The first bullet struck the belt buckle worn by Tech. Sgt. Kevin Whalen. Another round flicked off the knife he had at his hip. But the Washington Air National Guardsman’s luck ran out below a ridgeline in Afghanistan on July 19, 2003. Whalen took a round in the left arm after vainly attempting to reload an automatic grenade launcher atop an armored Humvee.

Injured, Whalen managed to dress his own wound and find more dressings for two other wounded soldiers. He then called in air support, helped fend off the ambush for several minutes and directed a pair of Harrier jets to strafe the target area. [snip]

Whalen was assigned to a team from the 3rd Special Forces Group out of Fort Bragg, N.C., when the firefight occurred. The unit was on the first day of a longer operation to disrupt anti-coalition militia forces. They were expecting a fight, Whalen said, and it came soon enough. The aircraft Whalen was directing at the time were diverted 10 minutes before the gunfire began, he said.

The vehicle in front of Whalen’s stopped when an Afghan fighter was shot and fell from the back of the truck, trapping his vehicle and placing both squarely in the “kill zone” on the mountainous trail, he said.

Whalen was reaching for his assault rifle when he was shot in the arm. He had attempted to reload his heavy weapon, not realizing it was inoperable after being hit by five rounds. The impact knocked him back into the vehicle, the M4 carbine still on the vehicle roof. Taking cover, Whalen directed the air strike and support fire from the vehicles behind them while handing out his remaining ammunition and returning fire from an AK-47 he retrieved from the ground.

At the time, Whalen was less concerned about being mortally wounded than letting down the Special Forces soldiers he respected, he said. Whalen, a Special Forces soldier and the friendly Afghan fighter were wounded during the firefight. He spent 26 hours in the hospital before returning to his unit. He saw combat action on two other occasions before returning home in September 2003.

Doctors didn’t see a need to remove the bullet or nine pieces of shrapnel in his arm. He also has kept the remains of the bullet that struck his belt buckle as a memento. He earlier received a Purple Heart for the arm injury. Miraculously, a portion of his steel belt buckle was atop his protective armor when that armor-piercing bullet struck him. He figures his Kevlar alone wouldn’t have stopped the round without the extra protection the buckle afforded. “I’m behind on my prayers on that one,” he said. “That would have been a battle shot, that would have been ugly.” Olympian 12-03-2004

Getting ambushed and shot will not stop a Tactical Air Control Party airman from going back to war. Tech. Sgt. Kevin Whalen was one three people wounded when their convoy was ambushed July 19 about 30 miles north of here. Whalen’s job is to call in close-air support for soldiers on the ground. He is deployed from the 116th Air Support Operations Squadron at Camp Murray, Wash.

‘We were driving up a (winding) road in the mountains,’ said Whalen. ‘On the left, the terrain rose straight up the ridgeline, and on the right, it dropped straight down into a valley and then up another ridge.’

Suddenly, the convoy began taking fire from along the ridge. Two of the humvees went forward and to secure the road ahead. Two fell behind to secure the rear. Whalen’s humvee and one other in front of it remained in place but seemed to be taking the majority of the fire, he said. ‘I heard two different firing positions at first, but then realized there were about seven or eight different people firing at us,’ said Whalen. They began returning fire to the ridge line.

‘I wound up getting knocked by a bullet that hit the Kevlar right over my belt buckle’ I pulled it out and threw it in the floor, and one of the captains kept the bullet for me,’ he said. Whalen was up in the turret seat of his humvee when he was shot again. This time, the bullet hit his left triceps, and he was knocked down into the vehicle. Although he was bleeding badly, he dressed his wound and the leg wound of one of the gunners in the humvee, he said.

‘I grabbed the satellite communication radio and four minutes later we had (Marine AV-8) Harriers on site,’ said Whalen. ‘I talked the Harriers onto our site and onto possible targets. I never saw a single (enemy) face, so I didn’t have exact locations for the Harriers (to attack). They strafed the entire ridgeline. It was incredible, because they came in and did a high-angle strafe and another dry pass over the target, and literally, as soon as the Harriers showed up and strafed, the enemy stopped firing at us.’ Whalen provided cover fire while talking with the aircraft. At the same time, he worked to bring the humvees from behind closer to their two vehicles. ‘We tried to turn the humvees around, but it was nearly impossible because there was a ridge on the left and a drop off on the right,’ said Whalen.

After removing a few obstacles, the team moved the vehicles up the road and turned them around. Whalen jumped back into the turret seat, got on his radio and once again began working with the Marine fighter pilots who had been flying overhead the entire time. ‘The Harrier guys were just awesome ‘ They dropped down and did a show of force at about 1,000 feet off the ground,’ said Whalen.

At that point, Whalen said he started feeling woozy and getting tunnel vision. ‘I’m pretty sure I was in shock, but we needed to find a landing zone for our helicopters that were going to (evacuate) some of the wounded,’ he said. Whalen identified a landing zone close to his position. Then, working with pilots flying A-10 Thunderbolt IIs that had arrived on scene, he was able to secure the site and his convoy.

When the helicopters arrived, the three injured servicemembers were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. ‘I have ten pieces of metal in my arm, along with the bullet because (the doctors didn’t) see a need to take it out,’ said Whalen.

Interviewed only two days after the ambush, Whalen said he wanted to go back to war. ‘I’m not going to sit in a hospital when I could be with the rest of my guys pressing on with more missions and work,’ said Whalen. ‘I’ll get about a week off to recover, but at the end of the week, you can be sure I’ll be back out there with my weapons, ready to call in more close-air support. ‘There’s something incredible about ‘ calling in A-10s and Harriers, watching them bomb the hell out of the enemy, and knowing every single time (the enemy will) stop firing and hide when those jets show up. That’s powerful’ I’m ready to get back to work,’ he said. Air Force 07-21-2003

The Silver Star is the Air Force’s third-highest honor, after the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Air Force Cross. Other branches of the military also award Silver Stars.

Whalen, 33, was to receive his award this weekend. He is the first Washington National Guardsman to receive the Silver Star since Master Sgt. Larry Gibson. Gibson earned the award for valor in combat in Vietnam in 1966 but didn’t receive the medal until 2000 because the nominating records had been lost.

Whalen has been in the military for more than 13 years, six in active duty. He is now a full-time guardsman with the 116th Air Support Operations Squadron based at Camp Murray, headquarters of the Washington National Guard. Oregon Live 12-03-2004