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.
