Up Country...Afghanistan

It’s a long journey ‘up river’ toward what many US troopers say is the ‘Real War’, the one against the Taliban in Afghanistan.  Iraq they say is a holding operation, a ‘money machine’; the final victory of the ‘military industrial complex’ over the taxpayers of the US. 

The journey to Afghanistan begins at Ali Al Salam, the huge US Airfield in Kuwait that’s the leaping off point for Iraq air support. Transport is space available for a seat on a C-17 transport to Bagram Airfield, located forty some miles north of the capital city Kabul.  The US air base in Okinawa was staging area for Viet Nam in the mid sixties; with Pan Am and Braniff often continuing the trip to Tan Son Nhut Airfield, Saigon; the capital of the Republic of Viet Nam ( RVN).

Leaving Jalalabad airfield for the high peaks.

Forces stationed at Bagram live among tree line streets and sidewalks that have been in place since the Russian invasion in 1979.  It’s quiet, humane; and much more relaxed than the crowded, very orderly bases in Iraq.  Military transport travelers are housed in makeshift housing for the few days that it will take to catch a flight farther inland. 

Camp Alpha in Saigon filled the same purpose though it was anything but orderly, or peaceful.  Helicopters were coming and going all hours of the day and night. The routine thump of mortars and artillery, along with the earth shaking vibrations of ‘Rolling Thunder’ off west near the Cambodian border slowly soaked into the consciousness.  Then finally a realization that just beyond the front gates were the sights, sounds and vices of the Saigon streets.

“I’ll have you out of here tomorrow morning one way or the other’ said Sgt. Adam Phelps of the public affairs office here at Bagram.  “If the C-130s are full there’ll be chopper flying the circuit which stops at Jalalabad”.

Mounting up at Camp Blessing.

The army Blackhawk lifts from Bagram airfield and climbs over the high peaks to the east in the direction of Pakistan.  Jalalabad, the fourth largest city in Afghanistan lies midway.  Rugged, inhospitable peaks of unspeakable beauty continue to fill the windscreen. The door gunner suddenly begins firing as the helicopter skims very low to a ridge.  They’re a warning to those on the ground that might think of firing off a few rounds in the choppers direction.  Small villages, timeless in their simplicity; disappear from view as the chopper drops behind ridge after ridge, before lowering finally to the flat plane of Jalalabad.

As the chopper lands at the airfield in Jalalabad we’re hustled over to Camp Fenty on the outskirts of said field to the headquarters of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the functioning army unit in this sector, RC East.  The 173^rd was based on the Bien Hoa Air Base in Viet Nam when I was there in 1966-67. They supported my unit at various times while on patrol in the country side east of Long Binh while wording off VC saboteurs attacking the large Ammo dump located there. That was exactly 40 years ago….and I’m back in the field.

Able Main.

Les Neuhaus of the Stars and Stripes along with myself end up waiting a couple of days for a ride to Camp Blessing, another jumping off point to the High Peaks and Operation Rock Avalanche the last major operation planned for this year.  As we travel ‘up river’ the setting is rougher and rougher.  More like the old country….without the green.  I’d have to say that Afghanistan is more spectacular but nothing can measure up to the beauty of the greens in Viet Nam.

Camp Fenty is rougher than Bagram, but civilized…there’s a Green Beans Coffee shack up behind the mess hall.  There was also a new building, a hangar it looks like along the airstrip that’s surrounded by razor wire and camera surveillance.  The word is it’s CIA and looking ahead this is the strip where Seal Team Six departed from on it’s way to the killing of Osama Bin Ladin years later.

Fireing off mortars at Able Main.

Morning finds us in the air towards Camp Blessing. the next stop on the journey to the Pech River Valley. Other reporters have shown up in this desolate corner of Afghanistan.  *Elizabeth Rubin of the NY Times and *Tim Hetherington for Vanity Fare, as well as Les and myself will be covering the troops.  The 173^rd Airborne Brigade is preparing for its largest operation in Afghanistan thus far in its 15 month tour of duty. 

