20 “The Attack on the Ranch House, August 2007” By John J.

20

“The Attack on the Ranch House, August 2007”

By John J. McGrath, in 16 Cases of Mission Command

BACKGROUND

On 22 August 2007, insurgents conducted a deliberate attack against a combined US Army-Afghan combat outpost (COP) outside the village of Aranas, called COP Ranch House, in central Nuristan Province. The attack against half a platoon of troops from C Company, 2-503d IN, 173d Airborne Brigade, was initially successful with the attackers breaking through the outpost’s perimeter in a section manned by paramilitary local Afghan Security Guards (ASG). However, the defenders fought back vigorously and soon repulsed the attack with no American fatalities. Key insurgent leader Hazrat Omar was killed in the attack. At the time the Ranch House position was perhaps the most remote American outpost in Afghanistan, located in the rugged southern foothills of the Hindu Kush range in an area isolated from roads and rivers. Because of this remoteness, the American command had planned to close the outpost before the attack and it was, in fact, closed in October 2007. After its closure, many of the American troops involved in the action were ambushed southwest of the former post while returning from a foot patrol to Aranas on 7 November 2007. In this action, six Americans were killed.

Aranas is the largest community in the central Nuristani district of Waygal. The town sits on the south-facing northern slope of an eastward running valley that branches off from the Waygal River, the major terrain feature in the district, several miles to the south east. The Waygal flows south from the Hindu Kush into Kunar Province joining with the Pech River at Nangalam about ten miles southwest of Aranas. In 2007, Aranas and its outlying area had about 6,000 inhabitants making it a metropolis for the area. The population of Nuristan is a unique ethnic group, neither Iranian (like the Pashtuns who lived to the south in Kunar) nor Indic (like the people who lived to the east in Pakistan) but distantly related to both groups. Nuristan is an isolated area even for Afghanistan. Governmental control had long been a weak and distant concept to the Waygali Nuristanis.

Aranas had long been recognized as a hotbed of insurgency by American intelligence analysts, providing an area from which the enemy could launch attacks into the vital Kunar and Pech valleys from long established base camp areas. Therefore, as part of a long term counterinsurgency strategy, the Coalition leadership felt it was essential to establish an American-Afghan outpost in the area, both to limit insurgent activities in the region and to use as a base from which to conduct counterinsurgency activities among the local population.

Figure 1. Coalition positions in the Waygal Valley, 2007.

American operations in the area were extremely limited before 2006. A forward operating base (FOB) called Camp Blessing was built near Manoguy at the point where the Waygal flowed into the Pech River in 2003 about 15 miles south of Aranas in Kunar Province. A pair of 105-mm howitzers and several 120-mm mortars were placed at the outpost, which was initially manned only by a small Special Forces element and later a platoon of US Marines. The 105-mm guns were later replaced by two 155-mm howitzers. The situation changed in 2006 when troops from the 3d Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Task Force Spartan), and the 3d Brigade, 201st Corps of the Afghan National Army, deployed into a number of newly created or expanded FOBs (forward operating bases) and combat outposts in Kunar and Nuristan Provinces.

TF SPARTAN 1-32IN ESTABLISHES COP RANCH HOUSE

TF Spartan’s 1st Battalion, 32d Infantry (1-32 IN), established two outposts in the Waygal Valley in August 2006. One of these, COP Ranch House, was located just northeast of Aranas on a high 7,000 foot mountainside. The position was centered on a large one-story wooden building, a former schoolhouse that resembled the Ponderosa ranch house on the 1960s television show Bonanza, a comparison which gave the outpost its name (see photo, p. 18). The site was virtually impossible to reach by motorized vehicle and the helicopter landing zone (LZ) was placed on top of the Ranch House building, the only available area flat enough to accommodate an aircraft. Since the building backed up against the steep mountainside, the Americans had to use explosives and engineer equipment brought in by sling load to carve out an adequate LZ. Eventually an LZ large enough to accommodate a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, the aircraft used for medical evacuations (MEDEVAC), was created. The larger CH-47 Chinooks, the mainstay for resupply missions, still had to sling-load cargo above the LZ in order to deliver its loads. With no roads suitable for HMMWVs, the unit often used donkeys for ground resupply as well. In addition to the Ranch House, 1-32 IN established a second position at a small hamlet known as Bella on the Waygal River southwest of the Ranch House, roughly a third of the distance between Aranas and Camp Blessing or three kilometers (1.5 miles) as the crow flies but seven kilometers (four miles) by foot trail, southwest of the Ranch House. The American units split a platoon between both outposts in 2006 and 2007, placing approximately 20 troops at each position.

