I’m back in my compound after attending a bunch of ceremonies in Zaranj marking the end of our efforts in Nimroz Province. When we flew in last week the skies were dark and it rained that night. The next morning was clear as a bell making for excellent photography and perfect weather for what turned out to be 15 hours of driving through the Dasht-e Margo (Desert of Death). Our mission that day was the dedication ceremony for the Charborjak Irrigation system which we had built, mostly with shovels, wheelbarrows and lots of man power, over the previous 11 months. We had originally scheduled the ceremony for the 5th of October but changed the date at the last minute. On the 5th there was an ambush waiting for us; when we moved out last Thursday we were a mobile ambush looking for anyone who was looking for us.(READ MORE)
The Provincial Governor of Nimroz Province is Al Haji Karim Barahwi and those of you who have read this blog know I’m a big fan of his. He’s a graduate of the Kabul Military Academy and served in the Afghan Army as an officer until the Soviets invaded. Governor Barahwi then became a Muj commander who fought the entire war without any help from the United States. He was working out of Iran and obviously had a little help from them despite the fact that he is not too happy with Iran at the moment. The trip he took us on was remarkable because we did not go the way we have always gone to Cahrborjak; we jumped the Helmand and moved deep into the desert where the Governor wanted to show us something.
Showing posts with label Yon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yon. Show all posts
October 18, 2011
Free Ranging Balochistan
From Free Range International by babatim -
Diplomacy 101
From Free Range International by babatim -
I am in the middle of an interesting few days as we finish up our projects, some of the larger ones with official ceremonies. Those of you who follow Michael Yon on facebook know where I am and what we have been up to. What is interesting to watch is Michael, myself and our friend Chadd Nyerges, who works with me on the reporting side of the house, try to process the thousands of pictures and a dozen hours of video we collectively shot over the past 48 hours. We are all writing reports, posting on the internet, trying to figure out what we have with all these photos and waiting for the plane to come back and get us.(READ MORE)
The place for me to start my narrative of the trip is right in the middle. Yesterday morning, we received news that the American VIPs who had thought they could attend one of the ceremonies, in fact, could not attend. This made me the senior American present, a fact which I failed to think through before walking into the reception hall for the morning program of recognition for the US funding, in general, and my company, specifically. As I entered the hall, my provincial manager, Bashir, who is from Afghanistan, greeted me with most unwelcome news. ”You are the senior man, Tim; you have to sit next to the Governor.” I said that would be fine, but I needed to find the men’s room first. Bashir said that was not possible, and I had to go to my seat “right now.”
February 11, 2011
Serving a Need or Just Being Sensational
Mike Yon has a Facebook page. Many of the Milbloggers that for years supported and reposted Mike's work, have been banned from that page, because of a war of words, that you can read more about here, here, here and here.
Today, I noticed that he posted a video of a soldier being filmed by a French news crew. In the video it appears that the soldier is pulling security and then takes a fateful step, stepping on a mine. The blast and the ensuing aftermath is caught on tape for all to see. The end result is that the Sergeant loses both legs. It's graphic, and it's horrible, but it is war, and as Mike says, this is the stuff our troops deal with on a daily basis.
But....
Was it necessary to repost the video on Facebook?
If Mike feels that American's aren’t really grasping the gravity of the situation, I honestly feel there are better ways of driving home the point without resorting to what can only be described as tabloid journalism.
Come on Mike, you can and have done better than this.
Today, I noticed that he posted a video of a soldier being filmed by a French news crew. In the video it appears that the soldier is pulling security and then takes a fateful step, stepping on a mine. The blast and the ensuing aftermath is caught on tape for all to see. The end result is that the Sergeant loses both legs. It's graphic, and it's horrible, but it is war, and as Mike says, this is the stuff our troops deal with on a daily basis.
But....
Was it necessary to repost the video on Facebook?
If Mike feels that American's aren’t really grasping the gravity of the situation, I honestly feel there are better ways of driving home the point without resorting to what can only be described as tabloid journalism.
Come on Mike, you can and have done better than this.
April 15, 2010
More Outlets Talking About Mike's Cancelled Embed.
Top war correspondent’s embed in Afghanistan halted
Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 02:49PM
By Kay B. Day
No one reporting on the Global War on Terror has done a more effective or honest job than Michael Yon. For one thing he knows the military, having served in U.S. Army Special Forces. With his camera and his pen, he enabled readers to see aspects of war corporate media could or would not divulge.
On Saturday, April 10, Yon posted a message on his magazine-style website. “[A] message came from military that this embed has ended.” He headed off to pack his bags for the trip home from Afghanistan.
On his Facebook page where fans comment daily, more than 135 of his more than 21,000 fans expressed regret as soon as his message posted.
It is common for families with loved ones in the war zone to keep up with dispatches Yon files on the FB page as well as on his magazine site. One commenter summed up feelings for many, writing, “We Americans aren't getting the real story from the MSM-Which is what one of my soldiers told me. He said it is very demoralizing the way the MSM is reporting on the war.”
Yon said he was told the reason for ending the embed was “overcrowding by journalists.” Hard to read that one with a straight face, isn’t it?
READ MORE
Mike writes on his Facebook page:
So the real question is: Are they?
If they are reading the Washington Post we know they aren't, not if today's article by Greg Jaffe titled: U.S. retreat from Afghan valley marks recognition of blunder - is any indication of the depths to which they will reach to twist the narrative.
Of course there is one winner in this - the Taliban have once again seized upon the US's failure to control the narrative and are claiming that they have forced the US Military out of the Korengal with their tails between their legs.
Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 02:49PM
By Kay B. Day
No one reporting on the Global War on Terror has done a more effective or honest job than Michael Yon. For one thing he knows the military, having served in U.S. Army Special Forces. With his camera and his pen, he enabled readers to see aspects of war corporate media could or would not divulge.
On Saturday, April 10, Yon posted a message on his magazine-style website. “[A] message came from military that this embed has ended.” He headed off to pack his bags for the trip home from Afghanistan.
On his Facebook page where fans comment daily, more than 135 of his more than 21,000 fans expressed regret as soon as his message posted.
It is common for families with loved ones in the war zone to keep up with dispatches Yon files on the FB page as well as on his magazine site. One commenter summed up feelings for many, writing, “We Americans aren't getting the real story from the MSM-Which is what one of my soldiers told me. He said it is very demoralizing the way the MSM is reporting on the war.”
Yon said he was told the reason for ending the embed was “overcrowding by journalists.” Hard to read that one with a straight face, isn’t it?
READ MORE
Mike writes on his Facebook page:
The disembed from McChrytal's top staff (meaning from McChrystal himself) is a very bad sign. Sends chills that McChrystal himself thinks we are losing the war. McChrystal has a history of covering up. This causes concern that McChrystal might be misleading SecDef and President. Are they getting the facts?
So the real question is: Are they?
If they are reading the Washington Post we know they aren't, not if today's article by Greg Jaffe titled: U.S. retreat from Afghan valley marks recognition of blunder - is any indication of the depths to which they will reach to twist the narrative.
Of course there is one winner in this - the Taliban have once again seized upon the US's failure to control the narrative and are claiming that they have forced the US Military out of the Korengal with their tails between their legs.
April 5, 2010
Village Boys - Yon
By Michael Yon
Easter Sunday, 2010
Anywhere, Afghanistan
Back in December, C-Co 1-17th Infantry battalion had been in about the worst place in Afghanistan. There is stiff competition for the position of actual worst place, and I am sure there are many contenders that remain unknown, but the Arghandab was one of them. The battalion had lost more than twenty soldiers, and C-co alone had lost 12 with more wounded. In December 2009, C-Co was moved north into Shah Wali Kot and has been running missions here for more than three months. I’ve only been at Shaw Wali Kot for a week.
Charlie Company headed on a mission to visit villages that had seen no formal western guests for at least the past five years, according Company Commander Max Hanlin. The soldiers drove to an area maybe two kilometers from the first village, parked, and walked in. The surrounding desert was so dry that only the hardy and small plants survived—often with thorns, and probably foul-tasting (and poisonous). How else can a plant expect to survive when the favorite Afghan meat is mutton, and foraging isn’t easy for the lambs? There was the occasional brown lizard or grasshopper, but on the whole it’s simply rocky desert. The place is barren but not entirely lifeless.
Charlie Company was heading into the Baghtu Valley. The general area is said to be among the most religiously conservative in Afghanistan, meaning soldiers were unlikely to stumble across any undiscovered steeples, stupas or synagogues.
