Any0ne Out there Still Airborne ?   

The errant news media has been reporting that several marines lost their lives in the recent battle along the Pakistani border with Afghanistan this week. As it turns out instead they were …

Paratroopers of the 173d Airborne.  

You have no doubt by now read the news about the incident this weekend in Afghanistan. Regretfully, I must now confirm that that those who fell on Sunday July 13th, were...

Sky Soldiers of Chosen Company, 2/503 Infantry. 
All notifications have been conducted, there were no family members in the Vicenza Military Community.

Killed in Action were:

 1LT Jonathan Brostrom

SGT Israel Garcia

SPC Matthew Phillips

SPC Pruitt Rainey

SPC Jonathan Ayers

SPC Jason Bogar

SPC Sergio Abad

SPC Jason Hovater

SPC Gunnar Zwilling

14 Other Chosen Co Troopers were wounded, none life threatening.

Missouri soldier among nine killed in weekend raid in Afghanistan 09:07 PM CDT on Wednesday, July 16, 2008  ATLANTA (AP) –       A 20-year-old soldier from Florissant was one of nine soldiers killed last weekend in an insurgent raid at an American outpost in eastern Afghanistan. The Pentagon says Corporal Gunner Zwilling died in the blast Sunday. All the soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airbone Brigade Combat Team based in Vicenza, Italy.       Their newly built outpost in Wanat was attacked before dawn Sunday by small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades.

 

Media reports

on Afghanistan outpost battle were exaggerated…

“The 173rd's fight is not a symbol of more violent Afghanistan,”

says Preysler… 

By Mark St.Clair, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, July 20, 2008

"The sky is not falling," Col. Charles "Chip" Preysler, commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, said Saturday from Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

                   Preysler spoke via telephone less than a week after his paratroopers and their Afghan allies were involved in a fierce attack at a small post near the village of Wanat. In the July 13 battle, nine of his men were killed and 15 others wounded. But the attack is not a sign of conditions worsening in the country, he said.

        The battle occurred just after dawn at a temporary vehicle patrol base near Wanat. A platoon-sized element of Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne) soldiers and a smaller Afghan National Army force were occupying a hastily built area as they had done many times over the 15 months they`d been in country, says Preysler. The soldiers were there on a reconnaissance mission to establish a presence and find a good location to connect with the local government, populace and Afghan National Police, he said.

        The small outpost had been built just days before the attack and consisted of protective wire and observation posts surrounding strategically placed vehicles. "That's all it was, a series of vehicles that went out there," Preysler said.

        "People are saying that this was a full-up [forward operating base]/combat outpost, and that is absolutely false and not true. There were no walls," Preysler said, latter adding, "FOB denotes that there are walls and perimeters and all that. It's a vehicle patrol base, temporary in nature."

       But that doesn't mean the soldiers were not prepared to take on the enemy, he continued.

      "Now, obviously when you halt, you start prepping your defenses, and in this case we had [observation posts] and protective wire, and we had the vehicles deployed properly to take advantage of their fields of fire. We set up like that all over the place, and we do it routinely," he said.

       The Army did not "abandon" the base after the attack, as many media reporters have suggested, Preysler stated.

       He said the decision to move from the location following the attack was to reposition, which his men have done countless times throughout their tour, and to move closer to the local seat of government.

       "If there's no combat outpost to abandon, there`s no position to abandon," he said. "It's a bunch of vehicles like we do on patrol anywhere and we normally hold up for a night and pick up any tactical positions that we have with vehicle patrol bases.

      "We do that routinely.... We're always doing that when we go out and stay in an area for longer then a few hours, and that's what it was… So there was nothing to abandon. There were no structures, there was no COP or FOB or anything like that to even abandon. So right from the get-go, that is just “BullShit,” and it's not correct."

       He also didn't like the media's characterization that his men were "overrun."

      "As far as I know, and I know a lot, it was not overrun in any shape, manner or form," an emotional Preysler said. "It was close combat to be sure — hand grenade range. The enemy never got into the main position. As a matter of fact, it was the bravery of our soldiers reinforcing the hard-pressed observation post, or OP, that turned the tide to defeat the enemy attack."

      Though Preysler and his staff have seen several reports on the fight and numbers of enemy, he said true specifics still remain unclear.

      "I do not know the exact numbers, but I know they had much greater strength than one U.S. platoon" he said. "I believe the enemy numbered over 100 in that area when they attacked. I don't know the casualties that they took, but I know that it`s got to be substantial based on the different reports I'm getting.

      We may not know the true damage we inflicted on the enemy, but we certainly defeated and repulsed his attack his and he never got into our position."

Preysler and his staff also object to media reports… that because of the size of the attack, it could be a harbinger of change in the way militants fight in eastern Afghanistan.

