CPT NightHawk

One Week Home

2006-10-26T17:06:00.001Z

I have been home for one week now. I figured it was about time that I fired up the laptop and composed this post. I don’t know if this will be the final post or not. I might close this blog and start a new one. I haven’t decided yet because I have been quite busy since I returned home.

We arrived in Jefferson City early in the morning. My bride and sons were waiting for me in the drill hall and I was so happy to see them again. We had a welcoming home ceremony that was mercifully brief. We grabbed lunch at the Coffee Zone then brought the boys back to preschool. They didn’t want to go back to school that afternoon but my bride and I wanted some time for ourselves:).

Since I have been home I cleaned out the kitchen (I am the primary cook and I needed to do an inventory anyway), stowed some of my gear away, spent a day with my dad busting up a tree that fell on a fence and fixing the fence, took my boys to the Jefferson City Harvestfest, and other things.

I have a lot of catching up to do with my sons and my bride. A few days ago I started reading “The Hobbit” to my sons at bedtime and they are really enjoying it. There are improvements to the house I would like to do.

There are a couple of loose ends I want to tie up before I close this post. I turned off the anonymous post feature to this blog because the anonymous posters are getting annoying and are not contributing. If someone wants to be an ass, at least have the guts to register with Blogger or Google so I know who you are. My time is valuable and I can’t stand oxygen thieves. Most of my last post was dealing with a particularly annoying oxygen thief that if he actually is in the military and is enlisted, he can be charged with insubordination and disrespecting a senior officer.

Anyway, I have to deal with two more anonymous comments before I feel like I can close out this blog for a while. The following was written on 22 OCT 2006 and was commenting on my post titled “Embedded in Reality” which I wrote back on 21 AUG 2006!

Maybe you should have waited with your well argumented review untill you'd actually seen these countries in action. The Dutch have taken over Oruzgan and have been in heavy combat there. They also sent troops from their province to help out the Canadians in Operation Medusa including some 155 mm SPG. The Dutch Apaches and F-16 fighter jets have bombed the shit out of taliban providing CAS for British, Canadian and US forces as well.

So just because they build up a "nightclub" on KAF doesn't mean they "don't get it".

22 October, 2006 09:52

The whole gist of my post was who among our coalition brethren understand how Information Operations is supposed to work, not if they are actually contributing something. I am guessing that this guy can’t read because I started the post off by saying “I am now working at Task Force Aegis”. I have seen these countries in action due to my position and am very familiar with what the countries involved have contributed. This dude mentioned the Dutch contribution to Op Medusa. The planning for Op Medusa didn’t start in earnest until after I had posted “Embedded in Reality”! Their contribution to Op Meduas in the form of ground troops was extremely minimal. The Dutch took over a forward operating base (FOB), relieving the Canadians there so they can get to the fight.

I was in Oruzgan province for six months at the Provincial Reconstruction Team at Tarin Kowt. We had about one hundred and twenty personnel plus or minus twenty (incoming and outgoing). The Dutch are now running the PRT and they have around twelve hundred. That is a lot of personnel. I want to ask the dude who wrote the above comment, please define for me heavy combat? I have read their patrol reports so I know what they are involved in. Let us not mistake who is actually mixing it up in Oruzgan. US Special Forces and Australian SAS are in Oruzgan as well and they are the ones sticking it to the Taliban.

This dude should contact the Dutch Embassy and ask them how many missions the Dutch PSYOP company (two sections and a headquarters) have conducted. When I was in Oruzgan, the PRT had one, sometimes two PSYOP operators and they went on missions practically everyday, sometimes hitching a ride with the Infantry guys. The number of missions the Dutch PSYOP have mounted is far less, it is actually closer to zero at the time I left Kandahar which was on 27 SEP 2006.

The following comment is a real gem. It was written on 22 OCT 2006 like the previous one (it may be the same dude, I don’t know) and was commenting on my post “Stabbed in the Back” which I posted on 08AUG2006!

Sorry man ... but thats the democracy ur fighting to protect... Journalists are what they are and that is by all means unpredictable...Dont go crying for mommy when one writes something crappy...it's their job!

I triple dare u to not delete this post

22 October, 2006 10:03

I don’t need to be lectured by some anonymous ass about protecting democracy. I am not protecting journalistic incompetence or willful misrepresentation. It is their job to report the facts, all of them, not the selective facts.

In my post titled “Asymmetrical Media”, I answered some questions raised by Stephanie Guttmann, the author of “The Other War”. In it I stated that all that we cared about was that the reporters and journalists fact checked and reported everything. If the coalition screwed up, my boss and me wanted to get that out. The reality is that human organizations make mistakes and the military is no exception.

In my post titled “Stabbed in the Back”, I pointed out that Witte and Mosher did a hit job on the Gulf Region division of the US Army Corps of Engineers. If Witte and Mosher want to pose as impartial journalists, then they need to report everything, which Major General William McCoy pointed out in his rebuttal found here. We have a way with dealing with willfully biased journalists, we freeze them out. I am sure if Witte and Mosher want access with the Army Corps of Engineers again, they will have to come with hat in hand.

Like I said in the post, I will be damned if I will help Witte again. I wasn’t “crying to mommy”, I was stating a fact. Judging by the last remark about triple daring, this commenter is a juvenile little prick.

There, I am officially done dealing with anonymous commenters that are basic oxygen thieves.

Despite the recent spate of anonymous Asses leaving useless comments, I really enjoyed writing this blog. Many of you left wonderful comments on the blog or e-mailed them to me. I am glad you enjoyed my attempt at writing.

Like I said earlier, I am truly thankful to be home. Some of my coalition brethren didn’t come home alive, something my oldest son asked me about last night after dinner. It took every bit of self-control I had to describe to my son a ramp ceremony where we sent home a soldier in a casket.

I am proud of my service in Afghanistan. I did a very unique job where I had a hand in just about everything. I am especially proud of what we accomplished with Op Medusa.

I won’t be posting for a while. My next post will inform you all of my plans with this blog and whether I will continue posting to this one or start a new one. I have the blogging bug now!

CIAO’

CPT Thomas C. Nield aka “NightHawk”

Fourth Leg

2006-10-14T22:05:00.000Z

We have been here at Ft. Carson, Colorado for a while already. This is my first opportunity to post. We will be here for a few days to turn in gear, do paperwork, and clear medical. For some of the guys it is still surreal that we are back in the states.

An anonymous commenter left a hostile comment on my post titled “Second Leg” and I will address his concerns point by point.

“General Order 1B says no alcohol until you are CONUS. MPs will be waiting for you.”

All soldiers transiting through Manas Airbase can have two beers or two glasses of wine every twenty-four hours. In Qatar I was able to drink three beers or three glasses of wine every twenty-four hours. If this commenter has deployed to Afghanistan in the past, he would have known about Manas Airbase unless he deployed in 2001. He should know of at least one soldier who has been there recently and he would know about the liberty’s we have at Manas. So far, no MP’s have bothered me.

“Also great OPSEC. Way to tell everyone in the whole wide web that you are redeploying, and exactly where you are. Good job!”

Unit and personnel moves are classified secret and divulging unit or personnel moves prior to movement is a very serious operational security (OPSEC) violation. Divulging your location after you have arrived is not. Besides, all the terrorists in the world knows the route the US Air Force takes to bring soldiers home because we have been doing it for close to six years now. The key is not divulging times. In my last post I did state I was posting from Ramstein. I did not say how long I was going to be there, nor did I say when I arrived or when I was going to depart. OPSEC is one of the areas that I work in as an Information Operations officer so I do know what I am talking about.

“And why the FUCK are you wearing an SF combat patch. Holy shit!”

The first thought that popped in my head when I read that line was:

BECAUSE I EARNED IT YOU MISERABLE LITTLE FUCK!!!!

The Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Oruzgan province (Tarin Kowt) was under the operational command and control of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan (CJSOTF-A). All the personnel assigned to that PRT for thirty days or more are entitled to wear the Special Forces patch to signify former wartime service. While I was there we had Regular, Reserve, and Guard soldiers. We also had a few TICs (Troops in Contact) or firefights. It wasn’t all hugs and kisses serving at a PRT.

“Fucking guard.”

Say that to my face. My name is on this blog, I am currently in Ft. Carson. If you are enlisted please remember common military courtesies. I would hate to see the First Sergeant go ballistic seeing some little shithead dissing one of his officers.

Fourth leg down, one to go.

CIAO’
CPT Thomas C. Nield aka “NightHawk”

Asymmetrical Media

2006-10-11T12:48:00.000Z

I am honored that Stephanie Guttmann, the author of “The Other War”, found my blog. In her comment she asked what I was seeing as far as the “whole asymmetrical media as a weapon of war thing”. I will attempt to answer her question but I must state my caveats.

I must be very clear that what I am about to write are my opinions and mine alone. There are other servicemen (US, Canadian, British) who agree with me but I only speak for myself. I am not representing the position of the US military or of NATO. These are general observations only. For more detail I would much rather discuss this face to face.

Here we go.

A little over half of my time in Afghanistan was spent in Oruzgan province. There was one government run FM station in Tarin Kowt (the provincial capitol). No local television stations however news from Kandahar and Kabul along with international news are available via satellite dish. Any newspapers in the province were printed in Kandahar but I never personally saw them. Information traveled face to face. If the Taliban wanted to send a message in Oruzgan province it was delivered personally and then the sat phone net did the rest. Consequently, any message we wanted to get across to the populace was delivered face to face as well and backed up with a project. What we had to contend with were the lengths that the Taliban went to deliver their message. It is pretty tough to counter a message delivered with a beheading.

My experience in Kandahar province was far different. Kandahar City had radio, television, and print media. There is a thriving local press that wants to report stuff. They reported everything. For example, the Taliban would call and tell their media contact that they just blew up a tank. They would then call us and ask us if we lost a tank. We would tell them that we don’t have any tanks in theater and furthermore we haven’t lost any vehicles at all. The press will turn around and report that the Taliban claimed to have destroyed a tank and that the Coalition claims to have all of their vehicles. No editorializing, no spinning, no rooting around for “facts” or “quotes” to write a story with a particular angle.

When my Canadian Army boss first started working with the local press, they bluntly told him that they would relay anything he wanted to say. My boss told them that the press doesn’t work that way. They can report whatever they want as long as they fact check first. They weren’t used to that. The Taliban and the communists before them centrally controlled Afghanistan’s media. This was a unique opportunity to influence in a positive direction a free and independent media.

The local press knows what the stakes are. During Op Medusa the Taliban threatened the local press with death. In typical Stalinist fashion the Taliban would claim one thing when the reality was far different. Our press releases reflected reality and the Taliban had no way to counter except with threatening to kill the messenger. My boss and me took that as a positive indicator for the effectiveness of Op Medusa.

Afghanistan is not suffering what Israel is going through yet. The situation that Guttmann describes in her book “The Other War” needs an international press that actively aids and abets the enemy. The situation also needs a local media that is willfully cooperating with the enemy.

We had a pretty good read on the international media. The Public Affairs folks knew the personalities involved and knew what kind of pieces they would write. All I cared about was that they got the facts straight which the local media was obsessive about (in a good way). To paraphrase the late Tip O’Neil, all media is local. As long as the local media was interested in getting the facts straight, the international media will follow suit.

So Stephanie, I am honored that you found my blog. I hope you enjoyed reading it and that this latest post answered some of your questions. If you want to know something specific, please let me know and I will try to be of assistance.

By the way, I am posting this from Ramstein Airbase, Germany! Third leg home is almost complete. Two to go after!!!!

CIAO’
CPT Thomas C. Nield aka “NightHawk”

Second Leg

2006-10-05T16:30:00.000Z

Well, we finally made it to Manas Airbase, Krygyztan. Now we wait for the flight back to CONUS (Continental US). One of the first things I notices when I disembarked from the airplane was it was much cooler and there are far more green leafy things to look at. It’s nice to be back in a more civilized part of the world. You can feel the change in the mood of our merry band from Missouri. Now that we are actually in Manas a huge load was lifted from our shoulders.

We are going to be here for a few days unlike when we passed through here last time. I already checked out the gift shops they have here on the base and there are a couple of things that I might buy for my bride :). I passed up an opportunity years ago to buy a Soviet era flask when I was at the Brandenberg Tor and I think I will indulge myself this time. I already bought my sons stuff from the bazaar at Bagram. One nice thing about Manas Airbase is that we can have two alcohol drinks per twenty-four hours. The local dark beer is pretty good (7%!!!). Tomorrow one of my buddies and I will be testing the wine selection.

I am actually being paid to hang out and wait for a flight. Sleep late, spend some time in the gym, do some shopping, maybe get a manicure/pedicure and a massage (I got my first manicure and a pedicure when I visited Qatar and now I am hooked). It is an unbelievable change of pace. I went from working sixteen to twenty hour days to being a total slacker. I called my bride as soon as I got to Manas and she kidded with me that I better enjoy my time off because I will be busy when I return home!

Two legs down, three to go.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

More Pictures

2006-09-30T13:33:00.000Z

I have some free time waiting for my flight to Manas Airbase in Kyrgyztan so I went through my pictures and picked out a few more to share with you all.

I snapped this on my flight from Manas to Bagram when I first arrived in country. We are flying over the Hindu Kush.

This stuff grows pretty well out here. This was taken in Oruzgan province near Tarin Kowt. This was the only plant in the area. In Kandahar Province, there are orchards with acres of this stuff!

The above picture shows what I recounted in my post titled Afghan Automobile Association.

The authorities wanted to salvage the hull of this downed T-55 tank for scrap but the local villagers protested. They wanted to keep it around as a monument because they were the ones who took the tank down. A turret from another T-55 was less than 100 meters away.

Here I am on my first mission. I helped with administering the deworming meds. On subsequent missions the ANA did most of the wrangling and medicating.

This was my last mission in Oruzgan province before I went home on R&R leave. We were doing a ground breaking for a new bridge to cross the Helmand River in the Deh Rawud district. I am in the center and Kerry Greene, the USAID rep is on my right and Richard “Ruff” Reiter, the State Department FSO, is on my left.

Here I am as the mission commander for a big mega shura that we facilitated in Kandahar City. We flew Dr. Mojadeddi, the national director of Program Takhim-E Sol (the national reconciliation program), to the governor’s compound. The man to my left is one of Dr. Mojadeddi’s aides.

We are getting ready to move out. I am manning one of the air sentry positions in the back of a Bison.

I am standing on top of one of the buildings in the governor’s compound in Kandahar City.

Sergeant, is that MAJ Innis over there conducting an Information Operation? Sir, I believe he is but he must really tone it down a bit.

SSG Raley of the Mobile Public Affairs Detachment is to my right. He pointed out that every time he went on a mission with me he is always miserable. He is smiling in this picture so he can’t possibly be miserable. To my right is Maj “Q” Quentin Innis, my boss at TF Aegis. On the far right is Sgt Lee Baldry.

Hope you like them.

CIAO’
CPT Thomas C. Nield aka “NightHawk”

First Leg

2006-09-28T12:58:00.000Z

I am posting this entry from Bagram Airfield. I am on my way home.

It felt a little weird leaving Kandahar. The war is still on. Even though Ramadan just started, the Taliban insurgents are still up to mischief. I am still trying to reconcile the fact that I am no longer the J3 Info Ops 3 for TF Aegis. Now I am just one of many GI’s trying to get home

I left behind a good crew to work with. My boss was a blast. He and I share an appreciation for the comedy of Eddy Izzard. We would sometimes interject Izzardisms into our conversations. Some people got it, most didn’t.

I got pretty close with the people I worked with at Task Force Aegis. We shared the same risks and aggravations. We enjoyed each other’s humor. We bitched about the same things. Damn, I will miss everyone dearly, especially “Q” and Lee.

I was asked at a farewell dinner party what is the most vivid memory I have. I said the day I saw a chassis fall from the sky and an armored vehicle drive through a fireball. There are more memories. During breakfast one day we were bitching about ISAF when all of a sudden, the Asst Chief of Operations ripped the ISAF patch off of my boss’s uniform, jumped on it, then picked it up and flung it across the DFAC. The day I was with Grizzly 6 and we were caught in an ambush is another. There are more.

One of these days I will be able to make sense of it all. For now, I am concentrating on getting home. We just completed customs and palletizing of unaccompanied baggage. Tomorrow I have to go to medical and fill out a few forms and clear finance. Saturday we have some briefings. After that, we wait for a flight.

I am kinda bummed right now. I am sure I will be in a better mood the closer I get to home. First leg down, four to go.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Phase 4

2006-09-23T14:10:00.000Z

I just got back from a mission where we escorted media around. We showed them the areas of the most vicious fighting and a couple of material assistance distributions. Here are a few pictures from the mission.

In this photo we set up a laager (a modern version of circling the wagons) to wait for the contractors delivering the material assistance. The mountain behind me is typical of Afghanistan. They just jut up from the ground.

In the photo to the right the locals from the village of Regay are offloading the trucks. This village is sympathetic to ISAF and the central government. They allowed people that were pushed out by the Taliban to hole up there until the fighting was over.
I was an air sentry on the last Bison. We left Regay and moved to Bazaar-E Panjwayi and I was engulfed in a cloud of moondust for the last few kilometers. I dismounted, removed my helmet and ballistic glasses, and walked over to chat with the guys. They all grabbed their cameras and started snapping away. I guess they thought it was pretty funny seeing a staff officer smothered in moondust!

The next day we did another material assistance distro. This one is in Pashmul where we literally blasted the hell out of the Taliban.

In the rural areas of Afghanistan I have yet to see the face of a woman of child bearing age. These women are waiting for the rest of their family before they move out with their assistance goodies (rice, beans, sugar, tea, cooking oil, clothing, and blankets).

I am fielding questions from Susanne Koelbl, a correspondent from Der Spiegel magazine. She and her photographer, Knut Mueller, have done assignments all over the world. Herr Mueller snapped this photo.

I was pulling security for the patrol where Grizzly 6 was showing the media parts of the battlefield. Herr Mueller was walking along and snapped this one of me.

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Herr Mueller snapped the photo above of us taking up the rear. I am second, behind the Canadian soldier. My Info Ops NCO from the British Army is taking up the rear. In the photo to the left you see ISAF at work. I am standing with a Hungarian, a Romanian, and a Brit. We are providing security for the media by preventing the people from walking down the trail.

The photo above is pretty cool. A patrol was coming back to the laager while we were escorting the media around the area. Herr Mueller snapped this one when the LAV was making its turn in front of me. An Afghan National Army truck follows behind.

These photos depict my involvement with Op Medusa, Phase 4 Reconstruction. I hope you enjoyed them!

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Tyranny of Bandwidth

2006-09-19T10:46:00.000Z

When I commanded a Quartermaster Battalion Headquarters company I was in the land of Logistics. It is true that amateurs talk strategy whereas professionals talk logistics. Without beans, bullets, and hay (Class I food/water, Class V ammunition, and Class III petroleum/oil/lubricants) a modern army is not going to get very far. Nowadays we also have to talk bandwidth constraints (the Tyranny of Bandwidth).

Anonymous asked in a comment to my last post “how easy is it to access internet/phones”. One of the men I deployed with was deployed back in 1991 to Op Desert Storm. Communications back then sucked. The bandwidth was anemic and the telephone company’s were woefully unprepared for the demand. Today it is much different.

When I was at the Tarin Kowt PRT we had it pretty good for communications. We had VoIP phones, three satellite dishes for MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) internet use, plus the official US Dept of Defense phone and internet systems. On one of our missions to a Special Forces FOB (Forward Operating Base) I noticed that they had a similar suite of communications systems that we had at the PRT.

Here on KAF (Kandahar Airfield) I have constant access to the internet (both classified and unclassified) and a DSN (Defense Switched Network) phone because I am a staff officer working at a desk. Using DSN, I can call the switchboard at Missouri National Guard Headquarters in Jefferson City and have them connect me to a local number. For soldiers that do not have constant access to a networked computer or a DSN phone, we have a pool of computers and phones that they can use for personal use. If their home community does not have a DSN phone manned 24 hours a day, they can call a switchboard close to where they live and use a phone card.

I mentioned before that the bandwidth at Tarin Kowt was anemic. It was only anemic for the unclass internet because most of the bandwidth for the Dept of Defense systems were dedicated to classified communications. The MWR systems were heavily used so transfer rates were slow for everything except plain text.

I have the luxury of being able to call home practically every day plus the ability to post frequently to this blog. For the soldiers that are involved in operations outside the wire, they have to wait until they get back to KAF or a FOB to communicate with home. I know of at least two soldiers that have purchased their own satellite phones and call home that way but it is expensive.

We all have it pretty good for communications so we are not concerned with the tyranny of bandwidth.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Op Medusa

2006-09-17T16:52:00.000Z

Here are some pictures of my involvement with Op Medusa.

Here I am at Patrol Base Wilson. At the moment this picture was snapped, we all heard a boom and wondered "is that ours or theirs?"

In the my post titled “Eventful Week”, I included a hero shot of me and my Info Ops NCO at a material distribution event. The picture above was taken at the same place. I am just watching the Afghans unload the truck.

Today we had our big press event with local and international media at the governors compound. Message was ISAF and the Afghan forces killed lots of Taliban and now we are going to help the people of Panjwayi in rebuilding. I am waiting in the back of the Bison we used to haul all the camera equipment and some media types (the bulk of them were in the other Bison). I pulled air sentry duty again (standing through the top hatch).

I regret not posting pictures before. The bandwidth at the PRT I was previously assigned to was anemic. The bandwidth I have access to here at Kandahar Airfield (KAF) is more robust and I put in some late nights learning how to use the picture feature of Blogger. I hope you like the pictures!

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

By the Sword

2006-09-16T17:18:00.000Z

Well, it looks like Pope Benedict XVI is catching a lot of grief for quoting Emperor Manuel II Paleologos of the Byzantine Empire. Back in the 1391, Emperor Manuel II said:

"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Here is a quick history lesson for you all. Emperor Manuel II was the father of Constantine XI, the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire. Manuel II was married to Helena Dragas, a Serbian princess. Serbia was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire after the Battle of Kosovo Polje in 1389 (to this day the Serbs will argue that their sacrifice saved Western Europe from certain dominion by the Ottoman Empire). Because the subjects of the Byzantine Empire did not wish to abide by the agreement reached in the Council of Florence in 1452, the remnants of the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

I present this brief history lesson to provide some context. The religion of the Ottoman Empire was and is (in modern day Turkey) Islam. The Byzantine Empire was Christian but it was of the Eastern Orthodox variety, a result of its schism from the Roman Catholic faith when the Roman Empire was falling apart. For the Christians of the Byzantine Empire during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, Islam in the form of the Ottoman Empire was something they truly feared. Over the years European Christians clashed with the Ottoman Muslims numerous times. Dr. Hanson highlights two such battles, Lepanto fought in 1571 and Tours-Poitiers fought in 752, in his book Carnage and Culture.

Back to the quote Muslims around the world are having a hissy over. What about the rest of the speech by Pope Benedict XVI? Key excerpts of his speech are on the BBC website. Ponder the following excerpt:

The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God," he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats….

The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality.

At this point, as far as understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion is concerned, we are faced with an unavoidable dilemma. Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true?

The BBC has listed quotes from Muslims around the world:

This from Salih Kapusuz, the Deputy Leader of Turkey’s Ak Party:

The owner of those unfortunate and arrogant comments, Benedict XVI, has gone down in history, but in the same category as Hitler and Mussolini.

He seems to have a mindset that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world. It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades.

It’s amusing that Salih Kapusuz, an apologist for Islamic Fascism, compares Pope Benedict to two well known fascists, Hitler and Mussolini. It’s interesting that Kapusuz referred to the Reformation and the Enlightenment when the Muslim faith still hasn’t had something comparable.

