Man:<i>
We want to fight the enemy.</i> That's why we joined
the Ranger Battalion. Man:<i>
Every mission you
understand the risks,</i> and those risks
definitely were amplified <i>the minute that we stepped
off that aircraft.</i> It was crazy.
I mean, it was chaotic. This was a very different type
of objective for all of us. Man:<i>
It was just a series
of chaotic events.</i> Man:<i> You could be the most
well-trained bad-ass
in the world.</i> Doesn't matter
if you have no training
or all that training. <i>If it's your time,
there's nothing</i> you can do about it
if you're gonna die. I think everyone in special
operations community, has a sense
of invincibility. We're untouchable. Every 19-year-old kid
already has that. And then you give him
the best training
in the world, the best gear, surrounded by
the best people, and now you truly
believe it. Man:<i> The First Ranger
Battalion deployed</i> <i>in the beginning
of August of 2009.</i> <i>Our platoon
was pretty excited</i> <i>to get the chance
to go to Afghanistan.</i> We knew we had
a big opportunity there to really bring
the fight to the enemy. Man:<i>
We were operating
out of Fob Salerno,</i> <i>and it was basically
at capacity.</i> It was very crowded. They were packing us into
these tiny little tents. You could literally
touch the guy to your left
and to your right. We're working out together. We're eating together. Everything we're doing,
we're doing as a team. <i>I remember being
a little nervous.</i> <i>I think that's normal
for everyone's
first deployment.</i> <i>But knowing that you are
surrounded by the best people</i> <i>that the Special Operations
community has to offer,</i> <i>and knowing
that I have their back</i> <i>and at the same time
they have mine,</i> <i>that's a really
good feeling.</i> <i>Jason Dahlke was one
of the best that we had
in Ranger Battalion</i> <i>as far as being
physically fit,
mentally strong.</i> Jordan:<i>
Everybody looked up to him.</i> <i>And instead of just
being the best,</i> he wanted to make
everybody else the best. Michael:<i>
He had a way of teaching</i> that was unlike anything
I'd ever experienced since being
in the military. When he's teaching his guys, <i>it's not just to teach
that one person,</i> <i>but it's to benefit
the group,</i> <i>and he was very,
very adamant about that.</i> He just really wanted
people to succeed. I mean, he really,
he really did. And from what I hear
from the guys, he was a great teacher
and a great leader to them. <i>I met Jason
in middle school.</i> <i>We were, like,
12 or 13, probably.</i> He was in one
of my Spanish classes, and I remember him being
the crazy redhead <i>who was talking
all the time.</i> <i>He was always on the go.</i> <i>He was really active,
really adventurous.</i> <i>Jason just loved
to be outside.</i> <i>I remember once
he called me and told me,</i> <i>"I think I'm gonna
enter into a triathlon
that's on base."</i> I'm like, "Okay. When?" "Today. I'm gonna do it
this afternoon." He ended up doing it
with his mountain bike that he just happened
to have in his truck. He had his MICH-- his military helmet,
not a biker's helmet-- and he ended up
winning the race. I mean, it was absurd. <i>I've never met
anybody like him.</i> Even his walk was
this bounce and this, like, shoulders back,
chest forward, and he was bouncing
when he came in the room. His presence was just there, <i>and he was going to make
everybody there happy.</i> <i>Even deployed,
I never felt alone.</i> <i>I always knew he was there
and thinking about me.</i> <i>He'd been on three
deployments to Iraq</i> <i>and this would be
his third deployment
to Afghanistan.</i> And there was something
about this last deployment which made me very nervous. We begin this hour
with Afghanistan and some very hard facts. Taliban forces
are on the rise again. <i>Al-Qaeda training camps
on the Pakistani side</i> <i>of the Afghan border
are said to be full.</i> Newscaster:<i>
Militants continue to train</i> <i>and launch terror attacks
into Afghanistan.</i> <i>And once feuding
Taliban commanders</i> <i>have pulled together
for the common goal of
fighting the U.S.</i> In 2009, in terms
of the broad scheme
of Afghanistan, you had the Haqqani
and you had the Taliban, <i>and they were able to still
be a problem for the U.S.</i> <i>eight years after
we entered Afghanistan.</i> Jordan:<i>
There was lots of
fire fights.</i> <i>It wasn't just
doing nightly raids.</i> <i>It was night raids
and then getting
in big fights</i> with an actual--
an enemy that knew what
they were actually doing. Michael:<i>
The Americans and the Taliban</i> <i>had almost become good
