Operation Banjo Blog 2011: Pickin' in Iraq
' Welcome to my random muses of being an aspiring banjo player, a Battalion Commander, a student of Army War College, and my admiring observations of Soldiers. It's all to the tune of yet another deployment to this country called Iraq.'
'All this being said, I've struggled a bit the past few days. That, in itself, has made it difficult to get back on to sharing my thoughts and observations. It's hard to go home and then leave home again. I miss home. We all do. But none of us can allow that pain to cause us to lose focus. Yet, there are times when we let our guard down and reveal that Soldiers are human too. Fortunately for me, I have Joe to put things back together for me. I was having a moment the other day where my human side was overcoming my Commander side. Just then I stepped into a latrine to find that Einstein Joe had given me the answers I was struggling with. On display before my wandering eyes were the Laws of Thermodynamics. I don't quite know how Joe could have known that I needed a refresher from one of the most painful college courses I ever took. But he did and it put a smile on my face. That's when it occured to me that we never leave a fallen comrade. I walked back to my HQ and shared my newfound smile with my Command Group. The post-R&R pain is still acute but it will fade. Work dictates our priorities and our focus is mission success. We'll all be sprinting to the finish line very soon.'
The Blog 'American Dirt' seems to have gone a step further in the world of concrete deployment infrastructure and began posting about painted traffic bollards to shield pedestrians on military bases.
'I have learned that photography of some things on base is strictly verboten, but I haven’t learned exactly what may compromise Department of Defense internal information—and it’s possible that something seemingly innocuous all of a sudden becomes classifiable when subject to further analytical scrutiny.
Which is why I’ve chosen something for my first real essay which is so mundane that you can find it anywhere in the US. And I’ve clearly always had a penchant for the mundane. The subject is bollards, and my most recent home base, Camp Marmal outside the city of Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, has them everywhere.'
When you first arrive in Kuwait or Iraq, one thing that you immediately notice is the abundance of T-walls. These concrete barriers are everywhere, protecting people from the possible rocket or mortar attack. They are called “T-walls” because they look like an upside-down “T.” They have them in Baghdad as well, and the Iraqis use them to protect against blasts from suicide bombers or the like.
There are thousands of the T-walls all over JBB. I’ve heard that they cost about $600 each, which means there is millions of dollars invested just in T-walls on this base. I’d say it’s a good investment, because it does add a sense of security, and probably deters rocket attacks. T-walls are a cost effective way of protecting from explosions.
Only a tiny fraction of T-walls are painted. Most of them are painted with a unit symbol, naming the unit and the commander and senior NCO, and signed by the artists. These tend to be dreadful artworks. Some have symbols disclosing what sort of unit works at the place with the T-wall. Here is an example of one of the better such T-wall art collections (this building houses the chaplain, IG, EO, and Reserve Affairs offices, among others):
https://briannomi.wordpress.com/2009/09/13/t-wall-art/
War Dead Memorial - FOB Warhorse, Diyala Governorate, Iraq
I was in Diyala this week at Forward Operating Base Warhorse. We were visiting agricultural development programs and got outside the wire on two days. I was struck by the number of Iraqi security forces (army and police) that I saw on the roads, in the towns, and near key infrastructure. At one point we were able to talk with Iraqi soldiers. One gets a sense that security is improving in Diyala Province. As the security improves, businessmen are coming back and starting to invest. I met a dynamic pair of brothers who have already connected to an American firm (in Alabama, no less) and are starting a very interesting poultry operation. There are other potential investments and while access to water remains a concern and a major constraint, it is hard not to be hopeful that maybe we are turning a corner. The brothers said they are going to develop their region with or without the government's support. I love to see that entrepenuerial fire and the determination that comes with it. I'd bet on the brothers making it. We will do our best to help them and others make their dream a reality.
