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October 6, 2004
[Have an opinion about the issues discussed in this article?
Sound
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By Terry Boyd,
Stars and Stripes European Edition
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| Sgt. Elizar Russell heads up a line of soldiers
searching the mountains for attackers as Humvees from the 82nd
Airborne Division’s 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry
Regiment’s Company B try to turn around, stopping three kilometers
short of the Pakistan border. (Terry Boyd / S&S) |
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FIREBASE ASADABAD, Afghanistan
— The 82nd Airborne Division has not made it into the history books
by coasting through easy missions.
In the new anti-insurgency age, look for its rapidly deployable,
light infantry units in the worst parts of bad neighborhoods anywhere
from Fallujah to Asadabad.
A battalion-sized force of 1,100 paratroopers, mostly from the
1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment is in Afghanistan
to provide security for the historic national elections Oct. 9.
Between 18,000 and 20,000 U.S. soldiers and about 5,500 troops
from other nations are in Afghanistan and will assist the United
Nations to curb any violence surrounding the nation’s first presidential
election.
In isolated eastern Afghanistan,
15 kilometers from the Pakistan border, the mission for the 1st-505th
is far more complex and subtle than keeping the bad guys from stopping
the elections.
Taliban forces are so close “they can commute to work,” said Jim
Hunter, the State Department’s representative to the Provincial
Reconstruction Team at Firebase Asadabad. Enemy fighters are just
north of the base, as well as to the northwest in Nurestan province,
according to officials at the PRT, one of 17 military/civilian teams
overseeing reconstruction.
The 82nd paratroops will provide extra guns to augment PRT security
forces, U.S. Special Forces and Afghan National Army units already
in the area, said Capt. Brian Feddeler, Company D commander at Firebase
Asadabad. They will also help keep roads and communication lines
open.
Feddeler’s soldiers will form “an outer ring” of security, he said.
They have to stay close enough to discourage attacks or counter
them, but far enough away from polling stations to make sure locals
understand the Army is playing no direct role in the elections,
which are under the auspices of the United Nations.
Until election day and for a few weeks after, Feddeler’s force
of infantrymen, mortarmen, engineers and scout snipers will patrol
some of the most dramatic terrain in Afghanistan, with lush Kunar
River valleys meandering through mountains that peak at 10,000 feet.
Humvees surf the potholes and ruts of one-lane gravel paths looking
for roadside bombs as well as enticing insurgents into a fight or
running off the ones with less heart.
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| 82nd Airborne Division soldiers from the Company B try to
hold on as their Humvee driver negotiates a narrowing road only
three kilometers from the Pakistan border. (Terry Boyd / S&S)
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| A local boy bicycling home from English lessons rides past
82nd soldiers securing a bridge near Asadabad Firebase. Locals
greet the soldiers with everything from smiles and waves to
hostile stares. However, even in this Taliban stronghold, there
are few attacks against reconstruction teams. (Terry Boyd /
S&S) |
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“Simply put, we’re the 82nd Airborne. By virtue of this fact alone
… any adversary is forced to sincerely contemplate the consequences
of his actions,” said Sgt. 1st Class Benny Dobbs, Company D’s first
sergeant.
Having toured both Iraq and Afghanistan in the past two years,
1-505 soldiers and officers have experience in both ongoing fights.
Staff Sgt. Carl Webb, a truck commander in Company D, and at least
three other 1-505 soldiers were at this very base, dubbed “A-bad,”
in late 2002.
Webb noted the improved living conditions, adding, “No more T-rats!”
Violence in the area seems about the same as last time, with only
two attacks during his first stay, Webb said. The firebase has had
no attacks in the two weeks since the troops returned. A nearby
village was hit with four rockets in September, according to news
releases from U.S. headquarters in Kabul.
Though there are occasional firefights between insurgents and Afghan
forces, most of the sounds of war are either A-bad howitzers firing
harassing rounds onto the surrounding mountain ridges, or Green
Berets teaching Afghan forces to fire recoilless rifles or other
weapons.
On the cusp of the elections, Afghanistan is much quieter than
Iraq,
said 82nd soldiers and officers.
The overall U.S. mission — nation-building and reconstruction —
may be the same in Iraq, “but there were a lot more anti-coalition
forces [in Iraq], and they were a lot more organized,” said 1st
Lt. Eric Slater, Feddeler’s executive officer.
“I’m not saying [the insurgents] are not out there,” said Slater,
“but they’re not as active.”
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