and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> pelley: tonight on this special edition of "60 minutes presents," honoring our troops. >> martin: did you think you were going to die? >> i didn't think i was going to die; i knew i was. >> martin: you knew you were going to die. >> i knew i was going to die. >> martin: dakota meyer was awarded the medal of honor by president obama for his almost insane bravery after his patrol was ambushed in afghanistan. what makes the honor unusual is that the mission was a failure, even though meyer helped save dozens of lives. >> you either get them out alive or you die trying. if you didn't die trying, you didn't try hard enough. >> pelley: why did you come back

here? >> to try and let it go, something that haunts me every day. >> pelley: steven cornford was awarded the silver star for valor after fighting in iraq. he's one of the many young americans wounded in body or spirit who were invited back to the war zone for a new kind of therapy. >> my wife brought up a good point when i told her i wanted to do it. she said, "what if it makes it worse? what if it brings it all back?" >> they're saying they don't want you guys going through there. >> logan: we've covered a lot of stories on the war in afghanistan for "60 minutes," but this is not a story about war and battle; it's a story about brothers. believe it or not, we found five sets of them serving side by side in the same battalion. in all your years-- you've been in the marines 17 years-- have you ever seen this many brothers together serving at the same time? >> no, not at all. >> logan: in the same place?

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>> pelley: good evening. i'm scott pelley. welcome to "60 minutes presents." tonight, during this memorial day weekend, we honor our troops by bringing you some of the stories that they've shared with us. we begin with "never seen the like." that's what a helicopter pilot told cbs news correspondent david martin about witnessing a 21-year-old marine stave off a taliban ambush that threatened to overrun his unit. the marine was dakota meyer, a kentucky farm boy who received

the nation's highest military award, the medal of honor, from president obama at the white house. meyer was on a mission in the ganjgal valley of afghanistan, where he repeatedly ran a gauntlet of enemy fire in a desperate effort to save his fellow marines. dakota meyer will tell you that story tonight, but there is much more to it than his almost insane bravery. this was an operation which went terribly wrong, so wrong that two army officers were issued career-ending letters of reprimand. it's a story as old as combat. when a warrior's leaders let him down, he has nothing to fall back on but his own courage. dakota meyer will tell you he was just doing his job, but when you see and hear what he did, you too may say, "i've never seen the like." >> martin: dakota meyer grew up shooting game on this farm in greensburg, kentucky, and can hit a squirrel at 750 yards. but it wasn't his marksmanship

that earned him the medal of honor; it was his astonishing courage. did you think you were going to die? >> dakota meyer: i didn't think i was going to die; i knew i was. >> martin: you knew you were. >> meyer: i knew i was going to die. >> martin: the battle took place in this remote valley, deep in enemy territory in the mountains of eastern afghanistan. meyer ran a gauntlet of fire, not once but five times, with insurgents shooting down on him from three sides. so why are you going in there? >> meyer: there was u.s. troops getting shot at and those are your brothers. >> martin: four marines were trapped in the village of ganjgal after a patrol of nine americans-- both marines and army soldiers-- and 45 afghan military was ambushed. afterwards, the army's center for lesson's learned produced this animated recreation of what happened. the patrol set out for what was supposed to be a friendly meeting with village elders. rocky terrain forced them to get out of their armored vehicles and move in on foot.

they're walking up toward the village. what happens next? >> meyer: right at daylight, they open fire on them. the... the enemy starts... starts raining down. they had mortars, rockets, rocke-propelled grenades and small arms fire. >> martin: they were waiting for you. >> meyer: they were. >> martin: this was an ambush. >> meyer: oh, it was. we were set up. >> martin: with an estimated 100 to 150 enemy fighters dug in on the high ground above them, the marines called for artillery fire from a nearby base. the first rounds missed, so first lieutenant michael johnson, one of the four marines trapped inside the village, radioed new coordinates of the enemy positions. but the commanders in the operations center back at the base refused to fire. >> meyer: they denied it. the army denied it and told him it was... it was too close to the village.

