The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor (99 page)

In interviews, Kolenda and Hutto described their farewell.

David Roller’s email home was provided by him.

Chapter 21: Chess with No Rules

Biographical information about Rob Yllescas came from interviews with his widow, Dena, who also shared many of his emails and pictures home.

Details about Yllescas at the outpost were provided by Mazzocchi, Meshkin, Safulko, Tucker, Briley, Victorino, and others.

Details about various attacks on the outpost were offered by Mazzocchi, Meshkin, Safulko, Tucker, Briley, Victorino, and others.

Biographical information about Meshkin was taken from interviews with him.

Biographical information about Mazzocchi came from interviews with him.

The meeting with Abdul Rahman was described by Meshkin and also covered in a memo obtained by the author.

Briley related his thoughts in an interview.

Casualty information came from an ISAF memo obtained by the author.

Biographical information about Safulko was provided in interviews with him.

The incident involving Franklin was decscribed by Meshkin.

Chapter 22: After He Finished Washing the Blood Off

Information about the October 13, 2008, shura was taken from an ISAF memo obtained by the author.

Information about the October 25, 2008, attack was provided in interviews with Mazzocchi, Tucker, Safulko, Meshkin, and Briley.

Information about the attack on Yllescas came from interviews with Tucker, Briley, Safulko, Mazzocchi, Walker, and Victorino.

Information about Yllescas’s early medical treatment was furnished by Brewer and Cuda.

Information about the medevac that was sent to get Yllescas came from Spiszer, Markert, and Nelson.

Mazzocchi’s interaction with the local man whose wife was wounded was described by Mazzocchi in an interview.

Information about Amin Shir came from an interview with Walker. Information regarding his current location was provided by Victorino.

Dena Yllescas described in several interviews how she learned of her husband’s injury. She also contemporaneously expressed many of her thoughts and feelings in her blog at
http://yllescasfamily.blogspot.com
.

Mazzocchi’s conversation with Commander Jawed was recalled by Mazzocchi in an interview.

The shura meeting was described in interviews with Meshkin, Mazzocchi, and Tucker.

Information about Pecha’s assignment to the outpost was provided by Pecha in interviews.

Markert’s feelings were expressed in interviews with the author and also relayed in a contemporaneous email to a fellow officer.

President Bush’s bedside visit was described by Dena Yllescas; information was shared with his office. Bush’s jog with Christian Bagge was reported in Richard Benedetto, “Amputee Iraq Vet Fulfills Wish, Jogs with Bush,”
USA Today,
June 27, 2006.

Chapter 23: What Was Wrong with Kaine Meshkin

The November 2008 attacks on the outpost were described by Pecha, Meshkin, Mazzocchi, Safulko, and Tucker in interviews.

Information about Rob Yllescas’s medical treatment was provided by his widow, Dena, in interviews and in her blog at
http://yllescasfamily.blogspot.com
.

The excerpt from “You Save Me” by Kenny Chesney, written by Brett James and Troy Verges, from Chesney’s 2005 album
The Road and the Radio,
is used by permission.

The description of the craniotomy procedure was based on information from the Web site for the Mayfield Clinic for the Brain & Spine,
http://www.mayfieldclinic.com/PE-Craniotomy.htm
, and was reviewed by Ron Warnick, M.D., and Mary Haverbusch, R.N.

In interviews, Mazzocchi, Safulko, and Pecha shared information about the plans for the outpost after Yllescas’s death.

Meshkin recalled his response to Yllescas’s death in interviews. His interactions with Dena Yllescas were described by both of them.

Information about the plans made by George and Brown was offered by both men in interviews.

Brown’s outreach to Kolenda and Pecha was recalled in interviews by all three men.

The attack statistics were provided in an ISAF memo obtained by the author.

Chapter 24: The Puppies

The January 2009 attacks on the outpost were described in interviews with Pecha, Meshkin, Mazzocchi, Safulko, and Tucker.

Information about the Kamdesh radio station was offered by Bodmer and Markert.

Details about President Obama’s plans for Afghanistan were provided in official announcements by the President; in interviews with White House advisers Denis McDonough and Ben Rhodes, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, and Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell; and by other, unnamed sources.

Mullen’s and Gates’s views of McKiernan were described by unnamed Pentagon sources.

Events at the February 15, 2009, shura were recounted in an ISAF memo obtained by the author.

Pecha and Tucker’s meeting with the contractors was recalled by both men in interviews.

Information about the cost of various projects was furnished by an unnamed source.

Safulko told the story about the dogs’ turning and their subsequent end in an interview.

The unrealized plans for a new observation post, to be named after Yllescas, were described by Pecha, Markert, Spiszer, and Victorino.

Information about the attack on Bari Alai came from interviews with Spiszer and Markert. Pirtle’s concerns, expressed to his parents, were first reported on HDNET’s “Dan Rather Reports: What Happened at Bari Alai,” on September 12, 2011. Wade Zirkle of the Fox News Channel claimed on May 15, 2009, that the ISAF was investigating whether the ANA might have been involved.

The email from Brown was provided to the author by Brown.

The closure of COP Lybert was described in an interview with Spizer and also in Michael Gisick, “Fateful Day Brings Post Back to War’s Reality,”
Stars and Stripes,
September 25, 2008. In an interview, Cheryl Lee Nussberger recalled her concern over the enemy’s propaganda video about the closure of the base named after her son.

