My battle buddy was KIA in this battle... R.I.P SPC. Stephan Mace, miss you man.. see you at fiddlers green.

COP stands for Combat OutPost for those who don’t know, and OP stands for Observation Post.

10 years now and we've not forgotten R.I.P. SGT C. Griffen

The camp was established to serve as an enticing target because it was hard to get the Taliban to attack in big numbers. Thus, when they went for the bait in a full of coordinated attack, the Americans were to call in close air and artillery support. This tactic is an old one that was even used by the French during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam (then Indo China). The problem is that there's no real way of knowing how many enemy will attack, which direction(s) they'll attack from and how heavily they're armed. It's like holding your face out to be hit with no idea that the other guy is holding a long sword behind his back. You may still win that fight, but at a much higher cost than you'd anticipated. The Taliban clearly attacked OP Fritsch to stifle any support efforts on the ground and then spread themselves really thin so that air and artillery support would have had limited effects. By the time the attack was rappelled, the Taliban still enjoyed the luxury of being able to melt back into the mountains and then later prance around the base for news cameras after it was closed (a few days later) as though they won the battle. This encapsulates the Vietnam war. Let the enemy attack on their own terms, succeed in killing a bunch of people who already knew they were cannon fodder and let the rest of the enemy force slip through your fingers and then repeat. Later, wonder why the attacks keep coming.

every tactical and strategic rule was broken in the placement and defense. what was the leadership thinking?

Rest In Peace my brother...Captain Pierre E. Piche, 101st ABN, AA - KIA, Mosul, Iraq

thank you for the recreation of these. i think it is important for us to know and understand what these men went through... I am also a visual person so this helps greatly. thank you!

R.I.P. Ssg martin your in our hearts and minds forever

Don’t forget the 2 Latvian advisors that was there too

It's almost as if the OICs didn't learn a single FKN thing from the ambush at the battle of Wanat in 2008! Why the Army Intel in charge at that time thought they could put COPs at the bottom of fishbowls & still hold any sort of tactical advantage is beyond me! This was so eerily similar to Wanat that if you removed the dates & posts names you would think it was the same battle they're so similar

RIP Joshua Hardt. You will allways be in our hearts.

RIP Sgt Joshua M. Hardt and Sgt Joshua J Kirk.

My cousin Josh Kirk was killed in this battle. RIP

I am 14 and after reading the red platoon, I am sad that such good people had to go through that but thankfull that some made it home

Terrible base placement..surrounded by high ground. Incredible men! Thank you much.

i know a guy who was part of the qrf, he showed me some pictures and one of them was of the humvee, the interior was red

I watched this after the movie. The movie was great but, I dont think it does enough justice to the whole story.

I was part of the qrf team they took forever for us to be released to go down to get to them 3rd 10th mountain 1-32 inf

I gotta give you props. This is a great recreation and I appreciate attention to detail! Thumbs up

Secondly to true north productions, OP Fritsche was on top of a mountain and it was resupplied just fine. Camp Keating was never resupplied by truck once in the 14 months I was there. The road that it was next to was not useable. The only way to resupply was by air. We scouted numerous new locations for the camp on higher ground but never heard anything back from the higher ups. That's what pisses me off soo much. a year and a half before this haplened the brass new this was going to happen, it could have been prevented, but nothing was done. and to everyone else throwing around accusations or trying to put in their two cents, STOP. If you've never been there you have no idea what you're talking about, you just don't know. so stop speculating and stop trying to sound like you know what happened, or what could/should have been done. The only people who have earned the right to speculate are the people who spent those blood sweat and years defending this valley. If you don't belong to that very small group of men shut your mouth. Watch the video if you want, but shut your mouth.

Oct 3rd... seems to be a common "Alamo" type engagement for the US. Blackhawk Down was also on an Oct. 3rd. I can't wait for the new movie The Outpost to come out. It was supposed to have premiered in March 2020but was cancelled.

