Photo By Master Sgt. Mark Burrell | From a remote observation post high up in the Hindu Kush Mountains on the border of...... read more read more
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KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Combined they have 14 deployments under their belts. For their last three combat tours, they’ve been inseparable.
In the past five years, these three soldiers from Troop C, 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment, Task Force Bandit, of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, have experienced a lot together.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Casey T. Coombes, an infantry squad leader, Sgts. Jeremy A. Wortmann, an infantry team leader, and Edgar Fierro, a forward observer, laughed when asked if they are going to celebrate their five-year anniversary together coming up in June.
“We probably should,” said Fierro, a stocky, dark-haired Fort Collins, Colo., native. He laughed and turned to Wortmann sitting next to him for approval.
“Yeah, why not,” added Wortmann, the smallest of the group from St. Louis, with piercing eyes and a strong jaw.
The group laughed again and Wortmann explained they have been on two deployments to Iraq together and now are stationed at a small, spartan base in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province called Observation Post Mustang.
The base doesn’t leave much room for privacy, but these three soldiers know each other so intimately it doesn’t seem to bother them.
“We pretty much know how each other operates,” said Fierro. “Whenever we go out, I don’t have to worry about them doing whatever needs to be done.”
Sometimes, Wortmann’s team is the assault team for the mission, Coombes’ team is suppressing fire, and Fierro is calling for fire. Each one knows the other ones are there protecting one another, said Fierro.
“I can look at Casey on a patrol if I don’t think something looks right, and he knows what I’m thinking,” said Wortmann. “We’ve trained together, been to combat together and don’t even need to communicate [with words] half the time.”
“Yeah, just a look is enough,” added Coombes, the biggest of the group, with a disarming smile.
From surviving ambushes, to helping each other after being hit by an anti-tank mine in Iraq, to saving Coombes after falling off a rock face in Afghanistan, they’ve been through it all together.
“Almost every single time any of us has been in an engagement, we’ve all been there, one way or another,” explained Coombes, a Rancho Cordova, Calif., native.
Even their wives realize how strong their bond goes.
“Coming back from leave this time, all my wife kept saying was, ‘You going to go back to your girlfriends? You care more about them?’” said Wortmann. “I’ll be at home—supposed to be enjoying leave—but still telling stories about these guys and about the stuff we did over here.”
Quickly, Fierro joined in and said his wife does the same thing.
“‘Oh, how’s your boyfriend Jeremy?’” Fierro said laughingly then he quickly got serious. “It’s good to have that trust though. It’s like beyond trust. It’s like we’re brothers.”
That brotherhood and their combat experiences are what these soldiers try to instill in their junior soldiers.
After rotating guard shifts every day, 24 hours a day, on top of their mountain observation post, the three non-commissioned officers still make time to get together with their troops to give classes on everything from medical evacuation requests to setting up ambushes.
“Passing on knowledge is like nothing for us,” said Wortmann. “We’ve been on so many deployments there’s almost nothing that we haven’t seen.”
By the light of a bald fluorescent bulb, Coombes quizzes a junior soldier on the different infantry squad formations but quickly defers to Wortmann and Fierro when a question arises he is uncertain about.
“It is so easy to give classes to soldiers and pass down our knowledge with these two guys because if I forget anything, they know it,” explained Coombes, who is always quick to give credit to his two friends.
In today’s Army, it’s unusual for soldiers to be together for such a long time through so many deployments. Yet, these three have managed to do so without killing each other and have even passed on their experiences, as well as their humor, to their younger soldiers along the way.
| Date Taken: | 01.31.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 01.31.2011 17:24 |
| Story ID: | 64547 |
| Location: | KUNAR PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 223 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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