Russell in Afghanistan Update #9 – Time Plays Tricks On You In The North

Greetings all,

Where do I begin? This has been an extremely difficult few weeks for all of us. Spring is now upon us and I fully anticipate temperatures and tensions to escalate higher and higher for a seamless and masterful transition into a hellish summer. The most important news – what I should probably address first – is our most recent Troops-In-Contact event. Obviously, I cannot address much more beyond the fact that Master Sergeant Doug Reed, a great soldier, husband and father of seven was wounded in action last week. Troops talking about casualties to back home is always a delicate situation, so suffice it to say we were on an operation, we were engaged with the enemy, and he was wounded. Much more detailed information is available from the internet, but for the sake of our operations, his family, their right to privacy, and the discipline in our unit, I won’t be more detailed. He has since been transported to Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, and awarded the Purple Heart Medal and Combat Infantryman Badge. Doug is one of our best Soldiers and an integral part of our family here. He will be missed greatly, but we know well that if any one of us had been wounded, he would pick us up, encourage us to continue on and so would want us to do just that without him. Doug is the quintessential volunteer. He volunteered to join the Army, further volunteered to be infantry, a parachutist, and in the true fashion of a National Guard Citizen-Soldier, is also a volunteer fire department chief in the City of Jackson. I wish Doug and his family a swift and as painless a recovery as possible and all the strength they need for the future. I can guarantee that every last one of us is looking forward to that day a few months from now when we get off a plane or bus in Ohio and Doug is there with his trademark flattop haircut and confident if mischievous grin. If not, we’ll get down to Texas after Ohio, come hell or high water.

To aid in the logistics of his recovery and reintegration back to normal life, whenever that may be, a fund has been set up. Anyone who is compelled to donate, may mail their donation to:

The Doug Reed Courage Fund
c/o Atomic Credit Union
711 Beaver Creek Road
Piketon, OH 45661

Things have been heating up in our sector. It seems that it’s a race between various insurgent forces and the coalition to push resources to areas of Afghanistan that AREN’T Helmand or Kandahar. Meanwhile, we’re left holding down the fort and trying to shape the battlefield for future operations and units. I use this analogy quite a bit, but attempting to train and mentor the Afghan National Army while conducting a heated counterinsurgency at a fervent pace is like trying to repair a jet engine while in flight. It’s tiring and frustrating work. We conditioned ourselves through months of training at Fort Riley and in Hungary for what we refer to – often derisively – as “expectations management”. We set our sights on realistic goals, if low, to prevent burnout. We know that we’re not going to turn our unit into the unit that finds Bin Laden and wins the war in six short months. But we can nudge them a little closer to whatever a successful unit is considered to be by the folks on the strategic level. Well… setting your sights low isn’t enough sometimes. Performance of simple tasks which are considered completely remedial in our Army cannot be overlooked in the Afghan National Army. They’re remedial to us because they’re backed by 500 years of western military tradition, but to the ANA they’re often novel concepts. I have to keep forcing myself to step back and make sure I’m looking at my ANA through the proper filter. To fighters in Afghanistan – be they ANA, insurgent or other – fighting the Soviets, fighting between the various factions during the post-Soviet era or the Taliban roll-in, and even fighting the invading American forces early in the war, the common model of success to emulate was that of the insurgent’s ambush party. While we won’t have ANA tanks, infantry and helicopters conducting complex combined-arms assaults anytime soon, it is a small improvement to get them to take canteens and radios to an operation with them. It’s just not how they previously operated, and it’s not what success used to be defined as for them. While we have seen some very good ANA units come and go, and sparks of brilliance within our own ANA, we are at – in most areas – a sub-basic-training level still.

