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  • The Last Patrol

    A look at a platoon’s fight in Afganistan, by a former infantryman.
    Powerful - like "I got something stuck in my eye" powerful.

    The Last Patrol - Magazine - The Atlantic

  • #2
    redleg99 Reply

    Superb article and a "must read" in every respect. Brian Mockenhaupt has made a contribution every bit as impressive as Sebastian Junger's INTO THE VALLEY OF DEATH for Vanity Fair in the fall of 2007.

    Interesting the recrimination that fell on an artillery unit. Kasmir (a poster here) has a son belonging to a STRYKER infantry battalion that experienced its own personal hell in the Arghandab before being relieved by the 82nd Airborne.

    It's not an artillery thing to experience problems, as the article points out, but instead an Arghandab thing. Conditioning probably needs looking at but, like Vietnam, southern Afghanistan in the summer is just damned hard for anybody to be adequately prepared-because of both the weather and being the height of the fighting season.

    You step into a very physically hot and combat lethal frying pan as a new unit and there are going to be problems.

    I want out of there and have since the fall of 2007. There's nothing there among those people that we can positively impact in any meaningful way and far too many good men and women's lives fcuked up to little purpose.

    Safe in Bragg or not, it's hard not to believe the men of that platoon won't need very close psychiatric scrutiny after that pressure-cooker. The trickle-down effect on their families and them is a damned shame. Let's pray that I'm off the mark and they're able to handle the adjustment.
    "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
    "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

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    • #3
      Arghandab was indeed a hellhole. C-CO 1-17th lost 11 KIA there in 4 months. Immediately after they were relieved my son wrote the following:

      ...not too sure how i feel about it, honestly. on one hand, i'm extremely
      relieved since where we've been for the past month is home to some of
      the scariest shit i've ever encountered in my life. after we left,
      there were reports of a UAV seeing a company-sized element of armed,
      presumed hostiles moving around within a click of our patrol base.
      intel we gathered from locals put an estimated 50 small anti-personnel
      mines buried in the ground, in walls, in puddles literally everywhere.
      our "neighbor" said there were 7 anti-vehicle IEDS along our one
      supply route the same size as the one that second platoon hit. we were
      doing route clearance with EOD and blew a daisy chain of four IED's,
      spaced out way too accurately intending to destroy an entire platoon
      worth of strykers. so yeah, i'm relieved to put that behind me, i'd be
      crazy not to be.

      but there's this other feeling of not having done enough. to me
      there's no doubt that in the battallion, and probably the entire
      brigade, C-Co 3rd platoon has seen the most shit and done the most
      work (every single time something has happened in the company we've
      been there) out of anyone. but the fact is that the taliban killed
      people i knew personally, guys i sat around and bullshitted with at
      ft. lewis, guys i went out and drank with on the weekends. it bothers
      me that i have this feeling inside me, but i'm disappointed i'll never
      be able to kill the people who ****ed my friends up. i'd give a lot to
      have the opportunity to personally wax the guys who made and planted
      all those IEDs.
      After they were relieved by 2-508th, C-Co 1-17th moved upriver to Sha Wali Kot for the remainder of their deployment where they saw more action but nothing so intense -- I believe they only lost one more soldier KIA in the remaining 8 months of their deployment. I'm happy to report my son's back in Ft Lewis now.

      On a coldly abstract note, it's interesting that the airborne appear to have seen a lot more firefights than the Strykers did. Looks like the direct fire support from the trucks may have had a useful suppressive effect -- a pair of .50's and a pair of Mk 19's is a lot of firepower for a platoon to have on hand. The mobility no doubt helped and helped reduced the heat stress, although the Strykers were largely road bound and the guys were out patrolling on foot mostly. But it's the Kiowas everyone loved. In Arghandab, they were providing 90% of the air support.
      Last edited by Kasmir; 28 Oct 10,, 22:47.

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      • #4
        Interesting the recrimination that fell on an artillery unit.
        In all of the RIP/TOAs that I have been involved in, there was always some tension between the incoming and outgoing units - It takes quite a bit of effort on both sides to keep it in check. I imagine that what was normally a tense situation in the best of circumstances became out of control in the stress that was/is the Arghandab valley.