Some Charlie Company soldiers are multi-tour combat veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq. Captain Max Hanlin, the Charlie Company Commander, is on his sixth combat tour. Captain Hanlin explained how Dutch convoys had been hit near the Baghtu Valley and how fights had raged. Captain Hanlin said the four villages we were to visit are a black hole. We know where they are, their names, and little more.
We knew nothing, really, about the villages ahead. We didn’t know whether they are friendly, enemy or neutral. In fact, the villages could be in another category: beyond neutral. Just out of it, living in a knowledge vacuum, maybe hoping not to be dragged into a fight. That would describe much of Afghanistan.
With the Battle for Kandahar kicking off, and our troops surging in for the counteroffensive, villages previously beyond the periphery of our effective reach are becoming more accessible. Many of them have been Taliban-controlled. We don’t always know whether these isolated, dusty mud-walled places support, provide sanctuary, or are the native home of Taliban fighters. The Afghanistan government remains absent from most Afghan villages. The central government hidden away in Kabul still offers zero. Not juice, justice or security. The Taliban at least offers justice in some areas.
And so Charlie Company, some Afghan police, and Haji Oboyadulah Popal (the governor of Shah Wali Kot district), headed to the hills.
Veterans watch the kids. If the kids don’t like you, or are afraid: bad. The adults can lie all day and might get away with it, while kids are a collective polygraph. If the kids disappear suddenly, it’s a good idea to prepare to fight, and it’s always great to see a bunch of young ones return a smile. Children also see the enemy just like everyone else does, though the children can be more likely to say something.
The soldiers walked into the first village. One kid looked as if he had been whacked in the head. A medic bandaged him up. I asked what happened and through an interpreter the kid said he fell but he seemed to be lying. The boy just behind him has a slingshot hanging around his neck, as did many of the boys. Probably got whacked in the head during a slingshot battle and lied to his dad about it, the way we used to lie about BB gun wars.
Does he look innocent? The boys use the slingshots to hunt birds, which they say they eat, but it’s difficult to imagine that boys with slingshots would not shoot at each other.
Boys catch birds. And they kept shoving this one up so I would keep looking at it.
An interpreter said they will hold the bird until it becomes accustomed to being held. When the boy fed the bird, he would slightly release it.
Numerous villagers had watches, and they had shoes. All the shoes seemed to fit. In truly poor areas (“poor” being subjective on many fronts), Afghans often wear shoes that are too large or small. It’s good to watch for men wearing running shoes, which can be a sign they are fighters. The British teach this in their man-tracking school that I attended last year in Borneo. The village was lush with this year’s first crop, including fig trees, and poppy which mostly had not yet flowered.
For the first hour or so, no girls were to be seen, but the boys wanted their photos taken. Many villagers have never had their photos taken. The boys didn’t seem to know what the camera was until they saw their images. Soldiers and Marines sometimes carry Polaroid Cameras to villages. The villagers love to get the shots which often are the only photos they have ever owned.
Finally a lone girl came out. She wandered around for some time and a boy showed her to me, and when I lifted the camera he even shielded her eyes, but a moment too late. This was the first instance I saw anyone care if a young girl was photographed. Even the girl is covering her face.
There was a meeting going on with Captain Hanlin and the elders and the boys were well-behaved with them, but they were angling for attention. The boys would have been fun if there were no meeting. We could have started a slingshot competition. But they were getting to be a pain. They magically disappeared and soon were crowded around the mortar team maybe 30 meters away. The crowd of boys began laughing so loudly that the meeting stopped a couple times to see what was up. The British will designate a soldier to be the comedian during missions. When kids disrupt soldiers, the comedian can distract them away from business. Our folks were borrowing that good idea. I walked over and asked our guys how they had lured the kids away. Why were they laughing so loud? A soldier answered that they didn’t try to entertain the boys. He continued, “I just farted and they went crazy.” So he did it again and so on. The soldier boys with the mortars were getting along famously with the village boys. Who knew that public corporeal depressurization is a great taboo in Afghanistan, but incredibly entertaining when done by Americans?
Unfortunately, the circus de flatulance ended and the village boys came back to the meeting.
And kept being boys.
Easter Sunday, 2010
Anywhere, Afghanistan
Back in December, C-Co 1-17th Infantry battalion had been in about the worst place in Afghanistan. There is stiff competition for the position of actual worst place, and I am sure there are many contenders that remain unknown, but the Arghandab was one of them. The battalion had lost more than twenty soldiers, and C-co alone had lost 12 with more wounded. In December 2009, C-Co was moved north into Shah Wali Kot and has been running missions here for more than three months. I’ve only been at Shaw Wali Kot for a week.
Charlie Company headed on a mission to visit villages that had seen no formal western guests for at least the past five years, according Company Commander Max Hanlin. The soldiers drove to an area maybe two kilometers from the first village, parked, and walked in. The surrounding desert was so dry that only the hardy and small plants survived—often with thorns, and probably foul-tasting (and poisonous). How else can a plant expect to survive when the favorite Afghan meat is mutton, and foraging isn’t easy for the lambs? There was the occasional brown lizard or grasshopper, but on the whole it’s simply rocky desert. The place is barren but not entirely lifeless.
Charlie Company was heading into the Baghtu Valley. The general area is said to be among the most religiously conservative in Afghanistan, meaning soldiers were unlikely to stumble across any undiscovered steeples, stupas or synagogues.
Some Charlie Company soldiers are multi-tour combat veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq. Captain Max Hanlin, the Charlie Company Commander, is on his sixth combat tour. Captain Hanlin explained how Dutch convoys had been hit near the Baghtu Valley and how fights had raged. Captain Hanlin said the four villages we were to visit are a black hole. We know where they are, their names, and little more.
We knew nothing, really, about the villages ahead. We didn’t know whether they are friendly, enemy or neutral. In fact, the villages could be in another category: beyond neutral. Just out of it, living in a knowledge vacuum, maybe hoping not to be dragged into a fight. That would describe much of Afghanistan.
With the Battle for Kandahar kicking off, and our troops surging in for the counteroffensive, villages previously beyond the periphery of our effective reach are becoming more accessible. Many of them have been Taliban-controlled. We don’t always know whether these isolated, dusty mud-walled places support, provide sanctuary, or are the native home of Taliban fighters. The Afghanistan government remains absent from most Afghan villages. The central government hidden away in Kabul still offers zero. Not juice, justice or security. The Taliban at least offers justice in some areas.
And so Charlie Company, some Afghan police, and Haji Oboyadulah Popal (the governor of Shah Wali Kot district), headed to the hills.
Veterans watch the kids. If the kids don’t like you, or are afraid: bad. The adults can lie all day and might get away with it, while kids are a collective polygraph. If the kids disappear suddenly, it’s a good idea to prepare to fight, and it’s always great to see a bunch of young ones return a smile. Children also see the enemy just like everyone else does, though the children can be more likely to say something.
The soldiers walked into the first village. One kid looked as if he had been whacked in the head. A medic bandaged him up. I asked what happened and through an interpreter the kid said he fell but he seemed to be lying. The boy just behind him has a slingshot hanging around his neck, as did many of the boys. Probably got whacked in the head during a slingshot battle and lied to his dad about it, the way we used to lie about BB gun wars.
Does he look innocent? The boys use the slingshots to hunt birds, which they say they eat, but it’s difficult to imagine that boys with slingshots would not shoot at each other.
Boys catch birds. And they kept shoving this one up so I would keep looking at it.
An interpreter said they will hold the bird until it becomes accustomed to being held. When the boy fed the bird, he would slightly release it.
Numerous villagers had watches, and they had shoes. All the shoes seemed to fit. In truly poor areas (“poor” being subjective on many fronts), Afghans often wear shoes that are too large or small. It’s good to watch for men wearing running shoes, which can be a sign they are fighters. The British teach this in their man-tracking school that I attended last year in Borneo. The village was lush with this year’s first crop, including fig trees, and poppy which mostly had not yet flowered.
For the first hour or so, no girls were to be seen, but the boys wanted their photos taken. Many villagers have never had their photos taken. The boys didn’t seem to know what the camera was until they saw their images. Soldiers and Marines sometimes carry Polaroid Cameras to villages. The villagers love to get the shots which often are the only photos they have ever owned.
Finally a lone girl came out. She wandered around for some time and a boy showed her to me, and when I lifted the camera he even shielded her eyes, but a moment too late. This was the first instance I saw anyone care if a young girl was photographed. Even the girl is covering her face.
