[ crickets chirping ]
Downloaded from YTS.MX
♫♫
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
REPORTER: We learned overnight
that at least three U. S. Special Forces
were killed in an ambush in the African country of Niger.
REPORTER #2: Officials say a joint U. S. Nigerien patrol
was ambushed by suspected Islamic militants
near the Mali border.
REPORTER #3: The names
of the American Special Forces soldiers
is being withheld,
subject to next‐of‐kin notifications.
MAN ON TV: You must not draw
until that clock makes the first chime of the hour.
Once that happens, you may fire at your convenience.
ARNOLD: I was sitting here watching TV.
It was like 10:30 at night,
and somebody knocked on the door.
I didn´t know who it was, so I got up
and I went to the door and I opened the door.
And I want to say it was a captain and a master sergeant.
They were in dress blues, and I knew.
I just said, "No, no, no."
♫♫
I mean, I just knew because they don´t show up
at 10:30 at night unless he´s dead.
♫♫
[ sighs ]
TERRI: "Attached for your review and action,
this US‐AFRICOM´s completed investigation conducted..."
‐ "...pursuant to Army Regulation 15.6..."
‐ "...and to the facts and circumstances surrounding..."
‐ "...the enemy contact event that occurred..."
‐ "...on 4 October 2017..."
‐ "...in Tongo Tongo, Niger."
♫♫
[ gunfire ]
♫♫
[ gunfire continues ]
♫♫
[ gunfire continues ]
♫♫
[ crickets chirping ]
ARNOLD: My first thought was "What the hell happened?"
And it was like I got shot or something.
I mean, it was like my insides just went empty.
I almost fell down.
The master sergeant, he said, "You´re number one on the list.
Number two is Will."
And so I came to Will´s house.
WILL: At about 11:30 that night,
two officers showed up,
and, uh, they told me,
"On behalf of a grateful nation, we regret to inform you
that your brother has been killed in action."
♫♫
ARNOLD: And then Will drove all the way to Brunswick,
which is about 90 miles away, to tell Dustin´s mom.
♫♫
TERRI: It was the worst day of my life.
♫♫
Opening that door and seeing Will
and Mandy and my mom and my sister standing there.
And in that instant,
I knew that something was wrong.
But it took me a minute to get it.
♫♫
It really took me a minute.
All I can say is, "No."
"No."
♫♫
[ train whistle blowing, bell ringing ]
REPORTER #4: Tonight, we are getting no details
beyond this statement
that U. S. forces have come under hostile fire
in this area of southwest Niger near the border with Mali.
They are not offering any other details.
We will stay on this story...
KAREN: I had come home from work and sat down in the living room,
kind of do, you know, the little relaxing kind of thing
and check the news.
And while I was on my phone,
a little news alert popped in
that there was an incident that, um, had just happened in Nigeria
along the Mali border.
And it was like, "Uh‐oh,"
and that got my ‐‐ my, uh, attention
and, uh, I had a real bad feeling.
HENRY: Karen called me at work.
She said that something had happened in Niger.
And I said, "Okay," and, uh, hung up.
I went to a friend of mine there.
I said, "Hey, my son´s deployed, and we heard about something.
Pray for my son."
And then Karen called me at whatever time it was
to say that she had gotten, uh, the knock on the door.
♫♫
KAREN: There´s nothing really to say.
I mean, at that point, it´s shock.
You just...
I don´t really even remember reaction.
♫♫
HENRY: I couldn´t leave till the next morning,
and so I spent, uh, just a grief‐filled...
grief‐filled night.
Just ‐‐ just unimaginable...
thoughts.
♫♫
[ bell tolling ]
REPORTER #5: The three Green Berets who were killed
and the two wounded
were on a patrol with the Niger soldiers
when they were ambushed. It is not clear...
REPORTER #6: The American soldiers
were part of a Green Beret battalion
called the Bush Hawks, assigned to train
and assist the Nigerien army in fighting terror.
‐ Did the biscuits get in?
Two piece, dirty rice, mac and cheese.
I was at work.
Morning was going normal and somebody turned around
and said, "Debbie, your husband´s here."
And I went, "No, he´s not. He´s in Texas."
Okay.
Somebody else said, "No, Deb, your husband´s here."
I turned around and saw him
and my mother´s health isn´t that good.
So I looked at him and I thought,
"He´s only home if it´s my mother or my son."
And this may sound terrible, but I was thinking,
"God, let it be my mother."
And as I got closer to him,
I could tell by the look on his face,
it wasn´t my mother.
♫♫
I told him he was lying to me.
That couldn´t be Jeremiah. He was too good.
There had to be a mistake.
♫♫
MYESHIA: My dad called me,
and he was like, "Hey, babe, where you at?"
I said, "Oh, I´m out.
I´m doing some errands for auntie really fast.
What happened?"
He said, "Because the Army people at the house for you."
I said, "What?"
He said, "The Army people at the house for you."
I said, "Okay, I´m coming right now. I´m coming right now."
♫♫
We get there.
They tell me, um...
that they was in, um, a rapid gunfight.
And as of October 4th,
Sergeant La David Johnson´s whereabouts is unknown.
I asked him, I said, "What you mean ´unknown´
Like, you can´t find him, you don´t know where he at?"
They told me, "No."
After that, I couldn´t eat, I couldn´t sleep,
I couldn´t do anything,
I´m just sitting here wondering about,
"Where is my husband?"
"They gonna find him."
That´s what I´m saying to myself.
They gonna find him. They gonna find him.
Then I get a call saying that, um,
they have an American soldier
and they are willing to do a trade
or something like that.
MEEK: For who? ‐ They didn´t say for who.
They just said they willing to do a trade.
In my mind, they still didn´t find my husband.
I don´t know what´s going on.
So any little thing that somebody tells me,
I´m thinking, "Could this be my husband?
Could this be my husband?"
‐ If I can go back and figure out
who gave them that first report,
I´d fucking choke the shit out of them.
I mean, it´s just ‐‐
It´s egregious that somebody would share
that unconfirmed report
with them and...
Unconscionable that the family would be given
conflicting statements.
‐ I didn´t hear anything else
until my casualty assistance officer
came to my home October 6th.
And he told me, as of October 6th,
Sergeant Johnson went from missing in action to KIA.
Everybody went bananas.
I was screaming and crying.
My mother‐in‐law was throwing, um, glasses
and screaming and crying.
She falling on the floor, just throwing things.
COWANDA: Aunt Rachel used to always say,
Lord, please take her before you take one of her children
because she´s gonna go insane.
October 6, 2017,
was the day I think I went insane.
REPORTER #7: The Pentagon´s Africa Command
does not know for sure
if this American soldier was wounded
and alive on the battlefield
and if he was even, for a brief time, in ISIS hands.
MEEK: Did that phone call, the memory of that,
sort of leave you with lingering doubt
about whether La David was captured?
And today, do you think he was captured
or have you been convinced that he died fighting?
‐ At that moment, yes, I believed that...
I felt that my husband was captured.
REPORTER #7: This is a serious incident.
Very little information being publicly offered
by the U. S. military.
‐ It was a very frustrating time for me
and I think for everybody in the Pentagon
to not have a clear
and really, um...
♫♫
...we felt accurate description
of what had transpired on the ground.
I served 28 years on active duty
as an Army Special Forces officer
and most recently served as a senior civilian executive
in the Office of Secretary of Defense.
♫♫
I was recognized for my actions during the 4‐day battle
to retake the fortress at Qala‐i‐Jangi...
[ gunfire ]
...which had been seized
by 600 Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners.
[ gunfire continues, explosion ]
SOLDIER: [ shouts indistinctly ]
MARK: I received the Distinguished Service Cross.
On October 4, 2017,
I was the acting Assistant Secretary
for Special Operations.
I think there were multiple factors
that contributed to the, um, inability
to get a complete picture early on.
First of all, the fog of war
certainly contributes at the tactical level,
but there seemed to be a reluctance
to share the full scope of everything that was going on.
