Kyle Jerome White
Sergeant, U.S. Army
Medal of Honor, Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan

Kyle was the only child of a Vietnam-era Special Forces Soldier and his wife. In 2006, Kyle wanted to join the Marine Corps. However, his father convinced his 19-year-old son -- who grew up hunting, fishing and snowboarding -- to go into the Army and be a paratrooper. So, in February 2006, Kyle enlisted in the U.S. Army as an Infantryman.

He then attended, consecutively, Basic Training, Advanced Individual Training, and the U.S. Army Airborne School, at Fort Benning, GA. Kyle was then assigned to Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, at Camp Ederle, Vincenza, Italy, as a grenadier and rifleman. While with the 503rd, White was deployed to Aranas, Afghanistan, from May 2007 until August 2008, as a platoon radio telephone operator. During that deployment, White was involved in the battle that became known as the Bella Ambush (named after the outpost where the soldiers were headed that afternoon).

Events leading to the battle actually began months earlier. White was with the 1st Platoon, Chosen Company of 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry and, during the summer of 2007, the platoon was based at a distant outpost near the village of Aranas, high in the Hindu Kush mountains. In August, the paratroopers of 1st Platoon came under attack at their base by about 100 Taliban fighters who overran nearly half the fort.

Half of the 22 Americans were wounded. The platoon commander, First Lieutenant Matthew C. Ferrara, earned a Silver Star after calling in an airstrike on top of his position, killing the Taliban commander leading the attack. The outpost was abandoned in October, but Ferrara wanted to reconnect with the elders in Aranas and led a patrol up from Bella on the night of 8 November.

Ambush at Aranas

On 8 November 2007, Soldiers of 1st Platoon, Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173 Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) 'Sky Soldiers,' left Combat Outpost Bella on foot to visit the large village of Aranas, Afghanistan, for a Shura meeting with village elders. The American Soldiers weren't thrilled about the mission because the villagers had been suspected of collusion in a major attack months earlier on Combat Outpost Ranch House, which resulted in 11 wounded and the closure of the outpost.

Under cover of a pitch-black sky, the team headed to the American-built schoolhouse on the edge of the village, where they would bunk for the night. At daybreak on 9 November, the group prepared for the late morning meeting at the mosque, but villagers delayed the get-together, saying the elders were praying for several hours. The meeting was put off until early afternoon, at about 1:30 p.m.

Specialist White recalled that the village turnout for the Shura was unusually large, as were the number of questions being asked. The Soldiers were hopeful about the level of interest from the young village males of fighting age. Then the 20-year old White said the interpreter was receiving radio traffic in a language he didn't understand. The lone Marine and embedded training team member, Sgt. Phillip A. Bocks, then advised platoon leader 1LT Ferrara, it was best to leave the area.

"There was one shot, you know, down into the valley, and then it was two shots, and then it was full-automatic fire and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) ... it was coming from multiple directions," White remembered. Carrying a fully-automatic M4A1, White emptied his 30-round magazine, then loaded another, but he didn't get a chance to fire.

"An RPG hit right behind my head and knocked me unconscious ... it was just lights out ... when I woke up, I was face-down on a rock," he said, recalling that as he was awakening, an enemy round fragmented near his head sending a shower of broken rock chips and debris into the side of his face. "I didn't feel pain at all, [it was] just numb like when you go to the dentist."

More shots, more booms, more chaos ... then White realized that 10 of the 14-man American element and the ANA (Afghan National Army) soldiers were gone. With no cover, the remainder of the patrol had been forced to slide more than 150 feet down the side of a rocky cliff.

The only ones remaining up top were SPC Schilling, 1LT Ferrara, Sgt Bocks, the interpreter and White. Then White looked around and saw Schilling had been shot in the upper right arm and was dodging and weaving and running toward the cover of shrubs and the umbrella canopy of a single prickly tree. White made for the tree, which provided just enough shade to make the two Soldiers nearly invisible.

White pulled out a tourniquet and asked Schilling, who was grimacing with pain, if he could apply it. White could see where the bullet entered and the blood was flowing from, so he slipped the tourniquet on and instead of cranking down too hard, White said he tightened it just enough to stop the bleeding.

"As I was working on him, I had the radio on, then I rolled over and sat next to Schilling just to take my pack off, that's when I got that metallic taste, then that burning in my lungs," White said, adding that he and Kain covered their mouths with their shirts to filter whatever it was.

"Initially, I thought we were the first unlucky bastards to have chemical weapons on us ... that's what we thought initially, but then I saw a stream of smoke over my shoulder and I realized my pack was smoldering -- it was the battery from my radio burning up," he said. White checked his radio, but it was out of the fight. Then White saw Bocks, who was badly wounded, lying out in the open, about 30 feet from the shade of the tree. He began encouraging the Marine to use all the strength he could, but Bocks couldn't make any progress.

"I knew he needed help and there was a lot of fire coming in, but it really didn't matter at that point, but by then I already had known, 'well, shit, we're not gonna make it through this one; it's just a matter of time before I'm dead,'" White said. "I figured, if that's going to happen, I might as well help someone while I can."