On the trip I began trying to read Ernesto "Che" Guevara's, "Guerrilla Warfare." I'll post my notes later but one passage is key to our approach here and in Afghanistan: "... the postive quality of guerrilla warfare is precisely that each one of the guerrilla fighters is ready to die, not to defend an ideal, but rather to convert it into a reality." We have to have vision and fight to make that vision a reality. We aren't defending a regime or an economic system - we are fighting to ensure that our children have a better, more secure world. It's complicated and it's costly but as long as we are engaged we have to make sure that we have a national vision that supports and strengthens our effort. If that vision falters, then we need to get our kids out of harm's way. What I saw out here in one of the primary battlegrounds with Al Qaeda is solid progress - we have to help the Iraqis take advantage of this chance for the future. A safer world and one in which their vast oil resources don't end up being used to finance a war of attrition against us. It could happen anyway but we are doing the right things now.
If we can do it here in Diyala, I believe we can do it anywhere. Diyala was a highly contested area -- Al Qaeda in Iraq made the area a stronghold even going so far as to establish their shadow government here. The fighting by our soldiers reached a high point during 2006 to 2007 with the 3 BCT 1 CD (Third Brigade Combat Team, First Cavalry Division), which served at FOB Warhorse from November 3, 2006 through November 27, 2007, taking over 100 killed (almost a third of all our losses here from 2003 to the present). The map below shows the fight that took place in driving AQI out of their strongholds (the red areas were controlled by AQI) in 2006 to a very limited area by the end of 2007. The AQI strategy showing in a panel on the slide below was one of encirclement of Baghdad by taking the outlying areas near the city and then moving into Baghdad itself.
During my trip to Diyala I stayed at FOB Warhorse. While I was there I stopped by the memorial our American soldiers killed in action since 2003. We have lost 315 soldiers since 2003 in Diyala Province.
Since April 22, 2003, eight units have served at FOB Warhorse (from Right to Left on the Memorial):
2 BCT 4 ID (Second Brigade Combat Team, Fourth Infantry Division) - April 22, 2003 through March 18, 2004. This unit suffered 27 killed in action.
3 BCT 1 ID (Third Brigade Combat Team, First Infantry Division) - March 18, 2004 through February 21, 2006. This unit suffered 35 killed in action.
3BCT 3 ID (Third Brigade Combat Team, Third Infantry Division - "Rock of the Marne") - January 9, 2005 through January 11, 2006. This unit suffered 34 killed in action.
3 BCT 4 ID (Third Brigade Combat Team, Fourth Infantry Division) - January 11, 2006 through November 3, 2006. This unit suffered 19 killed in action.
3 BCT 1 CD (Third Brigade Combat Team, First Cavalry Division) - November 3, 2006 through November 27, 2007. This unit suffered 104 killed in action.
4 SBCT 2 ID (Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Second Infantry Division) - April 12, 2007 through June 1, 2008. This unit suffered 54 killed in action.
2 CAV Regiment (Second Calvary Regiment) - 2008 - 2009. This unit suffered 32 killed in action.
1 / 25 SBCT (First Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry) - September 2008 - October 2009. This unit suffered 10 killed in action.'
LIVING IN ROCKET CITY…
'Many people ask what I did while I was deployed, well I did many different things. I worked in a tower for a few months, I lived on a little COP(Combat Outpost) with Special Forces for five months, and I worked in the jail on the FOB. As an MP they didn’t really know how to used us while we were deployed, living on the COP with SF was amazing, best experience of the whole deployment! Being deployed really opened my eyes to how good I really have it here. While I was deployed I missed: a real bed, real bathrooms, hot showers, food that didn’t make me sick. I did get to enjoy the local food which was amazing, every morning that I was working the Afghani local worker would bring us fresh hardboiled eggs and nan(bread) with cream cheese.
When I worked in the tower, we had Afghan Security on ground level and they would always give us food. The guys I worked with always made me go turn on the x-ray machine because the Afghani’s always gave me food. The one time I was talking with them and they gave me a half of a melon and a bag of fruit. They told me I was their best friend, they would ask for a “coke” which meant soda or an energy drinks, so I always returned the favor and gave them a “coke”. '
Suzanna Ausborn believes preserving her husband's legacy is part of a larger, tough conversation for Americans concerning Operations Enduring Freedom and Freedom's Sentinel.
