LESSONS LEARNED DURING AFGHANISTAN DEPLOYMENT

First Segeant Rudy Romero's comments to Squad-leader.com

 I guess the biggest lesson I learned is nothing changes from how you train. We've all heard train like you fight at least a million times, well here's a new one. Fight like you train. We've spent years and years learning what we know, then soon as we deploy we start second guessing ourselves trying to invent new dilemmas and TTP's because it's a real deployment but we end up outsmarting ourselves. Go with what you know, stick with how you train.
 
 Some of the things in particular were soldiers load, because you're in the mountains of Afghanistan you try to invent new packing lists, or new uniforms.
 Some units went in wearing gortex and poly pro only, when the wx got bad they were the only ones to have cold wx injuries that needed to be evac'd.
 We've all figured out how to stay warm during the winter so don't change your uniforms. It was never as cold as I've seen it at FT Campbell or FT Bragg during the winter.
 
 Because of the high altitude and rough terrain we all should have been combat light. That's the first thing you learn at JRTC, you can't fight with a ruck on your back.    (we were operating at altitudes of 8,000 ft to 9,500 ft, and we never had any problems with altitude sickness)
 
The environment was extremely harsh. The cold wasn't that bad, it's the hard cold dry wind that will eat you up like you wouldn't believe. Chapstick, chapstick, chapstick, sunscreen, sunscreen. Sunscreen.
 
 Most of our soldiers would rather carry the extra weight so they'll stay warm, and comfortable, but as a leader you have to consider a few things. Every extra pound we carry affects the soldier's performance, once he gets tired the first thing to go is how he pulls security while moving
or at halts. Next to go is your ability as a company or platoon to move from point A to B without injuries, or people falling behind. Once you get in the mountains that 5 clicks you started out on turns into 9-11 clicks because of all the deep ravines and mountains that didn't make it on the map because of the contour interval. Because we had rucksacks all of our soldiers were completely exhausted within hours of just getting on the ground.
 
  With just the vest and LBV we were easily carrying 80lbs. Throw on the ruck and your sucking. We packed a poncho liner and gortex bivouac bag per two soldiers, poly pro top and bottom, sleep shirt, or wool sweater, field jacket liner.  Three pairs of socks, one set of gortex socks, three t-shirts. Gortex wet wx top and bottom.   (the top and bottom were worth there weight in gold, they
 did a good job of cutting the wind and allowed us to survive at night) 6 MREs for three days.  Then the rest was equipment and ammo.  
 
We outsmarted ourselves on how much water to carry. We took in over 12 qrts per man on our initial insertion, which greatly increased our weight. In the old days you did a three-day mission with 6 qts of water, and that was on FT Campbell in the summer. Granted we were all heat
exhaustion at the end but it's more than doable.
We didn't even think to take iodine tablets until we decided we were going to do a mission, then there were none to be found.
 
 Once you get hooked on the water buffalos and water bottles you lose water discipline. I think one of the worst things we have done is every time we train we have a water buffalo next to us. We made it very easy to drink as much water as we want. Problem is when the buffalo isn't there; all of a sudden we have a water crisis. I watched young soldiers drink all their water (2-3 qts) in half a day then watched everyone panic because were out of water. "We're not out of water they've got 3 qts in there belly." They were probably better off than the people who still have it in the canteens.
 
 We also over tasked our helicopter support bringing in unneeded resupply because we've lost a lot of our needed field craft. If you're in a good fight your going to need all your birds for MEDEVAC and ammo resupply. Bottom line is we have to train at the right soldiers load, relearn how to conserve water. How many batteries does it take to sustain for three days etc. Take what you need to survive through the night and then wear the same stuff again the next day, you can only wear so much snivel gear it doesn't do any good to carry enough to have a different wardrobe every day.
 
Have the BN invest in gortex socks, and smart wool socks. Each soldier needs two pairs so he can rotate them daily, because your feet sweat in gortex...you've got to dry them out every 24 hrs.
 
Our BN directed for every one to wear gortex boots during the mission, you could imagine how painful that was. I gave up my boots to a new soldier who didn't have any so I wore jungle boots, gortex socks and a pair of smart wool socks and my feet never got wet or cold even in the snow.
 
 
Equipment-wise, our greatest shortcomings were optics, radios, and organic or direct support long-range weapons. After the initial fight all our targets were at a minimum of 1500m all the way out to as far as you could see. Our 60mm mortars and 81's accounted for most of the kills.  Next was a Canadian sniper team with a McMillian 50 cal. They got kills all the way out to 2500m.
 