"I think people are taking license and just misusing statistics, and I refuse to do that," he said. "We're in the middle of the fighting season. When we first got here last summer and started fighting here in June, we were only seeing the enemy and engaging him first about 5 percent of the time. Now we`re between 25 and 40 percent. We see the enemy, and we're engaging him first."

       When the 173rd arrived last summer, it marked the first time that a brigade-sized element operated in the upper provinces near of the Pakistan border, allowing for a much larger presence.

       "By sheer numbers and sheer volume of patrols — I mean this [battalion] has had 9,000 patrols in 15 months — we're out there taking the fight to the enemy and taking the ground that he used to own exclusively, and we have separated him from the people in many locations," Preysler said. "This is one area that is still contested, and we're going to have to go back in there and fight hard to separate the insurgents from the population. That is exactly what we're going to do.”

       "Now, our problem is that we are in the middle of a transition, [but] I would not characterize this as anything more than the standard fighting that happens in this area in good weather that the summer provides. The harvest is in, and it's the fighting season. I don't see massive enemy pushes into our area. The sky is not falling, and this is what we've been facing all along in the summer."

       Preysler ended the interview by lauding his soldiers. "I get emotional about this, you'll have to forgive me," he said. "These guys have fought for 15 months and I mean this literally… they have fought harder and (had) more engagements, more direct-fire engagements, than any brigade in the United States Army in probably the toughest terrain. These guys are absolute veterans, they know what they're doing, have that “Airborne spirit” and they fought a very, very tough battle to hold the ground. They did everything they were supposed to do!”

       "I would also like to say… I wish my guys who were wounded a speedy recovery and obviously my condolences go out to their families, and that's very close and personal to us.”

       “ It's tough for any unit to take casualties toward the end of their combat tours, but it signals that we're still in a fight, and we're going to continue that fight."

Hello Everyone,         I just received the news that all of the 173rd  Airborne Brigade are back in Italy.   They have completed their third deployment. Please say a prayer for the nine dead and fourteen wounded last Sunday. Airborne All The Way Richard T. Geer, (Member) 173rdNew England Chapter   Airborne Brigade Association

 

   Send  us Y0ur stories~

Task Force Rock Prepares to Tame Afghanistan’s ‘Valley of Fire’

By Spc. Jon H. Arguello, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service

 

JALALABAD AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, July 9, 2007 – It’s been almost 18 months since 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Task Force Rock, left Afghanistan after proving its capabilities against insurgents throughout operations in the southern part of the country.

            The battalion’s success was notable as it established relationships with the population helping Afghan authorities develop a respectable fighting force, all while intensely finding, fixing and destroying large numbers of enemy on several occasions.

     More than a month after replacing 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, Task Force Rock has once again been charged with completing the task of taming the area between the Pech and Korengal valleys called the “Valley of Fire” by soldiers who patrol it because of the frequency of fire fights.

The view from a gun position at Firebase Phoenix overlooking the Korengal Valley. Paratroopers from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, occupy several small firebases along the valley in one of the most hard-fought areas in Afghanistan's Regional Command –East area of responsibility.  U.S. Army photo

      “We are to conduct counterinsurgency operations in (Regional Command) East to destroy and defeat the insurgents and build the capability of Afghan National Security Forces to enable the (Islamic Republic) of Afghanistan (to) provide a secure and stable environment that deters the re-emergence of terrorism in the region,” said Army 1st Sgt. LaMonta Caldwell, of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment.

     “The troopers of Battle Company, 2-503rd, understand our task at hand: first, to finish what 1-32 has already started -- working with locals to establish a sound-living environment, to help train and work side –by side with (Afghan National Army), and second, to eliminate forces that cause disruption to the process of a good, trustworthy government in our area of responsibility,” he said.

     Already the “Sky Soldiers” placed along the triangular-shaped intersection of the two valleys have been in several fire fights and repelled various ambushes. But attempts to challenge the Rock’s Paratroopers are a waste of the insurgents’ time, Caldwell said.

     “The insurgents, as you may want to call them, will never match up with any troopers from Battle Company or Rock Battalion,” Caldwell said. “This is not our first rodeo. We just left Afghanistan 16 months ago. A lot of those veterans are still around like me. We have been shot at before, mortared before, and we know what to do. Taking care of your buddy to your left and right is the key to our success, and getting after (terrorists) when they try to attack us is our motto. And that comes from the heart of these troopers in Battle Company, and no insurgent can match that.”

     The soldiers based in and around the dangerous valleys have proven they have heart and much more in the short time since their arrival. As their war stories accumulate, their vested interest in the progress of the Afghan authorities becomes a personal matter.