at fighting each other.</i> So we knew that
it was gonna be a rough--
a rough deployment. Jordan:<i>
Objective Berlin came down.</i> I think we had been in country
about a month or so. <i>Third Battalion had found</i> <i>that there were a number
of training camps</i> <i>near the Pakistan border,</i> and they basically requested a company from
First Battalion to help them hit
all of these camps. Michael:<i>
Our intelligence analysts
had begun monitoring it.</i> A lot of enemy movement
in the area. Greg:<i>
We could see that there
was a large set of bunkers</i> <i>and a bunker system
built into the side
of this mountain.</i> And we could see
these tent systems, and there was reports of possibly enemy weapons caches
and anti-aircraft guns. Jordan:<i>
The camp is very
important to the Taliban.</i> <i>We thought us hitting
the mountain would definitely</i> disrupt their
leadership network because there had to be
somebody important in there with everything
that they had. - Man:<i> Roger, I copy.</i>
- Man #2:<i> Impact. Impact.</i> Greg:<i>
We'd gotten word that
they were gonna be doing</i> <i>a kinetic strike before
we were gonna land.</i> Man on radio:<i>
Good missile.
Good missile.</i> A kinetic strike, basically,
is dropping large amounts of bombs or ordinance
on the area in efforts to eliminate
the bad guys. Michael:<i>
They were gonna send us in
to just make sure</i> that the air strikes
had done their job. Greg:<i>
We were supposed
to land at 8,000 feet.</i> <i>And then our objective at
the top of this mountain</i> <i>was right around
9,500 to 10,000 feet.</i> <i>One private was taken
from each squad--</i> four privates total. <i>I was selected
from weapons</i> <i>and Eric Hario
ended up being selected</i> <i>from third squad.</i> <i>Eric Hario and I,</i> <i>we met back
in the training cycle.</i> I had just gotten to
Alpha Company, First Ranger Battalion, and he had been there
for a month prior. <i>When you looked at Eric,
you had this big bulky guy.</i> <i>Huge forearms.
He reminded me of Popeye.</i> <i>Just these giant
forearms sticking out
from his T-shirt.</i> <i>And he had tattoos.
He looked mean.</i> <i>I remember when
I first met him.</i> <i>The team leaders would start
to get a little bored,</i> and so they would send
all of our privates
from weapon squad over to another squad
to try and wrestle. I drew the unlucky straw
of having to try
and wrestle with Eric <i>who came from a background
of wrestling and football.</i> <i>Here I am this little--
I was 150 pounds.</i> And so we entered the cage,
and the last thing I remember is Eric having me
in this headlock and my head bouncing
off the concrete and me thinking
in the back of my mind, "This is a really
bad situation." I drew the wrong kid
to mess with. And we were
laughing later on. I believe he said something
to the effect of, "Hey, man, I'll help you work
on those wrestling skills," or something like that. <i>As it led up to the planning
for Objective Berlin,</i> the final manifest
call came out
and our names were on it. We were super excited
that we had been selected. As we took off, I mean,
this is my second mission. This is Eric's
very first mission. <i>We were just both looking
forward to the opportunity</i> <i>to go out and do our job.</i> <i>( radio chatter )</i> Michael:<i>
I took a look out the window
of the helicopter,</i> <i>and the terrain,
it's so vast,</i> <i>and it's just emptiness
out there.</i> <i>And I remember thinking,</i> <i>"They want us
to climb up this."</i> These mountains
are straight up. Jordan:<i>
We'd only been
in country for a month,</i> <i>living and training
at sea level,</i> and this mission
was going to be over 9,000 feet elevation. So not only walking
up a mountain, but doing it while fighting
was gonna be a huge challenge. I've heard that this
was an area in the world that Alexander the Great
couldn't even conquer because the terrain
was just so challenging. <i>I vaguely remember
someone saying</i> <i>we just got radio chatter
that the enemy knew</i> that we were coming
just because of the bombs
that had been dropped. You know,
"The Americans are coming. <i>Get your guns ready.</i> <i>Get ready to fight."</i> Jordan:<i>
As we were coming in
and started taking fire,</i> the pilots made
an assessment on the spot that they could actually
land the aircraft. Michael:<i>
When you land aircraft
in an area like that,</i> they are the biggest target
on the battlefield. <i>Every enemy combatant
that's in that area,</i> <i>they know that
somebody's coming,</i> <i>especially
when it's at night.</i> Greg:<i>
We de-clipped.</i> <i>I run off to the right.
