spectr17
03-21-2002, 01:30 AM
MARCH 11, 2002
A Hurlburt sergeant learns language of war
Alan Gomez@PensacolaNewsJournal.com
When Staff Sgt. Matt landed in northern Afghanistan and met up with his northern alliance allies, he didn't know a word of Dari.
He communicated with gestures, facial expressions and drawings in the dirt. He quickly learned three words: friend, enemy and airplane.
That was all he needed.
The combat controller, whose last name was not used for security reasons, from Hurlburt Field helped lead a nine-day push in early November by the Northern Alliance into Mazar-e-Sharif.
Positioned on the front lines of the roughly 300-man force, he located enemy targets and called in B-52s, F-14s and F-18s to bomb Taliban and al-Qaida targets. Fighting their way through steep mountain ravines, the group helped liberate the 200,000-person city, considered Afghanistan's religious mecca and the Taliban's stronghold in the north.
"The language barrier made operating out there a challenge, so learning the basic words made a big difference," Matt said. "But the whole thing for me was such a whirlwind. Things happened so fast after Sept. 11. Everybody wanted to get in the fight after that, but it was kind of luck of the draw. Once I got there, I was in disbelief. You'd go from fatigue and boredom to excitement and sheer terror in a matter of minutes."
Matt landed with a small team of Army Rangers in an Afghanistan town south of Mazar-e-Sharif about a week before the attack began.
Matt, 26, a Missouri native who had never seen live combat, wasn't sure how he would react.
"There was a lot of apprehension those first few days," he said. "It was like taking a step back in time. It was kind of like the old West: Everyone was riding horses and wearing guns. There was no semblance of organization. Some had combat boots, some had no boots at all."
Adding to the pressure was the knowledge that some of the 300- man force he would help lead were probably Taliban infiltrators.
"They were quick to assign us a security detail - about four or five individuals," he said. "They were trying to limit our exposure to the grunts, to the infantry."
At times, Taliban and al-Qaida forces were near enough to engage in close-range battle, pushing the American and northern alliance troops back.
But despite the apprehension and fierce fighting, Matt's team successfully drove back the Taliban's last lines of defense in what has been dubbed the Battle for the Balk Valley.
"I felt total confidence in my skills, however, you know that things can happen out there," Matt said. "Things can go wrong. Equipment can break, the tide of momentum can shift. Luckily, none of those things happened."
Handled with care
After about a week of preparation, Matt's squad left a small town southeast of Mazar-e-Sharif in late October.
With only a handful of old vehicles to carry equipment, they moved north - some on horseback, some running alongside.
Throughout the mission, Matt's team was carefully handled by the northern alliance commander, who knew how important the Americans were to his success.
If anything happened to Matt and his team, the food drops from American forces and future bomb drops from American planes would cease.
"Those guys had troops on the field that were hungry and starving, but because we were so important to them, we were eating like kings every night," Matt said. "We learned it was rude to deny the food, so we took it."
The few days riding toward the Balk Valley were calm, riding by day and resting at night.
When the ride stopped, it gave Matt and the other Americans a chance to rest, clean their equipment and plan their impending mission.
It also gave them a chance to talk to the Afghans, using broken English, broken Dari and more gestures.
"They wanted to know all about Western life," he said. "They asked how many cars we had, they asked about our families. They asked if we were married and how many wives we had. They were amazed that the married guys had only one wife.
"But you could tell they had a certain impression of America, a place they all wanted to come. Half a dozen asked if I could take them back after the war was over."
New best friends
When the force reached the steep slopes of the mountain range about 60 miles southeast of Mazar-e-Sharif on Oct. 31, a small team rode up the mountains to an observation point.
From there, Matt could see Taliban and al-Qaida fighters a few hundred yards away in the Balk Valley. They were dug into trenches and had several posts set up.
Using his "spotting scopes" - similar to a high-power, high- tech binocular - and his Global Positioning System, Matt relayed coordinates of the enemy targets to planes flying overhead.
The northern alliance troops were tired and suspicious of the American forces, but that changed when the first bombs came raining down.
"All of the sudden, we were their new best friends," Matt said.
For several days, Matt called in airstrikes, but because of poor visibility, the group couldn't advance.
On about the third day, the weather cleared and things opened up.
Using his laser markers to relay coordinates to planes, Matt watched the damage.
"I could spot the last quarter- second of flight and watch them go into the bunker doors, into the gun ports," Matt said. "It was amazing."
