Category: TSO Embedded in A’stan

TSO has finally begun releasing some videos of his top secret exploits in Afghanistan last month. In this video, he demonstrates his innate ability to communicate with sheep and his extensive knowledge of the alphabet.

A few things.

1) Don’t say anything bad about my article or I will cry. Honestly, this may be the first article I have written that I am truly proud of. The picture of a picture of the cover here sucks, but I will get a better JPEG to share with you later.

2) If you are not a member of The American Legion, shame on you. Join now and you can get this magazine. And I will autograph it for free. Which should increase the value by exactly -$2.50. Seriously, the best place in the world to work, and they don’t just pay my salary, they work nonstop for you guys. Yes, I get the complaints about us from time to time, but just trust me, I’ve seen all that we do, and you should belong.

3) Without this blog, this never would have happened. Headhuntersix is the one that invited me, Parachute Cutie is the one who got me the Embed with 3-66, and Jonn is the one who constantly ridiculed and belittled me until I went.

4) Aside from HH6 and Parachute Cutie, I have to thank everyone from Able company. I only spent 2 weeks with them, but I felt like crying when I left. (Ditto the men and women of the 3rd ESC, who are also huge in the article, but I had to edit for this snippet.) Every guy mentioned in this article is mentioned specifically because they touched me in some way. I’ve had some great PSGs in my day (SFC Cunningham and Matthews in particular) but from top to bottom I’ve never seen a unit as good as Able Company. CPT Stewart is the shit, just an absolute man all around. (And single ladies! That’s him with the orange shades) And 1SG Jarvis may be the most entertaining man I ever listened to nonstop for hours. Part of that is not getting a word in edgewise, but he seriously can hold forth like no one I ever met. Thanks also specifically to SFC Spoors who gave me the Red Platoon “Reapers” tab that meant the world to me. It’ll stay on my computer bag until the bag falls apart.

5) Lastly, for the first time ever, someone edited my stuff and I thought it came out better. I can be territorial about my writing (a bad thing) but my editors TOTALLY squared me away on this one.

Anyway, a sneak preview. Again, join The Legion if you want the actual copy.

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I finally pried some videos out of TSO last night. The first one is related to his post about the QRF (Quick Reaction Force) rolling out to protect MPs stuck alongside the road.

Videos below the jump;
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We rolled into Nani (about 15 klicks south of FOB Ghazni) pretty heavy with 8 vehicles, a platoon of dismounts, and 70 Afghanistan National Army troops. We pulled into a vehicle patrol base (a large oval) and the gunners immediately took up their security positions. (ie, we had 12-3 o’clock from the route of travel.) That was when the Tali’s opened up on us with AK and RPK fire. The Afghanistan National Army troops (ANA) jumped into a wadi and began returning fire, and one of our vehicles started pumping out 40mm rounds from the Mk19 (he would shoot 15 total.) Game on!

Now, I will finish that anecdote from earlier this week in a minute. First, I would call your attention to an article I originally saw in Stars and Stripes, but which I found on Military Times.

KABUL, Afghanistan — A new report Wednesday by a Kabul-based think tank accuses international forces of misleading the public by calling military operations “Afghan-led” even in cases where NATO or U.S. forces are the only troops on the ground.

The charge cuts to the heart of a public perception battle being waged in Afghanistan, where international troops are eager to showcase successes by Afghan forces and to downplay the role played by international soldiers as NATO draws down forces and hands over security to Afghan control.

The United States and other nations that make up the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have already started pulling out troops with the goal of putting Afghans in charge of countrywide security by the end of 2014. The alliance wants to show that Afghans are up to the task so that the country does not descend into civil strife after 10 years of a NATO-led war against Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

Well, I can’t speak for the rest of the ANA, and how commanders are utilizing them, mentoring to them, training them and getting them in the fight, but I know what CPT Michael Stewart of Able Company 3-66 is doing with his counterpart in the ANA, “Captain Z.”

Some rounds tinged off the ass end of my vehicle as my camera rolled inside the vehicle, but any incoming rounds were drowned out by the acoustics of 70 ANA putting fire into the locations that the firing was coming from. It was probably 4-500 meters away, almost directly to our south. There was possibly another guy closer, but I have no clue, since (as stated) I was in the back of a vehicle. Before we could fully dismount and set up, the ANA were already gone.

