Sometimes in battle, things just work out right; however, one miniscule decision made could mean the difference between life and death.

            That’s what Lt. Col Reid Smith faced as part of the troop surge in Afghanistan.

Smith was deployed as part of a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) that helps stabilize the civilian community through mentorship of local government and development projects – projects that address essential services needs making them less vulnerable to exploitation by insurgent/terrorist organizations.

 His team was sent to Forward Operating Base Gardez in the Paktia province, near the border of Pakistan. The province was most known for the defense it put up against the Russians during the invasion of Afghanistan in the early 80’s. The mountainous region of Paktia provides the perfect defense for the high number of insurgents hidden within, and remains to be one of the major hot spots in Afghanistan.

            On one of the most important days during the deployment, Smith’s unit was tasked with escorting a group of Mine Resistant Armor Protected (MRAP) trucks through an area that with a high mountain pass that was known by all the soldiers to be bad guy country, and there was a very high chance of an ambushing occurring during the mission.

            With a certain unease that the mission would go amiss, Smith requested a JDAC, a radio operator whose sole purpose is to communicate with close air support units to assist ground units when engaged in combat.

“I just had a bad feeling that the bad guys would hit us…(because) Many Russians died in this exact same area when they were here back in the 80’s,” Smith recalled.

            The convoy was sent out and returned not long afterward when an IED (road side bomb) was discovered on the route they were patrolling. The bomb was eventually cleared and the convoy was sent out a second time.

            Not long after the second patrol went out, the radios in the Tactical Operation Center roared to life with reports that the soldiers were actively engaged with forces in the area. The enemy had ambushed the convoy in an area “with a combination of ridges and near vertical canyon walls on three sides” using  rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire, and had already managed to disable one of the trucks in the convoy. The soldiers were trapped in the kill zone of enemy gun fire and were doing everything they could to hold their ground until air support could arrive.

            “I was concerned for their safety,” said Smith. “I felt bad that I wasn’t with them, and I was concerned that they wouldn’t be able to get out of the canyon because typically situations like that don’t end well for our guys.”

            Eventually a pair of Apache helicopter gunships received information on the situation and flew towards the site to help give support to the trapped soldiers. They were able to get on station in less than five minutes, and lit up the enemy targets using its 30mm cannons and rockets. The helicopters were able to get on target immediately all thanks to the fact that the team had a JTAC on the ground coordinating with the pilots.

            The firefight lasted 30 minutes and the soldiers ended up tallying six confirmed kills (although this did not include kills inflicted by the helicopters) without any casualties.  “The enemy fired 20 RPGs and thousands of rounds of small arms (ammunition)”

            When the soldiers returned back to the base one of the patrol leaders found Smith and said, “Hey Sir, good call on sending the JTAC with us, I owe you a case of beer for that one.”

“In the end accolades like that mean more to me to than medals, praise from senior officers or anything else.  Knowing that on this one day, at this given time, the fact that my efforts as part of this team helped make a difference between success and failure, between life and death, between victory and defeat, somehow makes it all worth it.” Smith said. “I was proud to have made a decision that saved numerous lives. “Sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference, sometimes things just work out.”