How about this one from Sheikh Youssel Al-Qardawi, head of the Islamic Scholars Associaton:

Our hands are outstretched and our religion calls for peace, not for war, for love not for hatred, for tolerance, not for fanaticism, for knowing each other and not for disavowing each other.

We condemn this and we want to know the explanation of this and what is intended by this. We call on the pope, the pontiff, to apologise to the Islamic nation because he has insulted its religion and Prophet, its faith and Sharia without any justification."

Instead of condemning an academic speech full of complex theological discourse, Al-Qardawi should spend more time condemning the war that Islamic Fascists have declared on the West. I wonder what specific Islamic nation he is referring to or is he actually referring to the transnational Islamic Fascist community? How about Al-Qardawi apologizes for all the senseless deaths that Islamic Fascists have caused?

The prime minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has this to say:

The Pope must not take lightly the spread of outrage that has been created. The Vatican must now take full responsibility over the matter and carry out the necessary steps to rectify the mistake.

How will the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church rectify all the property damage and mayhem rioting Islamic Fascists will cause? Offer to take confession? This goes back to the Western idea of responsibility of ones own actions. There are too many examples of Islamic Fascists blaming the West for their own sordid dysfunctional societies. How about looking at the Pontiff’s speech and having a nice scholarly discussion instead of a bloody riot?

I can go on but I think I have made my point. Christianity has had its martial moments (I claim this land in the name of God and Spain!) but like I said earlier, we have had our Reformation and Enlightenment. All these people criticizing the Pontiff should look to their own societies first. These hypocrites are pointing fingers at us but their religion does have a history of converting people to Islam at the point of a sword or a gun. The journalists that were recently kidnapped in Gaza were freed only when they converted to Islam and they did so at gunpoint.

Back in February of this year I commented a little bit on the furor over the cartoons printed in Denmark. In my post titled Dissent and Tolerance, I pointed out that if the West is going to be critical of Muslims, at least criticize on something of substance. Pope Benedict XVI stated that the Islamic idea that God is so transcendent that “He cannot be seen in terms of human reason.” Violent conversion is not acting in accordance with reason which is contrary to God’s nature. That is a statement loaded with substance and pretty darn hefty to boot.

Pope Benedict XVI will probably express regret that the Muslim world didn’t understand what he was trying to say. This is a man who threw down the gauntlet in front of the College of the Cardinals. During the mass conducted prior to the conclave elevating him to the Papacy, he called on his fellow cardinals to “hold fast to the doctrine of the faith.” I don’t think an apology is coming from this particular pope.

The Muslim world will go on and have its riots. Should someone be forced by the sword to profess ones faith or do it after careful reasoned thought? At least they’re rioting over something worth fighting over instead of a stupid cartoon.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Challenge Coins

2006-09-14T08:03:00.000Z

A comment left by Anonymous posted here is asking about the coin in the picture. Some Brit is selling the coin on E-Bay and Anonymous is asking what it is.

The pictured coin is a challenge coin and because it is being auctioned by a Brit, I have to assume that it was presented to a British soldier by the commander of Task Force Aegis. In Greek mythology, the Aegis is the shield used by Zeus and adorned with Medusas head. I can tell you right now that no American or Canadian soldier would be hawking his challenge coin on E-Bay. Challenge coins from task force or mission commanders are the most prized because they denote you were there.

Challenge coins are typically presented by senior officers and senior NCO’s. These coins are typically presented as spot awards for recognizing good work. Whenever a flag officer visits his aide always asks for a number of soldiers to receive a coin from the general. The staff or senior NCO’s would nominate soldiers to receive the coin.

I have a few coins. I received coins from the commanders of Task Force Orion and the Tarin Kowt PRT, both of which I will treasure for the rest of my life. Another coin was presented to me by the officers and men of the 955th Engineer Company (Pipeline) when I left to take command of another unit in 1998. I and all the other soldiers of the 955th were presented coins by the Korean Service Corps (KSC) for training them on the Inland Petroleum Distribution System back in 1997.

We call these coins challenge coins because we in the military like to drink. Let’s say you decide to pop into the Officers or NCO Club, the Regimental Mess, or any off post drinking establishment. Let’s say that you run into someone that you served with on a previous deployment or you both were in the same unit in the past. If your buddy puts his coin on the table and you don’t have yours, the next round is on you. If you were prudent enough to have your coin on your person, the challenger buys! I typically carry my 955th Eng Co and KSC coin with me on all military related ventures in Missouri. I didn’t bring them with me to Afghanistan because I didn’t want to lose them and there is no booze to be had here anyway. I have an open invitation to visit many of the Patricia’s I served with and should I; I will have my Task Force Orion coin with me! If I am in Texas or the Washington DC area I will have my PRT coin with me for sure.

So Anonymous, I hope I answered your question. I am kinda miffed that this coin is being auctioned because there are many soldiers here in Regional Command South that are deserving of this coin. Oh well.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Rebuttal

2006-09-12T08:42:00.000Z

Two of my aunts commented on my last post directly via e-mail rather than using the comment feature. My aunt who resides in Winnipeg Manitoba bluntly stated that:

“Jack Layton does not speak for mainstream Canada.”

I can tell you right now that Jack Layton doesn’t speak for most of the Canadian military in Afghanistan either. The running joke was that they would be glad to set up a meeting with the Taliban for Layton anytime. He will just have to forego the body armor and armed escort. They will stand by to pick up his body and severed head afterwards!

My aunt who resides in upstate New York (originally from Canada) started off by saying that she disagreed with me. Here is her comment:

“I must disagree with you. We should have stayed in Afghanistan in the first place and finished the job there, rather than tilt at windmills in Iraq. Hussein is a bad man but he had nothing to do with 9/11 and no "weapons of mass destruction" have been found. Our incursion into Iraq only fueled the fire and unfortunately also exposed how stretched our forces are around the world. Take care.”

I will rebut her comment point by point.

We have more troops in Afghanistan now (US and NATO) now than we did when we toppled the Taliban government back in 2001. This year is the first real effort at hammering the Taliban in their territory (Kandahar and Helmand provinces). We never left so her comment on staying in Afghanistan and finishing the job is off the mark. As for “tilting at windmills in Iraq”, please reread my post “Stabbed in the Back” to see one of the many examples of how the media is not telling the full story of what is going on in Iraq.

Hussein was a bastard that the United States allowed to live after we defeated him and his military in 1991. Hussein had at his command a nation state. Nation states have the resources and the means to sponsor terrorists by supplying advanced weaponry and laundering money. He may not have been directly involved in the planning of the 9/11 attacks, but HE WAS CONNECTED TO TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS! By flouting United Nations resolutions he gave us a reason to invade. Hussein was not living up to his end of the deal and the only way to sort him out was to remove him from power.

As for “weapons of mass destruction”, we did find old munitions and some precursor materials. Was President Bush wrong on emphasizing “weapons of mass destruction”? That was a political decision on how to gain support for the initial invasion. Overall, there were many other reasons to invade. How about all the men and women that his regime killed, raped, and tortured since 1991? Those deaths are partially our fault so I see his removal from power as something we were morally obligated to do. What about the “Oil for Food Program”? The Europeans were debasing themselves in corrupting that program and that sordid mess had to be stopped.

The “fueled the fire” comment is laughable. Like I already mentioned in previous posts, our enemy hates us for what we are. The United States pulled out of Saudi Arabia and we still get grief. We intervened in Bosnia and Kosovo saving many Muslims from certain death and we still get grief. Israel pulls out of Gaza and southern Lebanon and is thanked with rockets. Israel offered Arafat a sweet heart deal and he rejects it! It doesn’t matter what we do, it is WHO AND WHAT WE ARE!

As for the “exposed how stretched our forces are around the world” comment, there is some merit to that comment but not much. NATO has more troops per square kilometer in the Balkans than in Afghanistan. Unfortunately the killing will resume in the Balkans should NATO leave so that is not an option. The United States spends 4.06% of GDP on defense spending and has 2.09% of its fit for service population in uniform (I used the CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia for reference). That is half of what we were spending and half the number of personnel in 1991! The United States can easily build up its military to 1991 levels without impacting the economy or increasing taxes. All that is required is a political decision to reallocate government spending and the will of parents to encourage their children to serve. Recently a forty one year old grandmother joined the army along with her twenty one year old daughter. Pvt. Black is a Gen Xer like me. Where are all the Gen Y’s?

Here are some more of my observations that you all can chew on:

President Roosevelt led the United States during WWII. Germany never attacked us; Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost an average of 112,500 per year.
Truman finished that war by authorizing the use of two atomic weapons on Japan, saving numerous Allied and Japanese lives from a costly invasion. Truman, through the United Nations, led the United States to war in Korea. North Korea never attacked the United States. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost an average of 18,334 per year.
John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962 by sending in military advisers. Vietnam didn’t provoke that action by attacking the United States. When Vietnam seized the frigate in the Gulf of Tonkin, Johnson escalated our involvement. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost an average of 5,800 per year.
Grenada didn’t attack us. Neither did Panama. Nor did Bosnia and the Serbian province of Kosovo.
In the years since the 9/11 attacks, the United States has not been attacked because the Islamic Fascists have decided to fix themselves in the two countries we invaded. So far we have lost less than 3000 military personnel in 5 years!

I argue that because we have been proactive in taking the fight to the Islamic Fascists, our combat dead are far fewer than what it would be otherwise. Some people argue that the war started on 9/11. Others argue the war started in 1979 when the US Embassy was overrun in Iran. I argue that this conflict has been going on ever since before the battle of Tours-Poitiers fought in 732 AD.

Political will and the courage to recognize that we are in an existential war with Islamic Fascists are what are needed to win. We Westerners didn’t start it, the Islamic Fascists did, and it is up to us to finish it.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Patriot Day

2006-09-11T16:01:00.000Z

I am in Afghanistan now because five years ago today the United States was attacked. It was a brilliantly executed plan and extremely successful. Close to three thousand people died at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a small patch of land near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Smarter people than me have written reams of material explaining why we were attacked and how we should have responded. I want you all to know what I think.

We Westerners are by and large good people who try to do right by our families. We have a lifestyle that would make Solomon blush because of how we define our relationships with each other and our government. Westerners live with consensual government, free inquiry, innovative enterprise, and rationalism. We place a high value on freedom and individualism.

Our enemy, Islamic Fascists, hate us for what we are yet want the toys we create (cell phones, advanced weaponry, cars, etc). They believe Westerners are decadent and immoral yet the vast majority of Westerners willingly choose to abide by Christian principles. They believe in a government by decree and fatwa and we Westerners prefer the freewheeling mess of a representative democracy. There is no such thing as dissent in their eyes yet we tolerate a level of insult and epithet in order to protect free speech. Westerners believe in civic duty and responsibility and they treat civic positions as a way to enrich themselves and their tribe. They believe if something happens or doesn’t happen, inch’Allah (Allah wills it) whereas Westerners have a more rational and systematic approach to make things happen. Everything that is wrong with them is the fault of the West, not their own sordid and repressive culture. They treat their own women like chattel and keep them under wraps whereas Western women are free and independent. When a Western woman marries she made the decision, not her family.

So who are these Islamic Fascists anyway? They are Sunni and Shia and are found all over the world. Thanks to the Middle East Research Institute we Westerners can read for ourselves the vitriol purveyed to the masses of the Islamic world. Our problem as Westerners is that so many of us don’t believe there is a threat. Amazingly, there are Westerners who actually believe Western society is not worth saving and welcome any attacks from Islamic Fascists as justified.

I have seen the enemy and trust me on this, it ain’t us. I have watched Taliban videos where men who taught at government schools are shown being interrogated and then cut to where they are bound, blindfolded, and lying on the ground. While being held down their heads were hacked off by a man using a small dull knife. On other videos I have seen men sign up for Jihad, do a video will, and then see their pictures with a date and location of their suicide attacks with a claimed number of killed.

Some people like Jack Layton of the Canadian New Democratic Party suggest that we can negotiate with the Taliban. Based on what I have seen, not bloody likely. To an Easterner negotiation is an extension of the conflict whereas Westerners view negotiation as an end to conflict. We Westerners must not be seduced by the siren song of “negotiation”, we just have to kill them.

The last major shooting war where we fought Fascists was WWII. We never negotiated with the Germans, Italians, and the Japanese. The Western way of war is based on killing the enemy on an industrial scale. We have not really started killing Islamic Fascists in large enough numbers to actually change their minds about their Fascist ideology nor have we engaged all of the regimes that promote that ideology.

Therein lays the rub. We are in a war whether we like or not. The Islamic Fascists started it! To all those people in the United States and the Western world who think that we can just pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan and the problem will just go away are sadly mistaken. The Islamic Fascists will keep coming and coming until we as a society make the decision to finally deal with them once and for all.

Think about that when you are going about your business on Patriot Day.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Eventful Week

2006-09-08T19:41:00.000Z

Last Saturday I joined a mission that was aimed at visiting some key leaders in an area that was about to be blown all to hell by ISAF forces. The messages we were pushing was that ISAF is capable of killing lots of Taliban, ISAF will stick around when it is done, and that ISAF will help the supporters of the Afghan government out.

We held numerous shuras (meetings) with local village elders and a member of the Wolesi Jirga (the Afghan legislature). We coordinated for the delivery of American supplied material assistance (the Canadian government doesn’t like to use the term humanitarian assistance) that included basic foodstuffs, blankets, and tractors. In the picture I am on the left with my British Army colleague on the right.

Our mission had American, Canadian, and British personnel. Our mission was the velvet glove wrapped around the iron fist. We were delivering aid while the US Air Force was pounding the hell out of Taliban positions with Canadian troops poised to mop up the remnant Taliban.

The patrol base we staged from was pretty close to Taliban positions. Through the night I would be awakened by 500 and 1000 pound bombs going off close enough that I would feel the shock wave. Apache helicopters and A-10’s would blast the Taliban positions with chain guns and Hellfire missiles. No one got a decent nights rest.

The friendly fire incident you may have heard about happened less then a kilometer away where Pte. Mark Anthony Graham tragically lost his life. The Taliban staged a successful ambush less than 300 meters from the patrol base and were successful. All of the families of those killed in the ambush will mourn their loss but one felt it more acutely. WO Richard Francis Nolan was one of the soldiers killed and his wife arrived at the patrol base that morning because she is also in the Canadian Army. She found out about an hour after WO Nolan died as soon as she dismounted from the vehicle she was riding. They had children.

Our patrol was ambushed also but we got lucky. The Taliban threw mortars, RPG’s, and machinegun fire at us. I was a passenger in the lead vehicle so the Taliban started shooting as soon as we got into the kill zone. I was on the side being shot at so I was calling out targets to the gunner through the vehicle communications system. By the time the gunner got eyes on the target he couldn’t engage because the target left his assigned sector of fire. A mortar position (I originally thought it was an RPG) shot early enough that the gunner engaged the position. The mortar landed three meters from my window.

By shooting at my vehicle the Taliban revealed their positions. The vehicles behind us had better views of the targets and blasted the hell out them. The Mark 19 grenade launcher shot around forty rounds and the gunner was laying them in wherever he saw a puff of smoke from a mortar or RPG position. All the other gunners (M2 .50 cal and M240B 7.62mm) stitched rounds into anyone that was carrying an AK-47 or shooting a machine gun.

When we arrived at our destination we inspected the vehicles and we didn’t find any indicator of being hit. No scratched paint and no injuries. They MISSED! We were lucky because lately the Taliban have been pretty effective with their ambushes.

We ran an impromptu vehicle check point and I damn near blew away a couple of guys. The men had waved a car through then all of a sudden they started yelling at me to stop the car. I waved them to stop but the car kept coming and I brought my rifle up and thumbed the safety. The car stopped and the men surrounded the car yelling at them to get out, in English. I almost yelled at the men to just motion for the occupants to get out but the interpreter arrived and sorted the situation out. The occupants had an AK-47 and an RPG launcher. It turned out that they were off duty police. They were a bit truculent until we explained to them that we just fought through an ambush and that they were not in uniform!

The last couple of days we were staging from the Canadian PRT in Kandahar City. The only interesting thing to note from the last couple of days was that riding in the back of an RG-31 Nyala vehicle with a malfunctioning air conditioner is about as close to hell as I want to go. Every time we hit a bump I bounced so hard that I hit the ceiling with my head (thankfully I had my helmet on) and it was close to 50° C (122° F)! Two hours after dismounting the vehicle I was still soaked in sweat. You can see a Nyala on the left side of the picture above.

All this craziness is going on in the Panjwayi and Zhari districts of Kandahar Province. Kandahar Province is not in flames, only Panjwayi and Zhari. There is no resurgence of Taliban, they have always been here. It is only just this year that we are actively seeking out and engaging the Taliban.

My bride is breathing easier now that I am back at Kandahar Airfield. She wants me to put more effort into buying more carpets rather than going on missions! I am getting pretty short anyway so if they ask for my assistance again I will probably decline unless I am directly ordered which is unlikely.

I had a pretty eventful week.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Intellectual Rigor

2006-08-28T10:54:00.000Z

Has anyone taken the time to read the ruling issued by Judge Taylor re Case No. 06-CV-10204, ACLU v NSA? I have. You can download the ruling from the Council of Foreign Affairs here. I wanted to read it for myself after reading all the articles praising and condemning it.

Full disclosure. I am not an attorney nor did I sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night. My bride and the mother of my sons is a practicing attorney but that does not nor should it imply that I know what I am talking about. Having said that, even a non attorney like me can see where the ruling comes up short (I did take classes on constitutional history/law as an undergrad and as a graduate student).

Judge Taylor’s ruling reminded me of an e-mail my colleague received the other day. The author couldn’t help but throw in little editorial comments here and there. I am sure the comments were meant to plus up the credibility of the author. Instead of relying on facts to support his thesis, he had to throw in puffery that only made him appear to be an idiot. What the author accomplished was to cement our collective opinion that the author is an oxygen thief.

Oxygen thief, ration converter, dead baby, and other base epithets describe the idiots among us. The military is a human organization so we expect to contend with useless people. Because forward deployed units deal with life and death, we strive to minimize their influence.

Judge Anna Diggs Taylor is an oxygen thief. Appointed by President Carter in 1979, she has been allowed to serve ever since. Amazing. If this ruling is of similar quality to her previous rulings and opinions, she should have been impeached long ago.

Smarter people than me have already written about the rulings shortcomings so I will not comment on the ruling itself. You can read this article (you might have to register) by Ann Althouse, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin instead. You can also read this editorial from the Wall Street Journal or Andrew McCarthy’s piece written for the National Review. I must share what I think are the best quotes.

From Dr. Althouse:

…the judge has a constitutional duty, under the doctrine of standing, to respond only to concretely injured plaintiffs who are suing the entity that caused their injury and for the purpose of remedying that injury. We trust the judge to say what the law is because the judge “must of necessity expound and interpret” in order to decide cases, as Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in Marbury. But Judge Taylor breezed through two of the three elements of standing doctrine — this constitutional limit on her power — in what looks like a headlong rush through a whole series of difficult legal questions to get to an outcome in her heart she knew was right.

From the Wall Street Journal:

So let's set aside the judge's Star Chamber rhetoric and try to examine her argument, such as it is. Take the Fourth Amendment first. The "unreasonable search and seizure" and warrant requirements of that amendment have their roots in the 18th-century abuses of the British crown. Those abuses involved the search and arrest of the King's political opponents under general and often secret warrants.

Judge Taylor sees an analogy here, but she manages to forget or overlook that no one is being denied his liberty and no evidence is being brought in criminal proceedings based on what the NSA might learn through listening to al Qaeda communications. The wiretapping program is an intelligence operation, not a law-enforcement proceeding. Congress was duly informed, and not a single specific domestic abuse of such a wiretap has yet been even alleged, much less found.

As for the First Amendment, Judge Taylor asserts that the plaintiffs--a group that includes the ACLU and assorted academics, lawyers and journalists who believe their conversations may have been tapped but almost surely weren't--had their free-speech rights violated because al Qaeda types are now afraid to speak to them on the phone.

From McCarthy:

In the real system of separated powers devised by the Framers, the courts of the United States had no role — none — in defending this nation from foreign threats. That was to be the job of the president and the Congress, which is to say, the officials actually accountable to the citizens whose lives were at stake.

While Judge Taylor bleats about the need to respect “checks and balances,” the check our system has designed for national-security matters is political, not judicial. It implicates the right of all citizens collectively — the body politic — to self preservation. It is not concerned with such comparative trifles as the insatiable idio-obsessions of “activists” and gadflies — however theatrically petrified they may seem over the possibility that, for example, their “right” to shoot the breeze with Ayman Zawahiri might be “chilled” if the NSA lends its ears … along with an audience that already includes every foreign intelligence service on the planet.

The standing rules that Judge Taylor shunned are there for a reason. It is not a legalism. It is not some abstruse jurisprudential technicality that you’d need an Ivy League law degree to decipher. It is about the right of the American people to govern themselves.

There is a difference between collecting evidence for use in a criminal prosecution and the collection of information for use as intelligence. To listen in on a man who uses his phone to set up contract “hits” so he can monopolize Jefferson City’s drug trade does require a warrant. I don’t think a warrant is required to listen in on conversations between Joe Taliban in Afghanistan and his cousin, Masoud living in Jefferson City, coordinating the purchase of cell phones for use in IED trigger mechanisms! Article 3, § 3 of the US Constitution defines treason. If Masoud is a US citizen and he was in fact colluding with his cousin Joe Taliban, Masoud is conducting a treasonous act, not perpetrating a crime.

Congress is charged under Article 1, § 8 of the US Constitution to provide for the common defense among other things. Congress dictates how intelligence is collected. Article 2, § 2 states that the President is the Commander in Chief of the military. Article 3 defines the role of Judiciary and does give the ACLU the right to sue the NSA (Article 3, § 2) but nowhere in Article 3 does it mention that it has jurisdiction over the nation’s conduct of war but as mentioned already, does define treason. McCarthy is right in that war is a political issue, that is why the US Constitution charges elected officials to prosecute war, not the judiciary!

Judge Taylor’s poorly written ruling will be overturned. Unfortunately, it will be overturned because of her baleful lack of intellectual rigor, not on the strength of the arguments put forth by the defendant, the National Security Agency. Because of that, the ACLU will still argue that “warrantless” eavesdropping on conversations between foreign nationals working to kill my family and residents of the United States who are cooperating with the aforementioned foreign nationals are still illegal.

This is a hell of a way to fight a war.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

So Long and God Speed

2006-08-26T13:43:00.000Z

Task Force Orion has left Afghanistan and they have built an enduring legacy for the Canadian Army. My colleague and I had a cigar with L Col Ian Hope, the task force commander, the night he left and we chatted about the way ahead and how we should be sorting out the Taliban. We also talked about Western Civilization, the works of Dr. Hanson (L Col Hope and I share the same enthusiasm for Dr. Hanson’s work), and the necessity of political will and the need for “heads on spikes”.

I hated to see them leave. I really enjoyed working with L Col Hope and the Patricia’s. It was a tough tour for them. They were in contact with enemy forces pretty much every day they were in Afghanistan. They are one tired bunch and you can see it on L Col Hope’s face. Despite all the nastiness they had to contend with, they made me a part of them.

L Col Hope and his staff bent over backwards to make me feel at home when I first reported for duty. They took my critiques and my advice to heart. As soon as the task force was able to they implemented the recommendations I made. These guys were willing to change procedures because they wanted to be the best and provide the most optimum conditions for their soldiers down range.

I was born in Melita, Manitoba. If my family had stayed in Canada, I would most likely have joined the Canadian Army. I would like to think that I would have been assigned to the Patricia’s or a unit that is affiliated with them. After twenty years of service to the US Army Reserve and the Missouri National Guard, I was finally deployed to a shooting war. I thought it was provident that I was detailed to Task Force Orion and that I was able to fight alongside my former countrymen. I believe that was no coincidence.

