Danger Close

3. The Fall of the Taliban Regime

After the fall of Mazar-e Sharif, the surviving Taliban and al Qaeda forces from that area retreated northeast to the city of Konduz. Konduz had been a Taliban stronghold and now it was reinforced. With the Northern Alliance advancing rapidly throughout Afghanistan, Konduz was the Taliban’s last northern power base. Pressuring the enemy in and around Konduz was General Muhammad Daud, a rebel commander who was part of the Northern Alliance. On  November, about the time Staff Sergeant Tomat was helping close the noose around the Taliban in Mazar-e Sharif, another SOF team, including M.Sgt. Tim Stamey, infiltrated into Afghanistan and linked up with Daud and his forces. Stamey, a SOF TACP with th Special Forces Group and stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina , was one of the most experienced TACPs in the business. Lieutenant Colonel Bochain, Stamey’s commander in Afghanistan, describes him as, “the poster child of what a TACP ought to be: calm, southern drawl, real easy, doesn’t want to take credit for anything he did himself.” Just getting linked up with Daud presented a series of challenges. Stamey and his team were flown to their rendezvous point in an old Russian “Hip” helicopter they dubbed “SGLI Air;” SGLI stood for Serviceman’s Group Life Insurance, the life insurance provided to every military member . The outward appearance alone was enough to make Stamey uneasy: “It was leaking—I mean, not dripping but literally a stream of fuel coming out the bottom of it.” Stamey later learned that two weeks after he flew on this helicopter it crashed, killing some high-ranking members of the Northern Alliance. The team found Daud’s forces just east of Farkhar, southeast of Konduz . According to Stamey, Daud’s initial reception caused some consternation . But that attitude changed, bearing out what Bochain had said about Northern Alliance regard for what Americans brought to the fight. 3.The Fall of the Taliban Regime The Fall of the Taliban 43 [Daud’s team] moved us into a safe house on the east side of Farkhar right on the edge of the mountains.We bunked there for the night.The following morning General Daud showed up and met us for breakfast. He gave us the mujahaddin hats and scarves, and“Hey, glad you guys are here,” this, that, and the other. We started asking about his forces and what we could do to help them, advise them, assist them on their portion of the land war.Well we were told,“Nope, don’t need any help.” “Well, how about the airstrikes?”“Nope, we can do it on our own”—the whole machismo thing. He did not want to accept any help from us. Okay. So he left and we’re sitting there and we’re like, “Now what the heck are we supposed to do?” That afternoon one of the other commanders came up to us and said, “Hey would you guys like to go out and see the front line?” And M.Sgt. Tim Stamey outside Konduz. The capture of Konduz effectively ended Taliban control in northern Afghanistan. 44 Danger Close we’re like,“Oh yeah, love to!”So [the team captain], one of the commo [communications] guys, and I, we took off and went up to this area just to the southeast of Taloqan, the northwest side of Farkhar up to the front lines. We get up there and one of their tank officers is up on the hill and he’s pointing out enemy positions . . . and there’s tanks and stuff dug in right along through here. . . . We see a ruckus coming up this road [that] runs up the valley here; there’s guys on horses, trucks, and a couple T-55s [Soviet-era tanks]. And we’re like, “What the heck’s going on?”“Oh, we’re doing our big offensive.”They didn’t tell us nothing about this this morning during breakfast. They come rolling in and start getting hit from the tanks up on the ridgeline and getting hit pretty good. The tank officer says,“Get us aircraft!” Stamey called the ASOC to request air support, but since nobody knew anything about Daud’s offensive, no CAS sorties had been scheduled. In fact, it must have been a pretty quiet day across the entire theater, because there were no CAS sorties scheduled anywhere that could be diverted to help out. Stamey submitted...