Figure 2. The Set-Up of COP Ranch House.

At the Ranch House outpost, the 1-32 IN troops built a defensive perimeter to the northeast of the Ranch House building eventually consisting of a series of six positions, generally of sandbagged wooden towers and concertina wire which encircled the whole post. Americans manned four of the positions which were numbered 1 to 4 starting from the north extending to the east and around back to the west. A fifth position was later added between posts 3 and 4 to the southeast

of the perimeter. This post was manned by members of the Afghan Security Guards (ASG), a locally recruited force. A small detachment of Afghan soldiers (Afghan National Army or ANA) manned a guard post built onto the north side of the Ranch House building. Two additional ANA positions were located directly behind and to the left and right of the ASG site (Post 5) between it and Post 4.

In the center of the position was a small aid station, a bunker used as a tactical operations center (TOC), a rations supply point and a mortar firing position equipped with a 60-mm mortar from the company mortar section. The ASG also established an observation post two kilometers northwest of the Ranch House on a mountaintop that was visible from both the Ranch House and Bella and which was used to provide overwatch for patrols travelling between the two outposts.

Although located only 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Camp Blessing, the rugged terrain around the Ranch House made the position arguably the most remote in Afghanistan. The site ran along an east-west running spur with the eastern end higher than the western portion. The outpost was built on a slope that rose about 300 meters in elevation from the low point at the LZ to the highest position, Post 3. The elevation at the Ranch House building was about 7,300 feet. The slope continued beyond the end of the outpost perimeter several hundred meters to a ridgeline that was at an elevation of 8,400 feet. The position was located within 25 meters of the outlying houses of Aranas proper to the southwest and had several cottages or bandehs located on the slopes surrounding the other sides of the perimeter.

The operations at the Ranch House outpost were part of the ongoing counterinsurgency campaign. The troops at the COP conducted a mix of missions including securing the local population, providing humanitarian assistance, and establishing a presence of the central Afghan government. As such, the commander’s intent was to ensure that the outpost could sustain and protect itself in order to conduct such tasks. The combat outpost needed to be adequately defended both to deter insurgent activities in the area and to instill confidence among the inhabitants to support the activities of the Coalition and the Afghan government.

TF ROCK 2-503IN TAKES OVER RANCH HOUSE, AND PRE-BATTLE

When Task Force Rock, the 2d Battalion, 503d Infantry (2-503 IN), 173d Airborne Brigade, took over the Ranch House outpost on 26 May 2007, the position had not experienced any direct enemy contact since March. The new unit modified the defenses slightly by emplacing more Claymore mines around the perimeter than their predecessors had, shifting the perimeter concertina barbed wire farther out in several locations, and adding more sandbags to the positions and building alternate fighting positions in case any of the existing positions were destroyed in a large enemy attack. Because of the difficulty in resupplying the position, the perimeter wire was only a single strand of concertina fence which was stretched around obstructions such as large rocks.

Shortly after the 2-503 IN took over the Ranch House in May 2007, the outpost was fired upon while some of the defenders were conducting a nighttime ambush patrol. The enemy directed PKM machine gun and RPG rocket fires at the ASG position, Post 5, for about an hour. This post was considered to be a weak link in the defense as a steep slope overlooked the position from the east. After this encounter, the outpost remained quiet for almost three months while other areas in the TF Rock sector, particularly the Korengal and Pech valleys, had almost daily contact with the insurgents. Meanwhile, the Ranch House garrison frequently heard rumors of impending attacks, none of which materialized. The lack of action and the repetitive false warnings meant that when an attack did come, the defenders, while prepared, were nevertheless surprised.

The ASG contingent in the Waygal Valley had been established by the 1-32 IN. This force was locally recruited and given only rudimentary military training. ASG members were used as scouts and to buttress defensive positions by manning some positions particularly observation posts. Just before its departure, the 1-32 IN had expanded the size of the ASG contingent from 25 to 45. The recruitment of the ASG was done to give the local population an investment in the Coalition presence in the area as well as provide an economic boost. However, the ASG troops and leadership soon proved to be unreliable.