She said a Global War on Terror memorial in Washington, D.C., is long overdue. She also feels the NATC-A 9 families are a small community that lacks an identity, making their connection to the memorials in Afghanistan particularly strong.
"I'm not sure exactly what little group I fit into," Ausborn said. "I think special forces [members] have their own groups. The fighter pilot community, they have a very tight group. But ... if the Air Force leadership made it more of a priority to recognize the sacrifice [of the air advisers] at a higher level, I think that would be better."
She continued, "I just don't feel like there's an Air Force organization that says, 'OK, everyone that you know was lost in Afghanistan or even the NACT-A 9, we're going to have something in [Washington], D.C., you know, kind of like how the Vietnam and Korea vets have."
It hasn't been easy for her family to travel to the New Jersey memorial from her home in Arizona.
"I believe that having [some of these] memorials in our nation's capital would make it more visible, and I think it would make more of a statement [about] the loss of life that we've all had," Ausborn said.
Choose FOB Life- Some random photo’s from FOB Khar Nikah and PB Bahadur which was a satellite Patrol Base of the FOB on OP HERRICK 2013. There’s more if anyone is interested.
The “Gym” in PB Bahadur. The Gurkha’s before us colloquially renamed it PB Remand after the Gurkha who was killed by a Chinook striking part of the compound and collapsing the area to the left in 2010.
Operation Banjo Blog 2011: Pickin' in Iraq ' Welcome to my random muses of being an aspiring banjo player, a Battalion Commander, a student of Army War College, and my admiring observations of Soldiers. It's all to the tune of yet another deployment to this country called Iraq.'
Iraq + Kuwait = Iwait
Fun part I came across: BACK TO WAR, BACK TO BLOGGING
'All this being said, I've struggled a bit the past few days. That, in itself, has made it difficult to get back on to sharing my thoughts and observations. It's hard to go home and then leave home again. I miss home. We all do. But none of us can allow that pain to cause us to lose focus. Yet, there are times when we let our guard down and reveal that Soldiers are human too. Fortunately for me, I have Joe to put things back together for me. I was having a moment the other day where my human side was overcoming my Commander side. Just then I stepped into a latrine to find that Einstein Joe had given me the answers I was struggling with. On display before my wandering eyes were the Laws of Thermodynamics. I don't quite know how Joe could have known that I needed a refresher from one of the most painful college courses I ever took. But he did and it put a smile on my face. That's when it occured to me that we never leave a fallen comrade. I walked back to my HQ and shared my newfound smile with my Command Group. The post-R&R pain is still acute but it will fade. Work dictates our priorities and our focus is mission success. We'll all be sprinting to the finish line very soon.'
The Blog 'American Dirt' seems to have gone a step further in the world of concrete deployment infrastructure and began posting about painted traffic bollards to shield pedestrians on military bases.
Afghansitan 2010 DUST: Never mind the bollards.
'I have learned that photography of some things on base is strictly verboten, but I haven’t learned exactly what may compromise Department of Defense internal information—and it’s possible that something seemingly innocuous all of a sudden becomes classifiable when subject to further analytical scrutiny.
Which is why I’ve chosen something for my first real essay which is so mundane that you can find it anywhere in the US. And I’ve clearly always had a penchant for the mundane. The subject is bollards, and my most recent home base, Camp Marmal outside the city of Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, has them everywhere.'
More musings on deployment dust and mud-
DUST: Pedology 101, Part II – Just add water.
