By Army 1st Lt. Adam Carrington
U.S. Army
FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHARANA,
Afghanistan (8/9/12) - Army Spc. Christopher Taylor stood huddled with other
Soldiers in his platoon on the flight line, trying to make himself as small as
possible while icy wind from the Chinook’s dual rotary blades blasted over him
like the breath of a frost demon.
It was the middle of the night Nov. 28,
2011; the beginning of the coldest winter Afghanistan had seen in the last 15
years.
Four hours earlier, Soldiers from the
1022nd Vertical Construction Company didn’t know they would be going anywhere,
let alone moving out in the middle of the night to a small combat outpost most
of them had never heard of.
The order had come down; the entire
company packed and got ready to move, and now stood shivering on a flight line
in freezing temperatures.
Helicopters hovered and landed, barely
visible in the darkness but easily identified due to thunderous reports of icy
wind and screaming engines. The crew chief for the bird closest to them waved
his hand back and forth, signaling them to board the aircraft. “Operation Devil
Hammer” had begun.
“All I could think was ‘Where are we
going, what is the security, what are the living conditions going to be like?’”
Taylor said. “This is what I had always thought the Army would be like, but
more time to plan would have been nice.”
In Afghanistan, Regional Command East
supports the Afghan government by maintaining stability and freedom of movement
along the border with Pakistan. Maintaining critical supply routes and
preventing the influx of insurgents from the infamous Pashtu mountains
dominated operations on the eastern-most boundaries.
On the western side of RC-East, away
from the border, is Afghanistan’s Highway 1, aka “The Ring Route.” Built during
the Soviet occupation, the Ring Route traverses the entire country in a circular
fashion connecting most of Afghanistan’s major cities. The stretch of Highway 1
within RC-East links Kabul to Kandahar, key terrain for the sustainment and
prosperity of the country as a whole.
In a landlocked nation with no ports and
few functioning airfields, control of the road network equals control of the
country. Coalition forces know this, the insurgents know this. The battle along
Highway 1 speaks for itself.
In order to silence the insurgent network
along Highway 1 for good, an additional brigade from the global reaction force
was being brought in to attack the insurgent networks and flush the enemy out
of their holes. Enter the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, the
unit selected for the job.
Known as “Task Force Devil,” the 1st BCT
was scheduled to arrive in theater just as the final snows of winter were
melting. Their mission: run wild along Highway 1 throughout the fighting
season, attacking the insurgent networks. Before this could be accomplished,
they would need a home.
National Guardsmen from the 578th Engineer
Battalion, Task Force Mad Dog, had been in country less than two weeks when
this mission was materializing. Originally from Manhattan Beach, Calif., the
578th Engineer Battalion commanded two construction companies, four route
clearance companies, and one forward support company.
They were given the daunting task of
constructing five combat outposts and expanding three forward operating bases
simultaneously. This was to be the largest single construction effort in
regional history. TF Devil needed its bases operational when it hit the ground.
TF Mad Dog had to execute in the dead of winter, with supply routes closing and
aerial operations diminishing.
Operation Devil Hammer, preparing the
region for an additional brigade combat team, could not fail.
Initially, TF Mad Dog had two construction
companies. The 1022nd Vertical Construction Company from the Louisiana National
Guard consisted of carpenters, plumbers and electricians and the 842nd
Horizontal Construction Company from the South Dakota National Guard consisted
of equipment operators for all varieties of construction equipment.
The sheer magnitude of Operation Devil
Hammer required engineer units from all over Afghanistan to descend on the
project, all under the command and control of TF Mad Dog.
Before the mission was complete, TF Mad
Dog would have tactical control of the 236th Vertical Construction Company from
the Texas National Guard, the 661st Horizontal Construction Company from the
Illinois National Guard, the 577th Expeditionary Prime Beef Squadron Air Force
construction organization and two tactical infrastructure construction teams
from the 22nd Naval Construction Regiment.