Things here are as okay as they can be, otherwise. Missions have been coming and going and days have been blurring together. Instead of telling me things have peaked and the worst is behind us, every combat action leads me to believe another more intense one is still yet to be had. Compared to my time in Iraq, this mission and tour have proven completely different in every possible way. The pace, the intensity, and the opportunity for close combat were completely absent from my previous deployment. I’m happy with having chosen to be an officer and an infantryman, and am lucky to have this opportunity to be a combat advisor. The thing about being a combat advisor in this war, in the north (an up-until-now undersupporrted region) is that even at your home base you’re out in the middle of nowhere. When you go out with your ANA you’re basically way out there with your neck out, with significantly fewer ANA troops than you’d like, way more vulnerable than you’re comfortable with, in a place – physically and tactically – where common sense would tell you never to put yourself, running around trying to get somebody else’s army to do those things that your army would do instinctively. I remarked to my sergeant soon after one of our major troops-in-contact events, “you know, I would have really liked to know what it’s like to go into combat with a company of 120 U.S. infantry soldiers all around me just to know what it’s supposed to feel like before I go in there with a few dozen ANA.”

Time is a relative and tricky thing in our existence right now. More resources and U.S. forces roll into the north on a daily basis. Some units move in virtually overnight, some units have been taking painstaking weeks or months to get here (namely the ones we NEED). MSG Reed was the beneficiary of a newcomer surgical team to our neighborhood. Sometimes a day will take forever to get over with. Today, I sit here wondering where the last two weeks went. I look at tomorrow and the next few weeks and agonize over a mile-long list of things I need to bring to my ANA commander’s attention that we need to work on or pay attention to. By tomorrow I’ll probably be paring it down, wondering what the most important things are for me to work on to set the stage before my replacement arrives. Trying to perceive time in the 700MPH-or-0MPH world of combat advising in the north is like being trapped in the famous painting The Persistence of Memory.

Here’s a story from the ISAF (International Security And Assistance Force) website that highlights an event from one of our more recent missions:

Other than that, I still occupy a spot on the waitlist at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and hope to hear in a few weeks whether I’m far up enough on the list to be offered a spot in their first round of offers. Until then, the most I can really do from Afghanistan is add another letter of recommendation to my packet and try to find the time to retake an undergraduate class or two for a better grade. I’m registered for a correspondence class, but with the way our internet connection’s been working and the way our summer operations tempo has been picking up, I may have to ignore the class until we return home in July/August. Any recommendations by folks who have been waitlisted by prestigious graduate schools are more than welcome )

As we plod forward through our tour, my immediate future is pretty hazy and I’m okay with that. I want to make huge plans and jump into a 2010 campaign, start applying for jobs, or start packing for DC, but the truth is I have no idea what the first few months back home will look like. I came home from Iraq on January 11 2005 and immediately moved in with Mary and started 18 hours of classes on January 17 and didn’t give it a rest until our honeymoon seven months later. In retrospect, it may have been wiser to take some time off and enjoy life. Until I figure out school or a job upon coming home, I’m okay with spending time alone with Mary, seeing an Indians game or two, reintegrating enormous cheeseburgers into my weekly diet, and not having to make 30-50 decisions daily.

Our mailing address has changed, as they inevitably do, and I’ve included it below. I would say May 15th is the absolute latest day something can be sent to me.
RUSSELL GALETI
OMLT ORTHUS
CAMP KHELAGAI
APO AE 09368

As always, you can read this and previous posts or pass along the link: www.russellgaleti.wordpress.com

I am sincerely grateful for all the letters, packages, emails, and encouragement folks have been sending my way. Again, the most important items we can possibly receive are new and gently-used children’s clothing, school supplies and first-aid supplies for the people in our area. Please keep Master Sergeant Reed and his family in your prayers as he recovers from his injuries.

Sincerely,
Russell Galeti

Pro patria!

RUSSELL P GALETI JR
1LT, IN, OHARNG
Operational Mentor and Liaison Team

“When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen; and we shall most sincerely rejoice with you in the happy hour when the establishment of American Liberty, upon the most firm and solid foundations shall enable us to return to our Private Stations in the bosom of a free, peaceful and happy Country.” – George Washington in a letter to the New York Legislature, June 26, 1775

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1LT Russell P. Galeti, Jr., during an operation in March 2010, overlooking the village of Qaysar Khel, Baghlan, Afghanistan

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