Staff Writer

Those looking for an example of honor, bravery and valor need to look no further than the American soldier.

That was the message conveyed by Sgt. Major Doug Gilliam, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who spoke during Veterans Day ceremonies Tuesday on Main Street.

“I want to talk to you today about a soldier I had the privilege of serving with for a long time,” he said. “I just never did realize how amazing he was until we did deploy. It takes every member of the military to make things operate, from the guy guarding the gate keeping the Taliban from coming inside creating disturbances to the man on the radio. It takes every one of them to make things function right.”

In Zabul Province in the 205th Corps, Gilliam, who has spent his entire National Guard career with the 218th Infantry, was a member of a 16-man embedded training team that lived with and trained the Afghan National Army.

Gilliam spoke about his group's operations in the Day Chopan District, where Forward Operating Base Baylough was located. This FOB was constantly under attack.

“The first time we rolled in, there was another gentleman from Union there who was part of our ETT team, Capt. David Fowler,” he said. “We were inside the wire after a long, long convoy to get there. We had been inside about 10 minutes, the first time we had seen the place. About 50 meters behind us the first mortar round landed, which started the fight. They started direct fire contact with the FOB. Capt. Fowler's Humvee was dead; the battery had died from the long ride up there. During the middle of the fight we are trying to jump off his Humvee so we can get those heavy weapons we carried into the fight. Let me tell you, Capt. Fowler never wavered. Under fire he was out there, doing the right thing so we could get those heavy weapons back into the fight to engage the Taliban.”

During the first month, Gilliam said his group was on the defense. After the first month they went on the offense.

In September of 2007, another kandak from Gilliam's brigade and the brigade's ETT tried to go to FOB Baylough to conduct an offensive operation. They tried to pierce the mouth of Dog's Eye Valley, but were turned back.

“In October they told my kandak, ‘We will be conducting another brigade operation and you are going to be the main effort,'” Gilliam said. “We started planning and training. The Afghan National Army I dealt with were fierce, fierce fighters. They were scared of nothing. They hated the Taliban for what they had done to their country and their people.”

A 30-kilometer convoy turned into a 19-hour drive with two ambushes and improvised explosive devices on the way. Into the mouth of the valley, the Taliban attacked. The next day, Gilliam's group pushed in. His driver was a 19-year-old medic from Orangeburg.

“What happened was a 52 hour fire fight,” he said. “Great soldiers do amazing things under tough situations.”

About 10 hours into the fight, Gilliam saw a mortar round land in between five Afghan soldiers and their Ford Ranger pickup truck, their method of transportation.

“I saw the pickup truck's sides suck in and the windows blow out,” he said. “I saw those five soldiers go down. We're in a fight, under direct fire contact, and I saw a 19-year-old kid, just out of high school, who finished basic training and got deployed when he was getting ready to go to college - he jumped out of that vehicle, grabbed his medic bag and made a 200-yard sprint to those Afghan soldiers. Two had been hit so bad they were bleeding profusely. This kid stopped that bleeding. He saved those two soldiers' lives, because when a couple of minutes they would have been dead. We got them evacuated to the rear and he sprinted back. That is the kind of valor that we experienced as a team there in that one operation.”

As the fight proceeded, Gilliam could hear on the radio the soldiers from his team that had been evacuated to the rear screaming and pushing trying to get back into the fight.

“That amazes me, the bravery, valor and courage those soldiers showed under immense contact,” he said. “That soldier I am talking about is the United States military soldier. There is nothing better on this earth. They are brave, they are direct and they do the right thing. Great soldiers do amazing things under intense circumstances.”

From that one fight, there were six Bronze Stars issued for valor with a seventh pending, Gilliam said.

Media accounts that American forces are unwanted in Afghanistan are not true, Gilliam said.

“Those people loved us,” he said. “The Afghani people loved us and loved us being there. They love their Army because that was the only way to keep them safe. I saw some horrific things that the Taliban had done. Those people were very proud to have us over there helping them. Most of the time when we got in fight, it was not with the Afghanis, it was with foreigners brought in to fight us.”

Four members of the 101st Airborne Division Parachute Demonstration Team, “The Screaming Eagles,” jumped from a plane in a cloudless blue sky, leaving a trail of smoke from their heels.

The first to jump was Sgt. Maxwell Ramsey, an infantryman who lost his left leg in Iraq in 2006. Ramsey then narrated the jumps of the other three for the huge Veterans Day crowd.

Ramsey, of Hilton Head, said the team makes about 60 jumps a year across the nation. Free fall speed is 120 mph. If the first high performance nylon parachute doesn't work, a reserve parachute is in place. Bright, military grade smoke is used for the demonstration.

“They are unarmed, unarmored and unafraid,” he said.

Veterans Day Parade chairman Jantzen Childers thanked Congressman Bob Inglis and staff member Paul Howell for helping to bring the Screaming Eagles to Union.

“Union has the best Veterans Day in the whole district, hands down,” Inglis said. “There are more people here than at the Spartanburg and Greenville parades combined.”

Veterans, parade marshal Carlisle White, Veteran of the Year Col. William Whitener, World War II POW Hervey Robinson and Gold Star Mothers Azilee Ashe and Betty Baxley were recognized.