Hello from Kandahar, Afghanistan, home of the Triple Deuce.We are on month seven of our little vacation over here and the boys are doing wonderful. We’ve been conducting operations almost continuously over the last few weeks, operating in three distinct areas of operations at the same time. It should be no surprise to anyone that the boys have done a great job.
We continue to disrupt the ability of the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other anti-coalition forces to operate in our AO. We’ve continued our mounted patrolling in the city of Kandahar throughout the month of January. Between vehicle checkpoints, weapons inspections, and other patrols, we’ve conducted over 40 missions this month alone. We’ve also been involved in two direct action high-value target (HVT) missions with the objective of capturing two different high-ranking Taliban bad guys. We didn’t catch them either time, but we weren’t far behind. Those guys know they aren’t safe anywhere in this country, even in their traditional stomping grounds.
Triple Deuce has also picked up operations in the city of Qalat, to the north, finding and destroying caches as well paving the way for the first conventional civil affairs and PSYOPs activities in that area since U.S. troops have been in Afghanistan. We’ve established a command post there and have been continuously patrolling for fifteen days, walking hundreds of miles and driving thousands, with no injury to any 2-22 soldier. The mission in Qalat is simple: kill the Taliban and destroy his caches. So far it’s working; the enemy up there is choosing to run rather than fight, and every day we’re finding and seizing his weapons.
Sadly, we’ve sustained our first hostile fire casualties of the deployment this month. Three Bravo Company soldiers manning a guard tower were hit with shrapnel from a RPG while securing a fire base north of Kandahar. These three soldiers saw the rocket launched and knew it was headed for the tower, but they stood in the face of direct fire to keep shooting. The result of their bravery was that the Afghan who fired the rocket was killed. These three soldiers have each received the ARCOM with “V” device and the Purple Heart. All three soldiers are doing well, considering the shrapnel wounds they received to their faces and arms. They will all retain vision in at least one eye, and the outlook keeps getting better as they continue their treatment.
Our soldiers’ performance has been no surprise. They keep executing to a high level every day, never letting the enemy rest and disrupting the hell out of his ability to operate and communicate. The result is that we’re winning this war, and the Taliban knows it. We know you’re supporting us back there, and we really appreciate your thoughts and prayers. “Deeds not Words!” ============================
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