By the fourth day of bombing, the target area was "dried up."
But on Nov. 5 when they entered the valley, the Taliban made one last push.
"It was a ferocious volume of firepower," Matt said.
The northern alliance troops retreated quickly. In the chaos that followed, they left Matt and his team behind, in a close gunfight with about 30 to 40 enemy troops.
As Matt and his team retreated, he called in F-14s, which used 20 mm cannons to hold off the group.
Once Matt and his team were far enough away to set up precise bombing runs, he realized the retreat actually worked to his favor.
"Since we had just been in that location, I had the location marked with my GPS," Matt said. "I had the exact location, exact coordinates.
"They destroyed them immediately."
The northern alliance troops retook the valley that night.
"And the next day marked the beginning of the end for the Taliban working in northern Afghanistan," Matt said.
Heading home
For the next three days, the group slowly scaled through valleys and mountains until they reached a gap.
From there, it was open plains into Mazar-e-Sharif.
The group faced one last battle at the gap, calling in more air strikes and facing a last attack by the opposition.
But by then, the air power of the U.S. had so weakened their defenses that the road to Mazar- e-Sharif was all but cleared.
On Nov. 9, they rode into city, and the Americans quickly rented a cluster of homes. They stayed there to open and defend a large airfield and maintain an American presence until more troops arrived.
About a month later, Matt received orders to head home.
He is back at the Air Force Special Operation Command at Hurlburt Field, training in anticipation of a return to the war on terrorism.
"I was glad to get out of there, but I had a little bit of guilt because there were some Americans we left behind," he said. "Those were some pretty harsh conditions. A lot of time sick, diarrhea, bad water, bad food. And you couldn't clean anything, no way of maintaining good hygiene.
"But looking back, it helped build my confidence in my abilities and how I'd fare under similar situations. Though I'm glad to be back, I'm ready to go wherever needed to continue the fight."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Security measures
Staff Sgt. Matt recently returned from Afghanistan after spending nearly two months there in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He recounted his story of the Battle for the Balk Valley, the pivotal victory that secured Mazar-e-Sharif. Staff Sgt. Matt may return to action in support of Enduring Freedom, so his last name and picture are being withheld.
A Hurlburt sergeant learns language of war
Alan Gomez@PensacolaNewsJournal.com
When Staff Sgt. Matt landed in northern Afghanistan and met up with his northern alliance allies, he didn't know a word of Dari.
He communicated with gestures, facial expressions and drawings in the dirt. He quickly learned three words: friend, enemy and airplane.
That was all he needed.
The combat controller, whose last name was not used for security reasons, from Hurlburt Field helped lead a nine-day push in early November by the Northern Alliance into Mazar-e-Sharif.
Positioned on the front lines of the roughly 300-man force, he located enemy targets and called in B-52s, F-14s and F-18s to bomb Taliban and al-Qaida targets. Fighting their way through steep mountain ravines, the group helped liberate the 200,000-person city, considered Afghanistan's religious mecca and the Taliban's stronghold in the north.
"The language barrier made operating out there a challenge, so learning the basic words made a big difference," Matt said. "But the whole thing for me was such a whirlwind. Things happened so fast after Sept. 11. Everybody wanted to get in the fight after that, but it was kind of luck of the draw. Once I got there, I was in disbelief. You'd go from fatigue and boredom to excitement and sheer terror in a matter of minutes."
Matt landed with a small team of Army Rangers in an Afghanistan town south of Mazar-e-Sharif about a week before the attack began.
Matt, 26, a Missouri native who had never seen live combat, wasn't sure how he would react.
"There was a lot of apprehension those first few days," he said. "It was like taking a step back in time. It was kind of like the old West: Everyone was riding horses and wearing guns. There was no semblance of organization. Some had combat boots, some had no boots at all."
Adding to the pressure was the knowledge that some of the 300- man force he would help lead were probably Taliban infiltrators.
"They were quick to assign us a security detail - about four or five individuals," he said. "They were trying to limit our exposure to the grunts, to the infantry."
At times, Taliban and al-Qaida forces were near enough to engage in close-range battle, pushing the American and northern alliance troops back.
But despite the apprehension and fierce fighting, Matt's team successfully drove back the Taliban's last lines of defense in what has been dubbed the Battle for the Balk Valley.
