![]() Meade, who is recovering from his injuries at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, said Russell acted heroically in saving his life. “I grabbed by his plate carrier,” he said, “dragged him back a few feet, and tried to get in front of him, between what was basically a three-way kill zone… I thought I was dead.” But fear didn’t stop Russell from reacting quickly. Russell recalled a rush of fear when he realized the team had just been hit at their southern and northern-most points, and they were trapped in an alley. Russell, the junior weapons sergeant for ODA 0224, was with Meade. Warrant Officer 1 Meade, the assistant detachment commander for ODA 0224, had been shot five times in the legs, hip, hand and wrist. Shortly after, a call came over the radio saying that another Green Beret was down. Inspired by his team leader’s selflessness, Seidl took off after him, and together they pulled the fallen Afghan out of the kill zone. “He just ran straight into the smoke and the dust.” While trying to rally the Afghans, Seidl watched his own team leader, Capt. One fallen Afghan soldier was still in the kill zone. ![]() “They basically had us, almost 360 degrees,” said Valderrama. With Taliban forces attacking from nearly all sides, the pitch black of the night had suddenly become a hell storm of enemy fire. Morrison, ignoring his own grievous injuries, began treatment on Gloyer, directing a fellow operator to perform complex medical aid under his supervision after realizing that he had the use of only three fingers on his hand. Gloyer, who was mortally wounded in the blast, managed to run back to the group before collapsing into Morrison and Valderrama. He regained situational awareness immediately, engaging and suppressing an enemy fighter inside of a second-story window before dragging an unconscious Afghan soldier out of the kill zone. Morrison was knocked to the ground, suffering shrapnel wounds to his body, hands and face. Morrison and Gloyer, along with several Afghan soldiers, were caught in the blast. “That’s when the first grenade detonated.” “We heard a distinctive thud, and we both turned to look at the gate,” said Seidl. Seidl and Valderrama were planning out how to get around the gate through an adjacent compound when the ambush began. This area was a known Taliban hideout, and they had just run into a 20-foot tall steel gate that no one had known was there. 1st Class Ryan Gloyer, an intelligence sergeant with ODA 0224, said, “The spider senses were definitely tingling, being up there at that gate.” Morrison, who was at the gate along with Sgt. “The lead blocking position calls up and says, ‘hey we’ve got a huge metal gate blocking the road’,” said Seidl. However, as they approached the fourth COI through a street lined with 10-foot high walls on either side, they encountered a problem. ![]() 1st Class Seidl, the team sergeant for ODA 0224. “We determined to bypass our third and go straight to our fourth,” said Sgt. They learned that bad weather was on the way, and they needed to move their timeline forward in order to exfiltrate the area safely. They cleared the first two compounds of interest (COI) without incident, collecting valuable intelligence and destroying contraband as they went. ![]() Using aerial assets at their disposal, the team knew immediately that enemy combatants were beginning to maneuver around them. “The village itself was something like a castle,” said Morrison, “just steep, 100-foot high cliffs on all sides of the village with only one entry way.” An hour later they reached the village, where they entered by climbing a cliff face with switch-back trails carved into the sides. Upon reaching the infiltration area via helicopters, they began slogging through the flooded fields toward their target a mile away. Yet, despite pain and loss, the men of ODA 0224 rose to the occasion and showed a level of heroism that was nothing short of extraordinary. What followed was a night-long battle for survival for the men of ODA 0224, as 10 SF operators, 2 American support elements, and a small partner force of Afghan soldiers fought off wave after wave of fortified and determined Taliban insurgents while trying to escape a village that had suddenly become an angry hornet’s nest.he night’s brutal fighting resulted in approximately a third of the 59-man force suffering casualties, including two Green Berets killed in action.
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