TAMPA —
When Army Ranger Staff Sgt. Matt Sitton was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan on Aug. 2, the 26-year-old from Largo was helping provide security for a bomb squad searching for remains of a soldier killed the day before.
A total of 14 U.S. soldiers went on the mission. None of their partners in the Afghan National Army came along.
The Afghans were considered too frequently under the influence of drugs and too unreliable to go on the mission, according to a U.S. Army investigation into the incident that killed Sitton and 1st Sgt. Russell R. Bell, 37, of Tyler, Texas.
“Overall, poor operational performance … was a deciding factor not to partner” for this mission, “due to the frequent tendency of being high on drugs and (Afghan National Army) history of walking outside the cleared lanes, putting (International Security Assistance Force) troops at risk,” according to the report.
The report, called an AR 15-6, concludes that given the circumstances of the mission, the explosion that killed Sitton and Bell was “likely unavoidable.”
The report was obtained by the Tampa Tribune on Friday. Its public disclosure comes at a sensitive time.
U.S. military leadership is trying to determine how much of a presence to maintain in Afghanistan after the bulk of U.S. troops leave in 2014. On Sunday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrives in Washington to discuss the future of U.S.-Afghan military relations.
The 70-page, heavily redacted report — the bulk of which is about the specifics of the mission in which Sitton died and statements by eyewitnesses — was provided to Sitton’s wife and parents last month after they filed a Freedom of Information Act request. Neither Sarah Sitton, Matt Sitton’s wife, nor Steve or Cheryl Sitton, his parents, could be reached for comment for this story.
Three months before his death, Sitton wrote an email to U.S. Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young of Indian Shores complaining his brigade “was averaging at a minimum an amputee a day from our soldiers, because we are walking around aimlessly through grape rows and compounds that are littered with explosives.”
He was killed in the same area he complained about. The email helped sway Young, a vocal supporter of the war in Afghanistan, to call for a withdrawal of U.S. troops ahead of President Barack Obama’s 2014 deadline.
Reached for comment Friday, Young said it verifies his position.
“Our guys need to be out of Afghanistan, out of harm’s way and away from a person or group of people who are supposedly our allies, but in fact turn out to be our enemies,” Young said.
At 5:45 a.m. on Aug. 2, Sitton left Combat Outpost Salim Aka as patrol leader of a 10-man squad. He was wearing his Advanced Combat Helmet, eye protection, gloves, knee pads, bullet-stopping armored plates, groin protection and protective undergarments. He was armed with an M4 rifle and night vision goggles.
The mission for the unit of the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 82{+n}{+d} Airborne Division was to provide security for a post-blast analysis of an explosion the day before that killed one and wounded four.
Afghan National Security Forces, who were observing the Ramadan holiday at the time, were not invited to participate because of concerns about their drug use and ineffectiveness, according to the report.
By 6:30 a.m., Sitton sat with his fire support team as Bell looked for the remains of the soldier killed the day before.
The spot had been cleared by the bomb squad and, before Bell entered the area, a bomb squad robot found no signs of any IEDs. The area had been walked over at least six times before the blast and some type of container had been set up on the spot.
A few minutes later, Sitton walked over to Bell.
At about 7 a.m., witnesses reported a tremendous explosion. Bell, it would be determined, triggered an IED buried 22 inches under the soil containing a 10-gallon jug with about 30 pounds of an unknown explosive.
He was killed instantly, but Sitton couldn’t be found. Troops began calling his name, and one heard a faint response.
“I’m good,” said Sitton. “Is somebody coming?”
Those were the last words anyone heard him say.
Paratroopers found Sitton’s helmet near a canal. Eventually, Sitton was found. The force of the blast sent his body 15 feet up a tree.
The last page of the report recounts an interview with a Ranger, who said he saw the Afghans using drugs “often … two or three times a day.”
The Ranger said the Afghans were “the absolute worst ANA I have ever seen in over 33 months of operating in Afghanistan. They stole from my soldiers while they were defending their lives while the strong point was under attack. Untrained, undisciplined and most certainly unable to hold any terrain alone in Afghanistan.”
The report concludes that the Rangers were well trained and well rehearsed, and the area Sitton and Bell were killed in “had been extensively cleared by multiple trained personnel to the best of their abilities and with all available” counter IED equipment. “This IED’s detection and reduction before detonation were likely unavoidable in this scenario.”
The report offers recommendations, but those specifics — as well as the names of everyone involved except for Sitton, Bell and Army Maj. Gen. James L. Huggins Jr., who ordered the report — were redacted by the Army.
An Army spokesman, reached late Friday afternoon, said he could not comment on the report because he had not seen it and no one with direct knowledge was available for comment.
A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, which oversees combat operations in Afghanistan, also declined comment on the report but supported the Afghan military partners in general.
“What I can tell you is that by and large we find the Afghan National Security Forces to be a dependable force that is growing more capable of taking full responsibility for the security of this country,” Air Force Lt. Col. Lester T. Carroll wrote in an email to the Tribune. “Afghan people see the Afghan National Army as the most respected national institution in the country, and ISAF strategy to transfer security responsibility to a capable, reliable (Afghan National Security Forces) echoes this respect.”
Navy Cmdr. William Speaks, a Pentagon spokesman, said, “the professionalism and competence of Afghan National Security Forces is something we take very seriously. We certainly address deficiencies with Afghan leadership.”
Speaks, who had not read the report, also said, “We help them along. That is being borne out by the fact they are taking the lead in more and more operations.”
Young, just reappointed chairman of the influential House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense, has been a staunch proponent of every U.S. conflict since Vietnam.
He said reading this report only solidified his call to speed up troop withdrawal at a time when Gen. John Allen, head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, has recommended leaving between 6,000 and 20,000 troops in that country beyond 2014, according to the New York Times.
“It is time to get out of Afghanistan,” said Young, a frequent critic of Karzai, who is scheduled to meet with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta tomorrow. “The so-called partners are not reliable and, in some cases, they have turned on the troops. I don’t even know what the mission is.”