Task Force Viper

We just took this today and I think it turned out great, I am the guy all the way to the left in front. The HHC Company Commander was not at the right place at the right time so I stood in for him. Night all

Moving

Last few days have been pretty busy; two nights ago we thought our FOB might be getting attacked so I ended up flying around the FOB for like 6 hours. While we were providing FOB security we noticed that on the south eastern side of our runway our ground security force was launching a ton of 40mm illume rounds. Not that it’s a big deal for us they cannot be shot too high but it was more about was something going on in that location that we were not seeing. I mean after all this was where the Taliban tried to assault the FOB on their last failed attempt, and we all know how that attack turned out for them. So we work our sensors all over that area and we see nothing so we write it off as some kind of unplanned training event. So back to our mission to keep the FOB secure and that is just what we did for about another two hours till the Pistols launched and did a BHO “battle handover” with us. We reported to them that we were experiencing a bunch of NSTR “nothing significant to report” and that we would be glad to call it a night. So we land our two Apache’s and we head to the CP “control post” and we start our debriefs and what not and then we see on the TV Fox News anchor Geraldo Rivera reporting live from Afghanistan on FOB Salerno talking about FOB security. What a small world I did not even know he was on our FOB and let alone he was patrolling with our ground security guys, good for him.

So a couple of days later and I am packing up my room getting it ready for the new guys that are here and I have to move to a new room for the last weeks that I am here in Afghanistan. No complaints out of me that means that I am one step closer to going to the house. I am probably looking at about 5 to 6 more flights in this country and then a couple of big jet flights and I will be at the house with Marie and the Kids. It has been a long year and I am ready to go home but I do understand that I have 5 to 6 more flights out there in bad guy country and I need to keep my game face on till I am done and I am heading home. The 10^th Mountain guys are ready to take the fight to the bad guys and I hope that they have as good of a year as we did here with Task Force Viper. I feel that we made a huge difference in our area of operation and that the changes we made will make a difference for many years to come.

I will have IO Global Internet in my new digs so I hope to be able to have time to make a few more post before I get on the big plane to get out of here. It’s a lot slower but I will be able to make it work. I almost got to take an aircraft back to FOB Shank the other day I was trying to switch out with another pilot so I could go and try to catch up with Barry before I get out of here. I hope that his tour goes as quickly as mine did and that he has no serious issues. His area is about the same as mine except for the living conditions are not as nice. And it gets a lot colder over there he is sitting at about 7000 feet MSL and I am at 3800 here. My coldest winter day required me to wear a sweatshirt and his will require some serious cold weather gear, hate it for him. He also started a Blog and I am looking forward to following his adventures I hope that he has a good year.

I turned in a leave form for 6 Dec 2010 till 7 Jan 2011 I am looking forward to some time off. I have not had that much time off in I don’t know how long but I am so looking forward to it one month with nothing to do but spend time with my family. When Marie and the kids get out of school for X-Mas we will have to see what the plans are but I think we are hoping to go home for a visit. Not totally sure what the timeline will be yet but I am sure we will get it worked out soon. I will be the only one not going to school when I get home it will be strange for a bit, Marie is doing most of her classes in the evenings right now and it will be nice to spend quality time with the kids when I get home. I will hopefully get some down days where we can spend some time at home before she goes to school and then meet my girls at the bus stop; I always liked to do that. Well at least for Elli I think Shirley would be a little mortified if I showed up when her buss arrived. Needless to say I can’t wait to be a Dad again and I can’t wait to be a Husband too. Well guys that’s about all that I have on my mind for now I think I will get back to packing my stuff so I can move tomorrow before I go to fly, till next time, night all

18 days left

Help has arrived, we are going through our RIP process and the light is getting bright. I have friends from 10^th Mountain and it is good to see them. I only wish that Barry could have come to my FOB but instead he will be going to FOB Shank. I am on the flight schedule fewer days each week and that doesn’t hurt my feelings one bit. I flew last night and we took fire from a ridgeline near Zerok it was right at dusk and hard to see the bad guys. They are getting pretty good at not moving once we are on station and they only shoot after we pass their position. So we had a position and we set up for race track patterns on their known location and we shot just about everything we had on that ridgeline. The shooting stopped and we went back to the house. This time of the year the fighting comes to a screeching halt it just get to cold up in the mountains for them. Most of them go back to Pakistan and bed down there for the winter. And this will give our replacements the time they need to perfect their flying in the mountains and their procedures for doing business.