The problem with our mortars was there was Air Force jets' flying over us 24hrs a day. And they wouldn't fly near us if we were firing indirect. Even though our max ord was far beneath their patterns. Something for your S-3 and Air Force LNO to work out.  The other problem was the Air Force could never hit small groups of personnel.  (I'm sure they have huge difficulty seeing anything that small).  I watched and called corrections on numerous sorties and they could never hit the targets. My verdict is if you want it killed use you mortars.
 
Pay close attention to the direction of attack...you're ALO is bringing in the casualties. Every time it was perpendicular to us we were hit with shrapnel. Not to mention the time they dropped a 2000lb bomb in the middle of our company, that didn't go off by a sheer miracle. Cobras and 2.75 shot at us. Also, once again they were shooting perpendicular to our trace. Aviation provided the most near misses of all the things we did (contrary to popular belief you can hear the one coming to get you).
 
During the day we marked our positions for the fast movers and Apaches with VVS-17 panels  (also for friendly units on the ground). At night Spectre would show up and fly all night.  We relied on glint tape to mark our positions for him.  You could see him paint us with his IR to ID our
positions then he would go to work.  So it seemed to work well.
 
The battalion received MBITR radios while we were on the ground, short of the radio the ALO brings with him, that's all you have to talk to the Air Force (uhf).  I strongly recommend each company have at least one UHF radio.   MBITR is small and very versatile.  (FM, UHF, VHF). 
 
I recommend all SL's and PL's carry binos with the mills reticle (all we had was two per machine gun team). Numerous times TL's and SL's had the opportunity to call in mortars on enemy personnel. More importantly is leaders knowing how to do it. Our BN has checked all the blocks as far as that goes, guess what they still couldn't do it. Especially the PL's. Contrary to popular belief it's not the PL who's going to call it in... its the soldier in the position who will. If you don't have enough binos for all leaders, guess what? You have to wait for somebody to run to the M240 position to go get them. Also same goes with not knowing how to do it, you have to wait for the FO to move to that position. Plugger battle drill is the way to go, even with the civilian models; the contour interval on the maps is outrageous so terrain association was difficult.
 
Range estimation was probably the most important or critical thing you do. If you close on your estimation you'll get the target. We all carried in 2 mortar rounds apiece and that was more then enough. We took mix of everything; the only thing we used was WP and HE. All together we took in at least 120 rds as a company
 
I would also recommend wearing the body armor during all training, I doubt if well ever fight without it again. It significantly affects everything that you do.
 
Lots of lessons learned on Air Assault.  Flying was by far the most dangerous thing we did while we were there because of the terrain and weather. It was always "seats out" due to the limited number of aircraft and the number of personnel we had to get in. That presents a few problems. Offloading a CH-47 on a hot LZ packed to the gills is an extremely slow process (2-3 min).
 
Landing was the most dangerous part while we were there just because of the conditions and terrain, if you crash without seats and seatbelts your going to have a lot of broken bones (it happened once). If possible, maybe
you could send in the first few lifts with seats in, which will get the helo off the LZ much quicker. Then following aircraft "seats out." Food for thought.
 
Of the two missions we did once it was time to extract both times we waited for an additional 3 days after the majority of the units on the ground departed. Soon as the first lift goes the weather would roll in and keep us for three days (a 3-5 day mission turned into 9 days).  That could of presented numerous problems.  The major one being we were the only one's left on the ground, next problem is once you think your leaving you consume all your chow and water (make sure all your key weapons are on your last lift, chances half of your company will be left on the ground for additional days).
 
Just like in the past the pilots were courageous and will do all and even more of what you ask of them. However, resupply was a big difficulty. Problem was they never put the right package at the right place and you know what that means, especially when it's 120mm mortar rounds that slid into a deep ravine. The fix was our S-4 had a group of supply SGT's that would accompany the supplies with grids freq's and call signs.
 
 Make sure battalion pushes the birds down to the company freqs. When ever that doesn't happen you can be sure that the loads are not going to land in the right place. They only way it's going to work are if they have the company freq's and we can directly talk to them. When it didn't happen they always landed in the wrong place or dropped off resupply in the wrong place.
 
 Same with AH-64's...we always say give them to the user but we never do it. We always had to relay thru the S-3 to give corrections (train like you fight, fight like you train). Demand that in training, if the TAC or TOC doesn't have the confidence in the company you can be sure it will be the same in combat.
 
