I want to throw up this blog to mention several other great websites and blogs that are covering the deployment of the 27th Brigade Combat Team from the New York National Guard. The 27th is my Brigade, and is the one currently in command of Task Force Phoenix. It is the Brigade that many of my friends are in and of course the Brigade that my son is in. These are all covering the Brigade either by stories or through blogs from the members themselves. These are great sites to bookmark and subscribe to in order to stay up on the latest happenings of the 27th BCT during its deployment.

http://www.syracuse.com/following-orion/

http://www.effectscell.com/Phoenix%20Effects%20Cell/Welcome.html

http://arsicsouth7.wordpress.com/

http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/brigade/

http://buffalonews.typepad.com/voices_from_the_war/

http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/arng/27bct/27bct.php

I picked this blog story from one of my favorite miblogs to read, blackfive.net. Since it is about Afghanistan I think it is worthy to post here. Read for yourself, and make up your own mind.

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2008/07/from-gi-in-afgh.html

a second email from a different person on Baghram who saw the same thing

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2008/07/more-witness-em.html

Rather than write a new one blog I just picked up this story from USAToday. ’nuff said

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-07-24-Obama-troops_N.htm?csp=34

http://www.military.com/news/article/afghan-police-short-2300-trainers.html

Task Force Phoenix took over the training of Afghan National Police back in January 2007. My ETT team was sliced and diced from 13 guys to mentor an Afghan Army Battalion down to 4. As Puss would always say, all you can do with less is less. If you have a finite number of people in a unit (TF Phoenix) and you give them the mission of also training up the Police, then you are taking those trainers from somewhere. Guess what? They came from the ANA training ETT teams.

I talked about this at great length from Jan 2007 and on through this blog. It should not have taken 18 months for someone to admit this. The 2/7 Marines are in the southern sector and they are making great strides, because they were part of a surge of Marines and they have focused exclusively on training police. They are also over and above the normal numbers of TF Phoenix personnel.

Go ahead and search through this blog and find all the areas that I have talked about adding more forces, surging in troops and even about me talking with CJCS Mullen last December where I told him they had to get more soldiers there now because the TF Phoenix mission was broke without an additional brigade of soldiers just for the training of Police.

In a perfect world, they would surge over an entire Active Duty MP brigade just to train the police. Makes sense doesn’t it, send over 3000 Military Police to train Police!! I guess DOD is going to announce soon who they are possibly surging over within the next 30 days to beef up the forces in Afghanistan. All we can do is hope and pray they are able to send over an MP Brigade in order to focus on the training of the police. This would let the traditional TF Phoenix soldiers go back to training, mentoring and unfortunately leading the Afghan Army into combat and defeating all remaining enemies of Afghanistan and the coalition.

a frustrated Bouhammer out…

It was not on the words of bloggers, but instead on the blood of soldiers that America is beginning to wake up and see that Afghanistan is a bad war-zone. The forgotten war is starting to be noticed, also thanks to two Presidential candidates who’s words are covered by every media outlet imaginable. The article below is a good one. Read about how one of the soldiers killed at Wanat predicted a ‘bloodbath’.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25809464/

For the lost lives of SFC Joseph McKay, SGT Mark Palmateer, SFC Matthew Hilton and my very friend, Fayez. Check out the link below.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/220802,several-insurgents-killed-in-coalition-operation-in-afghanistan.html

This morning while sitting in a little diner in Bethlehem, PA I was reading my hotel provided copy of USA Today and I read what is probably one of the most insightful and dead-on pieces of text about the current situation in Afghanistan. It is written by a gentlemen by the name of Ralph Peters. If you are interested in the situation in Afghanistan (I assume you are because you are reading this blog), care about our foreign policy in the region or would like to get a God’s honest truth of some of the issues we face there as a country, then please click on the link below and read this piece.

I caught myself with a smile on my face as I read this because Mr. Peters has put into words what I and many others have been trying to say for a while. One thing that he said in the article that really caught my eye was this.

“We’re experiencing something never seen before in Afghanistan: The great majority of the people welcome or at least tolerate a foreign presence.

Afghans want peace. They tried Taliban rule, and many didn’t like it. They appreciate the relative security, glimmers of prosperity and promises of development that a Western presence delivers. For all its daunting problems, this is a country with hope.”

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/07/modest-goals-fo.html#more

http://arsicsouth7.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/afghan-medevac-unit-transports-first-patients/

Unless you have been been to Afghanistan, it is probably difficult to appreciate the significance and importance of the event mentioend in the link above. This is a huge step forward for the Afghan Army and Afghanistan in general. I am generally enthusiastic to see the Afghans running their own medevac.