     “We have fought with these guys,” said Army Sgt. Raul Padilla, a Battle Company team leader at Firebase Phoenix, in the Korengal Valley. “This has become personal to us. The people, not just the soldiers and policemen, of Afghanistan are depending on us to help them get control of their country.”

     Personal is the only way these hardened paratroopers can take the death of one soldier and several combat injuries in their battalion. But not even the death of their fellow soldiers will deter them, Padilla said.

A paratrooper from Company A, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, scans the ridgelines across the Pech River as he pulls guard at Firebase California, in eastern Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo

     “We won’t leave this valley until the insurgents leave, and if they won’t leave we’ll make it personal for them too,” said Padilla, a veteran of Task Force Rock’s last deployment to Afghanistan. “This area is now under the control of Afghan and coalition forces. The Taliban is going to have to go away or go around us because they aren’t welcome here anymore.”

     The sense of purpose these troops have gained goes beyond their specific jobs and ranks at this point, Army Spc. Jason Mace explained.

     “Slowly, we are accomplishing things here,” Mace explained. “We’ve already done things we were told were impossible. They said we couldn’t go to this area or pass that line, but we have. It’s taking time, but it’s not going to stop until we do something about it, and we are.”

     The soldiers know their role in Afghanistan is important, said a platoon sergeant from Company A who lives at Firebase California, in the Pech Valley. His platoon’s job is to secure an area that includes a road project, seven villages and an unknown number of enemies.

     “I hope they know by now why they are here,” Army Sgt. 1st Class Jose Magaña said of his soldiers. “To look out outside the base and see people doing things, selling things, kids going to schools, even girls, that’s why we’re here, so that the Afghan people can do things many take for granted. It’s not easy to bear all the sacrifices these soldiers are making, but their role is historic in granting people the same freedoms we have at home.”

      One of the platoon’s specific tasks is focused around a road project linking several population hubs through three districts.

      “Our job is to secure an area of the Pech River road,” said Magaña, also a veteran of the battalion’s last rotation to Afghanistan. “The strategic location and purpose of this road make it very valuable. We need to ensure the road’s progress moves forward. This road will improve the lives of the people who live here, enhance the Afghan security forces’ ability to control the area and stimulate economic and social development.”

     Just hours after Magaña’s interview, Firebase California fended off an insurgent attack. Despite persistent but apparently futile attempts to disrupt Task Force Rock’s work, the battalion continues to push economic and social development. A good relationship with the local populace is a goal the battalion is working hard to achieve.

     “It’s important to concentrate on both lethal and non-lethal aspects,” said Army Maj. Scott Himes, Task Force Rock’s plans and operations officer. “Historically this has been an area of safe haven for the insurgents. If we don’t have a lot of positive interaction with the people, they will be susceptible to the Taliban’s leverage. We have to rely on a partnership with the people.”

     “We have to prove to them that there is a positive alternative,” Himes said. “As we build trust with the people and the people trust more in the capacity of the Afghan governmental agencies, we can build long-term partnerships. They’ll know we are going to stay and provide security.”

     A recent flooding of the Pech River, which killed three people and destroyed one home and nine bridges, may have demonstrated the local government’s commitment. As coalition forces came to offer aid, they were already in full swing planning repairs. The Pech district’s sub-governor not only planned, but also with coalition help repaired the only road leading to the victims of the flood and delivered emergency relief.

Sky Soldiers air assault onto

clouds of Nuristan…

By Sgt. Brandon Aird,

173rd ABCT Public Affairs NURISTAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan

              — Soldiers from the Afghan National Army and the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team air assaulted onto Landing Zone Shetland which is nestled among the clouds during Operation Saray Has July 19. The LZ was located on a large meadow near the top of a mountain in Nuristan Province. Local Afghans use the area as a grazing pasture for livestock while Taliban extremists use it to stage attacks against Task Force Saber.

     The spot the Soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment (Airborne) and the 3rd Kandak, 201st Corps landed on was roughly 10,000 feet above sea level. The air assault was part of a reconnaissance mission to determine the origin of rockets that were fired earlier at Forward Operating Base Naray which injured several Soldiers a few weeks prior.

“We came up here to confirm or deny enemy use of the hilltop,” said 1st Lt. Chris Richelderfer, HHT Executive Officer.

“Seven Soldiers were injured from that attack,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Victor Pedraza, Command Sgt. Maj. Of 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment (Airborne).

    After air-assaulting onto the mountain, a patrol was dispatched to an adjacent mountain to scout out the terrain and possible enemy positions. The rest of the Soldiers pulled security while Capt. Nathan Springer, HHT Commander, along with the Naray District Sub- Governor SamShu Rochman, talked with the local populace.

