HOW SGT PITTS HELD HIS POSITION AGAINST 200 TALIBAN

In 2008, SGT Ryan M. Pitts was deployed to Afghanistan as a forward observer when the Taliban launched a major attack on the American positions with more than 200 fighters.On the morning of July 13, several RPGs and machine gun bursts hit Pitts’ elevated observation post almost at the same moment, severely wounding him and six of his comrades and killing two more soldiers. The blast threw the NCO to the ground. Bleeding heavily from multiple shrapnel wounds, he was back on his feet at once and coordinated the defense of the post.

As the enemy closed in, Pitts threw grenades, holding each one for a few seconds after pulling the pin and releasing the spoon so it would detonate right on top of the enemy force. Blood loss had left him unable to walk, let alone stand, so he supported his comrades with covering fire from the position until a two-man reinforcement team arrived. After almost an hour of fighting, the last hand grenade was gone. Pitts, close to death, handed his sidearm and ammunition to his comrades and then crawled to a radio. The insurgents had almost surrounded the outpost by now and were only a few meters away, so he reported the situation in a whisper and called for fire support.The precise coordinates allowed mortar and artillery fire to push the Taliban back and kept the observation post from being overrun. Pitts was treated in time and survived his 26th month of overseas deployment. His selfless will to keep fighting despite multiple wounds was decisive in holding a tactically important position, from which the Taliban would have had a superior field of fire onto the American camps. A year later he was awarded the Medal of Honor.