LIFE AT JOINT BASE BALAD – JBB – IRAQ T-Wall Art
Posted on September 13, 2009 by briannomi
When you first arrive in Kuwait or Iraq, one thing that you immediately notice is the abundance of T-walls. These concrete barriers are everywhere, protecting people from the possible rocket or mortar attack. They are called “T-walls” because they look like an upside-down “T.” They have them in Baghdad as well, and the Iraqis use them to protect against blasts from suicide bombers or the like. There are thousands of the T-walls all over JBB. I’ve heard that they cost about $600 each, which means there is millions of dollars invested just in T-walls on this base. I’d say it’s a good investment, because it does add a sense of security, and probably deters rocket attacks. T-walls are a cost effective way of protecting from explosions. Only a tiny fraction of T-walls are painted. Most of them are painted with a unit symbol, naming the unit and the commander and senior NCO, and signed by the artists. These tend to be dreadful artworks. Some have symbols disclosing what sort of unit works at the place with the T-wall. Here is an example of one of the better such T-wall art collections (this building houses the chaplain, IG, EO, and Reserve Affairs offices, among others): https://briannomi.wordpress.com/2009/09/13/t-wall-art/
Sleepless in Baghdad- Diyala: Hope at a High Cost
War Dead Memorial - FOB Warhorse, Diyala Governorate, Iraq
I was in Diyala this week at Forward Operating Base Warhorse. We were visiting agricultural development programs and got outside the wire on two days. I was struck by the number of Iraqi security forces (army and police) that I saw on the roads, in the towns, and near key infrastructure. At one point we were able to talk with Iraqi soldiers. One gets a sense that security is improving in Diyala Province. As the security improves, businessmen are coming back and starting to invest. I met a dynamic pair of brothers who have already connected to an American firm (in Alabama, no less) and are starting a very interesting poultry operation. There are other potential investments and while access to water remains a concern and a major constraint, it is hard not to be hopeful that maybe we are turning a corner. The brothers said they are going to develop their region with or without the government's support. I love to see that entrepenuerial fire and the determination that comes with it. I'd bet on the brothers making it. We will do our best to help them and others make their dream a reality.
On the trip I began trying to read Ernesto "Che" Guevara's, "Guerrilla Warfare." I'll post my notes later but one passage is key to our approach here and in Afghanistan: "... the postive quality of guerrilla warfare is precisely that each one of the guerrilla fighters is ready to die, not to defend an ideal, but rather to convert it into a reality." We have to have vision and fight to make that vision a reality. We aren't defending a regime or an economic system - we are fighting to ensure that our children have a better, more secure world. It's complicated and it's costly but as long as we are engaged we have to make sure that we have a national vision that supports and strengthens our effort. If that vision falters, then we need to get our kids out of harm's way. What I saw out here in one of the primary battlegrounds with Al Qaeda is solid progress - we have to help the Iraqis take advantage of this chance for the future. A safer world and one in which their vast oil resources don't end up being used to finance a war of attrition against us. It could happen anyway but we are doing the right things now.
If we can do it here in Diyala, I believe we can do it anywhere. Diyala was a highly contested area -- Al Qaeda in Iraq made the area a stronghold even going so far as to establish their shadow government here. The fighting by our soldiers reached a high point during 2006 to 2007 with the 3 BCT 1 CD (Third Brigade Combat Team, First Cavalry Division), which served at FOB Warhorse from November 3, 2006 through November 27, 2007, taking over 100 killed (almost a third of all our losses here from 2003 to the present). The map below shows the fight that took place in driving AQI out of their strongholds (the red areas were controlled by AQI) in 2006 to a very limited area by the end of 2007. The AQI strategy showing in a panel on the slide below was one of encirclement of Baghdad by taking the outlying areas near the city and then moving into Baghdad itself.
During my trip to Diyala I stayed at FOB Warhorse. While I was there I stopped by the memorial our American soldiers killed in action since 2003. We have lost 315 soldiers since 2003 in Diyala Province.
Since April 22, 2003, eight units have served at FOB Warhorse (from Right to Left on the Memorial):
2 BCT 4 ID (Second Brigade Combat Team, Fourth Infantry Division) - April 22, 2003 through March 18, 2004. This unit suffered 27 killed in action.
3 BCT 1 ID (Third Brigade Combat Team, First Infantry Division) - March 18, 2004 through February 21, 2006. This unit suffered 35 killed in action.
