bobdina
05-19-2010, 09:31 PM
Intense Battle Shows Limit of ROE
May 19, 2010
Military.com|by Christian Lowe
Intense Battle Shows Limit of ROE
(Editor’s Note: Military.com editor Ward Carroll and managing editor Christian Lowe are currently embedded with American troops in eastern Afghanistan.)
FORWARD OPERATING BASE RUSHMORE, Afghanistan --- The tinny voice came in crackling through a radio speaker mounted to the plywood walls of the command post. A squad of American Soldiers and their Afghan army allies were taking fire from insurgents near a small village outside Yahya Khel.
Rounds from an estimated 20 insurgents' AK-47 rifles snapped past until the Soldiers and Afghan troops fired back.
"It looks like they're breaking contact to maneuver to a better position," said Capt. Josh Powers, the commander of Angel Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment. His 2nd platoon was in the fight; he stared at the map displayed in his command post at Forward Operating Rushmore, mentally plotting how he could best support his troops almost 40 miles away.
The Air Force tactical air controller assigned to Angel grabbed his radios and called in an F-16 Falcon fighter to support the Soldiers, but ultimately there wasn't much the TAC-P could do to help.
While other outposts deep in Paktika province had been untouched recently, it was the second time in less than a week that troops from COP Yahya Khel had come under intense attack. Obviously, the insurgents wanted the Americans out of Yahya Khel for any number or reasons including the fact that it hosts the largest bazaar in the region.
But while the full force of American might was just a radio call away from the command center here – artillery, attack helicopters, drones and mortars -- new rules of engagement designed to minimize civilian casualties made it difficult for leaders like Powers and his superiors to support their troops with extra firepower when the bullets were flying.
And with a fight like Afghanistan, where a relatively small number of troops are spread across vast areas with few paved roads, help can be a long time coming.
Updates came over the radio from the outpost at Yahya Khel: A quick reaction force of nearly 20 Soldiers had been dispatched to lend a hand to their countrymen under fire, and it looked like the enemy shooters had retreated to a building on the village's outskirts.
Powers worked between radio mics and phones, calling his battalion commander, Lt. Col. David Fivecoat, to request permission to fire 120mm mortars on the enemy position. Around 7:15pm, nearly 20 minutes after the firefight had begun, Powers was given permission to shoot one 120mm mortar round.
For more information on Blackhawk’s tactical, military, and law enforcement equipment please click here.
"Let's just put mortars behind him and just kill him so he can't do it again," Powers said to his subordinates huddled around the radio.
The F-16 flying high above the fight transmitted that he saw people scurrying out of a building near the mortars impact zone – and they appeared to be armed.
"Let's drop a f---ing bomb on it," the Air Force controller said.
"The CO's never going to go for that," Powers said. "Not unless they take it to the next level."
After 23 minutes of battle, the enemy did just that.
"Ah, roger, we have a casualty," the radio operator at Yahya Khel called in. "Soldier was shot in the wrist. First aid is being administered."
Powers reached for the phone line back to his battalion commander to update him on the casualty.
Moments later, Staff Sgt. Cardray Moulden, the company's top artillery noncommissioned officer, picked up the phone line from battalion HQ. Five rounds of 120 mortar fire had been approved.
"Let's walk them in and pound the s---t out of them," one Soldier said, knowing that would never be approved under the restrictive rules.
While the Air Force controller worked out an area for the F-16 to strafe its 20mm cannon well away from local settlements as a "show of force," the 120mm mortars arced in.
Nearly an hour into the engagement, the mortars had apparently done their job. The enemy had stopped firing, the casualty was being loaded onto an Afghan army jeep for a ride back to the Yahya Khel command post, and a medevac helicopter was on its way.
When the radios finally went silent, Soldiers here had time to reflect on the remote outpost in Yahya Khel and its reputation as a magnet for insurgent attacks. And like so many others like it over the last three months of Angel, 3-187's deployment, the enemy initiated an intense attack and slipped back under the cover of the civilian population.