It has been a great honour serving with them. I will miss them dearly. Task Force Orion lost some good people. Volunteers all and from all parts of Canada, both regular and reserve, men and one woman. Here is the roll.

On 2 March 2006 Cpl. Paul Davis, Bridgewater, Novia Scotia and Master Cpl. Timothy Wilson, Grande Prairie, Alberta were killed when their LAV collided with a taxi that failed to yield. Five other soldiers were injured including their interpreter.

On 29 March 2006 Pte Robert Costall was killed in action defending a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Helmand Province. Eight Afghan soldiers plus one US soldier died as well. He was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario and based in Edmonton with the 1st Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. He was married and the father of a baby boy.

On 22 April 2006, four soldiers were killed when their G-Wagon struck an IED. Killed in the incident were Cpl. Matthew Dinning, born in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and stationed at Petawawa, Ontario, Lt. William Turner, born in Toronto, Ontario and stationed at Edmonton, Alberta, Bombardier Myles Mansell, born in Victoria, British Columbia and stationed at Victoria, British Columbia, and Cpl. Randy Payne, stationed at Wainwright, Alberta.

On 17 May 2006, Capt. Nichola Goddard of Shilo, Manitoba, was killed in action when she was hit with an RPG. She was a Forward Observation Officer with the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, Shilo, Manitoba. Her artillery unit deployed with the Patricia's. Goddard was the first woman in Canadian history killed in a combat role and the first female member of the Canadian military killed in combat since the Second World War.

On 10 July 2006, Cpl. Anthony Joseph Boneca, a 21-year-old from Thunder Bay, Ontario was killed in action west of Kandahar City. He was on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. He volunteered to serve with the Patricia’s for this deployment. He was a reservist from the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment based in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

On 22 July 2006, Cpl. Francisco Gomez, 44, of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry based in Edmonton, Alberta and Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren, 29, of Montreal's The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada died when the Bison they were in was hit by a suicide bomber. Eight other soldiers were wounded in the attack. The supply convoy that they were a part of was returning from a supply run.

On 3 August 2006, four Patricia’s were killed. Cpl. Christopher Jonathan Reid, 34, of Truro, Novia Scotia was killed when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb near Kandahar. Later on the same day, Sgt. Vaughan Ingram, 35, from Burgeo, Newfoundland and Labrador, Cpl. Bryce Jeffrey Keller, 27, of Sherwood Park, Alberta, Pte. Kevin Dallaire, 22, of Calgary, Alberta were killed in action supporting Afghan National Police clearing a suspected Taliban position in Zhari District. Three other soldiers were wounded in the RPG attack.

On 5 August 2006, Master Cpl. Raymond Arndt, 31, of Edson, Alberta was killed when his G Wagon was struck by a civilian truck. He was a reservist with the Loyal Edmonton Regiment. Three others were wounded. They were delivering medical supplies to a FOB south of Kandahar City.

On 11 August, Cpl. Andrew James Eykelenboom, 23, of Comox, British Columbia, was killed when his vehicle was struck by a suicide bomber. He was a medic based in Edmonton, Alberta with the 1st Field Ambulance.

Volunteers all!

"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"

And I said, "Here am I. Send me!

Isaiah 6: 5-8

I will always remember the sacrifices Task Force Orion made. Task Force Orion made a positive impact in Afghanistan. Canada should be proud of what they accomplished. I know I am.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Embedded in Reality

2006-08-21T21:24:00.000Z

I am now working at Task Force Aegis (the brigade headquarters). The incoming Canadian Battle Group (made up mostly of soldiers from the Royal Canadian Regiment) brought their own Information Operations officer so that freed me up to go back to brigade. Before, I was spending half of my time at the battle group and the other half at brigade. I am now spending all of my time at brigade.

Because of the ongoing unit rotations I had to get a “letter of input” for my evaluation before the Patricia’s redeployed back to Canada. I had a sit down with my rater for the first time today (I should have met my rater as soon as I arrived at Kandahar Airfield. I didn’t because I went straight to work for the Patricia’s). During our sit down we talked about our backgrounds, how we ended up in Afghanistan, the work we are doing here, and observations of our coalition brethren.

The focus of my observations are those who “get it” and those who don’t. By “get it” I mean those who understand what Information Operations is all about and when properly conducted and managed will facilitate the killing of Taliban in large numbers. Information Operations doesn’t work by itself, it is the velvet glove wrapped around the iron fist. The words only are effective when you back them up with deeds.

The Canadians: My new boss, a Canadian Major who is the number two Info Ops officer at brigade (I am the number three), commented that we should start calling the Canadian battle group the “Kinetic Canucks”. Most of the Canadian staff officers at brigade and the commander of the battle group “get it”. It’s in the news that the Canadians are piling on the Taliban which makes it easier for me as an Info Ops bubba to get my message out.

The Romanians: They “get it” also. Their equipment isn’t as good as ours but they are trying hard.

The Estonians: Nice guys, excellent English, but they don’t have any combat troops here so I can’t comment on whether they get it.

The Danes: See Estonians.

The French: No, they don’t get it. They were more concerned about having parties at their compound and scoring chicks (easy to do when you have free booze). Plus, they seriously underestimated some situations and it cost them.

The Dutch: They just took over the province I was at for six months. Boy, are they in for a treat. THEY DON’T GET IT!!! Austin Powers said it best, “there are two kinds of people I hate, those who are intolerant and the Dutch!” One of the first things they did on Kandahar Airfield was build a bloody nightclub (no booze though) that’s invitation only. Way to prioritize your efforts guys. Idiots.

Staff Weenies from NATO/ISAF: They don’t get it. Yesterday, the Canadians were raising hell with the Taliban and we didn’t hear a peep from NATO/ISAF. Well, it was Sunday after all and when you work for an organization that is called NATO (short for Not After Two O’clock), we shouldn’t have expected them to raise any interest in the boisterous activities in Regional Command South! The Canadians did NATO/ISAF a favor. The local Kandaharis are starting to think that NATO/ISAF can actually fight so instead of “I Suck At Fighting”, ISAF will only stand for “I Should Ask First”.

The Brits: They get it. They are kicking the snot out of the Taliban in Helmand Province. Today I was watching BBC World with a couple of our interpreters and I noticed that the Brits had fixed bayonets! I thought that was too funny! (Anyone who has seen Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, Eddie Izzard’s comedy special Dress to Kill, or has spent some time around Brits will know of what I speak). Here is how I think they were driven to fix bayonets:

Subaltern: Sir, the men are irritated that we have run out of water. I am afraid that they may get a bit cross if we have no afternoon tea.
Commander: Right, will the water from the Helmand River make good tea?
Subaltern: If we boil the water and not use chemicals, the tea should be fine.
Commander: Very well, we must have tea so organize a detail.
Subaltern: Right sir, and oh, here comes a runner. My God man! Why on earth are you running in this dreadful heat?
Runner: Sir, we have spotted movement about and the platoon commander believes the Taliban are attempting to encircle our position.
Subaltern: Sir, I believe that we may not be able to send the water detail to the Helmand River.
Commander: That’s dash cunning of them! Interfering with our afternoon tea. What a bloody nuisance they have become. Color Sergeant!
Color Sergeant: Yes sir!
Commander: Kindly have the men fix bayonets and sort out this bloody nuisance the Taliban have become. We must have afternoon tea.
Color Sergeant: Very good sir! COMPANY!! FIX!! BAYONETS!!

Flag Gazer commented on my last post that she appreciates humor imbedded in reality. I have a lot of reality and I have to see the humor or I would go postal.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Coalition Terrorist Threat Levels

2006-08-20T09:55:00.000Z

In light of the recent arrest of would be suicide bombers in the United Kingdom and elsewhere who were planning to blow up civilian aircraft travelling over the Atlantic Ocean, we Americans along with our European friends have increased the threat level of imminent terrorist attack.

The Europeans do not use a color coded like us. I believe their system is a better reflection of their national characters.

The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings and security threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross."

Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

Also, the French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Surrender" and "Collaborate." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

It's not only the English and French that are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose."

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Values?

2006-08-18T17:48:00.000Z

One of the people who commented on my last post posits that we can’t win against our current enemy with today’s “values”. So you don’t have to scroll all the way to the end of the last post, Zach’s comment follows:

Can a military that relies heavily on reserve call-ups win this new kind of war?
Can we win "Eastern" wars with Western values?

Only if we can find the vaules that helped us win WWI and WWII. So, the answer is.. No... we cant win with todays "values."

Zach’s comment answers the second question that LTC (Ret) Ralph Peters raised, winning an “Eastern” war with Western values. I think “values” and political will are being confused.

Do you believe that we Westerners don’t have it in us to kill the enemy? Please read “Carnage and Culture” by Victor Davis Hanson, PhD where he states that:

"The Western way of war is so lethal precisely because it is so amoral shackled rarely by concerns of ritual, tradition, religion, or ethics, by anything other than military necessity."

I want to hone in on the word “amoral”. Much is said today about morals and values. Can we win with Western values? What values are we talking about anyway? Do I love my sons differently than how my Dad loved me and my brother when were children? Are we referring to cultural mores where, in my opinion, we Generation Xers were promiscuous but the next generation would make Caligula blush?

We need to divorce the concept of “values” and “mores” from “attributes”. What makes us Westerners are our institutions and ideals such as consensual government, free inquiry and innovative enterprise, rationalism, and the value placed on freedom and individualism. The vulgarity of our culture is a small price to pay for the wealth and freedoms we enjoy and besides, there are far more people who try to live by the Ten Commandments than people who are pursuing a “hedonistic” lifestyle.

Back to “amoral”. The Western attributes of free inquiry, innovative enterprise, and rationalism have given us an economy that is able to produce a frightening war making capability. Al Queda may have knocked down the World Trade Center but we were able to put boots on the ground that were supported by satellite guided munitions and communications. Al Queda killed close to three thousand people on 11SEP2001. We have killed far more of them. The thing is, we could have killed many more.

In my last post I alluded to my disgust with ISAF because they don’t get it. The primary reason they don’t get it is because they don’t understand that Regional Command South (RC-South) is totally different from RC-North and RC-West. The Taliban originated in RC-South and they are not going away quietly. There are newspaper articles out there proclaiming a new Taliban insurgency. Newsflash people, the Taliban never really left, we only just this year started to fight them seriously in RC-South! Another reason they don’t get it is because they are European staff officers who are not aggressive about getting on with it.

In my conversations with some of the people of Afghanistan, the more knowledgeable ones are wondering why we aren’t getting on with it. They know we can kill with impunity from the air and from the ground (the Taliban may be great warriors, but Westerners are better soldiers) but we are seen as not being aggressive enough.

This leads me to my number one complaint about my job as an Information Operations officer. I am not the “cute and cuddly”, “warm and fuzzy”, officer that only deals with “non-kinetic” operations. According to Army Field Manual 3-13, destruction is one of the effects I try to achieve in the physical and information battle spaces. Officers who don’t get it look at me and ask “what can Info Ops do?” I respond with “Killing them supports Info Ops theme number three so go ahead and kill them” and they look at me in shock!!

LTC (Ret) Ralph Peters alludes to my frustrations in an article published in the Summer 2004 edition of Parameters (published by the US Army War College) found here. I quote:

…we shall hear no end of fatuous arguments to the effect that we can’t kill our way out of the problem. Well, until a better methodology is discovered, killing every terrorist we can find is a good interim solution. The truth is that even if you can’t kill yourself out of the problem, you can make the problem a great deal smaller by effective targeting…

With hardcore terrorists, it’s not about PSYOP or jobs or deploying dental teams. It’s about killing them. Even regarding the general population, which benefits from our reconstruction and development efforts, the best thing we can do for them is to kill terrorists and insurgents. Until the people of Iraq are secure, they are not truly free. The terrorists know that. We pretend otherwise.

Substitute Iraq with Afghanistan or any other terrorist haven and we have a solution but we need the political will to make it happen.

That’s the whole point. Zach’s answer about not winning with today’s “values” should read we won’t win unless we make the political decision to do so. We have far too many senior officers who think we can Info Ops our way out of it when we should be using Info Ops to facilitate more killing. The Afghans want the Taliban dead and we should oblige them. The citizens of our coalition brethren plus our own people need to make a decision as to how we want to prosecute the war, fight to win or fight half assed.

We Westerners have everything we need to win. Values? We don’t need them, only the will to win.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Will it Hold?

2006-08-15T18:36:00.000Z

One of the biggest problems we have in southern Afghanistan is a resurgent Taliban. Pakistan is our contemporary version of what Cambodia and Laos used to be for the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. The Taliban leadership hole up in Quetta and from there sends money and advisers. The government of Pakistan is ostensibly helping but for many years they have refused to govern the northern part of their country that borders Afghanistan. With an intelligence service that is riddled with Wahhabi diehards, President Musharraf is walking a very thin tightrope in trying to establish credible governmental authority in northern Pakistan.

Israel is dealing with a similar situation. After thirty four days of conflict Hezbollah (who operated from southern Lebanon), Lebanon, and Israel have agreed to abide by United Nations Resolution 1701 which you can read for yourself by clicking here (it is a PDF file). Israel will hand off Lebanese territory to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) who in turn will hand over the territory to the Lebanese Army. The Lebanese Army is supposed to supply 15,000 troops and UNIFIL will be increased to 15,000 troops as well. They will do joint patrols (sorta like what we do in Afghanistan with the Afghan National Army). Here is the kicker, the Lebanese Army is supposed to be the only recognized ARMED force in Lebanon, implying that Hezbollah must disarm.

In my humble opinion, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Taliban are all cut from the same cloth and have the same sponsors. Iran, Syria, and some Pakistani factions have no interest in a stable and self governing Lebanon or Afghanistan. The Islamist Fascists we are fighting against need a base of operations which a non-functioning state provides. There is also the idea that your typical Muslim nowadays doesn't identify with the state but with their culture and religion. I quote from this article by Mark Steyn:

Here's a clue, from a recent Pew poll that asked: What do you consider yourself first? A citizen of your country or a Muslim?

In the United Kingdom, 7 percent of Muslims consider themselves British first, 81 percent consider themselves Muslim first.

And that's where the really valid Lebanese comparison lies. Lebanon is a sovereign state. It has an executive and a military. But its military has less sophisticated weaponry than Hezbollah and its executive wields less authority over its jurisdiction than Hezbollah. In the old days, the Lebanese government would have fallen and Hezbollah would have formally supplanted the state. But non-state actors like the Hezbo crowd and al-Qaida have no interest in graduating to statehood. They've got bigger fish to fry. If you're interested in establishing a global caliphate, getting a U.N. seat and an Olympic team only gets in the way. The "sovereign" state is of use to such groups merely as a base of operations, as Afghanistan was and Lebanon is. They act locally but they think globally.

And that indifference to the state can be contagious. Lebanon's Christians may think of themselves as "Lebanese," but most of Hezbollah's Shiite constituency don't. Western analysts talk hopefully of fierce differences between Sunni and Shiite, Arab and Persian, but it's interesting to note the numbers of young Sunni men in Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere in recent weeks who've decided that Iran's (Shiite) President Ahmadinejad and his (Shiite) Hezbo proxies are the new cool kids in town. During the '90s, we grew used to the idea that "non-state actors" meant a terrorist group, with maybe a few hundred activists, a few thousand supporters. What if entire populations are being transformed into "non-state actors"? Not terrorists, by any means, but at the very minimum entirely indifferent to the state of which they're nominally citizens.

A few of us were sitting around the office wondering what the real goal of Hezbollah was and by extension Iran and Syria. If I learned anything from Gunny Poole, it’s all about the deception, baby. If a non-functioning state is in the best interests of Hezbollah et al, why not get a sworn enemy to do the work for you? How about “creating chaos to make an enemy easier to beat” (one of the 36 stratagems of deception from China).

LTC (Ret) Peters recently wrote an article listing lessons learned from the recent conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. You can read the article here. What follows are the main points he wanted to make.

1: You can win every tactical engagement and still lose at the strategic level.
2: The global media can overturn the verdict of the battlefield.
3: If you start off on the wrong foot in war, you may never recover your balance.
4: Technology alone can't win 21st-century wars.
5: Never underestimate your enemy.
6: In war, take the pain up front, and the overall suffering will be far less.
7: Terrorism is no longer a limited, diffuse, disorganized threat.

As an Information Operations Officer in southern Afghanistan, I am trying to sort out points 1 and 2 (media operations, messaging, and psychological operations), and points 4 and 5 (our western predisposition to look condescendingly on an adversary not as technically advanced as us). Peters also raises the following two questions:

Can a military that relies heavily on reserve call-ups win this new kind of war?
Can we win "Eastern" wars with Western values?

Peters argues that Hezbollah isn’t some rabble with an AK-47 and a couple of magazines. Israeli soldiers encountered well disciplined fighters fighting from well prepared positions with planned exits. They had launched close to 4000 rockets into Israel, used the latest anti-tank weapons, and deployed reconnaissance drones. Israel is going to have to think long and hard about restructuring its military to counter the new professionalism of Hezbollah fighters.

As for the second question, Peters implies that the West will have to sacrifice its values and fight by the enemy's rules in order to win. The example he used was that Israel could have leveled apartment buildings to kill the Hezbollah command centers but instead Israel tried surgical strikes using commandos at great risk

I have to respectfully disagree with the LTC (Ret) Peters. The West is very good at killing people on a large and industrial scale. Ask any person of Japanese or German descent that was around during WWII. Or read Dr. Hanson’s “Carnage and Culture”. We won’t sacrifice our values to win, we just have to make a POLITICAL decision to win and win decisively.

So, what now for Israel and Hezbollah. Lebanon will have to assert sovereignty in her southern area and Hezbollah will have to disarm. I don’t see it happening because Hezbollah has more advanced weaponry and better training than the Lebanese Army. UNIFIL will have to assert its authority by killing violators of the ceasefire who will more than likely be Hezbollah fighters. Because UNIFIL never asserted its authority in the first place, increasing its end strength to 15, 000 with soldiers from countries that think Israel is the real problem and that Germany should have finished the job will not be “combat effective” against Hezbollah.

You are probably wondering why I am talking about Israel and Hezbollah more than I am talking about Afghanistan. With the recent Transfer of Authority (TOA) with the NATO led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), we are coming to the realization here in Regional Command South that ISAF doesn’t “get it”. I firmly believe that the Taliban “gets it” and is exploiting the situation. I wish I could say more but I would seriously compromise our operations. To give you a hint of what we are dealing with, ISAF stands for either “I Should Ask First” or “I Suck At Fighting”, depending on what unbelievable pile of crap is excreted from ISAF in Kabul.

Will the ceasefire hold between Hezbollah and Israel? Will ISAF be able to hold what gains we made in southern Afghanistan when we were under Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)? We can defeat the Taliban and Israel can totally defeat Hezbollah. Afghans who have studied our history are asking us why aren’t we getting on with it. We are very good at killing the enemy; we just need the political decision to unleash the dogs of war.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Stabbed in the Back

2006-08-08T16:55:00.000Z

Back in January a story was published in the Washington Post describing the situation in Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan. The PRT I was formally assigned to is at Tarin Kowt, the provincial capitol. You can link to the story here but because it was printed last January you will have to pay to see the rest.

I set up the interviews that Griff Witte, the reporter, had with some of the US troops. I also connected him to one of our computer networks so he can have Internet access to publish his story. When the story was printed we all thought he gave us and the coalition forces in the area a fair shake. He pointed out that Oruzgan Province is a tough province and there is a lot of work to be done but he did it fairly.

Fast forward to this month. I am really disappointed in Mr. Witte and his partner, Andy Mosher. It appears that these two so called journalists didn’t give my brethren in Iraq a fair shake at all. The article can be found here.

When you read the article it sounds like the Gulf Region Division, US Army Corps of Engineers, are all ate up. The reality is far different. Click here for the rebuttal written by MG William McCoy. Read it for yourself and you will see that Witte and Mosher are way off the mark.

I am taking this a little personally because I bent over backward to help Witte out when he visited the PRT. Judging by the tone of MG McCoy’s rebuttal, they rolled out the red carpet for Witte and Mosher. I know that the Gulf Region Division has top notch people working there because I know one of them. He and I were both 2nd Lieutenants in the 110th Engineer Battalion and he is now one of the Gulf Region Division’s operations officers.

This is a classic example of why we in the US military despise journalists. They lie, obfuscate, and selectively use a bare minimum of facts to get the “story” that follows a prearranged theme. We need reporters to report the facts, not journalists to make up a story. The public at home are not being served properly by these so called “journalists”. We help them and assist them and then they stab us in the back.

I’ll be damned if I ever help that little prick again.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Fighting the Long War and Going to the Beach

2006-08-06T18:22:00.000Z

I am back from Qatar and back at work. I had a very good time. On my last day I went cruising on a dhow and swam in the gulf. Pretty cool. Before I went on pass I received in an e-mail an interesting question. I was asked about what was going on between Lebanon and Israel. I am sure that there are many people back home that are wondering the same thing.

Right now I am reading Stephanie Guttmans book, The Other War, which discusses the media war between Israel and Yasser Arafat’s PLO during the so-called “Second Intifada”. I am continually amazed at the blatant bias directed against Israel in her efforts to secure her borders and protect her people. I knew that Israel always gets a bad rap but Gutmann points out that it didn’t always used to be that way. Israel has morphed from plucky new independent country to monstrous threat to the world at large.

There are a few articles out there that are arguing the case for Israel (and more arguing the case for Hezbollah and Hamas). I have nothing profound to say about the situation that others who are way smarter than me have already said.

Ralph Peters, a former intelligence officer, in his article here points out that the world will eventually pressure the Israelis to stop. Paragraph four is pretty scathing. I quote:

Europeans have more sympathy with Iran's nuclear program than they do with Israel's attempts at self-defense. But, then, the only thing continental Europeans regret about the Holocaust is that they didn't get to finish the job. Even as Europe suffers its own attacks by Islamist terrorists, Europeans defend the selfsame terrorists against Israeli retribution.

LTC (Ret) Peters isn’t kidding. Based on conversations I have overheard at the dining facility and elsewhere, I am embarrassed to report that some of my coalition brethren couldn’t really give one damn about Israel.

There has been much discussion about Israel’s use of force and how it is so disproportionate. For those of you without any military planning experience, you always go into the attack with disproportionate force. In some circles the planning factor for the ratio of attackers to defenders is three to one. When going after an enemy that fights asymmetrically, the ratio is even higher. Pierre Atlas in his article here makes an impassioned defense of Israel’s use of force. Mark Steyn has a biting article here and I quote:

But, when an army goes to war against a terrorist organization, it's like watching the Red Sox play Andre Agassi: Each side is being held to its own set of rules. When Hezbollah launches rockets into Israeli residential neighborhoods with the intention of killing random civilians, that's fine because, after all, they're terrorists and that's what terrorists do. But when, in the course of trying to resist the terrorists, Israel unintentionally kills civilians, that's an appalling act of savagery. Speaking at West Point in 2002, President Bush observed: "Deterrence -- the promise of massive retaliation against nations -- means nothing against shadowy terrorist networks with no nation or citizens to defend." Actually, it's worse than that. In Hezbollahstan, the deaths of its citizens works to its strategic advantage: Dead Israelis are good news but dead Lebanese are even better, at least on the important battlefield of world opinion.

This supports Guttmann’s thesis that the Israelis are not getting a fair shake in the media.

Speaking of getting a fair shake David Warren in his article here comments on the coverage of the Qana raid. At first the media was screaming that the air raid of Qana was an Israeli massacre and then coverage suddenly stopped. The reason the coverage mysteriously dropped was that the initial coverage was staged by Hezbollah. I quote:

Now look at the media pictures. Immediately you see several fishy things. For one, bodies displayed to media are removed, successively, from a single neat hole in the ruins. There is no evidence of a rescue mission having been mounted, or of a continuing search for bodies elsewhere under the rubble. The battered bodies do not resemble those which are seen after most real explosions and building collapses: their wounds do not look recent. All the blood and gore seems to be on just one body.