“I wanted the local government to have the lead when talking with the locals,” said Springer.

     Rochman talked with civilians from the villages of Badermashal and Cherigal about security in the area. While Rochman and Springer were talking with local citizens, wood smugglers accidentally walked their donkeys carrying stolen wood right into the meadow.

“The wood on the donkeys had been stolen from the Naray lumber yard two days before our mission,” said Springer.Rochman was adamant about bringing the wood smugglers to justice. The wood smugglers were brought off the mountain back to Naray to face prosecution.

     Operation Saray Has went better than both Springer and Rochman had planned. “It validated the need to conduct future operations in the area to deny (Taliban extremist) that terrain,” said Springer.

Operation Saray Has II is already in the works, Springer added.

Sky Soldiers receive

‘love packages’

Soldiers overseas.

“She’s an awesome woman,” Davis said. “She’s got about nine

different soldiers throughout Iraq and Afghanistan that she

does this for.”

“It’s amazing,” said Army Pfc. Jessica Campos of the 173rd ABCT

 as she looked through the packages. Brown represents only one of

 many people back home who has been supporting the troops out here

 overseas.

By Pfc. Daniel M. Rangel, 22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FENTY, Afghanistan

            Few things raise the spirits of a Soldier on deployment more

           than a care package from back home. The little things from back

in the states are always greatly appreciated and are as good as gold.

Army Sgt. 1st Class John Davis from Victoria, Texas assigned to

the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team received 40 care packages

to share with his fellow Soldiers at FOB Fenty Aug. 30.

Gracie ‘Nanny’ Brown, 72, of Rising Sun, Md. received funding from her

 local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter to purchase and send

 approximately 300 pounds of items inside what she calls ‘love packages’,

according to Davis. The items inside the packages included snacks,

personal hygiene products, books and magazines which were distributed by

Davis in the FOB Fenty dining facility during dinner time.

“She just loves the troops,” Davis said. “She doesn’t call them care

packages, she calls them love boxes. She says these boxes are full of love.”

Brown first got in contact with Davis through her daughter and the website

www.anysoldier.com.

“Her daughter started sending me boxes,” Davis said. “We exchange emails

probably two or three times a week.” Davis is appreciative of the support

and likes to express his gratitude. “Any time somebody sends a package,

I send an email [that says] ‘thank you’,” Davis said. “She emailed me back

asking how many soldiers [I’ve] got. And I said I’m at the brigade level, so

 I said there’s a couple of thousand just joking with her. Before I knew it,

 I got all this.”

Brown and her husband, who they call ‘Pops’, had previously sent Davis a few

 Individual boxes and does this for a number of Soldiers overseas.

“She’s an awesome woman,” Davis said. “She’s got about nine different soldiers

throughout Iraq and Afghanistan that she does this for.”

“It’s amazing,” said Army Pfc. Jessica Campos of the 173rd ABCT as she looked

through the packages. Brown represents only one of many people back home

who has been supporting the troops out here overseas.

Chuck Norris and Mr. T

keep Dangam safe

                    By Sgt. Brandon Aird,

173rd ABCT Public Affairs KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan

— Paratroopers from the 173rdAirborne Brigade Combat Teamspent July 22-28 near the district

center of Dangam, Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. The area is surrounded by lush farms

that thrive from a stream that flows through the valley.

The Soldiers are from Red Platoon, Charlie Troop, 1^st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment

(Airborne) and they were in the area to help fortify the position of an Afghan National Police

 Station and also to establish and reinforce observations posts with the Afghan National Army on

nearby hilltops. The OPs help monitor and stop Taliban extremist movement in the area.

Red Platoon named the OPs after one Soldier’s mom, another’s daughter, and famous movie stars: Sandra, Haden, Chuck Norris, and Mr. T.

“We thought of the baddest dudes we knew,” said Staff Sgt. David Benoit, a squad leader in

Red Platoon. “Naming OPs like we do helps keep morale up.” Even though the atmosphere

in Red Platoon is a little laid back, the Soldiers take their jobs seriously. From OPs Norris and

Mr. T, the platoon observed crossborder activity, called for and adjusted indirect fires, and

Engaged the enemy with direct fire.

“Our mission was to establish a joint security station in the Dangam area with the Afghan National

Police and Afghan National Army,” said 1st Lt. Jesus Rubio, Red Platoon Leader, “We’re also out

here to get situational awareness of the area and build friendships with the local leaders.”

The district center of Dangam is a sign of progress for the local ANP. The center has a store,

mosque, police station and a school for girls and boys. It even has computers and internet

capabilities. So far, Red Platoon has built up the area around the ANP Station to better safe

guard against attacks from Taliban extremists.