Chapter 25: Pericles in Kamdesh

Information about 3-71 Cav’s arrival at the outpost was taken from interviews with Bundermann, Burton, and Cordova.

Safulko recalled his conversation with Kirk in an interview. Kirk’s schedule was shared by his wife, Gavin-Kirk, in an interview. Information about Kirk during his time with 1-91 Cav came from interviews with Kolenda and Springer.

Thucydides,
The History of the Peloponnesian War,
translated by Richard Crawley (London: Dover, 2004).

Information about the attack that wounded Shane Scherer was gleaned from interviews with Scherer, Witherington, Cordova, and Safulko.

Sources for Book Three

A major source for the information presented in book 3 was the November 3, 2009, “AR 15-6 Investigation re: COP Keating Attack of 3 Oct 09 Department of the Army,” by Major General Guy Swan III, along with its supporting documents, obtained by the author. These are collectively referred to as the “Swan report” below.

In addition, the following individuals were interviewed for book 3:

Jonathan Adams

Vanessa Adelson, mother of Stephan Mace

Armando Avalos

Kyle Barnes

Janpatrick Barroga

Jordan Bellamy

Kirk Birchfield

John Breeding

Brad Brown

Connie Brown, mother of Vernon Martin

Jory Brown

Shane Brown, a Burlington, North Carolina, police staff sergeant

Andrew Bundermann

Cashet Burks, girlfriend of Vernon Martin

Ronald Burton

Stephen Cady

Ty Carter

Dan Casey

Kerri Griffin Causley, mother of Chris Griffin

Christopher Chappell

Chris Cordova

Shane Courville

Martins Dabolins

Kevin Daise

Josh Dannelley

Nicholas Davidson

Noor Din

Seward Dinsmore, uncle of Josh Kirk

Mark Dulaney

Faruq (not his real name)

Ed Faulkner, Sr., father of Ed Faulkner, Jr.

Cody Floyd

John Francis

Jeremy Frunk

Megan Gavin-Kirk, widow of Josh Kirk

Randy George

Robert Gibbs

Robert Gilberto (not his real name)

Justin Gregory

Damien Grissette

Eric Harder

Olivia Hardt, widow of Josh Hardt

Mary Henry, mother of Eric Harder

Jon Hill

Robert Hull

Jeff Jacops

Greg Jaffe of the
Washington Post,
who was incredibly generous with his time, his impressions from the period when he was embedded with 3-61 Cav, and his reporting on the aftermath of the October 3, 2009, attack

Chris Jones

Kellan Kahn

Bernadette Kirk-Bonner, mother of Josh Kirk

Kyle Knight

Jeffrey Kology, a Burlington, North Carolina, police investigator

Zach Koppes

Janis Lakis

Brad Larson

Ross Lewallen

Amanda Marr, former wife of Justin Gallegos)

Brittany Martin, widow of Vernon Martin

Stan McChrystal

Brendan McCriskin

Denis McDonough

Matthew McMurtrey

Aaron Miller

Sarah Faulkner Minor, sister of of Ed Faulkner, Jr.

Jake Miraldi

Geoff Morrell

Dante Paradiso

Melvin Porter

Stoney Portis

Ted Priester

Tom Rasmussen

Ben Rhodes

Daniel Rodriguez

Dan Rogers

Clint Romesha

Debbie Routson, mother of Kevin Thomson

Ben Salentine

Justin Sax

Mike Scaparrotti

Cason Shrode

Jayson Souter

James Stanley, Jr.

Keith Stickney

T. G. Taylor

Albert “Cookie” Thomas

Jessica Tingley, sister of Josh Kirk

Nick Paton Walsh

Stuart Webb

Rob Wilson

Jordan Wong

Cynthia Woodard, mother of Michael Scusa

Christopher Wright

Brad Zagol

Chapter 26: The General’s Competing Considerations

Heraclitus’ precise words, as quoted in G.T.W. Patrick’s
Heraclitus of Ephesus: The Fragments of the Works of Heraclitus of Ephesus on Nature
(Chicago: Argonaut, 1969), were “Into the same river you could not step twice, for other waters are flowing. To those entering the same river, other and still other waters flow.” There have been various interpretations of this quote.

The description of Porter’s command was drawn from interviews with Porter, Brown, and myriad troops and officers from 3-61 Cav, as well as from the Swan report.

Mullen’s and Gates’s views of McKiernan were passed along by unnamed Pentagon sources.

McKiernan’s telling Gates, “You’re going to have to fire me,” was reported in Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Pentagon Worries Led to Command Change,”
Washington Post,
August 17, 2009.

Gates’s and Mullen’s remarks were taken from a transcript of the May 11, 2009, press conference.

The assessments and views of McChrystal were taken from interviews with McChrystal and other, anonymous Pentagon officials.

The June 2, 2007, exchange between Senator Lindsey Graham and McChrystal was taken from a transcript of the hearings. This was first noted as a troubling moment for White House officials in Bob Woodward,
Obama’s Wars
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), a conclusion that was later confirmed by White House officials. McChrystal shared his views in an interview.

A certain wariness toward the White House in general and Vice President Biden’s office in particular was reflected in interviews with anonymous Pentagon officials.