Jared Monti - Medal of Honor awardee

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died in Gowardesh, Afghanistan, on June 21, 2006, when they encountered enemy forces using small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades during combat operations. Both soldiers were assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 71st Calvary, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.

Killed were:

Sgt. 1st Class Jared C. Monti, 30, of Raynham, Mass.

Staff Sgt. Patrick L. Lybert, 28, of Ladysmith, Wis.

DoD

Sergeant First Class (SFC) Jared C. Monti, a Military Occupational Specialty 13F Fire Support Specialist, was a Targeting NCO assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, New York. He distinguished himself by acts of conspicuous gallantry above and beyond the call of duty against an armed enemy in Gowardesh, Nuristan Province, Afghanistan.

On 21 June 2006, SFC Monti, then a staff sergeant, was the assistant patrol leader for a 16-man patrol tasked to conduct surveillance in the Gowardesh region. The patrol was to provide up-to-date intelligence, interdict enemy movement and ensure early warning for the squadron’s main effort as it inserted into the province. As nightfall approached, the patrol was attacked by a well organized enemy force of at least 60 personnel. Outnumbered four-to-one, SFC Monti’s patrol was in serious danger of being overrun.

The enemy fighters had established two support-by-fire positions directly above the patrol in a densely wooded ridgeline. SFC Monti immediately returned fire and ordered the patrol to seek cover and return fire. He then reached for his radio headset and calmly initiated calls for indirect fire and close air support (CAS), both danger-close to the patrol’s position. He did this while simultaneously directing the patrol’s fires.

When SFC Monti realized that a member of the patrol, Private First Class (PFC) Brian J. Bradbury, was critically wounded and exposed 10 meters from cover, without regard for his personal safety, he advanced through enemy fire to within three feet of PFC Bradbury’s position. But he was forced back by intense RPG fire. He tried again to secure PFC Bradbury, but he was forced to stay in place again as the enemy intensified its fires.

The remaining patrol members coordinated covering fires for SFC Monti, and he advanced a third time toward the wounded Soldier. But he only took a few steps this time before he was mortally wounded by an RPG. About the same time, the indirect fires and CAS he called for began raining down on the enemy’s position. The firepower broke the enemy attack, killing 22 enemy fighters. SFC Monti’s actions prevented the patrol’s position from being overrun, saved his team’s lives and inspired his men to fight on against overwhelming odds. SFC Monti epitomizes what it means to be an NCO. Because of his personal sacrifice and selfless service to the Army, the men of his patrol are alive today and continue the fight.

SFC Monti’s name will adorn our new Fort Sill Call for Fire Training Center. The “Monti Call for Fire Training Facility” will be used to train future joint fires observers. Sudents will be trained on jointly approved tactics, techniques and procedures in support of Artillery, Naval Surface Fire Support and Aviation. Upon graduation, the students will take with them the knowledge, skills and inspiration the Monti Call for Fire Training Facility provided to fight effectively and win on today’s modern battlefield.

Fires – Ft. Sill publication

Marker honoring Jared Monti at COP Monti

This guy is my son, SFC Jared C. Monti. He died 6-21-06 trying to save the lives of 3 of his fellow soldiers.Brian Bradbury would have survived if the cable lifting him up to the helicopter didn’t snap..he fell to his death. The helicopter pilot lost control due to that mishap & he crashed & died. Jared was shot twice while trying to save his comrads. Patrick was dead before he hit the ground, Jared was killed while trying to retrieve his body. The medic trying to save his life was also killed. He managed to save one soldier his name is Derek. My son did what his does best looking out for his “boys” as he called them. He gave his life to save another and it’s not the first time he risked his life saviing his platoon. He received 2 Bronze Stars for both instances, the first one on his first tour in Afghanistan. I miss him more than words can express, will grieve his loss till the day I die but I have never been so proud.

That’s who this guy was!