I take a knee,</i> <i>and my team leader and I
are pulling security.</i> The shooting is going on. My team leader grabs me
and pulls me down. Come on.
There's a bunker right... <i>There's an enemy bunker
built into the side
of the mountain.</i> <i>It was so well camouflaged
that we didn't even see it.</i> Clear. Jordan:<i>
I'm hearing reports
that there's just enemy</i> <i>coming in
from every direction.</i> <i>There's so much
that they call off</i> the next wave of helicopters because they want
to use the air support to shoot the guys
that are coming over
the ridge lines at us. <i>The enemy was quickly
eliminated.</i> Greg:<i>
I was, like,
a 19-year-old kid,</i> <i>second mission,
first deployment.</i> <i>To step off into a valley
in which the enemy</i> was prepared and precise
and ready to attack, it was very eye-opening. <i>My name is Greg Buechner.</i> <i>I am originally
from a small town</i> <i>called Manitowoc,
Wisconsin.</i> <i>From an early age,
I knew that I was destined
for the military.</i> I just remember going to
all these old yard sales, getting these old uniforms, and I'd lay in the bushes and practice
my ambush techniques. Me and all my friends
from the neighborhood would just sit there
and recon certain people
in our neighborhood and write notes
about them, like, "This person left
their house at this time." Yeah, we definitely
kept the place safe. <i>I learned about the Rangers
and their capabilities.</i> <i>I knew that
was going to be my route.</i> I signed up at 18,
and then I left two weeks after
high school graduation. <i>As a private coming in,
you've read all the books</i> <i>and you've watched
all the movies.</i> <i>This is the first time
you've ever been out
of the country,</i> <i>and you're shipped
to a warzone.</i> <i>And it's good to know
that you have brothers</i> <i>who care about
your well-being.</i> Once the contact ceased
and it got a little quiet, almost eerily quiet... Michael:<i>
...that's when the guys
started getting on the radio,</i> <i>saying, "We got friendly
wounded in action."</i> Greg:<i>
Once you hear that one of
your buddies got hit,</i> you start to run scenarios
through your head. Who is it? Is it bad?
