Legion of Brothers

- When we first, you know, walked into the country,

I mean, you had the weight of the nation on your shoulders.

You know, we were america's response

To the most catastrophic terrorist attack on u.S. Soil.

- Ever. - Ever.

And for a lot of us,

You know, we felt that we had a responsibility

To the people that died,

To set the stage that you just don't do that to america

And not pay the price.

It was about-- not retribution,

But it was about justice.

What's that saying

About, "who will go?"

"send me."

- You know-- - isaiah 6:8.

- Sir? - Isaiah 6:8.

"whom will go, and whom shall I send?"

- Yeah, "who will go, and who shall I send?"

Send me, send me,

'cause I'm the dude that wants to make somebody pay

For killing my brothers and sisters.

I think we have to assume

That there will be more attacks.

- The United States military has begun strikes.

- Coalition warplanes have free rein over afghanistan.

- The public, though-- I think 94% of the public--

Wants us to go in somewhere and do something.

- U.S. Army special forces, known as the green berets...

The green berets...

Inside afghanistan.

Those reports first appeared in pakistani newspapers...

- Known as the quiet professionals...

So secretive, we've agreed not to disclose

Even their first name.

- I never spoke out the way I felt like I should have.

- It was an american green bert raid in the dark of night.

- Guns starting to flail back and forth.

pow-pow, pow, pow...

- This is another type of warfare:

War by guerillas.

Unconventional warfare.

- And to me, it's like brotherhood.

What is winning?

You're just praying

You'll get to prove yourself to your brothers.

- What began as a 100-day mission...

- The longest u.S. War... - It's been a long war...

- The longest war in american history.

- We've been living it for 15 years.

Think I was 10.

Must have been 9 or 10, about 1970, I guess.

I saw john wayne, "the green berets,"

And I thought, "man, yeah..."

- They all seemed to think that because my dad joined,

That it was natural for me to join,

But that wasn't the case.

I went to go see a movie.

Funny thing.

A fella takes one of these into battle,

And he carries a strange sense of guilt

All the rest of his life.

- I figured everything else I'd done in the army

Hadn't been all that hard, for me.

I figured, how hard could it be?

It was pretty hard.

Pretty good, yeah.

- The taliban must turn over osama bin laden

And must destroy the terrorist camps.

Otherwise, there will be a consequence.

- Spokesman for the taliban denies afghanistan

Allowed bin laden to strike from its territory.

Good afternoon.

On my orders,

The United States military has begun strikes

Against the taliban regime in afghanistan.

- I'm as close to these people as anyone in my own family,

And in some ways closer.

These are my 11 best friends in the world.

That's how I feel.

This is us in afghanistan.

I mean, we were in, you know, some harsh...

- Probably is as extreme a combat environment

As you can fathom.

It tested you in every way-- physically, mentally...

Emotionally.

We are it.

And when you need the army,

We are the vanguard, the spearhead, the praetorian.

- This has been happening for, what, 15 years.

Wow, since vietnam.

Yeah.

We're talking about people.

You know, as a unit, we've been--

We've been deployed doing some pretty crazy crap

For a while.

And you get into a unit like this,

And that's what you do.

That's your game.

- I've been in the military now 30 years.

That mission was the pinnacle of my career,

Absolutely the finest thing

A team of green berets could do.

- Mark wasn't on the team anymore at that time.

So I thought I was good to go.

I was 6 1/2 months pregnant.

And we got a call while we were in a baby store,

Shopping for baby things.

I think mr. Paul called him and said...

"get your butt back here."

- "guess what, you're back on the team."

And I was like, "oh..."

We both realized

I was probably not gonna be there

For the birth of our child.

On the drive back from nashville, then,

We realized we'd better pick a name.

Amy knew we were gonna go, but she didn't know where.

Hell, I didn't know where we were going exactly.

Ramp runs down a big cloud

Of that fine talcum powder dust.

We come piling out of the back of that,

Haul all of our shit out in this big, huge clump of stuff.

Helicopter takes off.

Dust kind of settles,

And out of the dust comes the sand people.

That's right.

When you see a man with an ak

Who's dressed just like your enemy,

And you've got to walk over to him

And basically ask him, "hey, how you doing?"

And you have no idea whether he's gonna say--

You put out his hand and shake it,

Or he's gonna shoot you.

- The taliban's army of some 30,000 fighters...

Born from the crucible of war,

Captured kabul in 1996 and imposed draconian laws.

Indiscriminate and brutal...

Whipped in public for adultey

In front of an all-male audience...

We have a small group...

- The taliban invited osama bin laden...

- Osama bin laden would offer money

And his fighters to fight.

- The northern alliance came together

In mutual opposition to the taliban.

- General dostum and his advance security party

Come riding up.

- General dostum, who has a fierce reputation

For his treatment of foreign prisoners.

- He jumps down off the horse, and--

- Hell, the horse is still moving, he jumps off.

- Yeah. - He was like, "hey."

- General dostum agreed to take my team members and I

Up to his forward command post.

"I can't guarantee your safety."

He said, "there's some people

That may be upset that the americans are here."

So we would mount horses for the first time in combat.

Mark knows horses.

He knew horses when he got there.

We didn't.

Mark figured out real quick

That you go up to 400 dudes on a horse and say,

"hey, somebody get off their horse

And give it to an american,"

You ain't gonna get a smooth horse.

- We got to general dostum's headquarters.

My job at that point

Is to establish and maintain rapport.

His plan that he had briefed to us

Was that mazar-e sharif was the key to the country,

And if we could liberate mazar-e sharif,

The northern provinces would be liberated.

If we liberated the northern provinces,

Then kabul could be liberated.

And from there, herat, kandahar, jalalabad.

We represented 5th group.

We represented america's foreign policy--

At the point end, nasty, dirty, bloody end of that fight--

That we went in and helped enable

The possibility of a brighter future

For the people of afghanistan.

It was my first rodeo.

We got married in April; he left in October.

He was a medic.

I thought it was safe.

Yeah, he lied to me, guys.

No, he didn't lie to me; he was a medic.

Is that what they're called?

I don't know.

You know what it is.

Little dust off that.

A pickle tea.

- A lot of memories, you know what I mean?

It's like--that you kind of tamp down and put away.

Not so good, but that's okay.

- Every one of the husbands will tell you

That they're gonna die before us spouses do.

- Suck it up, buttercup. - Suck it up, will.