REPORTER #8: The week ended the same way it began ‐‐
with questions about why President Trump
still hasn´t addressed the ambush in Niger.
‐ Thank you all very much.
REPORTER #8: The Pentagon has launched a full investigation.
FBI agents on the ground in Niger to assist.
DAVID MUIR: In a rare moment today,
the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Joseph Dunford,
coming before the cameras after the President today
would not answer questions sent his way.
‐ I think first and foremost, in this particular case,
we owe the families as much information as we can find out
about what happened.
REPORTER #8: On the Hill, frustration is growing.
REPORTER #9: Members of Congress are now asking
whether this was a failure of intelligence or preparation.
MICHAEL WALTZ: Even if there were mistakes,
if there were mistakes from the team
or there were mistakes in the chain of command,
the families deserve the truth.
I mean, I think that´s truly the heart of the issue here.
The families deserve the facts of what happened.
RAY: We asked, "What exactly went wrong?
Why did these four men lose their lives?"
And no one would give us an answer.
♫♫
MEEK: I spent years investigating
the friendly‐fire death in Iraq
of Private First Class David H. Sharrett II
with his dad, Dave Sharrett Sr.,
who was my high school English teacher.
In 2018, Dave and his wife, Vicki,
went down to a retreat in Tennessee
for families of fallen service members,
and they met Ray and Debbie Gannon,
who approached them and said,
"Our son was killed a few months ago in Niger.
We don´t think the Army is leveling with us.
We don´t know what to do."
So, Dave said, "Talk to my former student James."
And he put them on the phone with me.
And we talked and I told them
that I had had concerns since the incident
in Tongo Tongo happened that the full truth
was not being told to the American public.
And so I promised Jeremiah Johnson´s mother, Debbie Gannon,
that I would not rest until I knew what was knowable.
♫♫
BRAD: Thank you for joining us today
in remembrance of our fallen brothers.
My name is Colonel Brad Moses.
I´m the 3rd group commander.
On 4 October, Team Quallam and their Nigerien partners
were attacked by an enemy that didn´t want them
to make this small spot in the world a better place.
MEEK: When did you first feel
like there was something wrong with the story?
Or when was the first moment when you were like,
"Whoa, wait a minute"?
COWANDA: When Colonel Moses came in,
and from the time he starts talking,
it just seemed to me everything was a lie.
Because I had already had someone already came
and spoke to me about another story.
So I´m thinking when he came,
it was gonna be exact same story that I heard before,
but it was totally the opposite.
Colonel Moses told me
that La David was in the back of the truck.
The truck hit the tree.
And La David ‐‐ He said that La David flew 900 meters
and wind up in the bushes.
[ laughing ] Yes.
So I looked at him and I told him,
"You must think I´m really... I´m really crazy
to believe a story like that."
‐ Just stuff that they said didn´t add up at all.
Everybody came telling me different things.
First day, um, Moses came to my auntie house,
sat on a couch saying
that my husband, um, was on the back of the truck
shooting a machine rifle.
They hit a tree. He flew off.
Then he say he was the one driving the truck.
So which one was it?
Did he hit the tree and flew off
or was he driving the truck?
Everybody was just saying anything
because they know that mission went horribly wrong.
And it was gonna be a lot of fingers to point and to blame.
‐ The ODA caught in a near ambush,
made a decision to plant their feet and fight.
MEEK: Colonel Moses refused to do an on‐camera interview,
but he denied to me on the phone
that he ever gave conflicting information
to the Johnson family regarding La David´s death.
However, the first and most consistent thing
I was told by all the family members
was that they, too, had received dubious
or conflicting information from the military.
WILL: The immediate report
was that he had been killed in combat
and it had been by mortar fire.
Mortar fire was the explanation for his death.
I didn´t have any reason to think otherwise,
but I viewed his body.
I served for seven years and saw my share.
And what a mortar does to the human body ‐‐
shrapnel and fire ‐‐ is a lot different
and is much more graphic and ‐‐ and sinister
than small‐arms fire.
And he was not charred flesh.
He was a man who had stood his ground and fallen
by small‐arms‐fire bullets riddling his body.
So the autopsy report was where it really started clicking
that something didn´t add up.
DEBBIE: I had a gut feeling when I heard all this
from the very beginning that something wasn´t right.
I had already been somewhat speaking with, uh...
Dustin´s family,
and what they were being told and what we were being told
were two different things.
And I´m thinking, "Well, Dustin and Jeremiah were side by side,
so there can´t be different stories."
And that´s when I´m going,
"Now I know we´re being lied to."
‐ And that´s the only damn thing I asked him to do
from the very beginning.
Just tell me the truth.
♫♫
TERRI: Everybody knows Afghanistan.
Everybody knows Syria.
Everybody knows those places.
They don´t know about Niger, Africa.
I didn´t realize that...
we even needed troops there.
DEBBIE: I never thought
there was anything going on over there.
Absolutely nothing.
Never heard it on the news,
never saw anything that was going on over there.
Had no idea we had troops over there.
MYESHIA: I used to always tell him,
"Make sure you stay alert.
You know, don´t let your guard down with nothing."
And he reassure me. He was like,
"No, My, it´s not nothing like that.
You know, we´re just going over here to train
the African soldiers and stuff like that."
And I ain´t think nothing about ISIS
and stuff over there coming to get him.
No. That was the least of my worries.
♫♫
ALAN: Having been in Iraq and Afghanistan previously,
there´s just a different mindset in Niger.
But I would never fool myself
and think nothing could happen in West Africa.
We know why we were there.
I joined the Army because I wanted to serve others.
I wanted to make a difference in the world.
I do not come from a military family.
I think most of my military influence
came from too many movies as a child,
probably watched "Rambo" one too many times.
And I´m not afraid to admit that.
As a Special Forces Detachment Commander,
when I was a captain leading a 12‐man team
in both eastern Afghanistan and southern Afghanistan,
we saw quite a bit of combat.
In Niger,
I was the advanced operations base Niger commander.
We were partnered with Nigerien forces.
We were there to work with them because there was a very real
and active threat in West Africa
in the form of both Al Qaeda affiliates
and Islamic State affiliates,
not to mention some other ones,
kind of an alphabet soup of threat forces out there.
[ all yelling in foreign language ]
♫♫
[ horns honking ]
MOUSSA: The biggest problem now is this area
near the Malian border.
These guys are very mobile.
They move on motorcycles, land cruisers.
Any time we have an encounter with them,
we will just try to [inaudible] and then cross the border.
In normal time, you don´t see them in large group.
So just like scattered in villages, you know,
they have those small camps
that only will group to conduct an attack.
‐ Surprise to us, we still can´t get towards the enemy.
Let´s go to Quallam.
‐ Yeah.
Stabilizing this part of the world
is part of the overall global, like, uh,
fight against, uh, evil.
[ explosion ]
♫♫
DONALD: This environment in Africa is no joke.
It is just like Afghanistan, just like Syria, just like Iraq,
but it doesn´t get the resourcing
because it´s not a combat environment, right?
But it is a combat environment.
And so stop putting lipstick on the pig.
It is what it is.
[ all yelling in foreign language ]
DONALD: Most foreign fighters
that joined the fight in Afghanistan,
Iraq, and Syria and other places come from North Africa.
They´re all now starting to come back.
Most of the designated what they call terrorist groups,
um, by the State Department reside in Africa.
♫♫
ALAN: Alright, so we´re getting ready
to fly out to see Team Quallam.
This will be my first time out
to see the guys since we´ve gotten here.
People are familiar with the show "The A‐Team."
"The A‐Team" is modeled off of an ODA,
an Operational Detachment Alpha,
a 12‐man Special Forces team.
[ helicopter blades whirring ]
As a major in Special Forces,
my ODAs included ODA 3212.
I´m coming to check out the barbershop.
I heard good things.
Who´s next?
‐ You, sir. ‐ I´m good.
I got mine in the capital the other day.
La David Johnson stood out to me
as the soldier´s soldier.
He...
