Local vet receives Bronze Star

Even though he knew an ambush was likely, Sgt. James Hensley remembers thinking, “Oh, no” when he heard three rapid explosions.

“There was a momentary pause, then it kicked in,” he said of his U.S. Army Special Forces training. “We began to move like clockwork.”

Hensley, who enlisted in the Army at age 17 and went to boot camp after graduating from Southeast Whitfield High School in 2007, was on patrol with his unit in the Paktia region of Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. Tasked with helping develop the Afghan Public Protection Force for the country’s police needs, the unit’s members were moving south when they intercepted Taliban “radio chatter” letting them know their route back north had been blocked.

“We took an alternate route north and their chatter was advising them to set up ambushes,” Hensley said. “We spent the night at a RAN (rest overnight) site and the next morning continued north. We got into a valley system and the road went through a narrow place — there was no other way to get through.”

With the convoy snaking through the pass and the unit anxiously on alert, the explosions began.

No time to think

“I heard three large booms and then three smaller booms,” Hensley recalled. “An IED (improvised explosive device) took out the Afghans’ lead truck, then they hit us with two RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades).”

Hensley said he noticed movement on a ridgeline and “opened up” with his Mark 44 minigun, but he only got three bursts out before the weapon had an electrical failure. He had an alternate 249 (light machine) gun and “put down” 400 rounds before he ran out of ammo. By this time, Taliban forces — firing from around a dozen positions — landed three RPG rounds within five meters of their truck.

“There was ammo in the back of the truck, but I grabbed my M4 carbine (rifle) and fired 60 rounds before it blew up,” he said. “I had a 203 (grenade launcher) gun so I fired four high-explosive rounds.”

Hensley remembers a lot of smoke and debris from the engagement, with their truck driver calling out positions for the American troops to lay down fire. Someone gave him ammo for the 249 and he began returning fire on the Taliban forces that were focusing on their truck.

Hensley was asked what he was thinking during the attack. He replied he didn’t have time to think, just to respond to the sudden and deadly ambush.

“A truck broke down in front of us and we couldn’t move,” he said. “The TC (truck commander) got out and started receiving fire and I supported him. We were receiving RPG and PKM (Russian machine gun) fire. Our TC got in the broken-down vehicle and tried to get it moving but couldn’t. Then he turned the steering wheel and we used our truck to push it into a ravine to get out of the ‘kill zone.’ But we stayed stuck in the kill zone when we found out there was the possibility of more IEDs.”

Hensley continued to suppress the enemy fire, according to a narrative of the ambush, until the Taliban began to retreat and the Americans and Afghans finally got close air-support help from U.S. helicopter gunships.

“We were scanning the ridgeline for secondary attacks and then started picking up our wounded,” said Hensley, who noted three Afghans were killed instantly when the IED hit the lead truck in the convoy and four American troops were wounded and had to be med-evacked.

Hensley left the Army in June of 2011 and “heard talk” there would be commendations regarding the action, but it wasn’t until his Third Special Forces Group out of Fort Bragg, N.C., returned stateside that he received his medal.

‘The worst ambush’

Hensley said the TC, a warrant officer who received a Silver Star for his actions, called that morning “the worst ambush he’d seen in 12 years.”

Maj. Brendan Ormond, commander of the Third Special Forces, called Hensley “one of the finest soldiers and leaders I have served with in over 12 years as a commissioned infantry and Special Forces officer ... Jim quickly earned my team’s respect with his lead by example, can do attitude and his maturity that is typically seen from soldiers years and several ranks his superior.”

He said Hensley’s “true test of character and mettle” came during the March 2010 ambush.

“Although completely exposed and receiving overwhelming enemy fire, Jim remained calm and used a teammate’s weapon to continue to suppress the enemy; which significantly contributed to my patrol being able to repel the enemy,” Ormond wrote in a letter of recommendation for the Bronze Star for Valor.

Brig. Gen. Austin Miller also noted Hensley’s heroism in a “complex” 360-degree attack.

“Sgt. Hensley exposed himself on numerous occasions to a barrage of (RPGs) and machine gun fire to provide precise and effective suppressive fire on the enemy,” he said. “His engagement of multiple targets allowed Coalition forces to open a route of egress from the kill zone. His courage under fire inspired the detachment to gain the tactical advantage and forced the enemy to retreat.”

Hensley’s wife Brooke said she only found out about the action later.

“I didn’t watch the news, because I didn’t want to know what was going on over there,” she said. “We talked every week or so on the sat (satellite) phone, and also on a computer. But he didn’t tell me about it until he got back.”

Asked if that was to keep his wife from worrying, James Hensley just shook his head in a silent “Right.”

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