Afghan Road Trip

March 2004

I had settled into my routine at our Kandahar house, and I have to say that at times it was a bit boring, so when the request came in to do a reconnaissance to some of the Firebases at a town called Gazni, we all jumped at it. First order of business was to find out exactly what was the job: to recon some weapons’ caches and assess how long it would take to dispose of them, how many people would be needed, gather points of contacts, routes, accommodation, logistical support and lastly but not least, the security situation of the area. It was the usual tasking.

Next came our plan on how to accomplish all of this. First we decided to go to Firebase Gecko to try to arrange an Special Forces patrol to escort us to Gazni. It was a 5 hour drive thru the last stand of Taliban resistance and we didn’t feel like going alone. We then needed to find where to go and who to talk to. After a quick visit at Gecko everything was arranged for the mission to start on the 1^st of March, Monday. On Sunday we went back to Gecko to make sure everything was alright and to our disbelief our ‘escort’ was tasked with doing something else. The guys there started joking that we didn’t have any balls to go up by ourselves. Well, that’s all it took, we were back on again! We quickly decided that we could do it. We gathered all the remaining information we needed. The situation was dicey at best; there were many ‘pockets’ of resistance along the way so we had to be on the look out for roadblocks and ambushes.

We returned to the house to pick a suitable vehicle and prep our gear. We opted on one of the four-wheel drive pick ups and loaded it with water, food and extra diesel. Then next order of business was to decide on weaponry. Going to our ‘armory’ we found everything we needed. For road-block ‘clearing’ we took two LAAW rockets; for possible ambushes we took two M18A1 Claymore directional mines with very, very short fuzes; each one of us carried a Makarov side arm with 3 magazines each; for breaking contacts we took an assortment of grenades… smokes, white phosphorous, stuns and fragmentations…around 40 total; and for our main weapons we took our trusty AK-47’s with a 75 round magazine and 10-30 round mags each. Mike also had his M3A1 Grease Gun…in short, we were loaded for bear.

On Monday morning we loaded our ‘toys’ and headed out on the big adventure! The ride up was very uneventful, but we didn’t leave our guard down for a second. One weapon was always pointed outwards, the LAAW rockets close by, and the floors were littered with our grenades ready for action. All the pockets in the vehicle had weapons’ magazines, as well as on our body armor. If any one was stupid enough to attempt to stop they were going to get a big, big surprise.

Around 3:20pm we reached Gazni and the first thing we ran into was a huge demonstration for some Shiite religious holiday. Things started not to look good at all. Everyone was wearing green headbands with some Arabic writing (which probably said kill the first white boy you see), we were stuck in a traffic jam with no way out at all.  We tried but couldn’t turn around and we had no escape route. And to top it all we had no idea were Firebase Catamount was (in actuality we had passed it about 2 kilometers before and didn’t know it) to make it to safety. Mike was driving so I lowered my AK to keep it out of sight but chambered a round and placed the weapon on safe…just in case.  Since there were lots of civilians I decided a stun grenade, followed by smokes and tear gas would be best, he agreed with me and I made the grenades ready.

After about 30 minutes of adrenaline rush we cleared the traffic jam and continued the trip. We drove an extra hour before we realized we were leaving the province we were supposed to work in….only because we saw a sign that said “You are now leaving Gazni”.  We turned the truck around and headed back. By this time, 5:00pm, the sun was beginning to set and again, things began to look dim for us. It was getting harder to find the US flag that would point us to the Firebase and we really didn’t want to be stuck out there in bandit country with nowhere to go. After passing the place where the traffic jam had occurred, Mike noticed a compound that had all the makings of our destination. The closer we got the better it looked until we spotted the flag…safety at last! We turned off the road and made a “B-Line” to the main gate. By this point we had been driving around 6 hours and were a bit tired and dusty.

