SteveConroy84
AH member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2019
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- Afton, WY and Atlanta, GA
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Let's Raid 10-28-2019
The whine of the V-22 dual Rolls-Royce T406 engines drowned out all but the yelling words of the Crew Chief. He held up both hands with all ten fingers extended.
“TEN MINUTES”
We all nodded our understanding or gave a thumbs up. I looked to my left, right, and across the aircraft at my teammates. Helmets, plate carriers, eye protection, explosive breaches, grenades, flashbangs. We were loaded for bear. There were a couple of nervous smiles exchanged, punches to the shoulder, the “ok” sign you see divers give each other. As far as I could see we were as ready as we were going to be.
“FIVE MINUTES”
Final checks. M4 loaded, pistol secured in holster, EOTech on, radio volume up, gloves, touch tourniquet, deep breath, closed eyes for a few seconds. I tried to visualize what exactly I’d do once we landed.
“TWO MINUTES”
We could feel the V-22 bank as we approached the objective. I could hear the sound and pitch of the engines change as we transitioned from horizontal to vertical flight configuration. The whine and wind noise changing more to a roaring thump thump thump.
“THIRTY SECONDS”
We got up on our feet. We could see the target compound. Dust and debris were flying all through the air as the V-22 touched down with hurricane-force rotor wash. The compound wall and our breach point were 75 meters away. My team leader slapped me on the shoulder and away I ran off the aircraft and towards the wall as the point man.
Intelligence had reported that the compound we were raiding had an estimated 10-15 Taliban fighters. We suspected that all the entrances of the wall into the interior would have been rigged with explosives/IEDs. No problem with us, we would just create our own entrance through the wall with a 25lbs “Ghostbuster” charge. Our breacher quickly set the charge on the 12’ mud wall using a broom handle he brought along as a prop stick. We quickly got our standoff from the charge and waited for detonation.
BOOM
The explosive wave could be felt over your body like a huge thwack and the ground felt like it was moving for a few seconds. We quickly moved through the still dusty and debris-filled hole in the wall we just created as we scanned with our rifles every corner, open door, and danger area. On the interior side of our breach point were dead and injured sheep, goats, and chickens. I moved to the first closed door in the compound and stacked up on it, holding my barrel towards the non-hinged opening side in the event someone came out with a weapon I could hopefully kill them first. Our team breacher quickly set another explosive breach on the door, this time a much smaller charge, roughly the size of a hockey puck.
BOOM
The door buckled just enough to defeat the locking mechanism which allowed us to kick it in and make a two man entry. My flashlight and red laser from my AN/PEQ-16 was on and helped me clear my half of the room. My teammate and I collapsed our sectors of fire to approximately 1’ off each other barrel.
“Clear Right”
“Clear Left”
“All Clear. Two shooters coming out.”
Once outside the platoon continued to flow through the compound, clearing room to room. We ran out of explosive breaches and continued with flashbangs and breaching tools. Once out of flash bangs we resorted to kicking in doors and using flash lights and lasers.
As we continued to clear each room in the compound we began to realize that there were only children in women throughout the objective. There wasn’t a single military-aged male in the entire compound, a far cry from what we had been briefed and what we expected. We later learned that in order to conduct raids in that province during that period of musical ROE’s (Rules of Engagement), the local Afghan Police and village elder had to be notified 24 hours before the raid and give their approval. I can’t confirm this, but if I were a betting man I’d say some corrupt police official just might have tipped off the Taliban fighters we were targeting.
What started as a 1-2 hour time on target raid ended up being 21 days, multiple follow on missions, and suicide bomber which killed 2 Americans and triple amputee another as well as killed 5 civilians. That is a story for another time though.
This took place in the Helmand Province during my platoons 2009-2010 deployment. I included a couple pictures. The ones from inside the V-22 were from the actual raid. The one from the broken wall was from the actual compound taken a few days after. The picture with one man next to a charge was a dummy charge demonstration to give you all an idea of how the Ghostbuster charge works.
Steve Conroy
Also some update on my broken leg. Injury happened June 1, 2019. Surgery June 6, 2019. I was approved to fly airplanes a month and a half after surgery. I’m able to ride a bike, elliptical machine, and have started squatting at the gym. I definitely won’t be going to the Olympics for weight lifting anytime soon. I am able to run, but I’m keeping running to a minimum as long as I can do other forms of cardio. I’d say in another 2-3 months I’ll be back to normal. Thanks for reading.