There was a meeting going on with Captain Hanlin and the elders and the boys were well-behaved with them, but they were angling for attention. The boys would have been fun if there were no meeting. We could have started a slingshot competition. But they were getting to be a pain. They magically disappeared and soon were crowded around the mortar team maybe 30 meters away. The crowd of boys began laughing so loudly that the meeting stopped a couple times to see what was up. The British will designate a soldier to be the comedian during missions. When kids disrupt soldiers, the comedian can distract them away from business. Our folks were borrowing that good idea. I walked over and asked our guys how they had lured the kids away. Why were they laughing so loud? A soldier answered that they didn’t try to entertain the boys. He continued, “I just farted and they went crazy.” So he did it again and so on. The soldier boys with the mortars were getting along famously with the village boys. Who knew that public corporeal depressurization is a great taboo in Afghanistan, but incredibly entertaining when done by Americans?
Unfortunately, the circus de flatulance ended and the village boys came back to the meeting.
And kept being boys.
This is a team effort: Your CASH is required to keep these dispatches coming. Please donate NOW.
Your support is crucial and appreciated.
Michael Yon
P.O. Box 5553
Winter Haven, Fl 33880
April 2, 2010
RED HORSE in the Desert of Death - Yon
Some troops in Afghanistan go months without a shower. Major Ryan O’Conner, XO of the 1-17th Infantry, now in Kandahar Province, said that during a previous tour his Soldiers fought half a year without so much as a dip in a creek. Shortages of drinking water affected combat operations.
For centuries, Afghans have dug underground irrigation tunnels called karez. The lines of craters in the photo above are shafts into a karez system. The shafts, which can be hundreds of feet deep, are used to lift out soil and stone while digging a karez. Karez can take years to build and are sometimes miles long. They are described as intricate constructions, often built by teams for hire, using father-to-son knowledge passed down through the centuries.
Thousands of handmade underground irrigation systems range from China, through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, down to Africa, up to Europe and around to the Americas.
FOB Frontenac, Kandahar Province.
Water logistics is a high hurdle for Afghans, invaders, liberators and social shapers. Even upon my flimsy, unvarnished plywood desk are three bottles of water with three different labels:
Bottle #1 is labeled “Kinley Clean & Clear Drinking Water: A Quality Product of The Coca-Cola Company.”
Bottle #2, “Cristal Quality Mineral Water” from “Afghanistan Beverage Industries Ltd. Kabul, Afghanistan.”
Bottle #3, “Masafi Pure natural mineral water from the foothills of the Masafi Mountains,” bottled in the U.A.E. and with a website, www.masafi.com.
The showers have signs that say things like:
Combat Showers Only
Limit, three minutes
How to take a combat shower
1) Turn on water
2) Wet body
3) Turn off shower
4) Soap and scrub
5) Turn on water
6) Rinse off Soap
7) Done
FOB Frontenac happens to be nearby the Dala reservoir, created by the Dala Dam, which was created by Americans a couple generations ago. Unfortunately, most of the larger bases aren’t blessed with reservoirs. At Frontenac, a local Afghan contractor is paid to take water from the lake reservoir—now gushing from snowmelt—and recharges the holding reservoir on base for the toilets and showers.
READ MORE...
This is a team effort: Your SUPPORT is required to keep these dispatches coming. Please donate NOW.Your support is crucial and appreciated.
Michael Yon
P.O. Box 5553
Winter Haven, Fl 33880
March 29, 2010
Yon - The Battle for Kandahar: Part I
FOB Frontenac, Afghanistan [Photo by Michael Yon - 2010]
FOB Frontenac, Afghanistan
28 March 2010
Under an early morning sky, a red glow is cast from the lights on an Air Force water drilling rig. A new MATV, or “MRAP All Terrain Vehicle,” is being deployed to Afghanistan to combat homemade bombs, the favorite weapon of the Taliban.
Stryker vehicles of the 1-17th Infantry Battalion, 5/2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The trace of light is from an unmanned aircraft. [Photo by Michael Yon - 2010]
The 1-17th has lost 22 soldiers on this tour but, has inflicted far more on the enemy. It appears that U.S. forces have gained the initiative in the Arghandab River Valley (ARV). The ARV is crucial human and physical terrain for the unfolding Battle of Kandahar.
Moon Shadow at Frontenac. There is relative calm before the spring. [Photo by Michael Yon - 2010]
The Battle for Kandahar has begun. The face of this battle is not one of sudden fury but a process, a complex struggle for legitimacy between local Taliban governance and Kabul rule.
A scent of weakness is in the air. The Taliban remain deadly and capable – yet they seem to be losing the initiative. “Shaping Operations” are underway. Special Operations Forces are picking off and collecting key Taliban leaders. With our increase in troops, the Taliban must spend more time on self-defence, deducting from their capacity for offensive operations.
This year, 2010, is particularly crucial for the future of Afghanistan. The fight is on for key physical terrain, politcal terrain, and information dominance. Before Christmas, we will know who won the Battle for Kandahar. Who wins this Battle likely will win the war.
This is a team effort: Your CASH is required to keep these dispatches coming. Please donate NOW.
Your support is crucial and appreciated.
Michael Yon
P.O. Box 5553
Winter Haven, Fl 33880
March 26, 2010
The Scent of Weakness - Yon
Kandahar Province, Afghanistan
25 March 2010
Dogs have been trained to carry bombs to attack enemies for decades. The Soviets and others have used dogs as low-tech smart bombs. Yet canine platoons likely would rebel if they caught scent they were being duped to die.
Today, more sophisticated people employ men (mostly) to deliver bombs in Afghanistan. Gullible souls are selected, conditioned, trained and deployed. Malleable minds are identified then loaded with psychic software that uses their minds to create a vision. Evil persons of superior intellect identify the raw material—that raw material might be an engineer from a stable family—and trains them to fetch myths.
Suicide attackers have murdered countless thousands of people around the world. They go by various names, such as Kamikaze, Black Tiger, and Martyr.
The attackers are not all men. Some are Tigresses. My friend Alex Perry met a wannabe Black Tigress in Sri Lanka. She was 18. Alex described the girl in Time Magazine:
“But asked when she hoped to achieve her dream of being a suicide bomber, she grinned, squirmed and buried her face in her arms. "She's already written her application," said her commander, Lt. Col. Dewarsara Banu, smiling at her charge's shyness. "But there's still no reply." "Why hasn't there been a reply?" whined Samandi, looking up with the one eye, her left, that survived a shot to the head and fiddling with the capsule of cyanide powder around her neck. "I want this. I want to be a Black Tiger. I want to blast myself for freedom."
How Sri Lanka's Rebels Build a Suicide Bomber.
Many people are persuaded by cult artifices into any sort of behavior, including ritual suicide and murder. It’s crucial to understand that many suicide-murders are part of a religious ceremony. The attack is the climax of the ceremony. This is neither complicated, nor subtle.
Suicide murders are merely a small fraction of cult behaviors. Cults often do not revolve around religions. Communist cadres once fanned across the globe, teaching that capitalism must die on a global scale for communism to reach its imagined grandeur. Yet even as communist countries have failed across the world, true believers intoned the conviction that “real communism” had never been tried, and if it were, it would fulfill its promises. This “willing suspension of disbelief” demonstrates an important aspect often organic to cults: when cult prophecies are proven wrong, we might expect the cult to disintegrate in face of the evidence. Yet instead of disintegrating, powerful cults often refortify, strengthen, and redouble recruitment. Failure can cause them to grow.
Some cult leaders are true believers while others are true deceivers. From the outside, cults often can be easy to spot, though the hardest cult to see is the one you are in.
We face an increasing number of suicide murders here in the “Muslim world”—in places where suicide attacks were previously unheard of. Some people are coerced into suicide, such as the unfortunate women who were raped and defiled in Iraq, then shamed and coerced into suicide for the sake of “honor.” Or the case of a young Libyan, captured by soldiers from a unit I was with in Iraq. The Libyan was thankful for his capture: Iraqis were trying to force him to wear a suicide bomb.
Others are “brainwashed” and reloaded with brainware whose program creates suicide murderers.
A few weeks ago, on the morning of March 1st, just close by Kandahar Airfield, a suicide murderer waited in ambush. An American convoy from the 82nd Airborne was crossing the Tarnak River Bridge when the man detonated his car bomb, sending a heavily armored American MRAP off the bridge. At 0735, the boom thundered across Kandahar Airfield. I felt the explosion and turned around to look for a mushroom. The sound was vigorous enough that I thought we may have been hit on base. There it was: the orange mushroom cloud of dust gathered and could be seen floating away. It was off base in the direction of Highway 4 to Kandahar.
