Photo By Luke Graziani | Long lines of equipment-moving vehicles are staged for quick access Oct. 10 at Combat...... read more read more
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PAKTIKA PROVINCE, Afghanistan – The brisk air blew across the pitch-black desert, whispering over dark hulking mounds in the distance. Faint twinkling lights near the horizon line estimated the distance of the long serpent of a convoy drawing near.
Soldiers of 172nd Infantry Brigade, Task Force Blackhawk, had been driving for hours; navigating through difficult terrain to reach Combat Outpost Waza Khwa in support of Operation Blackstorm.
The first of its size and type to be conducted in Afghanistan, Operation Blackstorm undertook the herculean challenge of packing, then airlifting and line-hauling all the U.S. Army’s equipment and supplies out of Waza Khwa to prepare the COP for hand over to Afghan control.
“From what I understand, this is one of the largest locations that has been turned over to the Afghans,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Brad Eungard, commander of the 172nd Support Battalion.
“[Waza Khwa] used to be a battalion forward operating base, but we had a company sized element there for TF Blackhawk - lots of buildings, lots of containers that have been left over from a battalion size formation so the task of closing that down was much more than just a company COP,” said Eungard.
The operation began at Forward Operating Base Sharana, and at COP Waza Khwa, simultaneously. Equipment and supplies were designated for shipping out of Waza Khwa while the gigantic convoy was being assembled and readied at Sharana.
“Once we got the word that it's official and we were going to be transferring this place to the [Afghan National Security Forces], we started prepping equipment, packing what we could and identifying what needed to go and where it needed to go,” said 1st Lt. Andrew Peavy, a Tallahassee, Fla., native, executive officer for Battery C, 1st Battalion, 77th Field Artillery. “We started originally by moving a lot of elements by air - equipment that could go back to Sharana or could go to other locations.”
Soldiers from all over the brigade supported the operation; from driving trucks in the convoy to assisting ground support efforts at the helicopter landing zone or fuel point.
Of the many challenges for these soldiers to overcome, from the dozens of hours on the road in the convoy to on the ground at Waza Khwa itself, seemingly minor details became burdensome tasks.
“We fell into about 5,000 empty 55-gallon barrels,” said Peavy. “We can't just give them away, we can't just throw them away, because they have the potential to [be] IEDs.”
To deal with the empty barrels, the battalion brought in local workers to cut the tops and bottoms off, and the soldiers would then flatten them down. The barrels can then be sold as scrap metal with the profits going to the local district and the people who need it the most.
The convoy’s journey from FOB Sharana to COP Waza Khwa wound through mountainous terrain. Initially planned on taking many days, with a FOB along the route as a rest stop, the convoy managed to make it in much less time and with less incidents than expected.
“Everybody had talked about how bad the route was,” said Cpt. Grant Thimsen, from Sioux Falls, S.D., commander of Company A, 172nd Support Battalion. “Expectations were that is was going to be a pretty rough ride. Everything went smoothly.”
Thimsen went on to explain that he and his team were one “piece of the cog” of a much larger machine.
“It was a brigade effort,” Thimsen clarified. “Without support of the brigade commander, the engineers, the [brigade recovery team] and without the support of Task Force 3-66, it really would have been a difficult mission to accomplish.”
The work to hand over the COP to Afghan forces is nearly complete - a few minor details and the COP will essentially be operated by them.
This operation set the bar high for similar operations in the future. In the long term these types of missions will put Afghans in positions to secure and maintain their own areas with only minimal, if any, guidance from coalition forces.
“The great victory for us, I think, [is to have] these competent Afghan Forces securing people - the people have faith in them, faith in their government, and will continue to support their government and not allow any Taliban influence in the area,” said Eungard.
| Date Taken: | 10.10.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 10.20.2011 04:21 |
| Story ID: | 78741 |
| Location: | PAKTIKA PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 1,084 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Blackhawks storm into, out of Waza Khwa, by Luke Graziani, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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