Are they gonna make it? ( whispering ) Yes, sir. Greg:<i>
I wasn't very seasoned yet</i> with operating
under night vision. <i>You have no
depth perception.</i> <i>You can see the rocks
down there,</i> <i>but you don't really know
how far they are away.</i> So I tripped and fell
two or three times as I was running over. <i>I was able to reach
this large amount of people</i> <i>that were taking a knee.</i> <i>It looked like
they were working.</i> <i>I remember just kneeling
over closer and closer,</i> and that's when
I was able to look, and I could tell at that point
that it was Eric. <i>They had his helmet off,
they had his body armor off,</i> <i>and they were trying
to assess his wounds.</i> <i>Ten minutes prior,
we're seated across</i> <i>from each other
in the aircraft.</i> <i>An hour before that,
we were talking</i> <i>about the things that every
19-year-old talks about--</i> <i>girls and war.</i> <i>And now all of a sudden,</i> <i>we found ourselves
on this battlefield</i> <i>and he's laying there
with multiple wounds.</i> And that's when it
hit me really hard. I look at his situation-- <i>in his late teens,</i> <i>six months
of Ranger experience,</i> <i>from the Midwest,</i> and then I looked at myself-- 19, six months of experience,
and from the Midwest. Our stories
paralleled each other, and that's when it became
extremely real to me the possibility
that it could be me. <i>Given the fact
that they were working
on him so frantically,</i> <i>that told me that
that was a good sign.</i> Jordan:<i>
It came over the radio
that he's stable.</i> <i>What happened to Hario
was that he stepped
off the aircraft</i> and was shot within
the first 30 seconds, hit in the neck,
collar bone area. Michael:<i>
When I first
found out about it,</i> <i>it was almost like
this shield</i> of invincibility is gone. Greg:<i>
They loaded him
into the aircraft</i> <i>and we sent
a great medic with him.</i> <i>That was a big
stumbling block,</i> <i>but we're gonna make it
through this, you know?</i> <i>And so will Eric.</i> But it was crazy to think
that it happened so quick when we ran off the back
of that aircraft. And I had a feeling
that we were gonna be
in for a fight. caster:<i>
The U.S. is sending
tens of thousands</i> <i>more troops to Afghanistan,</i> <i>but right now
it seems the Taliban</i> <i>have never been stronger.</i> Part of landing,
the beginning of any mission, is to dominate the terrain
and establish control. Michael:<i>
We had mountains
on either side of us,</i> <i>really vast ridge lines
that almost circled
our entire position.</i> <i>My fire team began
moving to the north,</i> <i>which was gonna bring us
to the base of the mountain</i> <i>that our target
was on top of.</i> <i>My squad was a lead element
for this target.</i> <i>As a lead element,
you're gonna be the guys
that are in the front.</i> My name is Michael Ross.
I'm 29 years old. I grew up in Syracuse,
New York. <i>I didn't grow up
in a big military family.</i> <i>I didn't have the typical
childhood that you hear</i> <i>a lot of guys
in the military--</i> <i>you know,
they grew up hunting.</i> I didn't shoot a gun
till I went to Basic. <i>I grew up skate boarding
and snow boarding.</i> <i>I didn't play football.</i> <i>I think everyone changed
after September 11.</i> Our whole country, obviously,
had almost a facelift to it. Something sparked inside of me
when that happened. There was some sort of,
almost an anger or a rage,
you could almost call it. I felt like something
needed to be done. And so I had tattoos <i>and the Marine Corps,
they hated tattoos</i> <i>just as much
as the Army does now.</i> I had them below the elbow, and that kind of funneled me
into the Army. <i>I enlisted in May of 2007.</i> <i>I knew that
I wanted to fight.</i> <i>I had that desire in me.</i> <i>I wanted to be
the tip of the spear,</i> <i>the guys that go in first.</i> Greg:<i>
Ross was definitely
one of those guys</i> <i>that you kind of
look up to.</i> <i>He's a super humble guy,
so he won't tell you this,</i> <i>but he was actually
awarded the Silver Star</i> for something he did
later in his career, which is a true testament
to the Ranger that he was and the man that he is. <i>He was definitely one
of the guys,</i> <i>when you're moving through
that difficult terrain,</i> <i>he'd look around
to see how everyone
else is acting,</i> <i>especially as
a younger private.</i> <i>Him and a couple other guys,</i> <i>they were still doing
everything right.</i> I had taken a quick pause <i>when we heard contact
from behind us.</i> ( gunfire ) Greg:<i>
I was worried that
enemy movers</i> may be coming from
multiple directions. ( gunfire ) Jordan:<i>
I moved to the eastern side
of the landing zone,</i> because they said there were
guys coming from the west. <i>Jason Dahlke was sitting
a few feet from me.</i> 12 o'clock. I'm gonna paint
the targets. Light 'em up. <i>He was using his laser
to illuminate the ridge line.</i> - ( gunshots )
- Lift to left. - ( gunshot )
- Tango down. Dahlke, go.