The Navy TICTs were comprised of
soldiers from the 668th Vertical Construction Company from the Army Reserves
out of New York and the 721st Engineer Company from the Army Reserves out of
Texas.
During the height of the mission, TF Mad
Dog was the largest single engineer battalion task force in Afghanistan.
“Having control of organizations from
three separate branches of service was challenging. The Air Force and Navy are
organized and structured differently than Army construction units,” said Army
Maj. Christopher Angle, TF Mad Dog operations officer. “I found it ironic that
the Army is moving away from multipurpose construction companies, which have
both vertical and horizontal construction assets, in favor of single function
engineer companies. During this mission, we had to break up single function
companies and spread them out over each job site in order to complete the
projects.”
TF Mad Dog’s greatest asset during the
mission was the real-world experience and knowledge inherent in National Guard
and Reserve Soldiers. Many of the Soldiers and officers have civilian
experience in their trades, making them invaluable in the construction process.
Whenever a TF Mad Dog element was brought into the planning process for a
construction project, the efficiency of the overall plan would increase and the
workload would be reduced due to their construction experience.
Army 1st Lt. Russell Fenton, a construction
officer for TF Mad Dog, oversaw construction operations.
“My experience as a construction project
manager for the Disneyland Resort helped prepare me for this challenge,” Fenton
said. “Having a civil engineering license gave me the tools needed to manage
and influence the design process for the entire operation.”
In order to reduce the time on site
during a project, vertical construction soldiers worked around the clock on
larger bases prefabricating wooden structures to be emplaced on a project site
when ground conditions were set. Prefabricating guard towers, footers, and
trusses saved huge amounts of time when compared to constructing everything in
the often austere conditions of the remote base being erected.
Troop construction in Afghanistan is
more challenging than the building in the U.S. There are limited materials and
equipment available. The only local material Afghanistan has to offer is dirt
for fill and gravel. Soil conditions must be taken into account.
With limited compaction assets,
freezing, thawing and unstable soil conditions require stronger building
foundations constructed from wood that is largely imported. Design meetings
prior to construction helped ensure these conditions were taken into account.
By building bases simultaneously, TF Mad Dog quickly shared lessons learned
across the battlefield.
By the end of the build, all of the
original designs had been modified based on shared information vetted
throughout the task force.
“Engineers quickly became ‘Solutioneers’
by adapting to the lack of construction materials, adverse weather, and time
restraints,” said Army Capt. Austin Bird, 236th VCC commander.
One of the greatest challenges for TF Mad Dog
was the increasing role of civilian contractors utilized by the military for
logistical functions. Base requirements such as fuel points, dining facilities,
and maintenance bays are more often than not constructed for a civilian company
as opposed to military fuelers, cooks or mechanics.
The requirements for civilian
contractors can be complicated and often not presented until a project is well
underway. The TF Mad Dog construction section would often have to work directly
with the civilian representatives to understand and improve initial designs.
“The battle space owner played a crucial
role during the construction process,” said Army 1st Lt. Scott Connor, with the
842nd HCC. “By having the customer on ground with the engineers, many concerns
were alleviated during the build. The maneuver commanders have a vision, and it
is up to the engineers to ensure their intent is met and projects are completed
on time.”
Preparing for these missions required a
detailed analysis of weather, terrain and enemy activity from the TF Mad Dog
intelligence section. This consisted of looking at routes, terrain and enemy
activity in areas that, in some cases, had not been traveled in months.
“Going into some of these missions, we
had no idea what the terrain was going to look like,” commented Army 1st Lt.
Kristoffer Bachmann, Forward Support Company executive officer. “If we come
across a sharp turn or steep hill it can slow the convoy speed or even cause a
complete halt.”
Members of the Forward Support Company
would often sit with the task force Intelligence Section to learn what kind of
improvised explosive devices were used in the area prior to executing a
mission. This would help them determine the most effective type of counter-IED
asset to incorporate into the movement.
