Spc. Elisebet Freeburg

She’s on her way home, so it’s time to recognize this young woman and the work she has done in Afghanistan. This 26 year old teacher deployed to Afghanistan as part of the 143d Expeditionary Sustainment Command, as a photographer and reporter in the Public Affairs area.

This is what her boss says about her:

Of all the tough guys in our unit, you are the only one who actually went out on an infantry foot patrol into Afghan villages, and went on at least two convoys through extremely dangerous territory during the most dangerous season in southern Afghanistan. I’m sure you will have plenty of stories to tell the kids.

Go to this link for some of the stories we’ve published that were written and photographed by this soldier.

Spc. Elisebet Freeburg

We feature our women warriors in the Our Best: Military Women category. This continuing feature is intended to show the women of the United States military, and of our allies, doing their jobs in the War on Terror and doing them well.

More from her boss:

When I lost the noncommissioned officer in charge (NCOIC) that was assigned to me before the 143d Expeditionary Sustainment Command (the unit I deployed with) left the U.S., I deployed only with my Private First Class (PFC) who is a print journalist fresh out of Advanced Individual Training (the school that teaches recruits in their military occupational specialties). But, I would later learn that she was worth her weight in platinum.

My PFC, who was later promoted to Specialist, proved invaluable. During her time here, her writing has blossomed to a point where she can compete with writers from the Washington Post and New York Times.

Job well done, Spc. Freeburg!

Sgt. Lindsay A. Canterbury, photo by Elisebet Freeburg

The role of the U. S. Army chaplain assistant can be traced back to the American Civil War. Officially, the military occupational specialty now identified as 56M began in 1909 when the Chief of Staff of the Army authorized that each chaplain have one enlisted Soldier assigned to him as an aid. One hundred years later, chaplain assistants still fill a crucial need by supporting their assigned chaplain in a broad range of areas, from secretarial work to physical protection.

Chaplain assistants for the Joint Sustainment Command-Afghanistan, Sgt. Lindsay A. Canterbury and Spc. Joshua A. Sennett, fill a time honored role in the Army while deployed to Kandahar Airfield.

“Chaplain assistants do a myriad of things that multiply the time the chaplain has to give to Soldiers,” said Chaplain (Col.) Stanley Puckett, the JSC-A command chaplain.

Canterbury, a reservist from Tampa, Fla. on her second deployment, serves with the 143d Expeditionary Sustainment Command, which leads the JSC-A. She enlisted for a challenge and decided to pursue being a chaplain assistant when an Army recruiter showed her a video of the MOS.

“I saw a weapon, body guard and someone that was able to work with Soldiers on a day to day basis,” said Canterbury. “It sounded like a pretty good job description, and has [proven] to be.”

The seven week training at the U.S. Army Chaplain School and Center at Fort Jackson, S. C., is broken down into five stages: religious support and operations, support in a unit setting, preparing for deployment, support during deployment and support during troop transition stages.

“It is a challenge,” said Canterbury. “But it’s a very rewarding challenge.”

Sennett, a guardsman from Linneus, Maine, enlisted after 9/11 and was willing to serve in any role. Now on his first deployment, he works for the 286th Combat Support Sustainment Battalion, a JSC-A element.

“In the home environment, a 56M will usually work at the skill level for their rank,” said Canterbury. “In an overseas environment, more is expected of you and just providing religious support is not enough for this MOS.”

Besides providing clerical and administrative support for his chaplain, Sennett regularly supports two to five church services every Sunday. He has even facilitiated services for coalition forces. Sennett counsels troops in emergency situations until the chaplain arrives.

“If someone comes and knocks on the door, I keep him in a calm frame of mind,” said Sennett.

As part of religious support teams, both Canterbury and Sennett travel with chaplains to forward operating bases throughout Southern Afghanistan, where the chaplains hold services and counsel troops who do not receive religious support on a regular basis. Since chaplains do not carry a weapon, Canterbury and Sennett act as bodyguards.

“I try to keep a positive outlook on life, so that it will show as my expression for others to see,” said Canterbury. “It’s not so easy to do when you have to go through your own life situations.”

