The Heroes of Wanat

"I just hope these guys’ wives and their children understand how courageous their husbands and dads were. They fought like warriors." - SGT Jacob Walker

"It was some of the bravest stuff I’ve ever seen in my life, and I will never see it again because those guys... well, normal humans wouldn’t do that. You’re not supposed to do that — getting up and firing back when everything around you is popping and whizzing and trees, branches coming down and sandbags exploding and RPGs coming in over your head... It was a fistfight then, and those guys held ’ em off." - SPC Tyler Stafford

"When you ask for volunteers to run across an open field to a reinforced OP that almost everybody is injured at, and everybody volunteers, it feels good. There were a lot of guys that made me proud, putting themselves and their lives on the line so their buddies could have a chance." - SSG Jesse Queck


Im Memoriam:

1LT Jonathan Brostrom
SGT Israel Garcia
SPC Matthew Phillips
SPC Pruitt Rainey
SPC Jonathan Ayers
SPC Jason Bogar
SPC Sergio Abad
SPC Jason Hovater
SPC Gunnar Zwilling

All Sky Soldiers of Chosen Company, 2/503 Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.



Suggested reading:
Interviews with several wounded Soldiers of Chosen Company while at Landstuhl hospital describing the attack.
Multimedia version of above interviews.
Interview with an additional wounded Soldier of Chosen providing further information on the fight.
Interview with the commander of the 173rd ABCT.
An Alamo with a Different Ending: Overwhelmingly Outnumbered Coalition Forces Repel a Complex Attack in NE Afghanistan
Army Times, December 2008: Dire sunrise at Wanat


I'd like to thank all of you who sent messages of support for these patients during their stay at Landstuhl, as well as all of our regular donors of quilts and many other items. Please know how much your support is appreciated by the guys, and that it does make a difference.