Chad Hunt Photography

Today I leave the pearly gates of Bagram airbase. My driver, Karim will take me to the Cabul Coffee shop then onto the The Le Monde Guest House . My flight doesn’t leave until Tuesday so I will just have to kill time with my friends for a few days.

I’ve received a lot of email from friends and family wanting to know how to send care packages to the guys that I spent time with at the KOP.
My little sister is organizing a group of friends who all want to send stuff.

If you would like to send care packages please e mail me here: chadehunt@earthlink.net I will give you an address to send stuff to. If you decide to send something keep in mind that these guys currently have access to beef jerky, gatoraide powder, soap, trail mix, pop tarts, hard candy, and bad paperback novels.
Think “single serving” anything that can be shared, like a box of single serve instant coffee packets rather than a jar of coffee. A bag of Halloween size m&m’s rather than a huge bag.. Ramin noodles, small pen flashlights , a head lamp (also get the red filter), pocket knives, baby wipes, olive drab socks, cocoa mix, Slim Jims, homemade cookies. Magazines, DVD’s . Yes, DVD’s they all have laptops and they love those DVD’s. Surely you have a stack of used DVD’s you don’t need right?
When you ship it use the fed-ex size, U.S. postal service, priority mail box and expect it to take 1-4 months to get there. If you write a note, include your email address because they do have access to email out there, even if it is limited at times. Anything you send will mean more than you can possible imagine to these guys.

“I used to keep a tally of how many times I’ve been shot at, but I stopped counting after 65”. -Pinson

I was told that if I didn’t get on this Blackhawk that I would be stuck at the KOP for two more weeks.
I grabbed my gear and made my way back to Bagram Air field
via FOB Jalalabad. One of the 11- Bravo mortar guys, Pinson, was on the helicopter headed home to Nashville, TN on leave. He has spent the last 200 days at the KOP and now all he wants to do is go fishing with his father.

Once at Bagram, we head to the PX so he can buy a combat infantry badge . It is a small black pin that is worn just above the name tag on his uniform. Usually they are issued by a commanding officer, but Pinson was told that it’s ok to buy one to pin on his uniform while at home on leave.

I am back at Bagram, safe and sound. Now I will work my way home.

This afternoon I hung out with the guys at the OP 3 (observation post three) for a few hours…later the KOP was hit with more sniper and mortar fire…. everyone took their positions and started scanning for muzzle flashes on the mountain.
(this is a link to audio of the fire)
WS_20027.WMA

The men in the mortar
pit started pounding the mountain side with the 120 mortars… and a few .50 cal machine guns opened up … after dropping about 10-20 mortars it was over… but they are pretty sure he is still out there.

As the sun began to set I rolled out with second platoon on a four hour “overlook” mission. As we moved out on foot two apache helicopters
circled over head and provided cover fire as we moved forward…. I could hear a thump, thump, thumping as they fired the 30mm cannons as we worked our way down the creek bed.
I hate the creek bed.
Honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking when I decided to go on this mission. I could only take pictures for about an hour before the sun set.

After that I strapped a I.R. ( infrared
) chem light to my helmet so the rest of the guys could see me in the dark with their N.O.D.s (night operation device)
.
More soon, off to my tent to freeze my ass off.

It‚Äôs about 4am here and I had to get out of my sleeping bag and walk around because it‚Äôs just too cold to sleep. The morning usually involves hanging out with the mortar guys as they build a fire and make hot water for coffee or ramin noodles…. We all stand and wait for B.O.B. -which is an acronym for the sun (Big Orange Ball). Leave it to the troops to come up with another acronym.
My personal favorite is: T.L.A. (three letter acronym)

I‚Äôm not sure when the next helicopter is coming or even if there is room for me on it… but I will probably try to go on a mission today with 2nd platoon. I’m actually a bit worried about this one because I was told that they get shot at every time they go into this area where we might be going today…. last time they had two KIA’s (killed in action) and 3 wounded.

Today I hung out at outpost 3. It’s a small post that overlooks the valley. As we were talking the outpost started receiving fire so the writer and I took cover under the bunker and watched as a private scanned the mountain through the small opening between the sandbags. The shooting stopped as soon as the mortar team started firing.

I went on my first mission today. We left the KOP (korengal outpost)
at 8am and hiked to an abandoned village on the other side of the mountain. The village is a known hideout for bad guys and should be empty. Our mission was to hike there, clear all the buildings and look for any evidence of people using it as a staging point for attacks on the KOP. Once we got there I followed a four man team as they went from building to building kicking in doors and clearing rooms…

We hiked a total of 30 klicks (meters) to get there, as the crow flies it is 2 klicks to the village. Hiking through the korengal valley is a lot like walking through the Grand Canyon. It is beautiful here but when the sun goes down the temperature drops to about 40 degrees. It didn’t help that it rained on us for most of the mission.

At one point the soldier carrying a metal detector on point thought we found an IED. A small team went to look for any bad guys who might be in position to trigger it. After a while the lieutenant decided to send a private out with a shovel to just dig it up.
“any thoughts on how to do this?” he said before stomping down the road to dig out what turned out to be a few pieces of trash under a rock.

The total hike was just over 16 hours long. the last 6 hours of hiking was in total darkness as we worked our way back to the base through a creek bed. Everyone had night vision except the writer and I so we had to follow the dark ghost shapes of the soldiers around us. I don’t even want to know how silly I must have looked to the other guys as I tried to find my footing as we moved.

At one point we knew the bad guys were watching us from a mountain to our left so we took cover and called in mortar rounds. I sat, shivering in the darkness and watched the side of the mountain light up with incoming fire.

The constellation Orion staring down on me as I curled up behind a huge rock, the only cover I could find.

As we worked our way back to the KOP the radio man called in out position to make sure the ANA (Afghan National Army) didn’t shoot us as we approached.

We arrived back at the camp around midnight. I have to say that this was one of the toughest days I’ve ever had. I cant complain though, because compared to most missions, this was a light one, and the soldiers around me were carrying between 60 – 100 lbs of gear. I only had my body armor, camelback and cameras.

I am fine. In a place called “the KOP”, which is an outpost in the Korengal Valley. It is a remote outpost that gets hit by bad guys often.
I will write more when I have time.

if all goes well i’ll spend saturday night in Jalalabad. This time I am traveling on a fixed winged aircraft, rather than a helicopter.

It has finally stopped raining. Last night I hung out with another embedded photographer named John Mchugh. He’s based in London and has some pretty amazing work from his time with a Canadian unit down south. He tought me a new military acronym for getting shot at. “Firefight”, it seems, is no longer the word used to decribe fighting with the enemy. The new acronym is “T.I.C.” (troops in combat). As in; “there was a TIC yesterday and we got three bad guys.”
If I dont hit any SNAFU’s, I will be heading out to a FOB tomorrow.

I have checked in at Bagram airbase.
I spoke with the media officer and he is working on getting us to an area called Kunar provence.
It is an area that is under “heavy Taliban influence”. The 10th mtn division has pushed into a small valley in the Hindu Kush mountain range on an operation called “Operation Mountain Eagle” and set up a small position in the mountains. I am told that a lot of journalists have put in requests to go there because it is a “hot” area. Everything is set up, I am just waiting for the writer to get to Bagram so they can make arrangements to fly us out.

more soon.