getting closer...

Just sharing some of the signs from around here that signify we are getting closer to wrapping this deployment up. I was informed recently that I will be arriving home about 2 weeks earlier than originally planned. I expect to leave Afghanistan the first week of July, then head to Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin for about 10 days of demobilization & out-processing. I'm hoping to be home for good no later July 15th.

I know previously I stated on this blog that it's important to make the days count, as opposed to counting the days...but who says you can't do both?!

The first group of replacements has arrived...for our Air Force JTAC's.

This is the countdown that is posted in our Brigade tactical operations center...less than 90 days in Afghanistan to go...or, "One (90 day) Air Force Deployment left."

100 days to go until I'm home, and I still have my 15 days R&R leave yet to come...(mid-May through early-June)

BULL WHIP Part 2

I guess I'll start this off with March 25th, now that you understand some of the background leading up to Operation BULL WHIP. When I woke up on March 25th, my emotions were again a little mixed. I was very much looking forward to the break in the monotony that is life here at Bagram. I was also a little tense about our plan, and how aggressive it was.

I had consulted with many people that I trust, and we all agreed that one of two things was going to happen. Either the enemy was going to give us the fight of our lives, or they had already fled. Reports of what the enemy was going to do were mixed, and no one truly knew what to expect...so we were prepared for the worst possible scenario.

As you may have already guessed, the enemy choose to sit this fight out (good choice on their part). I can't go into all of the reasons why here on this blog, but the bottom-line is that most of the enemy either knew what was coming, or quickly realized how serious we were when they saw how we arrived, and blended back in with the local population.

Our plan was fairly simple, and unfolded near-perfectly. First, we dominated the high ground on the mountains surrounding the Valley, with the insertion of platoons at various observation points. Next, we inserted our forces high into the Valley floor, which allowed them to fight downhill chasing the enemy into blocking positions, while blowing his weapons & caches in place. While doing this, our forces in the Valley floor stopped to engage local Village elders and leaders, and invite them to the culminating "Shura" that would be held later in the week.

There was much, much more to the plan, but that was the basic premise, and fortunately for us, it unfolded perfectly.

As I mentioned in my last post on this operation, COL Corell advised that I would be going along as his operations officer. My job was to keep him advised of where his units were located on the battlefield, and what was to happen next. He also selected SGT Smith, a Radio Telephone Operator (RTO) who was tasked to ensure that we could communicate with our Brigade, the Division Headquarters, aircraft, etc. The Commander also brought along Lt Col Filler, a Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC). Lt Col Filler is the senior JTAC in Afghanistan who just so happens to be assigned to our Brigade. He was responsible for coordinating all the airspace surrounding our objective area. SSG Bryant, who is COL Corell's personal assistant and bodyguard accompanied us as well.

The five of us discussed our role. Most important was how we felt we could best control the battle. We decided that we would initially control the fight from an aerial communications bird (UH-60 Blackhawk with tons of really cool communications equipment), prior to inserting ourselves into one of the observation posts (OPs) on the high ground surrounding the Valley.

As the evening drew near on March 25th, we conducted a final "conditions check" with the Division Headquarters. We briefed Brigadier General Stephen Townsend (BG Townsend is best known in the US Army for what his Battalion accomplished in Iraq a few years ago...capturing Saddam Hussein). After briefing BG Townsend, he validated that all conditions were met, and gave us the command we all wanted to hear..."RED BULLS, you are a GO for this operation. Godspeed, see on the objective tomorrow."

Wow. This is when it finally sunk in...we were only 2 hours from finally kicking off the operation. I headed to my room to grab my gear, then on to the chow hall for my last hot meal for the foreseeable future. Those couple of hours were surreal. Life at Bagram is fairly safe, and very mundane. It was weird to interact with anyone, knowing what we were about to do. The whole day was like that for that matter. You could see it in everyone's faces from RED BULLS...we all had our "gameface" on, while the rest of the base continued with business as usual.

Finally, the five of us piled into a couple of SUV's, and made our way to the other side of the Base where we would meet up with our aircraft. While we were en-route to the other side of the Base, we began turning on our radios. Aircraft were already checking in on station with Lt Col Filler at this point. It was again, very surreal. Here we were, riding in an SUV while Lt Col filler was already tasking the F-15 pilots with missions for the evening...which was the signal that the operation had officially begun. Below are some pics of us preparing to depart Bagram from "Delta Ramp."

