Photo By Eric Pilgrim | Sgt. 1st Class Charles Hall (right), 42nd Clearance Company Rear Detachment first...... read more read more
After briefing 19th Engineer Battalion leaders about their progress in Afghanistan during a video teleconference Feb. 14, leaders from the subordinate 42nd Clearance Company took a few additional minutes to talk about their time since arriving downrange in October 2018.
The three leaders, Company Commander Capt. Aaron Beattie, Executive Officer 1st Lt. Rebecca Sauter and the unit’s senior enlisted advisor, 1st Sgt. Jason Cowman, stated the focus of their efforts have been on accomplishing missions for Task Force Dragon Hawks, but they have found some time to relax along the way.
“When we first got here, it was mostly an introduction to our counterparts, our higher headquarters here, which is Task Force Dragon Hawks. They’re the 2/14 Infantry [Regiment], 10th Mountain [Division],” said Beattie. “When we first got in, we conducted operations right away.”
Second Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, part of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, is located at Fort Drum, New York.
Beattie said 42nd had about a day after arriving to Afghanistan to get additional equipment, settle into lodging, and integrate into the high operations tempo. The next day, they were on the road.
“Being out here, missions have been pretty steady — conducting route clearance patrols [across southwest Afghanistan],” said Beattie.
Beattie, who has deployed twice before – once in Iraq and once before in Afghanistan – explained that their route clearance efforts ensure safe passage for the rest of the task force to accomplish its missions. In those efforts, their major focus remains on thwarting improvised explosive devices.
“That is the major defeat that we have to conduct, but [the enemy] still has [indirect fire], which the enemy uses to try and disrupt airfield operations, and every operation here and the other areas,” said Beattie.
Beattie said the overarching mission for the task force continues to be train, advise and assist the Afghan Armed Forces in accomplishing their missions toward eventual self-governance and security — one for which the task force is uniquely suited, and in which the 42nd is nested appropriately.
With three previous deployments under his belt including two to Afghanistan, Cowman said the missions have kept the unit very busy; especially early on as everybody was adapting to the mission. Not all of their time, however, has been spent on operations.
There have been moments to catch a breath.
“In between missions, they’ve got the USO here along with our own USO set up at the company headquarters,” said Cowman. “The Soldiers tend to enjoy going to the gym, along with watching movies, playing video games, talking to families back home; and they also have a lot football tournaments and basketball tournaments that go on during down time.
“It’s gotten better, so they have the ability to have the internet here on their computers and cell phones.”
Another time for them to relax for a little bit came during the holidays. Cowman said their Fort Knox family readiness group had purchased stockings complete with the all the items necessary to fill them for every Soldier in the company.
“’First Sergeant’ and his elves stuffed all the stockings and hung them on Christmas Eve so the Soldiers had something when they woke up the next morning,” said Cowman. “Along with that, we had a lot of care packages and shoe boxes sent in from other organizations in the Fort Knox area—“
“Why did I have to be an elf?” asked Beattie.
“—and,” Cowman looked over at him, “— because you were wearing the elf hat.
“Along with the chow halls here, even though we weren’t home for the holidays, they did a pretty good job of putting together a good spread for the Soldiers to eat,” Cowman concluded. “We made the best of it.”
Beattie said it was his first time being deployed during the holidays.
“One of the best experiences I had was when we got to serve chow,” said Beattie. “Even though they had eaten earlier in the day, they still came back to take pictures to show [we] were serving them, so I think they really enjoyed that.”
Although the leaders have already made many memories, they remain focused on what’s ahead.
“The Soldiers are in full stride now, so we will continue to go in the right direction instead of letting complacency set in,” said Cowman.
The first deployment for Sauter, she said every experience has been a new one for her.
“The support we’ve received from the surrounding Fort Knox community has been really good for the Soldiers and the company, so a big thank you to everybody for that,” said Sauter. “We’re going to continue to keep our heads in the game with training and the mission set, and start to look at both preparing for the way forward and ensuring we’re good to go when it comes time to redeploy.”
Beattie said the deployment has shown him what right looks like, when everybody works together as a team to get the mission done: from the support of 19th Engineer Battalion to full integration of the unit into Task Force Dragon Hawks — including during flag football.
“Our guys did beat Task Force Dragon Hawks in football — twice,” said Beattie, “so we are number one in that.”
| Date Taken: | 02.14.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 02.15.2019 13:02 |
| Story ID: | 310926 |
| Location: | FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 101 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Forward operations, family support and festive fun: 42nd leaders talk about Afghanistan deployment, by Eric Pilgrim, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