Here are the first details of the attack on the outpost and FOB at Wanat in Kunar Province Afghanistan. This story is the result of interviews with survivors of the attack while they are recuperating in Landstuhl, Germany. I had no doubt that there was going to be some great stories of bravery to come out of this terrible attack. This is the first recount I have read of the attack and I am sure there are more to come.

The terrible loss of 173rd Airborne soldiers has been all over the news lately. I encourage you to take 5 minutes and read the following story. Take some time and try to imagine the hell they were going through as they were fighting for their lives.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=56237

So everyone has been following the news, especially about our brothers back east from the 173rd (may they rest in peace). There is a state of panic and anxiousness where I am at. There are big plans in the works for things all across the country as I type this, but so far little response after the incurring attacks on US/Coalition Forces. We have officially become the “old” guys here on the teams and we are under our 60 day mark. All of us are trying to find our own ways to deal with our short-timers attitude and well to simply stay alive. I have been sidelined by an unexpected injury, a hamstring tear. My days of running missions for the last month are out of the question. The weird part is I do not feel guilty or as if I am missing out on something. My brethren here have been very supportive and well I think a bit happy about it. I have a new team (again) which is very common for the ETT/PMT studs to rotate in to fill gaps. This new team has been here only a short time but biting at the chance to deal damage to the bad guys with their ANA counterparts. I applaud them for their positive attitudes during this surge of violence. I was told to rest up, help with anything I can concerning the team, but most importantly enjoy the earned down time. I was going through with my team NCOIC about my NCOER, end of tour award, and all that other stuff you have to deal with. In doing so, I have accomplished over 100 combat patrols. To say the least they added up pretty quickly. My hair was blown back on that!!!
I saw that my post was also put onto The Sandbox.com with the great guys from Doonesbury. I want to let everyone know that since I have been back I have gotten a new found perspective. Rest and the love of family and friends has helped me back on a normal course. We all take steps to “get straight” before we head back to the real world. For me, this is the end of my Army career. After 11 years I am walking away for personal reasons, but before I do so, I have made a promise to make sure my mind, body, and soul have come full circle to put this all behind me as so many others have had to do. All of us, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq, regardless of how many tours have had to deal with demons. I came back here again to deal with mine. This time though, I can honestly say that they will stay here. For all those who have commented, supported, and read the posts….THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT. Michael

Last week I was online working as I always am, and a familiar name popped up on my instant messaging client. It was my old terp, and good buddy Jawed. If you ever read the blog entries that I wrote on here back in 2006-2007 that name should sound familiar. Jawed was one of the terps that spent a lot of time downrange with me. He and I got to know each other through hours of talking in the Humvee.

It had been a while since I had heard from him so I was pleased to see his “hey Top, are you there” comment pop up. Of course I quickly responded and asked how he and all the terps were doing. Once he told me he was fine, me told me that he was just coming back from a 3 week mission so that is why I had not heard from him in a while.

He then proceeded to tell me one of my terps, who I also spent many hours with talking both in the FOB and downrange had been killed. He told me that Fayez was killed about two weeks earlier in an ambush. Ironically Fayez was the terp in a truck with 3 National Guard soldiers that was ambushed a couple of weeks ago. Two of the soldiers were from my brigade in New York. I was very sad to hear that my youngest terp, Fayez, who was only about 20-21 years old, was killed in that attack.

However I was pissed off and angry to hear how he died. Jawed told me that Fayez had survived the initial IED blast and even the subsequent small arms ambush. At some point I assume that all 3 soldiers had been killed and this (for some reason I don’t know) allowed the enemy fighters to make it all the way to the Humvee. I had seen news reports of the enemy fighters holding up an U.S. issued M4 rifle the day after the attack but was not sure it was legitimate from that attack. Well I guess it was true because Jawed told me that the enemy fighters got to the truck, pulled Fayez from the truck and executed him right there in the road. That is what really pisses me off, to think that the last thing he saw was these a**holes standing over him. He was just a boy to me, but he was a patriot, he helped support many Americans (not just me), and he was truly trying to do something good for his country, and there are not many of those over there.

Jawed and I chatted a little bit more. He was very sorry that he had to tell me that, but I thanked him for being the bearer of bad news. I told him to let all the terps know my whole team is constantly thinking of them and praying for their safety too. I miss chatting, BSing and joking around with all of my terps. I would sit for hours in a humvee or in meetings with the ANA and constantly joke with these guys. We ate together, we joked and we shared a lot of information about our cultures.

I had emailed with Fayez regularly since I had come back from Afghanistan and I was glad to see I saved many of those emails. I won’t ever get any more from him, but I will cherish the ones I got, in addition to the photos I have of him also.

I am so sorry Fayez that you died the way that you did. You will be truly missed, not only by your Afghan family and friends, but also by your American brothers-in-arms. May Allah bring you in as a true martyr for your faith. You more than deserve it.