He like ‐‐ like all good mechanics,
he was the jack‐of‐all‐trades.
He could fix anything.
When you´re not cutting hair,
what are your other, uh, camp duties around here?
‐ Finding stuff to do, like make sure my truck´s good,
making sure my generator´s good,
like regular maintenance on the daily.
SOLDIER: Hey. Hey.
SOLDIER #2: There you go. There you go.
SOLDIER #1: Hey!
ALAN: La David was a kind‐hearted person
who would give you the shirt off his back
in a rainstorm.
He would help anybody who needed it.
♫♫
COWANDA: Sergeant La David Johnson´s mom passed
when he was 5 years old.
I am his auntie, I´m married to his uncle,
which made me become his auntie/mom.
‐ Yeah, I´m his uncle, you know what I mean?
But I raised him as my son.
He was always a spiritual kid,
and he always told us, we need to be more grateful.
He always said that we more blessed
than a lot of people that we don´t see.
‐ He was sweet, he was kind, and he always was creative.
He always found something to do.
He never was a kid just sit in the house.
Like kids nowadays...never.
♫♫
MYESHIA: They call him the Wheelie King
because down here in Miami,
he´s known for riding his bike with one wheel.
REPORTER #10: His name is La David Johnson.
He rides from his home in Miami Gardens
to his job in Pembroke Pines on one wheel.
MYESHIA: He even was on the news for it.
So he was very known in our city.
YOUNG MAN: My homie, he do a catwalk
from here to West Broward with no wheel on the front.
That´s crazy, man.
‐ We love you, David.
LA DAVID: Love y´all, too, man.
♫♫
COWANDA: Our block, we had a good block,
but around us, it was a lot of killing.
And I think that he thought maybe if he get out,
he could have a better life for himself.
‐ He see me grind it out all my life.
And he was just saying, "There got to be a better way."
I would ask him, "Why you don´t try and go to the military?"
He´d be like, "I´ve been thinking about that."
I was like, "You should go."
♫♫
REPORTER #11: A community coming together to honor a local hero.
Today Puyallup remembers Staff Sergeant Bryan Black.
Black graduated from Puyallup High School in 2000
and enlisted nine years later.
He spoke several languages,
including the one spoken in Niger,
where he often tended to injured civilians.
A man they say...
ALAN: Bryan Black, one of the smartest man I´ve ever met.
Extremely cerebral.
There´s always something on his mind.
But he was so cool and calm
that he knew just when to speak his mind.
And when he did, you knew you were wrong.
KAREN: I knew something was different the day he was born.
When I held him right after he was born,
he immediately pushed up against me
and did his first push‐up
and literally looked around the room.
And it´s like, "Infants that just were born
don´t do that."
And that pretty much is what persisted
throughout his entire childhood.
Always having the strong determination
to do whatever it is he wanted to do.
HENRY: I remember the first year when he was playing chess.
He didn´t win many, uh, games that year.
And I remember ‐‐
It may have been the last tournament of the season ‐‐
and he went out in the parking lot.
He sat on a curb and he was really mad.
And I went and talked to him, sat down.
I said, "Look, if you study and work at it,
you´re gonna be good."
And he did the whole summer and next year,
he, uh, won just about every chess tournament he played in.
♫♫
ALAN: Jeremiah Johnson was a new member of the team
and had previously been at my company headquarters.
He had the instincts of the perfect soldier.
DEBBIE: He was just about like any other little boy,
outside running around all the time.
He broke a couple of bones and didn´t even whine about it.
He´d just come home and go, "This hurts."
JENNIFER: Jeremiah was the fucking badass.
There´s just no other way around that.
He was just a badass.
He was scared of nothing.
♫♫
Growing up, he was a pain in the butt,
but he was also a hero and a protector.
♫♫
You know, military kids, you move around,
people would pick on us, and he would always defend me.
Being younger ‐‐ three, almost three years younger ‐‐
he would still defend me.
RAY: When we first met, Jeremiah was about 16.
And, you know, we got together and I told him
I was ‐‐ I was gonna ask his mother to marry me.
And, uh, he said,
"Well, you know, I don´t think I´ll ever call you dad."
I said, "I understand that. You already have a father."
I said, "But, uh, you know, if I could just be your friend
and mentor, that´d be ‐‐ that´d suit me fine."
And over the years, I became Pops.
And it did my heart good.
DEBBIE: He, uh, joined the Army at a late age.
That kind of shocked us.
He wanted to do his part.
He wanted to serve his country.
He wanted to do what he could to, uh,
take care of the terrorists that were out there.
‐ I remember very clearly the day he told me
he wanted to join the Army.
I said, "Why?
You are 29 years old. Why now?"
He said, "Because I want to legally kill people
and blow shit up."
I swear to God.
And I went, "Alrighty, that works."
♫♫
‐ Well, this is how we set the charge.
‐ This will not make the final cut.
‐ Tom Hanks in, uh, "Saving Private Ryan."
This should make the final cut. ‐ There you go.
ALAN: Dustin Wright.
Dusty could walk into a crowd of a thousand people
and within an hour, be best friends with all of them.
DUSTIN: I actually like this kind of stuff.
I mean, anybody can shoot a gun. You know?
Demo is something else.
It´s a lot more fun.
[ explosion ]
Mission success.
♫♫
ARNOLD: Our whole family served.
My granddaddy and his four brothers
were in World War II.
My grandmother´s three brothers were in World War II.
Our family goes back to the War of 1812.
WILL: We had a family member in service at any point
through constant engagement since that war.
And to our knowledge,
we´ve never lost anyone except for Dustin.
When I think about Dustin,
it´s my best friend and he´s half my soul.
We nailed it as brothers.
♫♫
We had a blessing that most people don´t get.
We had each other through thick and thin.
TERRI: He and Will were always together.
They didn´t go a day without speaking.
Just not one day.
♫♫
‐ So I haven´t told him yet
about him having a‐a niece.
So that´s what, um, I wanted to come out here
and talk to him about today because I don´t know
what I´m gonna do with a little girl.
[ laughs ]
Them damn Wright boys.
Little spice and trouble and meanness
and a whole ‐‐ whole lot of fighting,
but end of the day,
a whole lot of love, too.
To Dustin.
I love you, brother.
♫♫
[ Man singing in foreign language ]
♫♫
MEEK: Five months after the gunfight in Tongo Tongo,
ISIS in West Africa claimed responsibility for the attack.
They released a propaganda video,
which included clips
from Jeremiah Johnson´s helmet cam,
which they took off his body.
[ gunfire ]
The video shows the final desperate minutes of battle
from Bryan, Jeremiah, Dustin alone around their vehicle,
exchanging heavy fire with the enemy.
[ gunfire continues ]
♫♫
REPORTER #12: Newly released video shows the deadly ambush
of American soldiers and is raising new questions
about the U. S. military mission
in the African country of Niger.
REPORTER #13: It shows just how outgunned
and overwhelmed they were.
♫♫
THOMAS: Good afternoon, everyone.
We are here this afternoon to brief you
on the findings of U. S. Africa Command´s investigation
into the ambush of U. S. and Nigerien soldiers
near the Tongo ‐‐ near Tongo Tongo, Niger,
in early October 2017,
and also to answer your questions.
Before we begin, however,
I would like to extend my deepest condolences
to the families and loved ones of those lost in this attack.
Our commitment, first and foremost,
has been to provide a complete accounting to the families.
I would like to talk with you in greater detail
about the preparedness of Team Quallam to conduct,
partnered, advise, assist and accompany operations
on 3 and 4 October.
The investigation discovered the integration and training
with partnered forces in Niger was inadequate.
Team Quallam did not meet the appropriate standards
of familiarization and integration
with the Nigerien Partner Force
prior to conducting the initial mission on 3 October.
In addition, routine tasks such as conducting rehearsals
for immediate action drills upon enemy contact
were not completed prior to stepping off for this mission.
The team did not conduct those basic soldier‐level skills
that would ‐‐ that are really necessary
to go on an operation such as this.
REPORTER #14: So in layman´s terms,
how would you characterize this?
