I was born in Seattle, Washington
Actually a little bit south of it in a city called Renton.
I was an only child growing up.
I spent every spare minute I had out on the trails.
riding motorcross and mountain biking.
My father served just right at the tail end of Vietnam.
He was in Special Forces about eight years
When I decided to enlist, my parents were, they were proud of me.
You know, they were proud I chose to go the route I did.
I got to the unit in August of 2006 and the majority of the training period was focused for Iraq.
I wasn't til our last training exercise when they came in it's like
"Hey, mission changed, we're going to Afghanistan now."
Especially back in 2007. It's a pretty hot zone up there in the Nuristan Province.
I remember getting off the helicopter and I asked where the base was and they just pointed up.
I was not expecting that.
Narrator: When Sargeant Kyle White deployed to Afghanistan in the spring of 2007
He was stationed at Ranch House in the mountains overlooking the village of Aranas.
In August, the base came under a coordinated attack
With 50% of the command outpost under enemy control,
the platoon leader, Captain Matthew Ferrara called in an airstrike on their own position
breaking the enemies will.
On that day there was 11 wounded, but there was no U.S. casualties.
We had suspected some of the people in Aranas were either aiding Taliban
in the area or were members themselves.
They sent a representative requesting that we attend a Shura meeting
there with the village elders.
We left COP Bella with 14 U.S. personnel and then about 10 Afghan National Army members.
We took the high trail throughout the night, set up security.
On normal Shura meetings, there's usually a couple of village elders,
but on this day it seemed every male fighting age and above
was gathered around us very involved in the conversation.
But as the meeting grew on, repetitive questions, and stuff that's not really relevant started to get brought up.
And you start to feel like "Hey, they're trying to hold us here, something's not right."
Our Marine ETT, the embedded training team member, Sergeant Bocks,
came up with his interpreter and he said "We need to go, this is bad."
And so we wrapped up the meeting and made our way on the low trail.
NARRATOR: As the radio telephone operator, Kyle White was in the middle of the patrol
with Captain Ferrara and Sergeant Bocks and his good friend Kain Schilling as foward observer.
The entire platoon was on high alert, anticipating an ambush.
I heard a single shot, then two shots, and then it was just
fully automatic fire, RPG's slammed into the hillside right next to us.
I remember picking an area on the hillside and then just dumping my first magazine
all thirty, as quick as I could.
Going for another magazine, I dropped my first one,
I slapped it in and as soon as I did that, it was lights out.
And I remember being face down on a rock and I just picked my face up
no more than probably just a couple of inches off the rock,
and a round hit that rock and kind of fragmented on the left side of my face.
And I remember that brought me back to reality pretty quick.
Right after that I hear Kaine let out a yell behind me
and I roll over and he's running down the trail dragging his right arm.
Hey, that's my buddy and he needs help.
So I go over to him and he's got a wound, kind of in his right upper shoulder
It was bleeding pretty profusely so I put a tourniquet on,
tightened it down and kind of went about returning fire.
Captain Ferrara was probably 30 feet from where Kaine Schilling and myself were
and I could see his helmet and his bag but I couldn’t see him.
I finally put two and two together that he was laying there.
I low-crawled to him, checked his pulse and he had already been killed.
Kaine was like “Hey, Bocks is hit,” and then so I look over to my left up the trail
and his movements weren’t coordinated and he wasn’t making any progress
so I decided “Well, screw it” I’m gonna go get him.
There was bullets landing all around me,
If he got hit one more time, he definitely wasn’t going to make it.
So I dragged him a few feet, they would shoot at me all the way.
I’d wait for the fire to kind of die down, run back out, drag him some more.
I repeated that a couple of times until I got him back to our area.
Worked on him, tried to do everything I could until he died there.
I remember looking up back at Kaine and a bullet went right through his left knee.
I didn’t have any tourniquets left, I pulled my belt off, looped it around his leg,
told him it was going to hurt and he said to just do it.
NARRATOR: As the last remaining battle ready soldier on the mountainside
White turned his attention to holding the position and calling in air support.
That was my fight.
It was keeping the enemy at their location, keeping their heads down.
But I was just the one that was there that day.
I know if the roles were switched with anybody on that patrol
they would have done the exact same thing.
The MedEvac birds finally came and I remember telling them
“Hey, Kaine needs to go, he’s in trouble.”
There was six Americans killed and the rest wounded.
So we had 100% casualties.
My best friend that day was on the patrol, Corporal Sean Langevin.
We did everything together.
Shawn was killed that day.
Kaine Schilling had a bracelet that I wear on my wrist made for us.
He wears the same one and it's got all their names.
The guys that were killed that day.
I'm gonna keep trying to make a life that anyone of these guys would be proud of.
I took my lunch hour and the receptionist at the White House says
“Hold for the President of the United States.”
I talked to him, it was a casual conversation, but it gets your adrenaline going.
My fiancé went with me into the oval office.
He’s a funny guy and he’s very easy to talk to.
Just seeing like all the old buddies together after six years
and some change kind of all hanging out again.
Kaine Schilling was there.
I’m going to his wedding next year and he’s coming to mine and
so we both think of each other as family now.
It’s good to have something so terrible you know there’s a positive outlook.
The hardest part about the Medal of Honor is wearing it.
It’s an honor to do, because I know what it means
but every time I look at it I just see their faces.
I wear it for them because they’re not here today and I am.
I just hope that by wearing the Medal I’m able to somehow honor their sacrifice.
Their names won’t be forgotten.