I will be getting on a C-130 in just 18 days to go back to my life and for that I am so thankful but this place I will never forget. I will remember the people I met, things I have seen and most importantly things that I have done over here to try to make a difference. I will look back at this tour as an event that truly changed my life for the better. I don’t really expect many to understand what I am talking about but I feel that I have grown so much in this short year and I needed it so much and it truly will affect the rest of my life.

As for life in Savannah, wow what can I say it is going to be awesome I am looking so forward to everything that Marie and I and the Kids are going to experience in the future. Family is so important and we must all remember that whatever happens to us we can always count on our family to pull us through. I am not sure when our Internet will be cut off but I will try to keep everyone posted on me getting out of here somehow. Night all

10th CAB in the House

Wow what a day, reality has finally set in, help has arrived. Tenth CAB is here to replace us and I am sure glad to see them. Today we gave them their academics and tomorrow they start flying. They will not be turned loose to go out and do great and wonderful things for God and Country for week or so but it is nice to have them here on the ground with us. They are not all here yet it is a process that takes a few weeks, it’s a phased event some of our guys leave and some of their guys arrive. I leave on main body 7 which is leaving Afghanistan on the 7^th of November. After I leave their will only be a handful of 3^rd CAB Soldiers in country. It has been a long year and we have done a great deal over here in that year and I am proud to have been a part of it all. I feel that this tour has helped me in so many ways that I may never truly know the full effects of everything that has happened to me over here. I have seen so many things that I will never forget and some of those things have had a significant impact on my life but I know that I am a much better person because of it all. I truly see more and feel more and I definitely want to experience more. And I can’t wait to get home to start a new chapter in my never ending life with Marie and our three kids. I am not sure how much longer I will have Internet but I will try to keep my Blog going even after the Internet is disassembled and packed for shipping back to the states. I put my first three boxes on one of our conexes today and my room is starting to look a little less lived in and I like it. I am on the flight schedule tomorrow and it’s after 2300 so I need to post this so I can try to Catch Marie on Facebook till next time, night all

Long Day

Well the day started out like any other day, but it just kept going and going and going. On a positive note my good friend Barry has arrived safe and sound at FOB Shank and I am sure he will do great and wonderful things over here as well. I hope his tour passes as quickly as mine did for me. Tomorrow will be the first day of academics for the new group of Aviators that we just got and I am glad they are here. I flew six and a half hours today or should I say to night and we did every mission under the sun or should I say moon. from escort to TIC to deliberate hasty infill. Need less to say it was a very busy day and I am glad it is over. I was hoping to catch my true love on the computer tonight before I go to bed but I am sure she is busy school all ready. I will have to catch up with her tomorrow. I am down to 24 days and a wake up before I get on a plane and get the heck out of here, and I can't wait. I am off tomorrow except for teaching a class or two and loading my action packer and a couple of bags in a container so I will try to get on tomorrow and post a bit more but till then, Night all

Back at Salerno

I am back at Sal and things are going pretty good, we have a lot to get done in these last few weeks. The new Unit is starting to show up and there is a lot of training to get done to get these guys ready to take the fight. I was gone for just over a week and in that time I missed out on a lot of packing and loading opportunities. I have a lot to catch up on and a lot to do as far as packing is concerned. I will me mailing a lot of my things home to try to cut down on space in our containers. We have space but it is limited and we have all acquired many things since we have been in Country. I have many things that I am hoping to sell to some of the guys that are coming to replace us I think it will be the easiest way to lighten my load. I figure 50 cents on the dollar and I should be able to get rid of my things pretty quickly. like my refrigerator and one of my TV's some containers and a few other things that made my stay here just a little more comfortable. well I am not sure how much longer we will have Internet so I will try to post as much as I can in these next few days to explain all of the hows and whats of what we are going through. Till then just let me say that I am ready to get home to Marie and the kids and I am still glad that I was a part of OEF TEN Task Force Viper, night all

Linda Norgrove

Well this article was posted on Yahoo News shortly after the attempt that was made to rescue her. I was sent up to Jalalabad as the AMC of two aircraft to help in the search for this woman and sadly to no avail. I and three other pilots were in Jbad for a little over a week we took two of our Longbows and we tried to help another one of our Task Forces locate and rescue this woman for about a week. I was sad that we could not help her. We are fighting people with no hope for a better life and they are desperate in so many ways and have nothing to live for. An Enemy that feels they will be rewarded with 72 virgins for killing an American is a hard enemy to beat. I truly wish we could have done more, I wish that we could have saved this woman and made a difference in this one life, but we couldn’t and makes you think about what war is all about. And I hate it, I hate the fact that no matter what we do it never seems to be enough, and I don’t know if it will ever be.