Are they sloppy or are they cowboys?
Are they taking too much risk?
What would you tell the American people about this?
How would you characterize your behavior?
‐ The special operators on the continent are serving well.
They do high‐risk missions and based on my observations,
this particular ‐‐ this particular team
is not indicative of what they do.
KAREN: That was infuriating to me, and it´s like,
"Oh, my gosh."
I didn´t even finish listening to the news conference.
I turned it off.
I couldn´t stand to even look at him after I heard that.
It´s like, "How can you possibly say that?"
‐ I think it´s an unfair characterization of an ODA
that found itself in a bad situation
and did the best that they could.
And to say that they weren´t indicative,
I just don´t think it´s a fair characterization
of ‐‐ of the ‐‐ the men on that detachment.
‐ It stung.
It hurt... really bad to hear that
because it was clear
that a statement like that was protecting the command
and, in a way, trying to protect the community
while badmouthing a team
that had the odds overwhelmingly stacked against them.
‐ Those briefings,
I thought, were embarrassing briefings.
‐ Infuriating, unbelievable
to ‐‐ to literally say these
about my stepson and his comrades.
I mean, it, uh, just besmirches their memory.
MEEK: General Waldhauser.
General Waldhauser, ABC News.
General, your public comments
about the team and its competence,
which you said they were not indicative
of other special operators
who are doing great work on the continent.
That´s what they had ‐‐ ‐ Correct.
MEEK: They said that was hurtful
to the families of the fallen. They told us that.
‐ Well, it wasn´t intended to be hurtful
to the families of the fallen.
The intent was to make that the special operations forces
have difficult missions on the continent.
They carry them out every day
and to try to highlight some of the shortcomings
that the investigation found
with regards to contributing factors
to the overall situation,
but it was never intended to be hurtful to the families.
MEEK: Thank you for your time.
‐ Thanks.
TERRI: Well, maybe he didn´t mean to hurt us, but he did.
And not just as a gold star mother who´s lost a child,
but as an American.
Why would you throw your people under the bus?
Why would you...
blame your men...
...who were following your orders
and who you´re responsible for?
♫♫
Doesn´t the buck stop with the leader?
Isn´t that why there´s a chain of command
and isn´t that why the chain of command is followed?
‐ But according to General Waldhauser,
ODA 3212 did not follow the chain of command.
He alleged that the team did not inform
their commanding officers of the true intent of their mission.
‐ The investigation also found the team
inaccurately portrayed the concept of operations
for the first of three total missions
on 3 and 4 October.
Mark: If I were to summarize the report in one sentence,
it said that the ODA was ill‐prepared
and conducting an unauthorized mission.
‐ Not only did General Waldhauser suggest
that ODA 3212 was relatively incompetent,
he went on to claim that this team of Green Berets
left base under false pretenses to try to capture or kill
one of the most dangerous terrorists in the region ‐‐
A man named Doundou Chefou.
In effect, he accused the team of going on a rogue mission
for the ISIS commander´s scalp.
The Pentagon investigation
found the team´s commanders, two captains,
mischaracterized the initial mission,
claiming it was less dangerous than it really was.
ROGER: Had the first mission been properly characterized,
it would have been required to ‐‐ to be approved
at a higher level.
And by being approved at a higher level,
it would have received more oversight
from the chain of command.
‐We started to see press reports come out
that there was, you know, claims
that ODA 3212 decided on their own
that they would, um, institute a kill/capture mission
to one of the lieutenants of, uh, ISIS in Niger.
‐ That kind of narrative, as it started to leak out,
kind of gave me pause because something like this,
from what I understood,
was going after a, you know, a highly targeted,
well‐known terrorist commander
and would have had a lot of visibility.
So to think that the team could just kind of go rogue
on its own just didn´t make sense to me.
‐ I don´t buy the fact that the ODA submitted their plan,
and then at the last minute,
rolled over in their trucks to ‐‐ to the Nigeriens
and said, "Let´s go.
We´re ‐‐ We´ll tell you when we get there."
It doesn´t work like that. That´s not how we operate.
‐ Going after a high‐value target,
like this gentleman, is a top‐down process,
and it is top‐down approved.
It´s a 4‐star‐level approval con‐op.
You don´t ‐‐ You can´t get away with cutting and pasting
and, you know, getting in your trucks
and going, "Yeehaw," right? You just can´t do it.
‐ They don´t need to act like my son
was some kind of damn Rambo
out there on his own doing something.
Because all he was doing was what he was told,
and...he fought his ass off.
ALAN: On September 28, I left Niger
and went back to Fort Bragg, North Carolina,
where my pregnant wife and daughter
were waiting for me.
We went to the hospital on October 1st
for my wife to be induced,
and my second daughter was born
early in the morning on October 2nd.
♫♫
On the morning of October 4th,
we´re getting ready to be discharged.
I brought the car seat up, get the baby loaded up,
and my phone, uh, received a text message
and all it said was, "You need to come in to work.
Something has happened."
‐ Exactly what did happen is in dispute.
The United States Africa Command released their version
of the events in this 268‐page, heavily redacted report.
It´s a combination of facts
and what many people close to the investigation say
are omitted details and unsubstantiated opinion.
NARRATOR: The teams manning for this mission...
MEEK: Accompanying the report was a narrated video
with mission footage and animation
to support AFRICOM´s account
of what went wrong on the ill‐fated mission.
DEBBIE: "Team Quallam and partner forces
depart at Camp Quallam
at 5:59 on October 3rd, 2017,
traveling in a military convoy in a northwest direction."
NARRATOR: The teams´ U. S. soft personnel
traveled in three vehicles,
two of which were equipped with mounted M240 machine guns.
The 34 Nigerien personnel
traveled in five additional vehicles.
RAY: "The convoy continued from checkpoint one
in the northeastern direction for 43 kilometers,
arriving 5 miles south of Tiloa
on approximately ten hundred hours."
NARRATOR: The concept of operations
that was submitted for approval stated
that the purpose of the mission was to conduct a civil
and military reconnaissance in the vicinity of Tiloa.
MARK: The plan, submitted to higher headquarters,
called for them to do a patrol that would include a series
of what we call key leader engagements
to meet with local leaders,
discuss the situation on the ground,
and, if possible, find any intelligence leads
that the locals may be able to give them.
♫♫
NARRATOR: The mission plan did not accurately characterize
the intended purpose of the mission.
‐ From the beginning, everything was negative about the team.
Basically, what they said was the team leader lied
in the brief that he submitted to hire for the mission.
NARRATOR: The mission was, in fact,
to pinpoint the location of and capture
or, if necessary, kill the ISIS‐GS sub‐commander.
MARK: I have a really hard time believing that to be the case.
Doundou Chefou was identified
as a leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara,
and to say that the ODA went rogue
and not only the detachment commander,
but that the team sergeant
and all these other experienced NCOs
all agreed to go on a mission
to kill or capture Doundou Chefou
and just blatantly lie, it would be a big deal.
‐ A captain on an "A" team
does not have the authority or the power
to make those decisions.
‐ I didn´t have any inside information telling me all this,
but I just know, as an infantry man,
we would never do that.
We would never go on a rogue mission
outside the wire to track down somebody.
And so, it just did not smell truthful.
NARRATOR: Once in Tiloa, the team searched for
but could not successfully locate
the ISIS‐GS sub‐commander.
They conducted the rest of their mission
and began their return to base.
♫♫
MARK: The first mission had been completed.
They made it to Tiloa.
They checked on the Nigerien checkpoint that was out there
and the team was returning back to base in Quallam.
WILL: "At approximately 1700 hours on 3 October 2017,
Team Quallam´s convoy halted
approximately 5 kilometers south of..."
‐ "...in order to receive additional information
for a possible remission."
‐ Well, they go ‐‐ They headed back to base.
End of the day.
and, um, they got to change the mission.
NARRATOR: During the team´s return to base from Tiloa,
they received high‐confidence intelligence
that placed the ISIS‐GS sub‐commander
northwest of Tiloa, near the Mali border.