Janet Monti
Gold Star Mother

Honnold Forum

Someone You Should Know – Pundit Review

Medal of Honor Awards for July 23 – Castle Argghhh

A Kuchi elder shakes hands and accepts cooking oil from Ali Khashe, deputy governor of Afghanistan’s Wardak province, June 8, 2009. Sacks of beans, sugar, flour and rice brought in by U.S. soldiers were distributed by Afghan officials in an effort to ease tensions between the Kuchi and Hazara tribes. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Rob Frazier

Every summer, the Kuchi tribe migrates through the Daymardad district of this central-Afghanistan province, allowing their animals to graze in the open pastures belonging to the Hazara tribe. This frequently has sparked violent territorial disputes.

After hearing of the conflict, U.S. forces at Forward Operating Base Airborne approached Wardak Gov. Mohammad Halim Fidai about a peaceful way to resolve the fighting between the two tribes.

“The mission was inspired from the age-old conflict between the Kuchi nomads and the Hazara,” said Army Maj. Joe Asher, deputy civil affairs officer for the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team. “Three weeks ago, we went to Daymardad, and it was a very positive step for us. The Kuchi elders said they would not migrate if they were given food, water and vaccination supplies for their animals.”

Once learning of a possible solution, soldiers from 4th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment, delivered the first installment of humanitarian aid to the Daymardad people.

“We hope this demonstrates that we’re saying, ‘Hey, we’re taking the steps to alleviate your problems,’” Asher said. “Although this is funded by us, it’s important for the Kuchi and Hazara to know this is enacted by the Afghan government.”

The first delivery included sacks of beans, sugar, flour, rice and boxes of cooking oil. Asher added that a second shipment of humanitarian aid likely would be made within the next week.

“We plan to follow this up with water, tents and veterinarian supplies,” Asher said. “This way, the Kuchi won’t have to move their livestock, because they will have what they need.”

Ali Khashe, deputy governor of Wardak province, was on hand to greet the soldiers and meet with the Kuchi tribesmen prior to handing out the food. Inside the district center, Khashe fielded questions from the elders regarding water and vaccination requests for their livestock. Khashe told them he knows their issues cannot be solved all at once, but that he hopes they understand the leaders are working as hard as possible to meet their needs.

“The governor’s office is trying to solve their problems,” Khashe said. “It’s our priority to convince the two tribes to live like brothers.”

The deputy governor said the humanitarian aid is a step in the right direction, and another example of coalition efforts to help the Afghan people.

“The district center and the people here all know the U.S. comes to help,” he said. “They are very happy, because everyone knows the U.S. forces came to help rebuild Afghanistan. We are very grateful for their assistance.”

Asher said that with U.S. assistance and cooperation from the Wardak government, the humanitarian aid will signal the start of a change for the Kuchi and Hazara tribes in the Daymardad region.

“Hopefully, this will result in the first nonviolent summer between them in a long time,” he said.

DoD
By Army Sgt. Rob Frazier
Special to American Forces Press Service

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Rios, right, and Pfc. Michael Halter, Company A, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, lead a patrol down during a village assessment in the Jalrez Valley of Afghanistan’s Wardak province, March 12, 2009. This was the troops’ first stop in the village as they worked their way out from the nearby combat outpost Apache. DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III

Next to a small village in Afghanistan’s fertile Jalrez Valley, a platoon of U.S. soldiers busy themselves fortifying a fighting position, stringing concertina wire, aiming mortars, and filling lots and lots of sand bags.

“Apache,” a U.S. military combat outpost, is housed in an abandoned former district agricultural building. It is flanked by a school and medical clinic on its east. Villagers tend to an orchard that runs along its west side, and to the north a handful of farmers care for cattle and crops.

It seems an unlikely spot for coalition forces to go toe-to-toe with the Taliban and other enemy fighters who use this valley for staging attacks in nearby areas, such as the capital city of Kabul. But the outpost is the front line in a fight against an enemy that hides among the local population in the villages and in the mountains.