"They just like to demonstrate to the population that they aren't secure -- that they can attack security forces anytime they want," Powers explained. "And they know that each time they inflict an American casualty, it becomes an international incident."
http://www.military.com/news/article/intense-battle-shows-limit-of-roe.html
May 19, 2010
Military.com|by Christian Lowe
Intense Battle Shows Limit of ROE
(Editor’s Note: Military.com editor Ward Carroll and managing editor Christian Lowe are currently embedded with American troops in eastern Afghanistan.)
FORWARD OPERATING BASE RUSHMORE, Afghanistan --- The tinny voice came in crackling through a radio speaker mounted to the plywood walls of the command post. A squad of American Soldiers and their Afghan army allies were taking fire from insurgents near a small village outside Yahya Khel.
Rounds from an estimated 20 insurgents' AK-47 rifles snapped past until the Soldiers and Afghan troops fired back.
"It looks like they're breaking contact to maneuver to a better position," said Capt. Josh Powers, the commander of Angel Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment. His 2nd platoon was in the fight; he stared at the map displayed in his command post at Forward Operating Rushmore, mentally plotting how he could best support his troops almost 40 miles away.
The Air Force tactical air controller assigned to Angel grabbed his radios and called in an F-16 Falcon fighter to support the Soldiers, but ultimately there wasn't much the TAC-P could do to help.
While other outposts deep in Paktika province had been untouched recently, it was the second time in less than a week that troops from COP Yahya Khel had come under intense attack. Obviously, the insurgents wanted the Americans out of Yahya Khel for any number or reasons including the fact that it hosts the largest bazaar in the region.
But while the full force of American might was just a radio call away from the command center here – artillery, attack helicopters, drones and mortars -- new rules of engagement designed to minimize civilian casualties made it difficult for leaders like Powers and his superiors to support their troops with extra firepower when the bullets were flying.
And with a fight like Afghanistan, where a relatively small number of troops are spread across vast areas with few paved roads, help can be a long time coming.
Updates came over the radio from the outpost at Yahya Khel: A quick reaction force of nearly 20 Soldiers had been dispatched to lend a hand to their countrymen under fire, and it looked like the enemy shooters had retreated to a building on the village's outskirts.
Powers worked between radio mics and phones, calling his battalion commander, Lt. Col. David Fivecoat, to request permission to fire 120mm mortars on the enemy position. Around 7:15pm, nearly 20 minutes after the firefight had begun, Powers was given permission to shoot one 120mm mortar round.
For more information on Blackhawk’s tactical, military, and law enforcement equipment please click here.
"Let's just put mortars behind him and just kill him so he can't do it again," Powers said to his subordinates huddled around the radio.
The F-16 flying high above the fight transmitted that he saw people scurrying out of a building near the mortars impact zone – and they appeared to be armed.
"Let's drop a f---ing bomb on it," the Air Force controller said.
"The CO's never going to go for that," Powers said. "Not unless they take it to the next level."
After 23 minutes of battle, the enemy did just that.
"Ah, roger, we have a casualty," the radio operator at Yahya Khel called in. "Soldier was shot in the wrist. First aid is being administered."
Powers reached for the phone line back to his battalion commander to update him on the casualty.
Moments later, Staff Sgt. Cardray Moulden, the company's top artillery noncommissioned officer, picked up the phone line from battalion HQ. Five rounds of 120 mortar fire had been approved.
"Let's walk them in and pound the s---t out of them," one Soldier said, knowing that would never be approved under the restrictive rules.
While the Air Force controller worked out an area for the F-16 to strafe its 20mm cannon well away from local settlements as a "show of force," the 120mm mortars arced in.
Nearly an hour into the engagement, the mortars had apparently done their job. The enemy had stopped firing, the casualty was being loaded onto an Afghan army jeep for a ride back to the Yahya Khel command post, and a medevac helicopter was on its way.
When the radios finally went silent, Soldiers here had time to reflect on the remote outpost in Yahya Khel and its reputation as a magnet for insurgent attacks. And like so many others like it over the last three months of Angel, 3-187's deployment, the enemy initiated an intense attack and slipped back under the cover of the civilian population.
"They just like to demonstrate to the population that they aren't secure -- that they can attack security forces anytime they want," Powers explained. "And they know that each time they inflict an American casualty, it becomes an international incident."
http://www.military.com/news/article/intense-battle-shows-limit-of-roe.html