The 18-Hour Miracle
At 0300 hours on 2 March 2002, C Company, 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry walked about a mile and a half to the flight line in full gortex, poly-pro and full field uniform. They sat in chalk order until their loading time of 0500 hours. Their flight to LZ 13A gave them a touch down time of 0600 hours. SGT James Rissler was a Senior Medic of an Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) team attached to the Infantry Company. According to Rissler, they loaded one of the CH-47s with 34 packs and rucks. The flight was to take them from Bagram Airbase at 4,200 feet to LZ 13A in Shahi-Kot valley to just outside the city of Marzak at 10,500 feet in just an hour’s time. Their mission set up blocking positions outside the city of Marzak while Zia forces pushed the Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces in their direction.
The flight left at 0500 hours as planned and touched down at LZ 13A at 0600 hours. When the chopper touched down, the unit hastily split and went off to the left and right sides of the aircraft and soldiers assumed prone positions. Once the aircraft had taken off, the unit immediately started receiving small arms fire. The problem was that no one could locate the direction of fire, so they dropped their rucks and ran up the side of a small ridge. Soon realizing that the direction of fire was coming from the same side they were on, they ran to the top of the ridge to the other side to take cover. Once Sergeant Rissler reached the top of the ridge, an RPG round exploded about 10 feet from him and a piece of shrapnel hit him in the knee.
Once they all got to the other side, the unit consolidated and started constructing fighting positions. Soldiers were placed on a small observation post to the right of the unit, but were quickly targeted by Mortar fire also. The Mortars adjusted fire and the unit took 13 casualties by the time the second round hit. The unit then realized that the enemy forces were running out of the city of Marzak to surround them, which meant that they would now be taking fire from three sides, being targeted by Mortar fire. Sergeant Rissler set up a Command and Control Post at the bottom of the ridge and it was quickly targeted. As the enemy continued to adjust fire on them, Sergeant Rissler and other soldiers would drag as many casualties up and down the ridge as possible, covering their bodies with theirs to protect them as the rounds detonated.
While moving the soldiers up and down the hill, Sergeant Rissler was wounded a second time, taking fragments in the hand. Both times he was wounded he treated himself. Moving the injured soldiers up and down the ridge was only aggravating the injuries; consequently, each time a soldier was moved, controlling of bleeding and treatment of wound started all over again. The Mortar fire would slow down when fire missions were called in from the F-16s and AC 130s, allowing Sergeant Rissler and other soldiers to dig pits in the center of the valley to put the patients in and using dirt or whatever materials found to cover the wounded. All patients were stabilized and the unit lay in their positions returning fire until nightfall.
As night started to set in, Sergeant Rissler knew that it would be getting very cold soon. With the amount of blood lost through the day and the rapid decrease in temperature the patients would probably go into shock. So Sergeant Rissler used tape to repair the wounded soldiers’ clothing and covered the soldiers with whatever he had to prevent shock. Then he and other soldiers lay on the wounded patients to maintain their body temperature. Finally, when night fell MEDEVAC could get to the site. The first helicopter received two Mortar rounds and heavy small arms fire. Another AC-130 was called in to cover the evacuation. In all, 25 wounded were evacuated with no fatalities. Around 0200 hours the next morning, Sergeant Rissler and the rest of the unit were extracted.