Thank you so very much for your hard work brining us these mini docs

r.i.p SSG Martin

We pulled a lot of dudes out that evening. A word of advice to all aspiring 15T: casevac sounds fun till you become real world casevac; and hero missions happen in the blink of an eye.

My guess would be Virtual Battle Space 2, it's based on the Real Virtuality engine that is used for ARMA, but it's meant as a training device for our armed forces.

Straight up incompetence. When I was out there as a Marine with 2/3, we would do nightly security patrols/night ambushes around the COP. Did they suck? Yep, but it prevented the enemy from setting in like this. Hope the Army used this as a learning experience

Once again, the US put good men in a perilous area without the tools necessary to defend themselves. Once again, they made do and did an amazing job. Vietnam mentality once again.

Their are two great videos about the heros of Keating one is a movie and the other is a 45 minute video about it and who Keating was a great man

Same situation as Wanat a year earlier. In a remote area,isolated infantry group and ANA an locals not coaperating and this happens.

Thank you for your service

This is basically Dien Bien Phu only worse, as at least the French didn't know the Viet Minh would be able to transport artillery to the surrounding high points and place them in defiladed positions. This placement is just mind-bendingly poor and I can't see how anyone at any point thought it was a good idea.

Why would they build anything at such a disadvantageous position?

Thanks for posting. It's a good resource for ppl to learn what happened.

RIP TO THOSE WHO SERVE OUR COUNTRY THEY WERE TO YOUNG AND BRIGHT. I wish we didn’t have to fight dumb fights like this.

Why the term "Anti-Afghan Forces" isn't that the Taliban?

Well produced...having read Red Platoon and The Outpost..this provides visual acuity to the battle. And lastly, what gave higher the rational that Keating, Wanat or Restrepo would not be the focus of intense AAF contact? RH/COP Gardex 2003-4

I just finished reading Red Platoon and figured I'd see if there were any videos related to it. Was this done in Project Reality? Looks like BF2 for sure... just curious.

So this is a Bait Camp, RIP the Baits

Everyone says this was a American loss. I look at it this way. If under 60 Taliban could hold off 300 Americans troops and push them out of their base and put them on retreat it would be seen different. Those guys had the odds stacked and still made it out.

The Scouts at COP Keating are still in my thoughts often. Drinks are on me when I get to the Green brothers.

Can't imagine being the two that got stuck in the mortar pit.

The graphics are cute. What game or platform was used here?

Damn the animation in this is........ unusual! It looks like it’s very low quality yet the movements are actually quite fluid and realistic. 🧐🤨🤔

Placing of the COP was bait but at least have overwhelming force to counter act the absolute shit show it was in the battle. Anyway they don’t read our comments here, so more of this will happen. This is the nature of war

Who ever decided to put a base at the bottom of a valley where you can get attacked by 360⁰ was sn idiot

Served with Sgt Hardt in Iraq 07-08. RIP Brother and Garry Owen

Why they wouldn't have put the base at the top of one of those mountains I will never understand 2000 feet is a lot but would've been preferable to the kill box they were placed in

no mention of many many details-which ones? The mistakes,of course. Total snow job. Dereliction of duty by company, battalion, and brigade commanders was finding of official study, which Army then tossed and wrote again as a whitewash. 2nd study, which this is based upon, was only given through interviews with officers at Company HQ and above, hence not a single eyewitness- hence sparse detail in this video recreation? See the book " The Outpost" Jake Trapper

My favorite part of the video was this: 4:54

Nice job making this, very clear! Thanks!

What is a helicopter strafing run?

Great video using VBS2 or VBS3, oh and we are not using this software as a program of record... FML

The GIS -- DEM-- Slope Percent map is always cool to see

What game is this ? VBS ?

Great simulator! Wow rest in honor to those fallen soldiers.

Is the simulation ArmA?

13-16 before wounded were taken by helicopter? So much for the golden hour for them.

I hope that the movie the outpost keeps it accurate

I wish I could have been half the soldier these men were.

I wonder what SW was used to do this visualisation. It looks like a cross between early Delta Force games and maybe first Arma?

good thing they released a movie

Is this like Arma 1? The animation and textures look identical to Arma!