We immediately linked up with our point of contact, who had no idea we were coming and was very amazed, as was everyone else, that we had decided to do the mission on our own without military escort. Next order of business was to find a place to lay up for the night. Captain Grant, our POC gave us some cots in one of the tents and we dropped our gear. As luck would have it we came in just in time for dinner and after stuffing our faces we headed for the tactical operations center, TOC. At the TOC we started our mission brief for the next day with the battalion executive officer, XO. He informed us that the ASP we had come all the way to investigate was gone and disposed of already; however, there were other ones they had discovered in the previous weeks, good, we were back in business. There was a company sized patrol going there the next day and he gave us authorization to tag along. Now, having a company sized patrol was usually not a good sign, and we were to find out the next day why.

The night was just miserable, probably one of the worse nights I had ever spent on a mission. It got terribly cold that night and since we forgot our sleeping bags, we were hating life. The only thing we were wearing was a sweatshirt each. Some of the soldiers there took pity of the two old men and gave us some poncho liners to keep us warm….and they helped, but not much. Better than nothing I guess. Around 0600 I just couldn’t take it anymore and got out for a piss and a smoke. It was bitterly cold and our truck was covered in ice, so it must have definitely dropped below 32 degrees.

After breakfast, the XO came out and told us our escort would be there around 9am and invited us to back to the TOC to warm up with a ton of freshly made hot coffee, now who can turn down an invitation like that? We then received a complete debrief on the prior two weeks operations in the area. A week prior, the firebase we were headed to had send a patrol and they got ambushed and a huge firefight ensued, that lasted about 20 minutes…a huge amount of time, there were some injuries but no deaths. The weapons caches were all commanded, or owned, by the provincial governor who didn’t want anyone to touch them or see them. Some of the other factions also wanted them and had been fighting the governor’s guards for them. So here we are going to tell his guards that we have directives from the Afghani National Army that we were to go in and take pictures and assess the disposal of their ordnance, it all spelled disaster to me. Mike and I just kept giving each other some really worrisome glances.

At exactly 9am the company arrived, the XO made the introductions and we headed out to their firebase to drop off some equipment. There we met with the firebase commander, Lt Cruz. He again verified everything that was said at the TOC and let us know in no uncertain terms that we were in some bad, really bad territory. He could not believe that we had traveled alone; he then glanced in our truck and understood why. We explained our background and he was happy that if the shit hit the fan while on patrol, and it probably will, he wouldn’t have to protect us too much. I joked with him telling him that we probably had more fire power in our truck than he did on the patrol. He was not amused at that since he didn’t have any LAAW rockets…ooops!

And so the patrol started, leaving the safety of the firebase was scary yet exciting at the same time. Everyone locked and loaded their weapons and the gates opened, and we were off to look for trouble. The drive to the sites took us through three villages, all with very narrow streets and high walls…ambush city! I could see the soldiers in front looking a bit tense, these guys had been here before and knew what to expect. Their eyes were scanning the walls, looking into every ally-way, looking for the first sign of trouble. We followed the patrol to the first site where they had told us there mines along the side of the road. If there had been mines before we couldn’t tell, but there were none now. We continued to the next site, an abandoned Russian training site. Garbage was everywhere and now we started to see ordnance laying about…lots of ordnance. But again, no weapons caches nor mines. At around 300 meters from the third and last site, we saw soldiers jumping out in front of the gates and meaning business, not a good sign.

The lieutenant in charge of the patrol got out with his interpreter and started the negotiations to get us access thru. Things didn’t seem to be going well, but we couldn’t hear much from our position next to the last vehicle. The next thing I hear is my teammate saying “Oh shit, here we go!” I looked up expecting to see the gates opening but what I saw was the entire patrol jumping out and taking defensive positions, we followed suit, with Mike retrieving the LAAW and me the entire bag of grenades. I hit the ground ready for whatever happened. We had them seriously outgunned and when they realized it, they waved us thru with smiles on their faces. Touch and go there for a minute, but I guess cooler heads prevailed on their side and quick reaction on ours to save a seriously bad situation.

