Silver Star for Extraordinary Bravery in Afghanistan

North Hills native to receive Silver Star for heroics in Afghanistan
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Sean D. Hamill
May 6, 2015

For his role in the mission, Sgt. Greiner will be awarded the Silver Star in North Carolina today for displaying “extraordinary bravery and complete disregard for his own safety as he and his teammates assaulted an insurgent safe haven,” according to his citation.

The mission Air Force Tech Sgt. Matthew Greiner and his 81 fellow coalition forces faced on Sept. 27 in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, was fairly straightforward: Head to a small-town bazaar to destroy weapons and equipment and neutralize insurgents who had been spotted by intelligence there.

But what Sgt. Greiner, 29, a North Hills native, and his colleagues faced was anything but straightforward.

Instead of an enemy that fled the moment Sgt. Greiner and two Air Force colleagues directed an attack helicopter or fighter plane into the area — as they had experienced regularly before — they faced nearly 100 insurgents who did not want to quit.

“It was strange to see them fight so hard,” Sgt. Greiner, a combat controller with the 21st Special Tactics Squadron, said in an interview Tuesday.

What followed were two days of fierce attacks by insurgents that pinned down all 21 Americans — 18 of them Army Special Forces — and 60 Afghan forces for two days. That is, until the heroic efforts of Sgt. Greiner, along with two fellow combat controllers who were all under heavy fire during the mission, managed to coordinate enough air support to kill or drive the enemy away.

They managed to save the lives of all but one of the Americans and Afghans, Army Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Weathers, while nearly half the insurgents were killed during the battle. In addition, more than 50 pounds of heroin that was found — and would have been used to fund the insurgents — was destroyed.
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UPDATE
These U.S. airmen refused to be taken hostage in Afghanistan. Now they’ll get valor awards
Washington Post
By Dan Lamothe
May 5, 2015

On Sept. 27, 2014, a team of U.S. Special Operations troops were dropped into a volatile village in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. The U.S. military had withdrawn thousands of troops from the country in the previous year, and the mission called for 14 Americans and about 24 Afghan commando counterparts to clear a bazaar of weapons and insurgents, and then get out.

It turned into a fight for their lives, three U.S. Special Operations airmen involved in the battle recalled Tuesday. The insurgents, numbering close to 100, sprung a fierce attack in which they not only launched a barrage of fire on the Americans, but made plans on the radio to overrun their position and take them hostage, the airmen said.
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