“Tell Ashley I love her.”

Soldiers recount 60-second attack that left them reflecting on life and death
By MARTIN KUZ
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 1, 2012

MUCHAI KALAY, Afghanistan -- Staff Sgt. Damian Remijio and Spc. Zachary Fitch lay on the ground as a grenade bounced down a pile of rocks toward them. Metal struck stone with awful clarity.

Ting … ting … ting …

Remijio spoke the words he believed would be his last.

“Tell Ashley I love her.” His girlfriend of a year. “Tell Leiah I love her.” His 3-year-old daughter.

“Tell them I’m sorry.”

The soldiers belong to Company D of the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment stationed at Combat Outpost Sabari in eastern Khost province. Their platoon came under attack during a patrol April 12 near Muchai Kalay, a maze of mud-walled homes 15 miles from Pakistan.

Earlier that afternoon, a mortar round hit 100 feet outside COP Sabari, the fourth time in two weeks that militants had targeted the base. The artillery strikes suggested the so-called fighting season of the Taliban-led insurgency had arrived in a region dominated by the Haqqani network.
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