“We’ve built up a perimeter around it with Hesco baskets and surrounded it with concertina

wire,” said Rubio. The district center fortifications are just a small piece of the mission.

The observation posts that Red Platoon maintains also help build cohesion between the Soldiers

and the local populace.

“We met the new Afghan Border Patrol commander while we were out at Mr. T,” said Benoit.

“The local village walked all the way up the mountain to tell us the whole valley was talking

about us. Everyone was very excited we were up here, he told us.” Another benefit of

establishing OPs throughout the valley is the intelligence that was gathered.

“We observed the bad guys moving on the mountain,” said Benoit. “We also got names of

smugglers. We definitely laid the grounds for long-term relationships with the locals.”

Red Platoon is in the initial phase of helping build up the district center. Future joint

Operations will continue for the next 14 months that Red Platoon will be in Afghanistan.

The local populace was very warm and generous toward Red Platoon and the ANA.

Numerous times at OPs and at the district center, the local village elders would invite the

Soldiers over to their houses for food and tea.

“The Afghans treated us like Kings at Mr. T’s,” said Benoit.

“It was awesome.”

TF Rock air-assaults into

 Taliban’s backyard

                By Sgt. Brandon Aird,

173rd ABCT Public Affairs KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan –

The tense paratroopers and Afghan National Army Soldiers sat in silence surrounded by

darkness. The previous hours had been spent huddled together rehearsing the mission,

 “Destined Strike”, which was to be an air-assault into the Taliban’s backyard.

The whoop, whoop, whoop sound of the CH-47 “Chinook” helicopter’s rotary wings

 Reverberated in the Soldiers’ ears drowning out all chance of another sound. Some of

the Soldiers said last minute prayers while others day dreamed of loved ones back home.

Squad leaders made last minute checks in the dark. When the Chinook landed all

Thoughts came to the task at hand. The Soldiers jumped off the noisy helicopter onto

a quiet moon-lit mountain above the Chowkay Valley in Kunar Province, Afghanistan.

The mountain is over 7,000 feet above sea level. The Taliban’s biggest advantage in past

fire fights has been their ability to dominate the high ground, but not this time.

Soldiers from the 2nd Platoons of Able, Chosen and Destined Companies, 2nd Battalion,

503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), all members of Task Force Rock and the 173rd

Airborne Brigade Combat Team, and elements from the 2nd Kandak, 201st Corps,

launched Operation Destined Strike August 21-25, 2007, according to Capt. Michael T.

 March 16, 2003

                         Ken Dilanian Imbedded Journalist.

   I'm The Inquirer's correspondent based in Rome, and I'm one of four of the newspaper's reporters who, working with more than 30 from the Knight Rider newspaper chain, have been assigned to follow a U.S. military unit, The 173rd Airborne, into combat in Iraq. This is the first installment of a diary of my experiences I'll be filing for the web.

       If you checked in hoping to read about some tender-footed journalist suffering the harshness of army life, give me about a week and I'm sure I’ll have some good stuff for you.

     For now, though, I've gotten lucky. While some of my embedded colleagues are waiting for war while picking sand out of their teeth and washing with wet-naps in the Kuwaiti desert, I'm living in a quaint hotel amid the stunning Renaissance palaces of this picture-postcard Northern Italian city.

           Vicenza, 30 miles west of Venice is home to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the unit I'll be accompanying. I'm scheduled to report to Camp Ederle, the base here, to start meeting the soldiers and begin a few days of orientation.

      But it's not just my current digs that make me happy about this assignment, because those will soon be a distant memory. I'm happy because, while the 173rd Airborne has one of the plum postings in the army, they are no rear-echelon outfit.

     They are paratroopers - some of them are elite Army Rangers - who form the backbone of the Southern European Task Force. Their mission is to be able to deploy worldwide on 24-hour's notice, jumping into hotspots and fighting as a light infantry brigade.

    If, as is becoming increasingly likely, the Pentagon is unable to put a heavy army division in Turkey before the fighting begins, The 173rd may join other airborne units in parachuting directly into northern Iraq during the war's first hours. They would seize airfields and open a second front that may surge south and attack Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's birthplace.

     But this much is true: For three decades since the Vietnam War, including the recent war in Afghanistan, Pentagon officials have all but frozen journalists out of U.S. combat operations. Now they have invited us along, at a time when new technology allows better and faster reporting than ever before. Nobody really knows what will result. But it's hard to imagine that Americans and British won't have more information than they've ever had before about what's being done by their militaries in their names.

      In the Persian Gulf War, for example, only a handful of journalists went into combat with front-line troops. And even if they could have managed to lug the suitcase-sized satellite phones that were available, the military didn't allow their use. So, a lot of their reports didn’t make it back for days, and in the case of television, they were often obsolete.