As noted earlier, the five numbered posts included four manned by Americans. The posts were built out of plywood lumber and sandbags and, in most cases, were combination guard posts and sleeping quarters. The guard posts were built up on elevated towers equipped with crew served weapons. The weapons were a combination of Mk-19 automatic grenade launchers, M240B machine guns, Squad automatic weapons (SAW) and Javelin antiarmor missile systems. Posts 3 and 4 had sleeping quarters under the tower which had no direct entrance to the tower from the sleeping area. Posts 1 and 2 had offset sleeping areas. While the sleeping quarters for Post 1 were only 15 meters away, Post 2’s was a relatively distant 50 meters. In addition to reinforcing positions, sandbags were used to build staircases on the steep hillside to facilitate troop movement. Unlike at other sites in northeastern Afghanistan, the perimeter of the Ranch House combat outpost was not made of HESCO fabric barriers. The prefabricated HESCOs were bulky and required extensive dirt fill and a Bobcat front end loader to fill them. While there was a Bobcat at the site, the terrain did not contain adequate amounts of dirt and the slope restricted the effective use of the Bobcat to the landing zone area. Plywood and sandbags provided the fortifications at the Ranch House.

Despite its location, the Ranch House outpost had excellent communications systems on site which in the summer of 2007 including a tactical satellite radio (TACSAT) and secure internet protocol router (SIPR)-capable very small aperture terminal (VSAT). The VSAT provided classified messaging. The SIPR and non-secure communications, which depended on satellite connections, were sometimes down due to weather conditions. On one occasion these communications means were briefly lost when an RPG round hit the antennas. At the time of the attack, the communications were functional. An unnamed US Army signals specialist, properly referred to as a SIPR point of presence (SPOP) technician, was at the outpost during the attack. The TOC also had FM radio communications with each post and with company commander CPT Matthew Myer at Bella. An antenna array, including a large satellite dish, sat on top of the TOC bunker.

An array of fire support assets was available to the Ranch House defenders. The outpost itself contained one 60-mm mortar whose gunners had trained to provide close-in fires. At Bella were two 120-mm mortars and at Camp Blessing were a pair of 155-mm howitzers, each capable of ranging the area around the Ranch House. There was also a pair of Air Force A-10 close support jet aircraft and Army Apache attack helicopters on call for missions in the area. While the mortars and howitzers were immediately available, the fixed and rotary wing assets were stationed at Bagram Airbase and Jalalabad and required between 30 minutes and an hour to be on station.

In the TF Rock area of operations, 21 August 2007 was a relatively quiet day but this calm was deceptive. The enemy was well prepared to attack the outpost. Aranas insurgent leader Hazrat Omar would personally lead the attack which would include both the employment of supporting fire positions all around the outpost and an assault force which would mass against the southeastern corner of the perimeter where the Afghan troops were positioned. Enemy intelligence on the outpost and its garrison was extensive. After the battle a detailed schematic of the outpost’s setup was discovered on a captured camera.

On the morning of 22 August 2007, there were 20 members of the 1st Platoon, C Company, 2-503 IN, and the supporting mortar squad at the Ranch House position. This force included one officer, eight noncommissioned officers and 11 enlisted men. A medic from the brigade medical company (B Company, 173d Support Battalion) and a forward observer were also attached to the platoon. Among the paratroopers were 13 who had not yet seen combat. The outpost commander was the platoon leader, 1LT Matthew Ferrara. Ferrara’s senior NCO was Weapons Squad Leader SSG David Dzwik. Dzwik was assisted by SSG Erich Phillips, who led the 60-mm mortar squad. In addition to the Americans there were about 22 ANA soldiers and about 45 ASG fighters, including those at the distant OP. Advising the ANA detachment was a small US Marine embedded training team (ETT). With the rest of Ferrara’s platoon providing the garrison at COP Bella, company commander Myer, rotated between Camp Blessing, where the company’s 2d Platoon was located, and Bella. On 22 August, Myer was at Bella. Typically the squads rotated between patrolling the areas around the COP and manning the defenses of the outpost. Platoon headquarters and mortar personnel often augmented the patrolling units.

Before dawn that day at the Ranch House, all was quiet. The defenders were manning their posts at the routine security level of 25 percent, which meant at each position an average of one person was awake at any given time. Not expecting a dawn attack, stand to (i.e. 100 percent alert) procedures were not in place. The ASG at Post 5 were awake and conducting morning prayers per Islamic custom. Although the defenders routinely sent out patrols at irregular intervals night and day, no patrols were out during this predawn period.

