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Combat Veterans Recount Grit, Valor, Air Support in Defeating Terror Troops
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

SFC Thomas Abbott (left) and SSG Andrzej Ropel of the Army's 10th Mountain Division describe their experiences fighting al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan's Shahi Khot Valley on March 2, 2002, during Operation Anaconda. The two met reporters Oct. 22 at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in Washington.
Image Credit: Gerry J. Gilmore -- AFIS.

When some terrorists tried to creep up to around 200-300 meters, the 10th Mountain troops used disciplined fire to engage viable targets while conserving ammo, the platoon sergeant said. "We fought them off," Abbott noted, adding that his savvy soldiers refused to be fooled by their wily foe. "That's the wrong thing to do -- you don't chase them into an ambush. We held them off (and) used our air-support assets.”

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
Army 10th Mountain Division troops said teamwork, training and discipline negated al Qaeda forces' efforts to destroy them during March 2 fighting in Afghanistan's Shahi Khot Valley.

Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Abbott, a platoon sergeant, and other Afghanistan combat veterans recalled their experiences Oct. 22 here at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting.

Abbott recalled the terrorists enjoyed an early advantage in the Shahi Khot fight. "They had the high ground," noted Abbott, who holds the Purple Heart for wounds received in the fighting and the Bronze Star Medal.

History records that American infantry fought at Shahi Khot with grit and valor against a determined foe that was intimately familiar with the terrain. The battle was part of "Operation Anaconda," Abbott noted. Like its constrictor- snake namesake, Anaconda was designed to squeeze remnant terror forces operating in mountainous eastern Afghanistan near the city of Gardez.
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

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