The Kunar ADT and The Afghan COIN Fight

Once in the Chowkay River we took a moment to see where the high water marks were. The sunlight was just right to see the change in the rock’s color indicating where the high water marks were. The Chowkay River had risen up over thirty feet, more than once, in its lifetime. Sgt Percival and I started a hasty survey of the river taking photos and GPS readings but no tape measurements. The canyon walls were interfering with the accuracy of the GPS elevation readings. We concluded that any improvement project would be a major undertaking, which the security of the valley wouldn’t support. Further down the river was a set of retaining walls on either side that prevented us from walking along the river banks. The retaining walls started at the headwater of a concrete lined canal that fed the micro-hydro power plant, which our commander and LTC Velte were going to inspect. LTC Velte was an electrician by trade. We climbed on top of the canal wall and walked to a point where our two patrols would have to split up. Our commander and LTC Velte, 1SGT, SFC Fair, SGT Arnold’s security team and our USDA rep followed the aqueduct and I took SGT Percival and Corporal Derouen’s security team back down into the river for some more GPS points and photos. Corporal Derouen’s team included SPC Clements, Spc Rivera, and Spc Arechiga. A few minutes after we dropped down into the river, we heard the 105 rounds impacting in the mountains above Seray Village. I noticed a man sitting by the river relaxing and reading a book. We kept right on going. We had moved about another 500 feet when SGT Percival found a beautiful muscovite rock. He cleaned it off and I put it in his backpack for him. I had just zipped up his backpack when two 105 rounds struck the ridge line. Then we heard the sound of an RPG go off. We looked up toward the road and saw the black smoke from the impact. The next sound we heard was a PKM machine gun going off. We stopped for a second to attempt to determine where the rounds were coming from. Knowing from which direction the rounds are coming determines which side of a rock you hid behind. At the same time, over at the micro-hydro plant our commander’s team came across two poppy fields. Our USDA rep took a few cuttings to bring back to verify they were poppies. This crop hadn’t bulbed yet so the discovery needed to be verified back at the office. LTC Velte noticed a man securing his cow to a tree, then disappear. LTC Velte observed some of the first PKM rounds fired hit about 20 feet from their group. By then the ADT was returning fire to the mountain above us. The host unit still didn’t know that they were taking fire; they just assumed it was the registration rounds. Once they got the word from us they flooded the radio net making it difficult for our gunners and drivers to communicate over the intercoms. Fortunately we had our own LMR (Land Mobile Radio), but the canyon walls were also interfering with our LMRs. We could hear the rounds flying over our heads and we went for improved cover. SGT Percival and I agreed that the targets were the trucks not us. I tried calling our other patrol on the LMR to see if they needed me to set up near side security on the river, but couldn’t make contact. We took an extra minute or two to scope out the situation. SGT Percival was able to see a crevice that had been carved out by storm water leading down between two farmers fields. Corporal Derouen waved the two of us forward with SPC Rivera leading the way. We vaulted over several stone walls. I got stuck straddling one wall. My foot sunk in the mud so I didn’t have enough oomph to get over in one jump. I received a friendly push from below and promptly stuck the other foot into the mud on the other side. I think I know why these farmers are having problems with their wheat crops. They are watering for rice. We hopped a few more rock walls until we reached the crevice. Corporal Derouen saw where the RPG gunner was and laid down some suppressive fire while we worked our way up the crevice. I gave SGT Percival a boost up one rock face then threw him my M-4 and was able to pull myself up. I turned and gave a hand up to Spc Clements who assisted Spc Arechiga. I looked up in time to see an RPG go haywire from its projectory and burst in the air in front of an approaching Kiowa. The Kiowa’s response was instantaneous as we could see the 2.75” rocket’s impact on the mountain and hear their 50 cal burst. The Kiowas would fly over us firing at the insurgents and peel off then the ADT would lay down more MK-19 and 50 cal fire. We couldn’t hear any returning fire from the other unit. Then we heard one of the pilots announce that he saw one insurgent chuck his AK-47 at the mouth of a cave, which had a pile of RPGs in it. The second Kiowa swooped in and fired several 2.75” rockets into the cave. The resulting explosion looked like the 4th of July. Whatever was in that cave blew a hail storm of rocks down into the canyon.