While deployed, Canterbury and the rest of her RST produces, coordinates and executes standard operating procedures for new teams arriving at KAF.

“[Canterbury] was very welcoming,” said Chaplain (Maj.) Martine Bellanger, a Canadian pastoral associate. “She’s very responsible and wanted to make sure we had everything we needed.”

Canterbury supports a weekly coalition chaplains’ meeting and Canadian prayer service, and helps provide anything the Canadian RST needs regarding mass. She supplies the coalition team with everything from prayer books to microphones.

“I enjoy working with the opportunity to serve in a multifaceted role,” said Sennett. “One day I’ll be doing office administration. The second day, I’ll be briefing a command, and the third day in the field with a bunch of infantry guys.”

Sennett and Chaplain (Capt.) Earl Weigelt, personally contribute to the overall mission here by meeting and praying with JSC-A troops before they leave on convoy missions, said Sennett.

“They know we are praying for them while they are on the road traveling,” said Sennett. “I think it gives them a sense of security.”

As RST’s continue to travel throughout Afghanistan providing spiritual and emotional support to troops during Operation Enduring Freedom, Canterbury and Sennett maintain their essential roles in a longstanding, vital MOS.

DVIDS
Story by Spc. Elisebet Freeburg

286th Combat Support Sustainment Battalion fuelers, Spc. Dana S. Osborne from Lake Butler, Fla., Pfc. Jeffrey Wiedel from Killeen, Texas and Pfc. Jose L. Garcia from Chicago, Ill., were each awarded the Purple Heart Medal , Aug. 3, for injuries sustained when their convoy was ambushed, July 29, in one of the largest complex attacks since 2003. Photo by Spc. Elisebet Freeburg

Instead of functioning as traditional fuelers, many Army petroleum supply specialists in Afghanistan operate as vehicle gunners and drivers for convoys. Insurgents ambushed a convoy of 286th Combat Support Sustainment Battalion fuelers, July 29, in one of the largest complex attacks since 2003.

The 286th CSSB, a non-combat arms element of the Joint Sustainment Command-Afghanistan, moves supplies and equipment by convoy to forward operating bases, fire bases and combat outposts throughout Southern Afghanistan.

The convoy was traveling through mountains, July 27, crossing between Oruzgan and Kandahar provinces, when Soldiers in the fifth mine resistant ambush protected vehicle, called Gun Truck Five, noticed an Afghan man at the side of the road, filming the convoy with a cell phone. They seized the cell phone which contained footage of insurgents planting roadside bombs.

Two days later, their convoy of 22 vehicles traveled back through the area, passing an Afghan national army checkpoint when an ANA soldier flagged down their lead MRAP, Gun Truck One.

“He was trying to stop us,” said Spc. Dana S. Osborne, the Gun Truck One driver from Lake Butler, Fla. “When he stopped us, he pointed to the front of him and made a hand motion of shooting, you know, in front of us.”

After the convoy halted, Gun Truck Three drove to the front, so their interpreter could speak with the ANA soldier. According to the soldier, ANA forces had been battling a battalion-sized element of Taliban fighters for hours by a nearby village. The convoy’s air support, Kiowa helicopters, scouted the hillside but could not locate the enemy. The ANA soldier indicated the attack was geared toward ANA not American forces.

“We all agreed to continue the mission, because that was our mission,” said Pfc. Jose L. Garcia, the Gun Truck Two gunner from Chicago, Ill.

Since the confiscated cell phone indicated roadside bombs in the area, the Kiowas flew over their proposed route and noticed possible improvised explosive devices. The convoy proceeded cautiously.

Pfc. Jeffrey Wiedel, the Gun Truck One gunner from Killeen, Texas, noticed several holes in the ground ahead, and the convoy moved forward, carefully avoiding the supposed IEDs. Soldiers noticed a green cell phone lying in one of the holes.

“We knew it was some kind of decoy or something like that,” said Garcia. “Because they know we got [electronic countermeasures].”

Most military vehicles carry ECM devices to jam radio signals that detonate explosives from a distance. Traditionally, cell phones are used to detonate remote controlled IEDs.

