Terrain in Afghanistan as dangerous as the enemy

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

Staff Sgt. Russell Watts grimaces in pain as Pfc. Michael Hall, left, and Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Jackson treat his severely sprained ankle. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

ORGUN-E, Afghanistan — The seven Schofield Barracks soldiers were less than two hours into a long convoy ride north and were trying to get comfortable in the back of a cramped Humvee when their view of the world was rotated 45 degrees — violently.

The open-backed military vehicle pitched sideways into a steep, 5-foot-deep ravine, tossing one occupant out the back and jumbling soldiers and packs in a dusty pile.

Inside the passenger compartment, Staff Sgt. Russell Watts, 24, was trapped, and hurt.

"Get out! Get out! Get out!" one of the Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry soldiers shouted as the shock of the moment passed.

It would require a tow strap to take pressure off the jammed door and some quick action by the Hawai'i soldiers to pull out Watts, who luckily only suffered a seriously sprained ankle.

For the Pennsylvania man, it was a bad day all around: Two rocket-propelled grenades were fired at, but missed, his medevac helicopter.

Early into what would be a jarring, jolting 12-hour convoy ride for a mission to the north in late April, the crash demonstrated how dangerous driving in southeastern Afghanistan can be.

There are few paved roads in this part of Paktika province near the Pakistan border, and the serpentine routes that do exist are usually no more than narrow and rocky Jeep trails scratched into the mountainside.

It's this harsh environment — covering an area twice the size of the Big Island — that the 2-27 Wolfhounds will have to navigate during the next year.

Whereas in Iraq soldiers travel largely by convoy over flat, paved roads, in this part of Afghanistan it's hike at high altitude, drive the trails, or fly by helicopter.

None is particularly easy.

Soldiers work to free Staff Sgt. Russell Watts, whose right ankle was pinned between his wrecked Humvee and a dirt berm. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I tell people walking and driving are every bit as dangerous as the enemy here," said 2-27 commander Lt. Col. Walter E. Piatt. "And if we don't respect the terrain, we will suffer for it."

"But it's important if we're going to get places and cover the vast area that we've got to cover, we've got to get there," Piatt added.

There are 15 districts in Paktika province, and Piatt plans on getting to them all. Keeping the people on his side through continued visits and by providing tractors and digging wells, he knows, makes the job of keeping the peace easier.

In Shkin, on the Pakistan border, a tribe turned over to U.S. forces an Uzbek believed to have been operating as an insurgent in Afghanistan for years.

"They went out and captured him and brought him to the fire base and said, 'Here's a bad guy,' " Piatt said, giving an example of the type of cooperation that can exist.

Part of the problem, though, is it would take two days of driving to get to the southwest of the province from the battalion's fire base at Orgun-E, an old Soviet airfield about 25 miles from the Pakistan border.

"Difficult, but not impossible," is how Piatt put it.

Air is faster, but not always available.

"Helicopters in Afghanistan I would say are probably the No. 1 limiting factor," Piatt said. "There's just not enough to go around."

Big twin-rotor CH-47 Chinooks that can carry lots of soldiers and equipment are available, "but I can't have everything that I want," Piatt said.

First Sgt. Timothy Johnson of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, watches ridge lines in a drive through the mountains. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

"You've just got to develop an operation and use air wisely."

The Charlie Company convoy heading north was tasked with rooting out insurgents near the remote village of Sreh Kowt at an altitude of about 9,200 feet.

Several hours into the trip, the convoy of Humvees and one 5-ton truck was encountering increasingly steep hills in a mountain area where even goat herders were few and far between.

Riding in the passenger side of an "up-armored" Humvee protected by steel plating and bulletproof glass, Sgt. Albert Buchinski, 22, kept seeing big rocks and sheer drop-offs on the right side, while driver Spc. William Heuisler, 20, kept seeing other obstacles on the left.

"Hug your side!" Buchinski, looking down a steep drop, told Heuisler for maybe the fifth time that day.

"I'm hugging, I'm hugging. I'm so close I can smell the dirt," responded the driver, who had a dirt wall hemming him in on his side.

Down into one valley and through a stream, the heavy Humvee wouldn't make the hill on the other side.

Taking luggage, water and food, extra fuel, the spare tire and even the jack out, and with Buchinski and turret gunner Spc. Vlad Novoselya pushing, the crew finally was able to get the Humvee to the top.

Pushing higher past craggy cliffs at just a few miles an hour, the convoy eventually would have to stop, turn around, and head back the way it came.

"The route on the map isn't on the ground," Charlie Company commander Capt. Tage Rainsford, 29, explained later.

In the time 2-27 has been in Paktika province, it has driven routes like "Ambush Alley," a wadi, or dry river bed, flanked by steep cliffs southeast of Orgun-E where the 10th Mountain Division was attacked several times before.

"The rock cliffs are so steep, the guys pretty much have to look straight up on both sides," said Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Jackson, 29, from upstate New York. "Our company has been through once in the middle of the night (with night-vision devices)."

Other wadis have been so narrow, the Humvees literally scrape through.

Jackson said enemy forces are "masters of camouflage and hiding out."

"They'll hit you and run — they always have a planned escape route," he said. "If you don't catch them fast, they're gone. That's pretty much the biggest fight."

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