2nd PLT, 832nd ENGR CO
“Reaper Crew”
Already another month has passed, and this one has brought many, many changes. First, we have left Camp Shelby, and arrived at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. Our flight here took us through five airports in four countries before arriving at our final destination. Once we arrived, we received theater specific training on our mission, area security. Our living arrangements were by far the worst we’ve had yet, but we were only there for about 10 days. We are now living in 8 man buildings with individual rooms. Each room is roughly 9’x9’, which isn’t a huge amount of space, but we can make it our own. The first week in our new home, most of us spent our spare time building shelves, lofting our beds, and getting settled in. Now that we’re all settled in, we’re very happy with our living arrangements.
Our transfer of authority (TOA) with the unit we replaced went great. The platoon we replaced belonged to the Vermont National Guard, but had soldiers from all over the country. Their leadership did an outstanding job preparing our NCO’s and me to lead combat missions. Their soldiers trained our enlisted men on specific jobs and equipment, even while they were still running missions. Our platoon senior leadership started running missions with the “Detonators” and gradually rotated more of their soldiers out and more “Gladiators” in. We are now running without any previous unit leadership or direct guidance on our mission. I want to give a giant “Thank You” out to the Detonator Blue Platoon, led by 1LT Spears and SFC Wojo, for setting us up for success through selflessly devoting most of their spare time to preparing us for the TOA. We are ready for this mission and will continue in the path that was laid down before us.
Our mission gives us opportunities that the majority of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen on Bagram Air Base will never experience. By patrolling security around the base, we are out with the people almost daily. We meet with local village leaders, Maliks, who are much like our mayors. We attend Shuras, which are similar to city council meetings. We patrol through market places, often buying local food and trinkets. We have worked with Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, and a multitude of Non-Governmental Agencies (NGOs) that are combat multipliers, making us better at our job. Personally, one of the highlights so far has been sitting, drinking dark Chai with a former Mujahedeen commander who helped lead a group of Afghan soldiers against the Taliban with Americans early in Operation Enduring Freedom. The engagement was an amazing experience that I hope to repeat again, and will never forget.
Our soldiers are learning what it is like in the rest of the world. Villagers around us are proud and humble, but poor. The kids are very curious and sometimes overbearing in asking for “Baksheesh”, which means “free gift.” People live in houses made of brick and mud, but invite us in and share chai and candies with us graciously. Not all Afghans are poor though, as we have met people that have multiple cars, and a couple that have pools made out of marble in their compound.
Lastly, we’d all like to thank everyone for thoughts, prayers and care packages that we keep receiving. We weren’t able to spend Thanksgiving at home, but we were able to come in from a mission early and have Turkey and pumpkin pie at the Chow hall. More important, we were all safe.
ESSAYONS,
1LT Ben Davis
No comments:
Post a Comment