Marines doing it better: Part II

Back in April I posted a blog about a squad of Marines and their patrol tactics. I was very impressed by not only the techniques the Marines were utilizing but also their restraint in dealing with an apparently hostile population.

Today, Tom Ricks included in his blog a story of a Marine in Afghanistan and how they integrated a couple of reporters who were looking to get a story on the Marine's use of FETs (female engagement teams). Once again I was impressed by the Marines who took the time to sit down with the reporters and learn what the reporters hoped to accomplish and then placed them with different squads throughout their stay. The Marines ensured that the reporters saw what they wanted to see and the reporters made sure to stay within the ground rules that the Marines established.

I'm not saying that the Marines are far superior than the other services, all I'm saying is that in this particular situation the Marines did an excellent job in media interaction and getting their story out. My last unit, 1-14 Cav did essentially the same thing when we had media arrive and other than my cultural landmine, some stupid comments by stupid lieutenants, and a misquote by our squadron XO, we had excellent dealings with the media.

One other element of the article caught my attention and that was the Marine's description of a particular IED infested area dominated by the Taliban and what the Marine's did to improve the situation. They put a patrol base right next to the main village and the marketplace...where the people are. The population grew to trust the Marines and the Afghan Army soldiers because they were living essentially where they were living and could protect them. Civilians pointed out IEDs and passed on information on any Taliban infiltrating into the area. That's how you defeat an insurgency.

Very similar to what we did in 1-23 IN as part of Operation Arrowhead Ripper in 2007. After securing the western half of Baqubah with the help of the Iraqi Army and 5-20 IN (5-20 occasionally does things right) my battalion was ordered to establish two combat outposts in the city. We could have placed the COPs in the areas with the most historic enemy activity (the main road that went north to south through the city and then cut east across the river) but that wouldn't have made a lot of sense. Enemy attacks were highest on that road because that's where American activity was highest. It was the primary route between the brigade headquarters at FOB Warhorse and a base in the eastern part of the city, FOB Gabe. A single combined armor/mech infantry company was the only American forces in western Baqubah before my battalion arrived and all they could really do with their lack of manpower was hold that road open, so that is where they were attacked.

So we built COPs away from the main road in two neighborhoods where it was assessed the enemy actually "lived", as opposed to where they were "working". The buildings we occupied were both abandoned houses of significant size. A sizable portion of the population had fled prior to our operation (both civilians and insurgents) and so there were plenty of homes to choose from. Neighbors told us one of the homes we took over was owned by one of the insurgent leaders who had fled the city so score 1 for us.

Going off topic because I can...as I was walking through this house with the S3 (operations officer) and some engineers I noticed a spoon on the floor. I picked it up and as I looked at it another soldier and I said at the same time, "there is no spoon." Good times. In another room there was a teddy bear on a shelf. A quick reminder that these men we were hunting and who were doing their best to kill us also had families. War sucks.

Back on topic...the owners (or possibly renters, I can't recall) of the other home we took over eventually returned. Iraqis in general are pretty tolerating of difficult situations and according to the company commander understood that this building could no longer be their home. They accepted a significant financial compensation for the home (which as I mentioned earlier they may not even have owned) as well as our apologies.

Establishing those COPs worked out tremendously and enemy activity was curtailed. There were still problems and attacks of course and we would eventually lose 4 soldiers and an interpreter to a booby trapped house. However, because we had 2 companies living with the population we began to gain the trust of the population. People came to us with concerns as well as information; the Iraqi Army saw we were willing to endure the same hardships they endured; and the Iraqi police gained locations in which to recruit and train new members.

War still sucks, though.

And I thought cadets were dumb...

Officers do a lot of dumb things, at least from the perspective of the soldier...and the perspective of other officers on occasion. We make up stupid rules, demand stupid projects and products, and are often seen as assigning busy work. 2nd lieutenants are so notorious for doing dumb things that when they are given an opportunity to lead a platoon the lieutenant is assigned a sergeant first class as a platoon sergeant to help keep an eye on the young officer and hopefully mitigate some of the dumb things the lieutenant will likely do.

I have done dumb things in my career. I did dumb things as a 2nd lieutenant (stealing the company commander's HMMWV comes to mind). I did dumb things as a 1st lieutenant (overslept the morning commander's update during a field exercise). I've done numerous dumb things as a captain (agreeing to PCS to Huachuca being one of them). I'm sure that if I were staying in I would do dumb things as a major.

Most of the time I had an NCO, warrant officer, or understanding boss to help smooth over any problems I caused by my mistakes, sweep those mistakes under the carpet, or just ignore them completely and move on. Most officers are like me and have had somebody to clean up the mess they left and are capable of learning from those mistakes. Of course there are a few officers who created so massive a mess that nobody was going to be able to help them out; flagrant disobeying of orders or committing adultery (and getting caught!) in the supply yard come to mind.

