The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor (95 page)

Afghan National Police (ANP)—
 the national police force of the Afghan government, supervised by the Ministry of Interior in Kabul. As of 2009, there were approximately ninety-three thousand Afghan police.

Al Qaeda—
 a global network of Muslim extremists that uses terrorist tactics to try to defeat countries and governments that its leaders consider to be evil. Al Qaeda leaders, in particular Osama bin Laden, planned the 9/11 attacks on the United States while living in Afghanistan.

Apache—
 The four-blade, two-rotor, two-engine Boeing AF-64 Apache helicopter is the U.S. Army’s primary attack helicopter and has been compared to a “flying tank.” It is typically armed with a 30-millimeter M230 chain gun, Hellfire missiles, and Hydra rockets and manned by a two-person crew consisting of a pilot and a copilot/gunner.

AT-4—
 a recoilless antitank weapon that fires 84-millimeter grenades.

B-1—
 The Boeing B-1 long-range heavy bomber airplane has a wingspan of 137 feet extended forward, is 146 feet long and 34 feet high, and can fly at speeds of more than nine hundred miles per hour. A B-1 can carry dozens of five-hundred- and two-thousand-pound bombs, Quick Strike naval mines, cluster munitions, joint air-to-surface standoff missiles, and other weapons. The B-1 requires a four-person crew consisting of an aircraft commander, a copilot, and two weapon systems officers.

B-2—
 The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, aka the Stealth Bomber, has a wingspan of 172 feet and is 69 feet long and 17 feet high. The B-2 can travel at high subsonic speeds while carrying either conventional or nuclear weapons. It requires a two-pilot crew.

bandah—
 a small shack, typically used by sheep- and goat-herders and consisting of a crude stone shelter for the herder and a separate pen for his animal.

Black Hawk—
 The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a utility transport helicopter designed to move a fully equipped eleven-person infantry squad under most weather conditions. It requires a crew of four—two pilots and two crew chiefs—and carries two 7.62-millimeter machine guns.

CAS—
 “close air support,” describing helicopter or plane support for ground troops in contact with hostile forces.

Chinook—
 The Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter is a big twin-engine chopper with two rotors. Generally used to transport ground forces, supplies, ammunition, and other cargo, it is large enough to carry two Humvees. Two pilots and an observer can sit in the cockpit—flying a Chinook requires a pilot, copilot, and another crew member—while the main cabin can hold thirty-three troops in full gear. A Chinook can accommodate three machine guns and has a triple hook system under its belly to carry large external loads. Its normal cruising speed is 149 miles per hour, but it can travel as fast as 184 miles per hour.

Claymore—
 An M18 Claymore antipersonnel mine measures roughly 8.5 inches wide by 3.25 inches high by 1.5 inches thick and weighs 3.5 pounds. When triggered, the C-4 explosive will propel seven hundred steel balls in the direction clearly indicated on the casing by the words “FRONT TOWARD ENEMY.”

Combat Outpost Kamu—
 the name of Combat Outpost Lowell until 2007.

Combat Outpost Lowell—
 the outpost established in 2007 near the hamlet of Kamu, east of Combat Outpost Keating, before it was renamed in honor of Private First Class Jacob Lowell.

counterinsurgency—
 An effort to quell a rebellion or insurgency, the tactic of counterinsurgency (or “COIN”) as applied in Afghanistan is based on separating the insurgency from the general population through a two-pronged approach: defeating the enemy militarily while at the same time winning over the rest of the population with a taste of some of the tangible results—schools, government, infrastructure—to be reaped from an alliance with the United States and the Afghan government.

Dushka—
 a Russian-made heavy antiaircraft machine gun, belt-fed and mounted on a tripod. The name is elaborated from the acronym DShK, for “Degtyarev Shpagina Krupnokaliberny.” Vasily Alekseyevich Degtyaryov and Georgi Shpagin designed the weapon;
Krupnokaliberny
means “large-caliber.” In Russian, the word
dushka
means “sweetie.”

embedded tactical trainer, (ETT)—
 a trainer of Afghan troops who lives and works alongside his trainees.

F-15—
 a highly maneuverable tactical jet fighter armed with a 20-millimeter, six-barrel cannon with 940 rounds of ammunition, heat-seeking, short-range air-to-air missiles, and advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles. With a wingspan of 42.8 feet, the F-15 is 63.8 feet long and 18.5 feet high and can fly at speeds up to 1,875 miles per hour. The F-15A and F-15C require just one pilot; the F-15B, F-15D, and F-15E require two.

Forward Operating Base Bostick—
 the name of Forward Operating Base Naray from 2008 on. The base, located near Naray in northern Kunar Province, has served as squadron headquarters for troops in the area since 2006. Before that, it was used primarily by Army Special Forces.

Forward Operating Base Fenty—
 the name of Jalalabad Airfield from 2007 on, named in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Fenty.

Forward Operating Base Naray—
 the name of Forward Operating Base Bostick before it was renamed in honor of Captain Tom Bostick, who was killed in 2007.

HESCO—
 a wire mesh container with a thick fabric liner that can be filled with dirt and joined with others to form a portable, easily constructed barrier.

HIG—
 Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, an Afghan political party/insurgency founded in the 1970s by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Many of the insurgents in Kamdesh District were affiliated with HIG.

Humvee—
 a “high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle” (HMMWV), a four wheel drive vehicle used by the military.

IED—an “improvised explosive device,”
 
or
homemade bomb, often used by insurgents to target U.S. vehicles.

Jalalabad Airfield—
 a U.S. base in the city of Jalalabad, Nangarhar Province, adjacent to the Pakistan border. It was renamed Forward Operating Base Fenty in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Fenty, who was killed in 2006.