MARK: This is when they were redirected to go to a location
where the higher headquarters believe that Doundou Chefou,
or at least a cellphone associated with him,
had been present for the night.
NARRATOR: This time‐sensitive intelligence
gave the Nigerien and U. S. forces
a narrow window to capture him while he remained in Niger.
‐ At this point,
you have Colonel Brad Moses getting involved
and Lieutenant Colonel Painter getting involved.
MARK: Lieutenant Colonel Painter
was the Special Forces battalion commander,
and he was also, uh, the task force commander there
on the ‐‐ on the continent.
NARRATOR: The approved concept of operation
called for another U. S. and Nigerien partnered force
to clear the target, with the Quallam‐based team
serving as a quick reaction force.
MEEK: The new mission called
for a second, more seasoned ODA team
to fly in on helicopters
and raid the campsite of Doundou Chefou.
That´s the same ISIS commander who the team
was accused of going rogue to hunt down.
So at this point, ODA 3212,
also referred to as the Quallam‐based team,
is ordered to play a backup role.
Their job will be to reinforce their comrades if they need it.
[ thunder rumbling ]
NARRATOR: However, due to weather constraints,
the other team was forced to return to base.
RAY: The initial ODA coming from another part of Niger
couldn´t make it due to weather conditions,
and now the responsibility goes to Jeremiah´s team.
ARNOLD: Instead of ending the mission
and 3212 going back to camp,
they told them to continue without the other forces
being a part.
ALAN: Upon receipt of that directive,
Team Quallam´s mission changed from providing a flexible,
redacted force to capturing and detaining."
MEEK: Now, you might think that the team would be thrilled
to be the main reigning force.
After all, according to the AFRICOM report,
they had just set out on a rogue mission to do exactly that.
Have you ever seen that image?
ALAN: No, I´ve never seen this image.
But that´s Captain Mike Perozeni on a satellite phone
not looking happy, concerned.
MARK: Captain Perozeni was assigned
as the Special Forces detachment commander,
so he is the senior officer on that detachment
and is responsible for the conduct of all their operations.
MEEK: According to those who were there,
this is one of the moments when the detachment commander,
Captain Mike Perozeni,
was pushing back against the new orders.
He spoke to his command in satellite phone calls
and text messages,
telling them that to head north deep into unfamiliar desert
with no backup force available,
no possibility of speedy medical evacuation,
an exhausted Nigerien partner force,
and his own lightly armed team was needlessly risky.
TERRI: He protested vigorously is my understanding.
He knew that they weren´t...equipped.
He knew that that wasn´t their mission.
That´s not what they were there for.
‐ He objected because he knew that his unit
was not prepared to do this ‐‐ this new mission
because they left for a day trip,
not an overnight movement, and not to go fight somebody.
‐ In Mike Perozeni´s mind on the ground,
he´s identifying risk.
He was communicating back to the company headquarters
and ultimately back up to Lieutenant Colonel Painter
the risks that were involved from his standpoint
on the ground.
‐ Now, deep in the highly censored AFRICOM report,
they do acknowledge that Captain Perozeni
tried to have the mission scrubbed.
WILL: "In order to conduct this raid,
Team Quallam and their partner force
would have to move an additional 25 kilometers north
through difficult terrain under limited visibility.
Given that distance to travel..."
‐ "...and the fact that his partner force
have been up for over 18 hours, redacted expressed to redacted
his preference that the force return to base."
ARNOLD: "...redacted relayed redacted´s preference
to redacted."
MARK: "...but redacted directed that redacted
move to objective north and conduct the raid."
ALAN: I highly doubt
that Mike politely, uh, expressed a "preference"
as it said in the investigation of ‐‐ of his concerns.
Mike will speak his mind.
Mike, uh, will not hold anything back,
and so I have no doubt that he expressed those concerns.
‐ The U. S. Special Forces commander for Northwest Africa
was Lieutenant Colonel David Painter,
who was hundreds of miles away in Chad,
and he overruled Captain Perozeni´s objections.
Colonel Brad Moses,
the 3rd Special Forces group commander based in Germany,
also was informed of the changes to mission
and that Perozeni and ODA 3212
were now going to be the main force raiding the campsite.
But Colonel Moses told me that Lieutenant Colonel Painter
did not tell him about Captain Perozeni´s objections
to going forward.
He says had he known about the captain´s concerns
about the mission, he would have called him directly.
DEBBIE: They were told to go anyway.
They didn´t care that there was no backup for those boys.
‐ The way I operated as a ‐‐ as commander of SOC Africa was,
my guys on the ground tell me what they´re going to do
and what they´re not going to do, right,
based off of the risk.
And the captain tells me ‐‐
a team leader on the ground tells me ‐‐
"Hey, sir." Or it comes up through the chain.
"No way. This is just ‐‐
I just don´t feel comfortable with it."
Then the brake goes on hard.
MEEK: I guess one big question that comes to mind with all this
is if your captain had come up with this plan
and "We´re gonna ‐‐ We´re gonna make our bones.
We´re gonna make our careers.
We´re gonna go kill this guy or capture him
and we´ll be the heroes,"
or whatever their motives would have been,
if Africa command was correct,
that that´s what they were doing from the start,
if all that was true,
why would this guy, Captain Mike Perozeni,
object to searching his target´s campsite?
ALAN: It makes no sense.
Why would he push back now
if he was supposedly on board at the very front?
Why would he be issuing or expressing concerns
about not being equipped or prepared
if that was his intent all along?
MEEK: Not only did Captain Perozeni
object to the missions assigned in the field,
he first voiced concerns before his team
even left their base in Quallam.
ALAN: The people in my company headquarters
knew that Mike pushed back.
So why that wasn´t shared with the families,
I´ll never know, but I will say there´s no reason
it should not have been shared with the families.
‐ I was left with the impression that this guy was a screw‐up.
And he screwed up and carried my son off and got him killed
because that´s what I was led to believe.
And I think that´s probably the biggest injustice
was I walked around pissed off for a year
and my anger was directed toward somebody
that was completely innocent of what they told me he did.
HENRY: It´s clear that if he had been listened to,
my son and Jeremiah,
La David, and Dustin would be here today.
MARK: The only reason why they would accuse Captain Perozeni
and the team of lying and mischaracterizing
is to somehow absolve the chain of command above them
and basically say because they went out under false pretenses,
they put themselves in a bad situation
and are therefore responsible for what happened.
‐ There´s no way ‐‐
Like I say, anybody with any common sense
would be headed back to base
and then all of a sudden decide to turn around
and go six hours the other way in the middle of the night.
NARRATOR: Through the night of October 3rd,
the team made the difficult movement north to the target.
MARK: They traveled from late afternoon
till early the next morning to get to the position.
NARRATOR: On the morning of October 4th,
the team reached the objective at sunrise,
but the enemy had already departed the area.
The team discovered enemy rations,
a motorcycle, drying uniforms, and warm fire pits.
RAY: This campsite was abandoned.
Nothing there to speak of.
And that they were just gonna go off
looking for trash and pocket litter.
ALAN: In the middle of the desert,
there is nothing urgent enough
to send an improperly supplied element
that far out into the desert.
NARRATOR: After completing the mission near the Mali border,
the team was directed by AOB Niger to return to base.
♫♫
RAY: While returning to base,
Team Quallam´s partner, Nigerien forces, needed water,
so the convoy stopped
near the village of Tongo Tongo to resupply.
NARRATOR: As the team waited,
they conducted an impromptu key leader engagement
with the village elder.
During the key leader engagement,
team members met with leaders and 27 men of the village.
The meeting lasted about 30 minutes longer
than the team commander expected.
WILL: "Witnesses believe the village owner
deliberately delayed the convoy from departing in an effort
to allow the enemy time to set up the ambush."
NARRATOR: At 11:35 hours,
the team moved out of the village
of Tongo Tongo on their planned route.
HENRY: "The convoy traveled southeast
along the eastern edge of the village.