"I felt total confidence in my skills, however, you know that things can happen out there," Matt said. "Things can go wrong. Equipment can break, the tide of momentum can shift. Luckily, none of those things happened."
Handled with care
After about a week of preparation, Matt's squad left a small town southeast of Mazar-e-Sharif in late October.
With only a handful of old vehicles to carry equipment, they moved north - some on horseback, some running alongside.
Throughout the mission, Matt's team was carefully handled by the northern alliance commander, who knew how important the Americans were to his success.
If anything happened to Matt and his team, the food drops from American forces and future bomb drops from American planes would cease.
"Those guys had troops on the field that were hungry and starving, but because we were so important to them, we were eating like kings every night," Matt said. "We learned it was rude to deny the food, so we took it."
The few days riding toward the Balk Valley were calm, riding by day and resting at night.
When the ride stopped, it gave Matt and the other Americans a chance to rest, clean their equipment and plan their impending mission.
It also gave them a chance to talk to the Afghans, using broken English, broken Dari and more gestures.
"They wanted to know all about Western life," he said. "They asked how many cars we had, they asked about our families. They asked if we were married and how many wives we had. They were amazed that the married guys had only one wife.
"But you could tell they had a certain impression of America, a place they all wanted to come. Half a dozen asked if I could take them back after the war was over."
New best friends
When the force reached the steep slopes of the mountain range about 60 miles southeast of Mazar-e-Sharif on Oct. 31, a small team rode up the mountains to an observation point.
From there, Matt could see Taliban and al-Qaida fighters a few hundred yards away in the Balk Valley. They were dug into trenches and had several posts set up.
Using his "spotting scopes" - similar to a high-power, high- tech binocular - and his Global Positioning System, Matt relayed coordinates of the enemy targets to planes flying overhead.
The northern alliance troops were tired and suspicious of the American forces, but that changed when the first bombs came raining down.
"All of the sudden, we were their new best friends," Matt said.
For several days, Matt called in airstrikes, but because of poor visibility, the group couldn't advance.
On about the third day, the weather cleared and things opened up.
Using his laser markers to relay coordinates to planes, Matt watched the damage.
"I could spot the last quarter- second of flight and watch them go into the bunker doors, into the gun ports," Matt said. "It was amazing."
By the fourth day of bombing, the target area was "dried up."
But on Nov. 5 when they entered the valley, the Taliban made one last push.
"It was a ferocious volume of firepower," Matt said.
The northern alliance troops retreated quickly. In the chaos that followed, they left Matt and his team behind, in a close gunfight with about 30 to 40 enemy troops.
As Matt and his team retreated, he called in F-14s, which used 20 mm cannons to hold off the group.
Once Matt and his team were far enough away to set up precise bombing runs, he realized the retreat actually worked to his favor.
"Since we had just been in that location, I had the location marked with my GPS," Matt said. "I had the exact location, exact coordinates.
"They destroyed them immediately."
The northern alliance troops retook the valley that night.
"And the next day marked the beginning of the end for the Taliban working in northern Afghanistan," Matt said.
Heading home
For the next three days, the group slowly scaled through valleys and mountains until they reached a gap.
From there, it was open plains into Mazar-e-Sharif.
The group faced one last battle at the gap, calling in more air strikes and facing a last attack by the opposition.
But by then, the air power of the U.S. had so weakened their defenses that the road to Mazar- e-Sharif was all but cleared.
On Nov. 9, they rode into city, and the Americans quickly rented a cluster of homes. They stayed there to open and defend a large airfield and maintain an American presence until more troops arrived.
About a month later, Matt received orders to head home.
He is back at the Air Force Special Operation Command at Hurlburt Field, training in anticipation of a return to the war on terrorism.
"I was glad to get out of there, but I had a little bit of guilt because there were some Americans we left behind," he said. "Those were some pretty harsh conditions. A lot of time sick, diarrhea, bad water, bad food. And you couldn't clean anything, no way of maintaining good hygiene.
"But looking back, it helped build my confidence in my abilities and how I'd fare under similar situations. Though I'm glad to be back, I'm ready to go wherever needed to continue the fight."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Security measures
Staff Sgt. Matt recently returned from Afghanistan after spending nearly two months there in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He recounted his story of the Battle for the Balk Valley, the pivotal victory that secured Mazar-e-Sharif. Staff Sgt. Matt may return to action in support of Enduring Freedom, so his last name and picture are being withheld.