COP construction contributes to counter-insurgency fight

Courtesy Photo | Soldiers of Bravo Company, 864th Engineer Battalion, build guard towers at the Margah Combat Outpost, in eastern Paktika, Afghanistan. The construction facilitated a key tenant of the counter-insurgency fight by allowing ground forces to interact with the people, as well as separate the enemy from the people in historical border infiltration areas.  

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHARANA, AFGHANISTAN

05.05.2008

Courtesy Story

Combined Joint Task Force - 82 PAO

By Army Capt. Ashley Dellavalle
Task Force Rugged Public Affairs Office

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHARANA, Afghanistan – Army Engineers completed the construction of a combat outpost on the Afghan-Pakistan border to reduce insurgent attacks there.

For Task Force Pacemaker Soldiers, the process started with coordination between their maneuver brethren to secure the terrain where the new COP would be built in the Margah Village of Eastern Paktika.

The construction facilitates a key tenant of the counter-insurgency fight by allowing ground forces to interact with the local people, as well as separate the enemy in historical border-infiltration areas. The engineers provided a residence from which Soldiers fight.

Bravo Company, 864th Engineer Battalion, also known as the Bulldogs of TF Pacemaker, spent their first days of construction pounding pickets into the rocky mountainside less than a few kilometers from the Pakistan border.

This task challenged the Soldiers with altitude, steepness of terrain and rock rigidity.

Next, the Soldiers blasted the mountain with more than 300 pounds of explosives to carve the mountain-top into suitable grounds for base.

With an understanding that the enemy was watching and an attack could happen at any moment, the engineers assembled the base walls out of Hesco bastions, wire baskets filled with dirt, and began construction on the guard towers. While some worked on the towers, others built fortified living and working areas.

"Incredible...really impressive," said Col. Marty Schweitzer, the Task Force Fury commander in charge of ground forces in the area.

Elders of a neighboring village were thankful the COP was moved away from their district center.

"It is a very good thing that you are moving the COP up onto the top of the hill," said one village elder. "When the bad guys attack the COP now, we are stuck in the middle. Thank you for doing this very good thing."

• Date Taken: 05.05.2008
• Date Posted: 05.07.2008 14:08
• Story ID: 19183
• Location: FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHARANA, AF