Shortly thereafter,
a villager approaching the village from the tree line
to the east directed the convoy down a road,
which appeared to cut through the wood line
due east from Tongo Tongo."
ARNOLD: "As the convoy moved through the narrow road
between two wood lines,
the vehicles to the rear of the convoy
began to receive small‐arms fire."
[ gunfire ]
NARRATOR: At this point, the convoy halted.
The team reported enemy contact to the advanced operating base
and returned small‐arms fire.
DEBBIE: "I was starting to pick back up even more.
I could see Jeremiah, Dustin, Bryan
shooting their M4s at muzzle flashes
and suspected likely enemy locations."
MEEK: After the first shots were fired,
most of the three dozen Nigerien troops with the ODA fled,
leaving less than a dozen to fight out the battle
alongside the American team.
RAY: "Realizing then
that the team was significantly outnumbered
by a well‐trained force,
Team Quallam´s commander ordered everyone to break contact
and to withdraw to the south."
NARRATOR: As the rest of the team
loaded into their vehicles,
they saw Staff Sergeants Bryan Black, Jeremiah Johnson,
and Dustin Wright in the vicinity of U. S. vehicle 2.
The team commander signaled to begin movement,
and Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Johnson
acknowledged the order with a thumbs‐up.
A team member threw a smoke grenade
to conceal the team´s movement.
MEEK: No one knows exactly what happened,
why U. S. vehicle 2 with Bryan, Dustin, and Jeremiah
did not follow the rest of the team out of the kill zone.
But now they were alone.
A large attacking force descended upon them.
[ gunfire ]
WILL: Staff Sergeant Wright began driving U. S. vehicle 2
slowly south,
while Staff Sergeant Black
and Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Johnson
walked along next to the vehicle,
providing suppressive fire.
HENRY: "During the movement, enemy small‐arms fire
hit Staff Sergeant Black, killing him instantly."
♫♫
[ gunfire ]
♫♫
RAY: We saw Bryan Black fall first.
Watch Dustin and Jeremiah pull him back to safety,
realizing that Bryan had lost his life.
Jeremiah and Dustin tried to leave the area.
[ gunfire ]
But there was no, uh,
no support fire from the other team members.
They were just left to fend for themselves.
[ gunfire ]
♫♫
DEBBIE: "Overrun by enemy fighters,
Staff Sergeant Wright
and Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Johnson
were forced to evade on foot.
Approximately 85 meters from the vehicle,
enemy small‐arms fire
hit Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Johnson..."
"...severely wounding him."
♫♫
TERRI: "Staff Sergeant Wright stopped,
returned to Staff Sergeant J. Johnson
and continued to engage the enemy..."
‐ "...attempting to protect Staff Sergeant Johnson,
Staff Sergeant Wright fired his M4
at the enemy as they advanced on his position
until he was fatally wounded.
The enemy killed both soldiers with small‐arms fire."
♫♫
WILL: I know what it took to take him down.
And I´m proud of it.
It makes me want to strap on my boots and go back.
It does.
I have no problem with how he went.
I´m ‐‐ I´m jealous.
That´s ‐‐ It´s crazy, but as a warrior, I´m jealous.
He ‐‐ He fought more than 10 men could fight.
Till his dying breath.
He did it for love.
He did it for the man standing next to him, so...
I don´t have an issue with that at all.
♫♫
MEEK: The team quickly realized
that Bryan and Jeremiah and Dustin
had not followed them.
Four of the Green Berets
went off on foot to try to find them
but were pinned down by heavy fire.
The remainder of the team and their vehicles
were forced to withdraw again,
but this time La David and two Nigerien soldiers
were lost in the chaos.
NARRATOR:: Believing Sergeant Johnson
was in control of his vehicle,
the driver of U. S. vehicle 1
accelerated hard to the northwest.
MYESHIA: "Sergeant La David Johnson
and the two Nigerien soldiers
were unable to get into their vehicle
and with enemy forces rapidly closing on their position,
they were forced to evade on foot."
NARRATOR: The Nigerien soldiers were killed
with small‐arms fire.
roughly 400 meters from position 2.
MYESHIA: "Sergeant La David Johnson continued to evade,
running west for an additional 450 meters
before eventually seeking cover under a thorny tree.
Sergeant La David Johnson fired his U. S. M4 weapon
a total of five times on advancing enemy
before being killed."
♫♫
‐ The rest of 3212 had no idea that La David,
Bryan, Jeremiah, and Dustin had been killed,
along with four Nigerien soldiers
and a Nigerien civilian contractor.
Two other members of the team had been wounded,
including Captain Perozeni, who was shot in the side.
The six Americans and four Nigeriens remaining
were down to a total of 60 rounds of ammunition.
They made a desperate call on their radio ‐‐ broken arrow,
which is a term that goes back to the Vietnam War
and means essentially all hope is lost.
MARK: "With enemy vehicles fast approaching,
Team Quallam and the Nigerien partners realized
their unit was being overwhelmed and radioed higher headquarters
for the first time since the initial contact."
MEEK: Captain Perozeni texted frantic messages
to his headquarters, saying...
And two U. S. commanders in Niger that day told me
that dozens of Special Forces soldiers
were eager to fly to Tongo Tongo to save ODA 3212.
‐ One of those ODAs
had helicopters at their disposal,
immediately got in the air
and started flying in the direction of Tongo Tongo
because they were fighting tooth and nail
to get in there and help their brothers.
They radioed back to Lieutenant Colonel Painter
to receive permission to go in, and multiple times were denied.
MEEK: Lieutenant Colonel Painter was the same officer
who, the night before,
had denied Captain Perozeni´s request
to return to base.
MARK: At 14:58, a French Mirage fighter jet
made a show of force
by flying over the troops in contact site at a low altitude.
The enemy broke contact
and departed the area after the show of force.
ALAN: The French were the ones, at the end of the day,
who came in as the quick‐reaction force
and ‐‐ and rescued the ODA.
And that really frustrated and ‐‐ and pissed off the guys
who were sitting there at Quallam
with helicopters ready to go
and to this day does not sit well with a lot of the guys.
ARNOLD: "French forces evacuated
the surviving members of Team Quallam
from the battlefield."
‐ The deaths of the four Special Forces soldiers
and the failure to even rescue their own men
from the battlefield was a huge embarrassment.
And in spite of what AFRICOM claimed,
there was little or no evidence at all
that the team had gone rogue as they were accused of.
In fact, Captain Mike Perozeni
pushed back against the superior officers twice,
which begs the question ‐‐
Why were the captain´s concerns overruled?
What was driving his immediate chain of command
to push ODA 3212 forward
against the team´s better judgment?
And did a mysterious additional vehicle,
which joined the convoy as they left base
on October 3rd, factor in to that decision?
I´ve confirmed with intelligence officials
that what was identified in the AFRICOM animations
simply as a 3‐man Nigerien reconnaissance team
and a truck they labeled Nigerien vehicle number 3
was, in fact, a team
of Nigerien CIA operatives.
It´s not at all uncommon for CIA operatives
who are going into dangerous areas
to be in the company of U. S. Special Forces soldiers.
But because of the top‐secret nature of their work,
it´s not always clear to the troops they´re operating with
what or who they´re looking for.
In this case, the American trained and outfitted operatives
were carrying a sophisticated device
which can covertly lock onto and track a cellphone signal.
And with it, we have learned,
they were the ones who were hunting Doundou Chefou
in the hope that he would lead them to an even bigger prize ‐‐
an American Christian aid worker named Jeffery Woodke,
who was being held hostage somewhere in the region.
ELS: When Jeff was a child, he used to spin the globe
and look where he stopped.
And one time he stopped
and his finger was pointed at Niger.
And he told his mom,
"When I grew up, I´m gonna go to Niger."
When he was grown up, he remembered that moment
and he looked up and saw how poor the nation was
and when he sees suffering, he wants to alleviate it.
He looks for ways to help the people.
So he build wells. He did animal vaccinations.
He helped create schools for kids so they could be educated.
