The Last Platoon
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152: a handheld radio providing crypto and a UHF/VHF line of sight with a nominal range of ten miles
153: a handheld radio without crypto with forty-nine channels
(A platoon commander or a patrol leader might carry both a 152 and a 153. He would talk to the ops center on the 152 and to the squad leaders and fire team leaders on the 153. In this novel, all patrol members talk to one another over the 153s.)
(Note: There is also a PRC-117, a more powerful and heavier radio. In this scenario, the distances are short and it is not needed, except for calling in an air medevac. A JTAC or JTO might have a 152, a 117, and a digital tablet to pull ISR feeds from aircraft and drones, while a sniper team would have at least the 152 and 153.)
AK: the Kalashnikov, a gas-operated 7.62mm assault rifle developed in the Soviet Union
Akaa: old man, or uncle
ANA: Afghan National Army
Asbaab: equipment
Askar: an Afghan soldier
Bacha bazi: a boy forced to perform as a sex slave
Bandi: prisoner
Blue Falcon: buddy fucker
Bravo Zulu: well done
BZ: battlefield zero, adjusting the aiming point of the rifle scope for a certain distance, such as two hundred or four hundred meters
CACO: casualty assistance call officer
Cammies: field fatigues with camouflaged design
Check your six: Watch out for an enemy shooting you from behind
C.O.: Commanding Officer
CYA: cover your ass
Dalaal: foolish
Dawlat: rich
Devil dog: a Marine nickname attributed to the German infantry in 1918 (“Marines fight like devil dogs”)
Dussmen: bandits, terrorists
ELINT: electronic intelligence; intelligence acquired by electronic or digital means
Faqir: stranger
Fauji: soldier
Fitrep: military fitness report
FO: Forward Observer to call in artillery, also called a JTAC or JTO
Fort Meade: a base in Maryland where the National Security Agency and others intercept radio and digital communications from adversaries
FPF: final protective fire. When a platoon is under heavy assault, the last defense is the FPF. Everyone in the platoon fires at the same time, throwing out a curtain of lead.
Hajj: journey to Mecca
Hajji: a Muslim who has visited Mecca
Halek: boy
Haroum: wind and dust storm
Hazra: a council of district elders
HIMARS: High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, a long-range artillery rocket system
HOG: hunter of gunmen, a sobriquet given to every sniper after he qualifies
Hus: favor
HVT: high-value target
ICOM: inexpensive VHF handheld radio used throughout Afghanistan
IED: improvised explosive device
IMEI number: a fifteen-digit code unique to each cell phone
Intel: intelligence reports
ISR: Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, a catchall phrase to include multiple intelligence feeds
Jarhead: slang for a Marine
Jerib: the common farm measurement system used in Afghanistan; about half an acre
JSOTF: Joint Special Operations Task Force
JTAC: Joint Tactical Air Controller, certified to call in air or artillery
JTO: Joint Tactical Observer, certified to call in artillery and limited air
Kafir: one who does not believe in Islam as the true religion
Kufiya: scarf
Khan: a respected community elder
Kharaab: bad
KIA: Killed in Action
Kuni: enjoys anal sex
LADAR: Laser Detection and Ranging. Measures distance to a target by illuminating the target with pulsed laser light and measuring the reflected pulses with a sensor.
Lancers: common Afghan term for workers who collect the opium sap from the poppy bulbs
Langley: site of the CIA in Virginia
M240 Bravo: a 7.62mm machine gun
M27: Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR), a lightweight, magazine-fed 5.56mm select-fire weapon based on the Heckler & Koch HK416 rifle
M302: 81mm mortar
M320: the new single-shot 40mm grenade launcher system
M67: a grenade weighing fourteen ounces, with a clip to prevent the safety pin from being pulled accidentally
M777: 155mm artillery tube
Mal: male
Malik: a leader
Mirab: local officials who settle water and land disputes
MO: modus operandi, a standard way of operating
Motard: slang for highly retarded
MREs: meals, ready to eat, wrapped in plastic
Muj: short for mujahideen, or holy warrior, a common US grunt expression for any Afghan who shoots at them
Nishtgars: day laborers
NJP: nonjudicial punishment, less than a court martial
NMCC: National Military Command Center located in the Pentagon
NVG: night-vision goggles
OTM: on the move
Paarsi: a Persian
PKM: Russian machine gun
PTT: Push to Talk
Qaed: leader
Reg: regulations
Ruck: rucksack
Salaf: a believer in an extreme form of Islamic fundamentalism
SCIF: sensitive compartmented information facility
Semper Gumby: always flexible, sarcastically meaning the situation can and will change dramatically
Shahadah: the Muslim profession of faith
Shaheed: a martyr
Shalwar kameez: typical Afghan male attire: a loose shirt worn untucked over loose cotton trousers
Shemagh: turban
Shukran: thank you
Shura: a high council of Afghan elders
Snuffy: junior enlisted man
STFU: shut the fuck up
Tacevac: evacuation from the field, mainly for wounded
Takfir: a Muslim accused of apostasy, or of denying the Muslim faith
Tango: Taliban
Tashakor: thank you
Tramadol: a potent drug, an upper
TH3: incendiary grenade
TIC: troops in contact; denotes a firefight serious enough to warrant indirect fire support by air or artillery
UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle; a drone
Unsat: standard military abbreviation of unsatisfactory, a damning word across all ranks
Yut: oorah!
