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The War
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American forces are making historic progress in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the
Global War On Terror, yet the
Mainstream Media is largely ignoring these efforts. Hopefully,
we can help get the word out here at MNN. |
 PHOTO:
K-G Pass Convoy
2/27/09: Semi-trucks hauling goods to eastern Afghanistan
travel along the narrow and dangerous "K-G Pass" that works
its way through steep mountains and connects the Khowst and
Paktia provinces. A $100 million, 62-mile improved road,
funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, is
slated to start construction through the pass this summer. (click photo to enlarge) |
Where
the Buffalo Roams - Bonecrusher Relentlessly Searches Out
Improvised Explosive Devices
Story by Lance Cpl. Brian D. Jones, 2/26/09
 FARAH
PROVINCE, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - He sat and
pondered the question, "What is the best part of your job?"
Displaying a big grin he responded, "knowing that we've ruined
the enemies' plans as they're observing."
Sgt. Mario L. Spencer, a combat engineer with 2nd Combat
Engineer Battalion and the vehicle commander of "Bonecrusher,"
a Buffalo Mine Protected Clearance Vehicle, was satisfied with
his answer.
On Route 515, a once-notorious, unpaved, barren road riddled
with improvised explosive devices, a team of U.S. Marine Corps
engineers led by Spencer routinely put their patience to the
test while clearing the roadway of enemy threats.
Bonecrusher is part of the Route Clearance Platoon attached to
Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment
(Reinforced), the ground combat element of Special Purpose
Marine Air Ground Task Force - Afghanistan, operating in the
southern region of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
As a six-wheeled, blast-resistant armored machine, Bonecrusher
uses a 30-foot remote controlled robotic arm tipped with
pitchfork-like fingers and a camera to inspect and remove
explosive threats. The vehicle is designed for clearing routes
of IEDs, land mines and other explosive hazards.
Additionally, the Buffalo is resistant to rocket propelled
grenades, hand grenades and small arms fire attacks. Without
Bonecrusher, engineers would risk excavating their explosive
finds by hand.
"It saves a lot of lives," Spencer and his team said of the
Buffalo.
Route 515 is a main thoroughfare for local Afghans, as well as
a military supply route, that runs approximately 43 kilometers
between the district centers of Delaram and Bakwa. It
stretches through villages surrounded by farmland patterned in
the shape of what Spencer calls "waffle cones." The terrain
naturally creates numerous narrow passageways, which
insurgents use to orchestrate ambushes.
"It used to be the most feared route," said Spencer.
Clearing the route makes the area safer for local travel,
increasing commerce in the area and creating an efficient path
of travel for Marine convoys. It also provides vehicle traffic
a smoother path vice traveling across the area's rugged
farmland.
"Sitting still and moving methodically slow," is how Spencer
described his route clearance duties. "It's a job only for the
patient."
The Marines have to be constantly aware of enemy threats on
and off the road. Roads laced with IEDs, small arms fire, RPGs
and complex attacks combined with the threat of indirect fire
all pose threats to their mission.
"You're always being watched out here, and they can watch from
anywhere," Spencer claimed.
The insurgents have been known to use inexpensive homemade
explosives and military-grade explosives taken from mortars
and other munitions. The team collectively keeps a cool head
about the threat of IEDs, having had previous experience in
Iraq.
Along Route 515, Marines with 3/8 have established combat
outposts to keep a watchful eye on the surrounding area in
which they operate. Elders from surrounding villages have
approached the Marines and told them most of the villages in
the area had been abandoned by the families to escape
insurgent activity.
Spencer says it's easy to tell which villages have been
abandoned. During daylight hours, if no one comes out to wave
and say hello to the convoy as it passes, it's likely empty.
"Once the combat outposts were [constructed], locals noticed
we had a permanent presence, and they started [informing us
about insurgents operating in the area]," said Spencer.
Some Afghans tell the Marines where IEDs are placed and wish
for them to be careful.
"They see we were trying to better their way of life by
[defending] the road so they don't have to go around," said
Spencer. "Now they can actually go across the street to see
their neighbors without getting [hurt]."
The Afghan national police patrol alongside the Marines to
assist in providing security in the area. Currently, plans are
underway to pave the road. Upon completion, responsibility for
security will be handed over to the ANP, with the Marines in
support.
Since arriving in Afghanistan in August 2008, Route Clearance
Platoon has been hit by a few IEDs, but it has successfully
found and disabled nearly two dozen.
"Due to our persistence in clearing Route 515, the road is no
longer as much of a threat," Spencer said. |
Security Forces Provide Safety Net for Reconstruction Mission
By
Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service
 FORWARD
OPERATING BASE GARDEZ, Afghanistan, Feb. 25, 2009 - Army 1st
Lt. Nicholas Camardo is a self-described pain in the backside.
