Photo By Capt. John Landry | U.S. Army Col. Sam Whitehurst, the commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th...... read more read more
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LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - The Soldiers were busy going through what seemed like another routine as they were repositioning sandbags at one of the fighting positions at a guard tower when they began hearing popping sounds in the distance.
The Spartan Soldiers of Bravo Company B, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), have consistently fought off insurgent attacks on their position in Logar province, Afghanistan, and are always prepared for the possibility of another.
“They heard pop shots off in the distance,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Blackburn, an infantry team leader. “The Soldiers got down, waited a couple of minutes and then got back up and continued working.”
On this occasion, the sounds of automatic weapon fire were clearly heard and the Soldiers sprang into action. With movements practiced over many months of training, everyone was quickly in their positions and ready to respond.
“Everybody manned the walls and returned fire, going through all of the proper steps,” said Blackburn, a native of Clyde, Ohio. “Everyone was also manning the towers and doing their job.”
U.S. Army Sgt. Aaron Baksh, a mortar squad leader, came out his tent upon hearing all of the turmoil and ran to get his equipment. He analyzed the situation to determine where to place his crew. By communicating with his immediate leadership as well as using what his fire direction observer was telling him, he got the distance and direction he needed to get his crew into the fight.
“I talked to the platoon sergeant, who told me they were firing from the tree line, and we shot four rounds for immediate suppression of the target,” said Baksh, of Mesquite, Texas.
Several more calls from the observer and several more clusters of rounds fired later, additional help arrived in the form of attack helicopters. Shortly after, the fight was over. All of the Soldiers were assembled to ensure everyone was safe. With a few Soldiers still manning the towers, the rest of the Soldiers gathered in a group and discussed the incident.
“After the contact, we brought everybody together and conducted an after action review,” said Blackburn, “Everyone did their job in manning all the towers.”
The after action review is used by leaders and their Soldiers to break the battle down into a sequence of events in an effort to understand what went well and what areas could be learned from for future encounters. Spartan Brigade units are learning organizations and grow from their experiences like any successful team.
For the Spartan Soldiers of Bravo Company, the encounter allowed them to see for themselves the hard work and long hours they invested in their training did more than just keep them alive. Their training resulted in winning the fight.
“My Soldiers performed great. My squad leader was calling out targets using direct alignment for my gunner and my assistant gunner was running back and forth, making sure ammo was re-supplied to keep us getting the rounds down range to engage the enemy,” said Blackburn.
Adaptive, prepared and alert, the Spartans are always ready to respond to contact decisively and as a team.
| Date Taken: | 04.19.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 04.21.2014 05:49 |
| Story ID: | 126787 |
| Location: | MESQUITE, TEXAS CLYDE, OHIO, AF |
| Hometown: | CLYDE, OH, US |
| Hometown: | MESQUITE, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 2,080 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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