So what is the dumbest thing I've ever done as an Army officer?

It wasn't stealing the HMMWV, I only received a slight scolding for that. It wasn't even as a lieutenant.

It was as a captain, and it was something I should have known better than to do.

The event took place in June of 2007 prior to my battalion's (1-23 IN) move from Baghdad to Baqubah to help 5-20 IN (one of our sister battalions) and 3rd brigade, 1st Cavalry Division retake that city from entrenched insurgent forces. I had gone up to FOB Warhorse with the lead element (what is known as the torch movement) to help establish the headquarters and initial intelligence collection prior to the start of Operation Arrowhead Ripper.

Jon Stewart sums up what we were all thinking...

One evening the FOB was hit by indirect fire (if I remember correctly it was actually the last time the FOB would be hit with mortars while we were there). I happened to be standing in line at the phone center waiting to call my parents like the good son that I am. The mortars hit far from where I was at the time so I was not concerned and didn't even bother to find a bunker...I would have lost my place in line anyway.

After making my phone call I walked back to battalion to find out that one of the mortars had hit directly behind the headquarters building. The mortar had gone into a dirt berm that surrounded the building on two sides and left a nice 60mm mortar sized hole. We had no idea if the mortar had gone off inside the berm or if the round was still intact. EOD had been called but for whatever reason they would not be able to swing by until the morning. This is when I swung into action and did a very dumb thing.

I stuck my hand down the damn hole.

I can't even tell you what I was thinking at the time. I probably was just curious to see if the round was still there. Even if it was, was I going to pull out a live round and show it to everyone?

At this point the staff sergeant behind me (a good distance behind me) mentioned that sticking my hand down the mortar hole might not be the best idea.

I ignored him and pulled a pen from my sleeve. The mortar was probably just further down the berm. I stuck my arm and the pen down as far as I could reach searching for the lost mortar.

There was a private standing next to the staff sergeant who finally decided to speak up. "Sir, that's probably really not a good idea."

That's when it struck me. A private is telling me this is a bad idea. Privates are full of bad ideas and constantly carry them out. If a private is telling me I shouldn't be doing this, then I really really really shouldn't be doing this.

And that's the story of the dumbest thing I've ever done in the Army. Could have blown my hand off. Most likely wouldn't even have gotten a Purple Heart for it either...they don't award stupid. I believe the real lesson here isn't "don't put your hand in mortar holes", it's "don't deploy soldiers longer than 12 months they start doing really stupid things".

A Deployed New Years Eve

2009/2010 was the only New Year that I found myself in Iraq. 2004/2005 I had re-deployed for and 2006/2007 I was lucky enough to spend on leave.

The day was like any other in Iraq and that part of the deployment is pretty much a blur for me since 1-14 was still split between two bases and the staff was working 3 different projects at this time....the combined checkpoints, upcoming elections, and a massive targeting mission to remove as many of the threats from the battlespace as we could before elections. To say I was stressed would be an understatement.

There was also that irritating mortar team that had suddenly vanished but who I was convinced would be back.

By 11:00 pm I had ditched work and gone back to my room. There was only so many PowerPoint slides and emails I could stare at and according to my notes I had to partake in a mission analysis meeting at 9 am (I think it was a briefing to the squadron commander about the checkpoint planning). Looking at my notes there was also a briefing to the US Forces-Iraq commander, GEN Odierno, that was going to occur on January 2nd. We had a lot going on.

I was in a pretty deep sleep when I woke up to an explosion. A very, very close explosion. To say my mind clicked on immediately would be a complete lie but I at least managed to look at my watch...11:59 pm. My first thoughts were, "this is a really strange time for that mortar team to be hitting us."

Our friendly neighborhood mortar team had hit us 4 times at this point. Twice in October and twice in November, all between 6-8 pm...ish.

A second explosion followed by a "Woooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!" rattled me into a slighly more awake state.

"Who the fuck 'woooo's' at being mortared?" Was the only thought I could muster.

A third exposion, a second "woo", and another look at my watch it finally dawned on me...the Special Forces team was setting off explosives for New Years. Their compound was right next to ours so whatever they were lighting off sounded and felt like incoming mortars. I rolled over and fell back asleep to the thought, "fucking Green Berets."

The lesson learned: always stay up for major holidays.

Iraqi "politics"

Update 2: And there are the bombs. Of course that was easier to predict than determining when the Mariners will be mathmatically eliminated from the playoffs (a baseball joke where I'm not mocking the Cubs? Shocking!).

Update: And here we have the pressure by Maliki to have the Kurds turn over the Vice President.