Soon after, a military cargo truck, called a palletized loading system, and two wreckers in the rear hit roadside bombs almost simultaneously.

The convoy began to receive small-arms and rocket propelled grenade fire. Since the damaged trucks could still drive, the convoy continued, pushing through the immediate area of attack, or kill zone. Gun Truck One rounded a bend and arrived at a choke point surrounded by mountains to their right and front. On the left, enemy fire hit them from woods in a dried-up creek bed.

“At that point, Wiedel, the gunner for Gun Truck One, pointed at something up in the mountains,” said Garcia. “I was looking at him, he turned his turret to face forward, and that’s when they blew up.”

The explosion threw Gun Truck One about 15 feet to the side of the trail, blew their weapons out of the gun turret and completely disabled the vehicle and all communication systems.

Gun Truck Two and Four surrounded the disabled vehicle and laid down suppressive fire, while Gun Truck Three rescued the Soldiers.

The injured Soldiers exited Gun Truck One through the driver’s door, the only operable door. A medical evacuation helicopter with Air Force pararescuemen arrived shortly after to evacuate Osborne, Wiedel and Sgt. Mario E. Saenz, the Gun Truck One truck commander. Although in pain, the Gun Truck One assistant gunner, Spc. Alfredo Rodriguez, remained with the convoy to fight the enemy.

“We had rounds flying right by our heads and by our feet—maybe six inches off, everywhere—when we were running to the medevac, and it’s a miracle that nobody got killed,” said Wiedel. “It’s a miracle.”

Osborne and Wiedel had both removed their body armor because of possible injuries. The convoy commander and Gun Truck Three’s truck commander from Vallejo, Calif., 1st Lt. Tamara A. Da Silva, along with Gun Truck Three’s driver, Pfc. Devin Chapman, shielded Osborne and Wiedel with their bodies as they ran to the helicopter. The Gun Truck Three assistant gunner from Osceola, Iowa, Cpl. Robert W. Lewis, carried Saenz.

As the helicopter took off, its occupants smelt fuel. The enemy’s small arms fire had caused a leak that forced the helicopter to land nearby, said Wiedel.

Still taking enemy contact, the PJs exited the medevac, created a perimeter around the helicopter and laid down suppressive fire. Although wounded, Wiedel asked the pilot for a pistol and joined the PJs while they waited for another medevac.

Available aircraft at Kandahar Airfield deployed to aid the immobile medevac. Aircraft such as Kiowa, Apache and Black Hawk helicopters constantly circled the area above the disabled medevac, targeting the enemy, said Da Silva.

“You could look up into the sky and see Kiowa pilots in their [physical training uniforms] and their helmet,” Wiedel said.

Meanwhile, at Da Silva’s order to not leave anyone behind, Gun Truck Two and Five escorted cargo trucks through the two-mile long kill zone, taking small-arms fire the entire time. One PLS first drove over an IED, and then was hit by a mortar round that ejected the truck commander into the air.

On their third escort trip, Gun Truck Two pulled to the right side of the road, so the PLS trucks could drive past them and up the hill.

“The enemy knew our [tactics, techniques and procedures],” Da Silva said. “They knew what we were going to do.”

When it pulled over, Gun Truck Two detonated an IED. Da Silva believes insurgents observed the convoy doing this procedure at the same location two days previously.

Around a bend in the road, Gun Truck Two was cut off from the rest of the convoy. A Kiowa helicopter periodically flew over the gun truck, dropping hellfire missiles on insurgents that approached the stranded vehicle.

Because of constant gunfire, the Soldiers of Gun Truck Two ran out of weapon lubricant and improvised by using shampoo and lotion out of a hygiene kit to lubricate their .50-caliber machine gun.

At one point, a PLS truck drove around the bend behind them just as a militant fired a rocket propelled grenade.

“They hit the trailer,” said Garcia, “But the RPG was aimed at us – the disabled vehicle.”

After about 90 minutes, Gun Truck Seven came around the turn to aid Gun Truck Two but stopped 100 meters away, since a secondary IED was spotted near the disabled gun truck. The Soldiers in Gun Truck Two collected sensitive items and ran to Gun Truck Seven.

