Infantry foot patrols disrupt insurgents, aid remote Afghan villages

Aug 6, 2009
By Spc. Elisebet Freeburg, Joint Sustainment Command - Afghanistan

Photo Credit: Spc. Elisebet Freeburg, Joint Sustainment Command - Afghanistan.

Capt. Jason V. Basilides, a 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, platoon leader from Virginia Beach, Va., speaks to local leaders through interpreter Najeeb Ghafoori during a foot patrol, July 27, in Deh Chopan district, Zabul province.

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Soldiers of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment at Forward Operating Base Baylough have one mission, disrupt the enemy. Austere FOB Baylough lies 7,500 feet above sea level in a valley below the Hindu Kush mountains. Because of rocky terrain, most patrols to the remote, local villages in the Deh Chopan district, Zabul province, are dismounted, or foot patrols. Although they conduct offensive operations based on specific intelligence reports, the Soldiers accomplish most of their counterinsurgency through daily, key leader engagement patrols. The Soldiers rotate, so each squad patrols every three days."We're trying to build trust with [local leaders]," said Sergeant 1st Class Stephen Carney, a 1-4 Inf. Regt. platoon sergeant from Norwood, Mass. “Give us information where the bad guys are, and we'll go fix them for you, so they won't be a problem.”During a KLE patrol, the patrol leader speaks with village elders, seeking information about insurgents hiding in surrounding mountains or recent insurgent activity. With Afghanistan's presidential election scheduled for August, Soldiers commonly ask villagers if they plan on voting or if they are registered to vote. “The Taliban is as much as a danger to them as they are to us,” said Pfc. Wesley R. Gatewood, a 1-4 Inf. Regt. infantryman from Oak Hills, Calif.Local leaders often tell Soldiers the village's needs, and the troops assist when possible. The 1-4 Inf. Reg. have built bridges and are planning a community center and a school.Soldiers often provide medical care on KLE patrols. A medic accompanies each patrol and evaluates and treats locals who are ill or injured.Troops also update their biometric database by collecting fingerprint and retinal scans from locals, using the Hand-held Interagency Identity Detection Equipment. “We look for something that doesn't look right,” said Sgt. Christian Cisenero, a 1-4 Inf. Regt. team leader from San Diego, Calif. “If they are nervous, trying to walk away from us, or trying not to make eye contact, usually that is a big clue.”Soldiers on a KLE patrol, July 26, also collected fragments from a suspected insurgent-fired rocket. The 1-4 Inf. Regt. sends evidence they find on patrols to a counter-improvised explosive device team at Kandahar Airfield for analysis.Foreign, insurgent fighters from China, Chechnya and Uzbek use horses to travel the Hindu Kush mountains, said Staff Sgt. Azhar M. Sher, a 1-4 Inf. Regt. squad leader from Baltimore, Md. The FOB Baylough Soldiers investigate horses and riders they encounter while on patrol. They also examine motorcycles, which are also commonly used by insurgents for travel.“Nine out of 10 times our gut feeling is right,” said Sher. “We’ve been to these towns so many times, we are able to tell when someone or something isn't right.” As part of establishing trust and communication with the Afghan populace, Afghan National Army soldiers and Afghan National Police officers often patrol with 1-4 Inf. Regt. Soldiers. Although ANA soldiers are relatively new to the area, ANP officers have been present for five years and are very knowledgeable about the area and operations, said Carney.“[ANA soldiers and ANP officers] will do any mission we ask them to do,” said Carney. “And we will do it side by side.” There are many dangers on patrols, such as injuries due to the terrain or illness from the heat.Soldiers also face enemy attacks from ambushes, snipers and IEDs. Medics are trained to assess and assist casualties, and call for a medical evacuation back to FOB Lagman or KAF if needed.Patrols can extend as far as seven kilometers, and each Soldier carries about 60 pounds of equipment through orchards, fields, mountainous terrain and waterways. Soldiers pack enough gear and supplies to last 48 hours, in case they are delayed by enemy contact. If Soldiers discover an IED while on patrol, they must wait at that location until an explosive ordnance disposal team, a military bomb squad, arrives to safely destroy or disable the device. As a result, patrols may take as long as three hours to two days, said Gatewood.“I think [patrols] help Operation Enduring Freedom, because it’s all about stabilization for Afghanistan, and that’s what we try to bring,” said Gatewood.The 1-4 Inf. Regt. has assisted the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan since 2004 and has worked and trained with the Romanian Royal Army at FOBs Baylough, Mizan and Lane since 2006. When Bravo Company Soldiers finish their six month rotation and return to their home station in Hohenfels, Germany, they will train coalition forces in counterinsurgency operations.

Curtesy of Army.mil

7th Engineer Battalion troops receive combat patch in Iraq

The Mountaineer Home Page.

July 30, 2009

From 7th Engineer Battalion

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq – Standing on a hot and dusty field July 21, Soldiers of 7th Engineer Battalion received the first official recognition of their service in Iraq. For the first time since Operation Just Cause in 1989, personnel assigned to 7th Engineer Battalion have earned the right to wear the “shoulder sleeve insignia, wartime service,” otherwise known as the combat patch. In a brief ceremony, senior leaders of the battalion and its companies presented each Soldier with the 20th Engineer Brigade patch and thanked all of them for their service. The history of the combat patch began during World War I, when Soldiers were authorized and encouraged by General Pershing to wear distinctive unit patches on their uniforms. In later years, the policy was expanded to allow Soldiers to also wear the insignia of a unit they had served with in combat, in order to honor their service and sacrifice in the defense of liberty and freedom. Today, the Army is the only military service that formally authorizes a Soldier to wear the unit patch of a wartime element on the uniform, publicly confirming the individual’s status as a combat veteran. Current regulations only authorize wear of the patch of the regular higher headquarters; although 7th Engineer Battalion is attached to 555th Engineer Brigade and is working in general support to 34th Infantry Division, Soldiers will wear the 20th Engineer Brigade patch. “Each one of you (has) earned this through your support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and you should wear this with honor and pride – pride in yourself and your fellow Soldiers,” said Lt. Col. Chris Barron, 7th Engineer Battalion commander, during the patch ceremony.Most of the battalion, which left Fort Drum in early June, is currently serving its first tour in Iraq. The 630th Clearance Company, which recently arrived in Afghanistan, will work in support of coalition forces in Regional Command South. The 95th and 520th Firefighting Detachments deployed to Afghanistan earlier this week.