Now we were in the last compound where we were sure to find ordnance…or trouble. We got out of the vehicles and left one fire team behind to guard them. The rest of us walked to the building compound with the Afghans trailing very close. As we approached the men guarding the buildings, our ‘Terp introduced us and asked permission to enter the first building. This was granted easily enough, maybe too easy. Mike and I entered first. Our fingers were never too far from our triggers. The rest of the guys followed us in. We searched every room looking for ordnance or indications of secret rooms that may be holding a weapons cache. Nothing found in this building or the next four. By now we were getting a bit frustrated with the whole thing, so we decided to check one more building and call it quits. I suggested to Mike we search an outlying building, not the next one they wanted to take us to. Sure enough, the arguing started with the soldier in charge yelling. Things were getting a bit tense now but we were determined to enter the building. I started for it, with or without permission. Sometimes you have to call their bluff and we were frustrated enough that this became one of those times.

I entered first ready for anything, the rest of the patrol tight on my heels, weapons at the ready. We searched thru a maze of rooms… all very dirty, with trash, junk and feces laying about everywhere, needless to say it didn’t smell very pleasant. With one room to go we found what they were hiding from us. I pushed the door very slowly, ever so vigilant about booby-traps and lo and behold there they were: stacks upon stack of pornographic material, I couldn’t believe my eyes! The soldiers looked like they were about to face the shooting squad. We had to calm them down and give them our assurances that we would not turn them in or say anything to anyone. Much to their relief we left the area laughing, but our guard never went down, not until we were out of the area completely and out of sight.

The rest of the patrol went by very uneventful and we returned to the firebase to re-fuel and commence our trip back home to Qandahar. It was getting very late and we wanted to make it home before dark. Two days after returning home, we heard that some road workers had been ambushed and killed on the same road we had just traveled. Forty-eight hours later, the same thing happened again. Guess we got lucky this time.

After two months in country I found out that I was not going back to Armenia to finish the project there, or at least not for the time being. So I decided to combine leave with going to Armenia to gather whatever kit I had left behind.

Upon my return to Qandahar I found out that things had gone ‘south’ and were getting nastier by the minute. It seemed to me that the situation in Afghanistan was mirroring that of Iraq and since things were heating up a lot there, it was just a matter of time until they got real bad here. With Qandahar being the birthplace of the Taliban we were in for some rough times.

The first thing that started to go wrong was that the DDR program has started. DDR is the Disarming, Demobilization and Reintegration for the Afghan Militia Force (AMF) to be conducted by the Afghan National Army (ANA). In theory it is a good program to disarm all of the factional militias roaming the towns but the thing is that these people live by the old saying of “He Who Controls the Weapons Has Power”, so therefore no one wants to give their weapons up to the Army. And on top of all that, DDR is a voluntary program, sort of.

The ANA came into the military area one day and demanded to take all the tanks the AMF had. Of course the AMF told them to shove it up their arses and to fuck off out of there. After the ANA left, some of our team leaders started to report tank rounds disappearing…figure that! So now the AMF has 6-7 fully operational T-72 tanks near us and just itching to use them. The day after this happened, Craig came back to the house saying that someone had fired at him, but thankfully the rounds didn’t hit the target…and that was a big target. Mike also reported taking incoming from the second floor of an AMF building near the tank farm. So I told Mike I wanted to go check out some of the teams near the tank farm and off we went. When we were around 2 klicks from the building where Mike took some rounds we decided to pull over and put on our body armor and load and lock our weapons. We proceeded but I had a feeling like I was acting as bait, to draw fire. If anyone had been stupid enough to shoot at us that day, it probably would have been the last decision he made, because we would have blasted the building with our L.A.A.W.s!

No one fired at us that day and after checking on the teams we looked for the tanks but couldn’t find them. Obviously they had moved them somewhere out of sight, which told us two things: one that the tanks are in working order and two that they intend on keeping them.

A week later we decided to shoot one of our two LAAWs just to have fun. Mike pulled it out, cocked it, pressed the trigger and...nothing.  More trigger pressing, and still nothing. It was a bad LAAW. I pulled the second one out of the car, repeated the process and nothing. Both LAAWS were bad. Mike and I looked at each other thinking the same thing: it was a good thing we never needed them.