Moreover, as bloggers such as "Eureferendum" have demonstrated, by juxtaposing press photos from various newspapers, the men showing off the bodies -- and identified in captions as "Lebanese rescue workers" -- are the same as had been present at previous alleged atrocities. They are obviously not rescue workers, but Hezbollah propaganda agents.

Warren also states in his article that the Israelis dropped leaflets in the area for more than a week telling civilians to leave the area. Hezbollah, after using its rocket launchers from in between the houses in Qana, were moving them into the houses. Unfortunately, Hezbollah has a history of preventing at gun point civilians from leaving an area when Hezbollah needs dead civilians to amplify its message. Hezbollah must bear full blame for any civilian deaths (I am sure that civilians did die at Qana) but we must be cognizant that the Qana raid wasn’t the massacre it is alleged to be.

Why support Israel anyway? Why should we people of the West (North America and Europe) care about the Jews of Israel? What is Israel anyway?

Israel is the only functioning western style democracy in the entire Middle East. They have regular and transparent elections. They have a free market economy. They have an independent judiciary. They have a free press. In short, since Israel became a nation in 1948 they were able to carve out of the desert a pretty nice place to live, prior to that the place was a hovel.

The Israelis have nowhere else to go. They can’t go back to Europe because Europeans can’t stand them and tried to kill them off during WWII (It wasn’t just the Germans, people all over conquered Europe lent the Germans a helping hand). Besides, the enemy of Israel is also our enemy.

Al Qaeda, Hamas, HiG, Hezbollah, et al and their state sponsors (Syria and Iran) want to destroy the west and implement sharia law over the entire world. This is more than forcing Israel to give up land for peace. Israel left Gaza, the West Bank, and southern Lebanon and all they got was more grief. Her enemies want her destroyed.

We should identify with that. We lost close to three thousand people in one day on 11 SEP 2001 and we took the fight to Afghanistan and later Iraq. We need to let Israel do what Israel needs to do. Have I ever criticized Israel? Of course, I am an Information Operations officer and Israel has made some amazing blunders. What I will not criticize is her right to exist.

Victor Hanson, PhD, in this article here sees some similarities between now and the events of the 1930’s. His point is that we westerners are refusing to see what the real enemy is. I quote:

But nevertheless it is still surreal to reread the fantasies of Chamberlain, Daladier, and Pope Pius, or the stump speeches by Charles Lindbergh (“Their [the Jews’] greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government”) or Father Coughlin (“Many people are beginning to wonder whom they should fear most — the Roosevelt-Churchill combination or the Hitler-Mussolini combination.”) — and it is even more baffling to consider that such men ever had any influence.

Not any longer.

Our present generation too is on the brink of moral insanity. That has never been more evident than in the last three weeks, as the West has proven utterly unable to distinguish between an attacked democracy that seeks to strike back at terrorist combatants, and terrorist aggressors who seek to kill civilians.

Mark my words; we are in for a long war. My sons will probably be called to serve and I will do my best to prepare them for that eventuality. The question remains as to how we are to conduct ourselves. Do we take this seriously or do we just accept the ad hominem attacks to our values.

I close this post with another quote from an article by Peters found here. I quote:

They sunned themselves on the beach where Richard the Lionheart fought. Rockets fell 30 miles up the coast. But these Israelis played volleyball.

They weren't callous. They simply refused to let terror control their lives…………

It's long been a cliche to note that Israel "made the desert bloom" after long centuries of Arab abuse of the soil itself and the destruction of the Biblical landscape of "milk and honey." But the settlers and their children who built Israel did more than irrigate orange groves. They built a civilization where there had been only neglect, decay and oppression.

Above all, the Israelis planted democracy and the rule of law in fields that had been hostile to elementary human decency and dignity for thousands of years.

And on the seventh day, they went to the beach.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Old and New

2006-07-31T10:37:00.000Z

Well, I finally made it to Qatar three nights ago. The base is pretty nice. Every day at 1300 Hrs (1:00 PM) they have the sign-ups for the following days excursions. They give people who are close to returning back into theater first crack at them. They even have a sponsor program where people who work on base will take a few people into town but that program is spotty at best.

My first night I had two glasses of wine and one beer with my dinner. I really enjoyed that. On my first full day I got a manicure and a pedicure (my feet really needed it) and I went swimming in the pool. I signed up for the stand by list for the next days restaurant visit. Night before last I ate at the Chilis. They don't serve alcohol there (that is so un-American!!!) so I went back to the club and had my three glasses of wine.

Yesterday I signed up for the sponsor program hoping someone will take me to town. Sunday is supposedly the best day for sponsors to pick people up. Only two sponsors showed! I was twenty seven on the list so by the 1300 Hrs brief I was bumming. I did get a definite seat for tonight’s restaurant visit. I stuck around hoping that I would be able to get on last nights restaurant visit. Seven people didn't bother to show up so I was able to go. Two restaurant visits in a row plus today my group has first dibs on excursion sign-ups! Sweet!!

Last night I had grilled minced mutton, pickled cabbage, yoghurt with cucumber, and tea with mint. Afterwards we all retired to the veranda overlooking the docks (we were right by the water) and ordered houkas. I figure if you are in the Middle East you oughta smoke a houka at least once. This was unlike any tobacco experience I ever had.

The tobacco comes in different fruit flavors like apple, cherry, grape, and strawberry. I ordered a double apple. The attendant brings it out and it is a little over three feet tall. The base is transparent glass and you can see the water and the air pocket. From the base it is a metal pipe with two fittings to attach the tubes and mouthpieces. The metal pipe is topped with the bowl of tobacco. The bowl is covered in foil and the coals are on top of the foil. The bowl is covered with a metal canister.

I took my first draw and I expected to feel a burning sensation but I didn't. It was so smooth! I could only taste the apple; there was no hint of tobacco at all. Pretty soon I started to feel really good. I got a little light headed. After awhile the attendant came by with a ladle full of hot coals. He took off the canister, dumped the old coals into his ladle and gave me fresh ones. I could tell the houka needed more heat because the taste of the smoke got a little rough. Once I got new coals the smoke smoothed out.

Here I am in Qatar, full from a pretty good meal, smoking a houka by the water, looking at the skyline of the city, and right on the nose at 2000 Hrs (8:00 PM) I hear the call to prayers.

I can't even begin to explain how weird that felt. When I was in Tarin Kowt I sometimes performed officer of the watch duties. I would make my initial rounds and if I was in the right tower at the right time I could hear the call to prayer coming from Tarin Kowt. Pretty much most activity would stop during prayer time. When I heard the call to prayers in Qatar the traffic didn't stop and the attendants kept working. I half expected to see the traffic to stop and everyone jump out with their prayer rugs and start praying. That did not happen.

I guess the people of Qatar are trying to make the best of living in the twenty first century and still maintaining some semblance of their traditions. I was smoking a houka, an old tradition in the Middle East but the houka itself was of a new and modern design. The city I was observing is taking the time and effort to maintain the old tradition of calling to prayer but on the surface looked like any vibrant coastal city in the United States with a new and modern skyline. Last night I saw and felt just a little of how many people in the Middle East are trying to blend the old and new. I just hope they can make sense of it all.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Will I ever get to Qatar?

2006-07-27T12:25:00.000Z

All I want to do is take a few days off. That’s all, just a few days. But the US Air Force hasn’t been very helpful.

Last week I figured that if I wanted to ever take advantage of the Pass program I better do it soon. The planets were lining up nicely. The battle group I am assigned to is switching gears to a different type of operation. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO run operation, will be taking over Regional Command South from the US led Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). I have already prepared the required annexes to the operations orders for upcoming operations. Plus, it looks like I may be reassigned to TF Aegis (our higher HQ) to work in the plans cell. I figure now is the time to cut the umbilical and take a short break.

Last Sunday, I got the paperwork signed and placed myself on the wait list for a flight. I clear off my desk, configure my “out of office” message on all the e-mail systems I use, said good bye to everyone, and later that night I encamp myself at the terminal for a flight with a report time of 0400 Hrs local. I was the only one in the terminal going to Qatar. Everyone else was going to Bagram. When the Bagram flight was manifesting, I asked the dude at the desk about the status of the Qatar flight.

“Sorry sir, we just found out the bird has developed mechanical problems. They are going to attempt to fly anyway but will not take passengers.” My response, “I need to get to Qatar, what are my options?” “Tomorrow there is another flight departing at the same time.”

I trudge back to my quarters. My room mate was just getting up and was shocked to see me. I told him about the mechanical problems and he laughs (I would have also if I were in his shoes). He asks if I will go in to the office. “What? Are you kidding? I been up all bloody night and I will be up all night tonight again! Screw that, I will be in Qatar tomorrow.”

Monday I sleep till lunch time. I go to the gym, shower up, grab dinner, and then I trudge to the terminal. I ask about the status of the flight. “Sorry sir, that flights been cancelled.” I look at the guy in total disbelief. He tells me that there will be another flight tomorrow at the same time. This time I get the terminal phone number so I can call to verify my flight. I go back to my quarters, my room mate laughs at me again, and I hit the rack.

Tuesday, I do the same routine except this time I call and verify. The flight is still on. I trudge over to the terminal and ask the dude at the desk, flight is still on. I go over to the Green Beans Coffee joint (thank goodness they are open 24 hours) to enjoy a coffee and Danish while reading some investment reports on my laptop. I trudge back over, flight is still on. The flight arrives, they manifest everyone, me and three others can’t get on because the good folks in Bagram already put eight people on. Curses!! Foiled again!!!

Wednesday, same routine. My roommate tries to wake me up for lunch and I say I am not hungry. He then accuses me of being lazy and that I am just trying to avoid going to the office. My response was if I would have known that I would have been delayed as much as I have been, I would have willingly gone to the office but this whole staying up all night to catch a flight is getting intolerable. In any case, I call the terminal and the flight was cancelled!!! They did tell me about an Australian flight and they did get me their number.

Will I ever get to Qatar? I have a sure thing early Friday morning. I called the Aussies and they had one seat left. I am on it!! They have my name and service number. I am not on some wait list. There is a US flight tomorrow as well but screw those guys, I might get bumped or some other crazy thing will happen. Thank God for the Aussies! Hopefully, my next post will be from Qatar.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

What Kind of Men are We Up Against?

2006-07-14T06:49:00.000Z

I was recently asked to participate in a red cell to do some wargaming. I was given a stack of papers to read. Ugh! Tendentious, dry, boring. Fortunately for me I picked up a book when I was home on R&R at Downtown Book and Toy in Jefferson City that really helped me prepare. For those of you who really want to understand how the average militant muslim operates, I highly recommend Militant Tricks, Battlefield Ruses of the Islamic Insurgent by John Poole.

There are a slew of books out there that shed light on why we fight the way we do. One author, Victor Davis Hanson, PhD, has written numerous books on the western military tradition. One in particular, Carnage and Culture, uses key battles between western and non-western armies to illustrate how western civilization makes a superior military establishment. Another classicist, Donald Kagan, PhD, wrote in 1995 On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace, which helps us understand why western societies go to war.

Carnage and Culture discusses two battles where an Islamic country took on the west, Tours-Poitiers fought in 732 AD and Lepanto fought in 1571 AD (I am old school, I refuse to substitute AD for BCE “before the common era.” BCE is a crock of BS). The Islamic countries lost. They tried to emulate the west militarily but did not have the underlying institutions or cultural characteristics of the west. There is a chapter on the Tet Offensive of 1968 where the US did win tactically but lost strategically. How did the US lose in Vietnam?

The previous question begs another. So what happens when a non-western country decides to fight in a manner that is best suited to its culture and way of thinking? Ever since Alexander the Great tore his way east with his army, the denizens of the east have been steadily developing a way of fighting to counter the classic western juggernaut. They have come up with what a couple of former US Marines refer to as Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW).

Hanson touches on why the US eventually lost in Vietnam. John Poole (left the Marines a Lieutenant Colonel, later re-enlisted and retired a Gunnery Sergeant) does a better job of explaining why in his latest work, Militant Tricks, Battlefield Ruses of the Islamic Insurgent. The focus is on Iraq and Afghanistan and Poole uses examples from prior conflicts, especially Vietnam, to illustrate his points. He spends most of the book applying the thirty-six stratagems of deception from ancient China. Poole quotes extensively from Wiles of War: The 36 Military Stratagems of Ancient China, Thirty Six Strategies of Ancient China, and more (his book has an extensive bibliography and has endnotes). There is another book written by a former Marine, The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century by Col (Ret) Thomas X. Hammes, that also discusses 4GW tactics but Poole’s book provides a non-western perspective, specifically an Asian perspective.

I already had an idea of how our adversary fights. Can’t help it when you are reading intelligence reports and patrol reports, you see the same stuff over and over. What was new for me was seeing how our adversary fights placed in the broader operational and strategic sense. The biggest “eureka” moment for me was getting a better insight into the eastern mindset and how they fight as opposed to how western armies fight. For that, I have Gunny Poole to thank.

Seeing as I am now in the business of recommending books, there is another I recommend even though I haven’t read it yet. I have purchased and am eagerly anticipating the arrival of The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy, by Stephanie Gutmann. I bought this book on the strength of the review by Joseph Tartakovsky of the Claremont Review of Books found here. Many people back home ask my bride about what I do in Afghanistan. Part of what I do as an Information Operations Officer is working with the media. Read the review of Gutmann’s book and you will get an idea of what I have to put up with.

The adversary here, even though he doesn’t have the advantage of technology that we westerners have, is dedicated, tough, and adaptive. We blast the hell out if his fighting position and find maybe one or two dead fighters with the rest having buggered off. Gunny Poole’s book does an excellent job explaining the theory behind the tactics the adversary uses and uses to great success. The media sure doesn’t make it easy but that is something I have to deal with.

I end quoting a conversation between Strother Martin’s character and Robert Ryan’s character in the classic movie The Wild Bunch:

Coffer: Mr. Thornton? What kind of men are we up against?

Deke Thornton: The best….they never got caught.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Happy 230th Birthday, America!

2006-07-04T19:36:00.000Z

I can think of no other place I would rather be than with my bride and our two sons kicking back on the family ranch. My Dad and I will take the boys out to check out the cows and horses. We will then spend some time in the swimming pool and then start the fire for the barbeque. After numerous glasses of wine, the meat will be ready and we will all chow down. When it gets dark we will break out the fireworks and watch the boys have a blast (literally). Anyway, that is what my family will do. I, on the other hand, am fighting a counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and contending with fireworks that are designed to kill you.

I am taking a break from work to write this post. I spent all day tidying up the details for a mission I will be running soon and am just now finishing up (my day started at 7:00 AM and it is now 10:30 PM). The work never stops when you are here. There are ups and downs to the operational tempo but the tempo never ceases. Because I am filling a unique niche in the staff here, I have my feet in both the battlegroup and brigade headquarters. I am taking on more brigade duties because the problems that the battlegroup were having are sorting themselves out, freeing me up to do some really interesting “spooky secret squirrel” stuff.

Today my coalition brethren were all wishing me a Happy Independence Day which is poignant in a way because they all know I am originally from Canada. Through the course of the day I got to thinking about what makes the United States of America a truly unique country. Working with my coalition brethren brings a few points home. We as a nation are dedicated to an idea. The idea that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. We aren’t bound as a country through race, religion, or monarchy. We have this “git er done” attitude that is lacking in some coalition partners. We are generous to a fault and we expect next to nothing in return for our largess.

For those of my fellow citizens who feel comfortable jumping on the “screw America” bandwagon pulled by eurotrash know it alls, check out the article by Peter Brooks. Brooks paints a pretty grim picture of what life on this planet would be like without the USA. The second half of the article he details all the money we spend just on humanitarian assistance and yet we still get a lot of grief from the rest of the world. The shocking thing about the article is that he doesn’t detail what Americans give through PRIVATE charities!

I like this quote from British columnist Tim Montgomerie:

It's easy to think of reasons to hate America - we're fed them on a daily basis by our friends at the BBC - but the 4th July is a day to celebrate our transatlantic friends. When we even have Tories idiotically suggesting that we should be as worried about the President of Iran as the President of America it's time to remember why some of us love America...

There are few other countries that could be trusted with so much power. America is a democratic country committed to the extension of freedom throughout the world. In his second inaugural address George W Bush said that "The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world." Does America always live up to this self-interested ideal? No. It sometimes acts incompetently and sometimes hamfistedly but rarely in a malign way. We are fortunate not to live in a world where China or Russia are the superpowers - using their power for ill. Or a world where Chirac or Schroeder are the commanders-in-chief - appeasing the world's despots in return for commercial gains.

I can’t fathom what the world would be like without the USA. I thank God every day I am an American citizen. Today and everyday, I and my fellow soldiers show the world what the USA is all about. I wish I was with my family right now but I am proud to be abroad representing my adopted country.

Right now they are shooting illumination rounds to celebrate the 4th. Not as flashy as the fireworks at the capitol but pretty cool. I have to get back to work so….

Happy 230th Birthday, America!

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Rockets Red Glare

2006-07-01T19:17:00.000Z

One of the things that make Kandahar Airfield (KAF) exciting is the occasional rocket attack. These rockets are old Russian rockets and are woefully inaccurate. Sometimes they get lucky.

My first rocket attack occurred when I was in my rack watching the movie Serenity on my laptop with my headphones on. Out of the corner of my eye I see my roommate hurriedly getting dressed. I pulled my headphones off and asked him what’s up. He looked at me and said “Can’t you hear that?” I then heard the siren wailing. I threw on a t-shirt, grabbed my pistol, and we hauled ass to the headquarters. He was saying that the explosion was really loud and couldn’t believe I didn’t hear it. I was at a part in the movie where there were huge explosions so it must have blended in. The rocket landed within fifty meters of our headquarters. A Dutch soldier was wounded because he got caught in the open.

My next rocket attack I was in my office working late. No one was hurt because the rocket landed in a remote area of KAF. The next rocket attack I was at the gym working out. No one heard a boom but we all heard the sirens. Out we go to the bunker and we just wait. Again, no one was hurt.

Last night they got lucky. I was on the phone talking to my dad when we all heard the boom and seconds later the sirens when off. They hit the main dining facility. Fortunately for us, dinner was winding down so there weren’t many people in there. There were some walking wounded and two that got hurt pretty badly. One guy got shrapnel in the ass which is a rather embarrassing way to earn a Purple Heart. The other guy is on the way to Germany after they stabilized him. The shrapnel went in his back and nicked some vital organs. He is in pretty critical condition. All in all we got lucky, it could have been much worse.

Today is Canada Day (or Dominion Day for the hold outs). There was a grand opening of a Tim Hortons here which is a big thing up in Canada. After my workout I had an iced cappuccino and a sesame seed bagel with herb and garlic cream cheese. The change they gave me was fake money so I spent it and got three chocolate Timbits (donut holes). Tonight there will be a barbeque in the Canadian NSE (National Support Element) with beer! Since I work in the HQ of the battle group and I was born in Canada, I am a special guest.

The Fourth of July is coming and I am sure the Americans will have something cool to do. I hope that when we are singing the Star Spangled Banner that we sing about the rockets red glare instead of watching one arc into KAF.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Dining at the Mess

2006-06-29T20:22:00.000Z

One of the interesting things about working in a coalition environment is sampling the fare at the DFAC’s (dining facilities) of our coalition brethren. Right now KBR (a subsidiary of Halliburton) has the contract for providing dining services to the bulk of the coalition troops on Kandahar Airfield (KAF) and Bagram Airfield (BAF). They also had the contract for the DFAC I dined in at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo. KBR does a pretty good job feeding thousands of troops every day. But let’s face it, the fare is not to the same level of quality that my bride and I had for our wedding reception held at the Jefferson City Ramada nor does it meet the level of quality of the fare that was served at our rehearsal dinner at the Hotel DeVille. Many of the people that work for KBR would not make it at any of the resorts at the Lake of the Ozarks. There are a few exceptions but not many. Fortunately, there are dining alternatives.

On BAF, there is a wonderful little Korean restaurant. It has bulgogi, kimchee, gim-bahp (Korean for sushi), fried rice, and a whole bunch of other things. It is run by the company that manages the Korean dining facility and they are doing quite well. You have to go in hungry; $8 purchases a phenomenal amount of food. The food is as good as or better than any Korean restaurant stateside.

The Canadian PRT in Kandahar City has a mess (what they call a dining facility) run by Canadian Army personnel. The PRT at Tarin Kowt, where I was at for six months, was run by US Army personnel. The food at the Canadian PRT is far better than the food at the Tarin Kowt PRT. One reason for the difference in quality is the ingredients. The food for the Canadian PRT comes in on a plane and is at the PRT in less than a day (plane lands, unload plane, inspect pallets, load trucks, drive 20 minutes to PRT). The other reason for the quality is that the Canadian Army cooks are really good.

The food for the PRT at Tarin Kowt and all the little FOB’s (forward operating bases) in the region consist of what we old timers call “A” rations, or what are now called UGR-A’s (Unitized Group Ration-A). UGR-A’s come in a combination of canned, frozen, and shelf stable foodstuffs in three boxes. The stuff is nourishing but gets old after awhile. We had one cook who was from the Texas National Guard and that man can work wonders with the UGR-A’s because he cared and had an artistic touch. The remaining cooks followed the instructions and that was that.

The British Army set up their own mess (they rightly refuse to call it a DFAC) last month. The rumors that floated around that it was quite good. For those of you who have traveled in the United Kingdom, I bet money that you didn’t visit for the food. My bride spent a semester attending the University of Glasgow and the cafeteria would serve potatoes three different ways.

I was invited to a working dinner with my coalition colleagues at the British mess today and I jumped at the chance. The place is managed by mess sergeants and the workers are from Sri Lanka. The food was FANTASTIC!! Lamb chops with a hint of mint, sweet and sour chicken breast, curried pork, beef pot pie, steak with onions and mushrooms, assorted vegetables, bread pudding, assorted cakes and tarts, brie and crackers, and more.

I couldn’t believe I was in a military dining facility until I was politely asked by a mess sergeant if I was a regular patron when I went back for seconds. Non British service members eat there by invitation only. I pointed to my group and said I was with them to which he responded with “very good sir, enjoy your meal” to which I responded “I will, thank you and might I add that you all have done a superb job!”

KBR and the US Army can learn a thing or two from our British brethren. Dining at the mess is so much more preferable than chow at the DFAC.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Learning As You Go

2006-06-21T07:28:00.000Z

I have now been serving with the Patricia’s close to a month and a half. In my tenure here we have been involved in both steady state and combat operations, I planned and executed my first leaflet drop (I was going to go on the helicopter to push the leaflets out but the Special Ops guys had a fixed wing available and they took the mission. Those guys have all the fun!), and managed to get the battle group to change some of its procedures. The last bit is a major victory for me. Allow me to explain why.

A couple of weeks ago I worked late one night and was heading back to my quarters when the TF Orion commander waved me on over for a chat. He was sitting on the deck outside his office puffing on a cigar and he kindly offered me one. I accepted and he started the conversation saying that I have more experience and background in IO than everyone in the battle group combined, how is the battle group “fucking it up”?

The commander wanted an honest assessment and I gave him one. I said that the battle group needs at least one more company and that Canada did not resource the battle group properly. I also said that the PRT needs to report directly to TF Aegis and have its own operationally controlled force protection so it can conduct its own operations. Right now the battle group is trying to coordinate the efforts of the PRT as well as conduct combat operations. I explained that the PRT I was at in Tarin Kowt reported directly to CJSOTF-A, not the Special Forces “B” Team co-located with the PRT, and it had its own force protection. CJSOTF-A, acting as a brigade HQ, coordinated the PRT’s efforts with the SF teams.