    I've been told that I'll be living, eating and sleeping with one or more of the 173rd's Infantry Companies in the field. To prepare for that, I've had to get a tent and assorted camping gear, plus solar chargers for my SAT phone and laptop. Infantry companies don't carry electric generators.

    Like most of my media colleagues, I also have a Kevlar helmet and body armor. And the army is providing all of us with a suit and mask designed to protect against a chemical or biological attack.

    The Pentagon's guidelines call for reporters to be given as much access to combat operations as possible.

I'm 34 and keep myself in decent shape, which I guess qualifies me better than some in this profession to carry a 50-pound backpack in a unit that travels without vehicles. But I know I’ll be sucking wind next to 19-year-old paratroopers.

      There's no doubt that my lack of experience serving in or covering the military will make this tougher. But I don’t think it will ultimately impede the larger goal, which is to let you see, hear, smell, taste and feel what the troops of the 173rd are going through -to tell their story. One of the essential skills in this job is to be able to immerse yourself in a world with which you're unfamiliar, learn it and explain it to readers.

    Even World War II's Ernie Pyle, who became famous giving the grunt's-eye view before he was killed by a Japanese machine-gunner on Okinawa, believed he had failed.

   "I've spent two and a half years carrying the torch for the foot-soldier," he wrote in a letter to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, "and I think I have helped make Americans conscious of and sympathetic toward him, but haven't made them feel what he goes through. I believe it's impossible."

All we can do is try.

On the Web

173rd Airborne:

http://www.173abnbde.setaf.army.mil/

http://www.skysoldiers.org/

http://www.ourbunkers.0catch.com/

                                       Vicenza, Italy -

                     The war hasn't started yet for The 173rd Airborne Brigade, but it's close. The problem is, like a lot of embedded reporters right now, I can't tell you what I know because it could give away an operation that requires strict secrecy.

         What I can do is share what it's been like getting to know these guys. My cushy life in this picturesque city came to an abrupt end at 0615 Tuesday, when I showed up at Able Company Headquarters to do PT, or physical training, with the paratroopers.

        On this particular day, they were scheduled to do a nine-mile march with their full rucksacks, which can weigh upwards of 80 pounds. I was told to stuff my civilian backpack with whatever I'd be bringing, strap on my body armor and come along.

           "Don't be a hero  - fill your pack with newspapers," the public affairs officer, Lt. Col Tom Collins, had advised the night before. I settled for cheating by leaving out half my gear.

              As it turns out, I got lucky; force protection measures meant the troops were confined to post while in uniform, so we had to do laps around the relatively small installation, and the march was cut in half. With my light load, it wasn't too bad. But pick up one of their packs, and you'd see what great shape these guys are in. And they jump out of airplanes with them.

           Gueringer's thoughts about his chosen career, and this war, may sound hokey as I write them, but they didn't when he said it, straining under the weight of his pack. He's in it to make a difference, to make the world a better place. He thinks liberating Iraq will help more people than it hurts, by a long shot.

                           As we walked, he cited a few Universal Soldier Laments, including the fact that the pay can be so low that, even after a recent raise, some families qualify for food stamps and other government assistance. I had heard that before, but the absurdity cut deeper as I was surrounded by young soldiers preparing to risk their lives.

      "That's just wrong," he said. "When some guys makes $30 million for playing baseball, and these guys are putting their lives on the line for their country ..."

                    Which brings me to the issue I said I would address in the last dispatch: Whether those of us who are embedded will be able to report objectively on the soldiers we follow.

     Television journalist Jeff Gralnick, who reported in Vietnam, offered this take on it recently:

  "Once you get into a unit, you are going to be co-opted. It is not a purposeful thing, it will just happen. It's a little like the Stockholm Syndrome. You will fall in with a bunch of grunts, experience and share their hardships and fears, and then you will feel for them and care about them. You will wind up loving them and hating their officers and commanders and the administration that put them (and you) in harm's way. Ernie Pyle loved his grunts; Jack Laurance and Michael Herr loved theirs, and I loved mine. And as we all know, love blinds and in blinding it will alter the reporting you thought you were going to do. Trust me. It happens, and it will happen no matter how much you guard against it."

      He's right, of course. I can feel it happening already. How can you not love these guys? How can you not respect the decency of someone like 2d Platoon Commander Larry Lee of San Francisco, who decided I needed a Camelback hydration system and promptly loaned me one he bought with his own money? Or Pfc. Alan Scrapke, who at Lee's direction patiently gave me some quickie training in how to don a chemical weapons suit. Or Pfc. Neri Lattimore, 20, whose finance is due to give birth while he's at war, who quietly pondered the idea that some of the men are bound to freeze up during their first experience under fire.