First, they moved two up-armored Humvees with DShKs (a Soviet 12.7 mm heavy machine gun) mounted on the roof to a location between us and the bad guys, and were pouring fire into the area. Meanwhile, with a village to the east, the ANA commander, now covered by the mounted element sent his troops into the Qalats that were in a line running south, with the bulk of the Qalats and village center to the east. As soon as the ANA got into a Qalat that had a roof capable of sustaining them which also afforded a clear field of fire on the area where we were shot from, the Commander ordered the vehicles forward. And man did they go.

So, the ANA has secured a line of Qalats running south and has set up fire to cover both to the East and South. Now the vehicles tear out parallel to this line of Qalats, and goes directly at the fire. The two chaps on top of the vehicles are playing dueling DShK’s with 5-7 round bursts. Honestly, it was a thing of beauty. Granted, the fire from the vehicles moving at probably 35mph across uneven terrain wasn’t effective. But damned if it didn’t get the bad guys moving out of the AO.

When I finally got up to the LOA (limit of advance) for the vehicles, you couldn’t have seen anything better.  The vehicles were 50m apart from each other, facing the route of travel, and where they were supposed to be watching, and both vehicles were in perfect turret defiladed positions.  From the other side of the qalat wall that they were up against, the only thing you could see would be two DShK’s about to tear you up.  Neither vehicle could be seen.  And the gunners were sitting back on the roofs, still behind their guns, and had to consist of 90% teeth, as they knew what they had just done was textbook, and they smiled away.

I’ll have video and such for you later, but when I read articles like the one above, all I can think is “That’s a different ANA than the one that is securing the villages around Andar.” I want to do a long post all about the ANA and their strengths and weaknesses, but I thought this deserved immediate attention.

I just spoke with CPT Stewart not 10 seconds ago and asked him how much guidance he gave the ANA during the TIC (troops in contact, acronym for small arms fire and other attacks) in Nani.

“*laugh* None. Hell, I was still trying to figure out where it was coming from, and figure out who was on the ground when they were already done moving on them. I didn’t even have Comms (Communication) with them, so even if I wanted to, I couldn’t have said anything.” That would have been a ‘go’ on any MRE (Mission Rehearsal Exercise) I’ve ever seen. The React to Contact battle drill was fabulous. No OC (Observer/Controller who grades unit performance) could have found fault with them.”

Wish the AP had been here, but I’m glad I got to see it. Will have video for you soon.

This time, I really am going silent as I have a longish patrol tomorrow, and then need to exfil back to KAF. If I get internet, I’ll update some other stuff.

TSO emails today (after typically not getting my on the cell phone) that he’s going to be out of comms for about a week, but that he promises to write everyday and add it when he gets back within range.

In my defense, a first call of 0300 for a media embed is unconscionable. (Joes were 0200)

Nonetheless, when I showed up at the vehicles this morning for our SP time, my vehicle-mates would have been well within their rights to just send me back to my hooch. No MRE. Camelback empty. No gloves. Wearing sunglasses and using a white light (I honestly just thought it was dark.) And my field and stream shirt was inside out, so not only was the collar on the inside of my armor and rubbing the wrong way, but the interior mesh of the shirt was on the outside. And I might never have known about this deficiency until I caught sight of my shadow, and realized that those straps you use to make your shirt short-sleeved were hanging down from me. Dude, soup sandwich don’t have [stuff] on me.

Today was day 2 of actual patrols with the ANA, and I remain impressed by them. I was sitting outside one Qalat with an E4 (maybe an RTO) who looked up at his ANA counterparts and waved to one of them. “You know what pisses me off about the media and civilians?” he asked. “They either badmouth the ANA or they think all of these people are savages. Neither is true.” he lamented as he shook his head.

The man “Parachute Cutie” calls “Captain America”, the CO of Able company agrees. “Look at ’em, doing everything we do.” The CO and the 1SG are a hilarious couple. They remind me of the guys from the old Bartles and James commercials where one guy talks nonstop, and the other just sort of nods. You could ask 1SG if he could pass the salt and somehow, without breathing, he’d be still talking 20 minutes later, and telling you how much he is pulling for some girl on The Voice. The CO is more like me, you have a certain number of spoken words you can use each day, and he is economizing them, and his are spoken in this Tennessee drawl so I listen pretty close to every one of them.