Pushing troops out of larger forward operating bases and into community-based combat outposts was successful in Iraq for holding areas cleared of enemy forces. It is this same strategy that military officials in Afghanistan’s Wardak province hope will quash enemy activity in one of the country’s most dangerous valleys.

“Our presence alone is the security,” said Army Capt. Matthew Thom, commander of Company A, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment. “I believe that since we’re here … our permanent presence is going to prevent that kinetic activity.”

Adding Firepower
The 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team has more than tripled the firepower here since taking over operations in Wardak and Logar provinces last month. It has doubled the number of combat outposts to six in Wardak.

Before, only a company patrolled an area where two battalion-sized task forces now operate. Everything about the troop’s presence here projects power, and that is exactly the message military officials want to send to the enemy fighters expected to return to the area as the weather warms.

“I am fully confident that they would be foolish to attack us,” Thom said. “Nobody wants that, but I feel that we are postured according to the threat level very well. I believe that our posture alone is going to prevent that from happening.”

Thom’s troops landed, literally, in the valley about a month ago, in an air assault mission that many of the soldiers described as the most difficult of their careers. In the bitter-cold, early morning hours, the infantry troops launched with full combat packs from hovering helicopters into waist-deep snow and began a five-mile trek to what is now their outpost.

Home, Sweet Home
The mud building that would become their home was abandoned and cold. There was no electricity or water. Like most outposts here, conditions are, to say the least, austere, especially at the start. The troops themselves build up the outposts, securing them first, and then adding comforts such as heat.

There is no running water and no cold storage, which means no cooked meals and no showers. Troops suffice with heated, packaged Army meals and keep clean with “lots and lots of baby wipes.”

But, for the most part, the infantry soldiers are happy. It’s not a bad life as far as infantry goes, they said. There is a roof over their heads, and they are not sleeping on the ground. Mail is delivered fairly regularly, and soldiers rely on comfort items sent from home. Conditions are better now that during the unit’s first deployment to Afghanistan a few years ago, the unit’s veterans said. One platoon sergeant went four months without a shower then, he said.

“Life is good,” Thom said. “This is definitely not Bagram [Airfield], but I really don’t want it to be that. We have what we need to do our jobs, and too much more becomes a distraction. We stay really busy.”

Geography and Security
Security is provided from three outposts along the Jalrez Valley, which stretches west about 15 miles from the provincial capital of Maydan Shahr. About 70 small villages are scattered through the valley, with multiple tribes in each.

Thom divides the responsibility for the villages between platoons, and military leaders spend their days patrolling, meeting with tribal leaders and assessing villages’ needs.

The U.S. troops bring with them much-needed funds for construction and renovations. But still, some in the area are wary that the troop’s presence will draw more fighting to the valley, and that their families and livelihoods could be caught in the crossfire.

“When we come here, we kind of bring a sense of war with [us],” Thom acknowledged. “There is some skepticism, but I believe the better part of the population is happy we’re here.”

The commander’s fight in the valley demonstrates the evolution of the traditional infantry role. Once focused primarily on operations surrounding killing or capturing the enemy, now Thom and his troops find themselves at the tip of the spear in what he called a true counterinsurgency fight. The soldiers spend less of their time looking for the enemy and more time befriending the local people in an effort to drive a wedge between those who support an insurgency and those who don’t.

“Now we have to be dual-hatted. We have to have that ability to conduct kinetic operations and counterinsurgency operations, and that’s what we do,” Thom said. “We knew coming into this country there was a kinetic threat, but we were going to beat the kinetic threat with the counterinsurgency fight.”

Army Spc. Daniel Camino, left, and Staff Sgt. Cody Collins, Company A, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, stop a local boy riding his donkey near a meeting with local leaders in Afghanistan's Jalrez Valley, Wardak province, March 12, 2009. The patrol secures the area for the meeting and is watchful of attacks in one of the most dangerous valleys in the province.

