Photo By Ken Scar | U.S. Army soldiers from 1st Platoon, Company A, 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment,...... read more read more
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PAKTIKA PROVINCE, Afghanistan – There are no vacation destinations for U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. As far as living conditions go, Bagram Air Field is probably as good as it gets. Amenities, like it’s tiny, overused coffee shop and fast food counters, are luxuries Vietnam and World War II-era soldiers could never have imagined – but it’s still not exactly Club Med.
Most soldiers live in B-Huts, which are basically glorified plywood forts like kids build, with all the comforts of a treehouse. The summers are hot and choked with dust, and the winters bitter cold and muddy. Work, sleep, and life in general are interrupted regularly by rocket attacks from insurgents.
Out from the large airfields like Bagram, Salerno and Sharana, there are smaller forward operating bases, where life as a soldier in Afghanistan only gets more grueling; the enemy more daring.
FOBs in turn get smaller and more isolated until they become combat outposts. The logistics of getting food, supplies and mail to these COPs become much more difficult, so soldiers learn to do without. The only food is often meals, ready to eat; the only showers are cold and in places, the only toilets are PVC pipes stuck in the ground or plastic bags.
These small outposts pose some of the toughest challenges for U.S. soldiers to spend their deployment.
COP Yosef Khel, in Northern Paktika, is one of these places.
Life is stark and stressful for the U.S. soldiers of Company A, 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade, Task Force Blackhawk, who have been stationed at COP Yosef Khel for eight months — but you might be surprised at what they have to say about it.
“To be honest with you, we’d rather be out here,” said 1st Lt. John Tilley, 1st Platoon leader. “As infantrymen this is where we belong.”
“I prefer a COP because there’s not so much brass walking around, so you’re more focused on the mission,” said Sgt. Benjamin Harris, who is from Frederick, Md.
“Socks are like money out here,” he added, laughing. “In jail they trade cigarettes, out here we trade socks.”
“Really, you kind of take pride in it,” said 1st Lt. Justin Deleon, 2nd Platoon leader.
According to Deleon, this is the first deployment for a lot of his soldiers and being stationed at the smaller COP is challenging, but it’s a challenge that he and his soldiers look forward to because it legitimizes their occupation as infantrymen.
It might be difficult and dangerous living out in the wildlands like they do, but the mission they were tasked to execute is so important that the hardships of living like you’re on a one-year camping trip are incidental, said Tilley.
COP Yosef Khel lies in a desolate alpine valley that stretches out from the western slopes of the Hindu Kush mountains that separate Afghanistan and Pakistan. For years insurgents would creep over the mountains on a spiderweb of goat trails and use the small villages in the valley as staging grounds to transport weapons, supplies and personnel deeper into the heart of the country.
It and its sister base, Forward Operating Base Super, were built to put an end to that activity by winning over the villagers, establishing a local police force, and blocking off the insurgents’ supply routes.
In a testament to the resiliency of the soldiers of Company A, according to Deleon, the overall mission is on the brink of being a huge success.
The village of Yahya Khel, was a hotbed of Taliban activity despite being a stones-throw away from the COP, until Company A decided to put an end to it.
“When we first got here, there were Taliban flags all over the place. Now there’s ANA and [Afghan Uniformed Police] flags,” said Harris. “The actual mission was to win the hearts and minds, it wasn’t to come out here guns blazing, and I think it’s been successful.”
“These soldiers in the last three months have completely turned the village around,” said Tilley. “We’ve opened up a route that’s provided commerce, and we’ve stood up the Afghan Local Police. The people are starting to support the government. The village that once was the most dangerous and volatile in the area is literally on the verge of completely turning, with schools prepared to open within a month.”
“If we do nothing else, what we accomplished in Yahya Khel has made the deployment worth it,” said Deleon. “There was no government in Yahya Khel, and we set up a government there and stood up the local police. The ALP are from the people in the town, fighting for the people. That’s very important.”
The mission in Yahya Khel came at a very high price for America, as four soldiers from 1st Bn. were killed in the fighting there – something that is never absent from the minds of those who continued on to finish the mission.
“These guys are making incredible sacrifices to support the ANA and the AUP, and also to reach out to the local villages. It’s a challenge because you can’t tell the difference between the local nationals and the insurgents, and yet these soldiers continue to reach out,” said Tilley.
“At this point it’s a complex war, especially in this area because both platoons here have been in a lot of fights and seen a lot of [improvised explosive devices], but at the same time we have to help the Afghan people. There have been times when we might go up to Yahya Kehl and get in a four-hour firefight, and then the very next day you have to go through and drink tea with the same guys that were probably shooting at you,” said Deleon.
“What’s awesome about the guys here is, they’re able to one day have the adrenaline pumping, shooting back and calling in medevacs, seeing people get hurt real bad, and then the next day go in there and conduct themselves very professionally, not hating people,” added Deleon.
“These soldiers are doing what their country has asked of them, and they’re doing it extremely well,” said Tilley. “Our goal here isn’t to get in a lot of fights and kill people. We want to know that it was worth us coming here, that this country is better off for us being here.”
Recently, Company A, along with platoons from the ALP and AUP, constructed another ALP check point in the center of Yahya Khel, about 50 yards from the spot where Tilley’s vehicle was hit by an IED only a few months earlier. The new check point is the third one they have built in the settlement, completing it’s transformation from a volatile haven for the Taliban to a relatively peaceful town governed by a local force that the citizens can trust.
The soldiers of Company A are rightly proud of their accomplishments. When asked if they feel unlucky that they didn’t get sent to one of the larger COPs or FOBs, they overwhelmingly insist they wouldn’t have wanted to spend their deployment anywhere else.
“It sucks being away from home,” said Pfc. Nathan Burton, who is from Shawano, Wis. “But I consider myself very lucky. We’re doing something worthwhile – to help awaken a country.”
| Date Taken: | 03.14.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 03.16.2012 02:36 |
| Story ID: | 85331 |
| Location: | PAKTIKA PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 1,080 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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