and he said, "too close to the village?" and the last words i heard him say was, "if you don't give me these rounds right now, i'm going to die." >> martin: did he get the artillery fire? >> meyer: no, he didn't. the response was basically, "try your best." >> martin: an investigation conducted after the battle determined that two army officers making those decisions in the operations center that day were "clearly negligent." "the actions of key leaders" in the command center, the report said, "were inadequate and ineffective, contributing directly to the loss of life which ensued." because of what the report calls "poor performance" and "an atmosphere of complacency," the operations center just did not realize how bad the situation was until it was too late. >> colonel richard hooker: you can't sugarcoat it. >> martin: now-retired colonel richard hooker conducted that investigation. >> hooker: the two principal officers that were named in the investigation failed to discharge their duties in a responsible way, in a way that

the army and the country has a right to expect them to behave. >> martin: among the findings-- two kiowa helicopters armed with rockets and machine guns were minutes away from ganjgal, but never made it into the battle. >> hooker: they were on another mission, but they were... they were close at hand. >> martin: how far away, in terms of minutes? >> hooker: i would estimate five to ten minutes flying time. >> martin: those helicopters actually broke away from that other mission and headed toward ganjgal but were recalled because the request had not gone through proper channels. the troops under fire didn't know that. they were told the helicopters would be there in 15 minutes. >> meyer: and up to this point, it's been 15 minutes and no air support yet. so they request it again, and they said, "15 more minutes." >> martin: so, 15, 15-- now you're at 30 minutes on the air. >> meyer: at 30 minutes and, you know, i'm hearing the radio traffic and... and now it's starting to get worse. gunny kenefick, i believe it was, come across the radio and

said, "i can't shoot back because i'm pinned down. they're shooting at me from the house and it's so close." >> martin: gunnery sergeant aaron kenefick was one of the four trapped marines. those 15 minutes are starting to add up. >> meyer: they are, yeah. we're almost 45 minutes and no air support. i believe that the enemy started seeing, "well, they're not getting what they need. let's take advantage of this opportunity." >> martin: dakota meyer, one of the youngest, lowest ranking marines on the battlefield, took charge. >> meyer: we had to do something, and we requested to bring a truck in. we were told no. you know, all your guys are in there getting lit up and you want to be in there helping them, and we made it... waited about five minutes maybe. and we requested again. we were told no. so we requested again about two minutes later. and we were told no again. so i looked at staff sergeant rodriguez-chavez and i said, "we're going in." >> martin: staff sergeant juan rodriguez-chavez, who would receive the navy cross-- the

nation's second highest honor-- drove an armored truck toward the village while meyer manned the gun turret. >> meyer: it felt like the whole valley turned on this truck. >> martin: you were it. >> meyer: it was like we're it, like, here comes a big target. the enemy was just... they were running right at you, you know, at the truck. >> martin: so this is not just raining fire down. now, they're trying to swarm the truck. >> meyer: it's just like a killing fest for them, i think. >> martin: how close are the rounds coming to you when you were doing this? >> meyer: the rounds were hitting the turret. and i just kept moving back left and right, left and right. there was so much fire, it sounded like static over top of your head. i was just waiting for one of their rounds to hit me in the face. >> martin: how close is the enemy getting to you? >> meyer: 15 to 20 meters. >> martin: close. >> meyer: yeah. >> martin: as depicted in the army animation, dead and wounded afghan soldiers who had been part of the patrol lay scattered

along the valley floor. >> meyer: i would run and try to assist as many afghans as i could. >> martin: so you get out of the truck. >> meyer: i'm out... i'm out of the truck on foot. >> martin: so you're out in the open in the killing zone. >> meyer: i am. >> martin: meyer and rodriguez- chavez would drive the dead and wounded out of the valley, and come back to run the gauntlet of fire again and again, still trying to get to the four marines trapped in the village. >> meyer: you know, you either get them out alive or you die trying. if you didn't die trying, you didn't try hard enough. >> martin: when the marines' radios fell silent, army captain will swenson, who was pinned down just outside the village, took up the call for fire. >> hooker: captain swenson probably made nine or ten different calls for fire before he probably gave up in frustration. >> martin: does he say, "look, i'm not kidding. i really need this fire?" >> hooker: yeah, the evidence says he... he was very, very insistent in his calls for help.