Meet and Greet
Patrols are focused around assessing villages and meeting local leaders. Military officers mentor district government leaders and help them strengthen their local support. And millions of dollars in Commanders’ Emergency Response Program funds are funneled into local projects such as repairing wells, refurbishing schools and building roads.

And for their efforts, the troops hope the local people will point out anyone in their villages who would threaten the security in the area.

But Army 1st Lt. Mark Hogan, a Company A platoon leader, said the soldiers don’t dangle dollars for projects over the heads of the tribal leaders in exchange for intelligence.

“I can help them, and if they become our friends, they want to give us information. It helps us help them,” Hogan said. “The concern is their security. My guys are going to be able to secure themselves. Them giving us information is for their own safety.”

Precision Is Key
Hogan said that if local residents deliver up the names and locations of enemy fighters operating in the area, U.S. and Afghan forces can be more strategic about removing them from the local population. One military officer referred to the precise operations as “surgical.”

Hogan said this allows his forces to strike first, using less firepower and with safety measures in place to protect civilians.

The platoon leader acknowledges that is the delicate balance he must strike operating within a civilian population. One wrong move, or misplaced mortar, and Hogan jeopardizes alienating the population he is trying win over and knocking the legs out from under coalition counterinsurgency efforts.

The U.S. forces operating before in this valley offered a blunt assessment of the threat for Hogan and his forces.

“You don’t come into the valley without fighting your way out,” he said.

But the troops have been there a month now, and so far there have been no attacks. Hogan and the soldiers in his command are hopeful that the increased troop strength may have staved off some attacks. And they are pushing hard to establish roots in the communities so that when the enemy fighters return, they find themselves without the support they enjoyed in previous years.

Still, only time will tell — as the days warm and snow melts on the surrounding hills, and enemy fighters begin to move through the passes — whether Hogan can place stock in the fruits of this different fight.

The young infantry officer, who seven years ago would have been spending his days here engaged much differently, is now not itching for that kind of a fight.

“If we can come here and improve this valley and walk away without firing a shot, the closer the war is to being over,” Hogan said.

DoD
Story and photos by Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

Flexing for the first time the massive military muscle now deployed to this area, coalition forces cleared one of its most troubled insurgent hotspots, sending a forceful message to insurgent fighters here that the coalition will go wherever, whenever it wants.

The three-day operation wrapped up yesterday and took hundreds of troops deep into the Tangi, a valley of narrow roads and steep cliffs that runs along the Logar River through the southeastern part of Wardak province opening into Logar province.

The area has seen few coalition forces for the past eight months after a small U.S. military team was brutally attacked and four were killed there last summer.

Shortly after the first few soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team arrived here in February, they sent a little larger than a platoon-sized team into the valley. The troops were blasted by roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and rifle fire. Remarkably, no one on the patrol was killed.

But, only days afterward, two local boys who had talked with coalition leadership during the mission were dragged from their homes and killed. It was a strong-arm attempt to strike fear into the local population, officials said, because the insurgents knew that with the growing U.S presence here, the coalition forces would be back.

Army Lt. Col. Kimo Gallahue is the battalion commander for the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, and runs coalition efforts in Wardak province. He is a tall, sturdy Army Ranger, a combat veteran and well-versed on the threat here. Truth be told, though, Gallahue really doesn’t care what brand of insurgency he is fighting. He just wants them gone.

He had talked to the boys on that first trip.

“That type of action is criminal. It’s murderous. It’s meant for intimidation of the population. So you can see why, when given the alternative of security and better governance, the people want it,” Gallahue said. “This enemy … they can’t win if that’s their alternative, if that’s the future they offer.”

Tangi Valley
The Tangi Valley is a fertile breadbasket in this region. Snow and rain run off the mountains into a valley of apple and pomegranate orchards. Just off of Highway 1, south of Kabul, the valley boasts one of the few paved roads in the region. But, the narrow road and high ridges make it ideal for an insurgent defense. Once entering the valley, there is nowhere to go except deeper in along its winding road flanked by small villages jutting from the hillsides. Vehicles traveling the road are easy targets, and roadside bombs known as improvised explosive devices are routinely buried along the 15-kilometer route military officials dubbed “IED Alley.”

