romesha began calling in targets to be hit by air support. but across the compound five men were still stuck in that humvee and no one had heard from them in far too long. they were feared dead, including romesha s friend sergeant brad larson. suddenly, surprising news. lieutenant bunderman called me on the radio and said, you wouldn t believe it, but larson s still alive. and so were two others trapped in the humvee. bunderman asked, do you think you could put enough firepower out to cover their move if we coordinate this with an air strike? i told bunderman, yeah, we ll make it happen. lieutenant andrew bunderman coordinated with a b-1 bomber to target the village of urmol which had become a staging ground for the enemy. what was it like when you heard the bomb dropping on ormul?
countless days and nights pondering a taliban strike on the base. we ve taken three rounds up here. the most logical. the most effective ways to hit it. the possibilities weighed on romesha and his friend sergeant tom rasmussen. we talked about how we would do it if we were going to overrun an outpost like that. just before sunrise on october 3, 2009, the inevitable happened. the same plan we came up with is exactly how the enemy hit us. over the previous few months, combat outpost keating had seen small attacks before, but this one was different. when the attack fist happened, i was asleep. i had just gotten to bed a couple of hours before that, and i had woken up to some explosions going off and machine gun fire outside. so i ran our usual defense
impatient. i was worried that, like i said, we were going to finally make it out to positions and find no bodies left to bring home. so we came out right between barracks. securing the north side of camp and recovering the bodies of his brothers would mean storming a building with no idea who might be in there. the plan? rasmussen would fire a grenade. romesha and delaney would burst in, sweeping the room with machine gun fire. we got the head nod from each other. that s when i asked them, are you guys ready to follow me into this? what did ras say? it was something to the effect of, i ll follow you anywhere. you look back and you see like the determination in his eyes and the not give up. every time you looked at him you re motivated to keep going. i don t think anybody better could have been in the position, and i think he was definitely meant to be there that day. romesha, rasmussen and delaney recaptured the building and a better view of the enemy.
0 i did not think i would ever be guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier. we need to realize your freedom isn t free. it really isn t. thousands of soldiers have died for our country. i don t look at it just as three unknown soldiers i m guarding, i look all the soldiers that gave their live for this country. october 3, 2009. a storm of bullet s rockets, grenades and mortars rained down on a u.s. outpost in eastern afghanistan deep it in a valley. the taliban had found a perfect target, keating. studied by the enemy since it was set up three years before as seen in the taliban s own video. time and again since the post was kraicreated in 2006, its defenses were tested by the taliban. but on that october morning in 2009, the enemy staged its fiercest attack yet. the high ground and their vastly superior numbers gave the taliban a huge advantage. eight americans would be killed in a battle that lasted from dawn till dusk and would come to symbolize the end of a military strategy to
video. time and again since the post was created in 2006, its defenses were tested by the taliban. but on that october morning in 2009, the enemy staged its fiercest attack yet. the high ground and their vastly superior numbers gave the taliban a huge advantage. eight americans would be killed in a battle that lasted from dawn till dusk. and would come to symbolize the end of a military strategy to hold remote mountainous outposts constantly under attack. but from the blood and embers, these faces of heroism. soldiers laying down their lives for their brothers. bravery rarely matched in american military history. good evening. i m jake tapper. in the more than 11 years that the united states has been fighting in afghanistan, more than 2,000 americans have been killed in that war with more than 18,000 wounded. also during that time, presidents bush and obama have awarded six american service members the highest honor one can receive. the medal of honor for actions in that war.