"Gray! Get over here!" someone yells to my cousin Jared Gray as he and his M249 machine gun appear in this video (see below) approximately 1 minute, 30 seconds in. He's embroiled in a fierce firefight against the Taliban in the Barawala Kalet mountain range and it's the first time any foreign troops have ever attacked this Taliban safe haven.

The 101st Airborne, 327th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion ("No Slack") have killed over 100 Taliban in this battle. There are 6 dead and 7 wounded, and they are still fighting. In an e-mail to his family, Jared wrote "I really should be dead right now. I'm just letting you know I'm okay." God protected him. We are so thankful for that. The next day he wrote "the worst part of the fight was the first day because we walked into an ambush and some very close people to me died." Pray for Jared, the men in his unit, and their families.

• ABC news article
• View several photo stills taken from the video.
• Download a zip file containing the 6 still photos.
• "Size 1", below, is the full video from the ABC embedded war correspondent.
• "Size 2", below, is just the part of the video that features Jared.
• "My Experience", Jared's personal account of the battle.
• Psalm 91.

Length: 03:41

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By Daniel Browning