Spc. Jarod Huser and Pfc. Corey Vanotegham, along with the other Soldiers of 1st Plt, Co C, visit the Alingar District Center, 2 or 3 times a week. Each trip includes several smaller chores or duties depending on the circumstances. During this mission, the Iowa NG Soldiers provided both transportation and security for a civil affairs officer, who is working feverishly to complete a budget, that will affect the thousands of Afghan citizens in the area.
“We go to Alingar quite a bit,” said Spc. Jarod Huser, an infantry gunner. “For that mission, we did a mounted patrol down to Alingar, checking for roadside bombs along the way, pulling security at all times, watching out for enemy activity, just getting a feel for what’s going on in the villages.”
Mounted in MRAP vehicles, the Soldiers convoyed from FOB Kalagush, south through hills and valleys to Alingar. Once there, they positioned themselves tactically throughout the town watching for anything out of the ordinary, while Maj. Andrew Dejesse, a civil affairs officer with Co A, 413th CAB, went to work.
DeJesse spoke with Fetah Mohammad, the Alingar District Mgr. of Village Affairs, trying to finalize points in a budget plan for the district for the upcoming year, one that was due in 3 weeks. He also talked at length with the district education director for his recommendations on the budget. There are 72 schools attended by more than 38,000 students, so finalizing the budget was big business, and was the main reason 1st Plt. conducted the mission to Alingar.
While DeJesse was inside talking to the education director, Huser was inside his MRAP manning the gun, constantly monitoring for threats around the perimeter of the village, using the truck’s Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS). Operating the CROWS, the gunner is not in an external turret, potentially exposed to enemy gunfire and IED blasts, but sits inside the vehicle and maneuvers the gun with a joystick, while carefully monitoring his surroundings through a camera.
“I love being a gunner,” Huser said. “I do the CROWS, but also do open turret sometimes. I like being able to be up in the truck looking around. I watch for everything, but ridge lines are a big thing. I can look through the CROWS and find people up there moving around, I wouldn’t be able to see with the naked eye.” After DeJesse conducted his business, the Soldiers walked the streets of Alingar with their ANA counterparts.
“Just about every time we go out, we try to get our faces out on the streets,” said Pfc. Corey Vanotegham. “People see we’re there, that we've a presence and have good intentions. Going out and seeing the people, trying to speak a little Pashtu with them, and seeing what they have to sell is interesting.”
After the patrol through the city, the day was not done for the Soldiers from 1st Plt. The Soldiers received word of a possible IED near the town of Tupac. The Soldiers spent almost an hour, scouring a steep ridge outside the village and combing the fields along the valley for signs of the device.
The IED was located the following day by another platoon after a tip from another villager. A Soldier walking on a bank of the valley uncovered the IED’s command wire. The wire to detonate the device was a copper wire not much thicker than a fishing line completely buried in the dirt in a valley.
“It’s really hard to find an IED, without hitting it,” Vanotegham said. Vanotegham said that he likes that there's no “average” mission. “I like just running missions in general,” he said. “The mission to Alingar is somewhat predictable, but then again, it could be unpredictable. At any moment there, or on your way back, you could come into enemy contact.”
Vanotegham said that missions will often change. On this day’s mission, in addition to the IED, the Soldiers heard gunshots in the distance, and investigated the shots with the local townspeople, as they patrolled through the village. The shots were far enough away not to be of any great concern to the Soldiers, but they're typical during ops in the field.
"Soldiers must be prepared for anything while out on a mission," he said. At any moment, the Soldiers may receive a mission to climb a 7,000-foot mountain to try and locate an enemy fighting position, or indication of enemy presence in the area. They'll walk and search for hours and often uncover very little, if anything at all.
“You might not find a goldmine, but if you find any indicator of someone being present who’s not supposed to be there, it’s worth it,” Vanotegham said. “You can’t just skip that step, because the one time you do find something, it might save somebody’s life.”
Besides being together in Afghanistan, both Huser, 22 and Vanotegham, 21, share another common bond. The 2 Soldiers are both Iowa State University “Cyclone” students. Huser is a business mgt. major, and Vanotegham is an agricultural education major. In fact, Vanotegham said the highlight of this mission for him was seeing a reminder of home, a Holstein cow at the Alingar farmer’s market. It was the first Holstein he had seen since arriving in country 4 months ago.
“I had to snap a picture, which I know everybody back home will be commenting about on Facebook,” Vanotegham laughed. “It’s just something that’s kind of neat.” Though the farms here are much smaller, and more primitive than those in Iowa, Vanotegham smiled when he thought about the comparisons. “You see a lot of kids out doing work in the fields or playing in them, just like back home,” he said. “There’s a lot of crops here I’ve never seen before, but a lot of the same principles. It’s just amazing how they make do with what little they have, compared to back home where everything’s just so plentiful.”
