TF No Slack Mortarman shares close calls

By Army Staff Sgt. Mark Burrell, TF Bastogne KUNAR PROVINCE – He’s a calm individual. His voice is barely above a whisper. Maybe because waiting for the enemy to attack in a hastily built fighting position in the Hindu Kush Mountains makes everybody whisper. Maybe because he doesn’t get that excited anymore. Whatever the reason, he rarely raises his voice when asked about his 3 combat tours during his 7 years in the Army.

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Rarely; except when he talks about blowing things up. “I don’t like troops in contact, but I enjoy dropping rounds, and knowing that most of the time I hit the enemy,” said Spc. Joshua Wood. “It’s awesome to fire. It’s just a thrill to drop explosives. The enemy stops firing after you drop your rounds, and that’s just a great feeling.” Wood, a mortarman, comes alive when asked about his job firing mortars all over eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar Prov. “Out here we play a pretty big role,” Wood continued. “Usually when the troops get in contact, the mortars are there. They call us in to provide indirect fire on enemy locations, to either destroy or disrupt them, so we can move or gain fire superiority.” Just then, he got a call and began preparing fuses on the mortar rounds, and punched numbers into his handheld computer. Wood raised the pitch of his voice ever so slightly when he explained the technical specifications of his job, and what’s necessary to prepare for another fire mission. Next, he fired a few rounds at the enemy, listened for impact, and plunked back down into his fighting position to wait for more instructions from his forward observer. Settled, he continued his calm, relaxing southern conversation. “I almost got a bullet to the face once,” he said. “It went right past my face and hit the wall behind me, and cut my face up from the rock. I thought I was shot,” said Wood. “That was probably the closest I’ve come to a bullet. I could feel the burn on my face for about 10 minutes. That was pretty intense, but we actually killed 3 dudes with a mortar round. That ended the fight there, and I walked out of that valley.” He chuckled and had a faraway look on his face. “I’ve had bullets crack around my face, around my cover; I mean, we all have. We’ve all been in some crazy firefights,” Wood explained. But, not everybody has done what Wood did one day while in one of those “crazy firefights” a few months ago. “We were walking through the Ghaki Valley,” Wood said. “Our group took contact and, as we bounded back to hard structures, my platoon leader fell. I was about a 100 meters ahead of him. I turned around and saw that he fell. I ran back under heavy fire, picked him up and took him to safety.” He didn’t raise his voice talking about the incident. It was almost like he was explaining what he had for lunch: jalapeno cheese with crackers, poppy-seed pound cake and beef stew. Just like that. Then he continued. “Later, another ANA soldier was walking around in the middle of the firefight with a bullet wound to his head,” explained Wood. “I ran out with another Soldier, and we picked him up and put him behind some vehicles to let the medic patch him up.” Strawberry dairy shake powder, wheat snack bread and brown sugar toaster pastry. Just like that. “You just do it. You’re just trained to do it. I didn’t want to leave a friend out there,” Wood added. “I don’t know; you just react to things and do what you’re trained to do: to go help Soldiers whenever you can, whether you’re under fire or not.”

832nd engineers conduct canal inspection in Dahn-e-Maidan

He didn’t seem especially impressed that he was awarded a Bronze Star with Valor for these actions. For Wood, it was just another day deployed. “The platoon leader I saved said that, as I was running, he could see bullets bouncing around my feet and around my head on the mountainside,” Wood recalled. “I really wasn’t paying attention to it, but it was pretty effective fire. It was pretty close. It was ricocheting off the vehicles and across the ground. You could hear it whizzing by your head. I don’t know; I just remember running and picking him up. I wasn’t thinking about the bullets. It was pretty heavy fire, though.” For a guy who joined the Army right out of high school because he wanted to do something different, this mortarman has seen a lot. The forward observer called to Wood and his crew. It was time for another fire mission to quell the enemy.

NDS, TF Iron Rakkasans seize weapons in Andar district

Written by Army 1st Lt. R.J. Peek, TF Rakkasan GHAZNI PROVINCE – Soldiers of Co B, 3rd Bn, 187th Inf Regt conducted a search op in Shaf Khel Village in Andar District, Dec. 12. They found 11 weapons after 4 hours of searching, as well as mags and ammo, including 3 AK-47s, 10 AK-47 mags, hundreds of rounds, 2 Russian assault rifles, a Russian light machine gun, 2 rifles and a pistol. Info regarding the location of the illegal weapons came from National Directorate of Security (NDS) interviews of the villagers. “The village elders called me and thanked me for coming,” said NDS officer Wahab. “They said I can take as many AK-47s as I can find in their village.” Later, locals brought 3 more AK-47s, and turned them over to the NDS during a meeting. “NDS agent Wahab proved invaluable during this op,” said Capt. Aaron Schwengler, cmdr. “His intimate knowledge of the insurgents in this area and their tactics, as well as his ability to communicate with the locals, resulted in a large cache of weapons captured. We'll continue to incorporate the NDS on our ops, and impact insurgent capabilities.” Schwengler followed through on his word the next day. The Soldiers of 1st Plt, conducted a patrol with the NDS and had a similar success. The Soldiers found 2 more AK-47s, 3 mags and 200 rounds of ammo based on his guidance. Some Co. B Soldiers said they were extremely impressed with the NDS officer. “CFs are committed to contributing to the safety and security of the Afghan people, but we're still foreigners, which limits our understanding of the locals,” said Sgt. 1st Class Paul Meacham, plt sgt. “Having an NDS agent on patrol allows the U.S. elements greater access to the local population.” “I look forward to our continued partnership,” Wahab said.

Afghan AF, NATC-A advisors visit local Kabul market to prepare for food drive

By Petty Officer 3rd Class Jared Walker KABUL - Members of the AAF and NATC-A visited a local market in Kabul to buy food, Dec. 21. The food will be distributed in the coming week to local Afghans that work as contractors, and their families. “Supporting the contractors is taking care of the troops. They might not be AAF members, but they're part of the team; they contribute so much to our mission. It’s important that we take care of them and their families,” said Maj. David Burnett, with the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing/NATC-A. Burnett said that Col. Basir, the AAF religious and cultural affairs, actually came up with the idea for a food drive for the contractors. “What we're trying to do is get food together so we can distribute it to the contractors on base; many of them are supporting large families. We received donations of money from the states, so we could purchase this food. Once we had the money in hand and the convoy ready to depart, we went to the trader and purchased large bags of beans and rice, plastic bags to distribute, cooking oil and tea,” said Burnett. He also said that this is important because coalition troops are trying to help foster the relations between the community and AAF. “A majority of the community doesn’t even know that they've an AF, so we're trying to build that relationship, and support the local contractors on base that support our mission every single day,” said Burnett. Burnett said that it brings a tremendous amount of pleasure for him to be involved in missions like this. “In some cases it really humbles me to see what these guys go through, and see them really struggling. Just to be a part of helping and contributing to make their lives a little easier brings joy to me,” said Burnett.

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