He worked very close with the local population
in view of their needs.
‐ This was the start of the whole process
of the upwards budget.
ELS: That morning,
Jeff announced this special project.
We´re seeing the video of Jeff
with the leaders of the community.
After all that, he went home.
And then it happened.
He heard ‐‐ he heard shots.
He ran away.
He fleed.
♫♫
But they ‐‐ they got him.
♫♫
Then it was just all a blur.
I just kept saying no.
It took a long time for me to, um,
to really accept the reality that it had really happened.
Yeah.
[ sighs ] Yeah.
‐ Certainly, we knew who Jeff Woodke was in Niger.
His clothes were in my headquarters,
so that should he be freed during our time there,
he would be brought through and given back his belongings
as part of his reintegration to feel human again.
But when ODA 3212 left the wire on their reconnaissance mission,
never was there an understanding
that it related to Jeffery Woodke.
It wasn´t in any of the mission plans.
It was never told to me after the fact.
It was never in any of the conversations that took place.
‐ Jeffery Woodke was never brought up
in any of the mission planning
and his name appears nowhere
in the 268‐page redacted AFRICOM report.
Plus, the four families of the fallen
were never told about any connection between Woodke
and the missions until General Waldhauser alleged that
in his press conference,
shocking nearly everyone who heard it.
‐ And I think it´s important to underscore why then
was that mission undertaken?
Why was it so important to send those people up there?
We´ve had an American citizen by the name of Jeffery Woodke,
who´s been captured and held hostage
in somewhere in that area for the last year and a half,
and there was a possibility that what they might find
at that target would be a piece of the puzzle
of the whole of government approach
to try to return an American who´s been held hostage
for over a year and a half.
MEEK: You´ll recall at General Waldhauser´s press briefing,
he wasn´t asked a question about this,
but he just sort of brought up Jeffery Woodke.
And he said that third mission in searching that site
was to look for intelligence on that hostage Jeffery Woodke.
Is that something that you´ve ever heard?
‐ I had never heard that,
and I don´t recall that ever being part of the instructions
that were given to Captain Perozeni and his team.
So I´m not sure where that characterization came from.
MEEK: Jeffery Woodke,
this hostage that´s been held since October 2016.
‐ Yeah.
MEEK: His name come up in the briefings?
‐ No, never once.
‐ The mission was a sensitive site ‐‐
clear a sensitive site for intelligence.
ALAN: For General Waldhauser to say,
"We were out there looking for Jeff Woodke,"
seemed like a convenient excuse on his part
as the commander of AFRICOM
to try and put a, uh, noble cause about what we were doing.
MEEK: Does that change things,
how you see what Jeremiah was doing out there at all?
If he was part of a team that was helping
to facilitate efforts to locate and eventually recover
an American‐held hostage by ISIS?
‐ Yes and no.
Um...
It still could have waited another day.
Um...
I mean, I´m all for finding the American, definitely, but...
another day...
when they could have had backup
would have made a world of difference.
We´d have four boys back home, probably.
‐ If this was indeed on my husband´s behalf,
I would have to say thank you so very much.
Um...
I´m still I´m very sorry it happened.
And that would be a terrible burden
to know that people might die in the attempt
to rescue my husband.
I don´t take that lightly.
♫♫
[ wind chimes chiming ]
‐ Colonel, come on in. ‐ My name is Lieutenant Hudson.
‐ Tom, how are you? ‐ Good.
‐ Real pleasure. Come on in.
OFFICER: This week is about, you know, recognizing the valor.
You know, our gold star families and our fallen heroes ‐‐
national treasure.
Obviously there´s nothing
I´m gonna be able to say that will, you know,
do much for your loss, frankly, but, you know...
MEEK: Despite the fact the official military investigation
tarnished the actions of ODA 3212,
nearly two years after the attack in Tongo Tongo,
the fallen soldiers were finally given some recognition
for their sacrifices.
‐ So I´d like to present you with the Bronze Star award.
Bronze Star with valor.
You can see the award there,
and you can read the citation there.
DEBBIE: Well, thank you very much for bringing this down
and presenting it to us. OFFICER: Yes, ma´am.
♫♫
‐ He´s truly missed. OFFICER: Yes.
♫♫
DEBBIE: He deserves it.
He´s earned that honor.
But I´ve lost my child.
That´s never gonna make that right.
But my son would not want me to turn my back on the military.
My stepson´s in the military, in the Marine ‐‐
in the Marine Corps ‐‐ Michael.
My grandson Danny is in the Army.
My granddaughter´s in the Army Reserves ‐‐ medic.
And I am still all for the military.
I am very...
very infuriated with the Army
and the ones involved with this.
I´m sure they wake up every morning now,
and they don´t think about those four boys.
I wake up without my son every morning
just as the other parents do.
♫♫
The wives wake up without their husbands,
the brothers and sisters wake up without their brother,
kids wake up without their dads,
and we deserve the full truth and some accountability.
♫♫
HENRY: I feel the pain of the families as much as I can.
I understand their grief.
I grieve with them for their loss.
And I think that they grieve for our loss.
KAREN: For me, I don´t want to just constantly living my life.
"Okay. In October of 2017, this happened.
Let´s rehash it again and again and again and again."
That´s not me.
[ train whistle blows ]
You don´t live with your head in the sand
and act like it never happened,
but move forward, do positive things,
continue to grow and learn
and impact other people in their lives.
♫♫
Well, yeah, it´s already ‐‐ It´s already named,
but I think you can change their names
up to, like, a year. WOMAN: Is it Opie?
KAREN: Yeah. ‐ What´s their name?
WOMAN: Opie.
‐ Oh, that´s perfect.
‐ I get a new grand‐dog.
‐ I know.
[ laughter ]
HENRY: It´s a routine now of life without Bryan,
adjusting but remembering and thanking our Lord
for what we had with him for all those years.
[ dog barking ]
COWANDA: We all family now.
Their pain is my pain,
and I know my pain is their pain.
We all going through the same thing.
We just want to know the truth.
OFFICER: The president of the United States of America,
authorized by Act of Congress 9 July 1918,
has awarded the Silver Star to Sergeant La David T. Johnson.
Sergeant Johnson,
with total disregard for his personal safety or life,
maneuvered multiple times across open terrain
through intense and accurate fire
from an overwhelming hostile force to protect his team.
MEEK: I want to ask you about the ceremony.
At one point, you kind of like turned away,
like, your back to the audience.
Do you remember that moment, how you were feeling?
‐ I was angry.
Angry.
I wanted my husband to be here with me.
No ‐‐ A war medal or anything could bring him back.
I´m angry and I´m still angry to this day.
Come on. You ready?
♫ Happy birthday to you ♫
♫ Happy birthday, dear Shay Shay ♫
♫ We love you, we do ♫
Whoo! You love Mommy?
BOY: Blow.
‐ Whoo!
[ laughs ]
Ooh, pretty girl.
Yeah, I don´t got anything to make him sit up.
GIRL: Daddy can sit on Shay Shay lap.
‐ I can´t. I got to hold it.
but I´ll lay it like that.
They still ask questions every day.
"Mommy, when Daddy coming home? When Daddy coming home?"
And I have to tell them, "Daddy not coming home.
You know, Daddy in Heaven now, you know.
So, you know, you could see Daddy in your dreams."
♫♫
And when I´m dead and gone,
I´m gonna reunite with my husband.
He´s gonna be waiting for me.
♫♫
WILL: You wanna go get the doggie?
Huh? Abigail.
Hey. Abigail.
You want to go get the doggie?
A lot of changes on the personal front.
I´ve been married now ‐‐
September 22nd, it was a year.
I have a 9‐month‐old daughter, Abigail.
Far as my brother and his life,
his legacy and his death,
it´s been a long, arduous process
over the last two years.
Um, the most recent development, you know,
was obviously his award.
He was awarded the Silver Star for Valor in Combat.
[ "The Star‐Spangled Banner" playing ]
♫♫
OFFICER: Staff Sergeant Wright,
with total disregard for his personal safety or life,
maneuvered multiple times across open terrain
through intense and accurate fire
from an overwhelming hostile force
to protect and recover two of his fallen comrades.
