Photo By Spc. Abreanna Goodrich | U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to 25th Infantry Division attend a Battle of Wanat Virtual...... read more read more
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The battle of Wanat serves as a critical learning tool for military leadership, tactics, and operational planning. Taking place on July 13th, 2008, in Afghanistan’s Kunar and Nuristan provinces, this engagement challenged U.S. Soldiers with a sudden and deadly assault by over 200 Taliban insurgents resulting in the death of 9 service members, with 27 wounded. Attackers coordinated assaults using rocket-propelled grenades, small arms, heavy machine gun fire and mortar barrages, inflicting severe casualties on the outpost.
Yearly leader professional development trainings are conducted, taking the 25th Infantry Division’s leaders through a virtual staff ride of the Battle of Wanat. Leaders are taken through simulated terrain, built in a 3D environment of attacks throughout 2007 in Kunar and Nuristan Provinces, Afghanistan, leading up to the day the Battle of Wanat occurred in 2008.
These training sessions are an opportunity to study lessons derived from the battle and improve our military readiness while strengthening our leaders in preparation for future engagements.
“It’s about education, professional development, and to pass on some of the enduring lessons from the past, and how those apply to Soldiers today and also in the future,” said retired Lt. Col. Kevin Kennedy, an LPD instructor.
These trainings provide valuable insight for our leaders, enabling them to engage in critical thinking about overcoming challenges and making key decisions during deployments.
“Prior to these events I would always look up the battle, read a couple articles, which are substantially less dense,” said 1st Lieutenant Joseph Mapierkowski, an LPD attendee. “Which in some ways are good because they give you a broad understanding, but it takes a lot of the nuance out of the decisions made and value out of it.”
The terrain of Afghanistan closely resembles natural barriers throughout the Pacific and around the islands of Hawaii, posing similar logistical challenges.
“This campaign, not just the battle of Wanat itself, but also the preceding months of dealing with logistical challenges of taking ammunition personnel, and vehicles up into these mountains, is reflective of our situation here,” Mapierkowski said. “Granted we are not in the arid steppe region but we have the same aggressive cliff side mountainous regions, with dense vegetation.”
Studying the challenges the Army faced during the Battle of Wanat equips Soldiers to handle similar situations in future missions.
“If we did have to fight on the volcanic mountains in the Pacific, we’d see a lot of similar logistical challenges of not being able to take a Humvee on the side of the mountains,” Mapierkowski said.
Retired 1st Sgt. Jesse Queck, a former Indirect Fire Infantryman (Mortarman) assigned to Chosen Company, 2-503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment "The Rock'' out of Vicenza, Italy directly faced the challenges of Afghanistan terrain. While at Wanat, he and his Soldiers encountered rocky and dense conditions, and without engineering support had to improvise using available tools to construct their HESCO defensive barriers.
“We started taking our e-tools, one shovel full at a time, trying to fill the HESCO as much as we could,” Queck said. “We found more rocks from digging around the area, and eventually started taking large rocks.”
The construction was resource-intensive and was completed under severe constraints, emphasizing the complexity of their situation, and how they overcame their challenge.
“These trainings highlight the importance of realistic tough training, Soldier discipline, Soldier initiative, and leadership aspects of being masters of their craft,” said Kennedy. "Understanding that resources are going to be restrained, but you still have to do the mission to the best of your ability.”
In addition to terrain, and logistical challenges, the staff ride thoroughly examines the various challenges Soldiers encountered during the Battle of Wanat. This serves as a crucial opportunity for leaders to hone in on their critical thinking and decision-making skills, in preparation of future operations and deployments.
“It’s important for leaders to do this staff ride because there are many lessons that are learned from all levels of leadership,” said Mr. Queck. “Anyone from an E1 to an O6 can take something away from this class.”
| Date Taken: | 05.02.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 05.07.2024 20:53 |
| Story ID: | 470585 |
| Location: | SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 23 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 25th ID Battle of Wanat Virtual Staff Ride LPD, by SPC Abreanna Goodrich, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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