no question of that. >> martin: how long after the battle begins do the first helicopters show up? >> hooker: it was probably an hour and 45 minutes before the first helicopters come on station. >> martin: helicopters were finally overhead as dakota meyer tried to blast his way through the valley to the stranded marines. >> hooker: we interviewed a number of pilots who were there that day, and several of them stopped in mid-sentence, unable to... unable to finish their description of meyer's actions that day. they just didn't have the words to describe it. >> martin: when the helicopters showed up, did that put an end to the ambush? >> hooker: no. it didn't solve the problem, but it certainly was a great help to the soldiers and marines and afghans that were fighting on the ground. it enabled them to move about the battlefield a little better. >> martin: with marine lieutenant ademola fabayo, who would also receive the navy

cross, manning the machine gun, swenson and meyer drove deeper into the valley. >> meyer: me and captain swenson kept driving this unarmored truck through this valley, and rounds are going everywhere through it. >> martin: they're going through? >> meyer: yeah, both windows were down, you could hear them coming, whizzing through. >> martin: a helicopter finally spotted the four marines, but there was too much gunfire to land. >> meyer: they started trying to land and they couldn't. they were going to get shot down. so i just took off running. and it was probably the longest run of my life. i felt like i couldn't move fast enough because it's wide open. rounds are hitting everywhere around me. i jumped into this trench, and when i did, i landed on gunnery sergeant johnson. >> martin: and he was... >> meyer: he... he was dead. >> martin: they were all dead: first lieutenant michael johnson, sergeant edwin johnson,

sergeant aaron kenefick, and corpsman james "doc" layton. it was now six hours into the battle that would also take the lives of eight afghan soldiers. >> hooker: if we'd gotten supporting aviation on station early in the fight, we... we wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation. that's my firm belief. >> martin: would those americans be alive today? >> hooker: you can't say with any certainty, but the chances are, in... in my opinion, that, yes, they would have been. >> martin: you've just spent the last six hours "risking"-- which is not the right word-- your life, throwing away your life, to try to get to those guys. >> meyer: yeah. >> martin: and they're dead. >> meyer: you know, you... you feel nothing but being a failure, you know. >> martin: that you couldn't get to them in time. >> meyer: yeah. >> martin: you realize that what you did was extraordinary? >> meyer: no, i don't. it would have been extraordinary if i'd brought them out alive. that would have been extraordinary.

>> susan price: he retrieved my son's body. >> martin: susan price is the mother of aaron kenefick. several months after she buried her son, she received a copy of hooker's investigation, known in military parlance as a "15-6." >> price: when i read the 15-6 for the very first time, it actually put me in the hospital for a week. >> martin: price and charlene westbrook, whose husband was grievously wounded on another part of the battlefield, have spent thousands of dollars of their own money campaigning to draw attention to what happened at ganjgal. >> charlene westbrook: we both lost a huge part of our hearts to this mission that was clearly caused by negligence. >> martin: sergeant kenneth westbrook died at walter reed hospital, but lived long enough to tell his wife what happened. >> westbrook: he told me that, "we were surrounded. we were ambushed and we called for help.

no one came. they kept telling us '15 minutes, 15 minutes,' and no one showed. and we were just sitting ducks." >> martin: as recommended by the investigation, letters of reprimand were issued to the captain who was in charge of the watch in the operations center, and to the major who was absent from the center at critical points. the army has not released their names. >> price: how do you equate a piece of paper, a reprimand, to human life? >> westbrook: these letters of reprimand are just clearly slaps on the wrist. these officers need to be court- martialed. >> martin: what would you say to that? >> hooker: i think to be the object of an official investigation which results in a general officer letter of reprimand and ends your career, for most professional officers, is about the most profound kind of thing that can happen to you. it means professional disgrace

