Combat Outpost Keating


Combat Outpost Keating was a small American military outpost in Nurestan Province, in Afghanistan.
After an attack on October 3, 2009, where the base was nearly overrun, and 8 Americans and 4 Afghans defenders were killed, the base was abandoned. Two Americans, Staff Sergeants Clinton L. Romesha and Ty Carter were awarded the Medal of Honor for their role in defending the base.
The U.S. soldiers killed in the battle were: Justin T. Gallegos, Christopher Griffin, Kevin C. Thomson, Michael P. Scusa, Vernon W. Martin, Stephan L. Mace, Joshua J. Kirk, and Joshua M. Hardt.
Amy Davidson Sorkin, writing in The New Yorker, tried to answer the question why the base had not been moved, when it was found to be unsuitable. She noted two claims the military put forward in its report: first, the resources to relocate the base had not been available because the brigade was concentrating on guarding a village that Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, considered strategically important. Second, the search for Bowe Bergdahl, in June 2009, had used up so many resources none were available to address the base's unsuitable location.

Film & Television

In May 2016 CBS News profiled Staff Sergeant Romesha, after he published an account of his experiences at the base, entitled Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor. Romesha was critical of the choice of site for the base, describing it as, "like being in a fishbowl or fighting from the bottom of a paper cup."
On November 9, 2018, the Netflix series, Medal of Honor featured Clinton Romesha's personal account of the events that took place at COP Keating during the Battle of Kamdesh.
The films The Outpost and Red Platoon are based on the events that occurred in the Battle of Kamdesh.