The Command and Control (C2) UH-60 Blackhawk. We spent over 4 hours on this aircraft...it was a little grueling.

From left to right...SGT Smith, SSG Bryant and Lt Col Filler hanging out at Delta Ramp awaiting our departure.

SGT Smith and SSG Bryant. SGT Smith had more radios and antennas attached to him than I ever seen. If he wasn't done having kids before this mission, he is now.

Myself, SGT Smith and SSG Bryant.

SSG Bryant, Lt Col Filler and SGT Smith.

Lt Col Filler and I.

Watching Lt Col Filler control all the aircraft over the battlefield from this helicopter was a site to be seen. I have no idea how he kept everything straight. It was a sight I will not soon forget.

Me with my trusty Petzel headlamp. This headlamp is now on it's second Afghanistan deployment, and many many hunting seasons in-between. In the background to the right, you can see RED BULLS soldiers making their way to an aircraft for insertion into the Galuch Valley.

Tracking mission progress while awaiting departure from Bagram. We used codewords for each step in the operation. For example, when an aircraft lifted off or landed, codewords were transmitted in order to assist with brevity on the radio. Every codeword was the name of a town/city in Iowa. It was very cool to hear the names of so many familiar places from home being called out/transmitted throughout the night.

funny

We received this card with a box of girl scout cookies yesterday...addressed to "any soldier."

The front of the card says...TO: Bob.....From: Ashlyn Larsen

The inside says..."Dear Bob, I hope you like the girl scout cookies. Eat them up or send them back to me! Thank you! I hope you stay safe too! And I'm sorry I called you bob. I just don't know any of you were you are! ENGOY THE GOOKIES!"

While humorous, this doesn't top the card that SFC Wrage received at Christmas time from a young little boy...it went something like..."Merry Christmas! (unless you're Japanese, then I'll kill you!)"

Where do they come up with this stuff??

Operation BULL WHIP

Well, I'm not sure where to even begin on this.

First off, I and everyone involved in the operation I mentioned previously are fine. The operation was extremely successful. Incredibly, it was conducted without a single shot being fired...to include no mine strikes, no IED's, no IDF....no nothing. There are several reasons for why things unfolded the way they did, which I will get to later. Now that the mission is all but complete and released to the press, I'm in the clear to provide some details that couldn't have been divulged earlier.

On the evening of March 25th, TASK FORCE RED BULLS initiated the largest Air Assault ever conducted in the history of our Division. Not only was this the largest Air Assault ever conducted in our history...it was also the largest Air Assault conducted by the 101st AIRBORNE Division (our higher headquarters) in Afghanistan. To put this in perspective, the 101st AIRBORNE is the U.S. Army's only Air Assault Division, and the largest of it's kind in the world. (An Air Assault is an operation that is mostly reliant on helicopters for the insertion of ground forces. Due to the extremely restrictive terrain, our forces were 100% reliant on helicopters for insertion and resupply)

So, here's the story....After I returned from Qatar (or as some of the guys here like to refer to it as...QataR&R) in early February, I was briefed on the initial concept of what would eventually become Operation BULL WHIP. The initial concept of the mission was somewhat broad...in that we (RED BULLS) were to assist the Governor of Laghman Province (GOV Azizi) with connecting the population of an isolated valley (Galuch valley) to the Afghanistan Government.

The overarching concept is simple. The more we are able to assist the government in connecting with the people of Afghanistan, the less the Taliban is able to connect to those same people...and then I guess the sooner this war ends (in theory).

So, after returning from Qatar, I spent about 50% of my time on the Galuch mission, and 50% of my time on my normal duties. It wasn't long before 100% of my time was focused on Galuch...and my hours increased from about 10-12 hours a day, to 18-22 hours a day. The mission continued to gain steam and attention from the highest levels of the Afghan Government and the US Military in Afghanistan. We traveled throughout the RED BULLS area of operations to meet and plan with other units and our Afghan counterparts (see previous posts, Gamberi (February) and Mehtar Lam (March)).