and ruin. >> martin: susan price and charlene westbrook were not at the white house to see the president award dakota meyer the medal of honor. will swenson, who quit the army, was. he, too, was recommended for the medal of honor, but as if there weren't enough negligence to tarnish this battle, the paperwork got lost and had to be started all over again. as for ganjgal... it's been two years since that operation and it's still not safe to go into ganjgal. >> meyer: it's not. >> martin: for all that loss of life, for all your courage, what was gained? >> meyer: nothing. nothing. but at the end of the day, we still did our job. we... you know, we were still

fighting. . >> cbs money watch update sponsored by spiriva, good evening, gas prices fell another 5 cents to a national average of $3.64 a gallon. rim struggling maker of blackberry phones is expected to cut more than ten percent of its work force. and men in black 3's $55,000,000.01 weekend box office bumping the avengers, i am jeff glor, cbs news. for more go to cbs

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>> pelley: the war in iraq is over for america, but not for the americans who fought there. the legacy of wounded warriors will be with us for a generation. as we first showed you last november, there's a therapy program run by a group called the troops first foundation, a program that takes soldiers and

marines who have recovered from their physical wounds and brings them back to iraq-- back to confront the memories, back to work through the feelings of anguish that many troops have when they are taken from the war zone and sent home, leaving their buddies to fight on without them. a total of 68 soldiers and marines have been on this remarkable journey, and we went along with a group of eight as they returned to the battlefield for what they call "operation: proper exit." for most of them, it had been a long time since they'd flown on a military transport or worn the uniform. they'd been wounded years ago and several were civilians now. but for one week, in operation: proper exit, they were proper soldiers and marines again. as the c-130 lumbered over the desert, they crowded the windows to look across the battlefields and the memories of the war that had changed their lives.

♪ ♪ an honor guard awaited them in baghdad, and so did uncertainty. they didn't know how, or whether, this program would help them. first off the plane was marine corporal matt bradford, returning to the place that has haunted him the last four years. >> matt bradford: i wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep, because i keep thinking about, you know, getting blown up, laying there on the ground. >> pelley: bradford was "blown up" in 2007. he was 20 then, inspired to join the corps by 9/11. the last thing he saw in iraq-- the last thing he ever saw-- was the wire that turned out to be a roadside bomb. he was blinded and lost both legs. bradford came back to reimagine that final vision of iraq. >> bradford: still, i'll always have that picture in the back of my head, you know, of, you know, looking down and seeing, you know, the wires going into the pipe, that, you know... shrapnel going straight in my eyeballs.

>> pelley: some folks would think that, after what happened to you, you'd never want to get anywhere close to this place again. >> bradford: you know, ever since i've been hurt and stuff, i've had a lot of people tell me i couldn't do something. i told them i would return back to iraq, you know, someday. i don't let people get me down on anything. if they tell me i can't do something, i want to go find a way to do it. >> pelley: "no" means "go." >> bradford: "can't" is not in my vocabulary. >> ed salau: he trusts only a handful of people with the job of being his eyes. >> pelley: ed salau came to be matt bradford's guide. but he also served in iraq and paid for it. in 2004, then-army lieutenant salau was leading a patrol of armored vehicles, and on the way back to the base, they were hit. he and his gunner each had a leg blown off. >> salau: we won that fight; we lost a couple of legs. life's different. i jokingly say, "i had ten really good months and one really bad day." >> pelley: salau blames himself for leading his patrol into an

ambush and, like a lot of soldiers and marines we've talked to, he feels guilty about leaving his men when he was medevaced out of iraq. you felt like you let them down... >> salau: absolutely. >> pelley: ...by leaving. >> salau: absolutely. >> pelley: when you first heard about operation: proper exit, what did you think? >> salau: i had to come back. you know what? this... this place doesn't take from you what you don't give it. >> steven cornford: coming back here means a lot to me. >> pelley: of the eight, returning may have been toughest for steven cornford. to look at him, you don't see scarring. there are no amputations. he left iraq and was awarded the silver star for valor. but they don't give away silver stars for nothing, and when we sat down with cornford, we learned what post-traumatic stress disorder is all about. when you were coming over here, for operation: proper exit, did you wonder whether you were doing the right thing? >> cornford: sometimes.

