America's North Shore Journal

Spc. Charles Hen­der­son, Bravo Com­pany, 4^th Bttln, 23^rd Inf Reg, shakes hands with a child while search­ing a vil­lage in Kan­da­har province, Afghanistan. Photo by Pfc. Casey Collier

The Afghan National Army com­pound in the Arghandab dis­trict of Kan­da­har province used to be a school for the chil­dren of sur­round­ing vil­lages. Even though the desks and books have been stuffed into stor­age to make room for the ANA sol­diers who now reside there, in some ways the build­ing still clings to the orig­i­nal intent of its design – lessons are still being taught and lessons are still being learned.

An ANA Heavy Weapons Secu­rity Squad was assigned to the com­pound a lit­tle more than a year ago when insur­gent activ­ity in the area became a con­cern to vil­lagers who were wor­ried about their well being.

Since then, the small squad has been the tar­get of IED attacks and small arms fire so reg­u­larly that they speak about their com­bat expe­ri­ence as though they were talk­ing about the weather.

But the expe­ri­ences seem to have ignited a storm in the squad's com­man­der, Lt. Ahmadzay.

"Enough," he said of the insur­gents who have con­tin­u­ally tried to harass his sol­diers and the vil­lagers around the com­pound. "War is dam­ag­ing our coun­try. If you are truly Afghan make peace for our peo­ple. This school was not meant to be a mil­i­tary check­point – it was built to be a school for the new gen­er­a­tion of Afghanistan. If you truly love our coun­try, bring peace to Afghanistan."

It was these sen­ti­ments that greeted ISAF forces — U.S. Sol­diers of Bravo Com­pany, 4^th Bat­tal­ion, 23^rd Infantry Reg­i­ment — who teamed up with the ANA on Nov. 18 to assist with dis­rupt­ing enemy activity.

The numer­ous orchards, high mud walls and nar­row streets of the vil­lages that skirt the com­pound have been con­sis­tently fruit­ful ground for these ene­mies of Afghanistan, as Lt. Ghu­lam Moham­mad Ahmadzay labels them.

Fol­low­ing the arrival of the ISAF sol­diers, the forces worked in coop­er­a­tion for two days and nights on patrols, set­ting up secu­rity check­points, speak­ing with vil­lage elders and obtain­ing infor­ma­tion on insur­gent activ­ity in the area.

The first morn­ing, while secur­ing orchards in a vil­lage, an ANA patrol took fire from insur­gents in orchards not far from their posi­tion. They returned fire but could not con­firm if any insur­gents were injured.

There were no injuries to ANA forces dur­ing the 15-minute long exchange, but after­ward, one ANA sol­dier found that a bul­let had passed through the pant leg of his uniform.

Lt. Ahmadzay said that the squad had been in a sim­i­lar fire­fight just 10 days ear­lier — and the insur­gent fire came from the same orchards.

After the inci­dent there were no more exchanges of fire and the ANA sol­diers and their ISAF part­ners focused on speak­ing with vil­lage elders and the vil­lagers themselves.

"Bravo Company's mis­sion was to dis­rupt enemy forces in the area of Arghandab Val­ley," said Sgt. 1^st Class Dorian Bal­lard. "We had a lot of ground to cover and lit­tle time in which to cover it, and there were a lot of peo­ple with which to speak. Over­all, I think the mis­sion was suc­cess­ful. This was our first mis­sion to Arghandab Val­ley and hope­fully we can stay here, get to know the locals and do some great things here."

On the last evening of the company's stay at the ANA com­pound, sol­diers of both forces broke from their usual meal rou­tine and enjoyed a din­ner of chicken, rice, scal­lops and flatbread.

ISAF sol­diers bought the food from local mar­kets and the ANA troops pre­pared it. For the ISAF sol­diers, this was a Thanks­giv­ing feast.

The next morn­ing the com­pany moved out of the com­pound, with the promise to the ANA con­tin­gent of con­tin­ued ISAF sup­port in the strug­gle to secure Arghandab District.

As the ISAF sol­diers departed, Ahmadzay, resolved in his deter­mi­na­tion to free the Afghanistan peo­ple from their ene­mies, tasked the ANA troops to roll out of the com­pound gates for another day.

"I am a son of this coun­try," declared the ANA leader, "and as long as there is blood in my veins, I will defend Afghanistan."

There are still lessons to be learned – and lessons to be taught in and around the for­mer school house.

DVIDS
Story by Pfc. Casey Collier