American Soldier Ian Gelig and several Afghans were killed. It’s difficult to know how many locals are killed and wounded in attacks; often they die later or are never taken to hospitals.
Soldiers from 5/2 Stryker Brigade Combat team were planning to conduct a mission that morning that required crossing the now badly damaged bridge. Our mission was cancelled, as were many other missions for the next couple days. In addition to killing Ian Gelig, the single attacker impacted the flow of the war in this crucial battle space.
Nearly two weeks later, on Saturday 13 March, I was preparing to go on another mission with 5/2 SBCT soldiers. Shortly before our departure, just up the road in Kandahar City, a serious attack unfolded at night, including three or four suicide attackers. About 35 people were killed and roughly another 50 wounded. Again, our mission was cancelled because the roads were closed, though by morning we took helicopters and bypassed the incident. Turns out, the enemy was disappointed with their attack. About half the attacks apparently did not go off, while American and Afghan forces responded more quickly than the enemy had expected and limited the damage. According to intelligence, the Taliban are extremely paranoid. Taliban leadership suspected there had been an inside informant. They planned to conduct a purge. Meanwhile, I got one report from the ground that Afghans believed most of the casualties were caused by Afghan police who are said to have fired wildly during the attack. One man told me that an Afghan position randomly fired his 12.7mm DsHK machine gun across the city. (These guns are so large they can rip a man in two.) Whether the allegation is true or false is not known by me, though it stands alone as a bullet in the information war.
Ground Sign
On 8 April 2006, I was driving with a friend from Lashkar Gah to Camp Bastion when shortly after we left the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) at Lash, a suicide attacker struck. We escaped entirely, hearing about the attack later. Some days later, we drove back to Lash. On 13 April, a second suicide attack happened at the same place, shaking the building while I was writing a dispatch about how the war was going sour.
These were the first two suicide attacks in Lashkar Gah.
(A couple more suicide attackers were killed in that same close area in Lash while I was writing this dispatch in neighboring Kandahar.)
Lone Wolf suicide murders occur, but the context of these first two bombings in Lashkar Gah indicated that a system was in place, and the suicide bombers were not terribly expensive to buy. If those suicide bombers were expensive or hard to come by, the commander likely would have saved them for special missions of high specific significance. Yet the targets of the two attacks were small and tactical, of little specific significance. Why would a commander waste “smart ammo” on tactical targets? Perhaps the “price” of the ammo—whether through coercion or bribery—must be reasonable, and he can buy more.
One intelligence report indicates that a certain Mullah paid cash and wheat seed to the father of Shafiqullah Rahman and Mohammed Hashim who detonated suicide car bombs on 11 November and 19 November 2009.
Suicide attackers come in different “grades.” Some are illiterate, unsophisticated people, unsuited for complex targeting. A plotter could not expect to select an illiterate village boy from the hinterlands of Zabul Province to move to Florida, obtain a place to live and begin flight training to crash airplanes into buildings.
Just days before 9/11, in Afghanistan, attackers passed themselves off as international journalists and managed to kill Ahmad Shah Massoud. A couple days later, on 9/11, hijackers attacked the United States. The killers were polyglots who combined savvy with international experience to wage complex attacks, such as was seen in Mumbai, India. Another sophisticated international suicide attack occurred in Afghanistan in December 2009, killing seven CIA agents.
More locally, within a short distance of this keyboard, suicide attackers who are spent on random convoys or “common targets” probably tend to be simple folk. Many suicide attackers in Afghanistan are believed to be street children or young people from dirt-poor villages, for instance from Zabul Province. Most are thought to be young, uneducated and impoverished. These unfortunates are believed to be conditioned in madrassas in Pakistan, and in fact our intelligence people believe that there might be three madrassas in one particular town, where suicide bombers are conditioned and shipped straight into Kandahar Province.
IEDs are by far our biggest threat here, yet suicide attacks are also deadly while generating more press. Also, IEDs generally only affect people who go where the IEDs are, while suicide murderers are known to hijack “random” airplanes far away from the perceived battlefield. Most victims of the suicide murderers we face are other Muslims. This was also true in Iraq where murderers would attack mosques or funeral processions, as an example.
There was a time when Americans seemed to view suicide attacks as a sign of the complete conviction of the enemy, an immutable dedication to their cause that many people found terrifying and cause for soul-searching. “What could we have done to provoke such anger?” Yet with time, American views of suicide attacks have matured and become more grounded. Firstly, Americans in particular are far less afraid of suicide attackers and extremely unlikely to capitulate with anyone who attacks on American soil. Suicide attackers hit American soil. In Iraq and Afghanistan, they have become commonplace. Secondly, most importantly, wild use of suicide attackers is seen not as evidence that we are attacking the “wrong people” whose dedication to their cause is unstoppable, but as concrete evidence that we are attacking the right people and that they should be destroyed. Japanese Kamikaze attacks are ingrained in the psyche of generations of Americans born post-World War II. Despite enemy demonstrations of absolute conviction, our military is today stationed peacefully in Japan.
Overuse of suicide attackers does not appear to cause Americans to cower, but to evoke Americans to want to kill the perpetrator.
Al Qaeda in Iraq was partially but significantly undone by overuse of suicide attackers. The Taliban is marching down the same path, but top-tier Taliban are smarter than al Qaeda and are trying to avert backlash.
Savage behavior continues to turn people against the Taliban. Realizing this, Mullah Omar and his Taliban issued a code of conduct in 2009: “Rules and Regulations for Mujahidin.”
Item 41:
Make sure you meet these 4 conditions in conducting suicide attacks:
A-Before he goes for the mission, he should be very educated in his mission.
B-Suicide attacks should be done always against high ranking people.
C-Try your best to avoid killing local people.
D-Unless they have special permission from higher authority, every suicide attack must be approved by higher [the provincial] authority.
In 2009, one report indicated there were 148 suicide bombings or attempts in Afghanistan. Suicide murders continue to occur a short drive from here that are not meeting the above requirements. Taliban continue to hit all manner of targets, and regularly slaughter non-combatant men, women and children.
Within a week subsequent to the publication of this dispatch, suicide murderers will likely kill innocent people here. The Taliban’s efforts at repackaging themselves as kinder, gentler mass-murderers is failing. Their suicide bombing campaign is backfiring. The Taliban are losing their cool. Something is in the air. The enemy remains very deadly, yet the scent of their weakness is growing stronger while our people close in.
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Michael Yon
P.O. Box 5553
Winter Haven, Fl 33880
March 23, 2010
Warthog - Michael Yon
Kandahar, Afghanistan
23 March 2010
The mission required crossing a bridge that had been blown up a couple hours earlier by a suicide car bomber. The attacker hit a convoy from the 82nd Airborne, killing American soldier Ian Gelig. Now with a hole in the bridge and recovery operations underway, our mission was cancelled. So I called the Air Force to see if they were busy. Yes, it turns out, the Air Force is busy every day, but Captain Kristen Duncan took me down to the ramp where the A-10 “Warthogs” are parked.
Two pilots were gearing up to fly from Kandahar over to neighboring Helmand to support a British unit. The A-10 “Warthogs” are slow—not supersonic—but fantastically agile. The aircraft dart like dragonflies and seem to change direction against the laws of physics. The A-10s can turn so fast that they can break the laws of healthy physiology, and can cause a pilot to pass out and crash his airplane. And so pilots wear G-suits to help counter adverse fluid dynamics.
The helmets offer no ballistic protection. Helmets that ground troops wear can stop bullets, and have done so in Iraq and Afghanistan on many occasions, usually knocking out the wearer. I remember a Marine Major in Mosul who got shot in the head. He said it knocked him out cold. He said it wasn’t pleasant getting shot in the head, but he was downtown in Mosul back in the action when I asked about it. Army Lieutenant Colonel Terry Jamison also got shot in the helmet in the same city, Mosul. When I asked LTC Jamison about getting shot while flying his Kiowa Warrior helicopter, he said the bullet somehow missed his head but ventilated his helmet. (I saw the helmet.) Pilots wear light helmets because of the hard turns, plus some high-G accidents can cause neck injuries.
