Afghanistan My Last Tour

Packing for 5-6 days.

These past few days and nights, the Captain and I have burned the midnight oil planning for a Village Medical Operation (VMO) and Humanitarian Assistance (HA) distribution.  The original plan of flying was canceled, so we put together a mission plan to drive there.  This would be a prime opportunity to test out our MRAPs.  Our destination would be the Charkh District Center (often pronounced shark) in southern Logar Province.  We were aware of the dangers, but little did we realize how determined the Taliban was to discourage our visit.

The night before the mission, we held our final mission brief with our team and participants and informed them to pack for 5-6 days.  We returned to our

Cool morning preparing to depart for VMO.

b-huts to do our final packing.  My ruck sack was overfilled, but I was well-prepared for this mission, or so I thought.  We woke up at the crack of dawn and readied the MRAPs and loaded the medical supplies, school supplies, and other HA on the ANA 7-ton truck.  It was chilly outside, but everyone seemed to be in a cheerful and motivated mood.

Another village along the dirt route.

We met with our ANA counterparts and readied the convoy.  Before we departed, I insisted we stay on the hardball and not take any dirt shortcut roads.  We left the camp and two ANA vehicles took the lead.  We turned on to an unfamiliar road, but I figured it was a shortcut through the city, so the convoy followed.  About a mile later the road turned to dirt.

Modern mud brick homes in the first village.

Darn!  The ANA ignored my instructions and were avoiding the morning city traffic.  For them, this was no problem in their small pick-up trucks.  But for us driving bulky MRAPs, it was rather difficult maneuvering through the tight turns and crossing small bridges not designed for 40,000 pounds.  The first village we drove past seemed a bit modern and

Taliban village.

the houses were built quite well with mud-brick and surrounded by encompassing thick mud walls.  The next village had an eerie feel to it.  I inquired through my interpreter and he confirmed my suspicions that this was probably a Taliban village.  Although we were surrounded by many houses, I felt uneasy not seeing many people wandering about.   As the convoy commander, I was responsible for any actions that might occur.  Meanwhile a truck approached in the opposite direction and the street was too narrow for them to pass.  Our ANA brothers dismounted and made the truck back up so we could get by.

Eventually the dirt road

Back on the hardball.

merged onto the hardball.  In hindsight, we avoided the congested city traffic, but an attack from the village might have ruined our day.  The next hour we drove south on the asphalt road.  The road was in great shape and we were able to increase our convoy speed to 45-50 mph.  Along the way we picked up another ANA armed escort driving in armored

MRAP with rollers at FOB Maiwand.

Humvees.  This particular section of road has been popular for insurgent attacks and the ANA wanted to ensure our safe passage.  Our next stop was ANA FOB Maiwand.  We stopped there to drop off the mail to our teammates and took a short halt for an hour.

By now it was lunch time but we decided not to eat and drive to our next destination.  While at FOB Maiwand, a few more ANA vehicles decided to join the convoy.  I was feeling pretty safe having the additional firepower

Mountains surrounding FOB Altimar.

travel along with us.  As long as the ANA don’t hit an IED, they are much more maneuverable in their vehicles then we are with the MRAPs.  They are also a kinetic force and can go after the bad guys, even if the insurgents try to hide in the village houses.  So I welcomed our ANA counterparts and our next stop was FOB Altimar.

Lining up the convoy at FOB Altimar.

Typical of most Forward Operating Bases, they were surrounded by tall jutted mountain peaks.  After parking the convoy, I noticed the temperature was about 10-12 degrees colder than in the capital city.  We offloaded our ruck sacks and were shown to our tents.  These tents were winterized and had a good heating system.  The Captain and I took

Urination color chart.

care of some administrative business and later that night attended a mission briefing for the next leg of our trip to commence early in the morning.  While using the facilities, I had to chuckle at the sign posted by the urinal.  The Army wants to ensure we are drinking sufficient amounts of water, so a color graph with instructions is posted.