A Battlefield Tourist

Early Bird Gets the Worm

Feb 11 at 4:04am by David Tate

A Marine from India C., 3/8 stands guard over men from a suspected Taliban village in Bakwa district, Farah Province.

Feb 9, 2009

After getting a few hours to adjust the day before, I was awaken at 0330 for an operation that was the culmination of nearly two months of intelligence gathering regarding a particular village, the Marines believed, housed an IED cell.  Time and time again the target of this operation’s name has surfaced and now was the time to act.  After all, the Marines here have faced more than 40 IED attacks since arriving in November, which have killed and injured a handful of the young Americans.

Cordon and Search

The operation kicked off even before I was out of bed with various elements establishing a cordon around the target village and two other nearby compounds.   The goal for this is to use the night as cover and to prevent anyone from coming or going as the remainder of the force moved into position.

With the sun rising, the Marines began establishing a processing station that comprised of a a small detention area encircled with concertina wire and a place where all the fighting aged males (usually 16 years +) would be processed by getting names, ages, fingerprints and iris scans.  The goal of this is to create a data base of the potential enemy fighters for future use in the war against the terrorists (yes, fingerprints can be lifted from unexploded IEDs).

Once the cordon was established, the station set and the rising of the sun, the Marines prepared to approach the village.  “Dave, you wait here until we make the initial approach…”, said India Company commander, Captain Michael Hoffman of Naperville, Illinois.  Not being one to watch from the rear, with a smile I gave Captain Hoffman one last chance to reconsider.  “Ok… but if you get shot…”, he said.  “Don’t worry, Captain, I’ll be fine.” 

With two attack choppers and a B-1 Bomber circling overhead, we approached the village to a distance of about 50m away before an Afghan interpreter called for the elders to come out. 

Within a few minutes, an old man dressed in white (typical elder garb) slowly made his way toward our position to see what it was the Marines wanted.   The Marines were looking for specific people, including one who came out early on during the initial assessment, which involved a knee-to-knee sit dow with Captain Hoffman who explained why he was there and how the rest of the day would go.  Once the initial interviews were over, the Marines sent most of the men to the processing station, keeping one elder on hand to take them through the village. 

Team Lioness

Of major concern for Hoffman, at this time, was the women and children of village (due to the cultural sensitivities involved in this part of the world).  That problem was considered well in advance and is why a handful of female Marines and an interpreter were brought in specifically for this mission; a team called Team Lioness. 

As far as Hoffman knew, this idea was first tried in Iraq and now, for the first time employed in Afghanistan.  However a precursor to this idea was employed by Battalion Landing Team (BLT)1/6 back in 2004 in Oruzgan Province. 

At that time, a team called “Charlie’s Angels” (for Charlie Company) were employed to do the exact same thing; work with the women of the village so not to incite cultural issues and to also exploit information from part of a population that often goes untapped during such missions.  Their job was to simply stay with the women, who were confined to the main elder’s compound, interacting with them and the children while the men of the village were rounded up and sent to the processing area. 

Once that was done, the Marines, using the elder as a guide, searched specific homes and all the the villages stores.  There was no door kicking and very few locks that had to be cut as the Marines gave the elder a chance to fetch keys in an effort to minimize damage.

Hoffman is clearly a man who trying hard to work within guidelines that, while asserting authority, goes above and beyond what one would expect in this environment to accommodate the civilians he is charged with protecting.  His approach is firm, yet sensitive, and vital to the success of counterinsurgency in his opinion.  His goal is to work with the population to find the Taliban and weapons caches and not to create friction that would go against his approach that could further alienate the population from his Marines.

The End Result

The biggest problem of the day actually fell on technology.  The system the Marines use to record the vital information created a monster headache for everyone as it took hours to process just 16 males (all adults and one boy approximately 13 years in age).  Some men took more than an hour to process; others needed to be processed several times because the equipment would not cooperate. 

The day was long and hot, as the Afghans sat and waited for the procedure to finish.  The Marines provided blankets and water to help the men sit through the day, who suffered nothing more than from boredom.

In the end, two men were detained for further questioning, including the 80-something year old man who is thought to be provoking the attacks in this area.  That decision became easier as Marines found more than 120 pounds of high explosives and a couple of artillery/rocket rounds in a centuries old tunnel that was probably used to help irrigate the surrounding farmland at one time.  I’m sure another considering factor involved the elder’s attitude toward the Marines and the bombs that were aimed at them; many within sight of the village.  During the initial interview when Captain Hoffman was explaining the issues the Marines faced, the elder adamantly told Hoffman, “That’s your problem.” 

“My problem?”, Hoffman replied.  “This is your country!”