CHAPTER 17
Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan
Tuesday 11 Jul 06 0815 hrs AFT
FOB 73 had been able to provide both transport and a close protection detail in the form of three GMVs and the same half of ODA 951 led by Master Sergeant Mark Paulsen who had met them the day before at the airfield.
This morning Kurt again had the lead as the first meeting would be with a Brit officer serving at the Canadian TF AEGIS headquarters. Accordingly, this time Kurt had the right hand rear seat behind Paulsen while Phil covered the left side of the GMV.
They effectively retraced their route to KAF but with variations to give some degree of unpredictability to anyone who was spotting and reporting their movements. In the first few kilometers of their trip Kurt had spotted two individuals on roofs who pulled out cell phones and made calls immediately that the little convoy came within sight.
“I don’t know why we don’t classify that as a hostile act for the rules of engagement,” said Paulsen as he too spotted the second one. “If we could blow those fuckers away there’d be a lot fewer IED strikes on our people.” Paulsen was talking to Kurt over his right shoulder so that he could keep his focus outside of the vehicle while he talked.
“Fuckin’ lawyers,” said Kurt. He knew quite well why you couldn’t just blow everyone with a cell phone away but sometimes it was just best to agree.
“I heard you were Canadian special forces,” said Paulsen. “I ran into some of your folks when we were in Bosnia. I seem to recognize you. Were you there?”
“No,” replied Kurt. “I did spend a lot of time in the States. I did a year with 10th Special Forces in Colorado and almost two years with 10th Mountain at Fort Drum.”
“When were you in Colorado?”
“That would have been July ‘97 to Jul ‘98 with Drum immediately after.”
“That would probably be it. I was with 3rd Battalion at that time,” replied Paulson.
“Your ODA is 951 so you’re with the 2nd Battalion, 19th Group now?” asked Kurt.
“Yup. B Company. Most of our guys are in Iraq right now but we’ve got a few as augmentees here.”
“I met a few guys from the 19th last year,” said Kurt. “They were from Colorado; the 5th Battalion.”
“That would be right. The 5th covers Colorado and California. The 2nd Battalion is from West Virginia with a company in Rhode Island and ours in Columbus, Ohio. This ODA is a mashed together one with half from Rhode Island and half from Columbus.”
“Columbus?”
“Yeah,” said Paulsen then held up his finger as he called ahead on the radio for the lead vehicle to take the next left hand turn, away from the canal. “Our company works out of the National Guard airbase at Rickenbacker. Do you know Columbus?”
“I’ve only been down there once. My wife and I went camping along the north shore of Lake Erie and then we swung south through Ohio and New York State. We camped at a little place just north of Columbus. I think it was called Alum Lake State Park or something.”
“Shit. No kidding?” surprise showed on Paulson’s face. “It’s called Alum Creek Lake. I live in a little subdivision about a mile or so just south of the state park.”
“What do you do down there when you’re not doing this?”
“Ha! Basically I’m a kept man. My wife’s a pediatrician in Worthington and I’m a mechanic. Like Billy Joel you know. I married me an Uptown Girl. Seriously though, the last few years I’ve been pretty much on the go full time between here and Iraq. The mechanic stuff has gotten to be pretty much a part-time job.”
“Doing HVTs?” asked Kurt referring to hunting high value targets.
“Nothing so glamorous,” replied Paulsen. “Mostly it’s Foreign Internal Defence work. We organize and train the local military and police forces. That’s why we’re here but it’s a pretty screwed up situation right now. The way we started we were the only folks doing it and it was the way to go. That’s basically the core mission for SF; we organize, train and lead the locals until they can do stuff on their own but in my view things have gotten off track here.”
Paulsen paused and concentrated on the road as they went through a particularly densely populated section of storefronts. Kurt also paid more attention to the locals who superficially seemed friendly and waved to them. A few, however, gave cold hard stares. He casually waved back to the friendly ones with his right hand while keeping his left firmly on the pistol grip of his M4. While it was awkward, it was the only way he could control the carbine and keep it pointed out of the right hand side of the vehicle.
As they came out of the bazaar, Kurt took off his ballistic eyewear and knocked off the accumulated dust with a handkerchief.
“Where was I?” said Paulsen. “Oh yeah. The problem now is that they’ve got all the ETTs from PHOENIX doing that stuff. Trouble is that most of those guys are straight infantry or artillery or just about everything but people who are trained and organized to develop and mentor indigenous forces like we are. They’re short staffed and learning as they go and that isn’t good for the Afghans.
“On top of that, down here, they’ve taken us off the training job. Most of us are doing special reconnaissance or direct action now. Hell, when we go out with an ANA company, it now comes with its own ETT.”
They again paused for a few minutes as they traversed a more populated center.
“On top of that,” continued Paulsen once they were clear, “with ISAF taking over down here, your guys will be replacing our ETTs with your OMLTs. Then we’ll have even more players in the training and operations game. I’m glad our tour’s almost up. I’m ready for a rest. I’m not so sure I want to come back again even if the money’s okay and it’s all pensionable time. The way things are going though I’d bet that I’ll be back here a few more times before all this is over.”