Yahoo News Article

KABUL: Questions have been raised over the failed attempt by US special forces to free a British aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan.

Linda Norgrove was killed on Friday night when one of her captors set off a suicide vest as NATO troops arrived by helicopter to rescue her.

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, and Foreign Secretary, William Hague, defended the operation to rescue Ms Norgrove, saying it was ''her best chance of safe release''.

However, the Telegraph learnt that local Afghan leaders wanted to negotiate with Ms Norgrove's kidnappers to win her freedom but that they were overruled by NATO commanders who feared she was about to be smuggled to Pakistan and handed to al-Qaeda militants.

Ms Norgrove, 36, from Uig on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, had been in Afghanistan since 2005. She was going to a ceremony to open a 24-kilometre irrigation canal at Salar when she was abducted on September 26 with three Afghan colleagues.

The rescue operation began on Friday night after special forces pinpointed her location in mountains close to the Pakistan border. They were within moments of reaching her when she was killed.

Troops who battled through small arms fire to reach the compound where she was being held found her dying on the ground. Medical treatment failed to save her. Six of the kidnap gang are thought to have been killed in the fighting.

In the days after her kidnap in the Kunar province of north-east Afghanistan, a split developed between NATO and local police chiefs over the best strategy to adopt. NATO commanders decided that any attempt to negotiate her release would take too long. They feared she would be taken to Pakistan where al-Qaeda sympathisers would almost certainly kill her.

It is hard to be sure who might have kidnapped her. Most of the fighters in the province are loyal to Hizb-I-Islami, a group of extreme Islamists led by the veteran warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has changed allegiance repeatedly over the years.

Ms Norgrove, an experienced aid worker for the US agency Development Alternatives Inc, was wearing a burqa when the two-car convoy she was in was attacked. Security guards chased the kidnappers, who escaped with Ms Norgrove and three of her Afghan colleagues.

Locals said the scene of the attack, close to a police checkpoint on the road between Jalalabad to Asadabad, was perfect for an ambush.

A farmer said he saw Ms Norgrove being led into the hills after she was seized by between six and eight armed men.

Her Afghan colleagues were released on October 3. One said they were freed through the help of elders.

A string of kidnaps in the same province earlier this year had ended peacefully through negotiations. The chief of police in Kunar, Khalilullah Zaiyi, was confident of securing Ms Norgrove's release.

On Saturday night, Afghan government sources said Mr Zaiyi was angered by NATO's decision to send in the forces.

An official said: ''NATO didn't even ask their permission.''

General David Petraeus, the senior NATO and US commander in Afghanistan, said his troops and Afghan forces had done ''everything in their power to rescue Linda''.

JAF

First day at JAF otherwise known as Jalabad, I will be working 14 hour days here for as long as I am here. I will be working seven days a week till I get sent back to Salerno. I understand my mission here I am to help with the coverage for the missing British woman. They have many leads so hopefully I will not be here too long. This place is not as nice as Salerno and I can’t wait to get out of here. On a good note though one of my friends from Ft. Rucker is here, Jim Mullenix. He and I will try to make the best of it and I hope that between the two of us we will be able to make the time pass quickly. Wonderful I just sneezed and now I have a bloody nose so as much as I have to talk about it will just have to wait till next time. I am doing all of these in word and I will post all of them when I get back to my room where I have internet. Till then, night all

Day 2 in J-Bad, I was on the flight schedule but we did not launch. No complaint from me I did not sleep too well last night because of the new guys coming in at all hours of the night. Our B-Hut is full now though so I hope that we will get into a routine and everyone will be more considerate to the sleeping man. The b-hut is a building made from plywood and I do mean every wall and floor and ceiling. Our hut has eight rooms about 6 feet by 7.5 foot. All the interior walls are about 6 foot high and made from plywood as well. I am so spoiled coming from Salerno with my nice room in a concrete building with all of my happy gear like my TV and my big computer not to mention my bed with sheets and big pillows. I am sleeping on a cot here under a sleeping bag liner. Thank goodness I am on days because even in October it is hot in these b-huts. Jim told me that during the summer they would never get below 90 degrees and that was with three additional air conditioners that they had to purchase. I remember when I was in Kosovo we would all be up around 0700 or so because we were living in tents and by 0700 it was already 90 plus and you just couldn’t sleep. Oh well speaking of sleep I have a 0445 show tomorrow so I need to cut this one short as well. Still no good Intel on the British woman but we are all still hoping for the best, night all