Army picks first female commandant to lead Drill Sergeant School

Jul 30, 2009
By Crystal Lewis Brown

Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa King

Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa King's appointment as commandant of the Drill Sergeant School makes her the first woman to hold the position.
Photo credit Crystal Lewis Brown

FORT JACKSON, S.C. (Army News Service, July 30, 2009) -- The 369th Adjutant General Battalion's Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa King has been chosen to be the next commandant of the Drill Sergeant School.

The assignment will make King the school's first female commandant. She will officially become commandant during a change of responsibility ceremony in September.
King, who said she learned of the selection in June, will replace Command Sgt. Maj. Gary Newsome as head of the school.
The Clinton, N.C.-native said the appointment is ironic. The 28-year Army veteran enlisted in 1980, and she found herself going to the same school she will soon lead three years later as a specialist
."I went to drill sergeant school before I went to my basic school for my (military occupational specialty)," she said. "The Drill Sergeant School has set the foundation for my training, so it's ironic that I'm going home.
"Despite her rank, she said she was expected to perform like the rest of the students.
"They held me to the same standards that they held the (other) drill sergeants," she said.
Her graduation was held in the morning, she said, "and I was on the trail that afternoon.
"King said it is important to note that a hard worker will shine, regardless of gender.
"It really doesn't matter if you're male or female," she said. "If you...enforce standards, people will respect you.
"King said it has not really set in that she will be the first woman to hold the school's top spot, but said she hopes the selection will encourage other women.
"Because I'm doing it...that means another female command sergeant major can do it," she said. "I think it's going to set the bar higher for them. Not just for drill sergeants but for other female Soldiers.
"Even now, she said, being selected as commandant is a surprise.
"It's sort of one of those moments of...utter disbelief," she said.
She added that she is honored and humbled by the selection, and is grateful for the chance to take the reins.
"I feel like I'm chosen to lead a noncommissioned officer who is charged with a high degree of responsibility.
I'm responsible for them as they lead, mentor, counsel and train America's finest,"There's nothing else that can compare to that."

(Crystal Lewis Brown writes for Fort Jackson Leader)

Medal of Honor Recipients Plan Big Showing for Convention

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2009 – At least 59 of the 96 living Medal of Honor recipients are expected to attend the upcoming annual convention of the society named for them.
The host committee of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s convention, scheduled for Sept. 15 to 19 in Chicago, announced the number in a statement released on the

convention Web site noting the unlikelihood of assembling that many recipients of the military’s highest honor at once. Of the 42 million men and women who have served in the military since the award began during the Civil War, only 3,447 have been presented the Medal of Honor, many of them posthumously. “Statistically, only about 1 percent of America's population will ever be in the same room with one Medal of Honor recipient,” the committee wrote. “A much smaller fraction of that will ever have the opportunity to actually meet a recipient. “Recipients will tell you that while they understand courage, they felt intense fear … and it is the ability to overcome fear in any situation that leads one to strength and understanding … with strength and understanding, comes courage. With courage, comes sacrifice,” the committee wrote. To each of the recipients, what they did was very logical, the committee wrote. “The human quality they have an over abundance of is courage.” Under the convention theme, “Commit to Courage,” the society profiles the following recipients as examples of courage in combat: -- Mike Thornton, a Navy Seal in Vietnam who, upon learning that his commander, Tom Norris, was presumed dead from an enemy ambush, ran into intense enemy fire to rescue Norris, then swam two and a half hours with him and another comrade on his back to safety. When Thornton was awarded the Medal of Honor, he spirited Norris out of the hospital where he was recovering to the White House ceremony so they could be together. Several years later, when Norris himself was awarded the Medal of Honor -- for a covert action known now as "The Rescue of Bat 21" - Thornton was by his side. On that day, Thornton became the first recipient in more than 100 years to have saved the life of another recipient. -- Walter Ehlers spent much of World War II training and fighting side by side with his brother, Roland. Ehlers brought his company out of a Higgins boat 100 yards off shore and landed just before the second wave in a hail of fire on D-Day at Normandy, France. He got all his men safely across the beach and, the following day, moved miles in country. Among the hedgerows there, Ehlers distinguished himself in saving the lives of wounded comrades who came upon intense machine gun fire. He would learn several weeks later that, farther down the beach in Normandy, his brother never made it to shore on D-Day. -- Gary Littrell, on a hill in Vietnam, began defending against a vicious enemy offensive with 247 men and came off the hill with fewer than 50. One witness statement said simply "Littrell was everywhere" exposing himself to intense fire during the hours-long battle, directing troops, providing radio support, ammunition, evacuation of wounded. In the end, Littrell was never wounded -- in his words, "not a scratch." In its statement, the committee said it chose this year’s theme as “a rallying call to the citizens of Chicago, our students and all members of our armed forces who serve our country past and present to take the initiative, respond to the challenge, and act responsibly - indeed, courageously -- when the opportunity presents itself in our daily lives.”

(From a message from the host committee for the 2009 Chicago Commit to Courage Medal of Honor Convention.)