        Looks like the direct fire support from the trucks may have had a useful suppressive effect -- a pair of .50's and a pair of Mk 19's is a lot of firepower for a platoon to have on hand. The mobility no doubt helped and helped reduced the heat stress, although the Strykers were largely road bound and the guys were out patrolling on foot mostly.
        Agreed – although I’m probably biased on that point. (On my first tour in Iraq, I was a Fire Support Officer for a Stryker Infantry battalion.)

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        • #5
          Amazing Article. I cant say anything more than what S-2 has said on this. Other than I feel there are possibly 100's of "Arghandab" experiences going unreported over the last several years. The effect on a generation of young soldiers, sailors, arimen and marines is nowhere close to being understood at this moment in time. All the organisations which provide support to our veterans really need to be prepared to step up to the plate in the next 10 years or so.

          Regards

          Arty
          "Admit nothing, deny everything, make counter-accusations".- Motto of the Gun Crew who have just done something incredibly stupid!!!!

          Comment


          • #6
            Arty Engineer Reply

            "The effect on a generation of young soldiers, sailors, arimen and marines is nowhere close to being understood at this moment in time. All the organisations which provide support to our veterans really need to be prepared to step up to the plate in the next 10 years or so."

            Yup. Worrisome. War's a terrible thing generally. This kind of war is especially terrible. The physical toll is a nightmare. The mental and emotional toll on these young men and women at least as bad if not worse. Chogy's daughter is out there in the same A.O as Kasmir's son had been.

            Those youngsters all need our prayers now and our help later. Our government had best do right by them and I've concerns that they aren't. Not there and not stateside.
            "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
            "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

            Comment


            • #7
              What a powerful story, it left me numb and shaken
              sigpic"If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
              If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children."

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              • #8
                My daughter arrived there fired up and ready to go to work. Months later, she is now absolutely disgusted by the locals; corrupt, two-faced, greedy, dishonest. Millions of dollars are going into a black hole, with very, very little that is positive in the way of results. They have been shot at, spat upon, and insulted, while attempting do deliver aid, help build medical clinics, improve sanitation. A truly sullen and totally unappreciative people. She has been called a slut, a whore, the daughter of a whore, to her face, while she delivers material goods to them.

                The very definition of "Lost Cause."

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                • #9
                  chogy,

                  Months later, she is now absolutely disgusted by the locals; corrupt, two-faced, greedy, dishonest. Millions of dollars are going into a black hole, with very, very little that is positive in the way of results. They have been shot at, spat upon, and insulted, while attempting do deliver aid, help build medical clinics, improve sanitation.
                  it's pretty much of a hobbesian society over there, where the best people have already left, honest people tend to be cheated, and weak people brutalized. in those conditions, being corrupt, two-faced, greedy, and dishonest is an -optimal- personal survival strategy, although it absolutely destroys the societal fabric.

                  it's actually these conditions which call for an authoritarian government and a harsh but fair hand. giving out goodies and fostering democracy in this situation is not only counterproductive, but produces a warped form of society where the most corrupt wield not just the power of the gun but the power of the ballot.
                  There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Astralis Reply

                    "it's actually these conditions which call for an authoritarian government and a harsh but fair hand."

                    Authoritarian you shall have. Harsh too. Fair? Never. Not part of the lexicon.

                    Societal fabric is already destroyed. We made it worse by annointing a government in December 2001 through the Bonn Accords thoroughly incapable of performing its duties. It should never have happened. Afghanistan should have been a ward of the new global order for at least a half-century. Instead we elevated a traditional rival at the expense of another setting off the usual dog-chases-tail of internecine Hatfields n' McCoys feuding.

                    Shame on us. It now needs to be periodically bombed or attacked with SOF remorselessly whenever something rears it's ugly head worthy of our attention and otherwise allowed to return to its less-than-pristine primordial state.

                    Sorry for the soapbox thread diversion...
                    Last edited by S2; 02 Nov 10,, 18:41.
                    "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
                    "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

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