Debacle in Afghanistan: Takur Ghar Timeline Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit The Guardian - May 25, 2002 http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-1760459,00.html Takur Ghar Timeline Sequence of events in the March battle for Takur Ghar, a mountain in eastern Afghanistan, according to military officials and an unclassified report released Friday by the Pentagon. All times are local to Afghanistan: -March 2: U.S. commanders begin planning to insert commandos atop Takur Ghar. The 10,200-foot mountain offered a prime view of a valley where scores of al-Qaida fighters were battling U.S. and coalition troops during Operation Anaconda. -March 3: An MH-47E Chinook helicopter takes off late at night from Gardez, dozens of miles to the north, to insert a team of Navy SEAL commandos atop Takur Ghar to establish an observation post. -March 4, 3 a.m.: The Chinook approaches its landing zone atop Takur Ghar. Soldiers see footprints, but before the helicopter can leave it is hit by rocket-propelled grenade and machine-gun fire. Navy Petty Officer First Class Neil Roberts falls about 5-10 feet to the ground; the helicopter lurches away to crash land about four miles to the north. -3 a.m.-5 a.m.: Roberts fights the al-Qaida forces atop the mountain and is killed. -5 a.m.: The other members of Roberts' team, who have boarded another Chinook, are dropped off on the mountaintop. They attack al-Qaida fighters in two nearby bunkers. Air Force Tech. Sgt. John Chapman is killed before the unit withdraws down the mountain; Chapman's body is later found inside one of the bunkers. -5:45 a.m.: A third Chinook carrying a rescue team of Army Rangers and three Air Force fighters nears the mountaintop. Because of a miscommunication, the Chinook tries to land atop the mountain instead of finding a safer area nearby. Four Army solders are killed as the helicopter takes heavy fire and crash-lands atop Takur Ghar. -7 a.m.: The Rangers are no longer in danger of being overrun, having killed several al-Qaida fighters and sheltered their wounded behind the bullet-riddled Chinook. Another Ranger rescue unit is climbing the peak from a spot about 2,000 feet below, reaching the top by about 8 a.m. -10:30 a.m.: The men are exhausted but still have to defeat the al-Qaida forces in the bunkers on the mountaintop, about 50 yards away. The Rangers storm the hill and finish off the al-Qaida in the bunkers. -10:45 a.m.: Two al-Qaida fighters begin attacking the Rangers from a knoll about 400 yards behind the Rangers. They fire where medics are treating the wounded, hitting Senior Airman Jason Cunningham, an Air Force medic. The Americans drag their wounded to the mountaintop and kill the attacking enemy. Cunningham eventually bleeds to death. -8:15 p.m.: Four U.S. helicopters arrive atop Takur Ghar to evacuate the commandos and retrieve the seven American dead. -9:15 p.m.: The survivors of Takur Ghar arrive at their base at Gardez. The wounded are treated by military doctors. By the next morning, all the wounded are on their way to military hospitals in Germany and elsewhere. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytmid-05.26.02-03:40:42-16416