Photo By 1st Lt. Nicholas Rasmussen | 1st Sgt. Arthur Townsend of Lena, Miss. ushers Route clearance package 13, a platoon...... read more read more
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PAKTYA PROVINCE, Afghanistan – “...but it sure helps,” advises Sgt. 1st Class William Jones of Hurly,Miss., the platoon sgt. for route clearance package 13.
RCP 13, made up of a group of boys from Mississippi, and two other RCP platoons, 49 and 70, of the 287th Engineer Military Augmentee Company based in Lucedale, Miss. headed to Bagram Air Field Jan. 28, one step closer to going home after hunting improvised explosive devices on roads all over Khost, Ghazni and Paktya provinces in eastern Afghanistan.
To get an idea of what RCP 13 did, imagine being on a road trip with the destination 30 miles away. In the states that usually means getting a cold drink at the local gas station and, half an hour later, reaching the destination.
Not quite so simple in Afghanistan.
When actively clearing a route, an RCP moves less than 10 miles per hour. Making the 30 mile road trip mentioned above take well over three hours; unless they found something. Then it takes even longer.
It had to be slow. Their equipment depended on ground penetrating radar, a type of sonar that can look into the earth on the roads for any disturbances. Magnetic metal detectors, mine rollers and their eyes were also used to find IEDs. All of these methods required time to be accurate.
They couldn’t listen to iPods in the trucks, couldn’t read books or watch movies; there is only the road and keeping watch for anything that looked out of place.
This slow process translated to hours spent together scanning and searching thousands of miles of road and hillside, creeping along foot by foot.
“Before deployment there’s quite a few of them (I) really couldn’t stand. After you been with them for a year, hell, they’re like family,” said Spc. Michael J. Beeson of Biloxi, Miss., a driver for RCP 13. “You part away for a while and it’s like not seeing your brother for a few years.”
The members of RCP 13 talked through their headsets to each other all year about almost everything: movies, friends, home, wives, girlfriends, food, Mom’s cooking, barbecue, anything to keep their minds occupied.
Being out on mission was their chance to open up to each other in their own way.
“No matter what movie I watch I can always find a piece of home in there,” lamented Sgt. Robert C. Brown of Lucedale, Miss., a team leader for RCP 13, while out on mission.
These men shared stories and gave advice to each other but always knew when it was time to work.
“We have taken almost anything the insurgents can throw at us,” said 1st Lt. Jeremy R. Becker of Senatobia, Miss., platoon leader for RCP 13. “Only thing we hadn’t been hit with was a vehicle borne IED.”
RCP 13 hit several IEDs, got in fire-fights, persevered through complex attacks and survived suicide bombers. Through all this only one soldier was injured seriously enough to be evacuated. This fact gave credence to the men’s diligence and the reliability of their equipment.
Becker and his RCP platoon cleared over 6,000 kilometers (over 3,600 miles) of road, both paved and unpaved, and not without incident.
Luck was on their side despite being tagged with the notorious number “13.” But it wasn’t the only thing helping RCP 13.
“We had a lot of close encounters,” said Beeson. “I believe prayer got us through everything.”
“We never missed prayer circle,” continued Beeson. “We did a couple rain circles, but those never worked. Prayer did.”
Indirect fire was constantly being shot at RCP 13 at a junction of two roads in southeastern Paktya early last summer. Finally, fed up with being attacked, Becker suggested to his company commander, Cpt. Marty W. Davis of Lucedale, Miss., a highway patrolman, that a permanent base be built there. Davis spoke with a few people and later the establishment of a company outpost in eastern Zormat was authorized near the junction where RCP 13 reported the issues.
“We stopped getting mortared after that,” said Becker proudly.
RCP 13 hit the ground rolling and a little nervous when they first arrived in Afghanistan.
“It was kind of an odd feeling at first, it was like you were expecting something to happen every time,” said brown.
“I was throwing up,” continued Brown as he remembered his first mission. He was on a dismount team searching for IEDs.
The platoon began clearing a route after sending out dismounts, including Brown, with hand-held metal detectors. After a few moments a blast was heard.
Brown’s first thoughts were, “They’re shooting indirect fire at us and here we are out on the ground!”
They froze, but not for long.
Brown looked back to see the mine roller, a device designed to trigger IEDs in front of vehicles, flipped on top of a truck.
“It truly happened so fast you really weren’t nervous,” remembers Brown.
Brown shook his head in disbelief about that mission. “We were out looking for IEDs and I was walking!”
It took them a few weeks to get into the rhythm of clearing routes but soon it became second nature.
“We’d get all done then stand around and talk for 20 minutes until it was time to leave. It got a lot easier as far as running the missions and actually being more thorough, faster. At first it was like we were scared to move. After a while it was like a day to day job, there was nothing to it,” said Brown.
As lightly as Brown makes it sound, what he and his unit did on a daily basis involved danger and high stakes at every turn, straightaway and culvert. RCP 13 went places no one else wanted to go and they were the first to do it.
They never hesitated when it came to clearing roads. A condition that allowed these boys from Mississippi to become men.
“We did one convoy with 220 vehicles behind us,” said Becker. “It takes a lot of responsibility for my guys to lead the way like that.”
After a nine month tour in Afghanistan, this kind of responsibility wore off on the boys of RCP 13. Some more than others, but everyone learned a thing or two.
“I enjoyed it more because I got to get out; I was actually able to get out and feel like I was part of something, doing something,” said Brown comparing his previous deployment to Iraq with this most recent deployment.
“We’ve become strong,” said Beeson. “There’s been a lot of challenges that we’ve pulled together and worked together as a team to beat.”
Becker and his men from Mississippi are going home. Safely.
Brown, a welder at Northrup Grullman, is married with three kids. He hopes to go fishing in the Gulf of Mexico or in a little lake by his house as soon as he gets back to Lucedale.
Beeson, who lives on 33 acres of land with several horses and his wife, Megan, of just over a year, plans to return to Seemann Composites working with synthetic materials. Beeson is excited to return to his little piece of heaven.
“I may live in a single wide trailer, but doggonnit, I live good. Just me and the wife.”
Becker, who gave up a chance to go to flight school and fly apaches for this deployment, is returning to Mississippi with the intent to marry his fiancee. He plans on attending graduate school for criminal justice. When asked how deployment went he said, “We just tried to survive and do the best we can.”
| Date Taken: | 01.28.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 02.12.2011 03:00 |
| Story ID: | 65295 |
| Location: | GARDEZ, AF |
| Web Views: | 591 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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