Rescue on Roberts Ridge

From the start, the battle did not go according to plan.  As the Afghan allies and a handful of U.S. Special Ops advisors entered the valley, they came under heavy machine gun and mortar fire.

A U.S. airstrike was called in. It proved disastrous.

Gen. Hagenbeck: In that chaotic time in which the Afghan militia were coming under fire, strung out somewhere, somehow misorientation. It resulted in some friendly casualties.

The aircraft mistakenly targeted and killed friendly forces, including Special Operator Stanley Harriman—a 34-year old husband and father of two from Missouri.

Gen. Hagenbeck:  Unfortunately, these things happen.  They should never happen, but they do.

The leader of the Afghan militia, General Zia Loden of the Northern Alliance, was stunned by the mistake.

Stone Phillips, Dateline anchor: What effect did that have on Zia and his forces.

Gen. Hagenbeck: I mean it’s devastating. You’re under attack from the enemy and then you’re uncertain of how you’re shot up from the air.

The Afghans withdrew from the fight. It was a major blow to the battle plan.

The helicopters carrying American infantry forces into the valley were now the sole targets for al Qaeda’s guns.

Sgt. Major Frank Grippe: I remember flying in through the valley.  I remember our door gunners being a little nonchalant.  So I had to give them a little nudge, y’know, “Get behind your weapon systems.  Start aiming at known likely and suspected enemy areas.”  ‘Cause you just never know when you’re gonna be engaged.

Phillips: Because things looked pretty calm, as far as they were concerned.

Sgt. Major Grippe: Well, exactly.  But you know, calm is only a second in time.

At all of the landing zones, or LZs, in the foothills above the valley, the American choppers came under attack.  Especially in the southern most LZs, where the helicopters were hit with automatic weapons fire, mortars and RPGs rocket-propelled grenades.

Cook: We were taking fire as we were jumping out of the back of the chopper.

Mauzy: As soon as we got off that ‘bird’ you could just look over and just see the tail streams of all the RPG’s, just flying in our direction.

Defense Department video from that morning shows U.S. soldiers pinned down by al Qaeda fighters hidden in caves and bunkers, better armed and as that CIA report had warned, in numbers far greater than commanders had anticipated.

Gen. Hagenbeck: Listen, their weapons were in pristine condition. This was not a pickup team. These guys were wearing outfits, uniforms as good as U.S. soldiers or better. Right off the Internet stuff, the Gortex and all the rest.

Menard: It seemed like everywhere I looked, you know, there’s a guy bleeding from his head, his leg, people yelling.

Dropping troops into enemy strongholds was never the plan.  All of the landing zones were supposed to have been checked out in the hours before launch.   But according to an Air Force report, the plane scouting the LZs was unable to complete its mission “due to a maintenance problem.”  For field commanders like Frank Wiercinski, that was critical information.

Phillips: Were you aware that troops were being sent in to landing zones that had not been checked out with aerial reconnaissance?

Brig. Gen. Frank Weircinski: No.  I was not. I did not know that we did not have coverage of that southern area.

From their battle positions in the valley, radio operators transmitted urgent requests for “close air support”— military jargon for low-flying attack aircraft.

But getting through to these attack helicopters became almost impossible. There were too many calls and too few radio frequencies, another glitch in the Anaconda battle plan.

Warrant Officer Rich Chenault: Sometimes they would step on each other because multiple units were under attack at the same time.

Warrant Officer Rich Chenault was flying an Apache attack helicopter that day.

Chenault: All hell did break loose. Pretty much everybody on the ground needed apache support all at one time. It was completely overwhelming.

Gen. Hagenbeck: Did I feel like I had a hand around my throat for the first few hours? The answer is absolutely, I did.

Not far from General Hagenbeck’s headquarters, the ranger Quick Reaction Force was ready to move out at a moment’s notice.

Dateline Apache pilots from Operation Anaconda, interviewed at Ft. Rucker, Ala. (L-R) Major Bill Ryan, Warrant Officer Emanuel Pierre, Warrant Officer Rich Chenault, Warrant Officer Sam Bennett.

Oscar Escano did what he could to remain focused but relaxed. 

Escano: We kept our weapons and gear maintained. We kept our minds sharp. I remember I read biology and played a little PlayStation in the tent.

