Airman Honored For Bravery During Fierce Battle

Air Force Staff Sgt. Zachary Rhyner's story is one of heroism in battle. On April 6, 2008, Rhyner and his team were participating in an assault on Shok Valley in northeastern Afghanistan.

At first light, giant helicopters swooped into the valley. The mission of the special forces teams was to capture an insurgent — what the military calls a high value target. No coalition forces had ever been to that area before. There was no place to land. There was an icy river running down the middle of the valley — a river they hadn't been told about.

Once in the valley, Rhyner's team had to climb. The village was hundreds of feet above them. They had made it about 60 feet up before things went wrong.

"The first couple shots rang out," Rhyner says. "Immediately, our terp (interpreter) was killed — he got shot in the face. And he died right away. From there, we took another volley of rounds, another teammate was hit."

The insurgents were above them, shooting down from the village and from high cliffs on both sides of the valley.

The team began to pull back and look for cover. Rhyner's job as the Air Force member of the team was to call in air support.

"The fire continued. We were pulling security, shooting back, and I was coordinating with gun runs and bomb runs with the aircraft that was overhead," Rhyner says. "I got hit in the leg. And from there we just grabbed our wounded and pulled back as far as possible to get as much cover as possible. When we did that, we kind of trapped ourselves with a cliff on either side of us."

The mission had changed. It was all about getting out alive now. Rhyner had been shot in the leg. He was firing his own rifle at fighters nearby. He was also calling in air strikes from above: F-15's, Apaches and A-10's. The battle went on for hours.

Another Special Forces team tried to reach Rhyner's position, but they couldn't; there was too much fire. That team's airman was Rob Gutierrez, who says, "They're just shooting down at us. It looked like a stadium with multiple cameras going off."

Gutierrez was hit twice in the head trying to reach Rhyner. Amazingly, the bullets only dented his helmet. "We're fighting for our lives, you know what I mean?" Gutierrez says.

"We were just overwhelmed ... never been put in that ... I mean, a very difficult situation, engaging fire with helicopters and fixed wing aircraft — at the same time, yourself shooting and trying to move and help injured guys get across the river and things like that ... and you're slipping and falling and trying to get behind some sort of cover," Gutierrez says.

While the standoff continued, Rhyner's team was still trapped. He says that more than half of the team had been wounded.

"Rounds that weren't hitting us were hitting our equipment. Pretty much everyone on our team had a bullet hole in some form — whether it was hitting their gear or hitting their limbs, stuff like that."

The insurgents got so close that Rhyner had to call in air strikes practically on top of his own position: rockets, cannons and bombs. Nothing worked. Finally, there was only one option left: Rhyner called in a 2,000-pound bomb.

"After it went off, you literally couldn't see but a couple of inches in front of your face because of all the debris and dust that was in the air," Rhyner remembers. "And it sent down huge pieces of building and boulders and stuff, just showering us with all sorts of debris."

That stopped the shooting long enough for Rhyner's team to fight their way out — carrying their wounded down a cliff and across a chest-high, ice cold river.

The battle of Shok Valley lasted about six hours. More than half of the Americans there were injured, but none of them died. Ten Army Green Berets won Silver Stars that day, the most for one action since Vietnam.

On Tuesday, Airman Zachary Rhyner will be awarded the Air Force Cross, the service's highest honor. He is one of three men to receive it fighting in Afghanistan; the other two were awarded posthumously.