                 In these troops - black, white, Hispanic and Asian, from all parts of the country and all walks of life - lies the strength of the American idea. There's no way not to be seduced by that.

                  Gralnick was off about one thing, though: It may have been easy to hate the officers in Vietnam, but these guys seem to admire and respect their leaders, and it's easy to see why. The Commander of the Battallion I've been hanging around (the 2d of the 503d), Col. Dominic Caraccilo, is a fiery, blunt-talking Newark native who, when not theatrically threatening to rip his subordinate's arms out of their sockets, is backslapping with them like peers. A Veteran of the Persian Gulf and other combat operations, Caracillo is also author of a book on e-commerce and two works on Military History.

                

             The 173rd Airborne Brigade Commander, Col. William Mayville - who jumped into combat in Panama - also comes across as a thoughtful, exacting leader. Listening to these officers talk makes the military obfuscation during the Vietnam War seem like a distant memory, which it is. My impressions can't help but be swayed by the fact that they have given me access to information about their mission (on condition that I not report it beforehand), but we'll see. As senior officers, they will be asked the hard questions if things go wrong, and I think they know that.

                 One more note about the Company I've been hanging around, Able Company, 2d Batallion, 503rd Airborne Infantry. Its commander, Eric Baus, is a local guy. He and his wife, the former Jennifer Blazko, are natives of Collingswood, N.J. His dad grew up in Northeast Philly.

            Baus graduated ROTC from the University of Scranton after having served as an enlisted soldier in the Pennsylvania National Guard. "I never expected to make the Army a full-time job," he said.

At 30, he's in charge of more then 100 well-armed men. A former instructor at the Elite Army Ranger School, he has performed more than 90 parachute jumps, but never in combat.

      "I'm not worried," he said. "These guys are good." Then he corrected himself.

                        "They’re great."

Vicenza Italy

 

The 173rd Airborne Brigade

 

paratrooper " Jason Maynrd " {Eyes right}

 

Charlie Company, 1st Batallion, 508 th Airborne Infantry

 

               Never    

                                                                              Forgotten.

  

An American soldier with the 173rd Airborne out of Vicenza, Italy, mans a machine gun atop a Humvee as he leaves from an airstrip in Harir, Kurdish-held northern Iraq.

                       KANILAN, Iraq - A U.S. Airborne Brigade in northern Iraq prepared yesterday to move south toward a ridge of hills northeast of Baghdad, backed by U.S. airpower, special operations forces, and tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas, according to U.S. and opposition officials.

Combat forces from the 173rd Airborne Brigade went out on armed patrols to probe for Iraqi forces in the direction of the oil-rich northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. But officials said the withdrawal of Iraqi Republican Guard divisions that had been guarding Mosul and Kirkuk until Tuesday appeared to have opened the way for a U.S. led force to move toward Baghdad.

                             "We soon will be closing in on Baghdad from all directions, including the north," a senior administration official said.

         Late yesterday, Mosul came under a ferocious U.S. air attack by B-52s.

         On Tuesday, 400 Kurdish guerrillas, who have placed themselves under U.S. command, started a battle with Iraqi soldiers when they came under sniper attack.

         Four hours later, with dawn coming, the first battle of the war in northern Iraq was over, with dozens of Iraqis dead and several hundred retreating toward Mosul. The lightly armed guerrillas, unassisted by U.S. forces, swarmed an Iraqi military post nine miles northeast of Mosul.

        The Kurdish guerrillas took 33 prisoners, including an Iraqi colonel. One Kurdish fighter was killed.

        The victorious guerrillas, known as peshmerga, belong to the Kurdish Democratic Party.

        The new plan to send the peshmerga out of Kurd-controlled territory and south to the Hamrin Mountains, about 80 miles north of Baghdad, has two benefits, officials said. It puts pressure on Baghdad and reduces the danger that the Kurds and Turks will get embroiled in a squabble over Kirkuk, which the Kurds claim but which also has a large Turkmen population with ties to Turkey.

                         The Bush administration has won guarantees from the Kurds not to advance unilaterally on Kirkuk and Mosul for fear of angering neighboring Turkey. And Kurdish Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani had promised that his men would not attack without U.S. permission.

But the commander of the Kurds who defeated Iraqi forces Tuesday said he could not wait for permission. "They shot at us, and we defended ourselves," Sarbaz Bapiri said. "We drove the Iraqis back, then later some American helicopters came."

Despite Tuesday's action, U.S. Officials were pushing ahead to strengthen links with the Kurds.

Barzani and three other Iraqi opposition leaders are scheduled to meet today with an American Special Forces officer who is a liaison between U.S. Central Command and the opposition groups in northern Iraq. Kurdish peshmerga in the north are said to number 70,000.

