Photo By Sgt. Mike MacLeod | Capt. Rudy Stevens, chaplain with 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of...... read more read more
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FORWARD OPERATING BASE ARIAN, Afghanistan – The lieutenant and the private were going to go bull riding together after the deployment. It was a consolation to Cowboy Mike Metcalf when his platoon sergeant forbade him to risk injury with more rodeo in the days before deploying to Afghanistan.
His platoon leader, 1st Lt. Jonathan Walsh, by all accounts, was that kind of guy. He was not afraid to do new things in front of his men, whether it was learning a new weapon system or riding a bull, and he wanted to know the men he would lead into battle.
On April 22 while on patrol in rural southern Ghazni province, Pfc. Metcalf was driving and Walsh was in the “truck commander’s seat” when an improvised explosive device ripped through their vehicle. Walsh was killed instantly. Metcalf was airlifted to a nearby medical facility where he died on the operating table.
Five days later, a day before rolling out on another mission, his company held a memorial ceremony on Forward Operating Base Arian along with hundreds of other 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers posted here.
In attendance was 1st Brigade Combat Team commander, Col. Mark L. Stock, who flew in from another FOB for the ceremony, the brigade’s subordinate battalion commanders, including Lt. Col. Praxitelis Vamvakias who commands 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, the unit of the two lost paratroopers, and Vamvakias’ Afghan National Army partners with the ANA’s 6th Kandak.
Early afternoon rains calmed the dust. Billowy clouds floating above snowcapped mountains cast intermittent shadows over the array of big guns, heavy armored vehicles and soldiers arranged in neat rows, facing the stars and stripes, a blue brigade standard, four boots, two rifles, two helmets and two sets of dog tags.
As with all military memorials in combat zones, it was a solemn, bittersweet occasion, and one not soon forgotten by attendees.
Earlier, the “Alpha” Company ranking non-commissioned officer, 1st Sgt. William Anger, reminded his paratroopers that a soldier’s job is many things but sometimes his job is to die.
The company’s 1st Platoon wanted to get back in the fight, but first they would grieve and remember.
They recalled how Metcalf, of Boynton Beach, Fla., loved two things: bull riding and tattoos, how he once let two buddies play a game of tick-tack-toe on his skin with the ink gun, and how much he loved driving the big Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle, or MRAP.
“He’d make those turbo-diesel sounds all the time, just walking around,” said Staff Sgt. Michael Tardie, a squad leader. “That boy didn’t know the meaning of fear.”
Metcalf joined the Army in March 2011. “He joined for the same reason anyone joins the infantry,” agreed platoon-mates Mallory, Kindred, Turner and Colon. He wanted to find adventure.
“He was outgoing. You knew when he entered the room,” said Pvt. Brandon Limprich. “He was always singing some country song or rap song.”
The others chimed in:
“He couldn’t sing but he could scream.”
“He was a tough kid, but his family was very loving, and his neighbors loved him.”
“A handshake was his bond.”
They remembered that fateful day when the platoon was staged at the FOB gate as the quick reaction force and the call came in that Charlie Company’s 2nd Platoon had hit an IED. Cowboy Mike Metcalf sprinted to his truck, playing the air guitar while running through the ankle-deep mud. He was ready to go.
Walsh had come to 1st Platoon about the same time as Metcalf. He was older, had worked in the financial services industry a few years after graduating from Kennesaw State University in north Georgia.
“He was huge, maybe the hugest guy in brigade,” said anther squad leader, Staff Sgt. Josh Tyree, of the lieutenant, who had competed in amateur bodybuilding. “But he was also the kind of platoon leader who would sit down with his noncoms and ask them what they thought about something.”
“That’s extremely unlike lieutenants coming out of [Infantry Officer Basic Course] or Ranger School,” said platoon sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class Jason Gregory. “He was extremely grounded when it came to what his experience was within the military and with the combat situation here in Ghazni. He knew he had a lot to learn from us, and it actually made the platoon run really well because of it.”
He always talked about how lucky he was to have his wife, Debbra, in his life, and how fast and strong his son, Austin, was growing, they said.
He also knew how to play, said Gregory.
After two weeks of rain transformed the FOB into a mud pit, the lieutenant approached him one day and insisted they give one of their soldiers a physical fitness test because he wasn’t meeting the standard.
“He was like, ‘He’s going to have to run outside, do sit-ups and pushups,’” recalled Gregory with a wry smile. “I was like, ‘Well, it is the 82nd. It could happen.’ Then he said, ‘I’m just messing with you.’ That was the first time he got me.”
“We used to bust him so hard for being a ‘slick sleeve,’” said Tyree, meaning Walsh had no combat patch to signify a deployment to a warzone. “But he progressed so much from the time he got here to now – his confidence level, how he read [operation] orders. He also wanted to know who each of his soldiers was. He wasn’t worried about the next level; he was worried about the here and now, the guys under him.”
Walsh and Metcalf were “two of the toughest dudes you ever met” according to the men of 1st Platoon.
“Every time I want to tear up, I just get the feeling that it would tick them off,” said Tyree. “Of course, people are going to grieve, but we are going to keep doing what we were before we lost them.”
Gregory, who is on his fourth deployment, agreed. “As a platoon, we don’t allow the enemy to break our morale, to keep us from doing what needs to be done. It’s not happening. This platoon is too tight, too strong,” he said.
When the memorial was over and the crowd had dispersed, the men of 1st Platoon quietly boxed the mementos left at the boots of their departed platoon mates. In a week, the boxes would be back home in America.
“The first time I ever saw him upset was when he was pushing to take a platoon picture but nobody wanted to because we felt like we haven’t done anything yet,” said Gregory. “We haven’t earned the right. But he pushed us, and I’m glad we did it.”
| Date Taken: | 04.27.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 04.28.2012 08:44 |
| Story ID: | 87529 |
| Location: | GHAZNI PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 2,630 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
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