THE FIGHT STARTS

At 0454 hours, with dawn approaching, the quiet was suddenly broken. At the Ranch House a force of four or five insurgents appeared on the hillside about 100 meters south and east of the outpost in the rugged terrain between the outpost and Aranas. The enemy was dressed in BDU-style clothing similar to that which had been issued to ASG personnel. The attackers focused their fires on the ASG position (Post 5), Post 3, and the TOC position. As it was in the most vulnerable position, the garrison at Post 3 had the least time to get ready once the attack began. Accordingly the enemy was able to concentrate against the position with only the return fire of the M240 machine gun from the duty soldier in the tower. In rapid succession four RPG rounds struck the post virtually destroying it and damaging the Mk-19 grenade launcher and M240 posted there. The paratrooper on duty in the tower, SPC Jeddah Deloria, survived in the wreckage wounded but still capable of fighting. With the radio destroyed at Post 3, the NCOIC there, SGT Carlos Gonzales, sent SPC Charles Bell to Post 2 to report and continue the fight.

Gonzales himself was wounded shortly thereafter, and with the enemy approaching the ruins of the post, he too withdrew to Post 2. Before departing, however, he told Deloria to lie still so the enemy would not notice him and that he’d send soldiers to get him. At Post 2, Bell reported the situation at Post 3 to SPC Sean Langevin, the soldier on duty there, and began firing that post’s Mk 19 grenade launcher at the insurgents now closing in on Post 3. RPG rounds started landing near Post 2 hindering the ability of SGT John Relph, the NCO in charge, and PFC Adam Spotanski from moving up to the platform from their sleeping quarters. Langevin provided covering fire and the duo managed to reach the post platform and begin firing in the direction of the attackers. After Gonzalez’s arrival at the post, Relph and Spotanski attempted to move to Post 3 to rescue Deloria but were unable to do so because of the volume of enemy fire.

Figure 3. The Initial Attack on the Ranch House.

After the brief opening volley, the ASG and ANA elements located at and near Post 5 broke contact and withdrew to the center of the perimeter. Many of the ASG men withdrew completely, retreating into Aranas and the countryside away from the enemy positions. The withdrawal left the southeastern portion of the perimeter undefended. The attackers did not immediately take advantage, initially preferring to mass fires against all the positions in the outpost before advancing across the now abandoned portions of the perimeter. The American defenders fought back vigorously, firing off all prepositioned Claymore mines, throwing hand grenades and returning the enemy fire with machine guns and volleys of 40-mm grenade rounds.

With all positions under heavy fire, the American defenders spent the early part of the fight returning small arms fire and setting off Claymore mines. Only Post 1 remained relatively unscathed although its garrison also returned fire in all directions. In the TOC, 1LT Ferrara immediately contacted Captain Myer at Bella via FM and satellite radio. Myer promptly requested close air support from the battalion TOC at Camp Blessing. Realizing there was at least a 30-minute period before such support could arrive on the battlefield, Ferrara also requested 120-mm mortar fires from Bella against enemy forces aiming RPGs and machine gun fires at the TOC. The attack had started so suddenly that the enemy was already too close to fire the 155-mm field artillery guns at Camp Blessing due to the danger of fratricide. The 120-mm mortars at Bella posed similar risks and Ferrara and Myer aimed their fires at ridgelines 200-300 meters away from the Ranch House against more distant enemy positions and presumed rear echelons of the advancing insurgent forces. The battalion commander, LTC William Ostlund, alerted the unit quick reaction force (QRF), two squads from A Company, stationed in the Pech Valley about 16 kilometers (ten miles) south of Aranas. The squads would be airlifted, with one earmarked to reinforce Bella which both Myer and Ostlund feared would be attacked, and the other to the Ranch House position.

As the intense initial firefight continued, a force of about 20 insurgents took advantage of the destruction of Post 3 and the abandonment of Post 5 to advance through the newly created gap inside the perimeter of the outpost in an effort to overwhelm and overrun the defenders. In this they were partially assisted by their wearing of BDU-style uniforms that prevented the Americans from distinguishing the assaulters from ASG troops. As the enemy forces closed in on the northern positions, their fires became more intense aided by a stockpile of RPGs captured at Post 5. These fires soon damaged the antenna array located on the roof of the TOC bunker, cutting a wire to the satellite dish and otherwise damaging the remaining antennas. Ferrara and his radio operators, SGT Conrad Begaye and SPC Kain Schilling, lost communications with the outlying posts and with CPT Myer at Bella. After about four minutes, Ferrara was able to reestablish contact with Myer by moving his FM radio outside the TOC bunker and using a smaller undamaged antenna. Begaye and Schilling covered their platoon leader as he continued to relay updates and requests for support to their company commander.