Let's go. <i>Someone comes over the radio
and asks me to move</i> <i>where more guys
are coming over.</i> <i>Some guy that got--
had been dead earlier</i> <i>sat up and shot at Jason
from pretty close range.</i> Talk to me. We take off his helmet and start taking off
his body armor <i>and our hands
are covered in his blood.</i> <i>We realize he's pretty
seriously wounded.</i> <i>He was shot in the side
a couple of times.</i> And I remember
standing over him
and looking down after we'd taken his kit off, and I remember
standing over him and refocusing
my NODs on his face. It was the first time
I had a surreal experience, where I kind of just
like denied who it was. <i>At this point there wasn't
really anything more</i> <i>for me to do besides
sit there and watch.</i> <i>I grabbed my shooter
and we moved back over
to where we were walking.</i> As we were sitting there
pulling security basically wiping
the blood off of our hands, I was like,
"That was Dahlke, wasn't it?" And he said, "Yeah." <i>They packaged him up
and the next two helicopters</i> <i>came in for the rest
of the ground force.</i> When you have a friendly
killed in action, when the helicopter's
coming in they say, "Hey, we have X amount of
people coming in on aircraft and we're loading one angel
on an aircraft." And, I mean,
everybody knew that Dahlke
was dead right away. Michael:<i>
Looking around, you could
see on our guys faces</i> we had just gotten kicked
in the chest pretty hard. Greg:<i>
Jason, who was arguably</i> <i>one of the most respected
Rangers in our group,</i> for someone
that had his skill set,
and his knowledge, and his physical ability,
and his mental ability-- if he can be killed, we all have a target
on our back. Michael:<i>
Our mission was to go</i> and deal with
this training camp on this mountain. So, yes, we get these
casualties out of the gate, but we haven't even started. <i>As the sun started
coming up,</i> <i>you started being
able to see</i> <i>these peaks around us.</i> <i>That kind of put everything
back into perspective</i> <i>of just how small we were
in this vast area.</i> Greg:<i>
I think all of us kind of
came to the realization</i> <i>that this could be
our night.</i> <i>This could be
our time to go.</i> <i>And I saw that sunrise,</i> and it was a very
iconic moment, how in the middle of
a really dark time... <i>you can still find beauty.</i> Jordan:<i>
We started moving up,</i> <i>and the terrain
was terrible.</i> <i>It was some of the harshest
terrain I've ever seen.</i> Michael:<i>
It was hands and knees.</i> <i>This slate rock that
they have there,</i> it crumbles
underneath your feet. <i>You're holding onto
roots and limbs.</i> <i>There was a tree
at one point,</i> <i>and I remember thinking,</i> <i>"I can take a break
for five seconds</i> <i>if I can get to this tree."</i> <i>That was my mini-objective.</i> <i>"I need to get to
this tree."</i> Jordan:<i>
It's hard to describe it,
but I've never been</i> on any mountain
similar to that. <i>A lot of jagged rocks,</i> <i>sharp edges that
could actually tear
your clothing.</i> <i>Very few places suitable
to even sit down on.</i> With the weight our guys
have on their backs, <i>they've cracked
these rocks in half</i> <i>and it makes them
tumble backwards.</i> I think I was
160 pounds at the time--
my body weight. I think I weighed 240
with all of our gear on. And that's not
even the heaviest. There were guys that carried
much more than that. Jordan:<i>
Within the first 30 minutes
or so of making our way up,</i> <i>we see a dead Taliban
with a backpack full of RPGs.</i> <i>We have the dog handler
bring his dog up</i> just to sniff around
and see if there's anything
booby-trapped. ( barking ) <i>He sets up to shoot
an RPG at us.</i> <i>We all shoot him
at the same time, basically.</i> <i>One of the bullets
strikes in the backpack
full of rockets.</i> I remember feeling
a giant heat wave
come off of it. I was close enough to feel
the heat from it. Greg:<i>
It was crazy.