Gun Truck Five continued to move PLS trucks out of the kill zone. Eventually, the cargo trucks with their long trailers could not fit through the narrow and curved road. Too many disabled vehicles blocked the way. One by one, Gun Truck Five pulled next to each PLS on the contact side, so each driver could dismount and unhitch their trailer.

“[Gun Truck Five] had bullet holes everywhere,” said Da Silva. “I don’t think I’ll ever see that truck again.”

At the end of the two-mile kill zone, the convoy had established a green zone, an area to regroup. When the enemy started to flank the green zone, an F-18 Hornet dropped two 500 pound bombs on the mountainside.

“People can say, ‘You should have done this. You should have done that’,” said Da Silva. “At the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, all our Soldiers are alive.”

During the nine-hour battle, insurgents fired approximately 14 RPGs along with detonating multiple roadside bombs and pummeling the convoy with small-arms fire. Some insurgents used armor-piercing rounds. Militants fired machine guns and assault rifles from nearby homes, the tree line or from dug-in positions on the mountain ridges. Although the militants were well-covered, many Soldiers recalled the enemy had been close enough to see faces.

After the battle, several Soldiers reported seeing doors in the hillside and speculated hollowed areas in the ground may have held weapon and ammunition caches.

Five Soldiers were evacuated that day, and one Soldier evacuated the following day to receive medical attention. So far, three of them have received the Purple Heart Medal.

Five MRAPs were disabled, and ten PLS trucks had been hit by mortar rounds. One RPG hit a PLS, and two RPGs hit at the rear of Gun Truck Four, taking out its rear tires with shrapnel. Fortunately for the convoy, several IEDs never detonated.

Although they are non-combat arms Soldiers, the fuelers of the 286th CSSB reacted quickly and successfully battled the militants.

“The way the war is going in Afghanistan,” said Lewis, “At any time, you have to be a 360 degree Soldier.”

Soldiers of the 286th CSSB may be more cautious now when they roll out on a convoy, but they continue to do their jobs and complete their vital mission of delivering troops throughout Afghanistan with equipment and supplies necessary to the fight.

DVIDS
Story by Spc. Elisebet Freeburg

Army Spc. Chad E. Brown, a combat medic with the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, cleans an Afghan girl's burned leg July 24, at Forward Operating Base Baylough in Afghanistan's Zabul province. Photo by Pfc. Elisebet Freeburg

Two medics of the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, are using their medical skills not only to help their fellow Soldiers, but also to aid local Afghans.

Army Spcs. Chad E. Brown of Red Oak, Texas, and Rodrigus I. Purdiman of Cairo, Ill., both assigned to Forward Operating Base Baylough in Afghanistan, said they are dedicated to helping ill or injured Afghans.

“The impression we try to leave is that America is here to help them in their lives and not to hurt them in any kind of way,” Purdiman said.

Purdiman and Brown rotate their duties, with one medic managing the forward operating base aid station, while the other medic accompanies Soldiers on daily patrols. Most of the patrols trek through mountainous terrain to villages in the Deh Chopan District of Afghanistan’s Zabul province.

“When we’re on patrol we provide aid — humanitarian aid or first aid — for citizens,” Brown said.

On occasion, villagers will approach the Soldiers to ask for medical care. But typically, the patrol leader will ask village leaders if anyone is ill or injured. The medics aren’t always able to treat some patients solely with supplies from their aid bag.

“The hard part is they don’t like to come in, for whatever reason, on their own,” Brown said. “But I’ll urge them to come into the aid station and let me take care of them a lot better than in the field.”

Baylough’s aid station contains basic wound-cleansing equipment and bandages, as well as pain medication. The most high-tech piece of equipment in the station is an oxygen tank, Brown said.

Even though helicopter flights to Baylough often are sporadic due to enemy fire, the aid station never has exhausted its medical supplies. Brown monitors supply levels, keeping about four weeks of supplies on hand.

“We’re able to do what we’re trained to, with what we have, but there’s a lot of improvisation,” Brown said.

