The Program

8When You Face a Hairpin Turn in the Road

CORY ROSS—CORPORATE PRESIDENT of The Program, then a Marine Corps Captain—and his teammates left the village nestled in the Tora Bora Mountains in eastern Afghanistan shortly after lunch with village elders. It was quiet and peaceful, until they reached a sharp hairpin turn in the road a few miles out of town.

A massive barrage of enemy small arms and shoulder-fired weapons assaulted them. The sound was deafening and dust filled the air as machine gun rounds impacted the dirt road, showering them with sparks flying off the vehicles’ armor.

Sergeant Aaron Wittman, the vehicle’s .50 caliber machine gunner, saw where the enemy fire was coming from and immediately swiveled his machine gun to return fire at the enemy position located in a nearby cemetery. When firing a vehicle-mounted machine gun, you have two options: lower yourself into the vehicle and reach up and fire the weapon one-handed, or stand tall and get in a tight position behind the weapon. You can provide much more accurate fire this way, but it exposes you to the return fire from the enemy. Sergeant Wittman chose the second option. He stood tall and fired one long, sustained burst that alerted all his teammates to the location of the enemy position. However, in doing so, he exposed himself to the enemy and could not dodge the return fire.

An RPG is an area-fire weapon. You shoot it at an area where you want it to explode. Cory, Sergeant Wittman, and the rest of their team ...