Volume Four, Number 25 - 10-8-09
Mission - Soldier - Family - Team
For the latest news, pictures, and information from 4ID, regularly check:
http://www.hood.army.mil/4ID
(Note from Bob - work is underway to transition this 4ID web site to Fort Carson. Once it is complete, I will give you the new address. In the meantime, this is still the official 4ID web site).
This is a special update, as promised in Monday's update. The names of those 4BCT, 4ID Soldiers killed in Afghanistan last weekend have been announced by DoD.
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DoD Announces Army Casualties
The Department of Defense announced today (October 7) the death of eight Soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Oct. 3 in Kamdesh, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their contingency outpost with small arms, rocket-propelled grenade and indirect fires. They were assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
Killed were:
Staff Sgt. Vernon W. Martin, 25 of Savannah, Ga.
Sgt. Justin T. Gallegos, 27, of Tucson, Ariz.
Sgt. Joshua M. Hardt, 24, of Applegate, Calif.
Sgt. Joshua J. Kirk, 30, of South Portland, Maine.
Sgt. Michael P. Scusa, 22, of Villas, N.J.
Spc. Christopher T. Griffin, 24, of Kincheloe, Mich.
Spc. Stephan L. Mace, 21, of Lovettsville, Va.
Pfc. Kevin C. Thomson, 22, of Reno, Nev.
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Let us keep the Families and fellow Soldiers of SSG Martin, SGT Gallegos, SGT Hardt, SGT Kirk, SGT Scusa, SPC Griffin, SPC Mace, and PFC Thomson in our thoughts and prayers.
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Outnumbered Carson Soldiers faced daylong attack by Afghan insurgents
The Gazette
By Tom Roeder
October 6, 2009
A company of Soldiers from Fort Carson’s 4th Brigade Combat Team faced as many as 200 insurgents during a daylong attack on a pair of outposts in the remote mountains of eastern Afghanistan that left eight GIs dead, a spokesman from the unit said Monday.
The insurgents attacked at dawn Saturday after telling villagers in a nearby settlement to flee, Maj. T.G. Taylor said by telephone from the brigade’s headquarters in Jalalabad. The fighters poured out of a mosque as mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades slammed American position at the outposts in Nuristan province.
What followed was the deadliest fighting seen by Fort Carson Soldiers since Vietnam and the largest loss of life for the post in single battle in Iraq or Afghanistan. The Soldiers who died haven’t been identified by the Pentagon, which is barred by law from releasing names until 24 hours after the last Family is notified.
Taylor said the insurgents struck first at a compound housing Afghan Army troops, touching off a firefight. “The enemy was able to reach the perimeter of the compound,” Taylor said. “Our forces moved to consolidate their position.”
The Americans and Afghan Soldiers set up a string of new positions and hunkered down as they called in air support. Taylor said fighters arrived 21 minutes into the battle. “The close air support was effective,” he said.
The air power slowed the insurgents, but it was up to the brigade’s Soldiers using rifles, machine guns and mortars to stop their advance and to reclaim ground.
A key part of the battle was over ownership of the outpost’s helicopter landing zone, a lifeline for supplies and reinforcement. It took six hours for that land to be reclaimed by the Americans so reinforcements could be flown in.
The fighting continued for hours more as the reinforcements and the Soldiers from the company at the outpost drove the enemy, which Taylor described as local tribesmen, from the battlefield. A company typically has up to 150 Soldiers.
The battle broke the back of the enemy, which has all but disappeared from the area. “In the last 48 hours there has been negative enemy contact,” Taylor said.
Back at the 3,500-Soldier brigade’s headquarters, Soldiers are filled with a mix of pride and sadness. “I can tell you there are a lot of pensive Soldiers here,” Taylor said. “They’re thinking about our comrades and knowing their Families are hurting back home. At the same time those Soldiers fought incredibly bravely.”
The battle also showed that the training Fort Carson gave Soldiers for overwhelming enemy attacks worked. “They showed their professionalism,” Taylor said of the Soldiers in the battle. “They showed Colorado is the best place in the country to train for Afghanistan.”
The brigade spent months in training before it deployed in May. The goal of training was to introduce Soldiers, many of whom were Iraq war veterans, to the distinct tactics used by Afghan fighters.
The 4th Brigade is the first major combat unit from the post to serve in Afghanistan. Before this year, all but a few Soldiers from the post did their fighting in Iraq, where Fort Carson has had 255 Soldiers killed.
This year, as deployments to Afghanistan have ramped up, so has violence there. All 23 of the Fort Carson Soldiers who have died in Afghanistan lost their lives in 2009.
In one piece of irony that remains after Saturday’s battle, the ground held so fiercely by the Americans is in a place the brigade is leaving as part of a plan to bring more security to urban areas. Taylor said the Americans planned to leave the outpost soon as U.S. forces under Task Force Warrior, a group that includes the brigade and about 2,500 troops attached to it from other posts, implements the new plan.
The bloodshed doesn’t change that course. American commanders are committed to using a tactic that was effective in Iraq to clear insurgents out of cities and refire the Afghanistan economy. The belief is that if Afghans feel secure in their daily lives and can find employment to support their families, they’ll shun the insurgency there.
“Those plans have not changed,” Taylor said.
Copyright 2009 - Colorado Springs Gazette
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Gates: Withdrawal from Afghanistan Would Embolden Radicals
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2009 - Withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan before accomplishing the mission there would greatly embolden Islamic radicals worldwide, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today.
Afghanistan -- particularly the region that abuts the Afghan-Pakistan border -- is "the modern epicenter of jihad," Gates said, noting that area is where the Soviet Union's military forces eventually were defeated by Afghan insurgents during the 1979-89 Soviet-Afghan War.
