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January 10, 2005

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By Kevin Dougherty,
Stars and Stripes European edition

(Kevin Dougherty / S&S) Capt. Josh Bookout, right, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment, 25th Infantry Division of Hawaii, speaks with Brig. Gen. Michael Barbero, head of the U.S. Army’s Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., on Saturday at Forward Operating Base Cobra during the general's tour of bases in Afghanistan.

TARIN KOWT, Afghanistan — In time and distance, landscape and resistance, Louisiana is worlds away from the birthplace of the Taliban.

“We live in the wild, wild west,” Army Maj. Erik Sevigny said to Brig. Gen. Michael Barbero in summing up daily life at the forward operating base at Tarin Kowt in southeastern Afghanistan.

Normally, Barbero labors in at Fort Polk in Louisiana. But for the past week, the head of the U.S. Army’s Joint Readiness Training Center has been touring Afghanistan, essentially to update the Army’s playbook.

Armed with new tactics and lessons learned, Barbero and his instructors plan to adjust the training regimen units go through in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan.

“It only makes sense,” said Lt. Col. Todd Miller, the operations officer for Combined Task Force Bronco, which is headquartered in Kandahar. “You try to replicate the environment as best as possible.”

That’s somewhat easier said than done, given that Louisiana and Afghanistan have about as much in common as the revelers on Bourbon Street do with the Taliban and its spiritual leader, Mullah Omar. But soldiers are an adaptable lot and efforts such as Barbero’s go a long way toward better preparing them for deployment.

Whatever adjustments the JRTC makes based on this tour will be incorporated into the next training session for Afghanistan, Barbero said.

The frontline commanders Barbero visited by helicopter were all deadly serious as one after another sat down with him to offer their perspectives. Stars and Stripes was invited along, providing that no sensitive material, such as intelligence-gathering procedures and future operations, be released.

At main forward operating bases, like Ripley near Tarin Kowt, the setting was comfortable and coffee was served. At remote locations, such as a place named Sweeney near the Pakistani border, conditions were more austere.

One of the men Barbero spoke with was Capt. Mike Berdy, a company commander with 2nd Battalion, 35th Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. Berdy’s base camp, which is shared with a team of U.S. Special Forces, is in the Shinkay Mountains at an altitude of 6,658 feet. The air is cold, the ground is frozen and snow blankets the ground.

“These guys are smart,” Berdy said of the enemy. Taliban and foreign fighters “don’t travel with their weapons. They use cache systems,” he added.

In case after case, he said, the enemy, even if vastly outnumbered, “won’t hesitate to engage us.”

“What will turn it green?” Barbero asked, referring to a level of safety.

“Obviously, the [Afghan National Army],” Berdy answered. “There’s got to be a plan for them.”

And there is, according to Col. Richard Pedersen, the U.S. Army regional commander in southern Afghanistan. Pedersen, who accompanied Barbero on his rounds Saturday and Sunday, said more ANA soldiers would be joining U.S. forces in the coming months. He told Berdy that if he could find room for some of them on the compound, they would go there.

Berdy and other commanders like him, such as Capt. Josh Bookout of the 25th Infantry Division’s 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment, which patrols an area that includes Mullah Omar’s birthplace near the village of Deh Rawod, believe they are gradually winning over many of the locals.

“They are starting to trust us and to work with us,” Pedersen said.

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