One challenge faced by the engineers of
TF Mad Dog was that as engineers, they received a lower priority for
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets than their infantry
counterparts.
Army 1st Lt. James Wolf, the task force
assistant intelligence officer, worked overtime to identify reconnaissance
assets that could be leveraged in support of Mad Dog missions.
Battalion intelligence analysts would
pick through intelligence reports with information gathered from the local
population to get a better understanding of the insurgent presence in the area
of operations. These skill sets made a huge impact when TF Mad Dog was given
the mission of expanding a small, out-of-the-way combat outpost called Giro.
“We burned some midnight oil doing
research for this one,” Wolf said. “No one had traveled this road in months and
we believed the enemy had a lot of equipment in the area. We were preparing to
move a bunch of supplies in support of the construction project. It probably
looked like a Black Friday sale to the insurgents in the area.”
One of the immediate decisions made was
to integrate the Afghan National Army engineers to support the massive
construction projects. TF Mad Dog realized from the beginning that this was a
tremendous opportunity for training and partnering with the ANA.
“When we were tasked with this build, I
was initially worried about how we were going to maintain our partnership
efforts,” said Army Capt. Joe Lee, TF Mad Dog ANA coordinator. “Then we
realized that this was a perfect training opportunity to co-locate an Afghan
engineer unit at a priority build site.”
Once the ANA engineer platoon arrived at
the build site with their heavy construction equipment, they immediately
partnered with TF Mad Dog construction units and got to work.
Prior to this construction mission, the
ANA soldiers had very little experience on their engineer equipment, mostly due
to the lack of fuel and exposure to engineer missions. Now that the ANA
engineers had both, they quickly became proficient at operating their equipment
and contributed significantly to the build.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Flatmoe,
platoon sergeant and ANA trainer from the 842nd HCC said, “In one day we were
able to put up 633 linear feet of installation walls, I was impressed, really
impressed.”
As the winter snows finally melted and
the sound of bull dozers faded into the distance, the 1st BCT, 82nd Airborne
Division, finally arrived in theater. They quickly spread out into the numerous
bases that TF Mad Dog had constructed for them and brought the fight to the
enemy.
Their kinetic operations have included
airborne insertions, combat patrols and huge finds of enemy weapons and bomb
making materials. The enemy emplacement of IEDs along the infamous Ring Route
has significantly decreased. Afghanistan’s precious Highway 1 remains intact,
supporting the economy and logistical needs of the nation.
All of the construction units that had
surged together under TF Mad Dog went back to their respective units. The 578th
Engineer Battalion retains the two construction companies they originally
commanded. Operation Devil Hammer might be over, but the role of the engineers
providing support to the battle space owners still continues. Task Force Mad
Dog is with the 1st BCT, 82nd Airborne Division every step of the way.
“Task Force Mad Dog heroically built
numerous bases for Task Force Devil in the high-altitude, sub-zero winter,”
said Army Maj. Stephen Peterson, operations officer for the Brigade Special
Troops Battalion, 1st BCT.
“Like true Sappers, they found solutions
to frozen ground and material shortages. They displayed true grit and courage
in an area with no U.S. forces and limited coalition forces. They set the
conditions for the 1-82 to immediately eliminate the Taliban influence in an
area of strategic level of importance, and stayed on to support us with
tactical construction missions throughout our efforts,” he said.
The success of Operation Devil Hammer has
significantly degraded the insurgent forces ability to operate in the region.
“Operation Devil Hammer put the enemy on
their heels, denied them terrain for offensive operations, and it forced them
from an offensive stance to a defensive one,” stated Army Capt. Robert Couture,
Task Force Mad Dog intelligence officer.
The fighting is still long from over,
but Task Force Mad Dog, consisting of Guard and reserve forces from across the
U.S., has left their mark on the battlefield.
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