He agreed with everything I said. We went on and talked about Information Operation doctrine and the differences between how the US and Canadian Army treats its IO assets. We both agreed the 10th Mountain Divisions arbitrary division of operations into kinetic and non-kinetic is doctrinally wrong and that it is having a deleterious effect on planning and execution. What do I know; I am just a school trained IO officer and the commander is a Jedi Knight (what we in the US Army call graduates of the School of Advanced Military Studies at Ft. Leavenworth, KS).

Last week the TF Aegis IO officer and I were in a meeting with the commander about an event we were planning. The discussion eventually turned to how to better achieve the effects we wanted to achieve in the information battle space. The commander wanted our input and we gave it to him. That evening at the staff meeting the operations officer announced that there will be changes in how the battle group manages the PRT, the PSYOP team, and CIMIC (what we in the US Army call CA, or Civil Affairs) team.

To say that I was pleased is an understatement. In one month I was able to positively change the way the battle group uses its IO assets. My input (backed by six months of experience as a PRT IO officer in Tarin Kowt and three months as a IO Planner in Kosovo), plus hard experience on the ground by the battle group conducting a combat operation, contributed to the changes. Not all of my recommendations were implemented, only the ones the commander can change. Some of the changes that need to be made are structural and needs buy in by the flag officers in Ottowa.

This is the first major combat operation the Canadian Army has conducted in over thirty years. The commander knew that there will be lessons learned. The Canadian Army, just like the US Army, is learning as it goes. I am damned proud to have done my part for my former countrymen.

More info on my exciting day

2006-06-05T11:07:00.000Z

Here are links to stories covering the S-VBIED incident that I was a witness to yesterday in Kandahar City and described in more detail in the previous post.

First, we have this gem from CBS News. It leads off with “Suicide Bomber Targets US-led Convoy”. This is lazy reporting at its worst. Firstly, I was the ranking US Officer in the convoy and I was manning an air sentry position on a Bison. I wasn’t leading anything! Next to me was a Canadian Army Major manning the other air sentry position and he wasn’t leading anything either. There was a Canadian Army Captain who was the actual patrol/convoy commander. The convoy consisted of Canadian vehicles commanded by Canadians. US led indeed.

Next we have this “in depth” story written by Carlotta Gall of the New York Times (you have to register with the NY Times to view the article). When you first read it you probably think that she did a great job getting all the facts and she must be really be on the ball. NOT! The last sentence of the first paragraph gives her spin away right off the bat. The following paragraphs have some good quotes from the locals but I view them with great suspicion. You see, she wasn’t there; she relies on stringers for her stories because the only times she ever leaves Kabul is when the Commanding General goes somewhere. Furthermore, we firmly believe that one of her stringers is a die hard Taliban because some of the info she has received was too damned coincidental and was spun. For example she received a tip that Canadians were using attack dogs to terrorize the residents of a village and were intimately searching the women. The Canadians did do a patrol in said village, the Canadians asked and were granted permission to use a BOMB sniffing dog to have a sniff around, and women and children were not bothered with. Anything she writes should be immediately made suspect.

Lastly we have this article written by Bob Weber. Pretty good article. It is detailed with facts, very little editorializing, and balanced. He was actually there.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

20 Meters

2006-06-04T17:59:00.000Z

Today the convoy I was in was attacked by a suicide vehicle borne improvised explosive device (S-VBIED). In short, we got hit with a car bomb. No one in the convoy was hurt nor was any vehicle disabled. Unfortunately a few civilians were killed instantly and a few more may die in hospital.

I and a Canadian Army Major were manning the air sentry positions of our vehicle (standing up through two hatches in the rear of the vehicle). We were in a Bison, a smaller version of the LAV/Stryker. I was on the left so I was scanning the left rear.

I didn't see the explosion but my colleague did (it happened in his sector of fire). I heard a very large boom and felt the heat flash on the left side of my face. I swung to my left bringing my rifle up to bear and I saw a huge ball of fire and the remains of the chassis fall from the fire ball. The vehicle behind us had swerved out of the way and the last vehicle was coming through the fireball.

I had turned so hard that I disconnected my headset cable. I yelled for someone to plug me me back on. I needed to be able to give a situation report to the vehicle commander. I was able to tell the vehicle commander that the last two vehicles were moving with no visible damage and to get us the hell out of there.

I was scanning my area when out of the corner of my eye I saw that the convoy ahead of us had stopped. Our driver barely stopped us in time but we still hit the vehicle in front. I saw it coming so I ducked down enough for my body armor to take the hit. The vehicle commander cracked a rib. Our vehicle commander was screaming at the convoy commander to get us moving.

We got moving and we carried on with our mission.

Me and my fellow air sentry were in the sweet spot. We didn't get nailed with flying debris because we were close enough that the cone of the explosion went over our heads yet far enough to not get burned. We figure that we were about 20 meters, give or take 5, from the blast.

When we arrived we had to give an impromptu press conference for the cats we were herding (international media types). The convoy commander did a great job explaining what happened. None of the them saw anything because the vehicles they were in do not have windows so they were really curious. All they experienced was a large explosion that shook the vehicle, being thrown around a vehicle that was stopping and starting violently, and in my vehicle an American yelling for someone to plug his cable back in.

From my perspective as an Information Operations Officer, I was concerned that the S-VBIED was going to be the feature of the day. We were taking media to a village that helped us out immensely during recent combat operations against the Taliban. We were running a Village Medical Outreach (VMO, the Americans call them MEDCAPS) and handing out humanitarian assistance supplies like hygiene and first aid kits, staple food stuffs (beans, rice, cooking oil, powdered milk, baby formula, etc), blankets, and radios.

The media filmed the event and did some interviews and we held a press conference with the TF Orion Commander, the governor of Kandahar, and a high ranking Afghan National Army officer. Only one question dealt with the S-VBIED and it was a cheap shot at the governor who handled it well.

The other day I met an interpreter who used to work at Tarin Kowt and was there the same time I was. He worked with the Australians and we recognized each other. We got to chatting and I asked what happened to his leg. It got banged up when the vehicle he was in was hit. It was a Canadian vehicle! I laughed, saying that he spent nearly a year in Tarin Kowt and never got a scratch and he is with the Patricia's for less than two months and he gets hurt.

I was in Tarin Kowt for 6 months, rolled on over 50 combat missions, and never saw a thing. I go on my second mission with the Patricia's and my convoy is hit. Go figure.

I have a new lucky talisman. I brought my Coffee Zone go cup because I didn't have time to run it back to my office when I finished because it was time to roll out. From now on it is going on every mission with me.

20 meters, pretty close.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Rolling with the Patricia's

2006-05-26T19:39:00.000Z

I have been in Kandahar Airfield (KAF) for two weeks now. I mentioned in a previous post that I was being reassigned and that I would be working for a unique command. The command is Task Force Orion, otherwise known as Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI or Patricia’s). I was originally tasked to TF Aegis (Regional Command South) but the IO cell offered my services to TF Orion because they didn’t have an IO Officer. TF Orion operates in Kandahar Province. The other provinces and operating areas in RC South have British, Romanian, French, Dutch, and American units.

Some of you already know that I was originally from Canada. I was born in Melita, Manitoba, which is within spitting distance of the border. The Canadians thought that me being from Canada is pretty cool. What makes it more interesting is that one of the infantry companies plus the artillery section in TF Orion are stationed at Camp Shilo, Manitoba where my dad conducted much of his training when he was in the Canadian Army. The remainder of the battle group are from Edmonton.

The Patricia's are a mechanized infantry unit. They use wheeled armored vehicles that the US Army recently adopted for its new “Stryker” brigade combat teams. Because the Patricia's are based in western Canada, they have an ethos and a way of doing business that I can relate to. The Canadian West shares much of the same characteristics of the American West such as cowboys, large farms and ranches, and an appreciation for country music.

The staff work is the same mind numbing drudgery I have experienced in American units. I work both plans and current operations so I am doubly busy. Since I have been here people have commented that the IO side of the house is working much better. I am no miracle worker but the Canadians haven’t been able to fill the slot and now they have someone who is strictly the IO guy so of course all things IO will start working.

I don’t think I will be able to go on as many missions as I have before. I did manage to put myself on a mission the other day. I was starting to go stir crazy because I haven’t “crossed the wire” since before I went on R&R leave. It was great! I got to ride in the air sentry position of the vehicle and got to see a lot of the country and see what Kandahar City and the province looked like. I also got to eat some local food.

We escorted some folks to a shura (meeting of village elders) and because of the distances people have to travel and the whole Pashtun concept of malmastia (hospitality) food is always offered. Out came the trays of mutton, rice, nan, and FRESH tomatoes, green onions, and cucumbers. Because I was herding cats at the moment, I couldn’t readily avail myself of some of the food. One of the Patricia’s had scored some nan and he offered me some. I was munching on the bread when some of the Afghan security guys waved me on over and invited me to share their platter. Since the cats I was herding were gainfully occupied, I accepted the invite.

The food was very good. The local guys were visibly impressed that I squatted down with them (no mean feat when wearing body armor), took off my helmet, and started eating just like they do (using the nan to tear off a piece of mutton, using your right hand to scoop up rice, etc). When they asked me if the food was good (a thumbs up with a questioning look on their faces) I smiled and said “samdi” with a thumbs up. You would have thought I just handed them a pile of money they were so happy!

TF Orion is pretty busy. The next few months will be pretty interesting. It’s pretty ironic that a Missouri National Guard officer originally from the Canadian West is rolling with the Patricia’s.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Breaking Bread

2006-05-10T06:28:00.000Z

The other day the contingent of interpreters that work on the PRT invited us to have chai with them. Chai is green tea with a huge amount of sugar in it. Me, both of my S6 guys, the MP Advisory Team (MPAT), and a visiting military journalist jumped at the chance just to hang out with the interpreters because the chai is pretty good here.

They were just finishing up dinner when we showed up. They invited us to eat but we had just had dinner at the Dining Facility (DFAC). We haven't had any fresh green things in quite a while. I instantly zeroed in on the huge pile of FRESH green onions and regretted turning down their offer. Needless to say, we had a great time that night. I got to watch afghan satellite TV and they were graciously telling me what the news people were broadcasting and we also watched a cricket game being played in Pakistan.

Afterwards, I said to no one in particular that we need to have dinner with these guys before we are redeployed or re-assigned. One of the MPAT's said why not, we can even pay for it. The next day we asked one of the interpreters that if it would be OK if we all had dinner next week. He said of course and then we told him that we insist on paying. We told him what we wanted, we gave him the cash, and his mom fixed it up.

It was a GREAT dinner. We had flat bread (nan), chicken, mutton, an afghan version of pico de gallo (tomatoes, red onions, etc), garbanzo beans, rice, fresh yoghurt with cucumbers in it, and FRESH GREEN ONIONS! I tore the hell out of the green onions, I think I ate about a third of what they had. One of the interpreters tried to hand me some utensils but I refused. I wanted to eat the Afghan way (roll some meat in the rice using your hands and using the nan to scoop up the food) and all the interpreters thought that was pretty cool. Afterwards we had chai and watched satellite TV.

We all have developed a close working relationship with the interpreters here and it was great that we had dinner with them. One of the interpreters survived an IED blast last year and he gets around on crutches (the medical team here is trying to repair the damage to his feet). The others have worked for either the SF community or the PRT for a long time. These guys are working for us at great risk to themselves and their families. It was pretty evident where their loyalties are when we watched a cricket game on TV. I can't remember the other team but everyone was booing and hissing Pakistan. Pakistan is one of the major reasons Afghanistan is having such a tough time right now.

I really respect these guys and it is tough saying good bye. When you go on a patrol and you see these guys working the radio (to talk with the ANA attached to us) or working with the Civil Affairs folks speaking with the locals, you get the sense that they believe in the mission as much as we do.

A few posts ago I wrote about why we need to see the mission to success in Afghanistan. For me, it's more personal. I want them to succeed becuase I have worked with these people, I got to know them and their personal stories, and most importantly (to me anyway), I have broke bread with them.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

15 Days and Back in the Saddle

2006-04-26T01:14:00.000Z

I arrived back to Tarin Kowt from R&R a couple of days ago. R&R was over too soon however the timing was great because I was able to be home for Easter. What did I do? I took my family to the St. Louis Zoo, visited the family ranch a couple of times, ate out way too much, went to an Easter Egg hunt, played games, went to the park, took my oldest to see the movie "Ice Age 2", put in a few Kali Silat workouts and watched my boys do their karate classes at the Jefferson City Martial Arts Academy, had lunch with a few friends, and I pretty much did everything on the "honey do" list.

It was tough saying good bye again. It was a good thing I was the only one on the MO-X shuttle. It took many miles on the way to St. Louis to regain my composure. The flight back was uneventful. I experienced no delays on any of the stops on the way back and I soon found myself walking out of the back of a C-130 onto the airstrip at Tarin Kowt. I stepped onto the airstrip, looked around, and couldn't believe that I was back.

It is amazing what can change in twenty one days (I was home for fifteen days but it took six days to travel). My job has changed and I am being reassigned within Afghanistan. A Coalition Officer came in the day after I left for R&R to take over my primary duty as the Information Operations Officer. He is doing a good job which frees me up to tie up loose ends with my other duties as the Information Management Officer (otherwise known as the S6, the computer/network guy) and as a Field Ordering Officer (contracts, pay agents, and money).

I am not the only one being reassigned. Many of us are being shuffled around the country due to changes of command authorities and rotations of personnel in and out of the country. I know where I will be going next but I can't discuss yet. I will still be doing Information Operations but it will be in a pretty unique command.

When I got back I got updates from everyone on what had been going on. I retired to my quarters, unpacked, and grabbed some rest. I am back in the saddle.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

R&R

2006-04-02T05:05:00.000Z

I am composing this post while waiting for a flight to get back to CONUS (Continental US) at an airbase in Kuwait. I am going on R&R (Rest and Recuperation) leave. I wanted to go later in the month but my boss says that since I will be in Bagram for a conference (the second one in less than a month!!) I might as well take my leave as soon as the conference is over.

I didn't realize how busy I was and how much stress I was under until I boarded the bird to Kuwait. I felt like "wow, I have nothing to do, no report to write, no tasking to complete, no mission to go on, no e-mail to answer." During the conference I was still taking care of business for the PRT. I had a day between the end of the conference and when I was to report to the flightline and I was still taking care of business. It was like I couldn't let go. Now I am one of many minions waiting to get our collective butts home.

My bride says that she has a "honeydo" list which is fine. I didn't expect to be a total slug when I got home. There are a few things I want to do (besides the obvious quality time with bride and sons), like getting a Borgia with a greek salad piled with lamb gyro at the Coffee Zone, getting a goat cheese salad at the Cafe Via Roma with the coffee of the day, and putting in a Kali Silat session at the Jefferson City Martial Arts Academy (they recently moved the dojo to better digs). After that, I am at my brides service.

We may go on a little trip, we will have to play that by ear. I am really looking forward to this break. Quoting my commander, I am getting "some well deserved R&R".

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

The Little Things

2006-03-14T23:37:00.000Z

I have been in country long enough that I am taking stock of the little things. Sometimes the little things piss you off, they brighten your day, or you just notice them.

When I assumed the duties of the S6 I took over computer and network operations of the PRT. My visions of the position included what I have done in the past managing a network for my previous employer, ExecuTrain of Kansas City. I had full administrator privileges on the network in the Jefferson City office. Here, the unit managing the theater network will not give me an admin level account on the domain! There are work arounds that I have implemented but I shouldn’t have had to do them.

When I take a printer down and replace it, me and my subordinates have to manually map the printer for everyone’s account when they log on, something that could be automated with a script if I had full admin rights. Pretty aggravating. However, when the Exchange server goes down or a switch shoots craps, I just shrug my shoulders and say “not my problem”. Those messes have to be fixed by the civilian contractors because they are managing that stuff, not me. On those days I am glad I do not have full admin rights.

Back home we are accustomed to having an Internet connection that is pretty reliable. You should hear the soldiers here howl and complain when there is a service interruption on the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) system! It is amazing that a non-mission essential system can have such a dramatic impact. When soldiers can’t go online to check their e-mail or do a chat session with a loved one they get pretty cranky. Me and one of my subordinates spent a day and a half trying to get a system to work properly so people can get online. Once we got the bugs worked out, everyone thought we were capable of walking on water. I guess we are water walkers until something else craps out!

We have a PX here. When we don’t open it on time because we are swamped people get antsy. The shelves may be close to empty but they still want to get in even though they may not buy anything. A soldier may be dying for a pack of smokes or a couple of cans of Red Bull and be flat broke. Float the guy some credit until Finance shows up and his world just became much brighter.

We take freedom of movement for granted back home. Traveling fifty miles is an ordeal here. For the local nationals it is worse. They have to worry about shakedowns at temporary checkpoints. The closest we come to a shakedown on a highway back home is a toll road booth.

In rural Missouri you can travel to the nearest Walmart (I bet there isn’t a resident in Missouri that lives more than an hour from a Walmart) and get pretty much anything you want or need. I can purchase a satellite dish from a local vendor and get three hundred channels. However I can’t get something like audio/video cables locally to hook a TV to a DVD player.

Everyone back home complains when power goes out. There may have been a nasty storm but people will still complain. The locals here use generators if they can afford them. Once nightfall hits, you can tell the wealthy people from everyone else because they will have lights.

Most people back home have a land line based phone. Some people use only a cell phone. Here in the hinterlands of Afghanistan there is no such thing as a land line based phone. If the locals are using a cell phone it’s satellite based and very few can afford it.

Practically every car and truck around here is a Toyota. Toyota makes tough vehicles but so do Subaru, Honda, Mazda, Ford, Chrysler/Dodge, and GM. The Afghan National Army uses Ford Rangers. After seeing the abuse the Toyota HiLuxes (Tundra’s in the US) and the Ford Rangers take, I’d buy a Ranger because they are just as good and cheaper.

Army coffee is decent. If you are used to patronizing establishments like the Coffee Zone and Café Via Roma in downtown Jefferson City or the Starbucks at the Barnes and Noble store on the west side your standards are much higher. My bride got me a french coffee press and some gourmet coffees and life is much more tolerable. Right now I will kill for a large Borgia at the Coffee Zone!

I recently had to go to attend a planning conference at Bagram Airfield (BAF). Sure there was a PX, a Dairy Queen, a Green Beans (a pale imitation of the Coffee Zone and Café Via Roma back home), a spa (cute girls from Kyrgyzstan cutting hair and giving massages) and other amenities. However the shower and toilet stalls are minuscule compared to what I have at Tarin Kowt. I visited some of my Missouri Guard compadres and they are stuffed ten to twelve to a wooden hut and their “rooms” are more like closets. Here at the PRT I have my own quarters in a concrete building and my digs are quite palatial compared to theirs. Oddly enough life is much more comfortable here at “Fort Apache” then it is at the BAF, the center of the known universe!

When we go on medical missions the ailments are always the same. The only women we see are either too young or too old to bear children. Seeing as how the women maintain the household, these people will continue to get sick until they allow their women to learn from outsiders how to wash dishes properly.

When we see the little girls at first you think they are pretty cute. Then you factor in the environment they live in and then reality sets in. They will never grow up to be attractive women because they will never get decent health care and their diet will never be as good as the men's.

All the infantrymen except for maybe one or two have earned their Combat Infantryman’s Badge while assigned to the PRT. All but one of the Civil Affairs soldiers has earned their Combat Action Badges. I will earn my Combat Action Badge before I leave; it is only a matter of time. I have given the Taliban plenty of opportunities to take a shot at me. They will.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

God Speed, SSG Clinton Newman

2006-02-22T22:48:00.000Z

The Civil Affairs (CA) team here lost a good man a couple of weeks ago. He and three other soldiers were killed in an IED strike. He was at a Special Forces firebase in another part of the province. I never got to meet the man. He volunteered to serve at the firebase shortly before I arrived here because the CA team was short on personnel. He was set to rotate back to Tarin Kowt.

Everyone here, not just the CA folks but everyone, was hit pretty hard. By all accounts he was a pretty cool guy and a go getter. This was his second tour in Afghanistan. He served at another PRT on his first tour.

The team leader was there at drill weekend when the call was put out for volunteers and SSG Newman stepped up. He didn’t have to but he wanted to come back to Afghanistan because he really liked the people here. He was in the middle of earning his Bachelors degree but he put it all on hold.

His parents and siblings survive him. He didn’t have a bride or children. He was in his twenties so he probably wasn’t even contemplating having a family just yet. He was still slogging through college.

The PRT had a memorial ceremony for SSG Newman last week. I have attended a few military funerals but never a memorial ceremony in a combat zone. It follows a format that has been handed down through millennia. A student of the classics, celtic, or Scandinavian histories will recognize it.

The soldiers assembled in front of the memorial to SSG Newman, which was a rifle and bayonet stuck into the ground, or in this case a block of wood with a pair of boots in front, dogtags hanging from the pistol grip, and a helmet on the buttstock. The unit was called to attention, given the order to present arms, then the national anthem was played. The chaplain gave a short prayer. The PRT commander, the CA commander, the team leader, and a fellow soldier all gave remarks about SSG Newman. The chaplain sang a hymm then the chaplains assistant gave a closing prayer, and then we had final roll call. The Sergeant Major called off a few names and then got to SSG Newman. The Sergeant Major called for SSG Newman three times. While SSG Newman was called, the firing squad fired three volleys. Everyone then presented arms and Taps was played. After order arms, the CA unit marched in front of the memorial and rendered a final salute. They were followed by the command team (CDR, XO, and the SGM). At that point, the formation was dismissed. The soldiers paid their respects to SSG Newman and gave their condolences to the CA team.

When I paid my condolences to the team chief who I now consider a good friend all I could see was how tore up he was. Losing a soldier is a helluva thing and it was something I have never experienced. As a former commander I can relate to what he was going through. Officers who have held the burden of command will know what I speak of.

We lost a man in the prime of his life doing what he believed in and serving alongside us. He was a volunteer on so many levels. He volunteered for active duty after high school. He transferred to the Reserves so he can start his college education. He volunteered for Airborne School when given the opportunity and he volunteered for Afghanistan twice. He volunteered to be assigned to the toughest, most dangerous part of this province after a fellow CA team member was shot in the arm and had to go on medical leave for rehab.

I am reminded of a passage that describes SSG Newman.

"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"

And I said, "Here am I. Send me!

Isaiah 6: 5-8

We here at the Tarin Kowt PRT send our deepest condolences to the Newman family. We won’t forget him and I regret not having met him. We will carry on the fight and will always remember SSG Newman’s sacrifice. Those of us who knew SSG Newman are proud to have served with him. We have picked up our guns and are now back at work. We are carrying on with our duty, just like SSG Newman would want us to.

God bless you and your family. God speed, SSG Clinton Newman.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Dissent and Tolerance

2006-02-07T21:11:00.000Z

I have been remiss in not posting to this blog and for that I apologize. It is so cliché to say that I have been busy yet what else can I say? When you are performing two or three staff functions plus extra duties, you pretty much run out of time. Anyway, on with the blog

Right now the big thing in the world is that a bunch of people who are Muslim are upset over cartoons that were published by a newspaper in Denmark. Interestingly enough, these cartoons were published last September as described in this article by Jack Kelly. The Muslim world didn’t get into an uproar until an imam from Denmark traveled the Muslim world showing the cartoons plus a few that weren’t published.

Mark Steyn commented in his article that it is amazing that in a poor Middle Eastern country you can obtain a Danish flag and burn it. If I were to protest something that Yemen did (like let the planner for the attack on the USS Cole escape) in Jefferson City, MO, I would be hard pressed to find a Yemeni flag to torch in front of the Post Office/Courthouse!

