COP life: ‘Quiet is a good thing’

Photo By Lindsey Kibler | Pfc. Sky Nosaka, of Trinidad, Colo., a medic with the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, stokes the fire of his outdoor grill at Combat Outpost Lion in Panjwa'i district of southern Kandahar, Afghanistan.  

COMBAT OUTPOST LION, AFGHANISTAN

10.19.2011

Story by Staff Sgt. Lindsey Kibler 

1st Brigade, 11th Airborne Division

COMBAT OUTPOST LION, Afghanistan - Deep in the village of Do’ab, near the tip of the Horn of Panjwa’i, lies Combat Outpost Lion; the month-old COP is where Pfc. Sky Nosaka, of Trinidad, Colo., now calls home.

Nosaka, a medic with 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, arrived in Afghanistan in May. He spent the past five months working as a medic in the clinics at Kandahar Airfield, Forward Operating Base Zangabad and COP Mushan before, ultimately, setting up shop at COP Lion as a line medic.

The COP offers little of life’s perks he experienced at KAF, like hot meals, daily showers and the privacy of a bathroom stall, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I like Lion a lot better than the other places I was before here. Things are a lot more serious down here,” explained Nosaka.

“I wanted to be a soldier. I especially wanted to come to Afghanistan and feel like I’ve made a difference,” he said.

Nosaka had a desire to be a line medic with an infantry company and, while it wasn’t a guarantee he would be assigned to a line unit once he graduated Advanced Individual Training, he said he was happy to find out he would be joining the 1/25th at Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

With half of his first deployment completed, Nosaka said he is thankful it has been somewhat quiet. To date, he has only provided medical treatment to local Afghans.

Medics are often exposed to the horrors of war while treating the wounded and are expected to expertly perform under pressure.

“It’s easier, in a sense. Medics will tell you that if it’s one of your own guys, it’s harder, and I don’t doubt that,” he said. “With the local nationals, we see gunshot wounds and amputations. They respond well to having us treat them. I think they are starting to trust us, and are appreciative of what we can do for them.”

In his down time, Nosaka likes to make life at COP Lion as comfortable as possible for him and his battle buddies. Up bright and early, he spends his time cleaning the Role I aid station he both works and lives in. He can be found cooking hot meals on a makeshift grill— a hole in the ground filled with charcoal— or working on his carpentry skills by building shelves and a horse shoe pit. He doesn’t mind getting dirty, he said.

“I lived in the woods growing up, so this is all sort of the ‘norm’ for me,” he joked.

While it may be too quiet for some, he is looking forward to spending the rest of his deployment away from the busier life normally experienced at larger FOBs and bases. In his line of work, he said, “quiet is a good thing.”

• Date Taken: 10.19.2011
• Date Posted: 10.23.2011 10:50
• Story ID: 78882
• Location: COMBAT OUTPOST LION, AF