my wife brought up a good point when i told her i wanted to do it. she said, "what if it makes it worse? what if it brings it all back?" because for a while, i... i would sleepwalk and scream in my sleep and stuff, and i... i haven't been doing that a lot lately. but when i found out i was coming back, for about a week before, i... i started doing it again, and it really scared her. >> pelley: his nightmares are rooted in easter sunday, 2007. steven cornford's platoon assaulted an enemy machine gun nest. he was hit in the left shoulder. his lieutenant, phillip neel, sprinted forward to help, but was cut down. through enemy fire, cornford reached the lieutenant, and he tried to stop the bleeding from the artery in the lieutenant's leg. >> cornford: i didn't have much pressure with my left arm, so once i found the spot on him that had the worst injury, where it was bleeding the most, i... i

tried to stop it by laying on it with a pressure dressing on it. >> pelley: and this whole time, you're returning fire? >> cornford: yes, sir. >> pelley: cornford threw two hand grenades into the machine gun nest. and then, he carried lieutenant neel a mile to a medevac helicopter that took them both to a field hospital. the lieutenant didn't make it and cornford cannot forgive himself. >> cornford: and they pronounced my lieutenant dead. i... i just... the last thing i remember before they put me out for surgery and blood transfusions and stuff like that was... they all salute when they pronounce somebody dead. and i... i was fighting the nurses and the doctors with the one good arm i did have to get up and salute. and they wouldn't let me get up. and finally, i just blacked out, and woke up the next morning in a lot of pain.

>> pelley: how old were you? >> cornford: 18 years old. >> pelley: why did you come back here? >> cornford: to try and let it go. it's something that haunts me every day. >> pelley: what is it that you're trying to let go? >> cornford: i... i see his face every time i close my eyes to go to sleep at night. i blame myself a lot, because i got hit first and he was coming to get me. i... i just... i want to be able to lay it to rest, like he is. because i know he's in a better place. i just... i know he would want me to. >> we want to welcome you back. ( cheers and applause ) >> pelley: operation: proper exit helps cornford and the others lay down some of the burden by bringing them back not

just to a place but to a time, a time that they were proud of. the trip is a tour, and every stop is part of the therapy, back with the troops, the machines, and the weapons that were their strength. >> rick kell: they all love putting the uniform back on. it motivates them, it takes them back to something that they love, absolutely love. >> pelley: rick kell started operation: proper exit and leads the trips. in iraq, he's in uniform, but he's never been in the military. kell heads the troops first foundation and volunteered at walter reed army medical center. how did this idea occur to you? >> kell: it really didn't occur to me; it was presented to me by a corps of wounded warriors at

walter reed that i saw frequently. in every conversation, it came up: "i want to go back, i need to go back." >> pelley: in a sense, for many of these young men and women, they didn't leave iraq, they were unconscious. >> kell: they were taken from iraq. when they arrived home last time, there were no homecomings. many woke up after comas of three weeks or more, significantly different in many ways. a lot of it's a blur. and they have to put those pieces back together. and they do, many do. and... but the one piece they couldn't put back was the... the piece of exiting and leaving the way they thought they would leave-- with their team, with... with their battle buddies. >> pelley: in 2008, kell brought the idea to the pentagon and they turned him down. then, ray odierno, the commanding general in iraq, heard about kell. odierno's son had been wounded and the general gave kell the

go-ahead for operation: proper exit. today, a total of 68 troops have been on kell's journey. the tour that we joined was the ninth proper exit. the hardest stops on the itinerary confront that day, years ago, when they were wounded. first stop, the air force theater hospital. lives were saved and friends were lost in this emergency room. the medical staff had changed, but everyone understood what these men had survived. >> bradford: i don't remember coming through here. >> pelley: for matt bradford, it was more than a chance to say thanks; it was a step towards peace of mind. >> bradford: i lost both my legs and also my vision. i know a handshake or a hug ain't enough, but you all are pretty much... i mean... pretty much... i mean... you know, i owe y'all my life. ( applause )

