LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan – As Task Force Ironman prepares to redeploy, its leaders reflected on their tour at Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam, Laghman province, Afghanistan.
For the past nine months, the Iowa National Guard’s 1st Bn., 133rd Inf. Regt., 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, and its attached elements, was the U.S. unit in charge of security for the coalition for Laghman and Nuristan. These units, including the Laghman Province Reconstruction Team and the Kansas Agricultural Development Team among others, comprised Task Force Ironman.
Prior to the transfer of authority ceremony, TF Ironman commander U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steve Kremer, of Cherokee, Iowa, and his battalion command sergeant major, U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Marcus Mittvalsky of North Liberty, Iowa, discussed their task force’s accomplishments in Afghanistan.
For Kremer, the work his battalion did in Galuch Valley in late March as part of Operation Bullwhip, an operation which cleared the valley and established a district center stands out. The operation was 101st Airborne Division’s largest air assault conducted during their deployment to Afghanistan and the largest ever conducted by the Red Bulls.
“The operations that we did in the Galuch Valley or the new Bad Pech District showed textbook start-to-finish how you’re supposed to go into an area and fight the counterinsurgency fight,” Kremer said. “It showed how you engage the elders and leaders in that area ahead of time to try to shape some of the changes that happen so that once you get there they’re willing to accept you.”
Kremer said his soldiers walked through the valley without firing a shot, engaging the leaders in villages as they did, and this led to immediate progress when they conducted a massive peace shura at the end of the mission.
For Mittvalsky, the biggest accomplishment was not any specific mission, but the overall impact the battalion had on the area of operation.
He said one of the unit’s biggest accomplishments was increasing security around the forward operating bases.
“FOBs are still subject to attack and our soldiers still got in contact, but we gained freedom of movement in this area that the previous unit did not enjoy through two things – the aggressiveness of our soldiers in going out and engaging the enemy, but also the ability of our soldiers to negotiate, communicate and sit down with people and talk with them and really exemplify and demonstrate that we’re truly here to help the Afghan National Army as a security force,” Mittvalsky said.
While Mittvalsky sited the increase in security as the unit’s biggest accomplishment, he said his personal highlight of the deployment was something different.
“It was always a highlight for me to know that everybody was back on the FOB,” he said. “They’re all our soldiers and putting their safety on the line to make sure the battalion runs. When the soldiers were done, and a conflict was over, and the insurgents had been killed or captured, and the soldiers returned to base – in every case that was a highlight to me because then they got a chance to relax and refit, and I could breathe a little easier, honestly, too.”
Kremer said the deployment was significant from a National Guard perspective as well.
“We came into this mission as very few National Guard units have in the past, having been giving the opportunity to be battlespace owners,” he said. “We weren’t in a support or security forces type role; we were given the task of owning the area, working with the government officials, working with the elders and villagers, military and police, and really taking ownership of everything that happened with our three lines of effort – governance, development and security. It’s not something that the Guard folks have typically been able to do in the past.”
Kremer said his unit was afforded this unique opportunity due to timing and experience. That experience paid off in the battle of Do Ab.
Kremer said his soldiers fought off more than 400 insurgents who waited for them to arrive, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy without suffering any by coalition forces. He also mentioned Operation Rock Star in the Mayl Valley in January.
“The operation set the conditions for security, not only around Combat Outpost Najil, but in the Alishang Valley,” Kremer said. “Because of the efforts of Operation Rock Star, the people of Afghanistan and the Alishang Valley enjoy freedom of movement in and around the district and to Mehtar Lam.”
Kremer also gave credit to his support units.
“Our HHC and Echo Company did a phenomenal job,” he said. “They are the unsung heroes. Our distribution platoon that has been driving those roads every day, that is not an infantry-type unit is still running that same improvised explosive device threat every day of the week. They ran to every location we had soldiers. As vehicles got blown up or had problems, the mechanics were spot-on with getting the vehicles fixed. They went out to dangerous areas to recover them and often had to deal with the traumatic aftermath, so they’re unsung heroes. My operational rate rarely fell below 95 percent, and if anybody is familiar with the military – that’s amazingly good.”
Both men said the difficult times of the deployment involved dealing with their soldiers being injured or killed.
“It started in December with a soldier stepping on a landmine in the Quargahi District, and it’s tough to know that a soldier’s going through that and their family’s going through that,” Kremer said.
The deaths of U.S. Army Spc. Donald Nicols, from the battalion’s Reconnaissance Platoon and the four military police from the 164th Military Police Company and a law enforcement professional assigned to the battalion, were also difficult to deal with, both leaders said.
“Truly, the absolute hardest thing I had to do this year was help in the planning and preparation for the memorial services for Spc. Nicols and subsequently the MPs that died in the improvised explosive device blast,” Mittvalsky said, his voice straining. “Out of all the things I did that made me the most nervous, because I wanted them to go well to be a fitting tribute to those soldiers. Everything else this year, really, was what I expected it to be.”
He said the IEDs brought him the most anxiety and pain.
“I know that the last battalion here ran into some, but they weren’t going into the same areas,” Kremer said. “We were lucky enough to get some assets that allowed us to get deeper into the valleys and some areas that hadn’t seen coalition forces for quite some time. Going deeper and further into those areas also brings a risk that’s associated with that. Some of the IEDs were a result of going into areas that had become Taliban strongholds and we were disrupting their activities.”
Kremer said he felt the battalion came into the deployment prepared based on the training they conducted prior to deploying, but acknowledged the deployment did offer some surprises.
“The thing that surprised me and was difficult for me was the fact that too many times as Americans we want to come in and change things quickly,” Kremer said. “What surprised me was the level of patience and understanding you need to use in Afghanistan. The harder you push, typically the more resistance you’re going to get, but the more you work with how Afghans deal with issues and really let them start to use the Pashtun Code, you find you can do so much more. We wanted them to take the lead, but we didn’t always know what the lead looked like to an Afghan leader or an Afghan soldier.”
Kremer also said the the task force conducted 85 percent of their patrols side-by-side with their Afghan partners, soldiers from the 201st Afghan National Army Corps.
“It’s been an honor to serve side-by-side with all my Afghan brothers,” Kremer said. “We shared blood, sweat and tears over the last nine months.
“We’ve taken a large number of insurgents and their commanders off the battlefield. We’ve disrupted their activity and allowed security to increase for both Laghman and Western Nuristan.The work that we did, shoulder-to-shoulder, made a difference, and I believe that together we have made a difference. I will not forget any of you.”
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Matthew J. Harsha, commander of the Oklahoma National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Inf. Brigade Combat Team, 45th Inf. Division, TF Ponca, of Oklahoma City, Okla., assumed command of U.S. forces within Laghman and Nuristan provinces from Kremer during a transfer of authority ceremony July 5.
| Date Taken: | 07.07.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 07.06.2011 18:04 |
| Story ID: | 73308 |
| Location: | LAGHMAN PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 564 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, TF Ironman leaders reflect on Afghanistan tour before transferring authority to TF Ponca, by MSG Ryan Matson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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