Burns, especially among children, are the most common injuries the medics said they see in the remote villages around Baylough. Since there is no electricity, villagers use fire for everything from cooking to a light source. The medics have treated burn victims ranging from infants to 10-year-olds.

“It’s hard to work on the kids, especially the young ones,” Brown said.

The medics also have treated Afghans injured by explosives. If the wound is minor, the medics are able to treat it there. For more serious injuries, they request a medevac for transportation to the forward surgical team at Forward Operating Base Lagman or to the Kandahar Airfield hospital. Brown said he was trained to insert chest tubes and sew sutures at a NATO-sponsored medical patrol course in Germany, making him able to stabilize patients for up to 72 hours while awaiting evacuation.

Both medics said the language barrier makes treating civilians difficult. They always work with an interpreter, but there is no guarantee of an exact translation, Purdiman said.

DVIDS
Story by Pfc. Elisebet Freeburg

Army Col. (Dr.) Kathryn Hall-Boyer, the Joint Sustainment Command Afghanistan surgeon, examines a girl's ear for infection at the women's clinic at the Afghan national army, Kandahar Regional Hospital in Afghanistan, April 21. Photo by Pfc. Elisebet Freeburg

The young Dari interpreter standing by the desk translates the words of the American doctor to the young woman as she sits quietly. An examining table stands against one yellow wall in the small room. Various tools and medical equipment are positioned around the room.

Thickly lined with black eyeliner, the young woman’s brown eyes light up. Her soft smile widens, and she leans forward in her seat. Her husband will not take another wife. After three barren years, she is finally pregnant.

Army Col. (Dr.) Kathryn L. Hall-Boyer treated women and children on separate visits, April 14 and 21, to the Afghan national army, Kandahar Regional Hospital women’s clinic at Camp Hero as part of Operation Hearts and Minds. Hall-Boyer is the Joint Sustainment Command Afghanistan surgeon here.

“[The mission's purpose] is to provide ongoing medical care to women and children who have limited alternatives to receive medical care,” Hall-Boyer said.

Hall-Boyer, an assistant professor in the emergency medicine department at Emory University, Georgia, has worked in the medical field since 1979. She provided care in similar clinics while deployed to Bosnia.

“This clinic people can keep coming back to every week,” she said. “There is continuity for the women here.”

Air Force Col. (Dr.) David Lannen of Task Force Phoenix Assistance Group contacted Hall-Boyer and told her that the clinic, established in June, needed female doctors.

The clinic provides laboratory services, X-ray and ultrasound. Hall-Boyer provided predominantly women’s health services and family planning.

“Women in Afghanistan have one of the highest mortality rates in the world,” she said. “It’s because they don’t receive medical care during their pregnancy.”

Most women arrived with several children in tow. As the clinic staff and visiting physicians examined their mothers, the children received cookies and coloring books from female U.S. Soldiers in the waiting room.

Afghan children crowd together to have their picture taken by visiting female Soldiers at the Afghan national army, Kandahar Regional Hospital women's clinic in Afghanistan, April 21. Photo by Pfc. Elisebet Freeburg

“For the children who came, it was predominantly checking for acute illnesses,” Hall-Boyer said. “Colds, coughs and diarrhea are most common.”

In spite of the work of the clinic staff and visiting physicians, not all needs can be met for the 55 to 85 women and children who arrive, on average, for treatment.

“One patient had a gynecologist problem that she really needed a specialist for,” Hall-Boyer said. “Families don’t really have money to spend on girls. They have limited resources to seek help elsewhere.”

Another concern at the clinic is the lack of medical records.

“People have no idea what they’ve been treated for,” Hall-Boyer said. “So I may give them the same treatment that’s not working for them.”

Although the physicians and staff cannot always cure every illness, the positive influence of coalition forces in Afghanistan can be seen when some women arrive for a second opinion.

“Some patients have seen Afghan doctors,” Hall-Boyer said. “But they want to hear from American doctors.”

Future visits as a continuation of Operation Hearts and Minds are planned.

DVIDS
Story by Pfc. Elisebet Freeburg