Light Infantry and Afghanistan

[tankersteve]

While this is probably not the norm, it is about as good as it gets in Afghanistan. CPT Howell was my counterpart at NTC. He didn't learn anything from me that allowed his unit to do this. Including the PFC and the selector lever...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04...age...er Hicks, NYT)

KORANGAL OUTPOST, Afghanistan — Only the lead insurgents were disciplined as they walked along the ridge. They moved carefully, with weapons ready and at least five yards between each man, the soldiers who surprised them said. Last week, members of Second Platoon, Company B, surprised a Taliban column and killed at least 13.


Fight by fight, the infantryman’s war in Afghanistan is often waged on the Taliban’s terms. Insurgents ambush convoys and patrols from high ridges or long ranges and slip away as the Americans, weighed down by equipment, return fire and call for air and artillery support. Last week a patrol from the First Infantry Division reversed the routine....

Once the soldiers reached the ridge’s crest, almost 6,000 feet above sea level on the side of a peak called Sautalu Sar, they found fresh footprints on the trails, and parapets of rock from where Taliban fighters often fire rifles and rocket-propelled grenades down onto this outpost...

In all, the soldiers found eight bodies on the crest. They photographed them to try to identify them later, and collected their weapons, ammunition, radios and papers. Then the patrol swept down a gully where a pilot said he saw more insurgents hiding.