So what’s my perspective on this whole mess? While I agree with positions Mr. Steyn and Mr. Kelly staked out in their articles, Ralph Peters’ article is very compelling, especially after spending time in an Islamic country.

There is a point where we all have to agree to disagree. In modern Western democracies, we can yell and scream at each other until we are blue in the face yet still break bread with each other. I personally know this because I have engaged in verbal combat with many people in Jefferson City yet I am still invited to their homes and spend time with their families to eat, drink, and be merry. Maybe they enjoy the company of my bride more or they like the food I bring, who knows but God bless you all!

That is not the case in many Islamic countries. Dissent is not tolerated. My personal observations here tell me that while Afghanistan has come a long way, it still has a long way to go. So far, politicians haven’t gunned each other down in the Wolesi Jirga (the legislature) but there is still an active insurgency prosecuted by people who do not want to participate in the give and take of a democracy. In short, these guys aren’t tolerant of others views and will brook no dissent.

James Pinkerton in his article focuses on how multiculturalism is to blame for the mess. It is hard to be tolerant when you have some loudmouth screaming “more 9/11’s” when he can’t protest in his home country and he is advocating the destruction of your family. When my bride and I talked about this when I called home I pretty much said “screw em, if they can’t develop a thicker skin then they will never have a culture that will function in a democratic society”. I still believe that, but this whole mess over the cartoons misses the point and the article by Ralph Peters brings it home.

Instead of attacking the Muslim community over it’s treatment of women, it’s unwillingness to allow other religions to exist within their countries, or it’s denial of the occurrence of the Holocaust, they make a gratuitous attack on the centerpiece of the Muslim faith.

How many people remember the controversy back in the 1990’s about the Federal Government funding an art exhibit where there was a depiction of the Crucifix in a jar of urine? Or the uproar over the movie that had Jesus having sexual relations with Mary Magdelene? While the glitterati amused themselves by supporting these examples of “artistic expression”, many people in “fly over country” were clearly not amused.

I do have some sympathy for the Muslims, only because as a Christian I do not enjoy seeing my faith ridiculed by people who think they are superior to me. Having said that, I draw the line at calling for the death of people I do not agree with.

Democracy is not for the faint of heart. You have to have a thick skin, discipline, and a willingness to engage your opponent face to face verbally and having to listen to the vitriol that others say about you. What we are seeing here are the Europeans missing the mark by picking the wrong fight and Muslims demonstrating yet again that they still have a lot to learn about dissent and tolerance.

What I did on my Birthday

2006-01-24T20:56:00.000Z

I celebrated my birthday the other day. The typical question one is asked is “well, what did you do on your birthday?” I went on a mission to check out a couple of projects up north. I did not want to stay on the PRT dwelling on the fact that I just turned thirty-seven.

My day started really early and rushed. When I woke up I only had thirty minutes to gear up and get in the Hummer. I threw my stuff on, ran out to where the trucks lined up, threw my rifle and helmet in, then ran into the DFAC to grab breakfast. In a paper bowl I threw in eggs, biscuits and gravy, and a sausage and took it back to the vehicles. About that time we started the final safety brief. I was able to scarf down breakfast before we left. That was a good thing because eating inside a bumpy vehicle with full battle rattle on would have been difficult.

It was a long ride and it was cold that day. When we got to our destination and got out I about froze. It was bloody cold up there! We were at a higher altitude and it was really windy. I thanked my judgment for telling me to wear my polartec longjohns and my neck gator. In any case, after walking around I warmed up a bit but not much. I ate a food bar for lunch because I just couldn’t stomach the idea of eating an MRE.

We weren’t expecting to but we actually got back in time for the staff meeting (we hold them twice a week). I slammed together some notes (I was gone all day) and briefed my portion. Typically, when you are finished you say “pending your questions I have nothing further”. My commander said that she didn’t have any questions but that she was glad that I was back in one piece because I went on the days mission and she wished me a happy birthday!

I had planned a special dinner for myself. Good thing because dinner at the DFAC was less than appetizing. I had waiting for me a can of highland beef haggis, a tin of single malt whisky cake, and raspberry oatmeal shortbread from Caledonian Kitchen. I killed the haggis and had a third of the whisky cake (it took me three more days to finish the cake). The only thing missing was a couple of rusty nails (drambui and scotch whisky). I am still eating the shortbread.

Thursday nights we all get together and play poker. After dinner I joined the poker game. It’s mainly the commander and senior staff that plays but it is open to anyone. It is a really good time to just hang out and BS, smoke cigars, and give each other a hard time. I came away from the game with a new nickname. The Sergeant Major started calling me the Outlaw Josey Wales because I was smoking small cigars like the ones that Clint Eastwood favored in so many of his westerns. Josey Wales chewed more tobacco than smoked it but I wasn’t going to argue with the Sergeant Major! Everyone had to say what was their favorite Clint Eastwood movie was and I named two, High Plains Drifter and Unforgiven.

After poker, I hit the rack and that was that. I would have much preferred to play with my sons and be with my bride but I made do. Next year I think I will carry on with the haggis and whisky cake and definitely I will have those rusty nails.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Another Update to Last Post

2006-01-12T10:29:00.000Z

In the last post I neglected to include the link to the news release in the Colorado Springs Gazette. It contains more background on CPT Martinez and Kelly, his bride.

Please keep Kelly and the kids in your prayers.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Update to Last Post

2006-01-11T20:11:00.000Z

In my last post I mentioned that a colleague of my wife lost her husband in Iraq. I didn’t mention any names on purpose because it wasn’t really public knowledge. It is now and you can read about CPT Michael R. Martinez in the Jefferson City News Tribune and the Rocky Mountain News.

Michael was supposed to come home in February. Kelly is going through a really tough time now. Please say a prayer for Michael and pray for Kelly, his bride, and the kids (three sons and two stepdaughters).

Kelly, I promise that your loss will not be in vain. God bless you and your family and on behalf of my fellow soldiers, please accept our most sincere gratitude for your husbands service to our country.

God speed CPT Martinez.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Dealing with Loss on the Front and the Home Front

2006-01-10T16:43:00.000Z

I called home the other day to hear some bad news. One of my bride’s colleagues lost her husband. He was a JAG officer serving in Iraq and was in a helicopter that went down. The incident is mentioned in this CNN article.My wife really feels for her colleague and was at a loss on how to reach out. This tragedy also brought home to my wife that I face the same risk of losing either life or limb. When we say our good byes she always asks me to be careful which I say I always am. This time she asked me to be really, really careful.

When serving in a combat zone soldiers don’t have much time for grief. We have a remembrance ceremony and we get back to work. If we can’t be there for the actual ceremony we will have a quiet moment in our work area and then get back to work. Soldiers have the immediacy of our environment to keep us focused. That isn’t the case back home. How do you help someone you know cope with the loss of a loved one?

In one of the magazines my wife sent me from home there was an article on helping friends cope with loss. I am paraphrasing it in this blog so you all can take this advice if you know of someone that has suffered a loss recently. I already sent this information to my wife so she can help her colleague.

What not to tell a grieving friend:

“Call if you need anything.” Chances are he or she won’t.
“Let’s go out to lunch,” and then not follow through. Your friend could be counting on it.
“Have a great day!” Grieving friends don’t have great days.
“I’ll be there for you,” and then not follow up on your promise.
“Things should be better now. It’s been X number of months.” There is no timetable for grief.

Making a difference:

Tell him or her they are in your prayers, hearts, and thoughts.
Specific offers of help and follow through like raking the eaves, decorating for Christmas, bringing over a dinner.
If there are no words, a hug speaks volumes.
Call and see what’s up and not asking the unanswerable “How are you?” Or leave a message without asking for a return call.
If you have suffered the loss of a loved one, tell your friend what to expect in the coming months in dealing with the loss.
Acknowledge the death of the loved one instead of pretending that nothing happened.
Gift certificates for pampering services like manicures, pedicures, masseuse services, day long spa visits. Your friend receives the gift of touch and feels better.
Ask him or her to go out to lunch, dinner, a movie, church, any outdoor activity.

I have the most heartfelt sympathy for my wife’s colleague. I want her to know and everyone else to know that we American Soldiers will carry on the fight and will always remember the sacrifice her husband made and that her loss will not be in vain. We who are left behind will try to help her during this awful time in her life. We soldiers and officers offer our most sincere gratitude for having had the opportunity of serving with her husband.

And to my fellow officer, God speed, sir. You are in a better place now and some day we will join you. In the meantime we will pick up our guns and get back to work. We will carry on with our duty and try to live up to the example you and the others that have fallen before us have set.

God bless you and your family.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Casualties

2006-01-06T17:01:00.000Z

By now you may have heard of the suicide bombing attack that occurred in Tarin Kowt. No coalition forces were hurt. Sadly that is not the case with the local nationals. Included in the dead and wounded are children.

According to the Wahington Post, ten were killed and fifty wounded. I can tell you without reservation that some of the wounded eventually died. I know this because the PRT I am assigned to tried to save them. The same article mentioned that a Taliban spokesman called the Associated Press right after the attack claiming responsibility.

I wish I can tell you all the gritty details because the article I mentioned got some key points WRONG but I can’t due to operational security. It is true that the US Ambassador was visiting. I was with the entourage and he “wasn’t whisked into a small room for security” like the article said. Except for a last minute change in the morning, we carried on with our scheduled stops, met all the people that he wanted to meet, had lunch at the governor’s compound, and returned to the PRT without incident.

Those of us who were with the Ambassador missed all the excitement at the PRT. Some of the soldiers that were involved were a little emotionally tattered because of the sight of hurt kids. The medical team did their best to save who they could. Some of the wounded were airlifted to Kandahar.

After any big event the army likes to conduct an AAR (After Action Review) to try to improve how we do business. We conducted an AAR of how the PRT reacted to the influx of casualties. Overall the commander said everyone did a great job. We did come up with some ways to improve the process which will be implemented immediately. It was very evident to me during the AAR that emotions were still very raw.

We are American Soldiers. It hurts to see one of your buddies messed up or dead but we understand that in the profession of arms good people will die. What really gets us is seeing kids all mangled up. It gets us because the kids are innocent and because the killer was a coward, taking the easy way out and not living to deal with the consequences.

Some have argued that these suicide bombers are brave and courageous because they are willing to give the ultimate sacrifice. I disagree. Killing yourself in order to kill defenseless people is cowardly and reprehensible. When an American Soldier sacrifices his life, it is to save his buddies by jumping on a grenade or by standing his ground manning his position to the very end because his buddies counted on him.

The big difference between us and the enemy is that when we fight, we fight to live and so that others may live. We may die in the process, but we are living our fullest up to the very end. The enemy has a nihilistic mindset where ones life and the lives of others are cheap and without meaning.

It’s a helluva thing to see a hardcore infantryman with his emotions barely in check describing the day’s events. Later that night I received via e-mail pictures of my sons opening their Christmas presents. I about lost it right then and there. If those vile pieces of human excrement wanna fight, here I am, let’s leave the kids out of it.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Christmas Day

2005-12-25T18:23:00.000Z

Well it is Christmas and I am away from my family in a land that is very foreign to my accustomed way of life. They practice a different religion, they have missed the major philosophical arguments that have been hammered out in the west (Enlightenment, Reformation, etc), and they are woefully naïve about economics (most still hew to the principals of Karl Marx instead of Adam Smith).

Sounds pretty bad but believe it or not, it is getting better. My perspective is skewed because I am in one tough province. When I read the situation reports (SITREPS) of the other places in Afghanistan I get jealous because they are working in a friendlier environment. All I can do is keep at it and drive on. Every kid that I smile at or give candy to, every person that we medically treat, every person that has livestock that we treat, every mission we conduct that includes the participation of the Afghan National Army (ANA), every infrastructure project we do are steps that get us closer to where Afghanistan can govern itself and secure its own borders.

I guess you can say that my time and effort here are my gifts to the people of Afghanistan. It isn’t just me giving those gifts. My bride and my two sons are giving those gifts as well because I am not with them right now.

Is being here a labor of love? I love what I am doing only because I am doing it for the peace and safety for my family. I consider being an American Soldier a high calling and that wherever I am deployed it is for a noble purpose in keeping with the Christian principals that made our country unique. Peace on earth, goodwill towards men. Those are the words of the Christmas season.

The ancient Greeks learned early on that we humans are a tragic lot. We are greedy, selfish, deceitful, and our most base qualities rise to the surface in the absence of faith in a higher power. Jesus was born this day in a land that was part of the Roman Empire, a culture that gave us the concept of civic virtue but was also hedonistic, nihilistic, and brutal. Jesus grew up, preached Gods word, and the Sanhedrin engineered his crucifixion at the hands of the Roman Empire. His words lived on and eventually the Roman Empire ceased to exist but not before many of its peoples accepted Gods love and grace, all because of Jesus.

Jesus was born today so he would eventually pay for our sins with his death. His gift is what gives me solace every day, especially every day that I am here in Afghanistan. My gifts are nothing compared to what Jesus gave us. I pray that my gifts and the gifts of all my comrades in arms here will eventually bear fruit and the peoples of this country will finally know peace and have goodwill for each other.

Merry Christmas!

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Afghan Automobile Association and Playing Soccer

2005-12-18T06:02:00.000Z

So, what is Afghanistan like in December? The nights are frigid and the days are pretty brisk. I had to break out my fleece jacket and have been wearing those in the mornings and nights.

Not much has really been going on that I can freely talk about on this blog. I assure you that things have been hopping out here and I have been wrapped around the axle dealing with them but I didn’t want to bore you all with a post that can be summarized as “I went on a mission, answered my e-mails, followed up on e-mails that were sent yesterday, fielded a couple of phone calls, do the write up of the mission, blah blah blah”.

The missions I go on are pretty much the same except for the locations. The missions that we run are focused on Civil Affairs (CA), Psychological Operations (PSYOP), or both. On a CA mission we look at a project, evaluate a location for a new project, or conduct a medical/veterinary mission. The PSYOPers on their missions do that PSYOPer thing. An interesting thing happened on a combined veterinary and medical mission a few days ago.

We rolled out like usual and were almost at our destination when one of the truck commanders (TC) called out an emergency stop. We all bailed out and set up security and waited on what’s the word. It turned out that one of our hummers lost steering. Upon closer inspection we found that one of the driveshafts had come loose. Seeing as how we still had a mission to perform, we decided to set up the medical and veterinary mission right there and try to fix the hummer.

While the CA and medical folks were setting up, the TC of the broken hummer grabbed the tools and crawled underneath. It was pretty comical to see a hummer with its hood up, a pair of legs sticking out from underneath, and the rest of us standing there in full battle rattle voicing our opinions on how to fix it or whether we will have to tow it back. At that point, an Afghan was tooling by in his truck and parked off the side of the road. He got out, grabbed his tools, and came right on over and offered to help.

As it was, he didn’t have the tools (or bolts we needed) to help and he offered his apologies. We thanked him anyway and away he went. Another truck came by, it stopped, and out jumped four Afghans, they grabbed their tools and offered their assistance. They had a jack that we actually used and they helped with wrestling some of the drive train components. When the hummer was fixed we offered them money and the senior man refused. We did manage to give each of them radios (AM/FM/Shortwave and powered by a hand crank, batteries, or solar) and we gave the younger men some Afghani (Afghan money) as a token of our appreciation.

Let me paint a picture here. One downed hummer with some fierce weaponry on top of it, other operational hummers with fierce weaponry on them, multiple Coalition soldiers in full battle rattle, we haven’t really started treating any animals or people yet so it wasn’t obvious that we were running a humanitarian assistance mission, the province I am in is where the Taliban was born, and these Afghan men STILL OFFERED THEIR ASSISTANCE!!

The code of conduct that the Pashtun peoples abide by is called Pashtunwali. The code is strictly adhered to but on occasion the basic tenets are set aside for political expediency. Of the tenets of the code, one is called melmastya (hospitality and protection to every guest) and another is nunawati (the right of a fugitive to seek refuge and acceptance of his bona fide offer of peace). We weren’t asking for refuge and we definitely weren’t guests in their house. If anyone was on the mountains that surrounded us they could easily see us, and anyone around us, with a scope. Yet these men still helped. Pretty gutsy in my opinion.

One of our soldiers is a soccer fiend and facilitated the donation of uniforms to four local teams. One of those teams asked if we would play them. Because this is the army, we had to write up a mission plan and all that other stuff. We played a soccer game against the city team yesterday. I didn’t play because I was acting as the Public Affairs Officer (PAO) which meant I was taking pictures. Thankfully, my new camera came in and I was able to take some great action shots.

About one hundred and fifty people watched, including the provincial governor and some other officials. These guys were tough and good. It was a competitive game but friendly. At the end of the game all the players were all smiles. The local team wants to play us again. I firmly believe that once the people ask you to play with them, you gotta be doing something right.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Long Days and Short Nights

2005-12-05T20:17:00.000Z

Where did the time go? We have eighteen days and a wakeup until Christmas and I haven’t posted since a couple of days before Thanksgiving! I know it is almost cliché to say that I have been busy but truth be told I have been extremely busy. I am happy to report that on Thanksgiving Day my family in Seattle, WA saw the holiday greeting the Public Affairs people recorded. I am hoping that KRCG or KOMU broadcasts the greeting I made for my family and friends in Jefferson City.

In a previous post I mentioned that I have assumed an extra duty as the Field Ordering Officer (FOO). What a monster that turned into. We are consolidating operations with a Forward Operating Base (FOB) nearby and I am in charge of putting together the Scope of Work (SOW) for some of the contracts we need to keep both the FOB and PRT running. When I was a commander I didn’t worry about that stuff because I had full time staff that handled the money.

Some of our key personnel are either on leave or somewhere else for meetings. Guess who filled the gap? Yours truly! On top of my primary duty, I am acting for two other personnel and I was practically run ragged today after having a late night due to a night mission. Today was a perfect storm for crap that came down all at once. I was woefully unprepared for today’s staff call due to running down too many things at one time plus not being totally familiar where certain key files were stored. Luckily for me, I wasn’t the only one not prepared so we pushed back the staff call. The Executive Officer (XO) and I searched for the files I needed and when we reconvened we all looked like we knew what we were doing instead of acting like a bunch of keystone cops!

My misery is temporary. Some of the things I have been doing I had to let slip because there isn’t enough time in the day. The key personnel will be returning soon and I can concentrate on my primary assignment and managing base operation contracts.

In all the madness I did manage to take care of……Christmas shopping! Via e-mail I was able to coordinate presents for my sons and niece and nephew between my bride, my sister in law, and my mother in law. As much as I like to support my favorite stores in Jefferson City (Downtown Book and Toy for example) the Internet made my life easier.

The nights here are getting ugly cold. We have some of our guys at a FOB east of here looking at a project and it is in the mountains. They are practically freezing their tails off. When we look eastward we can see the snow pack developing on the mountaintops. One of the Special Forces guys I was chatting with says we will be hit with snow in about a couple of weeks. It looks like we will have a white Christmas here.

Time escapes you here. The missions, paperwork, e-mails, phone calls, and meetings all blend in together and then you realize that it is late and you can’t see your hand in front of your face when you step outside of the Tactical Operations Center (TOC). If it isn’t too late, go to the gym for about an hour, shower, and hit the rack. Then do it all over again the next day. Even though the days are short and the nights are long, I personally have very long days and very short nights.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Happy Thanksgiving!

2005-11-21T18:14:00.000Z

It has been awhile since my last post. Can't be helped really. Sometimes I get really busy!

Anyway, I spent a few days at KAF (Kandahar Airfield) getting some paperwork done. I am taking on some extra duties on top of my primary job and those duties required that I take a class and get an LOI (Letter of Instruction). I am now a FOO! What is a FOO you ask? A FOO is a Field Ordering Officer. I am partnered with a Pay Agent and together we get to spend money. Of course there are all sorts of things I can't buy but if you need $2500 worth of gravel, I am your man!

Another thing we did at KAF is restock our little PX. I was put on the purchasing list so when the soldiers that run the PX go on leave, I will run the PX and keep it stocked. We met the manager, we went into the stock room, grabbed a clip board, and went shopping. I never bought $2000 worth of chips before. Our DFAC prepares decent meals but sometimes Joe just wants some chips and dip.

As soon as we loaded our PX purchases in the conex (container) and arranged for it to be trucked to our PRT, we got the first bird back to Tarin Kowt. It was a Chinook and let me tell you, it was a better ride going back. We flew on a C-130 to KAF and we were NOE (Nap of the Earth) all the way. A third of the passengers lost their lunches. The man next to me, a chaplain, almost made it to KAF but he lost it on our final approach. You normally sit facing the center but I was getting woozy. Fortunately, I had a portal next to me so I twisted aroung to look outside. It was a helluva ride.

When me and my colleagues got back we went right back into our routines of missions and staff work. The ANA soldiers are doing really well with their training. I have been going on missions with the ANA and Civil Affairs folks and doing the write-ups (doing that Public Affairs thing).

In a couple of days it will be Thanksgiving. The cooks are promising a really big feed. The Army never really takes a break so we will still be doing work but the meal will be a nice event. Some of the soldiers here are learning to play the guitar and they are going to provide entertainment. It promises to be a good time.

So, what do have to be thankful for seeing as how I am spending it in indian country (an old army term from the days of horse cavalry). I am thankful that my wife was crazy enough to marry me. I am thankful that she has borne us two wonderful sons. I am thankful for all the people back home that are watching out for my family while I am here.

I am thankful that my parents emmigrated from the Peoples Republic of Canada and made a go of it in the United States. I am thankful that as long as I maintain a good attitude I can get a job, it may not be the one I want, but a job nonetheless. I am thankful that we have a political system that allows for civilized debate. I am thankful that Missouri trusts me to defend my family and friends with a concealable firearm. I am thankful that the test for citizenship in the US focused on the Constitution, the Founders, and the idea of what makes us uniquely American.

Having been to the Phillipines, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Serbia (Kosovo), and Afghanistan, I thank God every day that I am an American.

Happy Thanksgiving!

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Blood and Prisms

2005-11-13T16:39:00.000Z

A few days ago I gave blood. I was working on a project and the operations officer yelled out that the field hospital needed two units of O Positive. Me and another officer volunteered and away we went. I am a regular donor at the Red Cross back home. I am so regular that the Red Cross calls me at work and at home pestering me that my fifty six days have elapsed and I need to come in and donate. I eventually get around to it and I donate, drink some water and juice, grab some free cookies for my sons, and away I go.

The Army doesn't mess around when you donate for them. My colleague and I walk in to the aid station and immediately were told to sit, take off our blouses, and stick out our donating arm. No paperwork where you have to tell about all the drugs you shot up and the prostitutes you paid for or about the trips to Africa you made before 1977. No worrys about mad cow or being exposed to someone with hepatitus. One medic missed on the first try and after rooting around gave up (the arm I typically donate with). Another medic tried on the other arm and got it on the first hit. A couple of minutes later, my blood went right to the OR and I got a box of orange juice. Plus I can donate again in FOURTEEN days, not fifty six!

While I was donating, many soldiers showed up ready to donate. After they stuck two more after me the rest had to be turned away because they had enough donors. The man fighting for his life on the operating table was a local national that had an accident with a shotgun. The word got out that it was a local national and it didn't matter. Soldiers kept on showing up because the word didn't get out that they had enough blood. The aid station was on the FOB (Foward Operating Base) next to us so we had Australian and US soldiers stopping by. He survived and was airlifted to a hospital that can keep him in intensive care.