Juanita Jenyons, Oscar Escano's mother: From his point of view, it’s like y’know, he wanted some action. And from my point of view, I’m saying, “No, no action. So keep it boring, keep it boring, y’know?” [Laughs]

For Captain Nate Self, it was a time to reflect.

Nate Self: In a fight like that, in a place like that, the vast majority of Rangers turn to God for courage, for peace, for direction.

Julie Self: His strength mainly comes from God. And for his soldiers, he just deeply cared for them. He looked at it as their lives are in his hand. And he didn’t take that lightly.

In a few hours time, the rangers would be called into action and Nate’s leadership tested.

For the men in the valley, neither bullets nor bombs could lessen the al Qaeda onslaught.

Grippe: We took everything that could be thrown out of those mountains at us, about the only thing they didn’t do was roll any boulders down on us.

By late afternoon U.S. commanders in Bagram called in bombers to pound enemy positions.

To maximize accuracy and minimize the chance of another friendly fire accident, Special Ops commanders decided to send a team of Navy SEALs to one of the highest mountains overlooking the valley. It’s called Takur Ghar.

Al Mack, pilot: That was a key piece of terrain, and it’s called key terrain for a reason. It’s key to everybody.

Al Mack, a pilot with the 160th special operations aviation regiment, nicknamed the night stalkers, was assigned to the mission. The plan called for him to chopper the SEALs to the mountain, undercover of darkness.

Phillips: It was high. It gave you a good vantage point and getting eyes up there would be helpful calling in close air support?

Mack: Extremely important. The mission came down to me to put this special reconnaissance team in.

It was about 3 a.m., March 4th, when they approached the landing zone.  As a NBC news animation shows, everything was quiet.  But not for long.

Unclassified army briefing / Unclassified army briefing North view of Takur Ghar, a.k.a. 'Roberts Ridge'

Mack: About that time somebody popped up, and fired his RPG, you know, from 50 feet away at most.

Phillips: 50 feet?

Mack: It was very close.  I saw him just outta the corner of my eye, hit the aircraft.  You hear a big, y’know, big boom, and—all the generators go out. It set the inside of the aircraft on fire.  The team was in the back trying to put it out.

Phillips: And what was going through your mind?

Mack: Well, the thing that was going through my mind was, “What’s the team gonna do?  Are they staying on or they gettin’ off?” And, about that time the right rear gunner, yells, “We’re taking fire in the rear.  Go, go, go, go.” 

Mack struggled to keep the damaged chopper in the air.  Just 10 feet off the ground, it was flyable, but just barely.

Mack: The aircraft was shaking like a washing machine out of balance.  You know it was obvious we were gonna have to put it down somewhere.  And then I started thinking, “Well, where are we gonna put this?  I mean there’s a big battle going on right—just out my right door.”

Minutes later, the helicopter crash-landed in the valley.  Everyone on board was okay,  but a quick head-count told them something was wrong.

Mack: The crew told me, they said, “Hey, we lost a man.  We lost a man in the LZ.” And at first it was disbelief.  You know it was like—“You can’t be serious.  Do another head count.”  They said, “No, we saw him go out.  He on the LZ right now.”

Maybe he was shot or maybe he just slipped.  But it was clear 32-year-old Navy Seal Neil Roberts was alone on a mountain, surrounded by al Qaeda fighters.

His fellow SEALs were rescued by another chopper. They quickly regrouped and headed back to the mountain to find their comrade. 

Phillips: A second chopper was dispatched to save Neil Roberts, and SEALs got out, chopper got away. But they came under heavy fire. Were you able to watch any of this as it unfolded?

Gen. Hagenbeck: Yes I was.

General Hagenbeck watched the scene unfold live—the video transmitted from an unmanned spy plane called a predator, flying overhead.

Phillips: Can you describe it for us?

Gen. Hagenbeck: I just, I mean it tears your heart out.

Phillips: What did you see?

Gen. Hagenbeck: A couple of guys were shot. We couldn’t tell how badly at the time. And then you saw these guys go through, it looked like, waist-deep snow toward the objective and it was a relentless fight.

By now, two helicopters had been ambushed on Takur Ghar. A Navy Seal was missing, others shot trying to save him.

Soon two more choppers would head to the mountain that would come to be called “Roberts Ridge.” Leading this next rescue mission: Captain Nate Self.

A radio warning not to land in the same place would be sent, but never received. Nate and his young Rangers were headed into a killing zone.

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