Gates joined Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium this evening, where the two senior Cabinet officers were interviewed by veteran journalists Frank Sesno, director of the university's School of Media and Public Affairs directorate, and Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent.
Gates said a symbiotic relationship exists among al-Qaida, the Taliban and other Islamic insurgent groups in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. Those groups, he said, would like nothing more than to chase the United States -– another superpower -- and NATO out of Afghanistan, just as the Soviets were made to leave in the late 1980s.
"It's a hugely empowering message ... should they be successful," Gates said of the insurgents' desire to take back Afghanistan.
And if the Taliban regained control of significant portions of Afghanistan, Gates said, "that would be added space for al-Qaida to strengthen itself" and embark on expanded recruitment and fund raising activities there.
"The reality is, because of our inability -- and the inability, frankly, of our allies -- to put enough troops into Afghanistan, the Taliban do have the momentum right now, it seems," Gates said.
Yet, it's more important, Gates said, not to define the situation in Afghanistan as to whether or not the United States and its allies are winning or losing. Such "loaded" words, he said, seem to inflame the domestic debate and can cause consternation overseas.
It's paramount, Gates said, to establish objectives in Afghanistan and to be able to answer whether those objectives can be accomplished. "And the answer is: absolutely," Gates said of his belief that U.S. objectives in Afghanistan can be met.
Gates praised Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the senior U.S. and NATO troop commander in Afghanistan, as being "exactly the right" officer to oversee operations there. Gates said he concurs with McChrystal's assessment that the situation in Afghanistan is "serious and deteriorating."
President Barack Obama is studying McChrystal's assessment of Afghanistan operations. The general also provided a report of what he believes is needed -- in terms of troops and other resources -- to succeed in Afghanistan.
McChrystal, who has said he advocates deploying more troops to Afghanistan, has lately attracted criticism from some quarters because he's been vocal in stating his views, particularly in a recent speech in London. Gates reiterated his support for McChrystal, but the secretary also cautioned that it's paramount not to let the decision-making process about how to proceed in Afghanistan become a public airing of views before the commander in chief can listen to all of his advisors.
"I think the important thing is for the president to hear the advice of his commanders, and to have the advantage of hearing that advice in private," Gates said.
During the decision-making process prior to the surge of forces in Iraq, Gates recalled, he structured a process in which senior military commanders "each had an opportunity to present their views privately" to then-President George W. Bush.
"I think that's the way the process ought to work" regarding the way ahead in Afghanistan, Gates said, noting that Obama has made it clear he's ready to spend whatever time is required to get advice directly from his senior commanders.
"It is very important that we get the most thoughtful, candid advice from everyone," Clinton said. The president's process for re-examining the strategy in Afghanistan, she said, is "one of the most open, most thorough that I've read about."
Gates said McChrystal would implement "as effectively as possible" any decision the president makes.
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And, a rumor that has been around for quite a while was confirmed on Wednesday - 1BCT of 4ID will be making their first deployment to Afghanistan next summer, after three tours in Iraq...
DoD Announces Replacement Units for Afghanistan Rotation
The Department of Defense announced today major units scheduled to deploy as part of the next rotation operating in Afghanistan. This announcement involves a combat brigade and combat aviation brigade totaling approximately 6,100 service members. The scheduled rotation for these forces will begin in the spring and continue through the summer of 2010.
The spring rotation of approximately 2,800 Soldiers of the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, from Fort Campbell, Ky, continues the U.S. commitment to maintain the level of forces necessary to provide sufficient military capability for the NATO-International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to further improve security and stability operations.
The summer rotation of approximately 3,300 Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, from Fort Carson, Co, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, will continue the ongoing training and mentoring mission of Afghan National Security Forces in Afghanistan.
In consultation with Afghan officials and NATO, commanders continue to assess the situation to ensure sufficient force levels to best support the Government of Afghanistan, perform counter-terrorism operations, assist with reconstruction, and train and equip the Afghan National Security Forces.
DoD will continue to announce major unit deployments as units are identified and alerted
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What Our Families Are Hearing From Our Soldiers
1) Thanks for this latest edition of the 4ID Newsletter. I read it from beginning to end and appreciated all that you included today. Have a great time at your reunion out in Seattle this week and weekend. Bring along an umbrella. We have heard that the rain has started out in that part of the country, and it lasts from October to May!
2) Hi Bob - it was such a sad update today -- we lost 8 heroes. My two sons are now both safely home and my heart goes out to the parents, spouses, children and friends of the Soldiers who were killed or wounded in this latest fighting in Afghanistan. I know you are not political in your newsletter but I am so worried that our President is not understanding his full role as Commander in Chief -- when men and women are in mortal danger, your first obligation is to them... thank you again for all you hard work on this newsletter -- it is how I am staying connected now that my kids are safe for another year -- my younger one goes back to Afghanistan in Spring or Summer 2010. I hope the mission and strategy are clarified before then, and that President Obama's relationship to his commanders on the ground is more attuned. I continue to pray for the safety of all our troops and their Families.
3) Truly heartbreaking news...words seem so inadequate...my heart aches for their Families and loved ones...
They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them. We will remember them.
(Laurence Binyon, 09-21-1914)
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That wraps up this special update. The next one will be on Monday, October 12. Continue to pray for our Soldiers and their Families.
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Bob Babcock - "Deeds not Words"
President, Deeds Publishing - www.deedspublishing.com
President, Americans Remembered - www.americansremembered.org
Past President, 22nd Infantry Regiment Society - www.22ndinfantry.org
Past President, Historian, National 4th Infantry Div Assn - www.4thinfantry.org
PO Box 682222, Marietta, GA 30068 - Phone 678-480-4422 (cell)
