OT: Wounded Army Special Forces Captain Details Teamwork Against Taliban

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

The article from the Washington Post that follows ought to be required

reading for soldiers. In an age when the military focuses much of its

efforts on developing advanced technology, this story brings things back

into perspective for those of us who have been on the ground. There is

no way to successfully execute an air war without troops on the ground -

and in some cases, calling in a successful airstrike prior to an assualt

is looked upon as a scenario where the last piece of schrapnel from the

last bomb dropped slightly wounds the first of the friendly soldier

forward in the attack .. that's pressing the enemy.

 

Warfare in general and land warfare in particular is about ordinary

people like you all know, doing extraordinary things under incredibly

arduous conditions. I am both impressed and proud of what this young

captain and his Special Forces Detachment were able to accomplish.

While technology is clearly an important aspect to combat success ..

gathering of human intelligence, the maturity, strength, personal

intelligence, bravery, and professionalism of folks like this Army

officer and his team of soldiers will always be the extra margin needed

for victory in combat.

 

Here's a story you can tell your fellow Americans with pride. And for

those of you who have done your duty and are now sitting it out,

remember that you played some part in creating the institutions that

molded these men (and the hundreds of thousands of young people serving

today) into warriors without peer in this world.

 

American by Birth, Suth'ran by the Grace of God, and retired US Army by

choice .. y'all keep smiling, Butch

---

Wounded Army Captain Details Teamwork Against Taliban

By Peter Finn

 

LANDSTUHL, Germany

 

They went in at night in mid-October, 11 members of the U.S. Army 5th

Special Forces Group, dropped into a valley deep inside Taliban

territory in central Afghanistan. This austere, wild gash in the earth,

the soldiers remarked to one another, looked like " the back side of the

moon. "

 

Out of the darkness stepped Hamid Karzai, today about to be interim

leader of Afghanistan, then merely the head of a modest militia force

that the United States hoped could galvanize the Pashtun tribes of

southern Afghanistan against the Taliban authorities.

 

Over the next six weeks, the small and isolated American unit would

fight alongside the ever-growing force of Karzai, calling in airstrikes

and firing weapons to repel a fierce Taliban counterattack. It would

negotiate with tribal leaders and advance with its Afghan allies to

within 20 miles of Kandahar, the Taliban's last major stronghold.

 

" My focus was taking Kandahar, that they'd surrender to us, " recounted

Captain Jason Amerine, the unit's commander. " Taking Kandahar, as I saw

it, was probably going to be the end of the war. "

 

Kandahar fell last week, but Amerine was not there to see it happen.

His unit's mission was cut short on Wednesday when an errant U.S. bomb

killed three Americans and five of their Afghan allies, and wounded

about 40 other Americans and Afghans, Amerine among them.

 

The tall, lean West Point graduate is now recuperating from shrapnel

wounds in a U.S. military hospital in Germany. With another wounded

member of his team, Staff Sgt. Brad Fowers, 24, he provided in a

two-hour interview the most in-depth account to date of what U.S.

Special Forces have done out of sight on the ground since the U.S.

bombing campaign began Oct. 7. He declined to reveal key operational

details.

 

Amerine, who is scheduled to fly home in the next few days, said he

wants the men who lost their lives that day to be honored as well as

mourned. " I don't want them to be remembered for how they died, but what

they did beforehand, " he said.

 

The 5th Special Forces Group, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., had been in a

Central Asian country for nearly six weeks on Sept. 11, with the mission

of training local forces. Amerine declined to identify the country, but

U.S. Special Forces are known to have conducted some training for

Uzbekistan's armed forces.

 

Operating in Central Asia and surrounding countries was the group's

speciality. Some members had studied local languages. Amerine, for

instance, speaks Arabic and another member of his team speaks Persian.

 

On Sept. 11, someone from the local U.S. Embassy alerted the team to the

events in the United States, and members watched the BBC broadcast as

events unfolded at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The men

quickly packed and returned to Kentucky, where an order soon arrived to

head for Afghanistan.

 

'Sort of a Wild Card'

 

" Our mission was to work with Hamid Karzai, who at the time was sort of

a wild card, " said Amerine. " He was our biggest hope for a good Pashtun

leader that could really rally the people and bring legitimacy and

change to the government. "

 

First, however, the team deployed to a country bordering Afghanistan.

There members studied intelligence, planned logistics and worked up a

profile of their potential allies. " We need to have almost like an

anthropological background on the people we're working with in order to

work with them properly, " said Amerine. " We need to know the customs to

follow. "

 

In military jargon, their field of combat behind enemy lines is called

the " denied area, " a place where soldiers are on their own but can call

in help through the lifeline of communications equipment. " We could go

in there naked with flip-flops and as long as we have good radios we

could do our job, " Amerine said.

 

In mid-October, the Americans flew into Afghanistan. They landed;

whether by parachute or helicopter, Amerine wouldn't say; and Karzai

greeted them in the dark in fluent English.