Cutting off our supplies

Wow what can I say I have been extremely busy with all that has been going on over here? For those of you that have not heard we have had a little misfortune on our Task Force in the news lately. We are in the middle of a great big investigation and there is little that I can say or talk about on here but I will post some news that I got off the web I am safe to do that so here goes.

Yahoo News had this to say

Pakistan on Thursday blocked a key NATO supply line into Afghanistan after accusing US-led forces of mistakenly killing three Pakistani paramilitary border troops in a helicopter raid hours earlier.

The events are testing the already fragile US-Pakistan alliance against Al Qaeda terrorists and Taliban militants holed up in remote, rugged mountain terrain in northwestern Pakistan tribal areas.

They come also as details continue to emerge of an alleged large-scale terror plot against targets in Europe hatched by Pakistani-based militants that was reportedly disrupted in its early stages by Western intelligence and air strikes in Pakistan. Some reports said the US and NATO's stepped-up air attacks were aimed at the plot's planners.

The Associated Press reported that NATO has launched a probe into the alleged killing of the three border guards that Pakistani officials said took place at a checkpoint on the Pakistani side of the border in the Upper Kurram region Thursday (see map). Pakistan has lodged complaints.

"We will have to see whether we are allies or enemies," Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said of the border incident, without mentioning the blockade. ...

Over the weekend, NATO helicopters fired on targets in Pakistan at least two times, killing several suspected insurgents they had pursued over the border from Afghanistan. Pakistan's government protested the attacks, which came in a month during which there have been an unprecedented number of US drone missile strikes in the northwest, inflaming already pervasive anti-American sentiment among Pakistanis.

Two Pakistani government officials said that shortly after the alleged incident, Pakistan moved to block the Torkham border post at the edge of the Khyber tribal region, according to AP. Pakistan reportedly closed the same passage briefly in September 2008 after a US special forces raid into Pakistani tribal areas, according to the Congressional Research Service (pdf). The New York Times calls it "the most important border crossing for trucks supplying NATO-led coalition troops in Afghanistan."

On Thursday, the Pakistani daily Dawn reported a fresh round of attack-helicopter strikes by coalition forces against targets in Upper Kurram. Local officials strongly condemned the new strikes as "an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty," Dawn reported.

The Daily Telegraph reported late Wednesday UK time that 15 to 20 British citizens are currently training inside Al Qaeda-run terror camps in Pakistan, citing "Western intelligence sources."

The disclosure comes after the CIA launched drone strikes on Pakistan training camps in North and South Waziristan in an attempt to disrupt an Al Qaeda-plot to launch an attack targeting Britain, France, and Germany.

The plans would have seen terrorists sent on to the streets, probably of the capital cities, to shoot random passersby before heading in to landmark buildings. Intelligence sources said that the attacks would have been coordinated for maximum impact and may have been aimed at financial institutions. However, the terror cells had not yet travelled to Europe and the targets were still unclear.

Pakistan has been the recipient of lavish US support. From 2001 to 2008 it received some $5.3 billion in US aid, including $3.1 billion in development and humanitarian aid, making it one of the top recipients of US aid funding, according to the 2009 Congressional Research Service report (pdf) on US-Pakistani relations. Pakistan also received in that time some $6.7 billion in military "reimbursements" from the US for its counter-terror efforts, the report said.

But although Pakistan is a nominal ally in the US-led war on Al Qaeda, anti-American sentiment runs strong among the Pakistani population, and "there exist widely held suspicions among foreign governments and independent analysts alike that Islamabad’s civilian government does not fully control the Army, that the Army does not fully control the intelligence agencies, and that the these intelligence agencies have lost their ability to rein in the very militant groups they helped to create," wrote the report's author, K. Alan Kronstadt.

In June 2008, 11 Pakistani Frontier Corps soldiers were killed in a US bombing raid, according to the report.