The whine of the V-22 dual Rolls-Royce T406 engines drowned out all but the yelling words of the Crew Chief. He held up both hands with all ten fingers extended.
“TEN MINUTES”
We all nodded our understanding or gave a thumbs up. I looked to my left, right, and across the aircraft at my teammates. Helmets, plate carriers, eye protection, explosive breaches, grenades, flashbangs. We were loaded for bear. There were a couple of nervous smiles exchanged, punches to the shoulder, the “ok” sign you see divers give each other. As far as I could see we were as ready as we were going to be.
“FIVE MINUTES”
Final checks. M4 loaded, pistol secured in holster, EOTech on, radio volume up, gloves, touch tourniquet, deep breath, closed eyes for a few seconds. I tried to visualize what exactly I’d do once we landed.
“TWO MINUTES”
We could feel the V-22 bank as we approached the objective. I could hear the sound and pitch of the engines change as we transitioned from horizontal to vertical flight configuration. The whine and wind noise changing more to a roaring thump thump thump.
“THIRTY SECONDS”
We got up on our feet. We could see the target compound. Dust and debris were flying all through the air as the V-22 touched down with hurricane-force rotor wash. The compound wall and our breach point were 75 meters away. My team leader slapped me on the shoulder and away I ran off the aircraft and towards the wall as the point man.
Intelligence had reported that the compound we were raiding had an estimated 10-15 Taliban fighters. We suspected that all the entrances of the wall into the interior would have been rigged with explosives/IEDs. No problem with us, we would just create our own entrance through the wall with a 25lbs “Ghostbuster” charge. Our breacher quickly set the charge on the 12’ mud wall using a broom handle he brought along as a prop stick. We quickly got our standoff from the charge and waited for detonation.
BOOM
The explosive wave could be felt over your body like a huge thwack and the ground felt like it was moving for a few seconds. We quickly moved through the still dusty and debris-filled hole in the wall we just created as we scanned with our rifles every corner, open door, and danger area. On the interior side of our breach point were dead and injured sheep, goats, and chickens. I moved to the first closed door in the compound and stacked up on it, holding my barrel towards the non-hinged opening side in the event someone came out with a weapon I could hopefully kill them first. Our team breacher quickly set another explosive breach on the door, this time a much smaller charge, roughly the size of a hockey puck.
BOOM
The door buckled just enough to defeat the locking mechanism which allowed us to kick it in and make a two man entry. My flashlight and red laser from my AN/PEQ-16 was on and helped me clear my half of the room. My teammate and I collapsed our sectors of fire to approximately 1’ off each other barrel.
“Clear Right”
“Clear Left”
“All Clear. Two shooters coming out.”
Once outside the platoon continued to flow through the compound, clearing room to room. We ran out of explosive breaches and continued with flashbangs and breaching tools. Once out of flash bangs we resorted to kicking in doors and using flash lights and lasers.
As we continued to clear each room in the compound we began to realize that there were only children in women throughout the objective. There wasn’t a single military-aged male in the entire compound, a far cry from what we had been briefed and what we expected. We later learned that in order to conduct raids in that province during that period of musical ROE’s (Rules of Engagement), the local Afghan Police and village elder had to be notified 24 hours before the raid and give their approval. I can’t confirm this, but if I were a betting man I’d say some corrupt police official just might have tipped off the Taliban fighters we were targeting.
What started as a 1-2 hour time on target raid ended up being 21 days, multiple follow on missions, and suicide bomber which killed 2 Americans and triple amputee another as well as killed 5 civilians. That is a story for another time though.
This took place in the Helmand Province during my platoons 2009-2010 deployment. I included a couple pictures. The ones from inside the V-22 were from the actual raid. The one from the broken wall was from the actual compound taken a few days after. The picture with one man next to a charge was a dummy charge demonstration to give you all an idea of how the Ghostbuster charge works.
Steve Conroy
Also some update on my broken leg. Injury happened June 1, 2019. Surgery June 6, 2019. I was approved to fly airplanes a month and a half after surgery. I’m able to ride a bike, elliptical machine, and have started squatting at the gym. I definitely won’t be going to the Olympics for weight lifting anytime soon. I am able to run, but I’m keeping running to a minimum as long as I can do other forms of cardio. I’d say in another 2-3 months I’ll be back to normal. Thanks for reading.
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