Lt Col Murphy flies with the 104th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron from the Maryland National Guard. In his day job, “Captain” Eric Murphy is a commercial pilot who flies A320s but today he’s not flying British tourists traveling within the United States. He’s going to Helmand Province to cover the British “Royal Welsh.” I remembered some Royal Welsh from Iraq. There had been much fighting. A lot of killing that went both ways. They had been Men of Valor.http://www.michaelyon-online.com/men-of-valor-part-i-of-about-viii.htm
As Lt Col Murphy crawled in, I wished him luck in covering the British, but didn’t say that some of those British soldiers are my personal friends. It was good to see the A-10s heading out there. The Brits appreciate it.
A-10s have more tricks than Harry Potter, such as the flares designed to lure heat-seeking missiles away from the engines. Over these battlefields, pilots often pop the flares as “We see you” warnings to the enemy. If the enemy is in the open and no civilians are around, they are unlikely to get a friendly flare warning, but sometimes it’s better to hold off on the big weapons; the enemy might be fighting from a built-up area.
Today, Lt Col Murphy’s 30mm cannon is loaded with 1,150 rounds. The 30mm can destroy tanks, but believe it or not, typically will not penetrate the walls around Afghan homes. When the 30mm fires, it’s almost unbelievable. The bullets don’t fly in a laser-like stream, but sort of spray in a lethal mist, as if the cannon is shot-painting a swath with huge bullets. If the enemy is in the open, the cannon is like a weapon of mass destruction. When people are hit with M-16 bullets, the wound is often more like a couple small holes, but when bodies get hit with weapons this large, they fly in pieces.
A-10 cannons are tilted down so that the pilot can fly level while strafing. This is important: In Mosul, in 2004, an F-14 was strafing downtown after a massive truck bomb in December and many other bad surprises (I was not there), and the pilot told me he was fixated on the target. Since the F-14 cannon is tilted up for “Top Gun” air combat, the pilot had to nose down the F-14 and was diving straight into the target and nearly crashed. The hard turn to avoid crashing damaged his aircraft and the pilot had difficulty landing on the aircraft carrier later that night. Since the A-10 gun is tilted down, it can fly level and strafe without accidentally crashing into the target.
READ MORE...
23 March 2010
The mission required crossing a bridge that had been blown up a couple hours earlier by a suicide car bomber. The attacker hit a convoy from the 82nd Airborne, killing American soldier Ian Gelig. Now with a hole in the bridge and recovery operations underway, our mission was cancelled. So I called the Air Force to see if they were busy. Yes, it turns out, the Air Force is busy every day, but Captain Kristen Duncan took me down to the ramp where the A-10 “Warthogs” are parked.
Two pilots were gearing up to fly from Kandahar over to neighboring Helmand to support a British unit. The A-10 “Warthogs” are slow—not supersonic—but fantastically agile. The aircraft dart like dragonflies and seem to change direction against the laws of physics. The A-10s can turn so fast that they can break the laws of healthy physiology, and can cause a pilot to pass out and crash his airplane. And so pilots wear G-suits to help counter adverse fluid dynamics.
The helmets offer no ballistic protection. Helmets that ground troops wear can stop bullets, and have done so in Iraq and Afghanistan on many occasions, usually knocking out the wearer. I remember a Marine Major in Mosul who got shot in the head. He said it knocked him out cold. He said it wasn’t pleasant getting shot in the head, but he was downtown in Mosul back in the action when I asked about it. Army Lieutenant Colonel Terry Jamison also got shot in the helmet in the same city, Mosul. When I asked LTC Jamison about getting shot while flying his Kiowa Warrior helicopter, he said the bullet somehow missed his head but ventilated his helmet. (I saw the helmet.) Pilots wear light helmets because of the hard turns, plus some high-G accidents can cause neck injuries.
Lt Col Murphy flies with the 104th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron from the Maryland National Guard. In his day job, “Captain” Eric Murphy is a commercial pilot who flies A320s but today he’s not flying British tourists traveling within the United States. He’s going to Helmand Province to cover the British “Royal Welsh.” I remembered some Royal Welsh from Iraq. There had been much fighting. A lot of killing that went both ways. They had been Men of Valor.http://www.michaelyon-online.com/men-of-valor-part-i-of-about-viii.htm
As Lt Col Murphy crawled in, I wished him luck in covering the British, but didn’t say that some of those British soldiers are my personal friends. It was good to see the A-10s heading out there. The Brits appreciate it.
A-10s have more tricks than Harry Potter, such as the flares designed to lure heat-seeking missiles away from the engines. Over these battlefields, pilots often pop the flares as “We see you” warnings to the enemy. If the enemy is in the open and no civilians are around, they are unlikely to get a friendly flare warning, but sometimes it’s better to hold off on the big weapons; the enemy might be fighting from a built-up area.
Today, Lt Col Murphy’s 30mm cannon is loaded with 1,150 rounds. The 30mm can destroy tanks, but believe it or not, typically will not penetrate the walls around Afghan homes. When the 30mm fires, it’s almost unbelievable. The bullets don’t fly in a laser-like stream, but sort of spray in a lethal mist, as if the cannon is shot-painting a swath with huge bullets. If the enemy is in the open, the cannon is like a weapon of mass destruction. When people are hit with M-16 bullets, the wound is often more like a couple small holes, but when bodies get hit with weapons this large, they fly in pieces.
A-10 cannons are tilted down so that the pilot can fly level while strafing. This is important: In Mosul, in 2004, an F-14 was strafing downtown after a massive truck bomb in December and many other bad surprises (I was not there), and the pilot told me he was fixated on the target. Since the F-14 cannon is tilted up for “Top Gun” air combat, the pilot had to nose down the F-14 and was diving straight into the target and nearly crashed. The hard turn to avoid crashing damaged his aircraft and the pilot had difficulty landing on the aircraft carrier later that night. Since the A-10 gun is tilted down, it can fly level and strafe without accidentally crashing into the target.
READ MORE...
March 22, 2010
Princess Salerno
Via: Michael Yon
Published: 22 March 2010
MAJ JF Sucher, MD FACS USAR MC Surgeon, 909th FST
The 909th FST saw many children during their first deployment of 2002-2003 in Salerno, Afghanistan, Paktya province, but one beautiful child gripped their hearts. Anyone who saw her then, or sees her image now can't help but feel driven to care for her, and the 909th did just that with all their heart. They waited on her hand and foot - A pattern that lead the FST to crown her "Princess Salerno".
Salerno child, Paktya Province, Afghanistan - 2003 Photo Courtesy of SFC Dan Biesiadecki.
The young princess had a broken leg. The local treatment was to smear egg-whites all over her body and wrap her leg in what appeared to be something much like a tiny picket fence. Such is the level of medical treatment in the deep rural areas of Afghanistan.
There are cities in Afghanistan with at least a modicum of adequate facilities to take care of the population. However, getting to the hospital from a remote village is a challenging prospect. Notwithstanding the fact that getting to a hospital does not mean that there will be anyone there that has the ability to treat you.
Orgune father with baby girl - Paktika Province, Afghanistan 2010.
Fast forward 7 years. Fortunately for the people in and around Orgune, Afghanistan, the hospital is unable to treat the problem, then they can send the patient to FOB Orgun-E. At present time there is a consistent flow of injured children. Most injuries are not battle related.
The first day I arrived a young baby was brought in to see us after a week with colic and vomiting. The parents went to the local bazaar and collected at least 7 different medicines ranging from simethicone to antibiotics to extremely dangerous medicines like phenobarbitol. What the baby had was an incarcerated inguinal hernia and needed emergency surgery. Fortunately, the incarcerated bowel was not permanently damaged and the baby recovered quite well. Without our intervention, the baby would have likely died in a matter of days.
Orgune boy - Paktika Province, Afghanistan 2010.
"They don't cry", LTC Randy Hoeppner, noted from his previous deployment in Iraq. I see the same pattern continue with the children of Afghanistan. I don't understand why it is that these young boys and girls don't cry like American children would normally do. They seem to be too young for it to be a cultural influence. It is somewhat disturbing. This Orgune boy had a large cut to his left ankle, reportedly from a dog bite. It took him 5 days to make it to the hospital, who then sent him to us. I did not see any clear evidence consistent with a dog bite. There was a 4cm long laceration across his ankle. There is no way of telling what actually happened. We simply provided the best medical care that we could and hoped that they would return if there were any problems.
Medic from the 541st removes bandage from Orgune boy's ankle - Paktika Province, Afghanistan 2010.