Less than 72 hours after US forces leave Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki issued an arrest warrant for the Vice President, Tareq al-Hashemi, for suspected ties to assassinations and other attacks. Maliki has also asked the Iraqi Parliament to have a no confidence vote against Deputy Premier Saleh al-Mutlaq. Both Hashemi and Mutlaq are Sunnis who belong to the Iraqi National Movement political party led by Iyad Allawi, a major rival to Maliki. Hashemi has managed to flee to Kurdistan to avoid arrest but how long will it be before Maliki pressures the Kurds to turn him over?

Is this just standard Iraqi politics or a sign of something more sinister? After Maliki returned from his recent trip the United States, member of the National Movement began a series of political attacks and challenges against the Prime Minister. Mutlaq even called Maliki the worst dictator in Iraqi history, so the arrest orders were likely in response to these attacks.

However, this may be the beginning of a Shiite dictatorship where political disagreement by a rival party leads to accusations and arrests. It could also mean that Maliki and his political allies fear a coup attempt or a Sunni uprising. These political moves may be an attempt to mitigate that threat.

How long before AQI and JRTN take advantage of the situation? I give it a week tops before there is another major carbomb attack in Baghdad.

Tell me how this really ends...

This ceremony I did not expect to see for a long, long time.

US military involvment in the Iraq conflict is officially over. It is a bitter-sweet moment for me.

Like I've mentioned a few times in this blog, I spent a majority of my Army career either preparing for or deploying to Iraq. There are a lot of memories; some good, some bad.

The conflict is not over for Iraq, however. There are still remnants of AQI and ISI running around causing problems. Can't forget about JRTN either who most likely will start making news shortly. And what about the Kirkuk issue? That likely won't get answered without violence.

I would like to go back one day.

Did Iran really shoot down "The Beast"?

Look out! It's an albino stealth bomber!

Did Iran shoot down and capture a US UAV in the beginning of December? The US government is admitting that a ultra-super-double-secret-probation drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel, aka "the Beast of Kandahar", did go down inside of Iran.

Having no knowledge or experience with this UAV and with access to nothing more than Google these days I can't with any certainty say that what Iran is saying is true or not. Iran did show off video of what appears to be the drone, but Iran has been known to fake military equipment in the past (fake missiles anyone?). The UAV in the video also looks remarkably undamaged for something that was either shot down and/or crashed.

The thing in the video also looks really fake, but then Hunter, Shadow, and Gray Eagle UAVs also appear kind of flimsy looking when up close.

Even if the Iranians captured part or whole of the UAV, some experts are saying it doesn't really matter anyway. Reverse engineering will be difficult at best and the RQ-170 may not even have the latest technology in terms of its sensor package.

The best part of all this? Iran is trying to play the victim. This amuses me since Iran gave Hezbollah UAVs to fly over Israel; had their own UAV shot down in Iraq in 2006; have been smuggling weapons, including EFP IEDs, to insurgent and militia groups in Iraq; AND (I find this the worst part) likely befundled the hell out of me for a several week period in 2009.

My guess? The RQ-170 crashed in Iran but the Iranians didn't get much from the pieces scattered about but are trotting out this mock up to make the US look bad. Although...the RQ-170 is Tweeting from Iran.

My Kabul attack analysis

I don't usually write anything about Afghanistan and the insurgency there mostly because I am completely in the dark about much of what is going on in that country. Having spent a majority of my Army career either preparing for, or deploying to, Iraq I had enough on my plate to study, train for, and worry over. Unless I was going to be sent to Afghanistan, I wasn't about study it indepth unless I could gleam some good lessons learned.

Having said that, the suicide attacks in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif today both interest and worry the hell out of me. Close to 60 people died in the attack in Kabul which occured when a suicide bomber detonated himself outside a Shia shrine. Another 4 people were killed in Mazar-e-Sharif when a bicycle bomb went off outside the city's main mosque.

The reason for my concern is that while terrorist/insurgent groups in Afghanistan have targeted civilians in the past, attacks in Kabul have primarily targeted US/ISAF/NATO forces and the government. Mullah Omar, the Taliban emir, has even stated recently that he is concerned over the the perception that the Taliban were killing civilians. A Taliban spokesman today condemned the bombings and claimed the group was not behind either of the attacks.

In February 2006, an attack at the Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq kicked off a wave of sectarian bloodshed throughout the country which led to civil war in Baghdad and caused US forces to lose virtually complete control in the capital.

Were the attacks against the Shia in Afghanistan today an attempt by an insurgent organization...most likely Al Qaida...to create a repeat of what occured in Iraq?

Shia Muslims only make up about 10-20% of Afghanistan's population as opposed to Iraq's 60-65% so an attempt at sectarian civil war is most likely not what is going on here. An expansion of the conflict by Al Qaida and other groups to attack not just NATO and the Afghan government but minority religious sects as well is more likely.

Expand the conflict, create more chaos, instill fear and lack of faith in the government. Those are the ways of the insurgent. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, anger leads to more recruits and more water for the insurgent fish to swim in.