PAUL GUILLAUME
This is Part Four of a four-part series
One of the Ghormach Afghan National Police’s (ANP’s) most important tasks is manning hilltop checkpoints above Ring Road. Inspecting those checkpoints is, therefore, an important task for their mentors: 1st Platoon.
The four Humvees carrying 1/C/2-121st Infantry have to navigate up dizzyingly steep hills on unimproved and muddy roads. Once on top, most troopers stay vigilant for enemy activity while SSG. Michael T. Childers, 34, does what he loves: fly. The Raven is a yard square remote controlled plane with cameras in its nose. Childers uses the plane to take aerial photos of the string of checkpoints being inspected. The little plane also serves as a deterrent to attack.
As Childers performs the job he loves, Sgt. Lance C. Ward, 27, of Adel, Ga., the platoon medic, attends to the injuries and ailments that keep him in high demand with the ANP. The cry of “Doktar” follows him relentlessly whenever he is in Ghormach. “It’s always something every time I come out here,” he says of the constant requests for treatment and medication.
While Ward builds rapport with the Afghans through medical aid, SFC. Darin Russell, 40-something, of Columbus, Ga., and 1Lt. Kristopher F. Harshman, 24, of Stockbridge inspect the ANP. Russell went from officer to officer, all in line, offering greetings in their native Dari before checking equipment and asking about the reliability of their pay, a frequent issue of great import to the ANP. In an earlier meeting, an Afghan National Army Major had complained that ANP were manning checkpoints with insufficient ammunition for their rifles. Russell found that all the ANP inspected had the required ammunition load.
While most ANP stood awed by Russell, one officer caught his attention. The officer answered questions posed the group quickly and with assurance. He also tended to speak for the other men when they were too bashful to do so for themselves. Russell found that the officer was a three year veteran and had been to formal Police Academies. Russell took the officer’s name down in the hope of having him trained for a leadership position.
Russell and Harshman were pleased with more than just the equipment and officer quality. The ANP had taken the time to properly fortify their positions. The Hesco walls were topped with towers, had dug in parking for the ANP’s trucks, and were ringed with trenches. The dug in parking and trenches had been dug out with shovels, despite the ANP’s initial objection to doing manual labor. The importance of overcoming their initial objection was punctuated by the craters from rockets fired at the checkpoints during the recent Taliban offensive.
When the several ANP commanders complained of their lack of night vision devices, Russell held an impromptu class, sitting Indian style in the shadow of one of the checkpoints. He explained low tech solutions for detecting enemy infiltration based on lessons he learned when he joined the U.S. Army in 1982, before the widespread use of night vision.
Russell takes a special interest in the wellbeing of the police he mentors. He caused a considerable furor when he insisted that the local Minister of the Interior, General Androvi, pay the Ghormach ANP their back pay. “I pissed a lot of people off getting these guys properly paid,” he said. “We came out were with $250,000 for these guys,” remembers Spc. Daniel J. Gonzalez, 29, of Hawkinsville, “They love him for it.”
Russell’s willingness to address ANP issues on a personal level works especially well in the Afghan culture. Sgt. Christopher C. Youngblood, 32, of Eatonton had earlier tried to teach a class on logistics using slides and a script. “I turned (the slides) off after two minutes,” he said, “None of them can read so it’s a total waste of time.” The effort Russell takes to address ANP concerns in a way he knows will be effective has earned 1st Platoon a level of loyalty they take great pride in.
The Ghormach ANP’s loyalty to Russell would become immediately clear on the night of Dec. 29. A Norwegian military observation team was brought under fire several miles south of the Ghormach. Taliban control of the valley becomes more total the farther south. When Russell asked the ANP to join 1st Platoon on a mission to join up with the halted Norwegian patrol, they initially refused.
Russell insisted, and Captain Najibullah finally acquiesced. The combined convoy of Humvees and ANP pickup trucks wove along the rutted roads south. Upon reaching the Norwegians, Russell found out from them that the fire had come from a village at the foot of the steep hills that surround the valley. Russell, Harshman and a group of ANP approached the village. They were met by an elder who explained that the Taliban had fired briefly before departing on motorcycles into the narrow gorges between the hills to the west. Satisfied, all three units returned to the Ghormach police station.
It would be explained by Captain Najibullah that it is against ANP procedure to venture into the valley at night. Najibullah had only agreed to do so out of loyalty to Russell. “That is a trust brotherhood that I have asked our guys to build,” said Lt. Col. L. Kenny Payne, 2-121st Infantry’s commanding officer.
Russell, Harshman and two Norwegian officers discussed the night’s events as the junior ranking troopers from 1st Platoon and the Norwegian team enjoyed a cookout. Russell expressed his feelings that the ANP’s willingness to face Taliban at night boosted their credibility with the local Afghan people. “I think the people seeing them going out at night is a huge step for (the ANP),” he said.\Although neither Harshman nor Russell were willing to draw a direct correlation, a week later the ANP got a tip about a cache of rockets from the villagers who found them. The ANP secured the rockets until a Norwegian Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team could destroy them. “(The ANP’s) stood by (the rockets) until EOD arrived,” said Russell, “There’s no questioning their bravery.”