This mission was launched by the 10th Mountain Division’s Task Force Spartan, which took control of the Wardak and Logar provinces last month. The task force’s deployment tripled the firepower here, where coalition force officials initially did not predict a serious threat developing. But as more intense fighting began in the eastern part of the country, many insurgents took advantage of the two provinces’ small coalition presence and remote districts.

Pincer Movement
Soldiers from two battalions led the efforts. The 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, which runs coalition operations in the Logar province, moved northwest along the valley road, clearing mostly villages. Gallahue had his battalion’s troops move southeast, clearing the majority of the rural route. The two met near the provincial borders where the 3-71st troops established a permanent coalition force presence in the valley at a combat outpost.

At the start of the operation, U.S. Special Forces troops, along with Afghan military commandos, descended on the valley in an air assault, looking for some key suspects and weapons caches. Throughout, U.S. F-15 aircraft and Apache attack helicopters flew overhead, providing air support.

Afghan Army and French Mentors
Two companies of Afghan national army soldiers, partnered with their French mentoring company, moved side by side with U.S. forces. Afghan national police led the searches of suspects’ homes.

For three days, soldiers cleared the route, walking the road and through the villages and fields. It was slow, tedious work as, step by step, anything found suspicious was reported up the chain, and nobody moved further until any threat was cleared.

“It’s nerve-wracking. You have a lot of things going on at one time,” said Army Staff Sgt. Erik Bonnett, who was in the lead of the dismounted clearing operations for the 2-87th. “The worst part about it was the physical part. Being up this high in altitude with all the gear we wear, it starts to get to you.” The valley sits at just under 8,000 feet above sea level.

He said his troops were looking for “snail trails” or markings on the ground where wires were run. They also looked for fresh tracks or areas where no grass was growing because of digging. They were always on alert for their biggest threat — small-arms fire or rocket-propelled grenades launched from the nearby rooftops or ridgelines.

Troops with bomb-sniffing dogs also walked the road, clearing culverts, rock piles and any cars and trucks passing by. Military vehicles capable of detecting buried electronic devices also helped to clear the route.

It is Bonnett’s fourth deployment to Afghanistan and, even though the days were long and the pace was slow, he realized the gravity of an error on his team’s part.

“If I don’t do my job, the end result is lives are lost,” Bonnett said.

Route Clearing Results
And insurgent fighters did not disappoint. Three bombs were found along the route. It took soldiers nearly a half day to dig out a large propane tank, believed to be filled with explosive, from underneath the road. Once the tank was uncovered, a second wire was found leading from it to where officials believe a second bomb was buried deeper. Rather than take any more time to unearth the second device, officials chose to explode it place and repair the road.

Army 1st Lt. Alvin Cavalier was in the lead in the route-clearing efforts. His truck was hit twice on the February trip through the valley. Cavalier said finding the bombs this time paved the way for future operations there.

“Getting hit the first couple times coming in here, you don’t want that for your guys. Getting in there and digging those IEDs out of the road gave the guys a huge boost of confidence, and we’ll be ready to come back in here next time,” Cavalier said. “This is our battle space. We’re here to clean this place up.”

There were not, however, any direct attacks on the forces this time, which military officials said was a promising sign. Officials attributed it mostly to the fact that they simply had any enemy fighters outgunned.

“We took away the lines that he could attack from,” Gallahue said. “He had to make a decision. Fight and die, or not fight at all.”

Improvements Since February
Forces stopped in each village to talk to the local people. Gallahue and others said that on this trip the villagers were more receptive to coalition forces. Some waved at the convoys, and others milled about in their villages. In February, some soldiers said, nobody was out. They mostly hid in their homes.

Gallahue was optimistic at the start of the trip when he spotted an old man walking down the road.