THE DEFENDERS RALLY

SSG Erich Phillips was an experienced noncommissioned officer with a background as a scout and as a mortar gunner. At the Ranch House, he technically served as the leader of the small 60-mm mortar squad, but Ferrara and Dzwik depended upon him for his knowledge and professionalism, frequently using him as a patrol leader. At the start of the fight, Phillips was asleep in his quarters near the mortar position. He quickly got into action and marshaled an ad hoc group from around the mortar and TOC positions to defend the new line to the south. SPC Jason Baldwin, a mortarman, and SPC Kyle White, the platoon radio operator, had been reinforcing Post 1 when the battle started. With that post under the least pressure, the two men ran to the mortar area where they linked up with Phillips who had already assembled mortar gunner SPC Hector Chavez, platoon forward observer Schilling, and platoon medic SPC Kyle Dirkintis into a small reserve force he intended to use to counterattack or otherwise restore the defensive perimeter. As this force was formed, ANA and ASG Afghans fled past them from the direction of Post 5 towards the ANA post near the LZ.

Ferrara told Phillips that contact had been lost with Posts 3 and 4. The men at the TOC/mortar area could hear the sounds of firing still coming from Post 4 but Post 3 was a smoldering ruin. Word reached Phillips from Post 2 to where the garrison of Post 3 had evacuated, that Deloria was still at Post 3, probably wounded. Ferrara reported the wounding of Deloria to Myer, who immediately requested the dispatch of a medical evacuation helicopter. The enemy pressure on Phillips’ group prevented an immediate rescue effort. The fire was so intense and the insurgents so close at less than 15 meters away that when Phillips and Baldwin attempted to load the 60-mm mortar, enemy machine gun and AK-47 rounds impacting around the tube made the attempt too dangerous. Instead the group began returning fire with their personal small arms.

To the southwest, Post 4 was now isolated from the rest of the defenders and was receiving fire from three sides. SPC Jeffrey Shaw had been on duty when the attack began and he initially fired to the east against the enemy elements concentrating against posts 5 and 3. Within minutes the rest of the garrison, SGT Michael Johnson, PFC Gregory Rauwolf, and SPC Robert Remmel, arrived from their sleeping area as the position began to receive fire from insurgents located to the west. While Johnson and Remmel stayed at the post, Shaw and Rauwolf moved to secondary positions to facilitate firing at the enemy approaching from the east. Enemy fire from the direction of the evacuated ASG position struck Remmel in the back. Meanwhile Shaw and Rauwolf shot two dozen 40 millimeter rounds from his M203 and Rauwolf fired 200 rounds of 7.62 millimeter M240 machine gun ammunition. The enemy to the east was soon suppressed and unable to advance from that direction towards Post 4.

Figure 4. The Counterattack at Ranch House.

The enemy pressure remained intense, however. While Rauwolf treated the wounded Remmel, Johnson took over the M240 machine gun in the tower, occasionally mixing in M203 rounds from his personal weapon. Shaw added his fire from the secondary position on the ground nearby. The volume of fire received at the tower became so large that Johnson was forced to move to his secondary position. From there he and Shaw continued to fight and were joined by five Afghan soldiers and their American advisor. During this action, Shaw received wounds in his arms preventing him from using his rifle. Johnson and the Afghan group continued to man their weapons until the end of the fight.

Back at the TOC, insurgent pressure continued to increase. Baldwin and Phillips threw several grenades toward the enemy at the outpost’s latrine, which now marked the frontline. Mortarman Chavez informed Phillips that Gonzalez was wounded at Post 2. Phillips decided to grab the platoon medic and go to that post to check on Gonzalez. Phillips and medic Dirkintis then ran the 20-meter distance to Post 2 under enemy fire while Baldwin covered their movement by throwing volleys of grenades towards the enemy near the latrine. Once there, Dirkintis was quickly wounded in the shoulder by RPG shrapnel as insurgent fighters began closing in on Post 2. To blunt this advance, Relph and Phillips threw several hand grenades while Bell fired the post’s M240 machine gun. However, Bell was soon targeted and wounded by small arms fire.

Despite his wound and after some quick first aid, Bell resumed firing toward Post 3. Langevin supported Bell by firing a squad automatic weapon (SAW) while Relph fired his M4 carbine. Langevin was slightly wounded in the leg but continued to man the SAW. Meanwhile, Relph was seriously wounded and joined Gonzalez in the bunker below the post where the two NCOs passed grenades up to Langevin who threw them at the enemy who were now quickly approaching the position.