An infantry officer with the Illinois Army National Guard,
Camardo is in charge of the security force tasked with keeping
the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan's Paktia
province safe as it travels around the region meeting with
local leaders and helping to rebuild communities.
They are the nice guys, Camardo said. He is not.
"We worry about security and let them worry about winning the
hearts and minds," Camardo said of the reconstruction team.
"We've got to do our job. We are a pain, but that's what we're
here for."
Camardo's rules to the team are fairly simple, though: Keep
your protective gear on all the time; don't move until you're
cleared; don't meet until it's cleared; and don't talk to
anyone who is not cleared.
A full half of the 80-person PRT is made up of security
forces. Camardo's unit, Company B, 1st Battalion, 178th
Infantry out of Elgin, Ill., is part of a much larger
deployment of Illinois National Guard troops. More than 2,700
soldiers are deployed to Afghanistan from the 33rd Brigade
Combat Team. Eleven platoons from the state provide security
for PRTs here.
The nontraditional mission sometimes is a delicate balance for
his troops, Camardo said. On one hand, they are supposed to
appear as nonthreatening as possible as they move in and out
of villages. On the other hand, they need to project a
presence that keeps threats against the team at bay. He
compared the image they try to project as that of a porcupine:
nonthreatening, but not something you want to mess with.
"It's a very fine line we encounter every time we go out,
because we're the guys that roll pretty heavy with weapons,"
he said.
Camardo admits that, despite his best efforts, it is pretty
difficult to not appear threatening, or at least intimidating.
If only two reconstruction team leaders need to go to nearby
Gardez City for a meeting, as many as 20 security forces
accompany them. They roll down the roads in the massive,
mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, heavy machine guns
poking from the topside turrets. The soldiers are armed to the
teeth. Machine guns, shotguns, pistols, knives and several
cartridges of ammunition all are part of the uniform.
"Then we open up our vehicles and hand out [humanitarian
assistance] and do it with a smile," Camardo said.
The PRT has a mix of military cultures and personalities that
can challenge the traditional infantry unit. It is Air
Force-led and has a mix of active-duty, reserve and National
Guard soldiers, as well as civilians from the departments of
State and Agriculture. Civil affairs, engineer and medical
teams work to assess the villages and towns within the
province's 14 districts to help the local government determine
its needs.
Team members carry weapons for personal protection, but the
bulk of their work is done over tea, in meetings with local
political, tribal and religious leaders.
Before team members leave the protection of the MRAPs, the
security forces dismount to sweep the meeting area. They scan
rooftops and windows. They check the crowds for anyone acting
suspicious. They memorize the roads to know if something is
different from one trip to the next.
Security soldiers are in all meetings, and waiting outside the
doors, and still others surround the perimeter of the
buildings or huts where the meetings are held. They trust no
one, take nothing for granted and are suspicious of
everything, platoon leaders said.
The team members "are really nice people, but we can't be
nice. Our job is by-the-book," said Sgt. 1st Class Jason
Schultz, the security force platoon sergeant. "Our job is to
bring everybody home safe."
This remote part of eastern Afghanistan is a transit and
staging area for enemy fighters. Some parts of the province
still are very dangerous. Every day the team is outside of the
base, its members face the threat of roadside bombs, car
bombs, suicide bombs and drive-by shootings.
PRT officials also said that, at some of the "shuras," or
meetings, in the rural villages, they know that sometimes they
are talking to members of the Taliban and other insurgent
groups who also are tribal leaders.
Air Force Capt. Don Moss, Paktia PRT intelligence officer,
said threats vary, depending on whether the team is moving in
one of the more urban areas, such as the provincial capital of
Gardez City, or in the outlying rural districts.
"The problem with an urban environment is you run into
multiple threats from every aspect which are hard to identify
in such a fluid environment," Moss said. "You have so many
vehicles, people, everything going on. In a city, it makes it
almost impossible to track everything that's going on."
Few roads also mean limited options for escape routes, Moss
said.
In is sometimes easier to spot threats in rural areas, Moss
said. But the mountainous terrain is the stomping grounds of
the enemy fighters, giving them a home-field advantage. Also,
because the security team travels the roads less often, it is
harder to spot anything out of the ordinary.
This is especially true in the Zormat district, the most
dangerous in the province. Last year, two PRT members died in
a roadside bombing there.
"We don't have PRT painted on our convoy. There's nothing
identifying us from another convoy," Moss said.
Moss predicts an active spring and summer for the province.
Projects in Zormat have been on hold because of the dangers
there, but this team plans to re-engage local leaders and to
try to launch rebuilding efforts. This is complicated further
by the many, varying tribes claiming the area. There is no
central tribal leadership for PRT officials to work with, and
the area is a main traffic point for insurgents crossing the
Pakistan border into Afghanistan.
