National Guard Soldiers Patrol Qarabagh

2 July 07
By Sgt. Jim Wilt
CJTF-82 PAO.

QARABAGH, Afghanistan - “Get down! Get down! Get down!,” yelled Air Force Master Sgt. Jason Davis, an explosive ordnance disposal technician, seconds before shrapnel started raining down on the Soldiers and bouncing off their Humvee.

A day earlier, if not for the warning of a local farmer, the Soldiers’ truck would have struck the double-stacked antitank mine.

The warning enabled the Soldiers to stop before they hit the mine and safely dispose of it, possibly saving their lives and the lives of farmers and children working in the area. Soldiers from Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 138th Field Artillery Brigade, Kentucky National Guard, were conducting a mounted presence patrol in a village outside of Qarabagh when they were warned about mines in the area, June 14.

“[God is] watching over us,” said Spc. Greg A. Race, an artilleryman with Battery A.

Unfortunately for the convoy coming to destroy the mines, they didn’t receive the same warning before they hit a mine on the same road less than a kilometer from the halted patrol. The troopers credit the farmer with keeping a bad situation from getting worse.

“Most likely we would have hit that one and they would have hit the other one when they came in to get us,” said Race, a native of Piner, Ky. It also shows the impact the troopers are having in an area where people have been scared into silence by the Taliban. “A farmer stopping and telling you there is something in the road shows we’re having an effect on the area,” Race said.

The Guardsmen have been patrolling in the area since they arrived in March. Their squad leader, Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Linneman, said they had patrolled the same road just days earlier. The artillery unit, which is acting as military policemen, has been conducting mounted patrols because “more people see you out and about in the area,” Race said.

Most of the Soldiers in the unit prefer a mounted patrol despite the dangers of mines and improvised explosive devices. “The armor [on the trucks] works,” said Spc. Steven M. LaFever, a track mechanic and native of Louisville, Ky. Race also sees several advantages to having vehicles during patrols such as having armor, crew-served weapons, and the ability to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. “We cover more ground,” he said. “We see a lot more faces.”

Though the men of Battery A have vehicles, they don’t always use them. They are not afraid to get out of the armor and put a little wear on their boots. During their mounted patrols they stop to talk with the people, investigate suspicious activity and check on reconstruction projects in the area.

“I pray every time I go out. I pray every night when I lie down,” Race said. Whether mounted or dismounted, Race sees risk. “I’m a big believer [that] if it’s your time, it’s your time,” he said. “I’ve been like that forever.”

Photo - Sgt. Paul L. Wilkerson, a forward observer with Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 138th Field Artillery Regiment, Kentucky National Guard, pulls security at a school in Mushkay, Afghanistan, June 15. The unit stopped there during a mounted patrol in the Ghazni province. Wilkerson is a native of Lexington, Ky. Photo by Sgt. Jim Wilt.

Urgent Request

I know this rather unusual, but this site has more readers than most of my others. Please forgive my indulgence.

I have just found out that a couple of days ago a very good friend of mine was hospitalized and had triple by-pass surgery on his heart. I am begging for everyone who reads this to please pray for John Darby's speedy recovery. This means I expect him to recover.

Dear Heavenly Father,

You are the Supreme Doctor. You can hear our prayers, and You can Heal anyone of anything. Please hear my petition for John Darby. God, I know I've been away far too long, but please do not punish John for my sins. Please Heal him, Lord. Hear our prayers. I love you, Lord. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.

Search for missing Soldiers continues

15 May 2007
Multi-National Division – Center PAO.

BAGHDAD – Coalition and Iraqi Forces have been working around the clock since a pre-dawn attack Saturday that left one Iraqi and four U.S. Soldiers dead and three other U.S. Soldiers missing.

Every asset has been brought to bear in the hunt for the missing troops, who belong to Multi-National Division-Center, including search dogs, trucks with speakers, unmanned aerial vehicles, law enforcement advisers, and both U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Personnel monitoring Iraqi tip call-in lines have also been busy. Thousands of leaflets were dropped requesting information leading to the return of the Soldiers. The leaflets list telephone numbers for tip lines, and the information given is routed to units in the area.

Maj. Kenny Mintz, a native of San Diego, Calif., and the brigade operations officer for the 2nd BCT, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), out of Fort Drum, N.Y., said the 2nd BCT’s participation in the search for the Soldiers is continuing by all available means.

“Right now our focus is on searching for the missing Soldiers, and we’re trying to isolate the areas where we think they could be,” Mintz said. “The (captors) don’t have freedom of movement; if they have the Soldiers, they can’t move them from where they are. We’re doing a deliberate search of the areas for the people responsible for the Soldiers we’re looking for.”

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, an Multi-National Forces-Iraq spokesman, was the first to speak about the incident.
"Make no mistake,” Caldwell said Saturday. “We will never stop looking for our Soldiers until their status is definitely determined.”