3BCT 3 ID (Third Brigade Combat Team, Third Infantry Division - "Rock of the Marne") - January 9, 2005 through January 11, 2006. This unit suffered 34 killed in action.
3 BCT 4 ID (Third Brigade Combat Team, Fourth Infantry Division) - January 11, 2006 through November 3, 2006. This unit suffered 19 killed in action.
3 BCT 1 CD (Third Brigade Combat Team, First Cavalry Division) - November 3, 2006 through November 27, 2007. This unit suffered 104 killed in action.
4 SBCT 2 ID (Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Second Infantry Division) - April 12, 2007 through June 1, 2008. This unit suffered 54 killed in action.
2 CAV Regiment (Second Calvary Regiment) - 2008 - 2009. This unit suffered 32 killed in action.
1 / 25 SBCT (First Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry) - September 2008 - October 2009. This unit suffered 10 killed in action.'
Great and extensive blog post about life at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan 2013, known as KAF from Kim Epton
2100 words, 77 photographs.
http://www.adventures.net.au/travel/afghanistan-2013
LIVING IN ROCKET CITY… 'Many people ask what I did while I was deployed, well I did many different things. I worked in a tower for a few months, I lived on a little COP(Combat Outpost) with Special Forces for five months, and I worked in the jail on the FOB. As an MP they didn’t really know how to used us while we were deployed, living on the COP with SF was amazing, best experience of the whole deployment! Being deployed really opened my eyes to how good I really have it here. While I was deployed I missed: a real bed, real bathrooms, hot showers, food that didn’t make me sick. I did get to enjoy the local food which was amazing, every morning that I was working the Afghani local worker would bring us fresh hardboiled eggs and nan(bread) with cream cheese.
When I worked in the tower, we had Afghan Security on ground level and they would always give us food. The guys I worked with always made me go turn on the x-ray machine because the Afghani’s always gave me food. The one time I was talking with them and they gave me a half of a melon and a bag of fruit. They told me I was their best friend, they would ask for a “coke” which meant soda or an energy drinks, so I always returned the favor and gave them a “coke”. '
Families of Afghanistan Fallen Fear Their Memorials Will Be Left Behind Make Them Visible
Suzanna Ausborn believes preserving her husband's legacy is part of a larger, tough conversation for Americans concerning Operations Enduring Freedom and Freedom's Sentinel.
She said a Global War on Terror memorial in Washington, D.C., is long overdue. She also feels the NATC-A 9 families are a small community that lacks an identity, making their connection to the memorials in Afghanistan particularly strong.
"I'm not sure exactly what little group I fit into," Ausborn said. "I think special forces [members] have their own groups. The fighter pilot community, they have a very tight group. But ... if the Air Force leadership made it more of a priority to recognize the sacrifice [of the air advisers] at a higher level, I think that would be better."
She continued, "I just don't feel like there's an Air Force organization that says, 'OK, everyone that you know was lost in Afghanistan or even the NACT-A 9, we're going to have something in [Washington], D.C., you know, kind of like how the Vietnam and Korea vets have."
It hasn't been easy for her family to travel to the New Jersey memorial from her home in Arizona.
"I believe that having [some of these] memorials in our nation's capital would make it more visible, and I think it would make more of a statement [about] the loss of life that we've all had," Ausborn said.
Excellent Blog 'Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq' by Jason Christopher Hartley that was later turned into a book. Some photos/ content NSFW
http://www.justanothersoldier.com/?cat=2&paged=4
Brittany goes to Afghanistan
Adventures in Operation Enduring Freedom, Feb- Dec 2012
Camp Deh Dadi II (aka Camp Spann) in Regional Command-North, Afghanistan
Choose FOB Life- Some random photo’s from FOB Khar Nikah and PB Bahadur which was a satellite Patrol Base of the FOB on OP HERRICK 2013. There’s more if anyone is interested.
https://thinkdefence.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/chose-fob-life/
The “Gym” in PB Bahadur. The Gurkha’s before us colloquially renamed it PB Remand after the Gurkha who was killed by a Chinook striking part of the compound and collapsing the area to the left in 2010.