“That’s a good sign,” he said. If people are out, then the likelihood of an attack is less, he explained. Most know when the enemy fighters plan to strike.

Gallahue is itching to put a combat outpost on his side of the valley, but he has just put in two outposts in the Jalrez Valley, another problem spot in Wardak. There were three such outposts in Wardak when he arrived, and he has already doubled that number.

The commander said that, for the most part, the people in the Tangi are tired of the fighting. They are eager for the security that coalition forces bring.

“There is a certain amount of war-weariness in the population, and they’re ready for security,” he said. “We’re going to go in there and turn that valley around.”

Gallahue called the fight here a “true counterinsurgency,” and said it could not have been accomplished with the few troops that were here before. His province was manned by only a company-sized element before Task Force Spartan took over.
Effective counterinsurgencies are people-intensive, he said.

Two battalion-sized task forces are here. Task Force Catamount is made up of soldiers from the 2-87th Infantry, and Task Force Wolfpack is made up of troops from 4th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery. Both focus on operations within Wardak province. Catamount focuses on security and economic development, and Wolfpack focuses on strengthening governance in the province.

This weekend’s show of force is likely the first of many for this area as Gallahue and his troops ready for the spring thaw and the anticipated increase in insurgent fighting. So far, they have been busy setting up outposts and meeting with local leaders, hoping to have established roots in the communities by the time the insurgent fighters return.

In the meantime, Gallaghue said, his troops have shown they can travel anywhere within the province to go about the business of separating the people who want peace from those who want to fight.

“This is Wardak province, and I’m responsible for security. … Tangi Valley is part of that, and if we need to go in there we can,” Gallahue said. “We’ll take the physical terrain from the enemy, … and we’ll take the people away, because the people are the prize in this fight.”

DVIDS
Story by Fred Baker

Click photo for screen-resolution image Forward Operating Base Airborne in Afghanistan’s Wardak province is nestled among snow-covered mountains sitting at about 8,000 feet above sea level March 6, 2009. The mountain peaks reach above 14,000 feet. As scenic as the mountains are, they are also dangerous, as they are littered with land mines, many left over from the 1980s Soviet occupation. DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III

It’s hard to find a good, old-fashioned combat fight in Afghanistan right now — even here, surrounded by the battle-hardened, well-armed infantry and artillery troops of the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team.

That’s partly because it is still winter and most insurgent fighters are holed up waiting for warmer weather, but also because the fight has changed across this rural landscape.

Here in Wardak province, just south of Kabul, the fight is not so much ideological as it is economic, senior military officials say. And while coalition forces are prepared to wage a toe-to-toe fight against enemy fighters, they are more inclined to focus on nontraditional means of separating those who want to fight, from those who want to live peacefully.

“I can, in an instant, become someone’s worst enemy,” Army Col. David Haight, the 3rd BCT commander, said. “But that’s not really the main reason that I’m here. I’m here to try to help the people.”

But fighting has not been far from people’s minds here. Until last month when the 3rd BCT took control of Wardak and Logar provinces, the area was manned by only a company-sized element of coalition forces. Because this area is not near the Pakistan border, coalition forces leaders initially did not predict a serious threat developing here. But as more intense fighting began in the eastern part of the country, many insurgents took advantage of the small coalition presence and the remote districts.

Kabul is visible from here, and the increased enemy activity made its residents uneasy, feeling that the soft underbelly of the capital city was unprotected. The two main highways that run from Kabul south to Kandahar and Gardez were seeing more bombings and attacks.

That was until the 3rd BCT took over. The team runs the overarching Task Force Spartan, made up of more than 2,700 10th Mountain Division soldiers. More than 30 percent are veterans of the division’s last deployment to Afghanistan in 2007.

The base is outside of Maydan Shahr, the provincial capital. There are more than 410,000 people in Wardak province and about 292,000 in neighboring Logar province. The two provinces together make up 3,700 square miles, roughly the size of Connecticut.