Note with Regard to Military Chain of Command
This is a novel. It is not intended to depict literally the complexities—some would say the convolutions—of the military bureaucracy.
I streamlined the actual chain of command. Normally, in a crisis the president gives a verbal directive to the Secretary of Defense, who would direct the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to send a digital execute order via the J3 (Operations) of the Joint Staff in the Pentagon. The recipient would be a geographic four-star combatant commander, or CCDR. Only a combatant command (COCOM) can send the message directing military operations to the appropriate subordinate command on the battlefield. In an emergency, many of these steps would be swiftly done by secure phone.
(Or they could be delayed. In the 2011 Benghazi case when our ambassador was missing during an extended firefight, the J3 was entangled in a lengthy meeting in the White House with representatives from other staffs. This delayed taking action through the military chain of command.)
For time-sensitive information, the Chairman or J3 (a three-star billet) could call the Pentagon ops center (National Military Command Center), where a one-star supervises the collection of minute-by-minute breaking news from all theaters.
As of January 2020, the four-star general in charge of the Central Command in Tampa, Florida, still had a four-star general in Kabul (Commander, US Forces Afghanistan, or USFORA) who exercised operational command over all US forces in Afghanistan. It
would be unusual, but not unheard of, for the CCDR and USFORA to permit a subcomponent command—in the novel this is the three-star general at MARCENT (Marine Corps Forces Central Command)—to call directly to a task force conducting a short-duration mission in Helmand.
Additional information about the chain of command and operational control was excerpted in 2019 from https://www.army.mil/article/38414/Understanding_OPCON/.
Combatant command (COCOM) is the authority vested only in combatant commanders by Section 164 of US Code Title 10, or as otherwise directed by the president or Secretary of Defense.
COCOM is “the authority of a combatant commander (CCDR) to perform those functions of command over assigned forces involving organizing and employing commands and forces; assigning tasks; designating objectives; and giving authoritative direction over all aspects of military operations, joint training…and logistics necessary to accomplish the missions assigned to the command. Operational control is inherent to COCOM.”
OPCON “is the authority to perform those functions of command over subordinate forces involving organizing and employing commands and forces, assigning tasks, designating objectives, and giving authoritative direction necessary to accomplish the mission.” Combatant commanders can delegate OPCON within their commands. In this book, CENTCOM has delegated OPCON of Task Force Joint Resolve to USFORA.
Tactical Control, or TACON, is inherent in OPCON and is delegable. TACON “provides sufficient authority for controlling and directing the application of force or tactical use of combat support assets within the assigned mission or task.”
In Appreciation
This novel could not have been written without the selfless understanding and constant encouragement of my loving wife, Betsy.
For an understanding of infantry warfare and close-in battle, and for keeping me alive, I owe thanks to generations of Marine grunts. I hesitate to write some names, without mentioning a thousand others. But let me start with my uncles Walter and Tommy, platoon commanders on Guadalcanal in 1942 and Okinawa in 1945. In Vietnam, Corporal Phil Brannon (KIA) was my stalwart point man in Binh Nghia village, while Lieutenants Tom O’Rourke and Tony Monroe were my fighting comrades, along with Sergeant Orest Bishko of Force Recon and Charlie Benoit, an extraordinary man of many talents and languages. In Iraq, my son Owen carried on the family tradition as a Force Recon Marine and adviser. In Afghanistan, the 3rd Platoon of Kilo Company 3/5, commanded by Lieutenant Vic Garcia, showed me the realities of the savage firefights and tribal loyalties. Sergeants Joe Meyer and Philip McCulloch were staunch in their duties, and Corporal Colbey Yazzie unflinching at point. Dr. Bob Mazur, a surgeon with two tours in Afghanistan, reviewed my recollections from the battlefields of the trauma cases and the effects upon those hit.
For understanding the interactions between the Pentagon and the White House, my tours as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense and later as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Affairs were invaluable. So too were the wisdom and tutelage of three friends who served as Secretaries of Defense—Jim Schlesinger, Frank Carlucci, and Jim Mattis.
The United States Marine Corps has been described as the world’s most lethal fighting force. It is more than that. Its culture imbues in those who serve rigorous standards that are passed down from one generation to the next, century after century.
About the Author
Over the decades, bestselling author Bing West has embedded on the battlefields with dozens of Army and Marine platoons in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. A former assistant secretary of defense and combat Marine, he has also met repeatedly with four-star generals and secretaries of defense, and was twice awarded the Pentagon's top medal for Distinguished Public Service. He is the co-author, with Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, of the New York Times #1 bestseller, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead.
The Last Platoon is his seventh and final book about our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a story of illusion versus reality, courage versus fear, and duty versus ambition.