Missouri National Guard unit stops IEDs in Khost province

Photo By Sgt. Spencer Case | A Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle from Route Clearance Package 37, 1141st Engineer Company approaches two improvised explosive device blast holes during a routine route clearance mission in Khost province.  

KHOST, AFGHANISTAN

01.27.2010

Story by Spc. Spencer Case 

Combined Joint Task Force - 82 PAO

KHOST PROVINCE, Afghanistan - At first glance, Khost province might seem like a quiet bowl in the mountains on Afghanistan's southeastern border with Pakistan. But a closer look reveals it to be a key battlefield in the fight to stop the proliferation of improvised explosive devices.

No one knows this better than the troops of 1141st Engineer Company, a National Guard unit from Kansas City, Mo., who currently operate in Khost province under Task Force Paladin, the umbrella organization over all counter-IED efforts in Afghanistan. The company includes three platoon-level route clearance packages, which regularly patrol the roads in search of IEDs.

Because most insurgent supplies come through Pakistan, the work is as critical as it is methodical, said U.S. Army Capt. Brian Sayer, the company commander.

"We're the central supply piece it seems," said Sayer, a native of Richland, Mo. "It seems like everything rolls through here. What you notice is that if the IEDs go crazy here in the Khost bowl they seem to drop off everywhere else in the country. The more they stand and fight us here, the less the fight seems to be able to go anywhere else."

Since November, the number of IEDs found in Khost province has increased drastically, due to the increased frequency of the engineer company's route clearance missions in the province.

"Initially, the reason that the number of IEDs started going up in November is, in my opinion, purely based on the [operations] tempo of the clearance patrols," Sayer said. "In my area we went from about two missions a week to about ten missions a week [in early November]. And then by mid-November we added a third route clearance package, which brought us to somewhere between 12 and 15 missions per week within the Khost Bowl. So in the last two months, we've [increased] about sevenfold in the number of RCP missions."

The increase in IEDs has not led to a corresponding increase in the number of casualties for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Jeff O'Donnell, the officer-in-charge for Counter-IED Support Element Salerno.

Two reasons lie behind this: first, as of November, troops at Forward Operating Base Salerno were required to travel in Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, which offer better protection than humvees. Second, the increased mission tempo has led to more hasty emplacements, which are less likely to hit and damage their targets.

"We've had a significant increase here in IEDs prematurely detonating. We've already had as many this year as we had in the entire year of 2008," said O'Donnell.

Even with the improved protection, the work is still demanding. Although routes may be no more than a few kilometers long, the process of clearing them can take several hours, especially on "hot" routes already damaged by IEDs. It is not uncommon for the troops of 1141st Engineer Company to don their body armor before daybreak and remain outside the wire until dusk.

The patrol routes and composition varies from day-to-day for security reasons, though very often they include three types of vehicle. Husky Vehicle-Mounted Mine Detectors resemble giant mosquitoes. "Buffalos" are equipped with an arm, or "spork," that allows troops to investigate suspicious objects from a safe distance. MRAPs, which look like up-armored moon rovers, enable Soldiers to provide security and withstand attacks.

The troops can do much from within the safety of the vehicles, though sometimes circumstances force them to dismount to investigate a threat a little farther from the road, which is what happened to 1141st Company's Route Clearance Package 37 on Jan. 24.

During a patrol to the village of Lakan, a Taliban stronghold, and after receiving intelligence that there may be IED components hidden in a field 100 meters off the road, the troops climbed out of their vehicles and fanned out across the field.

The search yielded nothing but U.S. Army 1st Lt. Travis Miller, the platoon leader for RCP 37, said he was grateful for the experience nonetheless.

"I like the fact we're able to dismount and try to find something," said Miller of Columbia, Mo. "It's nice to know we can have intelligence assets to find these IEDs before they ever get to the road."

RCP 37 did not uncover any IEDs that day, though the patrol vehicles had to carefully maneuver around several blast craters left from past devices, since insurgents often place IEDs in the same place again and again.

"Today was a good day," said U.S. Army Spc. Dustin Tucker of Van Buren, Mo., who worked as a gunner for RCP 37 on the Jan. 24 mission. "There weren't any IEDs and everybody was okay."

• Date Taken: 01.27.2010
• Date Posted: 01.27.2010 15:55
• Story ID: 44514
• Location: KHOST, AF