I just saw an extremely well done re-enactment and portrail of the engagement in 2002 on Takur Ghar between Al-Queda forces and US Special Forces members of the Army Green Berets, Rangers, and 10th Mountain as well as Navy SEALs, Air Force Para Rescue and pilots. This program was on the Military Channel. Often these shows get my interest, but seldom do they have me riveted to my seat like that show just did. The decisions made by Captain Self on the ground, the pilots in the air, and commanders at higher headquarters were not ones I would ever envy. That they had the courage to make them and that the men on the ground and in the air so well carried them out is beyond my ability to add any measure to their honor. I urge those who can see this program to look for it in their local listings. It is titled as this topic is "Operation Anaconda: The Battle of Roberts' Ridge".

I'll let Petty Officer First Class Neil Roberts speak for himself. In a letter he wrote to his wife before the attack in case of death, he reflected: "I consider myself blessed with the best things a man could ever hope for. I loved being a SEAL. If I died doing something for the Teams, then I died doing what made me happy. Very few people have the luxury of that."

I would also like to include this poem, inspired by the immortal poem "On Flanders Field" and written to commerate the Battle of Roberts' Ridge.

"On Roberts Ridge"

I don't know if red poppies grow
On Kharwar Mountains high or low,
But on a distant peak there lies
A modern Flanders Field.

One man battled from the ground,
While helicopters gathered 'round,
Whose crewmates' mission was defined:
We don't leave our soldiers behind
On any foreign field.

Bullets flew and seven fell dead.
For all who gave let this be said:
From Flanders Fields to Roberts Ridge,
By peaks and valleys, beach and bridge,
The blood of heroes has been shed
So we might live our lives instead
And humbly reap the gains Of freedom's yield.

-- Michelle Malkin, 2002

The reenactment that the Military Channel did for Operation Anaconda: Battle of Robert's Ridge was very well done and extremely accurate. I just can't believe the communications problems that the Rangers had and also that US commanders would pull their air cover away from them, both the first flight of F-15s and the second flight of F-16s, with weapons still aboard. The decision to wait until darkness before extracting the Rangers and PJs from the mountain is a controversial one, as waiting cost the lives of several men. However, the question is, would a second helicopter be lost and more soldiers killed if the attempt had been made in daylight?

In my opinion, if US commanders had supplied additional close air support, such as A-10s and AC-130s, those special force soldiers could have been pulled off that mountain without further loss of American lives. Of course, that's just my opinion, and none of us have access to the entire set of information that the overall commanders had, but that's my opinion. Anybody else have any thoughts?

I don't suppose that it mentioned the 3 Australian SAS soldiers who were attatched to the 10th Mountain div? Or the the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) 2 of them were awarded for their actions, plus the 100 other SAS soldiers also involved in operation anaconda?

One such incident involved a patrol calling in airstrikes and directly engaging the enemy during a CSAR mission when a CH-47D Chinook was shot down by Taliban/al-Qa'ida forces. The patrol commander of that patrol was later awarded with the Distinguished Service Cross for his outstanding leadership during the CSAR mission.

(From specialoperations.com)

The show focused only on the Battle of Roberts' Ridge. It did not encompass the entire scope of Operation Anaconda.

The show focused only on the Battle of Roberts' Ridge. It did not encompass the entire scope of Operation Anaconda.

We are talking about the situation in which a Chinook crashed in the mountains, crew got cut up pretty bad. 10th Mountain (plus others) were sent as a rescue group and were ambushed in a valley by al-qaida/taliban. Because that is the exact action I'm talking about. SAS were involved in that, medals were awarded to 2 of them for calling in airstrikes, engaging the enemy, and saving the life of a number of wounded American soldiers under fire.

It did not focus on the relieving forces but only on the 10 Army Rangers, 8 Army air crew, 2 Air Force Para Rescuemen, and 1 Air Force ETAC in the helicopter that crashed and some comments from the Air Force pilots who fired on the Al-Queda bunker that was firing on the crash scene. Some comments were made about relieving forces but mostly towards the end of course. They did not go into detail about them.

Is that an Australian decoration?

One thing, there are varying accounts of what happened to Roberts. He was awarded the Bronze Star, so some of the accounts I read at the time of the incident were apparently not accepted as verifiable by the Navy.

Is that an Australian decoration?

Yes it is.
It is a medal for bravery in the face of the enemy in a combat situation.

Before the 2 were awarded in Iraq, only 10 had ever been awarded. You gotta do something special to earn it.

I will have to see that.

Was there anything in the program on the lack of artillery during Operation Anaconda. That was one operation where artillery was needed really bad. It seemed the heads of the US military ignored its value and paid the price. The helicopters had troubler hovering and the Air Force never covered the sky every second of the battle.

No, Doody, there was nothing about the lack of artillery mentioned. I'd like to hear more about that if you can find it. As I said, the show focused almost exclusively on the 21 men from Razor 1. At the beginning of the show Mako 3 and Petty Officer Roberts were mentioned in how it came to be that Roberts was lost on the mountainside. Rozor 1 and 2 were then deployed to come to his rescue and Razor 1 was shot down. Razor 2 wasn't mentioned again until near the end of the program as the relief force that was first able to make their way on the ground to the crash site by climbing four hours up the mountain. The CIA was made the big hero in utilizing their Predator UAV to fire a Hellfire missile into the bunker the Air Force jets were unable to neutralize. The show did a critique on problems in communications during the relief of Razor 1, but it didn't go further into anything else and for the most part attributed the problems as "the fog of war". Seeing as much commentary came from MG (then now LTG) Hagenbeck the gist of it was decidely in the favor of the brass. Military analysts from the Washington Post and the Air Force times and a couple others I can't remember at the moment were the only ones to directly criticize the operation. Even the men from Razor 1 did not want to criticize the decision not to send the helicopter until darkness to pull them all out of there. They only said they felt it could've been done but acknowledged that they did not have as wide a view of the entire situation as the commanders back at base.