In mid-March, just when things began to look as though we had a handle on it...COL Corell (our Brigade Commander) advised us of a change...instead of conducting the operation this upcoming summer, we would be conducting the mission in 2 weeks. For the most part, I was good with this. I knew it meant a lot of work in a short amount of time, however I was already smoked from planning the operation, and I knew there was only one thing that could put an end to the exhaustive planning sessions, which was to execute the mission.

After we had wrapped up our planning for the operation, we were required to brief the Division in order to gain approval. I'll never forget handing off the completed plan to the Brigade Commander and interim Brigade Operations Officer. Although I was confident in the plan we had produced, my nerves were a wreck. I suppose my anxiousness was similar to that of someone on their wedding day...a carefully crafted and rehearsed plan that you know will work, and yet you know that one small thing can go wrong, and it's all that everyone will ever remember of the event. I was also anxious because part of me wanted to show the 101st that their National Guard Brigade (stepchildren of the Division) could plan and execute the Division's largest Air Assault in Afghanistan.

I waited anxiously for 3 hours while Division was briefed. Finally, MAJ McKnight (our interim Operations Officer at the time) came down to my office grinning from ear to ear. Approved! Later, our mole/liaison officer at the Division (and my roommate) told me that we had blown Division away with the plan. Whew...I was calm for about an hour, until I realized that we now had to actually DO the mission.

At this point, we had about 10 days to make the mission happen. We worked feverishly with preparing our assault units for combat, and moving logistical supplies into place. We also worked closely with the Afghan units, which comprised of the majority of the forces we would be inserting into the fight. The French played a large role as well, and were very competent and professional.

At about this point, COL Corell advised me that I would be going forward on the mission with him as his operations officer. I was ecstatic to get out of the office, yet apprehensive...I know all too well what combat has to offer. However, I felt I managed the build up to the mission well. I think the combination of spiritual maturity and combat experience I have attained over the years left me as prepared as I could be.

Over the next few days I will post the story of what exactly it is that we did, and how the operation unfolded (along with the many pics and videos that we took).

Thanks to all for your patience with the inactivity on this blog, and your prayers of support.

Explanation.

I think I owe an explanation as to why this blog has sucked since February 20th. There actually is a reason, I have not just grown lazy. I must be careful/vague in how I word this, as the explanation involves future operations.

Since mid-February, I have been deeply involved in the planning of an upcoming operation for our Brigade. The planning for this mission has sucked the life out of me, and left me with little to no free time. I have a stack of letters/unanswered emails to attend to, and the blog has suffered as well. I know that I need not apologize for this. I know that everyone would rather see me concentrate on my duties when they call....however, I just felt it necessary to give you the reason.

Now that the operation is close to kicking off, I have been advised that I will be going forward on this one. I will be without phone/email etc. for the next 2 weeks-ish.

One request...please pray for our Brigade over the next 2 weeks. We are headed into the heart of the insurgency. We (TF RED BULLS) know that we will win and meet our objectives. However, we do not know at what cost our success will come.

Thanks again for all the support. See you in a couple of weeks. Lee.

One Year.

Although I think most everyone looks back to late July 2010 as the time when this deployment began for me, it was really March 15th, 2010 when this really all began. As I have explained before, I work full time for the Iowa National Guard as a Federal employee. On March 15th of last year, I left my Federal employee status and began working for the Iowa National Guard as a full time service member in support of this deployment. I relocated offices on Camp Dodge, and along with my current boss (MAJ Edwards), began assisting him with swimming through endless piles of requirements and regulations that had to be addressed before pushing our Brigade out the door last Summer.

As people often do after reaching a milestone like this, I thought about all that I have endured since this began. We started off in a temporary office, squeezed into an old medical clinic on Camp Dodge (we were actually in an old patient screening room) We set-up computers, phones and a white board in that little area. And for those who don't know my boss...he's a big dude. He's 6'4", and I'm not exactly small at 6'0". It was a little cramped to say the least.