"As the intel guy, it scares the hell out of me to send
massive efforts down to Zormat," Moss said. "At the same time,
if you're going to quell an insurgency, you're not going to
quell it on the sidelines."
Because of a relatively mild winter, Moss said, he already is
seeing reports of bombings within the province and expects
them to become a daily event come spring.
Arriving at a location can be chaotic for security forces, and
a task to maintain focus and control. Kids rush the convoys
looking for handouts of blankets, food and clothes. Even the
Afghan forces approach the security forces looking for field
rations and other goodies.
The security forces typically work 12- to 14-hour days, six
days a week. A four-hour mission in the city can take a day of
planning, and longer missions can take several days.
The team has run more than 200 missions outside the wire since
deploying here in November, and the tempo is expected to
accelerate as the winter weather clears.
The long days and long missions wear on the platoon, its
leaders said.
"It's a lot of stress on the young guys. As soon as we roll
out of the wire, we've got to worry about someone trying to
kill us," Camardo said.
And, while the group had not yet been hit, their leaders say
it is inevitable. That is enough to keep the guys on their
toes.
"The constant reminder of it keeps them focused," Camardo
said.
Despite the risks, most of the soldiers say they understand
and appreciate the mission here. And they don't mind the more
defensive posture, opposite that of their traditional role of
busting down doors and searching for bad guys.
Here, they see the poverty, the lack of schools, medical
clinics and other infrastructure, and they appreciate the
efforts of the other team members to bring hope to the
suffering population.
"I can justify in my head this mission," Camardo said. "It's
not infantry stuff, but we are making a difference. And the
only way we're going to get out of Afghanistan, in my opinion,
is by helping the people help themselves." |
 PHOTO:
U.S. Military and Afghan National Army troops patrol the
foothills in Herat Province, Feb. 17, 2009
(click photo to enlarge) |
Elite
Afghan Soldiers Elicit a Sense of Nationalism
2/22/09
KABUL, Afghanistan - A recent Afghan national army commando
mission in the Balkh province proved that Afghanistan's
military is gaining the support of the country's communities.
Commandos of the Afghan national army's 209th Corps and
coalition forces met with villagers near Mazar-e-Sharif to
provide information about the role the elite Afghan soldiers
play in the defense of Afghanistan. The young men of the
community showed an outpouring of interest in the commandos.
After seeing a commando poster, two young men approached the
elite soldiers and took it a step further by stating their
intent to join the ranks. The commandos referred the villagers
to an Afghan national army recruiter, and they began the
enlistment process on the spot. The new recruits expressed
that their decision was based upon the belief that the
commandos are fighting for the good of the Afghan people.
The young villagers in Mazar-e-Sharif are only two of many
Afghan men who have made the decision to step up and fight for
the future of this war-torn nation.
"The extremists have ruled this country for far too long,"
said Abdul Mohammad, a recent graduate of the commando
training school near Kabul. "I became a commando because I
have had enough. I am tired of living in fear for myself and
for the lives of my wife and children."
Mohammad, a former Kabul shopkeeper, said becoming a soldier
has left him with a sense of nationalism he never knew before.
"When I first arrived here, the men beside me were Pashtun and
Tajik and Uzbek," he said. "Today, they are simply my commando
brothers. We all share a common enemy. So only together can we
defeat the militants and live in peace."
More than 3,600 Afghan men have graduated since the elite
soldier program's inception in January 2007. |
Insurgent Leader Killed in International Security Assistance
Force Operation in Kandahar Province
2/22/2009
KABUL, Afghanistan - It has been confirmed that an insurgent
leader was killed during an Afghan national security
forces-led operation near Ghoresh, in Kandahar province
earlier this week.
The operation, supported by International Security Assistance
Forces, was to apprehend the insurgent Mullah Mahmood. Mahmood
facilitated and directed the placement of improvised explosive
devices within Kandahar province, risking the lives of Afghan
civilians, as well as Afghan national security forces and ISAF
troops. He also had a known history of manipulating Afghans
into becoming suicide bombers and was linked to numerous
crimes in the area.
During the operation, Mahmood was given the option to
surrender peacefully, but instead attempted to attack security
forces and was killed. Fortunately, no civilian casualties
resulted from his last act of violence.
Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, ISAF spokesperson, said: "The
success of this operation shows the people of Afghanistan, and
more precisely within Kandahar province, that security and
stability is of the utmost importance to the government of the
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan".
"With Mahmood no longer operating in the area, the Insurgents'
ability to conduct operations will be significantly degraded
in Kandahar province. The most important outcome from this
operation is the benefit to the Afghan people. Their safety
has improved as Mahmood's blatant disregard for the lives of
innocent civilians has been brought to an end." |
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