Kids

" Election day was made for a very kinetic day. All our OPs got hit at once, every US element got hit, shot at etc... 15,000 people turned out to vote (or so we were told) and none of the polling sites were attacked. WE were attacked, but none of the polling sites. I guess democracy was defended that day, albeit Afghanistan democracy.

Today was quite eventful, starting around 1500 this afternoon. We got a report of a small child playing up by our range who evidently picked up an unexploded grenade that detonated. We watched as he was carried down by the Afghan security guards, and they brought him to our aid station.

I was the first to receive him and at first, I thought he was dead. There was a huge crowd of local workers and security guards when the kid was offloaded, and I think everyone was in too much shock to do anything, because it took a good 3 seconds for anyone to move him from the back of the truck to a stretcher. So he was pretty badly injured. He'll lose a foot, an arm and perhaps the other hand. He made it alive out of here and last I checked he was still alive at the forward surgical team and Bagram accepted him.

It's sad that this is such a horrible place for kids to live in....to be accurrate, the kid was doing something he shouldn't have been doing. Kids will chase after convoys for spent brass - they can sell it. Kids get hurt all the time doing that, but this was likely the worst. From a medical perspective, this was probably the ultimate casualty for medics. We saw and treated everything you could possibly imagine. The medics did well though...but i was also too busy running around dealing with the medevac and the father, who looked pretty hopeless. He wanted to see his son while he was being treated, but it was a bit too bad for us to bring him in. Later on when we had him packaged up we let him in and explained everything that was going on.
 
On a more positive note, the ANA battalion commander came to the aid station and invited all the medics specifically to have dinner with him because "he was grateful that we've been helping his soldiers so much".....but the food was very well done. It was high dining Afghan National Army style."

Snow

" This morning we were greeted with much cooler morning temps (less than 70 at 6 AM) and a dusting of snow on the distant mountains. By noon the snow had melted and temperatures were back to summerish highs.

Last night a cool front blew through and clouds built up overhead, a few spits of rain here and there."

Lull

Messages received from FOB Blessing in the last couple days indicate that soldiers over there are all aware of the pastor's planned action in Gainesville, FL and are taking proactive measures for damage control. 

On the recent battle of Omar, LT Alex Pruden wrote in the blog:

“...3rd Platoon came into the landing zone under fire, and proceeded to fight their way through the extremely difficult terrain of eight-foot high cornfields, ten foot terraces and a river (at nighttime). Fortunately, we had excellent support from our comrades in the sky, and the Apaches and Kiowa warriors rained hell down on insurgent positions in order to cover our assault.

Once we’d seized the village, the majority of the enemy resistance was broken, though we continued to take sporadic sniper fire throughout the day. Overall, the mission was clear success, with 19 insurgents confirmed killed. In addition, our platoon detained four wounded insurgent fighters. A major cache of rockets was also found and destroyed. No friendly casualties were sustained by the platoon, other than the platoon leader’s pride when he tumbled face first off of a farm terrace. But perhaps most impressively, the entire operation resulted in zero civilian casualties. This statistic is a testament that the soldiers of 3rd platoon not only know how to display courage and aggression, but also judgment and restraint...
Read about this in the press on the links below


http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/08/19_taliban_fightersphp

http://www.dvidshub.net/news/55448/afghan-coalition-forces-conduct-air-assault-kunar

There was one casualty of the battle that I do want to recognize: Private First Class Ethan Kirkwood of LaPlace, Louisiana. He was wounded when an 82mm mortar round landed on COP Michigan during the battle. Before being transferred to serve as a member of Lieutenant Colonel Ryan’s personal security detail a couple of months ago, PFC Kirkwood served in this platoon as a rifleman and grenadier. He was also selected among all the soldiers in the platoon to be the radio telephone operator. PFC Kirkwood is currently recovering from his wounds at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital. His dedication, courage, and sacrifice are an inspiration to the men of this platoon and in keeping with the honorable tradition of the U.S. Army Soldier."

Battle Raging

LT Marcus Lai wrote from FOB Blessing:

"...We're in the midst of Ramadan and though it is a holy holiday, attacks haven't abated. Rather, it is quite the opposite. we sorta predict that this trend will continue and likely peak during elections. Such is life in the Pech Valley. but with these trends, we have the opportunity to identify when the "enemy" is most vulnerable and take the initiative...the medics are moving along just fine,though not without drama..."

LT Alex Pruden wrote from FOB Blessing:

" The Korengal Valley is one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan. It's people, an insular ethnic group known as Korengalis, are famously isolationist and warlike, and the terrain is unforgivable to the extreme. U.S. outposts there from 2006-2010 suffered some of the highest casualty rates anywhere in the country, earning the valley the nickname "Valley of Death". In the end it was decided that a permanent presence there just wasn't worth the cost. Unfortunately, since the U.S. withdrawal earlier this year, the valley has become a base from which the insurgents routinely disrupt convoys along the Pech River Valley and conduct attacks against the FOB's and COP's there. COP Michigan, which sits at the mouth of the Korengal valley, has seen almost daily attacks and mounting casualties since our battalion has been here. Basically, it was time to "clean house". And that's exactly what we did.

Because of the importance of the mission and the risk involved, the platoon spent the entire day before preparing. Equipment was prepared, contingencies were planned for, and the soldiers rehearsed the tasks they were to perform. After a few hours of rest and final equipment checks, we loaded aircraft and embarked on the an operation which was to be "the most kinetic fight" in the province for the past 9 months.

I can't speak to what everyone was thinking, but I can tell you that we were all pretty focused at that moment. For me, I am not going to say I had a lot on my mind; in fact, I had very little on my mind. I wanted to get on the ground and get off the aircraft as soon as possible. Given the element of surprise and the fact that we had escort aircraft, I assumed that there wasn't a huge chance that we would take contact in the first moments. That assumption pretty much went out the window as we flew over our LZ and I see muzzle flashes flicker along the ridgelines. The Apaches are calling over the radio that they are taking fire from RPG's and our returning fire to cover our approach. About the same time I see a tracer round zip through the sky behind us, the crew chief turns around, grabs me on the shoulder, and yells above the noise of the aircraft: "WE'RE TAKING SMALL ARMS FIRE. DO YOU STILL WANT TO LAND?".."