Winter is coming to the high peaks of Afghanistan and this will be the last major effort by the US Military until spring of ‘08 in its battle against the insurgents. This high mountain country within 25 miles of the Pakistan border is a known trail for foreigners supporting the Taliban in their attempt to topple the existing Afghan national government.

“There are three valleys here that converge with the Pech River Valley” said Capt. Jeff Pickler of the 2^nd Battalion, 198 Artillery as he began his briefing.  “Three companies will be air assaulted in to the high peaks, then sweep down through all three valleys to the Pech River.  Our plan is to clear all three of enemy elements at least till next spring.”

Great progress has been made with the local residents of the Pech Valley since the 173^rd began their 15month tour in Afghanistan, according to Capt. Pickler.   The Pech River Road, a modern highway being constructed through the valley has been contracted out to local contractors by the 173^rd, providing much needed salaries for the local men.  ,

“They’ve been so poor here that it was common for the Taliban insurgents to pay the men to shoot at us from the hills,” said Capt. Jeb Richards, also in attendance.  “They are making much better money working for us and the end product greatly improves their quality of life.  They can’t lose and they know it”

Briefing for convoying from Able Main.

155mm artillery is being sporadically fired as this briefing is being held and I immediately think of the 'H & I Fire’ (harassment and interdiction) that fired off, mostly at random targets, every night in Viet Nam.  The noise is deafening and holds things up at brief intervals.  Shells are being called in at locations near the very companies that are to be carrying out the air assaults in the mountains over the next few days.  According to Capt. Pickler, F-115s from Bagram Field, and B-1s from Kuwait; as well as local artillery and Apache gunships will be available for air support throughout this operation.

As the convoy approaches Able Main a sigh of relief is breathed by all aboard.  It’s been an uneventful journey.  This Fire Base is a stripped down, no frills operation.  Tubes for urinals, cut off oil drums under the out house four holers, a mess trailer for meals and sand bagged bunkers for housing.   There are no ‘Kellogg, Brown & Roots’ visible on this compound.  Excise the mess trailer and the laptops and it’s ‘back in the Nam”.

Children who had mothers killed or wounded at Yaka China.

As evening began to descend on this remote station, the loud ‘blast’ of a mortar roared over the compound.  Momentarily, a flash of light appeared on the ridge just north.  A loud boom echoed down through the valley.  A 173rd mortar team was seeking out targets in the hills with the aid of a forward observer.  Eventually they had the tube nearly perpendicular to the ground with the mortars landing on the first low hill across the Pech River.

According to Capt. Louis Frketic, commanding officer of Able Company which occupies Able Main, they have tracked 44 sub commanders of insurgent elements in the mountains nearby.  Each commander has from 12 to 15 men under his command.  Estimates are that

there could be as many as 3 to 5,000 total potential combatants in this province.  Some of the most difficult fighters are Punjabi’s who have crossed the border from Pakistan.

Later this same evening the Company forms a convoy for the trip overland to Camp Wright near Asadabad where two, Viet Nam era, Chinook, helicopters will lift sixty five 173^rd Airborne troopers from the LZ at Camp Wright in Asad Abad, Afghanistan for a midnight landing in the high peaks of the Tribal Area, a few miles from the Pakistan border.  The men are edgy.  Intel indicates the possibility of a hot LZ (landing zone) on landing. It doesn’t help that Rock Avalanche has been held down for twenty four hours due to civilian casualties on the Operations opening day.

Myself and Sgt. Loetz on Able Main.

Apparently five people were killed and ten were wounded during the assault on the night of Oct. 19 and extra time was needed to sort things out with the families. Upon further investigation it turned out that the wounded, along with some of their relatives were here at the native medical clinic at Camp Wright and after speaking with Mohammud Ishag, a friend of one of the wounded women’s family through an interpreter, a vastly different story surfaced. These people are all from the small village of Yakha China in the Pech district and were mistakenly fired upon by an American helicopter. In the opinion of Mr. Ishag, there were no Al Qaeda, Taliban or other insurgents in this area so it appears to have been another unfortunate incident that will win no ‘hearts and minds’ in this country, nor in Iraq and for that matter; no more than it did in Viet Nam so many years ago.