 

The Americans hastily loaded their equipment onto a mule train their

allies had brought. The Afghans were clearly amused at the young

Americans weighed down with firepower and communications equipment;

Karzai's men, if they had weapons, each carried a single assault rifle

and a few magazines of ammunition.

 

" We were kind of like newborn babes trying to get used to the

environment, trying to get used to the people, " said Amerine, who is

from Honolulu. " We knew we were among friends, and they were all very

warm and receptive. "

 

They trekked through the night for several hours with the mules. The

Americans were at first disconcerted by the Afghans, who blithely waved

flashlights around as they moved across the difficult terrain. As

morning appeared, they entered a village of clay homes with 60 to 80

families.

 

" I've got to admit I was almost giddy because it was . . . like out of a

movie, " said Amerine, who would not name the village but said it

appeared battered by earlier wars. The U.S. soldiers were shown to a

carpeted room inside a dwelling enclosed by a large outer wall. The

Afghans invited them to sleep and again were amused when the Americans

insisted on patrolling to ensure they were secure.

 

The next three weeks were devoted to planning. " We had to start from

scratch to build up a force that was viable to fight the Taliban, "

Amerine said. " We began to help them organize, help them equip

themselves . . . getting them arms, getting them ammunition. " The troops

also arranged food and blanket drops for the locals.

 

Amerine and Karzai also began to size up each other. " I had to get to

know that he was more than just another politician and he had to get to

know what my underlying agenda was, " Amerine said. " I was real careful

in the beginning not to be very pushy. "

 

Days were spent sitting cross-legged among tribal leaders who argued

fiercely about matters Amerine understood only through Karzai's

translations. " I drank a lot of green tea with Hamid Karzai during late

nights, " Amerine said.

 

Karzai mostly listened before interjecting firmly but quietly to end the

yelling matches. " He was in charge; he was real soft-spoken, " Amerine

recalled. " There was never any need for him to raise his voice. He has a

very stately demeanor about him. "

 

At first, Karzai had a very modest force, but the village quickly

flooded with volunteers arriving day and night. The U.S. troops

conducted some basic training, but the Afghans broke down along tribal

lines and could not be organized into anything approaching platoons or

companies.

 

" Initially, there was a great deal of concern about Americans being

around, " Amerine said. Karzai " was concerned that some of the locals

might be unsettled about Americans being in their back yard. " Over time,

those fears subsided.

 

U.S. officials have said that at about this time, a U.S. aircraft

extracted Karzai from Afghanistan as Taliban fighters closed in on him.

But Amerine's account included nothing about such a rescue.

 

Karzai's plan, Amerine said, was to take the Uruzgan provincial capital

of Tarin Kot, which sits 70 miles north of Kandahar in a valley with

four major approaches. " He told me early on that Tarin Kot was the heart

of the Taliban and he said if we could squeeze the heart of the Taliban

and crush it, then the Taliban would be through, " Amerine said. " I

thought it would be a long time before we were ready to take Tarin Kot.

.. . . He was very confident that he could just walk into the town and it

would be his. "

 

And in the end, that is what happened. The locals, prompted by some

intense diplomacy by Karzai via satellite telephone, revolted shortly

before the Muslim observance of Ramadan began on Nov. 17. Karzai

announced that it was time to move. " We piled on and had this crazy

convoy and drove right into Tarin Kot, " Amerine said. " Every kind of

vehicle, soldiers armed to the teeth hanging on. "

 

Arriving at night on the 17th, Karzai and the U.S. soldiers moved into

the governor's mansion, where a tribal council was immediately convened.

 

Taliban Mounts a Challenge

 

Soon there was word of a challenge. " We got a warning that the Taliban

had launched a massive group of people north who had left Kandahar to

retake Tarin Kot, " said Amerine, who recalled becoming immediately edgy,

particularly because the Afghans wanted to take time to eat before

preparing for battle.

 

" They forced me to sit and eat a little bit, " said Amerine, recalling a

meal of beef stew, bread, almonds, yellow raisins and more green tea.

 

With a small group of Afghans, the 5th Special Forces Group established

an observation post outside town as the Taliban convoy approached early

in the morning of the 18th. They called in U.S. aircraft, which began

attacking the vehicles.

 

" We didn't have a shortage of aircraft, we had a shortage of vehicles to

be bombed by aircraft, " Amerine said. " If anything, the pilots got

disappointed there was nothing left. It was great listening in on the

radio. . . . One of the [pilots] said: 'We're ready to play, I've got X

number of bombs and I'm looking for some action.'

 

" They completely mauled that convoy. "

 

Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Petithory, 32, of Massachusetts, who later died in

the errant December bombing, directed the air attack. " It's an art, "

Amerine said. " And the guy I had was the best at it I've ever seen. You

need to be able to draw a picture for the aircraft. . . .

