Grant McGarry - A Night in the Pech Valley

Second Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Ranger Battalion,
75th Ranger Regiment

February 14, 2007 January 9, 2011

LTRC Publishing
www.LTRC-Ops.com

2015 by Grant McGarry

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in anymanner without written permission from the publisher, except for briefquotations in a review.

For information contact Live The Ranger Creed LLC in Roswell, GA

McGarry, Grant
A Night in the Pech Valley
Second Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Ranger Battalion,
75th Ranger Regiment
February 14, 2007 January 9, 2011

ISBN 978-0-9970414-1-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015919686

First Edition
Printed in the United States of America

eBook formatting by Canopy Web Design LLC

Cover by Matt Frederick

Died August 19, 2010
Operation Enduring Freedom

One for the Airborne Ranger in the Sky!

Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.

-John 15:13

When I returned home from my fifth and final deployment in October 2010, I didntsleep much, in fact, I went a straight week without sleep. I spent most of mydays and especially nights drowning in survivors guilt. When I finally didstart getting some sleep the dreams were so vivid and real that I almost didntwant to fall asleep. The survivors guilt got worse. It almost crushed me. InDecember 2010, as I was preparing to get out of the Army the following month, Iwent to my parents house for the holidays. For Christmas my mom got me ajournal. She knew I was going through hard times and thought it would be goodfor me to put my nightmares into words and onto paper. Turns out it was exactlywhat I needed to do.

Throughout 2011, while I was working at the US Embassy in Baghdad as a personal securityspecialist, I wrote in that journal about anything and everything that happenedwhile I was in the Army. I wrote about what compelled me to join the militaryin 2006 and everything that happened up to January 9, 2011 my last day as aRanger in 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Ranger Battalion, 75th RangerRegiment. I never planned to do anything with the stories, because after allI was a quiet professional. So when I got back stateside from Iraq forChristmas in 2011, I tucked the journal away in my nightstand.

Then in January of 2013 I felt compelled to tell my story and transferred everythingfrom my journal over to a Microsoft Word document. As soon as I finished thetransfer of about twenty thousand words I mailed it to Jim and Michele Cochran,Chris Wrights parents, and asked for their approval to tell of their sonslast day. With their approval, I decided to write this book.

My personality is more of a doer than a teller, so I knew this was not going to bean easy journey for me but was determined to give it my all. I spent countlesshours writing and editing. One day I listened to six hours of Beethovensgreatest hits and wrote six thousand words. I was compelled to tell my storyand it eventually took over my life. As with any firsthand account, this bookis from my point of view, but I made sure to account for all points of view tobest articulate exactly what happened. Anyone who has been in combat knows thateveryone involved in a firefight remembers certain incidents with norecollection of details from someone elses account. Even though each personinvolved might have a few differences because of their vantage points, allaccounts tell the same story. I have spoken with everyone involved and spenthours going through each incident to describe in detail exactly what happened.

Because of the attention to detail, I was advised of and followed all guidelines setout by the Armys Office of the Chief of Public Affairs during the writing,editing and publishing of this work. I have changed many individuals names tonot reveal their identity. All call signs, missions, objectives, and operationshave been changed to keep from releasing classified information.

I strived for perfection and accuracy, but these stories should not be read asofficial AARs (after action reports). The Ranger Regiment Public AffairsOfficer reviewed this book, but neither the 75th Ranger Regiment, the U.S.Army, nor the Department of Defense officially endorse its content. This bookis a living, breathing extension of me. I am proud of not only me and my brothersand how hard we fought, but also the ones that are still fighting; they have myutmost respect. To each person that reads this book, I hope you are able tolearn from it and I ask that you not forget that these are real people and thesweat, tears, bloodshed, and lives lost are real too.

RLTW!

Grant McGarry

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong manstumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The creditbelongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dustand sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again andagain, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who doesactually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the greatdevotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in theend the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, atleast fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with thosecold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

-Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President
of the United States of America

After four years and twenty weeks of service to my country, my time was up, and Idecided to close the warrior chapter of my life; I was honorably dischargedfrom the United States Army on January 9, 2011. During my four years in secondplatoon, Charlie Company, 1st Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, I metsome of the finest men in the United States of America. When it was all saidand done, my time as an Army Ranger in Charlie Company (Two Charlie) was theproudest period of my life and can be summed up in four words: It was an honor.

To close this chapter in my life, my platoon had a going away formation behindthe Company Operating Facility (COF) and presented me with a plaque thatincluded a picture of Two Charlie standing on a ridge in Afghanistan. After Iwas presented this plaque, a friend spoke on my behalf; his few words made memore proud than any accomplishment I have ever achieved or any award I haveever received. Sergeant Cousins, as he stood in front of the platoon of abouttwenty Rangers, said that I was one of the top five Rangers he had ever servedwith. This speech, coming from the person that gave me my in-processingcounseling when I was first assigned to Two Charlie and one ofif not themostrespected Ranger in the platoon, had a profound impact on me. As I began toreflect on everything and anything that had happened over the past four years,I thought about the day I had arrived to Two Charlie and how much I had changedsince then. I thought about when I showed up that day thinking I was a man, butlittle did I know, I was far from it. I snapped out of my momentary daydream tospeak. As I stood in front of such an amazing group of men, I couldnt help butfeel ashamed. I felt ashamed that I was leaving the fight and asking mybrothers to go on and continue to fight without me. I had spent every wakingmoment with these Rangers and had laid it all on the line with them, sheddingblood, sweat, and tears. Some I had known longer than others, but regardless,they were all my brothers and I was sad to leave.