Near Post 2, Phillips felt that Dirkintis’ wounds required immediate treatment at the aid station and he began dragging the medic back towards that location while Langevin covered him from Post 2. On the way back, enemy fire became so intense that Phillips left Dirkintis in a culvert and returned to organize the defense near the TOC. Once there he sent Chavez, who had received specialized medical training, back to conduct first aid on the wounded medic. After treating Dirkintis’ wounds and ensuring he was in a relatively safe, covered position, Chavez returned to the TOC area and joined the defense, providing M203 fire. Phillips had immediately deployed the small force near the TOC with a loose line between Post 2 and the TOC area to ensure that there were no gaps through which the enemy could advance.

REGAINING THE INITIATIVE

While Phillips was gone, Baldwin had put the 60-mm mortar into action, firing it in hand-held mode, with several rounds going through the roof of the ASG post. Baldwin alternated mortar rounds with hand grenades as the insurgents continued to close on his position. Upon his return, Phillips assisted Baldwin with the mortar. The duo fired about 20 rounds at the enemy position in the perimeter breach. The nearest rounds landed only 63 meters from the Americans. The insurgents tried to rush the mortar position approaching to within ten meters before Baldwin’s fire killed the leader of the local insurgent cell and the attacking enemy force commander, Hazrat Omar. The combined effect of the defenders’ fire and the sudden loss of leadership stopped the insurgent advance.

The defending paratroopers expected a renewed enemy advance and hoped that close air support arrived soon. The pair of US Air Force A-10 aircraft that Myer had summoned at the start of the action arrived in the general area of Aranas one hour and four minutes after the start of the attack. With the airplanes on site, Myer passed direct communications with them to Ferrara. The A-10 is an aircraft designed specifically to provide close air support to ground forces. As such, it has armored plating to allow it to survive ground fire, a nose cannon capable of firing 65 30-mm rounds a second and up to six Maverick air-to-surface missiles mounted on its wings. With the opposing forces so close together, both Ferrara and the pilots had to be careful to avoid fratricide. The fact that the ASG post was now on fire, the result of Baldwin’s mortar gunnery, aided the pilots in identifying the enemy positions. In order to verify this, the A-10s dropped several flares and a white phosphorus round on the suspected enemy positions. After receiving Ferrara’s acknowledgement that the aiming points were, in fact, occupied by the insurgents, the airmen prepared to conduct gun runs.

The first A-10, codenamed HAWG-17, orbited the battle area and moved into its gun run from west to east, flying across the southern edge of the outpost firing a spray of 30-mm rounds from its nose gun from near the TOC to the ASG post. The gun run followed the same basic orientation that Baldwin and Phillips had used when firing the mortar. Ferrara observed the rounds as landing almost exactly where he wanted them to, with the nearest rounds falling within 50 meters of the TOC. Phillips saw the A-10 fly right over the TOC with the closest rounds impacting near Chavez and Dirkintis. The A-10 also placed two missiles into the ASG tower. The aerial support had the desired effect. With the enemy advance already halted by Omar’s death, the intensity of the insurgents’ fire immediately decreased by half.

A second gun run followed the first. This run, while along the same trajectory as the first, started closer to the TOC, at a slightly steeper angle. Shrapnel from the closest impacts slightly wounded Begaye, who was standing near Ferrara. While enemy fires had decreased, they had not stopped totally and were still intense in several places. At Post 2 Langevin noticed insurgent rounds landing within 20 meters of his position and a force of about 20 men throwing grenades at the aid station from higher ground above it.

Throughout the action, 1LT Ferrara had been calling in casualty reports, revised with updated information. Two medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) helicopters, escorted by an Apache gunship, had flown from Jalalabad to Asadabad, where it waited for the fighting to die down. Once the QRF was ready to go, it was delayed, with the MEDEVAC flight getting the priority. At Camp Blessing, the battalion supply officer (S4) prepared an ammunition resupply “speedball” bundle for aerial delivery. However, since the Ranch House defenders had actually fallen back onto their ammunition resupply point stockpiled with more than the unit’s basic load, the speedball proved to be unnecessary.