It was chaotic.</i> The dog ended up getting
a decent wound to the face and the dog handler
was seriously wounded. He needed to be medivac'd,
that was clear, <i>and we knew we had
to continue moving on.</i> So we start booking it up
the side of this mountain the best we can
with the difficult terrain
that we're given. <i>We reach a point on which
we're able to hit a plateau.</i> <i>We set up a makeshift
patrol base.</i> Jordan:<i>
Everybody's face has been
covered in dirt.</i> They're extremely winded
trying to carry all this weight
up the mountain. Greg:<i>
Generally, you want
to stay silent.</i> <i>You're trying
to conceal yourself.</i> And all of a sudden,
we hear this yelling. ( man shouting
in native language ) Jordan:<i>
At this point, everybody
shuts up immediately</i> <i>so they can hear him.</i> We realize it's some voice
just echoing across <i>between the ridge lines.</i> <i>I start scanning immediately
and I see a head pop up.</i> Greg:<i>
There he was right
in front of us</i> on this adjacent mountaintop
dressed in white. He was waving his arms
and screaming and yelling. <i>And what it seemed
like he was doing</i> <i>was calling to the enemy,
spotting for them,</i> <i>maybe telling them
where our position was.</i> By this time,
we can hear him. We think he's saying,
"Stupid Americans!" <i>I had already basically
ranged out</i> <i>all of the key
terrain features around us.</i> <i>I'd estimated it to be
between six and 700 meters.</i> It was a tough shot,
mountaintop to mountaintop. There's no telling
what the wind was doing
in the middle of it, <i>and at elevation.</i> Jordan Whitlow,
in Ranger Battalion,
is a sniper legend. <i>I became a sniper
after this deployment,</i> <i>and a lot of it has to do</i> <i>with seeing Jordan
on this mission.</i> Jordan:<i>
I grew up in Iowa
and Indiana.</i> <i>I guess you could say
I had a normal
Midwestern childhood.</i> <i>I was also the Dennis
the Menace type</i> <i>that would be running around
with a frog in my pocket</i> <i>trying to catch snakes
out in the middle
of nowhere in Iowa.</i> <i>When I was six years old,</i> before the Internet
was a big thing for us, my mom would take us
to the public library, and instead of going to
the children's book section, I would go and
check out the books
about military history, <i>and I was pretty
fascinated with snipers
as a kid growing up.</i> <i>I knew that the Rangers
was an elite unit,</i> and so in October of 2003, when I was 17 years old,
that's when I signed up. <i>It just so happened
that in 2005</i> <i>they needed more snipers
in the Battalion,</i> and so they opened it up
to some of the junior guys. <i>I went through
the assessment process,</i> <i>and I was one of three
other guys to get selected</i> <i>to join the sniper platoon.</i> <i>I was the youngest guy by
probably five years.</i> Greg:<i>
Definitely admired him
from afar, yeah.</i> <i>I'd heard that he'd grown up
in the sniper section,</i> which was extremely rare, and he was obviously
good at his job. He proved it that day. - ( gunshot )
- Nice. The squad leader yelled,
"Holy ( bleep ), you hit him." Michael:<i>
From 700 yards,</i> <i>that type of engagement,</i> across from ridge line
to ridge line-- <i>it's virtually impossible
to gauge your wind.</i> <i>Couldn't have been
placed any better.</i> <i>It's just one of
the most impressive things
I've ever seen.</i> I'd like to say
it was pure talent, but I think
it was mostly luck. Michael:<i>
After these casualties
that we had,</i> to see that we were still
capable of putting the boot on the enemy
was a very uplifting thing. <i>( radio chatter )</i> Jordan:<i>
The radio that
our linguist was carrying,</i> <i>listening to their
radio traffic, he said,</i> <i>"They came over the radio
and said, 'Hey, don't move.</i> <i>They can hit us from there.'"</i> <i>It was kind of like
a giant middle finger
to the Taliban.</i> We're here and we're gonna
move up this mountain. We had just walked
probably 20 hours, fighting through the valley,
up the mountain. Michael:<i>
Initially, we started
