of like, his toughness was understated, he was like the calm in the storm.

He was under Nate Self’s command and fought beside him in Afghanistan.

Phillips: Why did you join the army?

Escano: It was almost like an obligation.  Just a moral obligation.  Just the fact that I live in this country where we enjoy so many luxuries and so many benefits of American citizenship.

The oldest of three brothers, Oscar grew up in New York, and later New Jersey. His parents, both immigrants from the Dominican Republic, worried about their son’s decision to enlist.

Phillips: How did they feel about it?

Escano: They were definitely opposed to it. And they tried by whatever means parent use to try and change their children’s minds.

Phillips: To dissuade you?

Escano: To dissuade me, yeah.

His mother, Juanita Jenyons, a physician, was especially concerned about Oscar’s safety.

Juanita Jenyons, Oscar Escano's mother: We were very surprised. We did everything we could to try to prevent that. I remember his dad actually prohibited the recruiting officer to come into this home, you know. And we were very upset.

Escano: I made the decision after high school that this is what I wanted to do and damn it, I was gonna do it. 

After 3 years of intense training, Oscar completed Ranger school.  His last day was memorable for another reason.

Escano: That morning I woke up and our instructors at Ranger school told us—“Listen, men—two planes just crashed into the World Trade Center.”

Phillips: 9/11 happened?

Escano: Right.  And my reaction to that emotionally was very, very, very quietly and subtly intense.  Because not only I’m a native New Yorker, but also I was a Ranger.

Phillips: You were ready to go?

Escano: We were ready to go.

In December 2001, his ranger regiment shipped out to Afghanistan. Oscar Escano and Nate Self were joining the hunt for al Qaeda targets including Osama Bin Laden.

Julie Self: We said our good-byes, and he left at 5 a.m. And I just sat there with Caleb, and by myself, and cried, and I went to put Caleb back down in his crib, and he had left a note for Caleb [crying] with a Ranger tab and his Captain’s bars. And it just kind of struck me right then, that it’s possible that he won’t come back. 

Julie had little contact with Nate during the next four months. As a special operations soldier, his missions were classified, his whereabouts secret.

In January 2002, Nate and his unit were deployed to Bagram airbase.   One month later, they were tapped to join  “Operation Anaconda,” a major  offensive to capture or kill Taliban and al Qaeda fighters.

Julie Self: I remember sitting there, watching the news, and they were talking about Operation Anaconda, and they had mentioned Special Ops.  And I just had this feeling that he was involved in that.

Jenyons: I had a network of friends that were helping me pray for Oscar, and for everyone that was around him.  That’s what kept me going, because it was very very stressful for me to think that Oscar was in harm’s way.

For Captain Nate Self, Specialist Oscar Escano and the other Rangers, it would soon be time to fulfill their creed, come to the aid of fallen comrades, and for some, to make the ultimate sacrifice.

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