>> pelley: the next step back in time was to fly over the places where they were wounded. >> i'm relieved. >> pelley: for ed salau, it was an opportunity to see what iraq had gained from his sacrifice. >> salau: i needed to see. i... i needed to see what was going on here. the newspapers weren't telling me what i was looking for. how many schools were being built? how many wells were being dug? because that's what i was trying to get done. how many imams were getting water... trucks of fresh drinking water to their villages that i'd promised them so many times? but i.e.d.s kept blowing them up. i needed to see that was fixed. >> pelley: is that what you saw? >> salau: that's exactly what i saw. i saw people looking to their government for solutions. it was finally becoming iraq's iraq. and they were working to make sure the u.s. would leave and they would be okay when it happened. i needed to see that. >> pelley: of all the troops, the man most determined to see the scene of his battle was

steven cornford. >> cornford: my whole life, since i came home from iraq, has been hell because of that night. >> pelley: perhaps it's impossible to understand if you haven't lived it. cornford scoured maps and strained to see. he was grasping for something, eye contact, with the night his nightmares were made of. and touching it again let him begin to let go. >> cornford: i feel a little more relaxed with myself, because one of the things i deal with on a daily basis is i don't even like being myself. i... i want to get out of my own skin. i... i don't like being me, because i feel bad constantly. and it's starting to go away, a little bit. i feel a little more comfortable with myself and with what i've done in my life. >> pelley: when you go back to the states this time, how do you

think you'll be different? >> cornford: i know i'll be a lot less angry. i'll treat my wife with a little more respect. i won't be so, i guess, snappy with people. i'll... i'll be a little more understanding. because i always hear people complain about stuff, and it just makes me mad because a lot of people don't understand. they don't see the stuff that... they just go about their daily lives, while there's still people dying every day... for them. and it... it upsets me a lot. and it... just i... i'm... i'm starting to feel a little better about it.

>> pelley: each man came for a different reason-- to remember peace of mind, to see again, to walk out of iraq. before their return, the enemy had had the last word. but now, after a week, they'd rewritten that history. this was their proper exit. they were guided by the eyes of others or walked on artificial legs-- those things would not change. but as they left on their own terms now, the enemy was retreating from the battlefield of their minds. with the american pullout from iraq, the proper exit trips there have ended. the first operation: proper exit to afghanistan will take place later this year. >> cbs sports update presented

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>> pelley: in world war ii, there were five brothers serving on a ship in the pacific that was attacked by the japanese. their name was sullivan, the sullivan brothers, and their story has become part of american folklore because they all died. that was more than 60 years ago, but their deaths cast a shadow that still hangs over military commanders today, and they do everything they can to prevent siblings from going to war together. there's no official military policy, but it is an unwritten rule. which is why it may surprise you, as it did us, to learn that five sets of brothers-- all marines-- were serving together

in the same battalion in afghanistan. lara logan tracked them down to the edge of an unforgiving desert in the south of the country, where she met the beans brothers, two fourth-generation marines who went to extraordinary lengths to go to war together. at "60 minutes," we've covered a lot of stories on the war in afghanistan, but this is not a story about war and battle. it's a story about brothers. >> daniel beans: we kind of felt like we had something to give back to our country. you know, we saw the legacy that we were handed down. and we kind of realized but... without being pushed, but we just kind of realized that, you know, there... there's so many other people that have given so much more than we did that we can enjoy the life that we enjoy. >> logan: this is not the first time the beans brothers have served together. daniel, or "big beans," as he's called, and his younger brother joshua, known as "little beans," were in iraq four years ago.

>> daniel beans: it was like being with your best friend, you know. we literally... we slept right next to each other. you know, we had... we lived in a little... little mud hut. but, you know, we had a little plywood wall, and... and i lived on one side and he lived on the other. and that was, you know, pretty much how we lived for seven months. >> logan: did you talk to each other through that wall? >> joshua beans: sometimes, i would... sometimes, i would knock really softly and wake him up in the mornings. >> logan: you were like his live alarm clock? >> joshua beans: no. i just... every once in a while, i'd knock and make sure he was still there. >> logan: the beans brothers weren't home from iraq very long when they decided they wanted to go to afghanistan together. president obama had just announced he was sending 30,000 more troops to fight there, but the brothers' marine reserve unit in florida wasn't scheduled to deploy. so they spent the next two years searching for one that was, and found the lone star battalion in texas. the problem was, to serve with that unit, they had to come up with a story and an address in texas. >> daniel beans: ( laughs ) we... we were opening up a lawn care business in plano, texas. that was our reasoning for...

