Photo By Master Sgt. Mark Burrell | A soldier assigned to Battery C, 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment, 18th...... read more read more
KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - As Congress debates the details of the upcoming budget bill, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta urged government employees to go to work on Monday, even if the crisis isn't resolved.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Victor S. Cason, an M777A2 howitzer section chief deployed to Combat Outpost Honaker-Miracle in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province, laughed at the thought.
"You really ain't got no choice in that," said Cason, a Trenton, N.J., native. "You took an oath and you got a job to do, point blank."
Cason and his soldiers are assigned to Battery C, 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment, 18th Fires Brigade, attached to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Task Force Bronco in one of the most dangerous areas in Afghanistan.
For him, it's hard to pay attention to events back home that could potentially have implications on his pay. At COP Honaker-Miracle, there's a small computer room for Internet and one TV on the base. But, he said, there are more important things to worry about, like staying alive.
"What people see in the media and on TV is two different things," said Cason. "This is the real deal and this is realistic, but this is what we have to do.”
Cason sits in his plywood room and plays with a bracelet he's making for his wife, when he gets a call.
His infantry brethren are in trouble, and they need artillery support.
Cason and his crew throw on their body armor, sprint out of their rooms, and move into action in a matter of seconds.
After firing a few deafening 155 mm artillery rounds at insurgents, a different, but not unfamiliar, sound is heard on the combat outpost.
"Incoming! Incoming!"
Clouds of dirt and shrapnel fly everywhere, but Cason's fire mission isn't done yet.
"Your adrenaline starts to go up, and your first reaction is get cover," Cason said. "But, if we have to put those rounds out, we have to put those rounds out. You have to pretty much suck it up and remember those Army core values."
Instead of running for cover or thinking about if Congress is going to agree on a budget, Cason said he has only one thing on his mind this afternoon.
"We have to be accurate, and we have to be fast at the same time," said Cason. "Those infantry guys out there depend on us. The longer we take, that could be their lives. We have to be on our game day-in and day-out."
U.S. Army Spc. Joseph K. Murphy, a cannon crewmember from Marshall, Ill., who said he joined the military for a steady paycheck, agreed with his section chief.
Murphy, who is on his second combat tour, said he acknowledges sometimes people back home get wrapped up in their lives and don't understand what's going on over here.
He said he really doesn't care what happens on Monday in Washington, because he's got a job to do out here, with or without bullets flying at him.
"It's a job, and that's what we're supposed to do," said Murphy. "You do it enough times; it is what it is. Pull the string and the gun goes boom."
For the past 10 months, these soldiers have fired more than 1,200 rounds out of their gun named "Capital Punishment." They aren't able to call in sick, they can't use traffic as an excuse to show up late, and they said Monday is just another day closer to coming home.
| Date Taken: | 08.01.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2011 18:10 |
| Story ID: | 74586 |
| Location: | KUNAR PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 232 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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