The 10th Mountain troops have tripled the area’s combat firepower, but the attacks they are waging now are aimed at building infrastructure, helping legitimize the provincial government and pumping much-needed money into the barren economy.

“It’s an economic war. The enemy here … he’s just looking for a job,” Haight said. “He’s going to make a hundred dollars from the Taliban to carry an [rocket-propelled grenade launcher] or maybe we can pay him $150 to work on a road — put a shovel in his hand instead of an RPG.”

Haight acknowledged the long-running debate over which comes first, security or development. His battle plan, he said, is to work both at the same time.

His troops already have made good use of this time of light insurgency. Haight has pushed troops out of the base and into remote combat outposts near the villages, especially in the Jalrez and Tangi valleys, both of which are historical hotspots for insurgents.

The soldiers are patrolling the villages daily, talking to locals and building relationships with tribal leaders.

Haight predicts that by the time enemy fighters return to this area in the spring, his forces will have established roots in the communities, forcing insurgents to make a choice.

“He either has to choose to fight us — and if he does then we can either kill or capture him and that’s good — or he chooses to leave, and that’s good also, because it separates him from the people and then the people can get on with running their lives,” Haight said.

The coalition forces work hand-in-hand with Afghan national security forces. An Afghan army battalion is collocated on the base. The army is well-trained and capable of conducting independent operations with the exception of needing logistics and other support elements supplied by coalition forces, officials here said.

Haight readily acknowledges the challenges that lie before him and his men — an enemy that hides within the communities, a lack of basic infrastructure, treacherous mountain terrain, harsh weather and a local population that has had no experience with, or interest in, a local government.

It is misleading to reference “reconstruction” here. Mostly it is construction, with little or nothing to start with. This poses challenges as Haight’s troops work through providing basic, sustainable services such as power and water in an area where they have never existed.

“Quite honestly, putting a man on the moon is easier than getting water running in Afghanistan,” Haight said.

Two soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team walk their vehicle through the muddy paths of Forward Operating Base Airborne in Afghanistan’s Wardak province, March 6, 2009. The soldiers, part of Task Force Spartan, took control of the base last month. DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III

His biggest challenge, however, is strengthening the local government and fostering locals’ trust in that government. In some places, insurgents offer a pseudo-government in the absence of a strong local government in the region. But, they also seek to expand their control through criminal activity, intimidation and fighting.

“We’re not getting outfought here in Afghanistan by the enemy. We’re getting out-governed,” Haight said.

Many in this diverse area are skeptical, having not yet decided to support the local government or coalition forces. They do not want to revert to Taliban rule, but they are not yet sure that coalition forces are here to stay.

But, as Haight moves troops into the remote regions, he said the dynamic changes quickly and already many locals are turning in those who support the insurgents.

“These people who are fence-sitters are being pushed over with a feather,” Haight said. “It isn’t as hard as I anticipated it might be.”

Haight plans to focus on building roads that will open up the area for commerce, health care and education. Roads here now are limited to trails and dry creek beds.

“I honestly believe that is the key to getting them out of the economic woes that they’re experiencing,” Haight said.

The commander said he plans other projects as well, such as schools and medical clinics. Haight estimates he will spend nearly $100 million in commander’s emergency response program funds before he leaves.

Before his deployment here ends, Haight said there are a handful of roads in both the Wardak and Logar provinces he would like to have graveled or paved. Also, Haight said he hopes to have the Afghan security forces in the area capable of supporting themselves logistically. And he would like to see more of the corruption culled from the Afghan National Police.

Finally, Haight said, he wants people here to be able to trust and understand the local and provincial government. He does not predict a “Jeffersonian democracy” any time soon, but if people come to believe in the government, they will have eliminated most of the insurgency.

“If they achieve that, that’s going to be a high enough quality of life that the enemy’s alternative isn’t acceptable to them. It’s too oppressive,” Haight said.

DoD
By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service