Thank God for those 44 CAS airframes

Great animations, what did you use for this??

Vbs?

Rip Orlando Bloom

I've never served and am certainly no military expert. But I don't understand the location choice for COP Keating. Why placed the troops right in the middle of the bottom of a bowl surrounded by enemies high above on all sides? Our guys were sitting ducks. Fortunately, the Taliban were too stupid to take advantage of the situation. Ever heard of Dien Bien Phu, a much larger scenario with a much, much bigger force sitting in the middle of the bowl?

no can you send me a link or something

Why not . If HE Almighty has predestined that I will not die of a bullet or laser guided bomb whatsoever, I will never die that way .

Ignorant question, but why would you they but a bace in the valley?

Well done, thanks.

It is a real shame that you did not write about the courage of the Afghan forces in the book and film you made Afghan forces have always supported you

LRAS 1 This is LRAS 2 We Need an Ammo

When that was the day you were born: Oh shi-

1 Afghan and 8 US warriors killed in 1 battle, must of been so demoralising for the remaining soldiers, when we used to loose just a single warrior at once it was devastating and morale wluld suffer.

Not complaining just stating. It's pronounced "Fritch-ee" I grew up in his hometown, my father worked with his mother. Good people. When I deployed to Wardak I knew immediately who it was named after.

I was born on October 3rd 2009.

How come we are still losing in Afghanistan with these kill ratios?

Did anyone in the military ever admit to how bad of an idea that base was? Did anyone have he guts to admit it was useless....that it had zero positive impact. Men died so I guess not. Instead hand out heroic medals. An American base in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains with a handful of men, there to intercept what and who, travelling to and from Pakistan? This was an example of America being somewhere they should not. Men died.... men receive many heroic medals.... for what?? Feel bad for those who were there. Talk about expendable. Its a shame.

We all should find solace in the fact that so many attackers lost their lives. Well our losses were so little but so great at the same time. They were all soldiers and died a soldiers death. Me tipping my hat to you

Hey man, let's put outpost in low ground and let's just concede the high ground to the enemy...they won't use it. Ok, sounds good private.

Hmmm number freaking 3 why was no one charged for dereliction of duty when the facts of this conflict and its poor mangement came to light? It appears to me that someone volunteered for some unwanted duty with a low man bid so they could get some points for an operation in which they could serve in absentia while some real soldiers did all the work and bled for it. This smells like some officer with a yellow spinemade more rank with a pen filled with the red blood of soldiers.

Why do you put fobs and cops in the middle of valleys?! We can secure the high ground with mortars, artillery and air strikes. 😳

Keating the most unpatriotic place Who the hell goes into gully

You can see a downed helicopter outside op fritsche on Apple Maps

they should do 1 on the battle of wanat

peter berg please make a movie about this battle !

These Outposts should have been armed to the teeth. Big Army could spare a few more m240s or 60mm mortars? M4s aren't enough in the mountains

that’s fucking stupid, throwing a cop in the middle of valley.

Blackhawk and the chinook have max ceilings of 18,500 to 19,000......and horses and pack mules are still used. Could still hold much higher ground while training and interdicting.

cud ,że zdołali to obronić.

Look like a Operation Flashpoint... Nice game I recommended!

COP Keating looks like a duck pond

I will tell what makes you go Hmmmm. I was a 27E when I was in, so I had no real infantry tactics training. I did read CSM Gallagher's book on low intensity conflict as a PFC. Hmmm #1 why was the OP out of sight of the position it was to watch? Hmm #2 why was ISR assets that could have given the Soldiers at COP Keating better situational awareness of their operational environment reprioritized to support Barge-e Matal when probes of the COP were being commited?

Saber AO, what a place...

Two MoH’s were won in that battle one being Clint romesha the other being Ty M. Carter

We all knew it was coming…the day we showed up

rip kevin

53 X US 20 X ANA wow man

No mention of OFP for the recreation? lol