Narrative Report On Fb Nawa

It started out like any other day on our little fire base. Our small detachment consisting of 1st PLT C CO 1-506th, C CO Mortars (minus SPC Goings), and a few more attachments (I don’t remember their roles) continued our retrograde operations for FB Nawa. It was a very small base of operation and I was told it was once the pharmacy for the village. It was also located next to the Nawa police station. Part of our mission was to train the Police and assess the village using SWEAT (Sewage, Water, Electricity, Academics and Telecommunications). Adding to this mission, we were scheduled to leave this fire base within the next few days and there was a strenuous amount of labor that needed to be completed, patrols to be conducted, as well
We exchanged stories and caught up since we haven’t seen each other for a while. He then asked where the latrine was, so I pointed him in the direction of our outhouse. He left and about 8 minutes passed when (I want to say Tower 2) a then SPC Cohran, opened fire with the M240B right above me. He’s shouted out the three D’s (Distance, Direction, Description) and since I was closest to him, I echoed from the top running into the facility we all resided in to grab my gear. Chaos ensued as everyone began to head to their battle positions. I woke up my Section Leader and told him what was happening then grabbed my gear and ran toward the Mortar firing position. There were about 3 rounds of indirect 300M or so outside of our base. Our base was pretty small, so I assume it was a difficult target for the enemy. By the time our section made it to the mortar firing position, my section leader was already issuing fire commands for the system. I did my role and grabbed an HE round and stood by for the gunner (Then SPC Gilstrap) to tell me to hang it. With all the adrenaline from the gun positions and anger from PFC Salvador being injured felt a pressure to perform and destroy . All I can think was, “If you take one of ours, we’ll take 100 of yours!” .We dropped two rounds HE for an immediate suppression, but we able to acquire a BDA (Battle Damage Assessment) as the enemy
The entire mission (which lasted a total of 8 days) went down in the history of the 1-506th History as the “Baja to Nawa”. SSG Unger, the PSG of 4th PLT received a Silver Star for his actions during the course of that mission and PFC Salvador received a purple heart. That was the one of the longest missions we took part as a company of on my first deployment and though I may forget bits and pieces of the deployment, I won’t forget that feeling of pride I had while serving with my brothers in the 506th INF. It was identical a tribe of warriors comprised of all brothers and that experience helped mold my entire leadership style and the way I operate to this