Jingle truck—
 an ornately decorated truck, covered with chimes and paintings, usually belonging to a local private contractor; so named because of the sound made by the decorations.

Kom—
 the preeminent ethnic group in Kamdesh District.

Kushtozis—
 an ethnic group in Kamdesh District that has had a longstanding history of feuding with its rival community, the Kom.

LMTV—
 a “light medium tactical vehicle,” a large military truck that can carry more than two tons of cargo.

LRAS—
 a “long-range advance scout” surveillance system, an expensive device that allows thermal-optical surveillance at a range of up to fifteen miles.

M16—
 a gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle that weighs slightly more than 7.0 pounds and measures 39.5 inches long.

M203—
 a single-shot, pump-action (sliding barrel) grenade launcher, measuring 39.0 inches long and weighing 3.5 pounds when loaded with 40-millimeter grenades.

M240—
 a belt-fed, air-cooled, gas-operated, fully automatic machine gun measuring 49.0 inches long and weighing 27.6 pounds, capable of firing as many as two hundred rounds per minute in ten- to thirteen-round bursts.

M249—
 A lightweight, gas-operated, one-man portable automatic weapon measuring just over 40.0 inches long and weighing 16.5 pounds, the M249 is also called a SAW—short for “squad automatic weapon”—and can fire up to 750 rounds per minute. Two M249s are issued to each infantry squad.

M4—
 A gas-operated, magazine-fed, shoulder-fired rifle weighing more than 6.0 pounds and measuring almost 30.0 inches long, the M4 can fire up to 950 rounds per minute and is semiautomatic, firing in three-round bursts. A variant model, the M4A1, is fully automatic.

Mawlawi—
 an honorific title bestowed upon high-ranking Islamic scholars.

Mark 19, or MK19—
 A belt-fed automatic grenade launcher that shoots 40-millimeter grenade cartridges and is designed not to overheat even after prolonged firing, the Mark 19 is over 43.0 inches long and weighs 78.0 pounds without its tripod. Because of its size, the Mark 19 is often mounted on a Humvee.

medevac—
 short for “medical evacuation,” the term used to denote the helicopter ambulance that rescues wounded soldiers in the field.

MICH ranger headset—
 the modular integrated communication helmet (MICH) ranger communication system is a microphone/sound-transmission setup that enables communication even amid extremely noisy conditions such as intense combat.

mIRC—
 an Internet relay chat (IRC) client for Microsoft Windows, much like Instant Messenger, used by the military (and others) for instant communications.

mortar—
 an explosive projectile fired indirectly from a cannon, or tube. Mortars can be used to fire at targets that are both out of sight and far away—for example, over mountains.

MRE—
 a “meal ready to eat,” a single unit of basic rations provided to troops by the U.S. military.

mullah—
 an Islamic clergyman or leader of a mosque.

mujahideen—
 literally meaning “Muslims who strive in the path of God,” the Arabic term has come to mean “holy warriors,” a catchall for Islamist insurgents or fighters. In Afghanistan in the 1980s, the Mujahideen comprised a number of loosely affiliated insurgent groups fighting the Communist Afghan government and the occupying USSR troops. In modern-day Afghanistan, many insurgent groups refer to themselves by this word, and some U.S. troops use it, or its short form
muj,
to refer to them as well.

Observation Post Warheit—
 the name of Observation Post Fritsche until the name was changed in the Winter of 2007–2008 in honor of Staff Sergeant Ryan Fritsche.

Observation Post Fritsche—
 the observation post established to watch over Combat Outpost Keating, sitting on the mountain to the south of the outpost, near Upper Kamdesh.

PRT—
 a “Provincial Reconstruction Team,” typically made up of representatives of the U.S. military, foreign service officers, and experts on construction, who work together on development in those areas of a country where stability is most urgently needed. PRTs have played a key role in counterinsurgency programs.

QRF—
 a “quick reaction force,” an armed team prepared, on short notice, to support another unit on a mission and in need of assistance.

Regional Command East—
 one of the territories of Afghanistan as divided up by the United States and coalition forces. In 2006, RC-East comprised ten provinces together covering some 27,000 square miles (an area roughly the size of North Carolina) and sharing 600 linear miles of border with Pakistan. That soon expanded to fourteen provinces—Bamyan, Ghazni, Kapisa, Khowst, Kunar, Laghman, Logar, Nangarhar, Nuristan, Paktika, Paktiya, Panjshayr, Parwan, and Wardak—covering 43,000 square miles (about the size of Ohio) and sharing 450 miles of border with Pakistan.

RPG—
 a “rocket-propelled grenade,” an explosive warhead affixed to a rocket shot from a shoulder-fired weapon.

SAW—
 see M249

shura—
 a consultation with village elders, or leaders, that is an important element of governance in majority Muslim countries.

Sked—
 a hard plastic stretcher used for carrying dead or wounded troops. Troops commonly refer to the stretcher by the name of the company that makes it, “Skedco.”

TacSat—
 a tactical microsatellite system enabling sophisticated communications on the battlefield.

Taliban—
 an extremist militant Muslim political and religious group that ruled over much of Afghanistan from 1996 until the U.S. invasion in October 2001, imposing strict interpretations of Muslim law.

TIC—
 “troops in contact,” meaning a firefight.

Notes and Sourcing

For this book, I interviewed more than 225 individuals over the course of nearly two years, many of them multiple times. Some of those interviews were conducted in person, some by phone, some via Skype, and some by email. I have made use of primary documents, where noted; throughout, I have employed the term “memo” to mean any military document, though technically, different kinds have their own complicated names.