There are many injuries these children are at risk for and it shows given that the average life expectancy for an Afghan is only 46 years. In the two weeks I spent at FOB Orgune-E, in addition to the above patients, we saw 2 children with femur fractures from reported falls, a child with a hand fracture, a baby with soft tissue infection and 2 children with burns. Burns are especially prominent in this population. The Afghans have bread ovens that are dug into the ground, and it is not uncommon for a child to fall into these pits.
READ MORE...
March 8, 2010
Moving Heaven and Earth - Yon
Revealed: How hundreds of military personnel, millions of pounds and an experimental 'lung' saved the life of a British soldier... shot by accident in his own camp
By Peter Almond
MailOnline
It was one of the most complex military logistical and medical operations ever undertaken – and it saved the life of a young British soldier critically injured in Afghanistan.
It involved hundreds of doctors, air and ground crews of several nations, travelling many thousands of miles, revolutionary and experimental medical equipment, several planes and helicopters and communications between three continents and cost millions of pounds.
For months, details of the massive operation to save one man’s life have been shrouded in secrecy. The injured soldier was not shot by the Taliban but was almost certainly wounded accidentally at his camp near Sangin in Helmand province in late July last year.
It is understood that Soldier X – he is not being identified at the request of his family – was not wearing body armour at the time. The Ministry of Defence has declined to offer any explanation.
The respected American journalist Michael Yon, himself a former US special forces soldier, reported on his blog that he heard the shot and saw a flurry of activity and a medical evacuation helicopter taking Soldier X away.
Then began a most incredible effort to save his life.
Soldier X had been shot in the abdomen and chest, losing his right lung and damaging his liver, according to the US military Stars And Stripes newspaper. Another American military report said his blood supply was replaced more than ten times, and that he was transfused with 75 units of blood and another 75 units of platelets.
He was alive – but only just. He needed specialist equipment to do what his lungs could not: provide oxygen to his blood and remove the carbon dioxide built up in its passage through his body. He needed an artificial lung and intensive care within hours. Such equipment was available at hospitals in Britain, nearly 4,000 miles away, but Soldier X would almost certainly die on the long flight.
He needed a portable, low-pressure artificial lung and the Americans offered to help. But the bureaucracy of moving from the British to the American military system meant that valuable time was being lost.
More...
By Peter Almond
MailOnline
It was one of the most complex military logistical and medical operations ever undertaken – and it saved the life of a young British soldier critically injured in Afghanistan.
It involved hundreds of doctors, air and ground crews of several nations, travelling many thousands of miles, revolutionary and experimental medical equipment, several planes and helicopters and communications between three continents and cost millions of pounds.
For months, details of the massive operation to save one man’s life have been shrouded in secrecy. The injured soldier was not shot by the Taliban but was almost certainly wounded accidentally at his camp near Sangin in Helmand province in late July last year.
It is understood that Soldier X – he is not being identified at the request of his family – was not wearing body armour at the time. The Ministry of Defence has declined to offer any explanation.
The respected American journalist Michael Yon, himself a former US special forces soldier, reported on his blog that he heard the shot and saw a flurry of activity and a medical evacuation helicopter taking Soldier X away.
Then began a most incredible effort to save his life.
Soldier X had been shot in the abdomen and chest, losing his right lung and damaging his liver, according to the US military Stars And Stripes newspaper. Another American military report said his blood supply was replaced more than ten times, and that he was transfused with 75 units of blood and another 75 units of platelets.
He was alive – but only just. He needed specialist equipment to do what his lungs could not: provide oxygen to his blood and remove the carbon dioxide built up in its passage through his body. He needed an artificial lung and intensive care within hours. Such equipment was available at hospitals in Britain, nearly 4,000 miles away, but Soldier X would almost certainly die on the long flight.
He needed a portable, low-pressure artificial lung and the Americans offered to help. But the bureaucracy of moving from the British to the American military system meant that valuable time was being lost.
More...
February 24, 2010
RIP - Colonel (R) Robert L. Howard
Via Michael Yon...
24 Feburary 2010
24 Feburary 2010
From: Mellinger, Jeffrey J CSM MIL USA
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
Today, at Arlington National Cemetery, we lay to rest COL(R) Robert L. Howard. The link for the interview is at the end of this email.
Read a bit about Howard at one of these links: The Robert L. Howard Tribute Website, The Congressional Medal of Honor Society Website, The Washington Post- Medal of Honor recipient Col. Robert L. Howard dies at 70.
COL(R) Howard was arguably America's most highly decorated Warrior ever, earning more awards for valor (10) than Audie Murphy, but he was surely America’s most highly living warrior until his death. The US Army Special Forces Command (Airborne) Biographical Sketch.
Color image from the Robert L. Howard Tribute website.
Wounded 14 times in 54 months of combat duty in Vietnam, Robert Howard was awarded 8 Purple Hearts and was believed to be the most decorated living American.
Colonel Howard served five tours in Vietnam and is the only soldier in our nation's history to be nominated for the Medal of Honor three times for three separate actions within a thirteen-month period. He received a direct appointment from Master Sergeant to 1st Lieutenant in 1969, and was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Richard M. Nixon at the White House in 1971. Colonel Howard is one of America's most decorated soldiers. His other awards for valor include the Distinguished Service Cross - our nation's second highest award, the Silver Star - the third highest award, and eight Purple Hearts. He was the last Vietnam Special Forces Medal of Honor recipient still on active duty when he retired on Sept. 29, 1992.
Interview at the Pritzer Military Library Website.
Please find some time to read, listen and reflect on one of America’s real heroes – Robert L. Howard. He was once my commander, and always my friend. I last saw Bob in Iraq.
Jeff
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
February 22, 2010
Yon - Whispers
Greetings from Kandahar,
On Tuesday, I'll either be with the 82nd Airborne Aviation (Pegasus), or pushing out to 4-23 Infantry in Helmand. Both have been working hard and fighting.
The latest dispatch was published a few minutes ago. The title is Whispers. Don't miss this one.
Please consider signing up to my Facebook page. It's free, and far more information passes through FB than through the main website.
Finally, your support is enormously important. Thank you for all.
Flight Medics prepare the aircraft to receive patients.
On Tuesday, I'll either be with the 82nd Airborne Aviation (Pegasus), or pushing out to 4-23 Infantry in Helmand. Both have been working hard and fighting.
The latest dispatch was published a few minutes ago. The title is Whispers. Don't miss this one.
Please consider signing up to my Facebook page. It's free, and far more information passes through FB than through the main website.
Finally, your support is enormously important. Thank you for all.
Flight Medics prepare the aircraft to receive patients.
WhispersREAD MORE...
Around Afghanistan
22 February 2010
“Johnny Boy” Captain John Holland was walking out to the aircraft just as I arrived at the flight line.
Captain Holland asked, “Are you ready?”
“Yes Sir.”
The Marjah offensive—billed as the biggest US/NATO/Afghan assault on the Taliban ever—had begun. With it, the attention of nearly all the reporters covering Afghanistan is focused on Marjah. Yet fighting continues across the country, in provinces with names unfamiliar to most people. Men and women are wounded. Some die. Some are saved by dedicated medical crews, and by the pilots who fly into combat to ferry wounded to some of the best trauma facilities in the world, right here in Afghanistan. This story is about the people who care for our troops, wounded correspondents, and many other people, day in, day out.
The C-130J can be outfitted to perform many sorts of missions, one of which is medical evacuation, which they call “aerovac.” The flight medics say that starting from scratch and not rushing things, they can outfit the aircraft for aerovac in about 45-60 minutes.
This particular C-130J crew had already taken me on a “Special Delivery” mission: a night parachute resupply near the Turkmenistan border.
Pre-flight preparations and checks are exhaustive. SSGT Gabe Campbell took me to the roof of the aircraft to explain a few procedures.
Gabe cautioned that when walking on top, one should make sure to stay within the black lines. The airplane is big, and the flight line is made of concrete. People have fallen off the aircraft (and continue to do so), though today was sunny, dry and not windy. But imagine doing these checks on a dark, freezing, windy night, on the icy fuselage of a giant C-17.
I had never been atop a C-130 and the sun was in full cooperation for good photographs. “People at home will like this,” I said to Gabe.
February 18, 2010
Adam Ray
By Michael Yon
18 February 2010
Kandahar, Afghanistan
On Feb. 9th, in a field near a road, an Afghan soldier squatted to relieve himself. He picked the wrong spot. A bomb exploded, blowing off a leg, and he died. Captain John Weatherly, Commander of Charlie Company of the 4-23 Infantry at FOB Price in Helmand Province, mentioned that in passing as he described the series of events that led to the death of Specialist – now Sergeant – Adam Ray, a vigorous 23 year old, born in Tampa, Florida. The bomb the Afghan stumbled upon was near the IED that struck Adam.
