2004-10-28
Team Leader's Battle Actions
Honored With Bronze Star
By
Kevin Maurer
Staff Writer
The gun battle had been raging for five hours in Afghanistan. Staff Sgt. John Howerton and his men had so far been able to hold off the Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, but things were looking bleak.
U.S. Army photo by Spc. J. H. French
Staff Sgt. John Howerton is pinned with the
Bronze Star
by Maj. Gen. Eric T. Olson in Afghanistan.
''We felt like we were pretty much screwed. We were running pretty low on ammo, and we assumed we were surrounded," said Howerton, who is 26.
On Wednesday, Howerton was awarded the Bronze Star during a ceremony in Afghanistan for his actions during the fight.
The Oct. 17 firefight started when an enemy fighter set off a trip flare near the Pakistan border. Howerton's six-man scout team was on a counter-rocket patrol in the mountains near Asadabad, a town in northeastern Afghanistan. The soldiers had learned that anti-coalition fighters planned to attack a nearby American base, and the paratroopers had set up a position to ambush them.
The scout team, part of the the 1st Battalion of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment's scout platoon, were the eyes and ears for another platoon of paratroopers from 1st Battalion's Bravo Company.
As soon as the flare went up, the paratroopers were attacked with AK-47s, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Some of the enemy fighters were as close as 25 meters. Howerton said about a half-dozen rockets landed near the scout team's position during the fight. No one was hurt, but several of the paratroopers' packs were riddled with bullets and shrapnel.
As his men fired back with M-4s and grenades, Howerton called in artillery support. He directed several barrages before the paratroopers began to run low on ammunition. To mask their escape, Howerton ordered his men to detonate two Claymore mines. The paratroopers could see flashlights behind them as the fighters followed. Not wanting to lead the enemy to the other paratroopers, the team eluded them for hours before joining up with the other American unit.
Howerton, of San Antonio, was honored during a ceremony at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan on Wednesday.
Maj. Gen. Eric T. Olson, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76, pinned the medal on Howerton.
''His leadership, tactical knowledge and demonstration of true warrior ethos enabled his team to fight and win under extremely difficult conditions," the citation said.
Election Security
The firefight was the biggest engagement for the paratroopers during their month-long deployment in Afghanistan. The unit left last month to help provide security during the country's first presidential election. Officials expected widespread violence, but with the exception of a few incidents, the elections proceeded peacefully.
Vote-counting ended Tuesday. Interim President Hamid Karzai won with 55.5 percent of the vote, according to the UN-Afghan election commission's Web site.
The battalion is expected to return to Fort Bragg in the next few weeks. Division officials did not have an exact date.
Howerton, who spent spent eight months in Iraq fighting in Fallujah, said he was surprised to learn that he had earned a Bronze Star. I was just doing my job," he said. "If anybody should have gotten awards, it is my team. They did just as much work as I did."
Howerton said that he wasn't scared. He credited his training and said all of his soldiers responded exactly as they were taught on the ranges at Fort Bragg.
''I would not have done it any differently," Howerton said.
Sgt. 1st Class Jose Marengo, the scout platoon sergeant, said Howerton and his team saved the platoon and the base. Had he not stood his ground, the fighters would have been able to set up a more coordinated attack.
''He did an outstanding job. It is an awesome achievement," Marengo said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kevin Maurer can be reached at maurerk@fayettevillenc.com or 486-3587.
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