Today I attended a meeting of local provincial officials. The meeting was about projects that we are proposing to do in the next few months. The meeting reminded me of a city council meeting back home where you have consitiuents talking about storm water drainage, zoning, and rights of way. That was the first prism I looked at the meeting through. When I thought about all the crap these guys have been through with the Soviets and the Taliban the prism changed. These guys have either been appointed by an elected official or are elected officials in their own right. All they are doing is reflecting what their constituents are expressing. I think it is truly amazing that the meeting occured at all and that it was conducted in a civil manner, despite the passion that was obvious. To me, having a frank discussion about what we expect from each other is way better then drawing guns and blasting. Trust me, these guys are not too far from having done that in the past. Progress is definitely being made here.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Going for a Walk

2005-11-08T12:36:00.000Z

I went on a dismounted patrol yesterday. Our mission was to obtain bids for medical and veterinary supplies for future medical and veterinary missions. In short, we walked to the local village and went priceshopping.

As you can imagine, going shopping here is a little more involved. Back home, my wife will prepare a shopping list and one of us will go get the stuff. Here we had an operational order brief and pre-combat checks/inspections (do you have water, ammo, do you know your call sign and radio frequency, etc). Once all that was done, we got into a patrol formation with the ANA soldiers and we moved out.

Anyone who has traveled outside of the United States and Europe will instantly recognize what I saw. Dirt roads, open shops hawking their stuff, people everywhere, mules, camels, motorcycles (rice burners with 150cc to 300cc engines), cars (wagons mainly), jingle trucks (big trucks with ornate decorations), the occasional minivan and SUV. What got me was the overabundance of moondust. Of course this moondust was getting into everything, including the food that was being prepped in front of the shops.

What we did was that a couple of ANA soldiers along with our Doc went to all the pharmacies in the village soliciting bids. The rest of us pulled security. I was taking pictures while all this was going on. I was able to take pictures with one hand and the other hand was on the pistol grip of my rifle (a tactical sling for my rifle lets me hang the rifle in front of my body).

Some of you are probably thinking "all the pharmacies, how many pharmacies are in the village?" According to Yahoo Yellow Pages, there are fourteen pharmacies in Jefferson City, Missouri (Walmart wasn't listed so I know there must be more). We visited somewhere between ten and fifteen pharmacies! These do not look at all like the pharmacies you are accustomed to. It is a little shop with a sign that says pharmacy and there is no board certified pharmacist dispensing meds. If you have the cash, you can buy the meds.

The one thing that amazed me the most was the sheer number of men out and about. To visualize this, think of the local Walmart on its busiest day and replace all the adult women with men. That is what I saw. I only saw three adult women and they were herding kids from point A to point B. They didn't have on those blue burqas but they were covered up.

I saw probably around ten young girls (under twelve years old). I saw over a hundred young boys. They mainly wanted pens and other goodies (any time they see Coalition soldiers, they expect to get freebies). I had to say "no pen" more times than I remember. I had one boy walk up to me and ask me in perfect English "what is the name of your father". I told him and then he asked me the name of my brothers. I told him I have one brother and what his name was. I then tested him and told him the names of my sons,my grandfathers, my uncles, and the names of my wifes father and brother but I exceeded his English capacity.

The youths I saw yesterday are a far cry from what the "youths" are doing in France. I recently read a hilarious article written by Mark Steyn (a pundit with marvelous wit, especially if you appreciate British and Canadian humor). You can read the article here. France is in a bit of a pickle.

The "youths" in France that are torching the place are third generation descendents of North African immigrants who are primarily Muslim. Why are they mad? The rest of France refused to consider their parents and grandparents as French and did not attempt to assimilate them into French culture. Because of that, they have been marginalized culturally and economically.

I wrote my masters thesis on multicultural education and how it affected students of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. I touched on the dangers of focusing so much on their culture (or any culture) at the expense of emphasizing American culture (the Founders, the Constitution). What happened in France was that they let these immigrants stay North African while in France. Now they are trying to "understand them" and are telling them that burning cars "is not the way to achieve a fairer, more fraternal society". France should have allowed its schools to drum into these "youths" the whole history behind Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité and allowed the parents of these "youths" full economic participation.

We (the Coalition) are attempting to invigorate the local economy by purchasing our supplies locally. I guess we could have brought all the medical and veterinary supplies in but that wouldn't have introduced capital needed to improve distribution channels. We aren't even attempting to "understand" the Taliban diehards. We are giving them a chance to participate in an emerging Afghan civic culture, if they don't want to participate the ANA will deal with them.

Economic participation and clearly defined expectations of civic participation. Our method worked in the US and is steadily gaining traction in Afghanistan. France? Wonderful cheeses, foi' gras, and wine. Too bad all that will be lost.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Crossing the Wire

2005-11-03T19:38:00.000Z

One of my duties here at the PRT is Public Affairs. Since I am the Public Affairs Officer (PAO), I was able to go on my first mission today. Today we conducted a VETCAP, where we go and provide veterinary assistance to farmers. We pretty much focused on providing de-worming treatments. We treated sheep, goats, cows, donkeys, mules, and camels. Having worked with all the former animals except the camels, I was very interested in how a camel would react to having a drenching gun shoved down its throat. To my surprise, the camels were the most docile (the donkeys and mules came in second). The cows were a little touch and go (we did not have a pen like I am accustomed to, I let the younger guys wrangle them) and the sheep and goats were dumb as rocks (they are dumb as rocks stateside also).

One of the goals of the VETCAP was to get the ANA (Afghanistan National Army) soldiers involved. Hey, its their fellow countrymen's animals, they should help, right? I want to report that the ANA did very well today. They were wrangling the animals and administering the de-worming medicine plus providing security along with our security detail. Actually, I am not surprised about the ANA, practically all of them grew up around farm animals. These guys don't have the experience with the de-worming part because their families couldn't afford the meds. All in all a good day.

So what was it like crossing the wire for the first time? For the record, I have crossed many "wires", just not in Afghanistan. Let me illustrate some differences between Afghanistan and Kosovo where I was deployed last. When I crossed the wire in Kosovo I was in an SUV. Today I was in an uparmored humvee with a grenade launcher and machine gun on top. When I crossed the wire in Kosovo I had a pistol with the magazine in with no round in the chamber and my body armor in a bag. Today I had a pistol and a rifle, locked and loaded, I was wearing my body armor and helmet, and I had a ton of ammo and access to plenty more in the humvee. Get the picture?

On the trip to the VETCAP site, there were some places on the route that gave me the heebie jeebies. I did not use the word "road" on purpose. The gravel road to the family ranch is an interstate compared to the stuff we drove on today. It kinda drives home the point on how important a transportation infrastructure is to a nations economy. Of course, I wasn't thinking about Afghanistan's economy at the moment, I was thinking how easy it would be for Taliban diehards to light us up from the high ground.

Honestly, because today is the first day of Eid celebrations (post Ramadan), there probably weren't too many Taliban diehards interested in taking us on. They were probably too busy recovering from the "breaking the fast" celebrating. Most of the men were hanging out at their village cemeteries or sleeping off the previous nights festivities (I saw at least five racked out, wrapped in their cloaks, in dry stream beds). Last night there were all sorts of celebratory gun fire (you can hear it plus see the tracers).

So was today a good mission? I didn't get shot at and my humvee didn't hit an IED (Improvised Explosive Device, I like the term booby trap better, but I am not in charge). I took a bunch of pictures and will do the write up tomorrow. I am in one piece and not bleeding anywhere, so today was a good mission.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

It's Full of Stars!

2005-10-31T19:01:00.000Z

Happy Halloween everyone!

If I was home right now I would be wrangling two feisty boys dressed as dragons. Instead, I am in Afghanistan and we had a costume party here on the PRT. Never underestimate the ingenuity and creativity of the American Soldier, especially when the prizes are a day off at the PRT, a case of Red Bull, and a 4 day pass at Quatar.

The best costume, in my opinion, was worn by one of the SF guys. He had on genuine Japanese Army fatigues, old style glasses, and a bandanna wrapped on his head samurai style. The original purpose of his costume was to have his picture taken while his SF buddies were pulling him out of a cave. They were then going to put his picture in a briefing saying that they thought he was Taliban but was actually a WWII Japanese soldier holding out. Too funny!

My eyes have gotten accustomed to how dark it is out here at night. Back home, even out in the farm area, there is always some artificial light. Not so out here. I usually use a red lensed flashlight at night so my night vision can kick in quicker. Once it does, there is quite a show.

Tonight, when I was walking back to my hooch after taking a shower, I stopped for a bit just to look at the sky. There was no moon and the Milky Way was just starting to come out. The brightest object in the sky was Mars (the god of war, how appropriate). I kind of just stood there taking it all in.

It was pretty peaceful just standing there gawking at the stars. I wished my boys were with me so I can show them the constellations (years ago I earned the astronomy merit badge). Then I looked at Mars and was reminded of where I was and why.

When I finish this tour, I will take my boys camping and show them the night sky. I won't have to worry about Mars then, it will be 2018 before it is this bright again.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Finally at my PRT

2005-10-30T17:27:00.000Z

So, what is my assignment like? The food is good and the soldiers here have been welcoming. That is good considering I just showed up a couple of days after they found out I (I told them) that I was assigned to them. I have my first meeting with the commander tomorrow (she just got back from leave). I will need to explain what my mission is and how I can be useful.

I have now been at my assigned PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) for 4 days. I was able to get a computer account and get caught up on reading all about the province I am in. I hurt my back doing step aerobics at Bagram Airfield the day before I left. Today was the first time I did PT (Physical Training) since Wednesday morning.

Today I was trained on how the force protection unit conducts convoy operations (important to know when you cross the wire). Tomorrow I will qualify with my rifle to demonstrate my proficiency. Most soldiers would grouse about how they just qualified less than a month ago, why qualify again. Personally, I love to shoot so going to the range is a treat for me. Once I qualify, I get to cross the wire and go on missions.

So why would a staff officer go on missions? Due to the work I do and the people I work with, at this level I need to go on missions. On my last deployment I pretty much stayed at the headquarters and all the subordinate units went on missions. This time, I am part of a subordinate unit.

The facilities here are top notch. The PRT I am at was constructed as a model for other PRT’s. In my quarters I have a heating/cooling unit, a bed with a mattress (no cot), and a CAT5 drop (network cable). The quarters building has a day room with a TV and DVD player. The DFAC (Dining Facility or mess hall for you old timers) has a commercial grade kitchen. The latrine building has washers and dryers, flushing toilets, and tiled shower stalls. The gym has free weights, dumbbells, a couple of stairmasters, a couple of stationary bikes, and a couple of elliptical machines.

Don’t have much else to say. Once I start going on missions I will be able to tell you more about what it is truly like here in Afghanistan.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Grace and Love

2005-10-23T14:34:00.000Z

I went to chapel services today (the first time I had been to church since I left home). A typical military chapel usually offers Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish services. If the numbers are there maybe Mormon, Wiccan (don’t laugh, Ft. Carson had a Wiccan Chaplain on post), Muslim, and others. The Protestant service is usually geared to the very young adult and has a pop feel to it. Those who know me know that I am a traditionalist at heart (I was raised Roman Catholic) so I am not comfortable in that kind of service.

Here at Bagram Airfield it was nice to see that a liturgical protestant service was offered. In the Armed Forces Religious Services Book, we used the long Protestant form and it was remarkably close to the Episcopal service that I am accustomed to. Granted, the Nicene Creed and the Lord’s Prayer were worded a tad different, but not too different to matter to a soldier serving in a combat zone far from home.

For today’s service the processional hymn was “Amazing Grace”, the offertory/communion hymn was “What a Friend we have in Jesus”, and the closing recessional hymn was “Onward, Christian Soldiers”. The sermon was about the dangers of “easy grace”, where we as Christians take God’s love for granted and don’t do the heavy lifting required to be truly good Christians like following the Ten Commandments and Jesus admonishing us to Love God and to love our neighbors as we should love ourselves (the last bit was taken from today’s Gospel reading).

So what does it mean to love your neighbors as you love yourself? What about loving ones enemy as you love yourself? These questions are a little heavy for after dinner cocktails or the salon, but are pretty existential for guys like me. So what does it all mean?

The way I understand it, God’s love isn’t the “I am OK and you are OK” variety, it is the tough love that requires the application of standards of behavior and not tolerating sin. Yes, we must forgive those who sin against us but we also must show them the error of their ways so that they can fully be a part of God’s grace. In other words, we follow the Ten Commandments and expect others to do so as well. If they don’t, we must help them see what they have done and help them get back to God’s grace.

There are many Christians today who are very uncomfortable being judgmental. Tolerance is the buzzword and everyone is a recipient of God’s grace. Well, that just flies in the face in what we are supposed to do as Christians. If we are supposed to preach God’s word and spread the good news of our salvation, part of that is what we must live up to those ideals. In short, if I commit a bunch of heinous sins, I can ask for forgiveness from God and my fellow Christians, do my penance and no longer do those heinous sins, and all will be good. It all falls apart if my fellow Christians don’t ask me to perform penance and I continue performing those heinous sins and I continue to expect God’s grace as long as I ask for forgiveness.

So, how do I love my enemy? Did I give him a chance to change his behavior (surrender)? Did I meet him on the field of battle in the open (announce my intentions)? If he does surrender, do I treat him with dignity and lay down expectations of behavior (recant his beliefs and proclaim a new direction for his life)? If he chooses to fight, do I dispatch him in a humane way (show him mercy and make it quick)?

It is so easy to receive God’s love. It is much more challenging to give God’s love.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Hell of a Book

2005-10-22T11:49:00.000Z

I finally finished reading the book that I started last July. I read quite a bit for my regular day job and the last thing I want to do when I get home is read. In any case, because I am waiting for transportation to my assignment, I was able to finish the book.

The book is called "Ghost Wars" and is written by Steve Coll. You can buy it here if you want. My father read this book and recommended it highly. I usually would wait for him to give me his copy but because I knew I was shipping out soon I bought my own copy at the Barnes and Noble in Jefferson City.

So, what is the book about? It is a documentation of the secret history of the Central Intelligence Agency, Afghanistan, and Osama Bin Laden from the Soviet invasion in 1979 to 10 SEP 2001. My copy is the updated version. Coll updated the manuscript when the 9/11 Commission Report was released.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to understand why we need to see this conflict through to its finish. The one thing that stands out in the book is that the United States left the people of Afghanistan in the lurch when the Soviets pulled out and that we relied too heavily on other countries to come up with some sort of policy for the region. We trusted the wrong people and we strung the right people along and let them hang in the wind. We as a nation owe the people of Afghanistan.

Why do we owe them anything? Well for starters, they helped us bleed the Soviets. Talk to any former resident of the Communist Bloc and they wil tell you how grateful they are for the United States standing toe to toe with the Soviets. Many in Afghanistan saw the threat of Isamofascists early on and sounded the alarm and a few key people in the U.S. Government believed them, unfortunately, too many either discounted them or didn't care. When we identified Osama Bin Laden as a threat, the Northern Alliance gladly provided us intel on Bin Laden (for a fee, of course). However, we lacked the imagination and the guts to let the Northern Alliance take Bin Laden out (we wanted him alive) and also to support the Northern Alliance in its fight against the Taliban.

The books focus is Afghanistan. There is a theme here that echoes in other foreign policy blunders of the United States and that is "What happens when the United States doesn't see a conflict thourgh to its end"? Well, there's a few and they all had huge impacts.

1. What happened after Desert Storm? We let Saddam Hussein live and as a result thousands of Kurds in the north and thousands of Shia's in the south were killed and his sons were left to kidnap and rape more women. We finally had to give the United Nations some credibility by going in and taking down Husseins government for violating the UN sanctions.

2. Lets go back a little further. We took CAS (Close Air Support) away from the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) and as a result the ARVN could not hold back the superior numbers of the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) and South Vietnam fell. To those who argue that the ARVN was a lousy army, they were at the beginning but during the Tet offensive the ARVN performed with distinction and they were getting better. The repercussions of South Vietnam falling was Combodia turning into "The Killing Fields".

3. Let's jump forward to Lebanon. We lost almost three hundred Marines in a suicide truck bomb attack (a harbinger of things to come) and we pulled out. Syria was then able to do what it wanted in Lebanon (to include harassing Isreal through proxy fighters). Supposedly Syria has pulled out but I don't think so.

4. What about Cuba? Granted the Bay of Pigs operation was planned on a wing and a prayer. By withdrawing CAS as the men hit the beach, we guaranteed failure. If we provided CAS, they might have succeeded but we will never know. Castro is still there and the vast majority of Cubans are still suffering in the workers paradise where everyone is equally miserable. Oh, I heard recently that former president Jimmy Carter validated the elections in Venezuela where Hugo Chavez, a Castro wanna be, obviously rigged them.

5. Somalia was a mess. We had restrictive rules of engagement and we didn't have a clear over riding mission. The Rangers got caught in an ugly firefight (read the book or watch the movie "Blackhawk Down"), many men were lost, and the United States pulled out shortly after. Osama Bin Laden claims that the Somalia debacle proved that the United States has no guts to fight. I would argue that we shouldn't have been there in the first place but once you commit, you commit all the way.

I could go on but I think I made my point. My brother thinks we have been Afghanistan too long. I read an opinion piece in the Jefferson City News Tribune critical of the Iraq effort and that we should pull out now. My response, we are still in Germany, Japan, and Italy fifty years after World War II. In Iraq there are thousands of dead Kurds and Shia's and many brutalized women. In Afghanistan there are thousands dead. We owe them, plus we owe the people we lost, to see this through.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Bagram Airfield and the Puzzle Palace

2005-10-19T06:44:00.000Z

It is a common feeling in the military that the quality of ones service is directly related to how far away from the flagpole you are. This translates in the civilian sector as to how often upper managment looks over your shoulder. Bagram Airfield is the location of CJTF-76, a very large flagpole. Underneath it are Regional Commands (brigades) then Provincial Reconstruction Teams and Foward Operating Bases (Battalions).

Last time I deployed downrange I was at a brigade HQ in Kosovo (Camp Bondsteel). I was literally chained to my desk churning out spreadsheets and Powerpoint slides. Did I hate my job? Yes and no. I never got to go anywhere in the Area of Operation (AO) except for a once a week trip to Pristina for a meeting. There were amenities on Bondsteel that made life pleasant.

Bondsteel and Bagram share many of the same amenities. Both have PX's, Burger Kings, coffee shops, vendors hawking souvineers, barbers, alteration/press shops, workout facilities, movies, free laundry and food (thank you KBR). Bagram, because of the immense size of its flagpole, has a Dairy Queen, a Subway, and a beauty shop/spa that offers professional masseuse services.

I, along with my colleagues visited the HQ today. Unofficially the place is called the Puzzle Palace (it is a bunch of containers connected together Leggo style inside a hangar). As you can imagine, Puzzle Palace is loaded with many meanings. One wag called the place the venue for the OER Olympics (Officer Evaluation Report).

Already, I know that I want to be assigned to a location that is the farthest from this place. I don't care about the Dairy Queen or the masseuses. All I know is that I already did one tour at an HQ and I don't want to go through that mess again. Send me down range to where the boots hit the ground and I will be a happy camper, hopefully soon!

Precious Cargo

2005-10-17T03:34:00.000Z

I am finally here in Afghanistan. I arrived at Bagram AB yesterday morning. Don't know how long I will be here because I have to be worked into a flight to my final destination which I don't know what that is yet. We have an inbrief this afternoon and from that point we wait for orders and an outbound flight.

After we arrived and humped our gear to the transient tent (far bigger and with more room than the tent we had in Kyrgyzstan), I ate luch, took a shower, and laid down for a nap. I didn't wake up until 0530. I was out for about 15 hours. I guess I was really tired!

I took some awesome pictures of the mountains we flew over. Anyone who makes a life in this part of the world deserves to be called one tough hombre.

The C-130 that I flew on carried both passengers and cargo. It was an interesting mix of duffel bags, a light and generator set, a pallet of sealed boxes, and a bag of stuffed animals.

One can argue that the light set is important and that the duffel bags are important and that the pallet of sealed boxes are important. In my opinion, I thought the bag of stuffed animals and teddy bears was the most important.

Just think about the time and effort someone took to gather them all up. Then that someone talked to someone about how to get them over here. Then someone volunteers to throw them onto a bird that is headed overseas, basically making the same journey I did in getting here. I don't know the exact itinerary that bag took but it was just as long and ardous as mine.

Those stuffed animals and teddy bears are going to make some Afghan kid very happy and to me that makes that bit of cargo the most precious we can deliver.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

In Transit

2005-10-15T20:29:00.000Z

I am composing this post in a MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) tent on Manas Airbase, Kyrgyzstan. I am waiting for my final hop into Afghanistan. Total travel time (to include layovers) from Ft. Carson, CO was a little over 36 hours. During that time I saw a couple of in flight movies and read a good portion of the book "Ghost Wars".

Once we arrived and moved into transient quarters (a big tent on a concrete pad) grabbing a hot meal, taking a shower, shaving, and changing ones underwear and socks were the order of the day. We were also able to relax horizontally (sleeping on a reclining airline seat does not produce restful sleep).

We can't get too settled in because we have space available roll call every five to seven hours. If you are called you have to get your gear on the pallet and stand by for bussing to the flightline. Of course, silly things can interrupt the process such as mechanical failure on the bird, important cargo, or VIP's. Supposedly because our group is pretty large we have priority after cargo. Much of the cargo transiting through here is part of the aid to the earthquake affected areas of Pakistan.

I want to talk a little bit about the following snippet from Xinhua News:

Afghanistan has promised to provide helicopters and humanitarian aid to the earthquake affected people in neighboring Pakistan. The Ministry of Defense plans to send four helicopters, 20 doctors, and two tons of medicines while the Ministry of Health plans to dispatch 31 doctors, five nurses, and one ton of medicine to Pakistan, according to statement from President Karzai on October 10. (Xinhuanet)

I want to go on record that this is a big thing for Afghanistan to do. I say this because for many years the ISI (Pakistan Army Intelligence) has mucked around in Afghan politics and its internecine warfare from the time of the Soviet invasion till the time that the Taliban fell. The ISI was the CIA's agent in passing arms and cash to the Mujahadeen but was not very equitable in who got the stuff. The ISI actively supported Hekmatyar (a ruthless man responsible for many of the deaths in Kabul) and the Taliban.

This promise of aid, in my opinion, shows that Afghanistan is looking to the future and is not concerned with maintaing a blood feud for past misdeeds. This is a remarkable step considering that revenge is a staple of tribal life in Afghanistan. Slowly but surely, positive change is afoot.

Next time I post I should be in Afghanistan.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Validated

2005-10-13T22:33:00.000Z

Well, we just recently finished our train up. In my last post I mentioned that we were going to start training on convoy operations. Convoy operations’ training was a definite eye opener.

The first day we used blank ammo and the second day we used live ammo. We basically drove down this road with mock up villages and we simulated a combat patrol. We experienced everything from IED attacks, ambushes, and disabled humvee’s. The O/C’s (observer controllers) looked at how we sent up our reports, how well we communicated with each other, whether we used sound tactics, how we reacted to stress, and whether we made a decision or not. It was pretty cool engaging targets in a relatively free environment as compared to a traditional range. Hopefully I won’t have to use those skills when I arrive in country.

I want to be on record as saying that this is the best deployment training I have ever had (I deployed to the Balkans a couple of years ago). Practically every one of our instructors served in Iraq and Afghanistan and has also served in the Balkans. The training followed a logical progression. It kinda sucked having to practice reacting to contact (both squad and sniper), low crawling, and 3-5 second rushes with body armor and on foot. However, if you have to un-ass your vehicle and get on foot you are then a basic infantryman and require those skills that are so painful to practice, especially if you are a thirty six year old desk jockey and humping fifty pounds of gear.

I also want to brag on my outfit. The cadre that trained us told us that we are the best National Guard unit they have ever trained. They told us we were proactive on getting things done, we had a great attitude, and when we were going through the ranges we showed a warrior spirit (we weren’t reticent about expending our ammunition and demonstrating “violence of action”).