It’s near midnight before the choppers show up for the flight to the high peaks.  The Chinooks climbed to 8,000 ft. before leveling off and settling in for a precarious landing along the ridge line.  No ground fire was detected as the men hastily emptied the choppers dragging the skids of ammo with them.  The gun teams were the first to take up positions overlooking the valleys on either side.  As the perimeter was secured, troops not posted for the night watch found secure spots to hunker down for a few hours sleep.  The temperature at this elevation had dropped down to the high 30s F; much colder than most were accustomed to.

Morning lookout Rock Avalanche.

“Scouts came in with us on the Chinooks”, said CPT Frketic at the early morning briefing, “and I’ve got them deployed all sides and on the outskirts a couple of small villages between here and the Pech River.  They will report in via radio since they won’t be returning to the command post here.  We can’t risk the ACMs (anti collation militias) following them back.”

By mid-day the command center had returned to a normal state of readiness.  CPT Frkitec was constantly on the phone taking reports from the scouts and other units of the 503 Infantry working the Rock Avalanche operation.  The troops who had manned the night positions were taking a well deserved sleep in the warm sunshine. 

Above the Pech Valley for Operation Rock Avalanche.

“I’ve got some ‘bad guys’ calling among their units for help from the next valley over” said Dave, the interpreter.  “They need help with their wounded and they’re saying that six of their own are dead.  It must be all that artillery fire we heard being fired off this afternoon hit something.  I think B Company is at that location also, down near Yakha China village, where the civilians got hit a couple of days ago.”

As the sun was fading beyond the high peaks, CPT Frkitec held another briefing.  Since the location of his Company had not been detected, he had decided to hold this location till late afternoon the next day, before beginning the trek down through the mountains to his home base at Able Main.

Late that night word came in from ISAF (International Security Assistance Force), the NATO high command in Afghanistan, that there was one KIA and two WIAs from *B Company, that had been operating near Yaka China.  A request was made for the number of civilian losses.

Les Neuhaus of the Stars and Stripes

“It is not official policy to count civilian casualties” said SFC Eric Hendrix, a public affairs NCO on the phone from Jalalabad.  Unfortunately it's this attitude that lost the war in Viet Nam and is going to lose the one here.  For some reason American's can't understand that if you bomb a guys house, kill his wife and kids, maybe poison his fields; he isn't going to be on your side.

The results of Operation Rock Avalanche will not be known for three more days; or however long it takes for these hardened American soldiers to fight their way down from the mountains to their home bases in the Pech River Valley, Afghanistan.

*Once again though, echoes of Viet Nam…..remember Hamburger Hill.  After a hard fought battle with many causalities and ultimate victory it reverted back to the VC three days later.  When the Americans leave these peaks and passes this territory will revert to the people who live and fight here…as it did in 1988 when the Soviet Army pulled out and in fact as it always has since the time of Alexander the Great.

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*Tim Hetherington was awarded the News Photo of the Year for a picture he took on this operation.  His video footage from Rock Avalanche was used in the Oscar winning documentary ‘Restrepo’.  He was killed a few years later on the job in Benghazi, Libya.

*Sgt. Salvatore Giunta of B Company became the first living soldier to receive the Medal of Honor since the Viet Nam war for his brave actions during Rock Avalanche, one of the defining events of the Afghan War.

*Elizabeth Rubin’s piece in the New York Times magazine of February 24, 2008 has been called by more than one reviewer the best piece of war reporting since Viet Nam.

*After years of fighting for control of the Pech River Valley in Kunar Province, and the deaths of well over one hundred soldiers, the US pulled it’s forces from that area for good in February 2011.  See the **February 25, 2011 New York Times.

**"What we figured out is that people in the Pech really aren't anti US  or anti anything; they just want to be left alone," said one American military official familiar with the decision.  "Our presence is what is destabilizing this area".