FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Capt. Kyle Walton remembers pressing himself into the jagged stones that covered the cliff in northeastern Afghanistan.
Machine-gun rounds and sniper fire ricocheted off the rocks. Two rounds slammed into his helmet, smashing his head into the ground.
Nearby, three of his U.S. Army Special Forces comrades were wounded. One grenade or a well-aimed bullet, Walton thought, could etch April 6, 2008, on his gravestone.
Walton and his team from the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group had been sent to kill or capture terrorists from a rugged valley that had never been penetrated by U.S. forces — or, they had been told, the Soviets before them.
By the end of the six-hour battle deep within the Shok Valley, Walton would bear witness to heroics that on Friday would earn his team 10 Silver Stars, the most for a single battle in Afghanistan.
Walton, a Special Forces team leader, and his men described the battle in an interview with The Associated Press last week. Most seem unimpressed they have earned the Army’s third-highest award for combat valor.
The mission that sent three Special Forces teams and a company from the 201st Afghan Commando Battalion to the Shok Valley seemed imperiled from the outset.
Considered a sanctuary of the Hezeb Islami al-Gulbadin terrorist group, the valley is far from any major American base.
With several Afghan commandos, Staff Sgt. John Walding and Staff Sgt. David Sanders led the way on a narrow path up a cliff face to a village where the terrorists were hiding.
Walton followed with two other soldiers and a 23-year- old Afghan interpreter who went by the name C.K., an orphan who dreamed of going to the United States.
Walding and Sanders were on the outskirts of the village when Staff Sgt. Luis Morales saw a group of armed men. He fired. The mountains and buildings erupted in an ambush: The soldiers estimate that more than 200 fighters opened up with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and AK-47s.
C.K. crumbled to the ground.
Walton and Spec. Michael Carter dived into a small cave. Staff Sgt. Dillon Behr couldn’t fit, so the Rock Island, Ill., native dropped to one knee and started firing.
Behr was hit — a sniper’s round passing through his leg. Morales knelt on Behr’s hip to stop the bleeding and kept firing until he too was hit in the leg and ankle.
Walton and Carter, a combat cameraman from Smithville, Texas, dragged the two men to the cave. Carter treated Morales, who, in turn, kept treating Behr.
Walton told Walding and Sanders to abandon the assault and meet on the cliff. Walding made it to the cliff when a bullet shattered his leg, which later would be amputated.
Down below, Staff Sgt. Seth E. Howard took his sniper rifle and started climbing with Staff Sgt. Matthew Williams.
At the top, Howard used C.K.’s body for cover and started to shoot, killing as many as 20 of their attackers, his comrades say. The enemy gunfire slowed. The Air Force bombing continued, providing cover for a withdrawal.
All the Americans survived.