I recently was able to come home and see my family. It was great getting home but it hurt having to leave again. I hope that when the boys get older, they will understand and appreciate what me and my fellow soldiers will do this coming year.

Now we are on hold for transport downrange. I do not know when we are shipping out. We are going to lose our Internet connection pretty soon (we have to turn in the keys to the building that has the Internet connection) so I will not be able to post for a while. I will post when I can.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Done with Army Combatives and on to Convoy Operations

2005-10-05T02:58:00.000Z

We finished Army Combatives yesterday morning. We learned some chokes and submissions. At the end of the training session and the end of the other sessions we had we actually sparred against each other. We were supposed to apply what we learned. Some of the soldiers wrestled in high school and college and had to unlearn some bad habits. Last Saturday I won my match because my opponent got on all fours and turned his back to me. All I had to do is get him in the rear mount (getting on his back, wrapping my arms and legs around him) and hang on.

Yesterday I sparred against two people, one slightly older than me but is six feet three inches tall and the other sixteen years younger then me but about the same size. The first match was a draw. Because of his height advantage he got me on the ground first. I was able to get my legs wrapped around one of his (the half guard) so he couldn’t dominate me. He then started to put me in a chokehold. I ducked my chin and I started to put him in a chokehold. It was too funny. The referee broke the match before both of us passed out!

The second match was a real challenge for me. My sparring partner was sixteen years younger than me and quick. I tried to get him in a chokehold but he squirmed out of it and got me on the floor. He tried to go chest to chest and get me in the side mount but I kept squirming out of it. I was able to get one of his legs in the half guard and I tried to do a fancy move where I would flip him on his back (one of the maneuvers I learned Saturday past) but I ran out of gas. At that point, I was hosed. I had the dominant body position but no energy to take advantage of it. He got me in a hold that I couldn’t break and then it was game over. One of the buddies of my sparring partner congratulated me and said I put up one hell of a fight. I then found out he was sixteen years younger than me. At that point I felt good about lasting as long as I did.

We received another block of instruction in Afghan culture yesterday afternoon. We watched a documentary from TLC (The Learning Channel) called “12 Years of War in Afghanistan”. It was produced by the BBC in October of 2001 and talked about the fall of the communist government once the USSR pulled out through the Taliban takeover. It was pretty good despite the snide parting shot the commentator leveled at the US at the end of the show (typical liberal Brit). One of the points the documentary made was that once the Taliban restored order (which the people did want), they started to impose their belief system (a warped combination of extreme wahabi Islam and Pashtun mores). In cities that were Persian in character (Tadjik) where the women were educated, had jobs, and did not wear burkhas, all of a sudden they had to comply with the Talibans codes of behavior. That was when most of the people of Afghanistan wanted them gone. If you ever get a chance to see the documentary, please do so.

Today we started to train on running checkpoints, conducting searches, and convoy operations. It is highly unlikely that I will actually be doing checkpoints and conducting searches once I am in country (I am a staff officer). However, if I am ever in the position where I will have to supervise those operations I will need to know how they are done. EVERYONE does convoy operations. If you are in a vehicle, you are conducting a convoy operation. It doesn’t take a genius to know that many of our casualties over the last few years occurred during a convoy. I will be very attentive during the next few days!

All for now.

CIAO’
CPT NightHawk

Land Nav, Urban Close Quarters Combat, and Army Combatives

2005-09-30T05:15:00.000Z

Yesterday we did day and night land navigation for official validation. We were issued a map, compass, grid protractor (used to plot points on a military map), and a PLGR (Precision Lightweight Global Positioning Receiver). I was told that there are newer PLGR's in theater because I complained how inferior they are to my Garmin E-Trex in every respect (speed in acquiring a signal, user friendliness). Needless to say, we did program the PLGR with all the points we had to find but we also used our Garmins. Garmins are much easier to use.

Today we did Urban Close Quarters Combat (CQC). We learned how to clear rooms, enter buildings, move between buildings, and go up stairs. I weighed myself today with all my gear (helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, body armor, pistol, rifle, pouches, empty magazines, and a three liter camelback with one liter of water) and I am humping about 50 pounds of gear give or take five pounds. I was literally running and jumping through doors, up and down stairs, and between buildings with more weight then I humped during my basic training! The scary thing is that I was not carrying any live ammo, which is extremely heavy.

Tomorrow we are going to finish our CQC training. It will be more challenging because they are adding OPFOR (bad guys) and COB's (Civilians on the Battlefield) to the mix. Oh yeah, and blank ammo. We would have used the special paint ammo but they ran out of money.

I failed to mention in the previous post that we recieved our first block of instruction in Army Combatives. On Saturday we get our second block. According to the instructors, the Army wanted a fighting system that can be taught easily to large amounts of people effectively and is easy to learn. Gross motor skills, nothing too fancy, and that can be utilized by anyone no matter what size and strength.

They looked at Muy Thai, Judo, Ju Jit Su, Kali Silat, and Kempo. The Army sent people to study under the Gracie brothers in Brazil. The Army has always had some form of hand to hand combat instruction. Now, for the first time in the Army's history, the Army has a fighting system with written doctrine to go with it.

From the training I received so far, I am very impressed. The stuff I learned this past week I was already familiar with due to my past training at the American Martial Arts Academy in Jefferson City. We all received a pretty good work out and the Army instructors were on target.

The Army's Chief of Staff wants every soldier in the Army to be trained in Army Combatives. It is about time the Army got serious about hand to hand. Wars are not won by pushing buttons; the soldier on the ground closing with and destroying the enemy wins them. The confidence a soldier gains through Army Combatives gives the soldier more options on how to handle any given situation. Army Combatives, plus the training we received today and will receive tomorrow in Close Quarters Combat gives us all the edge we need to instantly switch from being a desk jockey to a line Infrantry Soldier.

Warfare is too fluid to have a front line. A Marine General said that today we have the two block war. In two blocks, you can have a squad taking control of a building, another squad in a vicious firefight in a street, another squad rendering humanitarian assistance, and yet another squad diffusing a confrontation between two warring militias.

I feel the Army is doing a pretty good job of getting us ready to go down range. I am gratified in seeing that in close to twenty years of service, the Army is finally getting it right in what we all need as soldiers. Too bad it took 9-11 to get that process in gear.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

What a Week

2005-09-28T05:55:00.000Z

I finally have some free time. I am doing my laundry now and taking this opportunity to compose this post.

We accomplished quite a bit since my last post. We qualified with our weapons (9mm Beretta pistol and M16A2 Assault Rifle), received additional training on using our rifles in close quarters combat, received familiarization with three different machine gun systems (5.56mm M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, 7.62mm M240B Machine Gun, and the .50 cal M2 Machine Gun). We conducted firing exercises during the day and night with our rifles and the machine guns. We also tested our protective masks by wearing them into gas chamber full of CS (tear gas).

Interspersed with all the shooting we received additional gear (tactical vests with all the pouches, nomex/kevlar gloves, boots, polartec fleece, a new helmet, two hydration systems, and silk long underwear). We received this equipment after we officially qualified with our primary weapons. It would have been really nice that we had this equipment when we qualified so we can train as we fight but that would make too much sense for the Army.

For the record, I qualified Expert with my pistol and rifle. However, I would have had a much easier time if I had my new equipment. The old Kevlar helmet doesn't work well with the body armor we are wearing. Everytime I squeezed off a shot with my rifle I was banging the front of my helmet on the rear sight housing to get the helmet above my eyes. You can imagine how challenging this can get when you have to engage two targets at once!

About the body armor. The vest is heavy. It gets much heavier when you insert the ceramic plates. Add on the pouches that hold all the ammo and it gets even more heavy. Now, imagine crawling in and out of foxholes and moving around in general. I felt like an old man that could barely move! One adjustment I had to make on my shooting technique is that you have to square your body to your target. Typically I stand practically sideways when I am shooting a rifle. There are no ceramic plates on the sides, only the front and back. So, in close quarters shooting, you snap up the rifle and shoot while you square your body. If you should get shot, the ceramic plate will take the hit. I hope it all works.

Once we were done with all the shooting, we went into classes. We received a short introduction to Dari (one of the languages of Afghanistan), classes on what is Islam, the culture of Afghanistan, using translators, how the media works, and a boat load of first aid. I gave a class on risk managment. We finally got our desert uniforms back from the alterations shop (all our patches had to be sewn on) and started wearing them.

Monday was a day off (I finally got to eat at a restaurant in Colorado Springs). Today we had classes on land navigation, using the radio, and using the Army's GPS device. Tomorrow we actually will go to a land nav course which we will do during the day and at night. It is supposed to get much cooler tomorrow which I am looking forward to. I am pretty much tired of the heat.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Getting Busy

2005-09-20T02:08:00.000Z

Today we started training on the ranges. For the next week I will not be getting back to the billets until after 2130 Hrs (9:30 PM). Needless to say, comms will be spotty for the next week.

I will post when I can , but don't expect anything for the next week.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Charlie Foxtrot, More Briefings, and Land Navigation

2005-09-17T03:01:00.000Z

Yesterday was a perfect example of why sometimes it is a bad idea to place more and more work in federal civilian employment as opposed to having soldiers or contractors do it.

Yesterday I had to do three things. I had to go see the ear doctor, draw equipment, and complete some paperwork. The ear doctor and the paperwork went without a hitch, mainly because I was dealing with military personnel. The fiasco started once I had to turn in my medical records and when I had to draw equipment.

First the medical records. No one mentioned that once I turned in my records I needed check sheet. One station said I needed a profile and another said I was good to go. Without the profile, I was dead in the water. The one station actually changed my deployment status in order for me to get through the other station. I went from "deployable with limitations, must take Rx" to "deployable without limitations". The upshot is that I did have a profile but the one station couldn't see it but the other station had no way of getting it on the checksheet!!!

Next was drawing my equipment. The rest of the unit had pretty much completed their equipement draw by the time me and two others were done with medical. First, we were told that we were in the wrong place and we had to go one door down. We did that and were told by a fork lift operator that everyone was gone to lunch and to be back in 30 minutes. We left and were told that there are people back there and we needed to go back.

We didn't have to draw much equipment. It amazes me that we were drawing equipment that ranged in quality from brand new to piss poor. The duffle bags had paint all over them from the last soldier that used them. I did get brand new boots, body armor, and desert uniforms and gore tex parka and pants. Everything else was used but in servicable condition.

About my desert camo uniforms (DCU's), to my utter amazement I was issued winter weight tops and summer weight bottoms. For those not familiar with Army Regulations, it against reg's to mix winter and summer weight uniforms. I asked about this and was told that that was all they had and the commanding general waived the reg. One of my colleagues asked which CG, the one for Ft. Carson or the one we will be working for in Afghanistan?

That is not all of it. The rest of the unit had their horror stories as well. Many of the soldiers were forced to take boots that didn't fit and were forced to take uniforms one size larger. The civilians were haranguing our soldiers to take them because those were all they had. This was utter bullshit.

These civilians failed to recognize that we are their customers and we are the reason they have a fucking job! Try pulling that crap at Walmart, Target, or any retailer and you will be shit canned in a heart beat. Needless to say the soldiers in our outfit are pretty pissed.

Today, our supply officer had a "discussion" with the director of the equipment issue people. We sent our soldiers that had size issues back and what a difference a "discussion" makes. Needless to say, everyone was really polite and an extra effort was made to find stuff that fit. Some of our soldiers that got the wrong sized boots got boots that not only fit, but were top of the line (Gore Tex lined, Vibram lug sole). The running joke is that those boots were snatched from the stock reserved for the Special Forces types! The upshot is that the boots that were issued us range in price from $88 to $200!

This morning we attended briefings that we already had back in Jefferson City. Why go through this again? Because Ft. Carson has its checklist of briefings we have to have and we will not deploy without attending those briefings. It didn't matter that we busted our tails laying on those briefings back in Jefferson City. Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), Tricare, Army Emergency Relief, Red Cross, Continuing Education. Total waste of time.

This afternoon we conducted land navigation training. Best part of the day. We were given three grid coordinates. We plotted them on the map and then entered them manually in our Garmin GPS devices. We then took a waypoint with our Garmins then plotted it on the map. We figured what the azimuth was to our first point on the map, shot an azimuth with the compass, then took off. We only used our Garmins to verify we found the right point.

We found the first point no problem. We then about two hundred and fifty meters to a road and a fence. We guessed where we were on the map without using our Garmins to verify our position and shot an azimuth. We were off quite a bit. After walking six hundred meters and not finding our second point, we whipped out our Garmins to get us back on track.

I have always been weak on land navigation. Today I realized it was because I wasn't good at getting a good fix on my position. The first point we found no problem because we shot our azimuth from a point that was verified using the Garmin GPS. The second point we botched because we tried to do it without verifying our starting point with the Garmin.

Lesson for today? I am pretty good at land navigation, as long as I use my Garmin to give me a good fix on my start point. My confidence in my land navigation abilities is much greater today than it was yesterday.

Tomorrow we are going to get our first orientation on range operations. Sunday is a day off. Next week we start shooting. Can't wait! I would be in the Army for free if I could just be on the ranges all week!

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Thanks Nancy!

2005-09-15T03:22:00.000Z

Today started out pretty rough. We did a diagnostic APFT. We are about 5500 feet higher here than we are back home and I really felt it this morning. I will have to do extra PT on the side to get my endurance built up or I will really suck wind in country.

After we ate breakfast and cleaned up we conducted training on our personally owned GPS devices. After lunch in the afternoon we conducted training on how to call in a Medevac and pistol familiarization (take downs, clearing, maintenance).

I want to talk about GPS devices. We have been told that these, coupled with a traditional lensatic compass and a map could save our lives. For example, we can use the GPS device to fix where we are, then use the compass to figure out where the enemy is, estimate distance to the enemy, then call it in for a fire mission (artillery or mortars) or CAS (close air support). Many soldiers we have talked to that served in Afghanistan will tell you that their GPS device literally saved their ass.

I have been using mine on the family ranch so I was already pretty familiar with it. I have a Garmin E-trex Venture. Many of my fellow soldiers just recently bought theirs and did not know how to set a waypoints, create routes, or set their devices up for easy navigation. I kinda became the ad hoc Garmin instructor because the instructor for the class owned a Magellan.

Needless to say, everyone in our outfit is much more comfortable with their GPS devices. The next level of training is we will give them the grid coordinates. They will ID them on a map and plug them into their GPS devices. They will then create a route and then walk the route.

Nancy, my mother in law, gave me an REI (Recreational Equipment Incorporated) gift card for Christmas one year and I used it to buy a water filter and my Garmin E-Trex Venture.

THANK YOU NANCY!!!!

Paperwork and Shots

2005-09-14T03:51:00.000Z

Today we conducted an SRP (Soldier Readiness Processing). Basically, the mob site personnel look at your records and square them away.

Stuff like your insurance, next of kin notification, legal (wills and powers of attorney), and pay are checked. You also go through medical screenings like optometry, audiology, bloodwork, immunizations, and dental.

I got my first Anthrax shot today (the first of many) and Smallpox. Thankfully, all the shots I recieved on my last deployment (seven!!) were in a database and I had my little yellow shot record to back that up.

The smallpox vaccination is interesting. We have to change a bandage every day and be very careful about the seepage from the shot site becaue the seepage is very contagious. We are not supposed to touch, scratch, rub, get wet, or molest in any way the smallpox injection site. They showed us pictures of people who did not follow those rules (nasty!). I wonder how we were able to vaccinate a bunch of kids in the past without causing a major outbreak!!

I was concerned about my ear (I suffer from Meniere's Syndrome and I have to wear a hearing aid). They classified me as a GO on deployment but still set me up with an appointment with the ENT specialist to update my records.

Tomorrow morning at 0600 we will be taking a diagnostic Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). I feel like crap now because of the shots. According to the medics, my arm the got the anthrax shot will be hurting. I foresee excruciating pain and agony when I am doing my push-ups!

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

What's Ft. Carson Like?

2005-09-13T02:25:00.000Z

Ft. Carson sits in the shadow of Cheyenne Mountain. The running joke is that if we get to go on a tour of NORAD (located in Cheyenne Mountain), we just might be able to see the Stargate:) (for those of you who don't know what I am talking about, there is a show on the SciFi channel called Stargate SG-1).

We went on a road march today to help us get acclimated to the high altitude and low humidity. We only went three miles and we weren't wearing full battle rattle (no body armor or helmet but we did wear our load bearing vest (LBV) and pistol holsters).

It is definitely dry here. After 10 minutes of walking my mouth was totally parched. After 15 minutes, I was starting to feel the altitude. No problem, just suck down the water and drive on.

One of the interesting features of Ft. Carson is the huge number of prairie dog warrens by the roads. It is quite comical watching them pop up and down. They have no fear at all. Yesterday I saw two of them copulating in the middle of the oncoming lane of traffic!

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

Why I Fight

2005-09-12T04:50:00.000Z

The following post is a reprint of an article that appeard in the dioceson newspaper of the Episcopal Diocese for Missouri headquartered in St. Louis . The article appeared in the spring of 2003 before the invasion of Iraq. The article was edited by the newspaper because of the mixed audience that reads it. It is shown here in its original form.

Article follows:

Why I Fight

All I have been hearing of late is how many of my fellow Episcopalians in the diocese are against any action against Iraq. I wanted to write this letter so people back home know what kind of work I have been doing during my mobilization to illustrate the point that we in the military are not warmongering pro-consuls of Pax America. I also want to let people back home hear my opinions on why Saddam Hussein must be directly confronted.

Right now I am in Kosovo serving with USKFOR (US Kosovo Force) as part of Operation Joint Guardian. We are here to provide a safe and secure environment for all the people who live here. We are keeping the peace here after NATO pummeled Belgrade, the Yugoslav Army, and Slobodan Milosevic for seventy-eight days from the air. NATO did this because the international community did not want a repeat of the disaster that occurred in Bosnia where thousands of Bosnjacs were killed not far from UN troops.

The United States could have told Europe that you are all on your own. There weren’t any Serbians, Bosnjacs, Croats, or Albanians hijacking American planes. There wasn’t a clear national self-defense interest. The United States took charge because we as a nation could not allow the bloodshed to continue in the Balkans. Women were violated wholesale, children were butchered, and men and boys were rounded up and annihilated. All because one man, Slobodan Milosevic, made a power grab and actively encouraged the brutality.

The United States took the lead in the Balkans through NATO because the Europeans themselves proved unwilling or unable due to historical baggage. The United States brokered the Dayton Accords that stopped the killing in Bosnia. The United States, through NATO, prosecuted a war without UN approval against Slobodan Milosevic to stop him from wreaking havoc in Kosovo. NATO took the lead because this conflict was also threatening to spill beyond the borders of Kosovo and draw Greece, Turkey, and Russia into conflict, which could have been disastrous for the European continent.

We went in to Afghanistan because the Taliban government was aiding and abetting Al-Queda. We sought a resolution from the United Nations and got one. The United States did not go into Afghanistan as conquerors intent on creating a protectorate; we went in to destroy Al-Queda and its supporters. Once the Taliban government fell, we actively worked with the international community to set up an Afghan government. You may have honest criticism about how we are conducting operations there now. To be frank, there are things I think we should be doing differently in Afghanistan now that the Afghan government is struggling to get on its feet. However, you can’t accuse my fellow soldiers that are over there now that they are conquerors. They see themselves as liberators and peacekeepers.

Right now we are poised on the brink of war against the country of Iraq. It is more accurate to say that we are going to war against Saddam Hussein. Milosevic and Hussein share some common traits. They are both megalomaniacs. Both are responsible for the rape of countless women (Hussein personally raped many women himself). Both have wiped out entire families. Both have countenanced systematic brutality. Serbian partisans have shot babies in the head because the families weren’t moving out of their villages fast enough. Hussein’s minions have raped and tortured daughters and wives in front of their fathers and husbands to coerce them.

Based on the standards we applied to the Balkans, we as a nation can rightly go in and take care of Saddam Hussein. If we decided as a nation to take down Slobodan Milosevic without so much as a by your leave from the United Nations, why not take down Saddam Hussein and free his people of his tyranny? Out of all the dictators and tin pot rulers on this planet, why bother with him?

There is an obvious element that the Balkans does not share with Iraq. Saddam Hussein has shown a propensity for gathering weapons of mass destruction. He actively works with terrorist organizations that want to wipe the United States off of the planet. He has failed to keep up his end of the cease-fire that was brokered after the first Gulf War, a war he started by invading and sacking Kuwait. The United Nations told him that he could live as long as he disarms. So far he has not done so. The revenue from the oil that he has been allowed to sell was used for weapons instead of medicine for the people of Iraq. Saddam Hussein is a scourge that the planet could do well without.

I am sure that many of you have heard these arguments before. They bear repeating, especially when placed in contrast with what we have done in the Balkans. I am confused as to why the work I am doing in Kosovo is considered peacekeeping yet the work my fellow soldiers are doing in Afghanistan and may be called to do in Iraq is called warmongering. This is the third time I have served overseas. The first time I went to Panama and built culverts and roads. The second time I went to Panama again and I was building an addition to a schoolhouse. The third time I am keeping the peace in Kosovo. All I have basically done for the Army overseas is humanitarian assistance work and peacekeeping. I would argue that my fellow soldiers posted in South Korea and Afghanistan are also peacekeepers. As were all the soldiers that were posted to Europe during the height of the Cold War. The soldiers who defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were liberators as well as peacekeepers.

I have been trained to fight and win the wars of the United States. These wars are not for imperial conquest. If the US Army were to be used as an agent of conquest, I will resign my commission in a heart beat. I serve because I firmly believe that the United States Army as an institution is a guardian of the free peoples of the world. When we go abroad, we bring our values with us.

When you ask a child here in Kosovo what he or she wants to be when they grow up, they want to grow up and be a USKFOR soldier. Not a soldier from the other countries that are assigned to our sector, they want to be an American Soldier! They see us in such a favorable light because we mean what we say, we deliver what we say we deliver, we treat everyone fairly, and they see people of diverse ethnic backgrounds working together.

Soldering is a tough business. The reward is seeing that a war fought to protect the homeland can have the effect of liberating an oppressed people from tyranny. Our country is unique in that we are a free people that when we make a stand, we stand shoulder to shoulder and go forth as liberators, not conquerors.

Like most Episcopalians, I don’t wear my faith on my sleeve. Yet I believe that being an American Soldier is something that I have been called to do. I take my duties as a husband and father very seriously and I really should be home with my expectant wife and young son. However, part of those duties is to protect hearth, home, and country. As a soldier, if I can bring peace, stability, and freedom to oppressed peoples of the world, my family and my friends will be much safer. When my boys grow up and they ask about what I did as a soldier, I can look them straight in the eye and say I was doing the work of the Lord. I was protecting our family from harm, I was liberating people from oppression, I was keeping the peace.

Article ends.

I reprinted this to show that I am pretty much doing what I have done in the past and feel the same way. I am a liberator and a peacekeeper. If killing a few haji's keeps the peace, then I am all for it.

Another reason is to show the original arguments that I made. In the article printed last spring, my graphic arguments were watered down which were not as compelling as a result.

Again, soldering is tough business. I am good at it and proud of it.

CIAO'
CPT NightHawk

The Adventure Begins

2005-09-10T17:46:00.000Z

Well, I am very new at this. I am establishing this blog so friends and family can keep track of what I am doing on this deployment.

Today we are traveling to our mobilization station to get validated for Afghanistan. I am part of a 65 man element from the Missouri National Guard.

This is not my first deployment. I was deployed to the 1st IO Command in Ft. Belvoir, VA for one year back in 2003 and I served in Kosovo.

I wil try to keep this up to date. One caveat. Due to the sensitive nature of my work, I may not be able to post everything that I do until well after the fact.

I hope that the people that read this blog enjoy it.

CIAO'
CPT Nighthawk