What Do You Mean Its Still Tuesday

by Billy Bob Richardson

  “No, I think we can adjourn the meeting at this point.”

  “Then that’s it, guys. Dek, I’ll let you get back to your day and the guys and I will head over and talk to Itsy about getting up to speed on her part of the operation.”

  “Thanks Madd, sounds like a plan.”

  Chapter 4

  Family farm, outside the community center

  On the way to see the new offices, a car pulled up in the yard with Al and Rose inside. This was the first time Al and the cousins had been face to face since Afghanistan. With all that had gone on, the cousins and Al had become much closer, so a lot of man hugs were in order. While Rose headed into her house the men decided to sit in the shade on Madd’s porch and do some catching up. It was a beautiful day with a bright blue sky, the kind of day that made you glad you were alive.

  While the guys sat down, Madd decided to get drinks from the kitchen. Susie was cleaning the floors and got kind of excited at the idea that he might track up her clean floor. She would get their sweet tea and some lemonade if he would keep everyone’s big feet outside and off her floor. Madd smiled at her dedication and determination. Everyone had their own agendas; for right here, right now, Susie’s was her clean floor. Madd got out of her way, realizing there was a lesson to be learned from the tiny but determined girl.

  Back on the porch the guys found being kept out of a place because of clean floors pretty funny. A few weeks ago the guys would have been squatting around on rocks in the desert, dirt or no dirt.

  “Sure is good to see you guys back home. Everyone here has missed you terribly. This is my third trip out, and every time I get here it’s more and more like coming home. Just wish you guys had been here to teach me about ranching. Everyone here has been helping but they have their own work to take care of, so teaching me has been secondary for them. Dek especially has been a big help in making me feel part of the team,” Al told them.

  Ivan and the guys had heard the accident Al was in had been pretty serious, so he just had to ask, “How’s your health Al, you getting healed up?”

  “Guess you guys heard all about my accident and Rose coming out to take care of me. I feel fine, just some minor aches and pains. The Doctor has given me a clean bill of health. Doesn’t even want to see me for another six months, so that’s a relief.

  “That’s enough about me, what about you guys? It’s been over six months since I last saw you and all I can find out is that you guys must have been in at least one firefight. None of the girls seem to know what happened. It was like pulling teeth to find out some of you came back with scars and healing injuries. What the heck happened?”

  The cousins passed a look, and with a silent decision, gave Madd a nod.

  “You’ve been there Al, so I guess there isn’t any reason you shouldn’t hear about it. We’ll tell the story, just don’t pass on too much information. We decided not to let our girls know the details. They have enough to worry about without hearing war stories,” Madd told him.

  “Things went fine, just routine patrols and minor actions until the last couple of weeks before we were going to ship home. In the last two months we were in more engagements and heavy firefights than we had been in for the whole of the rest of our tour.

  “Two companies of our guys accompanied some Canadian forces on a four-day operation into Kandahar province’s Panjwayi district, where some of the harshest fighting has been going on against the Taliban insurgency in southern Afghanistan.

  “Our unit’s mission was to help secure a narrow dirt track that led to the village of Mushan, about 10 kilometers to the west, where the Canadians wanted to tear down a small outpost that had been occupied since late 2011 by ten Canadian advisers and 63 Afghan soldiers.

  “The word we got was that the small force had not been able to do much to counter the Taliban in the area. Not too surprising considering the disparity between the forces. The fort had been under frequent attack. The Canadians needed help to pull the forces manning it out of the tough spot they were in. The plan was to use the men from that position with other forces around Kandahar and reposition them in better defensible positions around major population centers in southern Afghanistan.

  “For three days we kept getting harassing fire, trying to make us keep our heads down and just screwing with us. Every time we would start to clear the area they would fade away. But they would be back an hour later. By afternoon on the third day, we had almost completed the mission. The engineers had finished their work destroying the fortification, and the armored column of Canadians, our guys and the Afghans were moving out.