Without the thousands of culverts underneath, the roads of Afghanistan would be flooded and washed away during the snow melts and rains. In safe countries, drivers pay as little attention to culverts as we would to telephone poles. As a practical matter they are invisible to us.
In the war zone that is Afghanistan, life and limb depend on noticing normally mundane things like culverts. They are a favorite hiding spot for the Taliban to plant bombs intended to kill Americans driving the roads. Hundreds, even thousands of pounds of explosives can be stuffed inside, launching our vehicles into the sky, flipping them over and over, sometimes killing all. And so, in some areas, soldiers on missions must stop dozens of times to check culverts for explosives. Since we do this every day in front of thousands of Afghans, they know our patterns. In addition to planting bombs in culverts, they plant mines and other bombs near culverts, to get men who stop to check.
The U.S. military has been taking inventory of the culverts, identifying their exact locations, and documenting them with photos and maps. The military has embarked on a program to place barriers on culverts over which our troops cross on any regular basis. The enemy tries to remove or circumvent the barriers, and so night and day we have SKTs (Small Kill Teams) who move from place to place watching culverts. The SKTs frequently call fire that kills men who come to place bombs. When more enemy comes to collect the bodies, we kill them, too. But the SKTs can’t be everywhere all the time, and so this wily adversary lands hard blows every day.
The main route west from Kandahar is Highway 1, the jugular for ground transport in Afghanistan, which also connects to major cities like Kabul. Donor nations have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to construct and attempt to safeguard this crucial passageway. Yet the enemy is always there, leaving convoys smoldering and bullet-riddled bodies slumped over steering wheels or crumpled on the road.
Between Kandahar and just east of FOB Tombstone most of the culverts have been blocked with obstacles such as concertina razor wire, yet ten remained open.
And so on Tuesday, 9 February 2010, Charlie Company from the 4th Battalion 23rd Infantry of the 5/2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Lewis, headed out to conduct “culvert denial.” The Soldiers know the risks of approaching the culverts, yet they do it anyway.
Staff Sergeant Christine Jones from the 4th Combat Camera Squadron was along on the mission. Company Commander Captain John Weatherly was away at a meeting when 3rd Platoon arrived west of Maiwand, just off the south side of Highway 1, near the village of Yakhchal, a Taliban stronghold.
The unreleased combat photos show that the morning was clear and bright. Soldiers can be seen unwinding concertina wire at the mouth of one side of the culvert. Specialist Adam Ray walks across the road to the other side of the culvert, down in the drainage area, and a photo catches dust in the air. A flock of birds can be seen taking flight. The meta-data on the image indicates it was 9:30 AM. A white 4-door car sped away, over the culvert, and Sergeant Jones quickly snapped to get the plate. Subsequent investigations indicated the car was not involved. The soldiers’ discipline speaks for itself; nobody shot at it.
Adam Ray was among the three soldiers who had been wounded by the small explosion. Captain Weatherly got the radio call and headed over, as did Army medevac helicopters. Adam’s feet and legs were fine; the explosive was buried higher up, near the road at the side of the culvert. He had been hit in the neck. The other two soldiers had arm wounds that were not severe. Despite the danger of more bombs, the photos show soldiers and medics diving straight in to help. Adam was patched and put onto a litter, and soon an Army helicopter with a red cross landed in the dust. The wounded were loaded and flown to Camp Bastion where Adam Ray, the third of five children, beloved son of a minister and a devoted mother, a soccer player and a flirt, who tutored dyslexic kids and was known to ask less popular girls to dance at school events, died. He was 23 years old.
18 February 2010
Kandahar, Afghanistan
On Feb. 9th, in a field near a road, an Afghan soldier squatted to relieve himself. He picked the wrong spot. A bomb exploded, blowing off a leg, and he died. Captain John Weatherly, Commander of Charlie Company of the 4-23 Infantry at FOB Price in Helmand Province, mentioned that in passing as he described the series of events that led to the death of Specialist – now Sergeant – Adam Ray, a vigorous 23 year old, born in Tampa, Florida. The bomb the Afghan stumbled upon was near the IED that struck Adam.
Without the thousands of culverts underneath, the roads of Afghanistan would be flooded and washed away during the snow melts and rains. In safe countries, drivers pay as little attention to culverts as we would to telephone poles. As a practical matter they are invisible to us.
In the war zone that is Afghanistan, life and limb depend on noticing normally mundane things like culverts. They are a favorite hiding spot for the Taliban to plant bombs intended to kill Americans driving the roads. Hundreds, even thousands of pounds of explosives can be stuffed inside, launching our vehicles into the sky, flipping them over and over, sometimes killing all. And so, in some areas, soldiers on missions must stop dozens of times to check culverts for explosives. Since we do this every day in front of thousands of Afghans, they know our patterns. In addition to planting bombs in culverts, they plant mines and other bombs near culverts, to get men who stop to check.
The U.S. military has been taking inventory of the culverts, identifying their exact locations, and documenting them with photos and maps. The military has embarked on a program to place barriers on culverts over which our troops cross on any regular basis. The enemy tries to remove or circumvent the barriers, and so night and day we have SKTs (Small Kill Teams) who move from place to place watching culverts. The SKTs frequently call fire that kills men who come to place bombs. When more enemy comes to collect the bodies, we kill them, too. But the SKTs can’t be everywhere all the time, and so this wily adversary lands hard blows every day.
The main route west from Kandahar is Highway 1, the jugular for ground transport in Afghanistan, which also connects to major cities like Kabul. Donor nations have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to construct and attempt to safeguard this crucial passageway. Yet the enemy is always there, leaving convoys smoldering and bullet-riddled bodies slumped over steering wheels or crumpled on the road.
Between Kandahar and just east of FOB Tombstone most of the culverts have been blocked with obstacles such as concertina razor wire, yet ten remained open.
And so on Tuesday, 9 February 2010, Charlie Company from the 4th Battalion 23rd Infantry of the 5/2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Lewis, headed out to conduct “culvert denial.” The Soldiers know the risks of approaching the culverts, yet they do it anyway.
Staff Sergeant Christine Jones from the 4th Combat Camera Squadron was along on the mission. Company Commander Captain John Weatherly was away at a meeting when 3rd Platoon arrived west of Maiwand, just off the south side of Highway 1, near the village of Yakhchal, a Taliban stronghold.
The unreleased combat photos show that the morning was clear and bright. Soldiers can be seen unwinding concertina wire at the mouth of one side of the culvert. Specialist Adam Ray walks across the road to the other side of the culvert, down in the drainage area, and a photo catches dust in the air. A flock of birds can be seen taking flight. The meta-data on the image indicates it was 9:30 AM. A white 4-door car sped away, over the culvert, and Sergeant Jones quickly snapped to get the plate. Subsequent investigations indicated the car was not involved. The soldiers’ discipline speaks for itself; nobody shot at it.
Adam Ray was among the three soldiers who had been wounded by the small explosion. Captain Weatherly got the radio call and headed over, as did Army medevac helicopters. Adam’s feet and legs were fine; the explosive was buried higher up, near the road at the side of the culvert. He had been hit in the neck. The other two soldiers had arm wounds that were not severe. Despite the danger of more bombs, the photos show soldiers and medics diving straight in to help. Adam was patched and put onto a litter, and soon an Army helicopter with a red cross landed in the dust. The wounded were loaded and flown to Camp Bastion where Adam Ray, the third of five children, beloved son of a minister and a devoted mother, a soccer player and a flirt, who tutored dyslexic kids and was known to ask less popular girls to dance at school events, died. He was 23 years old.
The War in Afghanistan has truly begun. This will be a long, difficult fight that is set to eclipse anything we’ve seen in Iraq. As 2010 unfolds, my 6th year of war coverage will unfold with it. There is relatively little interest in Afghanistan by comparison to previous interest in Iraq, and so reader interest is low. Afghanistan is serious, very deadly business. Like Iraq, however, it gets pushed around as a political brawling pit while the people fighting the war are mostly forgotten. The arguments at home seem more likely to revolve around a few words from the President than the ground realities of combat here. I can bring the ground realities, but can sustain the coverage only by the graciousness of readers. Please keep that in mind. Please click…
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February 15, 2010
Patterns - Yon
Arghandab, Afghanistan
By Michael Yon
Written: 19 December 2009
Published: 15 February 2010
This is a story of warfighting and technology, and what life is like on the ground for our troops, as they do their best in war.