 

You're sitting there with a map. Your knowledge of the area, your

ability to use a map, and your ability to use the right words, to vector

the aircraft into a specific spot; those are vital to get the aircraft

to hit their targets. "

 

About 10 or 12 Taliban fighters were captured while maneuvering on the

eastern side of the town. They later revealed that their orders were not

only to retake the town but to slaughter some residents, including women

and children, to make an example of the rebels. " We saved that town, "

said Amerine, calling it his proudest moment.

 

In the aftermath of the assault, the commander of the Taliban forces,

who surrendered a week later, reported that 300 of his men, mostly Arabs

and Pakistanis, were killed in the counterattack.

 

" When we turned back that convoy, the high religious heads came over to

Hamid's headquarters . . . and said if the Americans weren't here, we'd

all be dead now, " Amerine recalled. " Basically from that point on, our

relationship was solid with the Pashtun tribes. Hamid told me word

spread all the way down to around Kandahar.

 

" The impression Hamid had was that was the Taliban's last-ditch attack, "

he continued. " We broke the back of the Taliban that day. "

 

Over the next week and a half, U.S. aircraft continued to pound Taliban

convoys probing the defenses around Tarin Kot. More and more volunteers

poured into the area, giving Karzai a force thousands strong. " Hamid was

arranging for defections and surrenders all over the place, " Amerine

said. " As far as I'm concerned, the greatest tool of the war was his

telephone. "

 

The United States dropped more weapons to the insurgents, although by

now Karzai also had a trove of Taliban arms.

 

On about Dec. 1, the force moved southwest over two days to the town of

De Maymand, where it planned to regroup. The Taliban kept retreating in

front of them without serious engagements.

 

With the road to Kandahar looking increasingly clear, Karzai's forces,

with U.S. troops at the fore, moved farther than they had planned,

reaching the outskirts of Seyyed Mohammad Kalay, a town about 20 miles

from Kandahar. As the Americans watched, a dozen or so Afghans charged

toward the town, cheering.

 

Just outside the town was a bridge over a dry river bed, one of the last

bottlenecks in front of the advance. There, the Taliban resisted

fiercely.

 

Over two days and nights, the U.S. troops fought on the ground while

U.S. planes dropped bombs south of the river. " We [started] taking fire,

[rocket-propelled grenade] rounds coming down, machine-gun fire,

actually a pretty heavy firefight, " Amerine said. " We pushed forward

with my guys, bringing in airstrikes as necessary. . . . We had guys who

had to do some shooting at that point. "

 

One of the U.S. soldiers was shot in the shoulder and had to be

evacuated by helicopter.

 

In one of the more bizarre moments of his six weeks in Afghanistan,

Amerine watched a yellow taxicab drive through a firefight near the

targets that U.S. planes were striking. " People have to go places, "

Amerine deadpanned.

 

On the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 5, the area north of the bridge

appeared largely secure, although U.S. planes were still bombing Taliban

positions more than a mile away.

 

The 10 remaining soldiers from 5th Special Forces Group were feeling

good. " That previous night, especially, we had done a pretty good job of

hammering the Taliban, " Amerine said. The soldiers had just received

" care packages " and one soldier; Master Sgt. Jefferson Donald Davis, 39,

of Tennessee; had been passing out Rice Krispie treats he had received

from his wife. " One of the nice things was that it was almost like

Christmas for my guys, " Amerine said.

 

On a hill that was crowded with people, Karzai was expecting a

delegation from near Kandahar to discuss another surrender, and a new

group of U.S. soldiers had arrived and was watching the bombing. In the

near distance, across a dry riverbed and an orchard, was a ridge where

Taliban positions were drawing U.S. airstrikes.

 

In Germany that same day, Afghan political negotiators were reaching a

deal to create an interim government with Karzai as its leader.

 

Then " the bomb came in out of the blue and, you know, nailed us, " said

Amerine, who was blown into the air, taking shrapnel and suffering a

perforated eardrum. Killed were Davis, Petithory and Staff Sgt. Brian

Cody Prosser, 28, of California, one of the new arrivals. " The Afghanis,

they seem like they took the brunt of it, cause there were . . . massive

casualties there, " Amerine said.

 

Karzai, who was in a house at the foot of the hill, suffered a cut on

his face. It was a rare trip to the front for him because Amerine, whose

mission also included protection of this vital U.S. ally, did not want

him near the action. " I wasn't going to give him the option of coming up

front with us, " Amerine said. " We wanted to keep him as safe as

possible. . . . Without him, that whole uprising would have failed. "

 

" I took a time out when I could to go over and have a good cry a couple

of times, " Amerine said. " I was so privileged to have commanded the guys

.. . . so even amidst the tears I had to realize that we had done a hell

of a lot, and that was something that I was able to kind of hold on to.

.. . . It was a horrible way to end it, but the surrender of Kandahar was

coming, my friend was prime minister of Afghanistan. "