  “Then a Taliban bomb struck a Canadian tank, wounding two soldiers and putting the tank out of action.

  “There was no way for the rest of the convoy to move around the wreckage. The high-walled compounds and deeply trenched opium and wheat fields along the road gave almost no room to maneuver. With most of the column bottled up behind the disabled tank, the convoy was stalled for most of another day as recovery specialists worked to extract the vehicle. The Taliban kept up harassing fire the whole time. We gave as good as we got but they just kept bringing in more fighters to replace any losses.”

  With a grin, Madd told Al about Lieutenant Miller. The Lt kept stomping around muttering how amazing it was that 7 dudes with shovels and a single bomb could stop a battalion by bringing the convoy to a halt.

  “The column moved out of the area the next morning. Before we could move far, though, we had to engage in three firefights. At one point it got pretty hairy. We kept finding bomb after bomb along our route that had to be either exploded or marked for the demolition guys. The column kept getting held up by command detonated IED’s. Our group, the cousins, were close to one gigantic explosion. We took some shrapnel but nothing got past our armor. Tink must have been positioned just right because there was piece of the bomb casing sticking out of the heel on his boot. We all were way too close to that one. Like I said, it was hairy at times. A soldier from Company C was slightly injured in the blast. Another one was killed outright.”

  All the cousins were silent for a moment. Each one knew it could easily have been them in the body bag.

  “That’s rough. You guys know him well?” asked Al.

  “Not well, but a little. He was a nice guy with a family back home. He used to show pictures of his kids around anytime anyone would hold still long enough,” said Tink.

  “He had a little boy, about 6 or so, looked just like him. He was so proud of that little man. Kind of breaks your heart knowing that boy will grow up never really knowing his dad,” said Ivan.

  “We have seen the pain and suffering the family goes through Al, and it is horrendous. With so many military men being in our family we have all seen that grim duty performed, and gone through some of the pain. But for the very immediate family it is devastating. Those on the death notification detail have a special kind of courage. It has to take them a few minutes to steel themselves to see those parents or the spouses,” said Hey.

  After a minute, Madd got on with the story Al had asked for.

  “The mission turned out to be a success I suppose, but it showed us a fundamental challenge that the U.S. and other NATO forces really need to understand when running operations in southern Afghanistan. Western troops have the technology, but the Taliban own the terrain.

  “We might enjoy an edge over the Taliban in almost every respect, like superior weapons, communications gear, tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and air support by fighters, bombers, helicopters and unmanned drones. That isn’t always enough. Those tactical advantages are often offset by terrain that favors guerrilla tactics and a lightly armed, highly maneuverable enemy. The Taliban fit that description to a T.

  “You’ve been there Al, so you know the fighting conditions are amazingly difficult. Not only that, the enemy pretty much has free rein in the south, and there are endless places for them to hide.

  “The next day we were still working on the repositioning operation. Aga
in, we started getting harassing fire and the Lt sent our squad and another one to put a damper on their fun. This time though, they didn’t pull back and disappear into the surrounding countryside. They set up an ambush of sorts. As soon as a Kiowa scout helicopter came on station to let us know where they were the enemy did one of their disappearing acts.

  “On the second day our squad and the same squad from the day before were out on patrol watching for the group that had ambushed us. We didn’t know for sure if it was the same group who had been harassing us from the very beginning or if there were two separate groups. We weren’t that far from where they ambushed us the day before, and again the Taliban fighters hit us. After a couple minutes they again pulled one of their disappearing acts. The Kiowa had been circling between our position and the column. As it headed back the enemy started fading into the surrounding buildings, drainage ditches and outbuildings. As it approached our position the Kiowa radioed it had seen some of the group head down an alley.

  “The Kiowa also told us there were two men who seemed to be shadowing us. With ambushers to our front and men shadowing us to the rear we were feeling a real lack of love, I can tell you that!

