VALDOSTA — Frankie Gay’s grief over his son’s 2008 death in Afghanis-tan continues to manifest in even more painful ways.

He keeps wandering along a trail of broken promises concerning the death of his son, Cpl. Pruitt Allen Rainey.

Following the completion of a second inquest into the July 13, 2008, battle of Wanat, the families of the nine soldiers killed were promised answers by the Army.

They were promised copies of the more than 4,000-page account and study of the battle and the events and actions leading up to it.

They were promised direct contact by military personnel about the incident and study.

They were promised they would see the report and know which officers would be reprimanded in the incident before it was presented to the media.

Last week, a letter of reprimand received by Capt. Matthew Myer was leaked to mainstream television outlets, and once again Gay and the others watched their hope of resolution blur into the background of media buzz.

Though Myer’s name along with Lt. Col. William Ostlund and Col. Charles Preysler have been released as the three commanders to receive reprimands following the inquiry into the 2008 Battle of Wanat, the parents are still left waiting and wondering if or when this will end.

The grief, of course, will carry on long after the reprimands are appealed or administered and long after the report is placed in the hands of family that will never touch their sons’ hands again.

The investigation by Central Command was completed on Jan. 21, 2010, and headed by Gen. Richard Natonski, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command. Natonski was appointed in late 2009 to conduct the second investigation by Gen. David Petraeus, head of Central Command.

The report is currently in the hands of Gen. Charles Campbell, head of U.S. Army Forces Command, and presumably in the hands of Congress.

Campbell and Congress have 90 days to review the report from the time it was received.

The promise made by Central Command and the Army was that the family would be sent the report and the information regarding the letters of reprimand before it was released to the media, Gay said.

Instead, they were leaked to the media.

“The Army has been very respectful and very honorable but when it comes to doing what they say they are going to do they have not done it,” Gay said.

It’s like hearing their sons have been killed all over again every time the parents have a setback in their pursuit for the truth, Gay said.

“The letters from what I understand, I haven’t seen them, are pretty bad and they are career ending so to speak,” Gay said.

Myer, Gay said, was on the ground when the battle of Wanat occurred, a battle that would kill nine soldiers and wound 27 more.

Gay said Myer’s letter of reprimand, from what he has read and been told by others, focuses on lack of fortifications regarding the base.

He doesn’t believe that fault should rest on Myer’s shoulders.

“From what I was told he was asking for fortifications,”  Gay said.

According to ABC News, the three Army officers received letters of reprimand for failing to prepare adequate defenses for a combat outpost.

The ABC article notes that the actions are not yet final because the review that led to the letters is ongoing. All three officers have time to respond and request an appeal regarding the disciplinary action, the report stated.

Myer received the Silver Star following the attack, the military’s third highest honor for bravery under fire.

At the time of the attack, Lt. Col. William Ostlund, battalion commander, and Col. Chip Preysler, brigade commander, were the commanding officers.

Currently, Ostlund is the deputy commander of the 75th Ranger Regiment and Preysler works for the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, according to ABC News.

The outpost’s location was negotiated to be used for a period of 10 months and with the plan to close two other outposts, Gay said.

“They did it on the spur of the moment in the middle of the night. They packed the boys up and they made their last calls,” Gay said. “There was no way to fortify it because he (Myer) did not have the supplies or time or manpower. The commanders did not give him the things that he needed.”

From the start, Gay has had one simple question he’s wanted answered.

“Who made the decision to put them in Wanat, 10 days before their tour was up, with no protection whatsoever?” he said.

For Gay, the waiting game makes him continuously relive the last conversation he had with the 22 year-old Rainey. A conversation where his son discussed the danger of Wanat and the probability that he would not make it out alive.

“He told me, ‘If we get attacked, there is no way we can defend ourselves,’” Gay said.

Though the leak regarding the reprimands and the seemingly never-ending wait on the report is taxing, Gay has begun to channel his grief into other avenues.

He has just finished reading a skeleton script written by Carlene Cross and Douglas Cubbison regarding the soldiers and the battle of Wanat.

Cross is the mother of Spec. Jason Bogar, who was killed in Wanat. Cubbison penned the U.S. Army Combat Studies Institute report that documented the actions leading up to the battle and the battle itself.

This week, Cross has plans to meet with prospective directors and actors regarding the production of the movie.

The hope is to insert actual footage, taken by the Taliban, the Army and the soldiers, into the movie, Gay said.

“This is our way of honoring our sons. This is our way of telling the story because if the Army is not going to do what they say, we are going to do it through the media and a movie,” Gay said. “I mean I could get mad as hell, and I do, but it doesn’t make anything better.”

The parents will not make money off the film if it is made, Gay said.

Cross has established a non-profit called Jason’s Foundation, which benefits the children of Afghanistan, and all proceeds from the film would go to that, he said.

If the movie is made, there is no way Gay will ever be able to see it, he said.

“I haven’t watched anything to do with the military since this happened,”  Gay said.

Since reading the screenplay, the words and scenes are now burned into his memory.

“I can’t do nothing but think about it,” he said. “It’s the only way to hold the Army accountable. I appreciate what they do and we are proud of them and support them. But if you fail the plan, you plan to fail, and that has been around in business and war forever. This was definitely a lack of planning.”



Battle of Wanat

The battle of Wanat began in the pre-dawn hours of July 13, 2008, when rocket-propelled grenades rendered the unit’s mortars ineffective and some 200 insurgents descended on the outpost. The observation post was assaulted the hardest, and, in just 15 minutes, all nine soldiers at the post were either killed or injured.

By the time air support arrived hours later, nine soldiers were dead.

The soldiers stationed at Wanat were members of C Company, 173rd Airborne, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, based out of Italy.

C Company or “Chosen Company” 2nd Platoon was ordered to relocate to Wanat with two weeks left in its 15-month deployment.

In Cubbison’s report, he concluded that no senior commander ever visited Wanat before establishing it as an outpost and it was “highly questionable” whether these commanders exercised due diligence when they ordered a platoon to move there.

He writes that the Combined Joint Task Force, which heads operations in Afghanistan, did not place adequate emphasis upon the planning, implementation and sustainment of the move to Wanat.

Cubbison also states that the lack of heavy equipment to fortify defenses and the lack of intelligence support directly contributed to the casualties suffered on July 13.

To view videos and news stories from various media outlets and to learn more about Cpl. Pruitt Allen Rainey, his fellow soldiers and the battle of Wanat visit the Facebook page “Playing for Pruitt.”