The two of them never stop smiling, answer everything I ask, and tease the troops and each other mercilessly. In fact, everyone in this unit smiles a lot. My only complaint at all is that the PSG I am with smiles right before he launches into epic arse-chewings, and I never get a chance to get it on video. It’s not what he says neccessarily that makes them epic, but he has this certain panache that makes his rants so enjoyable. I swear, I look around before patrols in hopes someone isn’t wearing knee pads, which to hear him tell it might be worthy of a court martial.

But today I got to follow the CO around, and watch him interact with the troops, the terp (“Cletus” is probably not his given Afghan name, but it is on his nametape) and the Afgan Army guys. He pointed out all the stuff they were doing. For instance, we were moving through one village, and it had probably 20-30 qalats, and in-between the houses were 2-300m open spaces. Where on my deployment here (’04-05) I had witnessed similiarly situated ANA guys walking around in circles or playing soccer with UXO (well, it probably wasn’t unexploded ordinance, but it was a cylinder that looked unhealthy) these guys set up overwatch positions, and then bounded in 2 elements.

When we went into the compounds, they didn’t steal everything that wasn’t tied down, they talked to the homeowner first, requested permission to climb up on the roofs, didn’t leave litter everywhere, and then thanked the guy when we left. They continue to not get the total concept of safety* but on tactical stuff they are great. They understand how to use the maps, and communicated through the radios pretty effectively.  When one guy was apparently not pulling his weight yesterday morning, he literally got a boot to his arse, and then the ANA Commander took away the guys weapon and chased him back on the compound.  They seem to take real pride in the work they are doing, and seem very cognizant of the importance.  It may be a small thing, but they decorate all their vehicles with the Afghan flag, and they seem to be very cogniscent of emerging nationalism.

*Case in point was the weapons test fire the other day, and this other poor cat that was in the back of a pickup that I saw the other day. Undeterred by a man standing in the back with a DShK attached to the roof, the driver decided to take a series of bumps at about 30 MPH. Guy in the back had to let go of the gun, and grab onto the side of the truck. The perturbations of the vehicle of course send the DShK spinning in a circle, so now the guy is holding on for dear life to the sides, while simultaneously channeling Jackie Chan’s ducking ability to keep from getting his block knocked off by a machinegun.

Another patrolmate today was Pookie, some sort of mutt that the guys think is a guardian angel. It should be noted that this Talisman of Luck is not being fed, owned or in anyway controlled by the Joes (that would violate General Order 1B prohibiting pets) but rather appears to live over at the ANA compound, and runs out at the sound of vehicles. This isn’t a dog I would take home to play with mine. The only reason I was upset about not bringing my gloves this morning was because I would rather shower with turpentine than pet that dog without gloves on. MOPP 4 would even be preferred. But that guy was running alongside the vehicles as we left and then patrolled with us when on the ground. A few times he got a little lazy and just skipped large portions of the road on cut-backs, but most the time he ran right behind one of our vehicles. Was glad to see Pookie with us today though, since I saw a dead dog yesterday on patrol, and it made me a bit sad.  The guys think nothing bad will happen when Pookie is around.

Anyway, that is it for today. It’s noon and I am exhausted. And I just ate what they refer to as “chow” here, and I therefore know I have a date with the restrooms in my near future. After that, a shower, some laundry, and then a nap that will last through first call tomorrow. Let’s hope common decency prevails and that first call isn’t before….oh, let’s say 0900.

Just an administrative note. Since we’re all on pins and needles for those reports from TSO while he’s doing the Old School milblog thing embedded in Afghanistan, I’ve made it a little easier for you to catch up on his posts. I’ve made a category “TSO Embedded in A’stan” so you can keep up everyday…not that I’m going to promise that he’ll post everyday. But he emailed this morning that they’re going to make sure that he has time to post.

By the way, in case you’re interested, I added some pictures he sent today to the posts that he wrote yesterday. Yep, MPs shouldn’t drive MRAPs without supervision.