  “Our squads were nearing the end of the patrol but we wanted to try and get eyes on our ambushers. Our squad was in the lead and entered a narrow alley hemmed in by buildings, mud brick walls and poppy fields.

  “The alley forced us to narrow into a single file. I was walking point, when I saw what we were headed into I turned and told Real who was right behind me, to keep his eyes sharp and be prepared for a close ambush.

  “The alley made a curve. As soon as I went around the curve, two Taliban fighters opened up on me and Real from no more than 10 to 15 feet away.

  “I was forced to dive for cover behind a stump when the barrage started,” Madd told him.

  "I was trying to get as small as possible, to be frank.

  “Real, who was carrying an M-249 light machine gun, was just behind me in the file. He hit the dirt and began returning fire.

  “The amount of fire coming down that narrow alleyway was unbelievable. Staying there wasn’t an option. One of them was no more than 10 feet away; they were bound to get us. We wanted to break contact, but the Taliban fire was too intense.

  “The Taliban had us caught in a crossfire. One fighter with an AK-47 was crouched behind a low wall and would pop up to shoot at us as soon as the other guy with a PKM machine gun slowed his fire. The guy with the PKM was about 15 feet from us down an alley to the first guy’s left.

  “Taliban gunshots were cracking all around us, so close I could feel the heat from the barrel and the pressure from the muzzle blast coming by my face," Madd recalled.

  "If I had gotten up and started to move, I’d have been hosed with bullets.

  “I was so close I found myself staring directly into the enemy’s eyes. The two Taliban fighters appeared ‘happy’ that they were shooting at Americans. They didn’t show any fear, that’s for sure, they were just grinning like Cheshire cats.

  “But then the PKM jammed, and they lost some of their smile. The fighter with the PKM took off running to a position further up the alley. At that point, I looked back and saw Ivan charging up the narrow alley, firing his M-4 and screaming like a banshee.

  Ivan picked up the story. “I had been about 100 feet back in the file, and we were taking harassing fire where we were. I couldn’t pinpoint the source of the Taliban fire around us, but I knew for sure Madd and Real had to be in serious trouble up ahead from the sound of all the firing up there.

  "As I ran up the alley I could see Madd was pinned down bad," Ivan said. "I wanted to get him out of there."

  “The enemy fire was constant, with Taliban bullets whizzing past as Ivan ran forward, not just from directly ahead but from the ditches and opium fields as well,” Tink told Al.

  Ivan continued, "I don’t know how I made it up through that alley," he said. "There were rounds coming in from all over the place.

  “Madd was already up on one knee, preparing to throw a fragmentation grenade when I reached him. I slid into what little cover there was. Real was forcing the Taliban guy 10 feet away to keep his head down. The guy didn’t have much choice since his partner with PKM was up the alley still trying to get the weapon back into firing condition. Madd waited a few seconds after I slid in beside him, cooking the grenade off, then tossed it over the low wall to the front while I shot an M-203 grenade round down the alley from where the PKM had just started firing again. We could see other fighters coming down the alley to help the guy with the PKM.

  “After the grenade exploded, the enemy fire was suppressed, at least temporarily.”

  "That’s when Ivan and I looked at each other and said, ‘We got to get the hell out of here,’" Madd said.

  “We fell back as Real and others poured on covering fire. We needed to get out of that very narrow alleyway, so we peeled off into a compound about 20 to 30 yards down the alley and took cover. But we were soon taking fire again, this time from several positions to the south.”

  "It was a little nerve-racking," Madd said. "At that point, I went into self-preservation mode, and just started laying down rounds, picking off any enemy stupid enough to show even a little bit of their head.

  “We were trying to pull back. With fire coming in from virtually every side and angle we had managed to wind around in the various paths and alleys. There was no obvious way out and the incoming was picking up drastically. We were taking wounded, none serious at first. We found ourselves caught in a maze of alleys and mud-brick buildings, any one of which could provide enemy cover.