for making the move. >> joshua beans: we had to... we had to have a reason to move to texas and join that unit, so... >> daniel beans: he worked the weed whacker. >> joshua beans: so i... that's what we decided we were going to do is we moved to plano, texas, which i still to this day don't know where that is. >> daniel beans: no idea. >> logan: that's a lot of trouble to go to, to go and fight in a war that... that not many americans believe is worth fighting these days? >> daniel beans: that's the great thing about america-- everybody's entitled to their opinion. >> logan: lieutenant colonel todd zink had an opinion, and it wasn't one the brothers would like. as their new commanding officer, he did not think they should serve together and decided immediately to separate them. >> todd zink: everyone brings up the sullivan brothers from... >> logan: ...from the second world war. >> zink: world war ii, yeah, yeah. and so i thought it was my responsibility to try to minimize what harm could possibly come to any two sets of brothers. >> logan: the story of the sullivan brothers was turned into this movie called "the fighting sullivans," a

heartbreaking account of how all five brothers died in 1942 after a japanese submarine torpedoed their ship. there's just something about that bond of family and the idea that, you know, two brothers might not come back that kind of kicks you in the gut. >> zink: yeah, it does. i could see my own brother and i almost wanting the same thing, though, i think if we found ourselves in the same unit, we're that close. so, as hard as it is, i can... i can kind of understand them, to some extent. >> joshua beans: they have to look at from the other side of the table and say, "well, if... if they were to both die while they were over there, then it'd look really bad on us, and family would hate us." >> zink: you know, they were very eloquent in front of me, but i still wasn't convinced that this... you know, having them together would be the right thing. >> logan: but colonel zink had no idea what he was up against-- the beans brothers' family is steeped in marine history. their grandfather and great- grandfather both rose to brigadier general, and the boys' father, mark, was also a marine. >> zink: i told them i couldn't face their mother if they were both lost, you know.

and almost on cue, they presented a letter from their parents. >> logan: in the letter, mark and his wife, crystal, wrote: "we understand that both our sons could be lost or injured at the same time, but we would rather know that the two of them are together, regardless of what happens." was that incredible to you, that the mother and father of these two young men were prepared to go to such lengths to see them risk their lives together? >> zink: it is kind of incredible. but it may be it's indicative that they really know their sons and maybe what their sons really desired. >> logan: colonel zink and the brothers' company commander, major mark wood, struggled for weeks to come up with a way they, as commanders, could go against convention and support sending the brothers into combat together. you decided what? >> mark wood: they would not be in the same squad-- different squads-- and they would not be on the same mission. >> logan: so those were the only restrictions?

>> wood: yes. >> logan: some would call that a brave decision, considering the risk. >> wood: it's my decision. i would have to live with it. >> logan: the beans brothers had won, but the victory was not theirs alone. there were four other sets of brothers in the lone star battalion, and all of them would now be allowed to serve together. >> zink: i've never heard of five sets in one battalion. that's truly extraordinary. >> logan: unprecedented? >> zink: unprecedented, yes. >> logan: we managed to get eight of the brothers together at a remote u.s. base in southern afghanistan. the youngest of the group are the henrichsens-- 20-year-old bobby, and his older brother, cody, who's 23. gunnery sergeant hector vega looks out for both of them, and for his younger brother, sergeant francisco vega, who couldn't make it to the interview. lance corporal matthew faseler was the only one serving without his brother-- jonathan faseler was injured during training. raul hernandez and his older brother will are both lance

