Capt. William Doyle faced waves of IED blasts, RPGs, machine gun fire from as close as 80 feet during a 2015 ambush in western Somalia. At one point, he ran into heavy fire to direct rifle platoon maneuver and return fire.
The al-Shabab militants who sprang the attack in the Jungal Valley were determined. They also outnumbered the Somali and Kenyan forces Doyle’s Green Beret team was accompanying. But Doyle took the fight to them.
As the attackers tried to take advantage of worsening weather, Doyle — still under heavy fire — called in mortar and artillery fire. The barrage destroyed two enemy technical vehicles, enabling counterattacks, the records say.
“He repeatedly displayed tremendous gallantry in action,” says the narrative to the Silver Star he earned that day. I first reported about details from the awards paperwork for the Stars and Stripes.
These records were released to me under the Freedom of Information Act (copies below). They reveal more harrowing details and depict Doyle as instrumental in retaking the town of Baardheere. Located about 300 miles west of Mogadishu, it was one of al-Shabab’s few remaining strongholds in July 2015.
The fight to keep the convoy moving through the withering attack is a battle you’ve likely never heard about before. You can read more about it here.
Prior to the release of the records, the Army had listed Doyle as one of the soldiers to receive the country’s third-highest awards for valor since 9/11. It was also mentioned briefly in a news blog in Maryland’s eastern short, where Doyle is from.
Doyle’s other accomplishments
Doyle’s Silver Star adds to his impressive list of accomplishments. This announcement list some that earned him a 2018 distinguished student award at the Command and General Staff Officers’ Course.
During the 44-week course at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., he maintained a 4.0 GPA in it and a separate graduate program. He attained the first perfect score in a “course of action” exercise. And he scored over 300 on the Army Physical Fitness Test extended scale.
Meanwhile, he also completed five marathons and one 66-kilometer ultramarathon. And he maintained his language proficiency rating in Arabic while mentoring and sponsoring other soldiers and students.
An advisor said he was the top officer he’d seen in 32 years of his military and civilian service, the Command and General Staff College Foundation said.
Doyle managed to do all that while also being a really nice guy and a dad to two kids, Rebekah Sanderlin tells me.
Fighting alongside Navy SEALs
I learned another detail too late to add to my story: decorated Navy SEAL Ryan Owens fought alongside Doyle. Fellow Marine vet Jim LaPorta reported SEAL Team 6’s involvement after Owens was killed in Yemen.
Doyle wrote to the SEAL’s family about their service together. He described him as “an incredibly talented, unique operator whose accomplishments know no bounds.” He ability to lead without ego “is truly one of a kind.”
“Ryan’s valor and composure under fire saved the lives of my men and me over a 12 day operation,” he wrote. Owens earned a Silver Star for his actions during intense fighting in Somalia, too.
You should check out Jim’s piece, if you haven’t already.
A lot of Jim’s story is also based on public records.
The official records
The Freedom of Information Act is critical to the work of journalists like Jim and me. Our personal right to demand records of government activities is also indispensable to our civic duties. Without it, who knows how or when we’d learn of the things being done on our behalf in places like Somalia?
Here are the Army’s record of Doyle’s actions.
Doyle_SilverStar Doyle-CitationKeep Reading
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