This isn't my work, but rather the work and words of somebody I know who is currently in Afghanistan. He sends back his stories and updates via email and I felt this one ought to get a little attention. So take a few minutes to read the latest from Kudzu 630.
I stood in the command post and listened to the daily update brief. This briefing informed everyone in the command what was happening across the unit and across Afghanistan as a whole. What was different about today was the flash back I had to the first night in country.
That chilling sight came back to me in a flash as I knew what would happen in a few days time provided the families were notified. Yes. We lost four American Soldiers today in northwest Afghanistan along the Pakistan border in a serious fight that resulted in far more enemy killed in action than our own. While a victory on the battlefield… its pyrrhic to a degree and chilling at the same time. The command staff stood listening to the liaison officer read the details of the fight. This happened often enough that the tend to sound the same:
“Sir, in RC East, in the vicinity of Asadabad there was an IED that detonated on a convoy…”
That’s how these snippets of daily life in Afghanistan outside of BAF go on and its how we connect with the field so we know what’s at stake: the life of a nation, the people of a land, the security of society, and most importantly- our comrades. The LNO continued repeating his transcript with notes off to the side jus tin case the commander asked the rare question. But he didn’t need to continue.
As soon as his slide came up everyone read the callout boxes that pointed to where the attack or fighting happened we saw all that we needed to see. Despite the reports from earlier on the multiple media outlets in country and the plethora of sources we have at our disposal, nothing is as chilling as listening to an officer read off the details of this incident. One story that many of us inside this dark computer and plasma screen lit room have been through ourselves. The box could have said Usama bin Laden captured but the only thing anyone focused on with a stone silence was the simple shorthand:
3x US MIL KIA
No one said anything. The hardest among us stood and read it over and over again. What was a buzzing war room moments before was now silenced and in prayer for the men who had lost their lives that day. Chances are no one knew the now dead Soldiers or anyone in their unit… but they were still ours and we felt it as if they had been.
A rage consumed the room and glares focused on the words:
3x US MIL KIA
Visions of counterattacks and pitched gun battles took over people’s minds as they played the attack out in their heads. Reading the rest of the slide you learned that at least eight other men died that day from the Afghani and Latvian Armies, never mind the ten or so dead insurgents. I say a victory in that not everyone died… but enough, far too many, to make it one that added to only a notch in the enemy’s handle.
The officer continued to brief and moved on to what would be more positive news but no one could remove the incident that happened along the border form their minds. The story itself was amazing; the numbers of ordnance that was rattled off was astounding, the courage shown by the survivors of the attack was inspiring.
Another LNO picked up his part of the brief and a sick sense of satisfaction took over:
14x EKIA, 10X EWIA, 5 DETS
Fourteen Taliban dead another ten wounded and five taken prisoner. This occurred further south near Khandhar where things are picking up because the poppy season is almost up. [UPDATE: On May 1, 2009 there were 24x EKIA in the same area]. But I still think of the families who in an astounding example of efficiency be given notice that their Blue Stars were now Gold and their sons would becoming home. That image of the metal coffin covered in the American flag still fresh in my mind:
“There will be a Fallen Comrade ceremony…”
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