We then headed to Camp Ripley, where we spent a solid 2 weeks in a tent writing operation orders. 18-20 hour days were the norm, and after surviving it, I thought I'd never have to go through something as brutal again (I was soon proven wrong). Although we were very busy at Camp Shelby, looking back on it, it was probably one of the more quiet times that we had in our Plans Section (the section I am in) during this deployment. And then, there was the National Training Center....

NTC was one of the worst experiences I have ever had in my 16+ years in the Army. It was absolutely horrible. The conditions were bad, and I don't remember ever having to go without sleep like we did at NTC. It seemed nothing we did was right. I distinctly remember after arriving being assigned the task to write the plan for how to move our Brigade out to the field after arriving at NTC. This was no laughing matter, and I worked hard on it. I ended up briefing the entire Brigade Staff, several other Battalions and the NTC Cadre. After it was finished, I thought that it had gone fairly well....until the Brigade Commander pulled me aside, and told me what he thought. Seriously, I can't repeat what he said on this blog, but he wasn't too thrilled. Oh well, I figured it wouldn't take us long to bounce back...right?

After arriving in the field at NTC, we went straight to work, and work we did. The hours were so incredibly ridiculous, I have no idea looking back on it how we even functioned. At one point, I remember staying up for 36 hours straight, going to bed for 8 hours, then staying up for an additional 38 hours straight. At another point, I remember working until 3:30am on a briefing for the Brigade Commander. The briefing was to be presented to a General the next morning. After we had finished, we all went to bed...only to be woke up a few hours later by our panic stricken Brigade Executive Officer who couldn't make any sense of our presentation. We looked at it, and couldn't quite make sense of it either. The briefing didn't go so well to say the least. So much for bouncing back. Only 8 days after leaving the "box" at NTC, we were sitting in our current offices here at Bagram Airfield.

Although we have somewhat found our rhythm, we are still plenty busy. It seems every time we catch up, there is something else to be done. The light is beginning to appear at the end of tunnel. Only 8-9 weeks until I am home on leave, then only a few weeks to go after that. I can't wait...

AO RED BULLS

I thought it might help to give some perspective as to where everything is over here. The darkened in area of the map below is our Brigade's "Area of Operations." I dropped in tags to some of the places I have referenced over the past few months. Normally, National Guard units do not "own" an operational area. Up until the past year or two, National Guard units have filled in gaps for the Active Duty forces that own all the Battle Space. This is beginning to change for numerous reasons, and our (National Guard) Brigade is one of the first ever to be designated as a "Battle Space Owner."

Also, for reference...Sharan/Paktika Province (where I was at during my last deployment) is approx. 75 miles South of Kabul.

FOB MEHTAR LAM

I traveled to Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam (Laghman Province) yesterday, stayed overnight and returned today. We visited with the 1-133 Infantry, one of the Battalions from Iowa that is here with our Brigade. We also met with the Afghan police, military and others while we were there.

Mountains in Kapisa Province...the snow is beginning to melt

The arrival...Afghans travel in numbers, and with lots of security.

Meeting with the Afghans. I'm to the right...closest in a U.S. Uniform.

Foot patrol to the meeting. COL Corell, our Brigade Commander is pictured.

FOB Mehtar Lam

FOB Mehtar Lam

FOB Mehtar Lam

This video is for Grant. Apparently, he was disappointed with the last helicopter video I posted...because you couldn't see the "hail-we-cop-it-tor."

T-Barriers

To begin, apologies for taking so long to post again. Our Brigade staff has been involved in some serious planning for operations this upcoming Spring. I also have a stack of mail and emails, and will get to them at some point in the next couple of weeks. I'm sure you all understand..

Now to this post...seems there is a huge increase in T-Barriers going up around Bagram lately. The barriers are intended to protect us from indirect fires (IDF). There have been a few incidents in the past several months of living areas being hit by IDF (rockets), causing some serious injuries. Not sure if that's the case for the increase in barriers, as Bagram has always been susceptible to IDF. I guess the barriers will help some, although they appear to be of much better quality than most of the buildings they protect. Maybe they should just construct the buildings out of concrete?

T-barriers being inserted next to my building.

The completed project. Let's hope there isn't a fire in the building...not sure how'd they put it out.

internet is fixed!

Looks like they finally found a fix for my slow internet....will post again soon!