seeing tents.</i> Every enemy combatant
that's in that area, <i>they're very mobile.</i> <i>These guys don't
live in houses.</i> <i>We cleared
through the tents</i> <i>and then we pushed forward
into what I would consider</i> the primary objective,
the bunker complex <i>at the peak
of the mountain.</i> Coming up
was the objective area, which is where
the majority pre-assault
fires had occurred. <i>The trees were literally
nothing more than
splintered stumps.</i> <i>Trees that had been
once 30 or 40 feet</i> <i>were now reduced
to four-foot stumps.</i> <i>It smelled like
a pine tree air freshener.</i> So at this point we found
enemy weapons caches, <i>large amount of machine guns
and grenades.</i> <i>There were just
fighting positions</i> <i>and weapons
scattered everywhere.</i> One of the initial things
we found was a ZPU-- <i>an old Russian
anti-aircraft gun,</i> <i>and it was pointing directly</i> <i>at our helicopter
landing zone.</i> <i>It's designed to
bring down an aircraft.</i> Jordan:<i>
We inventoried any actual</i> <i>serviceable weapons
that we found,</i> and made this giant cache
of weapons, blew it up. Michael:<i>
We had done it.</i> <i>We had gotten up there.</i> <i>We had cleared the objective
and completed the mission.</i> To do that after being
dealt such a blow <i>in the beginning
with Dahlke,</i> <i>and then to see it
through to its fruition,</i> <i>it just reinstilled
how I viewed these guys.</i> It was a very proud moment
to be a part of that. Jordan:<i>
As we're sitting up there
pulling security,</i> <i>I remember thinking
we got updates</i> <i>about all the guys
that were wounded,</i> and we knew that we lost
Jason Dahlke, <i>but we didn't know
about Hario.</i> <i>I walked to the middle
of the patrol base</i> <i>and I asked
the platoon sergeant</i> <i>what happened to Hario.</i> He just looked at me
with a blank stare and said, "He didn't make it." And I didn't know him well, but I knew he was a good guy. I knew he was
only 19 years old,
his first mission ever, died, basically,
stepping off the aircraft. Michael:<i>
Initially we were told
on the ground</i> <i>that there were some
complications</i> <i>on the medivac bird
with Hario,</i> but that they were able
to work through them. They were able to
revitalize him a few times. You hold onto
that glimmer of hope, and then when you
get told otherwise, you know, I mean... you know, so. It was a-- it was a challenging
moment for me... <i>...trying to grasp
what just happened.</i> Michael:<i>
You'll never stop wondering
could I have done more?</i> <i>Could we have done
something differently?</i> <i>That never leaves.</i> You have a quick second
to think about the family which I, um--
you try not to do, but it's-- you know
that there's gonna be someone that comes
to their door and tells them that their son
was just killed. My name is Becky Hario,
and I'm Eric Hario's mother. <i>Eric was born and grew up
in Monroe, Michigan.</i> <i>He was very popular there.</i> <i>He played every sport
you can imagine--</i> <i>football, baseball,
wrestling.</i> He was a handful. He was--
we have three sons,
my wife and I, <i>and Eric was
the most athletic.</i> He had a weight set
outside our front door. Every time
he'd go out somewhere,
he'd do a couple reps, and always competed
with his friends to see who could lift
the most amount of weight. Jim:<i>
Eric was an honest,
hard-working person.</i> He wanted to earn things
as opposed to be given things. <i>I told him,
"Do what you want to do.
It's your life."</i> <i>And he wanted to be
in the military.</i> He really loved his country, and he wanted to fight
for his country. <i>I actually talked to him
the night before the battle.</i> He knew he was going
to a battle, but he couldn't
really tell me that, but I know at this point
that he had to have known. It was a very
beautiful phone call. He says,
"I love you all very much, and, Mom, you're always
in my heart." And then the phone line
went dead, so that's the last
I heard from him. Jim:<i>
I was in Minnesota,
and the phone--</i> <i>my cell phone rang.
