{"id":75098,"date":"2017-10-03T10:52:38","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T14:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=75098"},"modified":"2017-10-03T10:52:38","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T14:52:38","slug":"battle-of-kamdesh-cop-keating-8-years-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=75098","title":{"rendered":"Battle of Kamdesh (COP Keating) 8 years after"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Battle of Kamdesh, also known as COP Keating, was eight years ago today near the town of Kamdesh of Nuristan province in eastern Afghanistan. 8 Americans were killed in the fighting and 27 others were wounded. Four officers were disciplined for their failure to support the troops on COP Keating, eight aviators earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and Staff Sergeant Clinton Romesha and Staff Sergeant Ty Carter were awarded the Medal of Honor. From Military.com<\/a>;<\/p>\n

The Battle for COP Keating produced a constellation of medals: 27 Purple Hearts, 37 Army Commendation Medals with “V” devices for valor, three Bronze Stars, 18 Bronze Stars with “V” devices, and nine Silver Stars….The enemy death toll is estimated at between 150 and 200. Eight U.S. soldiers paid the ultimate price that day: Justin T. Gallegos of Tucson, Ariz.; Christopher Griffin of Kincheloe, Mich.; Kevin C. Thomson of Reno, Nev.; Michael P. Scusa of Villas, N.J.; Vernon W. Martin of Savannah, Ga.; Stephan L. Mace of Lovettsville, Va.; Joshua J. Kirk of South Portland, Maine; and Joshua M. Hardt of Applegate, Calif.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The battle quickly became hand-to-hand fighting with the US troops calling for supporting fires “Danger Close”.<\/p>\n

It was dawn on Oct. 3, 2009, when nearly 350 Taliban-led insurgents attacked U.S. Army Combat Outpost (COP) Keating in the Kamdesh Valley of Afghanistan. Built on low ground in a river valley, the COP was home to fewer than 60 cavalrymen from Bravo Troop, 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division. They would confront the enemy in a 12-hour close-contact battle that nearly became hand-to-hand combat. Outpost security would be breached in three places. Fires set by the attackers would destroy the COP’s barracks. Close air support and mortar fire had to be directed at enemy forces inside the original security perimeter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Battle of Kamdesh, also known as COP Keating, was eight years ago today near the … Battle of Kamdesh (COP Keating) 8 years after<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-remember"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}