His courage...
TERRI: I can´t change the past.
I can´t bring Dustin back.
But I can have a voice.
And I can be a thorn in your side...
...to get my point across.
And that point is
if we´re gonna have a strong country,
we have to have a strong military.
And that means when you make a mistake,
you are accountable.
And you must hold yourself accountable,
because that is what my son did.
He held himself accountable
for his actions that day.
He had a choice.
He could have kept running.
He didn´t.
He stopped.
♫♫
He turned around, and he faced his enemy.
Not everybody can say that.
♫♫
WILL: I´m gonna share a few quotes.
They´re not from a writer.
They´re from a man named Dustin Wright.
"Life boils down to a series of choices.
Before long, the choices you make
and the ones you don´t become you.
All choices lead you somewhere.
Bold choices take you where you´re supposed to be."
He may have gave his last breath,
but that´s not where his life ended.
And that´s not where our lives ended.
That´s where we were challenged to truly live again.
The sacrifices by men like La David Johnson,
Jeremiah Johnson, Bryan Black, and Dustin Wright
require a response from us as Americans.
MEEK: Have you rejoined the Army?
‐ I have. MEEK: Have you rejoined the Army
to avenge Dustin´s death?
‐ I think... it would be easy to say
and completely understandable if I said,
"I want to go get ´em,"
but that´s not why I rejoined.
I rejoined because I care about my country.
I care about the men and women that are still going to combat.
I care about American blood being spilled,
and if I can do something to help, I want to.
I should do something.
MEEK: Your son Will re‐enlisted recently.
‐ Not with my blessings.
He did that on his own, and that´s his prerogative.
He´s a grown man.
And I don´t know ‐‐
Honestly, I don´t know his motivation.
Um...
But I was ‐‐
I was not happy when I found that out.
♫♫
[ sighs ]
♫♫
The Army let me down.
They let my son down, and then they lied about it.
♫♫
It was like the guys that actually made the decision
for them to do that mission ran from their decision.
And did everything they could
to force the blame down the ladder
as far as it could go.
MEEK: Secretary Mattis wanted scalps.
I mean, we´ve heard that.
He was the Defense Secretary at the time,
and he wanted accountability.
He wanted to pin blame on people.
ARNOLD: Correct.
ALAN: Where´s the accountability?
Where is the blame?
And it became very apparent
that there were certain levels of the chain of command
that were being targeted
and other parts that really weren´t.
MEEK: Above your rank. ALAN: Above my rank.
MEEK: And the people above your rank were...
ALAN: Lieutenant Colonel Dave Painter,
Colonel Brad Moses ‐‐
my commander and my commander´s commander.
MEEK: People close to the investigation have told me
that the move to protect higher‐ranking officers
began almost immediately.
Just a week after its launch,
General Waldhauser replaced the lead investigator
with his own Chief of Staff, Major General Roger Cloutier.
ROGER: In October of 2017, General Waldhauser appointed me
to conduct an investigation into the enemy attack
on U. S. and Nigerien forces near Tongo Tongo in Niger.
My first responsibility was to the families of the fallen.
DONALD: This is wrong. This is wrong.
Using your chief of staff, as much as I love the man,
to do the investigation for AFRICOM.
The last thing we want is AFRICOM
controlling an investigation of themselves.
‐ The idea that the Secretary of Defense let AFRICOM
investigate themselves here and that the combatant commander
appointed his chief of staff to look at this,
I felt was just unconscionable.
And their unwillingness
to look at those commanders above the company level
is an egregious shortcoming
and dereliction of their responsibilities
to really assess what happened here.
‐ The investigation was an attempt
to protect senior leaders and their careers.
And a deliberate attempt
to hold the...company commander
and the detachment commander
and the team members accountable.
‐ I was ultimately held accountable.
I ultimately received this reprimand.
"Memorandum for Major Alan Van Saun
dated October 9, 2018.
You are hereby reprimanded for failing to ensure
that the members of Operational Detachment Alpha ODA 3212
were adequately trained
prior to conducting combined operations
with a Nigerien partner force."
And then Major General John Deedrick
came to visit me at the Pentagon
to give me the final results of my punishment.
And he notified me that, more or less,
my future in the Army was over.
So my words to him were, "Sir, just so we´re straight here,
just so I understand we´re on the same page,
you are essentially ending my career
over something that I was not part of,
nor did I have authority over."
"ODA 3212 was trained and certified and validated
by Lieutenant Colonel Painter and Colonel Moses."
Then he changed the topic, asked if I had any questions.
We shook hands, and I went on my way.
‐ Colonel Moses and Colonel Painter
were not held accountable,
but they should have been held accountable.
And the reason they weren´t held accountable
is because they´re card‐carrying,
you know, members of the club.
He was a scapegoat to protect higher officers
from being punished.
MYESHIA: They gave him a reprimand.
For what? He wasn´t even much there.
His daughter is born the same day my husband died,
and I´m pretty sure that eats him up every day.
‐ It´s all about the club.
It´s all about protecting the establishment.
It´s all about, you know,
circling the wagons around the senior leaders.
‐ They spent months and months and months
trying to formulate a damn story
that they thought would protect their ass.
‐ So that first mission was the one
that was not properly characterized.
It was characterized as a civil military reconnaissance
when it was actually focused on the ISIS‐GS sub‐commander.
MEEK: So if you were sitting across from Roger Cloutier
right now instead of me...
‐ I´d say, "Get your ass in the yard."
That´s exactly what I´d say.
And I´d try to beat that son of a bitch to a pulp.
He would need medical assistance to leave my house.
If I had to hit him with a damn ball bat,
it wouldn´t matter.
I´d ‐‐ I´d put something on him he would remember
as long as I´m gonna remember my son.
♫♫
MEEK: The Pentagon´s response, what we found, is to stand firm
by their investigation and its conclusions
by refusing to comment.
Military officials have also avoided answering questions
of many of the family members of the four fallen soldiers.
And so the official record remains unchanged,
despite the preponderance of the evidence
showing ODA 3212 did not go rogue
or contribute to their own downfall
as the Pentagon suggests.
‐ There´s been a lot of ink
spilled on this, uh,
on this incident in Niger.
And I think a lot of...
...mischaracterization
of what actually occurred
and to the detriment,
not only of the men on the ground
and their legacy and their performance,
but also to the special operations community in general.
And it´s important to me
that we attempt to set the record straight
and recognize
that these men served with honor.
They didn´t mischaracterize their mission.
They fought valiantly
and made the ultimate sacrifice.
And it´s important to tell that whole story
so that America knows the truth.
♫♫
‐ [ grunts ]
I turned 33 three days ago.
I am a bit of an old man compared to most.
But I know I had unfinished business.
♫♫
The events of my brother solidified that position.
I admire him, I respect him and everything he´s done
and everything he was able to do in the short time he had here.
And I wanted to do things with my life
that would make him proud
and to go into Special Forces is part of that.
For me, this is a bold choice.
For my wife and my family, this is a bold choice.
♫♫
I think my dad... He is, uh...
Throughout my career, my brother´s career,
he´s kind of had the same stance.
He´s proud of us but doesn´t want it to be us.
And I get that.
To willingly watch another son go down that path,
I can´t imagine how hard it would be.
WIFE: Ready?
God is great, God is good.
Let us thank him for our food.
[ Praying indistinctly ]
Amen.
Yay, Abigail.
WILL: You know, I am painfully aware
of what can happen on the worst day.
It´s terrifying.
I mean, I...
I know what I stand to lose.
And that´s why I´m not taking it for granted.
♫♫
[ indistinct conversation ]
But...
I wasn´t called to live a cautious life.
And, you know, I believe
it was Andrew Jackson said.
"I was built for the storm and the calm doesn´t suit me."
So this is...
where God has placed me.
This is what he´s put on my heart.
This is where he called me,
and I´m gonna see it through.
♫♫