For a year and a half, senior warrant officer A. Shipunov performed his international duty in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA). He commanded a separate platoon of 39 motorized riflemen on three armored personnel carriers, two infantry fighting vehicles and an anti-aircraft gun installed in the back of a KAMAZ.
The main task: to provide cover from the attack of dushmans (spirits) of our soldiers, who were carrying out repair work on the pipeline transporting kerosene from Termez (USSR) to Bagram (DRA) through mountainous desert areas. The platoon's area of responsibility is 90 km of the pipeline. Here the "spirits" constantly organized sabotage. And sometimes, being ambushed, repairmen, drenched in fuel, burned alive. It hurt my heart to feel sorry for these beardless 18-20 year olds. They should live and live … And instead - a living torch. It only remained to take revenge … to smash the attacking "spirits".
We often had to accompany our convoys with fuel, ammunition and provisions. It was a war on the roads. The enemy mined the road track, set up ambushes in the gorges. He set fire to the lead vehicle - the convoy stopped, and from the mountains they continued to shoot from grenade launchers, machine guns, setting fire to the fuel trucks - the mountains and people drenched in fuel burned …
… The foothills of the Himalayas. November 3, 1988. Several kilometers remained to the Kara-Kuma desert. And then our column came under fire from the "spirits". The head BMP was hit and burned. The rest of the cars slowly backed up the mountain road. A few more seconds - and the "spirits" will unleash all firepower on unprotected fuel trucks. And then…
Immediately assessing the situation, the commander of a separate covering platoon, Ensign Shipunov, decides to divert the enemy's attention from the "nalivniki". Even at the cost of your life. “Crew, to battle! Forward!" Continuously firing from machine guns and submachine guns, the BTR-80 "flies" to an open mountain patch next to the damaged BMP and takes all the power of the "spirits" fire on itself. Constantly maneuvering, the armored personnel carrier does not allow the "spirits" grenade launchers to make an accurate shot - the grenades tear the rocks nearby. And the commander, without looking up from the large-caliber machine gun, manages to detect the enemy firing points and transmits their coordinates to the deployed anti-aircraft gunners by radio. The armored personnel carrier was hit. The ammunition ran out. The crew leaves the car. Shipunov, opening the armored door of the armored personnel carrier, jumps to the ground - immediately a bullet pierces the seat on which he was just sitting. I also managed to convey where the sniper was hiding, saw that the anti-aircraft gunners worked clearly. A mine explosion - and silence …
The battle in the mountain gorge lasted for five hours. The soldiers managed to take the wounded and shell-shocked commander out of the fire bag on another armored personnel carrier. I woke up on the armor. The head is buzzing. A large fragment of a mine sticks out of his thigh. He asked for vodka … He disinfects her wound, he pulls out the splinter from the body himself … He refused to go to the hospital, lay down in his quarters. The details of the battle were told by the soldiers: the column almost died. While he was fighting, the "spirits" still set fire to the fuel truck. A minute of delay - and from the explosion of fuel the fire would have spread to the rest of the cars … But platoon fighter Dmitry Arnau was not taken aback. I managed to jump into the car and throw the KAMAZ into the abyss.
For this feat Warrant Officer Shipunov nominated the fighter for the medal "For Courage". But even before the new year, the hero was demobilized without receiving the award. Already in the Union, through the newspaper, the commander found his fighter …
Shipunovtsy withstood five battles similar to this one. Smaller (for them) clashes were much more. And the great merit of the commander is that he returned all the sons of the mothers alive. Only four were injured.
Himself several times was in the balance of death. “Daddy, daddy, daddy battalion commander, you didn’t hide your heart behind the backs of the guys” - this is also about Shipunov. Once in the desert they were blown up with a driver on a mine. The blast wave threw out of the KAMAZ cockpit. We got off with only light contusions …
Another time I jumped from an armored personnel carrier to the ground and miraculously saw a mine between my legs. Without moving, I looked closely - the minefield was all around. And behind him is a column. Then he single-handedly defused almost 200 mines. As you know, the sapper is mistaken once …
For military exploits 10 of his fighters were awarded the Order of the Red Star, 18 - the medal For Courage; 10 - the medal "For Military Merit". 10 soldiers were awarded repeatedly.
War is war, but there were also moments of rest. Three times Alexander Rosenbaum came to them in a separate battalion. After these trips, he recorded the "Black Tulip" cycle.
The self-taught accordion player Sergei Kuzik was in the platoon. He sang mentally, and the fighters with him.
Despite the constant shelling from the mountains, they made a bath with a sauna. And steamed in it from the heart.
We left Afgan on February 13, 1989 across the Termez bridge. But they were brought back for two days back across the river to cover the exit of the last units of the 40th Army … No problem.
In 90, senior warrant officer Shipunov was transferred to the Shchelkun unit as a platoon commander. They began to live in Sysert with his wife Galina and two daughters. But a peaceful, calm life is not for Shipunov. They say about such people: a war man. He rushes to where there is danger and risk, where it is hot. He writes again reports with a request to send him to the "hot spot". And he achieves his goal: in July 1997, he was sent as part of the peacekeeping forces to the conflict zone in Abkhazia, Georgia, to guard the cascade of reservoirs in the 20-kilometer truce zone.
As in Afghanistan, he served well. Performing a mission on an armored personnel carrier, he was again blown up by a mine. I got a shell shock. A month later, back in operation. And again military service.
Here is an extract from the Order of the Commander of the KSPM in the conflict zone of Abkhazia, Georgia No. 13 dated January 23, 1988, the city of Sukhumi on the encouragement of senior warrant officer Alexander Ivanovich Shipunov."
“Senior Warrant Officer Shipunov A. I. from 19.07.97 he served in the Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the zone of armed conflict in Abkhazia, Georgia. During this time, he showed himself to be a competent, disciplined and executive ensign. He treated his duty with high responsibility. With honor and dignity, he fulfilled the peacekeeping mission in the conflict zone.
For the exemplary fulfillment of military duty, for high performance in service activities and exemplary military discipline while performing a peacekeeping mission in the conflict zone in Abkhazia, Georgia, I order:
1. To award the senior warrant officer Alexander Ivanovich Shipunov with a Diploma and present him with a state award: the Order for Military Merit. Present the badge "For the fulfillment of the Peacekeeping Mission".
2. The order should be communicated to the personnel.
Commander of the CPKF in the conflict zone in Abkhazia, Georgia
Major General S. Korobko
Major General N. Suryadny, head of the OShK KSPM in the conflict zone in Abkhazia, Georgia.
There is an order, but Shipunov has not received the award to this day …
Wounds and contusions have done their dirty work. Returning to the Urals, in April 1999, for health reasons, he was discharged.
I could live peacefully on a military pension. But no. Since 2003 he has been transferring his rich experience to young people - he is in command of a company of young cadets at the SPU "Cadet" in Sysert. Under his supervision there are 120 children, pupils of grades 5-11. Often in the classroom and in their free time, they ask to tell their mentor about the war. And again brings his memory back into the heat of battle. He again makes him experience what will always be with him …
God grant that the boys do not have to go through this.