— § —
The trip had been quick and uneventful. Kurt sent Paulsen’s team off to hang around the dining facility while he, Phil, O’Donnell and Shirazi stepped up to the rifle clearing barrels and performed their unload drills before proceeding into the task force’s headquarters complex.
Their aim today was to meet with some of the British staff attached to the headquarters in order to get briefed on TF HELMAND and to arrange a site visit there; in particular with its Pathfinder Platoon.
TF AEGIS was effectively a multinational brigade headquarters which had been originally stood up for operations under the American Op ENDURING FREEDOM. In this respect it was subordinate to the Americans’ divisional level headquarters TF 76.
During the last four months as Canadian, British, Dutch, Australian, Danish and other forces came flooding into the South to replace the outgoing American TF BAYONET they came under command of TF AEGIS. The Canadians had command of TF AEGIS and would continue to hold command of the brigade after the end of the month when the southern region would transition to ISAF. ISAF’s headquarters had been led by the British since May when they replaced the Italian headquarters there. Command of ISAF was rotated amongst various NATO nations at roughly nine months intervals. Similarly command of the southern multinational brigade would be rotated amongst the Canadians, British and Dutch. The Dutch were scheduled to take command in November.
Currently the British supplied a colonel as the TF’s Chief of Staff. A Brit Lieutenant Colonel was the TF’s J-37, a subdivision of the J-3 operations staff responsible for the interaction between the TF and all coalition personnel in the region responsible for training and mentoring the Afghan military and police. Neither was available to meet with the team, instead a J-3 major eventually made his way to the security control point and ushered them into a Spartan conference room. After introducing himself as Jason Miller, 7th Scots, the major bustled out of the room to hunt up coffee.
Kurt was underwhelmed by the discourtesy. The fact that the Brits were pawning two colonels off on a major sent a strong signal as to what priority the visit had for them. Much of this attitude had its genesis in the formation which the UK had deployed. 16th Air Assault and the Paras in particular had an elite unit mentality that impacted on how they played with units that they considered of less capability.
“I’m not positive,” said Kurt, “but I’m pretty sure that the 7th Scots is a Territorial Reserve battalion. They’ve handed us about as far down the chain as they can.”
Phil raised his eyebrows.
“It’s complicated,” said Kurt. “For starters, the Dutch weren’t prepared to serve under American ENDURING FREEDOM command. The Brits weren’t politically prepared to be seen leading down here so soon after having followed Bush into Iraq. No other European country was prepared to step up down here so Canada did.
“Canada, like the US, has its brigades led by colonels while the Brits use brigadiers. Fraser commanded our 1st Brigade as a colonel; that’s three infantry battalions, an artillery regiment, an armored regiment, an engineer regiment and a service battalion. Just prior to being given this command he was promoted to brigadier and is both our national contingent commander and the multinational brigade commander. Our contingent here is about half the size of the brigade he commanded back home. What he has here is effectively an infantry battalion, an artillery battery, a provincial reconstruction team and a whole lot of odds and sods.
“The Brits sent about as big a contingent as we did. Their tactical task force headquarters comes from 16 Air Assault Brigade which is, as I said, normally is run by a brigadier but because their ministry thought it wasn’t right to have a British brigadier subordinate to a Canadian one, they put a colonel in charge of TF HELMAND and sent the brigadier to run their contingent headquarters COMBRITFOR out of Kabul.
“Theoretically the Brit forces in Helmand report to their colonel who tactically should be responsive to TF AEGIS and on national policy issues to their brigadier in Kabul. The fact is that the Brits are playing a huge political game back home and as a result the brigadier in Kabul calls most of the shots.
“As an aside the guy that runs 3 Para in the UK reported directly to the brigadier so he tends to deal more with him in Kabul than with his own colonel in Helmand. As a consequence, 3 Para doesn’t listen too much to either the Canadians or your General Freakley who’s running the whole shebang down here until the end of the month.”
“The word at SOCOM is that Freakley is highly pissed at the Brits,” said Phil. “Apparently they’re timid with their aviation and are locked down in little bases scattered around Helmand rather than taking the fight to the Taliban.”
“To an extent there is a legitimate difference in approach as to how to do reconstruction and how to secure the conditions in which reconstruction can take place,” said Kurt. “On the other hand from everything I’ve heard, the Brits seem to be highly risk averse in a lot of ways. Not at the company or platoon level. There’s lots of spirit there, but above that they look over their shoulders at their superior headquarters back home which also tends to meddle outrageously. Sometimes I think that they still remember the thousand Brit and Indian dead at Maywand when the Afghans handed them their ass big time in 1880.”
Phil looked up to the door as Major Miller returned with a tray of coffee.
Kurt turned. “Sit down Jason. Let’s talk about how you’re going to get us up to BASTION.”