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KHOWST PROVINCE, Afghanistan – When U.S. Army soldiers from Company D, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, first arrived at Combat Outpost Narizah, they thought they had a good idea of what to expect in terms of living conditions.
Company D’s three platoons were relieving two, so they knew facilities and amenities would likely be constrained. And duty on a remote combat outpost would certainly entail greater hardships, compared to larger Forward Operating Bases in Afghanistan.
Despite their low expectations, the Company D soldiers were still shocked at the conditions they inherited.
One working toilet and shower served more than 80 soldiers. Two washing machines functioned, but required hand washing to get clothes clean. Worst of all, three huts designed to house eight soldiers each were crammed with more than 25.
Recreational facilities? Forget it.
“There was nothing here,” said U.S. Army Pfc. Jacob Coberly, a Company D soldier from Hannibal, Mo. “It was depressing, worse than you could have imagined.”
Today, the Company D “Dragoons” enjoy living conditions that few could have dreamed of a year ago.
Their small outpost now boasts a sports complex with an indoor half-court basketball court and a regulation-sized combatives octagon, a card room with regulation pool table, a movie theater with stadium-style seating, two miniature golf courses, and a host of other luxuries that would make Donald Trump feel right at home.
COP Narizah’s expansion was conceived and built by the soldiers themselves, with the help of skilled local Afghan carpenters.
“No other COP has the things we have,” said U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Raymond Butler, the Dragoon’s non-commissioned officer in charge from South Boston, Va. “Our soldiers actually took the initiative and made something special.”
Butler said that after two months of hard work to fix basic essentials — the base now has 17 toilets and 18 showers — he and his soldiers formulated a game plan to improve the recreational facilities.
At the top of their wish list was a better gym, which at the time doubled as a dry storage facility. This required the soldiers and Afghan carpenters to first build a new barn to move supplies from the storage. After that job was completed, in late spring, they moved on to the pool hall and movie theater. The final project was the octagon, which was finished over the summer.
Butler, a licensed electrician who worked on all of the projects, said that materials were purchased through their battalion’s regular supply chain and also gathered from FOB Salerno, the biggest FOB in the area where the 3rd BCT is headquartered. They were delivered via regular combat airlifts and truck stops.
“[It was] a pretty easy process,” Butler said.
U.S. Army Capt. Joshua Wiles, the Dragoon’s commanding officer, says the improvements were done in tandem with the unit’s core mission to disrupt insurgent facilitation routes into Afghanistan. Company D’s area of operations includes Tani and Musa Khel districts, known hotbeds of insurgent activity.
“We’re still as busy as everyone else,” said Wiles, a native of Bradenton, Fla., “There’s no reason that just because we are in combat and out on a COP we can’t have the same luxury items as Salerno or Bagram [Air Field]. They have the same mission that we have.”
For Company D, that mission is about to expire. They are set to return home in late December. Their replacements, and the Afghan soldiers and border police who are scheduled to eventually take ownership of the base, likely will have little idea how much work their predecessors put into transforming their new foxhole, and how fortunate they are to have landed at COP Narizah.
“There’s a good chance that they’ll get here and think this is normal,” said Butler.
| Date Taken: | 12.07.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 12.07.2011 07:03 |
| Story ID: | 80991 |
| Location: | KHOWST PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 716 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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