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| U.S. Army soldiers From the 2/327th No Slack Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, return fire after receiving small-arms fire during combat operation in the valley of Barawala Kalet, Kunar province, Afghanistan, March 29, 2011. |
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| U.S. Army soldiers From the 2/327th No Slack Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, return fire in the valley of Barawala Kalet, Kunar province, Afghanistan March 29, 2011. |
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| U.S. Army soldiers From the 2/327th No Slack Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, return fire from behind cover during combat operations in the valley of Barawala Kalet, Kunar province, Afghanistan March 29, 2011. |
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| A U.S. Army soldier From the 2/327th No Slack Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, relieved after a fire fight with the Taliban opens his mouth up towards the sky to taste the snow as it falls in the valley of Barawala Kalet, Kunar province, Afghanistan March 29, 2011. |
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| A U.S. Army soldier From the 2/327th No Slack Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, returns fire with a M-249 squad automatic weapon during combat operations in the valley of Barawala Kalet, Kunar province, Afghanistan March 29, 2011. |
UPDATE:
I sent the guys at BlackFive an e-mail asking why the 101st would establish a base camp on the sideslope of a hill instead of on top of it. They responded that it was probably mission dependent...they were observing trade routes and established it where they would have the best field of fire.
Makes sense to me. Mission first...Troop welfare second...
Long story short. They established the base in an area that would help them accomplish the mission.
Why are they firing UP? Why didn't they seize the high ground?
ReplyDeleteGod, i've been gone too long. i used to have to answer questions like this for boards!
ReplyDeleteanyway, the deal with Afghanistan is that we don't know if they're firing at another hilltop that the enemy was able to occupy...if they were unable to establish a firebase at the top of the mountain because of geographic factors...just a whole host of issues. the pics have a 1000 words attached to them but definitely don't tell the whole story.
i'll send an e-mail to the guys at BlackFive and see if they know.
There still should have been an OP up there so the bad guys couldn't just walk in and start shooting from above.
ReplyDeleteOf course I don't know the topographical situation. Makes a difference in your decision when the OP has no way to bug out.
God bless'em for the job they're doing for us.
a common saying in the Corps (i'm sure you know it)...
ReplyDeleteif you weren't there then you don't know...
i'm not there so i'll just trust that these guys deployed themselves in the most advantageous way possilble.
Looking at the topography for Kunar, I see much of the higher ground is located on the other side of the border with Pakistan. And, that area of Pakistan is the primary have for the Taliban.
ReplyDeleteSo, many of the highest points cannot be officially occupied. Major suckage.
I was on this Operation with 2/327 and was there when this picture was taken. We had taken over a house because some foul weather was rolling in and we were about to lose our air cover. The area that the operation was taking place at there were no vehicles, so air cover was our saving grace. We took refuge in a house on the side of the mountain and once the foul weather came in we were attacked by the taliban. The plan was to continue on with the mission when the foul weather passed, but we couldn't as we had taken some casulties. One of which we couldn't get to, so we had to stay as not to leave a fallen comrade. After we waited for a while we were unsure of when a chopper would be there to pick up our fallen and wounded. It was decided to set up a make shift OP and to tear down and continue on later. The higher ups told us to stay and observe and another unit would fly up the mountain to continue the op. We had to fire up the hill at times when we were taking contact. That is why there are pictures of us pointing weapons up the mountain side.
ReplyDelete