After the second A-10 gun run, insurgent fire and pressure gradually died down. Ferrara now saw the opportunity to rescue Deloria buried in the ruins of Post 3. He dispatched Phillips on this mission, who took Baldwin and one of the ANA advisors with him. Instead of going directly to Post 3, Phillips stopped at Post 2 on the way to check on the wounded men there. Of the four – Gonzales, Bell, Relph and Langevin – only Gonzalez required immediate attention and Spotanski, an unwounded member of the garrison, took him to the aid station. Spotanski soon returned and when Phillips proceeded to Post 3, he took him along. Baldwin, the slightly wounded Langevin and the remaining garrison of Post 2 covered the advance. The duo reached the wrecked position with only a few enemy potshots aimed at them and found Deloria under the debris. While they dug him out, Baldwin and Langevin also moved up to the destroyed position. Deloria, escorted by Phillips, was able to walk on his own to the aid station while Baldwin, Langevin and Spotanski manned Post 3 with a squad automatic weapon as their primary armament, clearing out the wreckage at the same time. In the process of clearing out the debris, Spotanski fell and impaled himself on a pole, becoming the last American casualty of the action.

The first MEDEVAC helicopter arrived after the insurgent fire had been mostly silent for a half hour. While the enemy outside the outpost was observed evacuating their casualties, the second MEDEVAC aircraft was fired on at a distance south of the Ranch House. Meanwhile the troops moved all the wounded down to the landing zone for evacuation and the ANA soldiers cleared the portion of the outpost formerly overrun by the insurgents and reoccupied their original positions. Within minutes of the departure of the first MEDEVAC flight, the members of the QRF, a squad from A Company, and the 1st Platoon’s platoon sergeant, SFC William Stockard, arrived. As planned, another squad reinforced Bella.

OUTCOME AND ANALYSIS

With the wounded and injured evacuated, the situation at the Ranch House outpost returned to its pre-battle quiet. Although the ASG had returned, the former ASG post was now manned by Americans. The attack refocused the attention of TF Rock’s leadership on the security of the COP. LTC Ostlund had determined before the attack that Ranch House’s proximity to a center of insurgent activity did not make up for its remoteness and had planned to close the COP, moving its garrison to a new site located next to the Waygal District Center at the village of Wanat, only six miles (10 km) from Camp Blessing. The attack accelerated these plans. Because of difficulties in coordinating the establishment of a new COP at Wanat, TF Rock now planned on moving the Ranch House garrison to Bella until the Wanat post could be created, in which case Wanat would replace both Bella and Ranch House. Myer planned to expand Bella into a platoon-sized outpost. With the additional troops, the garrison could expand its patrolling and its interaction with the local population. COP Ranch House was evacuated on 2 October 2007. The members of the 1st Platoon moved to Camp Blessing for a brief rest and then joined the rest of the platoon at Bella.

In a later interview Phillips felt that the fight would have been a lot less desperate if the Afghans had not abandoned the ASG post:

if the ASG and the ANA were holding their ground, we already had a QRF plan established in the event we took major contact on the FOB. I would have grabbed me two or three dudes. They weren’t in that big of a firefight. We could have pushed up there and reestablished and helped them out. That wasn’t the case because they ran within the first five minutes of the fight. They brought the enemy right to my front door. Within 15 to 20 meters, I’m trying to fight off 60 dudes.

The Americans at the Ranch House outpost were conducting an ongoing counterinsurgency operation that required the unit to operate in the midst of an area that had historically been a hotbed of insurgent activity. As such the half platoon had to maintain a defensible base camp that provided it an ideal location from which to interface with the local population while conducting various non-combat activities in overall support of counterinsurgency objectives. Even when the unit’s QRF plan dissolved, Phillips and the other NCOs at the outpost displayed initiative and verve in their reactions to the attack, fully understanding this mission, how the defense was expected to work, and what was necessary to prevent disaster. With the NCO leadership directing the actions of the squads and sections, 1LT Ferrara was free to maintain contact with his superiors and direct fire support activities.

The Army recognized the valor of the Ranch House garrison. Phillips was awarded the Distinguished Military Cross. Ferrara and Baldwin received the Silver Star. Seven soldiers were awarded the Bronze Star Medal with V Device for their actions, with an additional five receiving the Army Commendation Medal (ARCOM) for valor. Thirteen members of the garrison were awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Combat Medic Badge or Combat Action Badge, indicating the attack was their initiation into combat. During the action 11 paratroopers were wounded or injured out of a garrison of 22, a 50 percent casualty rate that dramatically demonstrates the intensity of the combat at the Ranch House.

