Soldiers Describe Life in Paktika Province
(May 25, 2011) |
|
|
FORWARD OPERATING BASE TILLMAN, Afghanistan, May 23, 2011 –
Where and how you live as a soldier deployed to Afghanistan
depends on the mission of the unit to which you're assigned.
Soldiers at Forward Operating
Base Tillman in Afghanistan's Paktika province sort
through mail, their main means of receiving personal
items on May 19, 2011. DOD photo by Karen Parrish |
|
Large bases housing strategic-level headquarters
offer wireless Internet, post, coffee and souvenir
shops, barber shops and beauty salons.
But
here and on Combat Outpost Munoz, where most of the
soldiers live who are assigned to the 101st Airborne
Division's 4th “Currahee” Brigade Combat Team, ‘Dog”
Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment,
there's not a shop to be found.
Army Sgt.
Justin Payne, a team leader for 1st Platoon, said
soldiers receive many of their needs through the
mail, sent from family and friends at home. “Tobacco
is a big thing,” he said. “Snacks, candy, ... stuff
like that. Magazines.”
Most soldiers at
Tillman have personal computers they use to watch
movies, Payne said, while seven public |
|
computers with Internet connections
and two phones are available for the troops to keep
in touch with their families and friends. |
Barracks space is divided into small plywood cubicles,
Payne said, so the soldiers who live at Tillman have some
personal sleeping space.
“The living conditions here
are pretty good,” he said. “Much better than I've had on
previous deployments. You get a room and a shower and a chow
hall, and that's all you really need -- and the ability to
call home now and then. It's nice here.”
Army Staff
Sgt. Harold B. Smith, Headquarters Platoon sergeant and
mayor of Tillman, coordinates contracted services including
trash removal and electrical, plumbing and carpentry support
for the roughly 150 soldiers based here.
Life support
at Tillman takes a combination of big contracting companies
and local-national contracts, Smith said.
“We have
one of the very few waste-water treatment plants here in
Afghanistan,” he said. “That is a huge plus, because it
allows us to have hot and cold running water, which many of
the [forward operating bases] don't.”
Contracts with
Afghan companies provide heavy equipment to fill large
barriers with rocks and dirt and to move supplies and
equipment to and from the base's helicopter landing zone,
Smith said. Local workers also provide kitchen support,
cleaning and trash removal services for Tillman, he added.
About 40 life-support contractors work at Tillman, with
an additional 80 force-protection workers who man the entry
control point, guard towers and one of the observation
points in the hills overlooking the base, Smith said. Four
new guard towers have improved security within and around
the base, he added.
Soldiers at Tillman agree the
base is in much better condition than it was when they
arrived, but it's the Munoz outpost, about five miles to the
northwest, where Dog Company has created the most dramatic
improvements.
Army Capt. Edwin Churchill, company
commander, said Munoz was the unit's base of operations for
the first three months of their deployment, when the
headquarters element moved to Tillman.
The previous
unit at Munoz had only about 30 soldiers living there,
Churchill said, and the force protection conditions were not
good. Munoz sits in a bowl surrounded by hills, and the base
regularly is attacked from those peaks by enemy rockets and
machine-gun and small-arms fire.
Churchill manned the
post with 75 to 90 soldiers at a time after his company
moved in, and they set to work filling barriers and sandbags
to protect against enemy fire. Soldiers also added fortified
firing positions and mortar points to defend the outpost.
The labor was very physically demanding, with all of
Munoz involved, Churchill said, noting that when the unit
arrived, it had no heavy equipment to help with the work.
Churchill and his troops have added several large
barriers throughout the Munoz compound to provide cover
during attacks, and have built up the base defenses. “We
added extra indirect systems. ... The enemy can't suppress all
of them at once,” he said.
Churchill said through
practice, the soldiers at Munoz have learned how to defend
the outpost quickly and effectively.
“The nice thing
about [the enemy] is they're absolutely predictable; they
use the same positions every time,” he said. “So we have a
lot of the [targeting] information dialed in on them.”
Dog Company has suffered no serious injuries or deaths
at Munoz, the commander said, though they've been attacked
as many as four times in one week.
Churchill said the
company has also worked to make the base more comfortable
for soldiers.
“When we got here, ... two soldiers lived
in each 60-square-foot room. It was ridiculously tight --
very poor living conditions,” he said.
Dog Company
added plywood buildings for storage, and built small
cubicles inside brick-and-mortar structures to provide more
privacy in soldier living space, Churchill said.
Dog
Company is closing Munoz, as their year in Afghanistan comes
to an end. Churchill said the outpost essentially is in a
cul-de-sac in Paktika province's Gayan district, and
soldiers can be more effective in the counterinsurgency
fight closer to more trafficked and populated areas.
Army Spc. Jonathan Lounds, a team leader for Dog Company's
2nd Platoon, has lived at Munoz for eight months.
“You get used to it, and it becomes like home,” Lounds said.
“We put up a shower the other day; that was nice.”
Munoz
has no running water, so soldiers use bottled water for
everything, Lounds said. Bathroom facilities consist of
urinal tubes set into the ground, with small plastic “wag
bags” provided for solid waste, which is burned.
Army
Sgt. Brandon England is the signal support systems
specialist for Dog Company, and has spent most of the
deployment at Munoz. He said the company's soldiers worked
hard to make the outpost safer and more defensible.
“The guys, from sunup to sundown, just busted their butts,”
England said. “The [company commander] put us to work.”
Dog Company added enough walls and barriers to make
Munoz feel secure, England said.
“We've built it up
quite a bit,” he said. “It's not bad now – I actually like
it more here [than at Tillman]. Something's always going on,
and it's small, so you don't have to go searching for
people.
“We've had some pretty good fights out here,”
he added. “It made time go by fast.” |
By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2011 |
|
Comment on this article |
|