corporals, and they also come from a family of marines. do you worry about your brother out here? >> will hernandez: i worry about him a lot. when he first got to the unit, i was like a mother hen. you know, he was a marine, but i still feel like, you know, we're little kids again. you know, my mom's telling me, "take care of your brother." >> logan: what did your parents think about you joining the marines? >> will hernandez: my mother actually went into the recruiting office and chewed out the recruiters. so she went in there, you know, raising... raising hell. >> logan: so she must have been thrilled when your brother joined. >> will hernandez: oh, yeah. when... when he joined, yeah, she was... she just didn't know what to do. ( laughs ) we made the best of it. we... we comforted her as much as we could. we don't tell her certain things, you know. ( laughs ) or we... we sugarcoat it, you know. we... we church it up a lot whenever we call home. >> logan: you church it up a lot? >> will hernandez: we church it up a lot and make things sound like, "oh, it's... it's fine. everything's good," you know.

>> logan: this miserable stretch of desert road is where daniel and joshua beans spend most of their time out here. highway one is the lifeblood of the u.s. war effort, pumping supplies and fuel to every u.s. base across the country. convoys like this stretch for miles, up to a thousand tankers long, and the hired guns who guard them rarely wear uniforms. >> daniel beans: it makes it a little bit nerve wracking, you know, when... when you're seeing guns, you're seeing weapons, and you're assuming, you know, based on the indicators that you've got, that these are, in fact, private contractors. but at the end of the day, you never know-- all you're doing is walking up to a truckload of people with guns. >> logan: and the last thing you want to do is kill an innocent person? >> daniel beans: correct. >> logan: but you also don't want it to be you? >> daniel beans: it's a double- edged sword, yes, ma'am. >> logan: in this part of afghanistan, the taliban still has strong support, in spite of the surge of u.s. troops. but they've changed their tactics. instead of taking the marines on in a close-up fight, they're concentrating now on a weapon that costs them little-- bigger,

deadlier roadside bombs. this is the scene of a massive attack on the brothers' battalion. five marines were trapped inside this burning vehicle. the roadside bomb they hit was so powerful, it sent their 17- ton m-rap flying through the air. >> wood: you just don't flip an m-rap. it doesn't happen. it has to be a massive amount of explosives. >> logan: did you think, "they could all be dead"? >> wood: of course. of course. >> logan: what are you telling yourself? >> wood: bargaining. >> logan: bargaining? >> wood: bargaining. i was praying a little bit and asking for it not to be all of them, and... maybe two, not three, not four, not... not all five. just... just let them... let a couple survive, please.

>> logan: for major wood, it was nothing short of a miracle that all five men inside the vehicle survived. one of them was crippled for life. >> wood: god was looking after us that day. we were hoping for the best, but we were preparing ourselves for the worst. >> logan: there was another event in the brothers' deployment that took a heavier toll. two of their marines were killed by a u.s. drone that mistakenly targeted them in the midst of an intense firefight, the first incident of its kind since drone strikes began. it was gunnery sergeant vega's job to help the men get through it. at 33, he's like the elder statesman and big brother of this group. and even though he's one of four marines in his family, this was the first time he had been allowed to deploy with one of his brothers. >> hector vega: knowing that your brother's here, you almost have to put yourself at a different state of mind, if you

will, to where, if something does happen, how are you going to react? what are you going to say? what are you going to do? i role play, psychologically, prepare myself. >> logan: do you have a speech? something you would say to his wife? something prepared? >> hector vega: no. how can you prepare, lara, for things like that? how can... what... what can you possibly say? >> logan: in all your years-- you've been in the marines 17 years-- have you ever seen this many brothers together serving at the same time? >> hector vega: no, not at all. it's history in the making, if you ask me. i think it's phenomenal. i think it's good. >> logan: there's an ending to this story, and it's a happy one. all of the brothers made it home alive. ( cheers and applause ) the beans brothers said the experience brought them closer. but for their parents, who wrote that letter that helped send their sons to war together, the worrying didn't stop until both their boys got home to florida safely.

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captioning funded by cbs, and ford-- built for the road ahead. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pelley: i'm scott pelley. thanks for joining us. "60 minutes" will be back next week. i have three daughters and my son, and then i have eleven grandkids. right when you see them, they're yours, it's like, ah, it's part of me.

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