After the attack, stand-to became standard procedure in C Company. This came in particularly handy a year later in the 13 July 2007 insurgent attack on a new COP built at Wanat, about ten miles southwest of Aranas. There the members of C Company’s 2d Platoon were alert and on stand-to at dawn when the enemy attacked. Phillips, Dzwik and Chavez repeated their heroics in this later fight. However, several of the Ranch House defenders, including 1LT Ferrara, were no longer alive by the time of the Wanat attack. On 9 November 2007, Ferrara, Langevin, and four other Soldiers were killed in an ambush while returning to Bella from a shura. During the ambush, RTO and Ranch House veteran Kyle White distinguished himself and was nominated for the Medal of Honor. SGT Begaye, who worked radios during the Ranch House fight, was awarded a Silver Star for his actions in the fight.

The August 2007 Ranch House fight was similar to yet another major attack on an outpost in October 2009. COP Keating located near Kamdesh, about 20 miles northeast of Aranas, occurred on 3 October 2009. In both cases, the outposts were projected to be abandoned soon. And similarly, the Afghan-manned section of the perimeter collapsed, resulting in close-in fighting. Both attacking and defending forces at Keating were larger than at the Ranch House. While the fighting was equally fierce, eight Americans were killed at Keating, one indication of how the war in northeastern Afghanistan had intensified since 2007.

Afghan Soldiers in front of the Ranch House.

The Six Principles of Mission Command

1. Build Cohesive Teams through Mutual Trust

2. Create Shared Understanding

3. Provide a Clear Commander’s Intent

4. Exercise Disciplined Initiative

5. Use Mission Orders

6. Accept Prudent Risk

Mission Command in the Ranch House case

1. Build Cohesive Teams through Mutual Trust. The company and platoon were cohesive. Although it had only arrived in Afghanistan several months earlier, the members of the units had trained together in preparation for the deployment. The platoon leader and squad leaders had led their units since the start of the rotation. The unit was small enough that all the participants knew each other well. The soldiers trusted their NCOs, particularly SSG Phillips

2. Create Shared Understanding. The unit at the Ranch House outpost was conducting an ongoing counterinsurgency operation that required the unit to operate in the midst of an area that had historically been a hotbed of insurgent activity. As such the half platoon had to maintain a defensible base camp that provided it an ideal location from which to interface with the local population while conducting various non-combat activities in overall support of counterinsurgency objectives. All the members of the garrison understood the mission, the defensive set up, and the plan for a QRF if the COP was attacked. Further, they were able to respond to relatively general instructions when the Afghan-manned section of the perimeter collapsed. The unit had previously rehearsed quick reaction drills and fighting from secondary and supplemental positions. These preparations became important during the action.

3. Provide a Clear Commander’s Intent. The unit at Ranch House was executing an ongoing mission as part of a counterinsurgency campaign. As such the commander’s intent was to ensure that the outpost could sustain itself in order to conduct counterinsurgency operations in the Aranas area. All members of the garrison had a clear understanding of this and responded, once under attack, accordingly.

4. Exercise Disciplined Initiative. Initiative was most apparent at the platoon and squad leader levels. The company commander allowed the platoon leader to direct indirect fires and close air support based on his understanding of the situation while he focused on ensuring those resources were available and that reinforcements were being marshaled. The NCOs at each post and, in particular SSG Phillips, did not have to be given detailed instructions in response to the enemy attack.

5. Use Mission Orders. During the action the platoon leader did not issue detailed instructions to his subordinate leaders, instead giving them general instructions while he focused on provided necessary external support. By the same token, the battalion and company level commanders did not give detailed instructions to the defenders during the action, instead focusing their efforts on ensuring fire support assets were available and expedited and that reinforcements were promptly dispatched.

6. Accept Prudent Risk. This principle is the one most apparent in the Ranch House battle. The battalion and company commander had to accept a certain amount of risk based on the extended area their units had to cover and the need to place troops among the local population in rugged terrain. However this risk was prudent because fire support assets were able to range the outpost and a quick reaction force system had been put in place to provide responsive reinforcements to the outpost. During the action this was demonstrated by the almost instant availability of distant mortar and artillery fires. While these were hampered by the proximity of the enemy, this gap was filled by the 60-mm mortar at the outpost and the mutually supporting small arms fires of the defenders. While there was a time lag in the arrival of close air support, predicated on the limited number of air assets in the theater, the A-10s arrived at the exact right time to break the back of the enemy assault, reinforcing the level of acceptable risk taken by the chain of command.

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