Hope in the Dark

Article published Dec. 30, 2009

Meade County Messenger

Hope in the Dark

by Kevin Hatfield

Radio transmission… (Widowmaker main…Widowmaker main…we are under fire, repeat we are under fire…over) (Understand Sable… under fire… Widowmaker 23 and 26 are patrolling your sector… Move back to adjacent rally point... They are coming in hot…Over)

It was one of the darkest nights I had seen since I’ve been here in Afghanistan.  We breached the compound and had taken up position on the rooftop next to the main building.  Everything was going according to plan.  Intel said the high value target was inside, when it all started.

We threw flash bang grenades in through a window and rounds came out from everywhere.  There was a machine gunner inside a tower just on the far side of the building dug in deep.  We returned fire but the rounds were flying both ways.

We could hear the apache coming when the cannons opened up.  Widowmaker 23 put a hundred rounds through the windows and doors.  Tracer rounds exploded when they hit. I had to look away because it was so bright.  We threw everything we had at the building. Parts of the wall were falling; we could hear the bullets flying by and see the grenades explode. It was so loud… oh, I could hardly think. It looked like the Fourth of July.  I could see everything like a spotlight had lit up the courtyard. I couldn’t believe anybody was left alive inside.  Then I felt the hit…

Radio transmission… (Medivac!!… Medivac!! We have a man down!  Extract from rally point bravo ASAP!!!)  (Negative Sable…LZ (landing zone) to hot, repeat LZ to hot...)

I woke up at Walter Reed hospital.  I was doing better according to the doctors.  I ask my wife what happened.  She told me an officer came to get her and said I had been shot, but was stable.  They flew me back here for treatment.  My squad leader, Sgt. Machmehan, called about a week ago to check on me and share some details. I had taken a direct fire through the chest and fell from the rooftop into the courtyard.  They dragged me out to the rally point but the Medivac couldn’t pick me up because we were still under fire.

Seems one of the Apaches, Widowmaker 23 flew me out to the refueling point to meet the Medivac.  I tried to explain to her that wasn’t right because it only holds two people and it takes two pilots to fly.  Then she told me the rest of the story…

Widowmaker 23, the flight leader, had taken rounds which degraded his aircraft and wouldn’t fire the weapons.  Widowmaker 26, his flight wingman, took over the engagement and 23 moved above to observe and handle radio communications.  He heard the Medivac call… He also heard Sable say you would die if you weren’t evacuated.  Widowmaker 23 landed in the hot LZ and put out his copilot to make room for you.  He flew you back to meet the Medivac at the refueling station without weapons, no copilot, and came back for another person before picking up the other pilot.

I’ve thought that night through a thousand times as I work my way through rehab. The sounds still haunt me in the night but now I’m not alone. We each find ourselves in our own darkness, when we think we have no hope. But I remember a special promise.  Jesus said He would never leave us or never forget us. In my darkness he sent a pilot who against all odds carried me to safety.  He carried me to a new beginning, one with hope. 

When the night falls in around me… I don’t think I’ll make it through… I’ll use your light to guide the way… All I think about is you… 


Dedicated to my dearest friend...
CW3 Marcus Hazel
101st Airborne Division