It was my son Mark.</i> Just-- yeah, my brain
shut down for a little bit trying to figure out
what to do next. He got home later
in the day and we kind of
fell apart together. Just a lot of talking,
a lot of hugging, a lot of crying, but honor, too. Eric was honored
to serve for his country, and I think he was honored
to die for his country. When you become a Ranger,
you've got to be ready to fight, but you've
gotta be ready to die, because it might happen. We had a memorial two days
later on our compound, and they have their guns
set up with their boots and their dog tags
and their helmet. We all knew that symbol. <i>You know, that stuff
has to be cleaned,</i> <i>and that's something that
you really don't think about.</i> <i>Our platoon made the call.
"Hey, we're gonna do it."</i> <i>I remember all of us privates
sitting around in silence.</i> Michael:<i>
You're asking kids that were
friends with the deceased</i> <i>to clean blood
off of their gear.</i> You can't be trained
for that. You can't teach a guy
how to lose a friend, or how to lose what
we consider a brother. Man:<i>
We gather this evening
to honor the memories</i> <i>of Private First Class Hario
and Staff Sergeant Dahlke,</i> <i>who sacrificed their lives
so that others did not
have to sacrifice.</i> They were true
patriots and comrades who gave of
themselves willingly. <i>They fought and destroyed
an incredibly determined,</i> <i>tenacious,
and evil enemy that night.</i> <i>When the dust
settled that day,
Alpha Company 175</i> <i>had destroyed the enemy
on the objective</i> <i>and owned
the training camp,</i> <i>thus eliminating his ability
to terrorize others.</i> <i>Unfortunately, this victory
came at a tremendous cost,</i> <i>a cost that we
are all struggling
to put into perspective.</i> I saw a lot of hard men
who I'd never seen show emotion before
show emotion. <i>That's a true testament
to what these men
meant to us.</i> Jordan:<i>
You know, when a guy dies,</i> <i>you got to inventory
his things</i> <i>and send them home.</i> My cot was in one corner and Dahlke's cot
was in the other corner. All I remember is they started
inventorying his stuff and basically
creating a checklist
of all of his items, and I just turned
around on my cot, and that's when I let it go. And, hey, I remember
not wanting anybody to hear me crying or anything,
so I didn't sniffle. I just had tears and snot
running down my face. I don't remember how long,
but I just sat there
for hours like that. One f the last conversations,
I remember him saying, "I'm with the best guys
I can be with. They're gonna bring me home." I specifically
said that time, "You have to come
back to me." He was just very,
very confident that-- I mean,
he was coming home. I don't think
Jason ever thought something would
happen to him. Greg:<i>
One thing that I took away</i> was that bullets
don't discriminate. You can be on your
very first mission or you can be
on your 500th mission, <i>and you can be among the most
highly-trained warriors</i> <i>that our military
has to offer,</i> <i>but at the end of the day,</i> if it's your time,
it's your time. <i>And that night,
I took a right off the bird</i> <i>and Eric took a left.</i> <i>It really is luck.</i> From Berlin on,
when our guys would get
their boots on the ground, we knew what
the possibilities were now. More than anyone,
we knew this is what
could happen. We'd seen it. Jason:<i>
It's because of guys
like Jason and Eric</i> <i>who aren't able
to be here anymore</i> that I put my best
foot forward in everything that I do. It's very moving
to see this many lives that he has touched. His spirit, really, what we learned from Jason, it's never going to end. Eric kind of emulated Jason. <i>They worked out together.</i> <i>And the gymnasium
that was named after them</i> <i>just proves
they're going to live on.</i> <i>It's called
the Dahlke/Hario CRTF--</i> <i>Combat Readiness
Training Facility.</i> It's a gym. They have to name
it something complicated. <i>It's a nice room,
and by the front door
is a big display case</i> <i>and it talks about
Jason and Eric</i> and why it's called
the Dahlke/Hario room. It's a building
where the Rangers
can go and work out, and they can look up
to the two guys who their picture's
on the wall and try to walk
in their footsteps.
