“You’re Getting Shot At”—The Story of My First Combat Mission in Afghanistan

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is Lee Habee with Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American People. And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the morning of September eleventh, two thousand and one, Peter Braxton was the first military pilot in the air over the burning Twin Towers in downtown New York City. It was his first day on the job. Not long after, he did multiple tours of flight combat in the Middle East. Here’s Peter with the story of his first combat mission in Afghanistan.

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Speaker 2: Most people don’t. They spend their whole career, and they don’t go to combat. And I was one of those, like those kids that went to pre or kindergarten at four because my birthday’s in October, the next thing. And now I’m twenty-two, I’m being shuttled off to the Middle East, my first combat mission. You know, I’ll never forget it. You know, we’re flying, you know, pushing into Afghanistan and refueling all of these coalition fighters and F-16s and Marine F-18s, and one of our receivers, you know, asked us to turn off the the chaff, like the the stuff that drops out of your plane if you’re being shot at. And, and I was like, “Well, you know, we don’t have any of that. If that gets stuck, we’re a big gas tank in the sky. Well, I don’t know, we’ll blow up or it’s not going to end well.” So, they don’t put it in. We don’t have any offensive or defensive threat detection or. And so, I remember he radio. He’s like, “All right, well, you’re getting shot at day one, first day!” And there’s stuff, you know, blowing up next to our plane. And it’s a big KC; it’s a big, we, you know, we’re refueling tanker. Look, we were briefed. On every day before your mission, you’re briefed by the intel officers. You know where the service to the air missile sites are, where the activity is, what types of weapons they have. And, you know, they have these shoulder-fired, kind of ancient missiles. But, you know, we called it, I guess, the “Golden BB,” right? They’re not—they’re not that sophisticated, but they can take you out. And, you know, the range on those things are, you know, I think they were nineteen thousand feet. So, here’s the good news. Our er feeling outsides: twenty to thirty thousand feet. So, you know, if we stayed towards the twenty-seven thousand feet area, and, you know, there’s probably less chance of them being able to hit us. But, you know, as the war progresses, they obviously got—they got their own tactics. And what they would do is strap these missiles to a mule and climb up the mountain, like chirpa, up the mountain to about, you know, twelve or fourteen thousand feet. And then you can do the math: they can reach you. And so, you know, there were occasions where they were—they were shooting at us, and again, no offensive or defensive threat detection. So, how did we know? Are, you know, we had contact with Command and Control, and they would tell us, you know, what quadrant or what’s, you know, “You’ve got to launch! Rifle! Rifle!” So, you know, there’s not much tactics that you can do. In the KC-10, you could do this kind of retrograde maneuver where you climb away from the threat. And, you know, if you’re still alive in seven seconds, great. You know, it can be described as “hours of boredom followed by moments of sheer terror.” You know, that’s—that’s kind of accurate, actually. But, I mean, I’ve had to do that before. I’ve had to—I’ve had to do that maneuver to climb away from the threat. And it was—it was a part of my life. And at the time, it was tough. It was really hard. Really, really hard. This is—it’s a huge mental load emotionally to be twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, have this type of machine that you’re responsible for and the people to operate it, and to motivate and sentivize, and actually bring them home alive. That’s—that’s what I would tell them. This machine flies itself, and, you know, my only job is to get you home. And I remember landing, and I was thinking, “What did I—what did I get myself into? Like, what—what happened?” It’s so mentally taxing if you’re not used to it, or you’re not seasoned. I remember we landed around 5 p.m., and, you know, the sun was going down. It’s late. It’s in November—early November—and the sun’s going down, and I just—I passed out. I think it was just mental exhaustion. I was in my uni, still had my boots on. We’re in a tense, on a cot. I probably almost face-planted. I was probably asleep before my head hit the pillow. And you’re supposed to be allowed twelve hours of uninterrupted dress. And so, what seemed like twelve hours later, somebody alerted me. I woke up. I was still in my uniform; I still had my boots on. It was five. And I remember walking out of the tent, and I was like, “This is what side of the planet are we on? Why is the sun going down? It’s getting darker.” I had slept for twenty-four straight hours. They woke me up at 5 p.m. I was alerted for my second combat mission, and the sun was going down. I don’t know too many people who can sleep for twenty-four straight hours, but it make some type of mental exhaustion for that to happen. I didn’t get up—no food, no water, no bathroom breaks—and I remember thinking, “This is—this is not gonna be easy. This is not gonna be.” And that’s, you know, again, I guess that’s what these troops go through, and that’s why they probably deserve some—some gratitude and latitude for what they do. I know they’re called to do it; it’s their duty, and they’re trained to do it. But it’s not easy. It wasn’t—it wasn’t easy.

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Speaker 1: Had a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Peter Braxton for sharing his story of his first day up in the air as a pilot—a trained pilot in the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan. On that very first day, he hears the words, “You’re getting shot at.” And he’s flying a KC-10, by the way, a big refueling tanker. And every day he’s briefed about the perils of being in the air. The intel officers are telling the kind of weapons the enemy has, where to go, where not to go. But, of course, war and combat—well, they’re unpredictable. And in the end, he had one task: bring his crew home. And bring them home, he did. The story of Peter Braxton’s first day of combat in Afghanistan, here on Our American Stories. Lie h Habib here, and I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily, again. Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories coming.