  “We weren’t lost, but the way out was very narrow and by now the incoming was extremely fierce. Trying to go down those funnel like paths would result in seriously wounded soldiers and a number of deaths. Farther down one of the alleys about 20 feet from our little hidey-hole in the courtyard, the Lt and a Staff Sgt. were tossing grenades over walls where the Lt believed some of the fighters firing on us were hiding. You would hear ‘frag out’ and a thump. Fifteen to twenty seconds later you would hear ‘frag out’ and another thump. For a few minutes they were as regular as clockwork.

  “There were so many places people could’ve just popped out of, but the Lt and the Staff Sgt. were doing their best to keep the enemies’ heads down.

  “The Kiowa gunships that had been circling overhead between the column and our position were waiting for us to get settled down. Then they began to pound the Taliban positions with .50-caliber machine gun rounds and Hellfire missiles.”

  "It was a welcome sight to see them lighting that place up," said Real. “Finally both squads were able to break contact.”

  “The most important thing is that we all survived. It was intense, that’s for sure, but we’re all alive, and we all made it back," said Ivan.

  “Of course trouble comes in three’s, they say. We made it back to the column and our force continued with the original mission of repositioning forces,” Madd pointed out.

  “Another complicating factor in the area of our operation was that ‘there’s only one mud road as a way in, and there’s only that same mud road as a way out’, allowing the Taliban to detonate bombs along the route that were probably buried weeks and months ago. Clearing all the narrow alleys and courtyards wasn’t practical at the time. They would be almost impossible to get to without a full scale operation.

  “As you know, the Panjwayi district lies about 40 kilometers southwest of the provincial capital of Kandahar and has been a Taliban stronghold for a long time. During this operation a simple relocation effort turned into one of the bloodiest battles fought in the Afghan war in Panjwayi and the nearby Zhari district up to that point.

  “By the next day the rest of the platoon met up with us, giving the Lt a full platoon to work with.

  “The area is heavily cultivated with wheat, grapes, opium, marijuana and other crops. The fields are partitioned by thick mud walls, and irrigation ditches crisscross the
landscape like a maze. A group of soldiers on patrol in a grape field can suddenly drop six to 10 feet into a series of trenches in which an enemy can move undetected.

  “Rows of open slats in the two-story structures that we refer to as ‘grape huts’ offer the Taliban ready-made firing ports that they use to fire on our forces from concealed positions. The thick mud walls of the buildings can withstand multiple hits from all but the heaviest ordnance.

  "The enemy definitely has the advantage in the areas we were trying to work through. Despite all of the technology that we have, helicopters and the rest, they still have the advantage where we were.

  “We engaged in three gun battles with Taliban fighters over a four-day period as the relocation operation turned into something else altogether. An estimated 10 fighters ambushed about 30 of our guys from Company B on the next day, keeping them pinned down for about two hours. We came up on the left flank of the enemy force trying to dislodge them from the kind of area we were just describing. The grape huts were giving them plenty of places to hide and fire from. At one point, the Taliban were firing on Company B from three sides. Our Lt was told that the Taliban fighters were ‘clover leafing’ around Company B. That’s exactly what they were doing when we moved up to flank them.

  “The firefight ended only after the Company Commander called for U.S. mortar teams to fire more than 30 rounds of 60 mm high explosives and nearly 30 rounds of white-phosphorous smoke. Fire batteries at a nearby strong point fired nearly 30 rounds of high-explosive 155 mm artillery rounds and another 18 rounds of white-phosphorous smoke. A NATO jet dropped a 500-pound bomb. In the end he called for support from Kiowa helicopter gunships and, finally, an airstrike.

  “The soldiers of Company B used the smoke to cover their retreat while we provided fire support. Those 155mm shells and the 500-pound bomb were getting pretty close to our position. Close enough that expended magazines lying on the ground were jumping into the air like bacon fat in a hot skillet!