White sprinted the 30 feet to Bocks as rounds skipped around his feet and snapped past his head. He made it to Bocks unscathed, but remembered thinking that his wounds were severe. He looked over at Schilling and yelled at the interpreter to attend to the Soldier, but the interpreter was pinned down and couldn't move.

"At that time, I can remember thinking he wasn't going to make it, but I knew I wasn't going to stop trying," White said. "No matter what the outcome, I'm going to do what I can with what I have." White grabbed the buddy-carry handle on the back of Bocks' vest and began pulling the 200-pound plus Marine toward cover. He realized that the enemy was now shooting directly at him and further endangering Bocks, so he ran back to cover, waited until fire died down, then ran out again; repeating the process four times until Bocks was under cover.

White saw that Bocks' leg was bleeding badly, so he grabbed another tourniquet out of his pack, slipped it around Bocks' leg and tightened it down until the bleeding stopped. Next, he tore Bocks' shirt open and saw another wound, but it wasn't until he rolled him over that he saw the large exit wound. "Stop the bleeding" is all he thought about as he stuffed bandages, clothing, whatever he could to stop the bleeding. No matter what White did, the bleeding wasn't stopping and the Marine succumbed to his wounds.

No sooner had White realized Bocks had passed away than he looked over to see Schilling get hit again by small-arms fire; this time in the left leg. White scrambled to Schilling. Out of tourniquets, White pulled his belt from his uniform and looped it around Schilling's leg. "Hey man, this is going to hurt," White said to Schilling, who replied, "Just do it!" "So, I put my foot on his leg and pulled the belt as hard as I could until the bleeding stopped," White recalled.

White then looked around for the lieutenant and noticed that his platoon leader, Ferrara, was lying still, face-down on the trail. Again, White exposed himself to fire, this time crawling to Ferrara's position. The lieutenant was dead, so White moved back to Schilling where he began to use Schilling's radio until an enemy round zipped right through the hand-microphone, blowing it out of his hand. Now both Soldiers' radios had been destroyed.

The paratrooper moved to Bocks and found that his radio was still operational, so he established communication with friendly elements and rendered a situation report. He understood the situation well enough that he was able to bring in mortars, artillery, air strikes and helicopter gun runs to keep the enemy from massing on friendly positions.

"I heard a hiss, just a second of a hiss and then a big, big explosion and that one brought me to my knees," he said. "It scrambled my brains a little bit." That was concussion number 2 for the day, caused by a friendly 120-mm mortar round that fell a little short of its target.

After nightfall, White began giving the interpreter commands to relay to the Afghan National Army soldiers to establish themselves as a security perimeter. MedEvac was still a few hours away, so White kept telling Schilling to stay awake as he consolidated sensitive items - radios and weapons - in a central location to ensure no equipment would be lost to the enemy. While trying to keep Schilling from falling asleep, White battled his own multiple concussions. He knew if he passed out, the helicopters wouldn't be able to find them or the two wounded Afghan National Army soldiers that he had also treated.

Eventually, White marked the landing zone and assisted the flight medic in hoisting the wounded into the helicopter. Only after all the wounded were off the trail did White allow himself to be evacuated.

The battle lasted more than 20 hours, from the opening volley of shots until the last dead American was recovered. While many Afghan National Army and fellow Soldiers were injured on that autumn day, five American Soldiers and one Marine died during the battle. White and Schilling say they have never forgotten those men and never will.

Each of the surviving Soldiers of the Battle of Aranas wears a stainless steel wristband with the names of these men who didn't come home: 1LT Matthew C. Ferrara; SGT Jeffery S. Mersman; SPC Sean K.A. Langevin; SPC Lester G. Roque; PFC Joseph M. Lancour; and Marine Sgt Phillip A. Bocks.

Kyle received a promotion to Sergeant and, from 2008 to 2010, was assigned to the 4th Ranger Training Battalion at Fort Benning, where he served as an Opposing Forces Sergeant.

He was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but says he copes with the symptoms through exercise. Kyle still carries in his face bullet fragments from an AK-47 round that shattered on a rock in front of him.

SGT White separated from active duty in the Army on 8 July 2011.

Military Education

Combat Life Saver Course
U.S. Army Airborne School
U.S. Army Air Assault School
Infantryman Course (One-Station Unit Training)
Primary Leadership Development Course
Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course

Medals, Awards & Badges

Medal of Honor (Awarded 13 May 2014)
Purple Heart
Army Commendation Medal with Valor Device and Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster
Army Achievement Medal with Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster
Army Good Conduct Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Campaign Star
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
Army NCO Professional Development Ribbon
Army Service Ribbon
Army Overseas Service Ribbon with Numeral 2
Army Presidential Unit Citation
Army Valorous Unit Award
NATO ISAF Medal
Combat Infantryman Badge
Parachutist Badge
Air Assault Badge

Post-Military Life

After leaving the Army, Kyle used his G.I. Bill to attend the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a major in Finance. He currently resides in Charlotte, NC, where he is an Investment Analyst with the Royal Bank of Canada in Charlotte.