Something else we tried that worked great was that on every CH-47 flying in to the box we put at least three body bags filled with water and MREs on the bird. We would lay them on the tailgate of the CH-47, soon as it landed the first few guys would pull it off and leave it as a cache. Bn would pick up loads in the gators and drop them off at the companies.
 
Gators, didn't hold up to well. They're a great thing to have when they're running. That place eats up tires pretty fast so take a bicycle pump for the tires when you go in, that will keep you rolling longer. Also they're real easy getting them into to the fight, getting out is a different story, you're always scrounging for aircraft when it's time to go. So be prepared to leave a few gators.
 
We didn't take the Javelin missile in when we went because of the lack of an armored threat however, we used the CLU's a lot, every night for that matter. Beautiful piece of equipment. They consume a lot of batteries and add a lot of weight.  After it snowed, two in the company stopped working until they dried out a few days later. Other than that they held up real well.
 
Go in with a good or should I say great zero on all your weapons. We never got a chance to re zero while we were there. Also zero all your spare weapons for replacements etc. On our last mission I hit a dud M203 at 75m with one round from my M4 using my M68. It held a zero great. A 1SG
doesn't normally abuse his weapon like a young soldier does though. However if they treat their weapons like their Nintendo's they should be all right.
 
Soon as you get on the ground immediately enforce to soldiers taking care of their equipment, this was my third deployment and all were the same, our young soldiers will break there weapons and NVG's until you figure out how to stop it. Once it gets broken you can bet you wont see it again!!!
 
 Equipment suggestions:
 
Our BN bought the ammo bags for the M240 from London Bridge, they worked great.
 
Kneepads are a must; needless to say not all personnel had them.
 

Camel backs
 
MSR stoves work great, they burn any kind of fuel. Recommend one per squad.
 
Safety or shooting glasses, Bolle goggles are the way to go if your unit can afford it.
 
We had one guy who was hypothermic one night, the medics and a wool blanket saved his ass. Green wool still can't be beat.
 
Fleece gloves worked great, Nomex gloves with poly pro liners also worked well.

Mechanix gloves from Auto Zone are great, (also very cheap) the palm is leather padded, the back has plastic armor, the fit very well and were more then warm enough with a liner inside of them. They hold up much better than the Nomex.
 
We also eventually (after we were done) received Barret 50-cals for our snipers. Their M24's never got used because of the extreme ranges. I think every rifle company should have a 50 cal!!!!!!!
 
Lots of thermite/incendariary grenades and C-4, we used them a lot to destroy caches, abandoned equipment, and to destroy caves.  Our engineers were great.

Practice a lot with your M203's; they worked great to clear a cave entrance before entering.  Right now there isn't a viable sight for the M-4, so lots of practice with Kentucky windage. 

Lots of HE, also mounting brackets, for the PEQ-2 for the AT-4's. The SMAW-D comes with one. Also the SMAW-D is smaller easier to carry and hits significantly harder. Won't collapse a cave but will definitely clear it (recommend carrying the SMAW-D).

Also if you pay attention to the SOF guys, their always the first ones to grab the LAW's because there super light and a soldier can carry multiple ones because of the extreme ranges you need the 3x adapters for the NVG's.
 
TLs and above should carry a small set of binos, preferably with the mills reticle.
 
Each platoon needs lots of extension cords and shop lights for their cp or tents.
 
Hammer, nails, wood screws, nuts and bolts, drills, saws, toolbox and lots of super glue.
 
VVS-17 panel inside of K-pot (a small piece of one)

Honda generator, for radio's, hair clippers etc.
 
Hair brush per soldier, after you there awhile everyone will look like they have scabies on their head because you can't take a shower often, the hair brush will scrape away all the dead skin from your scalp.
 
We had a machine shop make us grappling hooks out of rebar, we also had the issue one that is fired from the M-4.
 
Teach all personnel, call for fire, make them learn it, two weeks ago we had a good class for TL's and above, last week we went to the mortar range and we let them call it in. They still couldn't do it!!!!   It does probably to hard to visualize how to do it in a classroom, so get them to the range.
 
 
Soldiers did great you can always depend on them. They are extremely brave and want to fight. Gotta do realistic training, they'll do it just like we teach them.  
 
All in all it was a great deployment,  millions of things went very well, including the fact that we brought everyone back.  
 
 1SG Rudy Romero
 B co 1/187 IN
 101st ABN DIV
 
 Rakkasan!!