Last night a soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division was killed. The attack occurred just hours before the 82nd was to relieve 1-17th Infantry from duties in portions of
the Arghandab River Valley near Kandahar.
Earlier that morning, soldiers from 1st Platoon, B-company (1-17th) had taken me on a short, easy mission out to a micro-base called “Brick 1.” The Platoon leader was 1st Lieutenant Ryan Fadden, while SFC Dimico was the platoon sergeant. The platoon was ready. Despite the filthy environment, weapons were clean, the gear was sorted and the men were in good spirits and a business-like frame of mind. They seemed confident. It looked like Lieutenant Fadden and SFC Dimico were on their jobs. The battalion had lost 21 men KIA during the first several months of combat—the Brigade lost 31. An article was about to be published in the Army Times which might lead one to believe that the 1-17th is not combat-ready. The author, Sean Naylor, is as highly respected as he is experienced, and so his words are taken seriously. Yet during my first week, despite serious stresses in some places, the men seemed ready.
READ MORE...
Mike concludes:
The War in Afghanistan has truly begun. This will be a long, difficult fight that is set to eclipse anything we’ve seen in Iraq. As 2010 unfolds, my 6th year of war coverage will unfold with it. There is relatively little interest in Afghanistan by comparison to previous interest in Iraq, and so reader interest is low. Afghanistan is serious, very deadly business. Like Iraq, however, it gets pushed around as a political brawling pit while the people fighting the war are mostly forgotten. The arguments at home seem more likely to revolve around a few words from the President than the ground realities of combat here. I can bring the ground realities, but can sustain the coverage only by the graciousness of readers. Please keep that in mind. Please click…
Please consider joining my free Facebook and/or Twitter pages.
Valentine's Day Weekend, Afghanistan: [Yon]
A crew from the United States Air Force spent Saturday night and Sunday morning airlifting different groups of wounded soldiers from Kandahar to Camp Bastion to Bagram, back to Kandahar, then back to Bagram, and back to Kandahar. These patients were from Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Here, an Air Force nurse caresses the head of a wounded, unconscious Canadian soldier while whispering into his ear. Photo by Michael Yon, reproduced with permission.
December 31, 2009
Into Thine Hand I Commit My Spirit - Yon
Michael Yon writes:
The War in Afghanistan has truly begun. This will be a long, difficult fight that is set to eclipse anything we’ve seen in Iraq. As 2010 unfolds, Mike's 6th year of war coverage will unfold with it. There is relatively little interest in Afghanistan by comparison to previous interest in Iraq, and so reader interest is low. Afghanistan is serious, very deadly business. Like Iraq, however, it gets pushed around as a political brawling pit while the people fighting the war are mostly forgotten. The arguments at home seem more likely to revolve around a few words from the President than the ground realities of combat here. Mike can bring the ground realities, but can sustain the coverage only by the graciousness of readers. Please keep that in mind. Please click…
Sad news reaches us today from Afghanistan. The Canadians have lost five, including four soldiers and a journalist. Other reports say that we lost eight of our own CIA people. Deepest condolences to the Canadians, our people at CIA, and thier families.
While many people celebrate the New Year, others will begin the year with no joy. Some will embark on 2010 knowing they will fight through the year, unless the hand of God reaches down and takes them home. Tonight, I will watch the ball drop from Hong Kong with only silence and no celebration.
Please see the final dispatch for 2009: Into Thine Hand
Excerpt:
On this small base surrounded by a mixture of enemy and friendly territory, a memorial has been erected just next to the Chapel. Inside the tepee are 21 photos of 21 soldiers killed during the first months of a year-long tour of duty. The fallen will belong forever to the honor rolls of the 1-17th Infantry Battalion, 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, and they will join the sacred list of names of those who have given their lives in service of the United States of America.
READ MORE...
The War in Afghanistan has truly begun. This will be a long, difficult fight that is set to eclipse anything we’ve seen in Iraq. As 2010 unfolds, Mike's 6th year of war coverage will unfold with it. There is relatively little interest in Afghanistan by comparison to previous interest in Iraq, and so reader interest is low. Afghanistan is serious, very deadly business. Like Iraq, however, it gets pushed around as a political brawling pit while the people fighting the war are mostly forgotten. The arguments at home seem more likely to revolve around a few words from the President than the ground realities of combat here. Mike can bring the ground realities, but can sustain the coverage only by the graciousness of readers. Please keep that in mind. Please click…
December 21, 2009
Christmas in Afghanistan
Via email Michael Yon writes:
The War in Afghanistan has truly begun. This will be a long, difficult fight that is set to eclipse anything we’ve seen in Iraq. As 2010 unfolds, Michael's 6th year of war coverage will unfold with it. There is relatively little interest in Afghanistan by comparison to previous interest in Iraq, and so reader interest is low. Afghanistan is serious, very deadly business. Like Iraq, however, it gets pushed around as a political brawling pit while the people fighting the war are mostly forgotten. The arguments at home seem more likely to revolve around a few words from the President than the ground realities of combat here. Mike can bring the ground realities, but can sustain the coverage only by the graciousness of readers. Please keep that in mind. Please click…
Greetings, Christmas packages to the troops are arriving by the crate, and the soldiers are sharing with workers from places like Nepal, India, and Philippines. The soldiers are very happy with all the support flooding in from home. It must have taken a lot of big airplanes to get all this mail here.
Am writing a dispatch about Stryker soldiers. Meanwhile, I asked CSM Jeff Mellinger and actor Gary Sinise if they have any words for the troops. Both responded. CSM Mellinger's excellent piece is published.
Will publish Gary's tomorrow.
Very important to sign up to my Facebook page. The long format dispatches will still be published on the website, but am publishing vignettes nearly daily on Facebook. An interesting combat video will go up soon. Please visit.
Merry Christmas!
--
Very Respectfully,
Michael Yon
The War in Afghanistan has truly begun. This will be a long, difficult fight that is set to eclipse anything we’ve seen in Iraq. As 2010 unfolds, Michael's 6th year of war coverage will unfold with it. There is relatively little interest in Afghanistan by comparison to previous interest in Iraq, and so reader interest is low. Afghanistan is serious, very deadly business. Like Iraq, however, it gets pushed around as a political brawling pit while the people fighting the war are mostly forgotten. The arguments at home seem more likely to revolve around a few words from the President than the ground realities of combat here. Mike can bring the ground realities, but can sustain the coverage only by the graciousness of readers. Please keep that in mind. Please click…
December 7, 2009
Mike Yon Writes from Afghanistan:
Greetings,
It's turning cold in Afghanistan. The 2009 fighting season has more or less ended, though we can expect to see reduced fighting until probably March or April. Spring Break in the United States will be Spring Offensive here. Though it's December, our commanders already are talking about Springtime and how to hurt the Taliban while speeding development. Likely the war will reach an all-time peak during 2010. This could be a very bad year for the Taliban.
President Obama's decision to send more troops is popular among the troops here. And for the first time I see a real fighting chance emerging. Though sharply increased fighting should be expected, there are cracks in the Taliban. They are not invincible and we can beat them, and finally I believe we probably actually will. (Touch wood, and pass the ammo...)
A short dispatch is up.
Very Respectfully,
Michael Yon
Mike works completely out of his own pocket so please consider hitting his tip jar to help maintain the gift of independent reporting. Your gift goes far and is used for transport, lodging, living expenses, satellite communications and for repairing and replacing gear that fails due to the rigors of the battlefields. Millions of people, in more than a hundred countries, see these photos and words. Your generosity goes very far, and is greatly appreciated.
November 5, 2009
Smithsonian to Honor Benjamin Kopp and Joseph Etchells
Michael Yon informs us:
Greetings,Smithsonian Air&Space asked to publish photos of the Kopp-Etchells Effect. Smithsonian is an incredible venue to honor a U.S. and a British soldier who each gave their lives this year in Afghanistan. It looks like the names Benjamin Kopp and Joseph Etchells will be remembered for many years to come.
Very Respectfully,
Michael Yon
Please give the gift of independent reporting. Your gift goes far and is used for transport, lodging, living expenses, satellite communications and for repairing and replacing gear that fails due to the rigors of the battlefields. Millions of people, in more than a hundred countries, see these photos and words. Your generosity goes very far, and is greatly appreciated.
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