Roberts

Cunningham

Commons

Anderson

Crose

Svitak

Chapman

Al-Qaida resistance more than expected

Monday's battlefield death toll highest for U.S. since Somalia

OLYMPIAN NEWS SERVICES

SIRKANKEL, Afghanistan -- As U.S. troops poured from the belly of a Chinook helicopter, a rocket-propelled grenade hit the craft and U.S. forces scurried back aboard and took off. A head count showed someone was missing.

For the Americans, their worst fears came true Monday, the bloodiest day of the war for U.S. forces.

The missing serviceman was captured and killed by al-Qaida. "We saw him on the Predator being dragged off by three al-Qaida men," said Maj. Gen. Frank L. Hagenbeck, referring to an unmanned reconnaissance plane mounted with a real-time video camera.

The helicopter managed to fly a few miles before it was forced to put down again because of mechanical problems.

"Another helicopter flew in to rescue the downed aircraft, and that helicopter included a Quick Reaction Force of about 30 special operations troops," said Hagenbeck, the operation commander.

Pentagon officials identified the dead serviceman as Petty Officer 1st class Neil C. Roberts, 32, of Woodland, Calif. Roberts was based in Norfolk, Va., with a Navy SEAL unit.

A Pentagon account by Marine Maj. Ralph Mills said Roberts died of a bullet wound after surviving a fall from the helicopter.

The others

Four of the seven killed were from the Army, including three Rangers; two from the Air Force; and one Navy SEAL.

As described by their families, they were in the best condition of their lives, exhaustively trained in their duties, and convinced that their participation in this conflict, and even their deaths were justified.

They died Monday when al-Qaida fighters fired on their two helicopters in separate incidents, bringing with a jolt the flesh-and-blood reality of this remote conflict to Americans back home. The casualties came during the toughest ground combat the U.S. military has seen since the famous "Black Hawk Down" firefight in Mogadishu, Somalia, in October 1993.

"My wife, Judy, said she had a funny feeling Monday. She said, 'I don't know why, but I feel something has happened,' " said David Anderson, 63, of Jacksonville, Fla., a former Army Ranger and Vietnam veteran.

At 10:30 p.m. that night, military officials arrived at their home to inform them that their youngest son, Spc. Marc Anderson, 30, a Ranger, had died in the fighting.

In addition to Anderson and Roberts, the other dead were Army Sgt. Bradley Crose, 22, of Orange Park, Fla.; Army Ranger Pfc. Matthew Commons, 21, of Boulder City, Nev.; Army Sgt. Philip Svitak, 31, of Joplin, Mo.; Air Force Tech. Sgt. John Chapman, 36, of Waco, Texas, a combat controller based at Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville, N.C.; and Air Force Senior Airman Jason Cunningham, 26, of Camarillo, Calif.

Stiff resistance

Afghan and U.S. soldiers concede that U.S. forces, which number nearly 1,000, might have been unprepared for the resistance they have met from al-Qaida forces, as well Arab and Central Asian fighters allied with the deposed Taliban militia.

Rather than retreat as they had done in previous battles, the al-Qaida forces who had holed up in mountain passes and cave complexes apparently decided to stay and fight to the death.

"I don't think we knew what we were getting into this time, but I think we're beginning to adjust," Sgt. Maj. Mark Nielsen, 48, of Indianapolis said.

That apparent miscalculation proved deadly Monday. At 6:30 that morning, a Chinook helicopter outfitted to carry commandos into action flew into heavy fire as it ferried a team of special operations forces to a mountainside drop zone. Once there, they had planned to search for al-Qaida forces hidden in the folds of the mountains.

The Chinook crew found the enemy sooner than they expected. Machine-gun fire and what was believed to be a rocket-propelled grenade forced the behemoth to make a crash landing.

Twenty-one commandos from the Army, Air Force and Navy poured out of the helicopter into a hail of al-Qaida bullets. In the ensuing firefight, six Americans were killed. Eleven of the remaining 15 were wounded, some seriously.

The survivors scattered and scrambled for cover, but it was hard to find. The mountainside was dusted with snow. There were no trees to be found, only rocks, says Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Central Command spokesman.

Screaming for support

As they crouched behind rocks under heavy fire, the commandos screamed into their radios for air support.

At a mobile command post an unknown distance away, U.S. commanders watched the battle unfold from cameras mounted on aircraft far overhead. They could see what one Pentagon official called "a large number of enemy forces" advancing on the survivors.

Within minutes, Air Force F-15 and F-16 fighter bombers were on the scene, pounding al-Qaida positions and trying to drive back the enemy. Air Force AC-130s gunships that fly at lower altitudes soon joined the fight. They strafed al-Qaida positions with their huge howitzers and Gatling guns, which can blast out as many as 1,800 rounds a minute.

The gunships must have been a welcome sight, one Pentagon official ventured Tuesday. An F-15 can launch a powerful bomb, but an AC-130 can circle over the scene for hours and keep its sights trained on the enemy below.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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