DEL.ICIO.USGeorgia soldiers prepare for Afghanistan mission
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, April 12, 2009
CAMP SHELBY, MISS. — A thundering boom of a bomb pierces the silence of late morning. Then, the rapid rat-a-tat of AK-47 fire.
Smoke billows from the compound of the Afghan police in the village of Torkham, as unsuspecting Georgia soldiers convoy in on a snaking, dusty road right into the chaos.
LOUIE FAVORITE / lfavorite@ajc.com
Soldiers practice evacuting a wounded Afghan policeman in a training drill.
Insurgents have overrun the police chief’s office and several Afghan policemen are severely wounded. Screaming villagers congregate by the charred wreckage of a car.
While the soldiers of Bravo Troop leap to full alert, 1st Lt. Daniel Nichols navigates through the challenging situation with the help of Shapoor, his Afghan translator.
“Did you see where the gunmen went?” the young platoon leader from Decatur asks the injured police chief. A white bandage wrapping the chief’s head quickly turns crimson. Gunfire drowns out Nichols’ voice.
Luckily for Nichols, 25, and the Canton-based troop of 1st Squadron, 108th Cavalry, the hairy scenario is unfolding not in Afghanistan but amid 136,000 acres of swamps, fields and towering pines in Mississippi’s DeSoto National Forest, where Camp Shelby is based.
The Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Infantry Brigade is training here before it begins deploying to Afghanistan a week from Sunday. They have honed their tactical skills and their people skills. They have even practiced a memorial ceremony for a fallen soldier.
‘Kind of surreal’
For some, the simulated exercises are a flashback to Iraq.
Four years ago, the brigade trained like this at Fort Stewart and in the Mojave Desert before facing war in an unfamiliar land. That was the first time the 48th saw combat since World War II.
Not that war ever becomes comfortably familiar, but the 48th has its share of veterans now. In the cavalry squadron, one in six men were in Iraq at least once. Some have done multiple tours.
That’s soothing for the uninitiated citizen soldier, like Sgt. Colt Mayfield, 24, a cable and wire expert from Villa Rica who is leaving his infant child and pregnant wife behind.
But as the training emphasizes, Afghanistan is not Iraq.
Lt. Col. Randall Simmons, commander of the 1-108th, says the squadron will have to make the “mind shift” from leading counterinsurgency operations in Iraq to a support role of mentoring a fledgling Afghan police force and national Army.
“In Afghanistan, everyone is a friend until proven otherwise,” Simmons says.
The cavalry troops are the first of the 48th to deploy after going through the ringer at Camp Shelby. Simmons says his men have fired a year’s worth of ammunition in just 45 days of training. That’s how rigorous the train-up has been.
“We go to war in nine days. It’s kind of surreal,” says Simmons, reflecting on how time has sped by since the brigade was first alerted for war in December 2007.
“Hopefully, the next year will go by just as fast,” he says. Simmons traveled to Afghanistan in January to scope out the lay of the land. He shows a photo of snow-capped Hindu Kush peaks. “Nice place to visit, but we don’t want to stay there long. We’re going to work ourselves out of a job.”
Overcoming barriers
He climbs atop a rugged wooden outpost to watch his soldiers train for that objective.
The Army has re-created entire Afghan villages here in the middle of Mississippi, complete with bustling markets selling food, clothing and household goods. There’s an Army battalion’s headquarters, rows of houses — one belonging to the village elder — and a mosque. A red and green Afghan flag flutters in the brisk breeze. Inside the police compound hangs a photograph of President Hamid Karzai. So does a most wanted poster of Osama bin Laden.
Language and cultural differences can be enormous obstacles for American soldiers training the Afghans. That’s why the Army brings in native speakers of Dari and Pashto and a host of Afghans and U.S. soldiers who have previously deployed to the region to play the roles of villagers, Taliban fighters and their sympathizers.
Shapoor, the interpreter, left Kabul for Wisconsin four months ago. In Afghanistan, he had worked as a translator for the U.S. Air Force. The police chief’s role is played today by a man named Mohammed, who fled his native Mazar-i-Sharif and needed work in America. He is convincing in his inability to understand English.
He sits slumped over on the ground outside his headquarters as Nichols approaches him. The American lieutenant knows he will be graded by Army trainers on his freshly learned dialogue skills.
Nichols has spent the last few days building rapport with make-believe Torkham’s police chief. In the mock attack, his first reaction was concern for the chief’s safety. Now, with his trusted counterpart wounded, the task of extracting information is that much harder.
“Sgt. Boyd!” Nichols yells, kneeling on the ground next to the chief. “I need you to be in charge of security.
“Chief,” Nichols tells Mohammed, “we’ve called in for a helicopter to take your wounded to the hospital.”
Reminder of reality
Among the faux casualties, one man’s hand has been blown off. Another has been shot on the gut. “Your town is cheering your police officers,” Nichols tells the chief. “You’re doing such a good job.”
Nichols assures the police officers that their lost weapons will be resupplied. Some of them, though, kick and taunt the wounded Taliban fighters. One tries to pick their pockets. Anything goes in a land known for lawlessness and corruption.
Nichols explains to them why, as law enforcement officials, they must behave otherwise. There are rules, he says, for how to treat the enemy. After a few attempts, the message gets through.
As the exercise continues, Nichols and the rest of Bravo Troop can’t figure out why the medical evacuation chopper is taking so long. They learn the answer later in the day.
Amid the fake deaths and chaos of Torkham village, a real incident has diverted the medics. Two soldiers of Gainesville-based Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry, were injured during a live-fire training session. One has shrapnel in his shoulder, the other a bullet in his leg.
In the lush surroundings of Camp Shelby, it’s a grim reminder of the year that is to come, far away from home.
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