              A U.S. soldier stands guard next to his colleagues digging in near the Harir strip March 30, 2003 as excavators load earth into trucks, 70 km (45 miles) north east of Arbil in northern Iraq .

U.S. Paratroopers Drop Out Of Night Sky Into Iraq

       U.S. troops are working to secure an airfield in northern Iraq, as the military opens a northern front against Iraqi forces.

      Gen. James Parker says the new front will put more pressure on Saddam Hussein's forces, which are already battling allied troops to the south.

      He said it may also serve as a "warning" to Turkish forces. Turkey had been considering sending troops into northern Iraq, something the United States opposes.

     The plan is to battle the estimated 100,000 Iraqi troops dug in along the line dividing northern Iraq from the rest of the country.

     About 1,000 U.S. paratroopers dropped out of the night sky in the Kurdish-controlled region.

     Three waves of combat planes provided cover, hitting Iraqi ground troops and artillery batteries.

     Rangers and other paratroopers from the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade are now trying to secure the airfield, where supplies and support personnel are to arrive.

     Their airdrop marks the first large deployment of U.S. ground troops in the region. Previously, only small groups of U.S. Special Forces were operating along with allied Kurdish fighters.

                BASHUR, Iraq - Sometime before midnight Wednesday, Chalk Six, an Air Force C-17 jet carrying 99 paratroopers from the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade, finished its gut-churning descent over Kurdish territory.

           Many of the men had dozed through much of the four-hour, 45-minute flight from their air base in Europe. Now they were standing, their giant, green rucksacks fastened around their waists, their parachutes hooked to steel lines that ran down each side of the vast jet toward the two doors.

          The jet engines emitted a deafening whine during the steep dive, then fell eerily quiet. Suddenly, dust and wind whipped through the plane as the two doors, marked "Emergency Exit Only," were thrust open.

       The lights of an Iraqi Kurdish village were visible below.

      "One minute!" yelled the jumpmasters, First Sgt. Timothy Watson and Sgt. First Class Jason Gueringer, each holding up a single finger for those out of earshot in the rear.

      Some men were throwing up.

      Others were on their knees, sagging under the weight of their gear. The largest combat parachute assault since World War II was under way.

      From 15 jet planes, The 173rd Airborne dropped nearly 1,000 of its soldiers onto Kurdish-controlled Bashur airfield northeast of Irbil, in what commanders hoped would be a first step toward opening a northern front in Iraq.

                  The United States intended the operation to be a "show of force," aimed not only at Saddam Hussein, but also at Turkey and at Kurdish warlords.

     But with the doors open and the chutes rigged, the men of Chalk Six were not thinking about strategic considerations. They were wondering if anyone would shoot at them as they floated helplessly to earth, or whether their parachutes would become entangled, or whether they could hit the ground at 17 m.p.h. without breaking a leg.

    There were men on Chalk Six who had jumped dozens of times, and there were men who had not jumped since Paratrooper school.

   There were lots of men with children, and one, Pfc. Neri Lattimore, 20, whose fiancee is due to give birth in April.

   They knew the Brigade Surgeon was jumping with them, and they knew why. They laughed about it.

   Earlier, they had loaded ammunition on an open field at their air base listening to "Blood Upon the Risers," a strange, a cappella Paratrooper anthem sung to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic": "Gory, gory, what a helluva way to die, and he ain't gonna jump no more," goes the chorus. Other lines include: "He hit the ground, the sound was splat, the blood went spurting high;" and "There was blood upon the risers, there was brains upon his chute."

                       The soldiers had been told that they had just 58 seconds to get out of the plane, and that "jumping the red light" - sneaking out a second or two after the stop signal flashes - would not be allowed, since it could mean death as the C-17 powered up to make its escape from Iraqi airspace. But none of them wanted to be the one who didn't get his "mustard stain," as they call the gold insignia that denotes a parachute jump in combat.

   They also knew that every man who did not jump was one less defender should things go wrong on the ground.

"Remember, men, no baby steps - walk right out that door with a purpose," Watson, the primary jumpmaster, screamed to the Paratroopers. "We've got one second between jumps, and we've got to get every rifle on the ground."

   Then the amber jump light turned green.

"Go, go, go!"

   Laden with more than 100 pounds of gear, each man sprang into fast motion, going through the two doors at numbing speed. Those who stumbled or hesitated were pushed by the two "safeties," Paratroopers whose job is to stay on the plane and to coordinate the jump.

   Fifty-eight seconds later, the light turned red just as the last jumpers had cleared each door. The plane banked steeply and climbed away in what one of the pilots called "the most aggressive exit I have ever seen."

How Far?   All The Way!!!

Ricr0c

~RePorTin`

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