Third in a series
Re “Father Recounts the Final Moments of His Son’s Life”
[img]2642|right|Mario Ferrara||no_popup[/img] Dateline Torrance – In yet another twist of the type of irony that often happens in wartime, 24-year-old U.S. Army Lt. Matt Ferrara and his platoon were dispatched to prevent a remote Afghanistan village with orders to prevent it from being overrun by insurgents.
It did not take Lt. Ferrara of Torrance and his troopers long to realize the settlement was rife with Taliban-type terrorists.
A hundred terrorists against 20 American soldiers, early on a chilled November morning in 2007.
The good guys eventually fought off the Taliban, killing 10 of them while avoiding casualties themselves.
Following the weary battle, Lt. Ferrara and his buddies, feeling fortunate, launched a four-hour hike, distant, they hoped, from immediate trouble.
Mario Ferrara, Lt. Ferrara’s 70-year-old father, recently was relating the story of his son’s final moments. “When the soldiers arrived, they got word that the village would like to make amends for what happened,” Mr. Ferrara said. “They wanted to talk to the Americans. They invited the soldiers to return.”
Not clear whether they were suspicious of motives.
“After the soldiers came back, the villagers started delaying the meeting. It was scheduled for morning, which turned into early afternoon. Curiously, “Matt’s platoon was getting information that foreign speakers were being intercepted on their radios.
“In this Afghan village of a couple thousand, there was an unusually large turnout of males” were milling about, Mr. Ferrara said.
Bingo.
Warning lights flashed in minds of the 20 soldiers. An ambush lurked.
“They decided it would not be a good idea to stick around,” Mr. Ferrara said.
“They were being followed by people from the village, who were whistling and making sounds like that.
“When they were a mile away, they were ambushed. The villagers injured Kyle White, my son’s radio telephone operator.”
Two months ago, Mr. White was awarded the Medal of Honor at the White House, and Mr. Ferrara and his wife Linda were present.
Trained for this kind of frightening squeeze, the platoon divided into three groups in the kill zone.
The first group’s order is to cover the patch of open ground, a second group proceeds with the first group covering them. Lt. Ferrara was in the middle, in the second group of five men.
“The ‘villagers’ took out two from that group, and Matt was the first one down,” said Mr. Ferrara. “He was a short guy like I am, actually a couple inches shorter, 5-foot-4. They knew Matt well. He had been there at least six months, interfacing with them, not having a problem until they attacked him.”
(To be continued)
