70 ARMY n September 2008

Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Air-borne Division (Air Assault), trudge up steep slopes in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

Text and Photographs by Paul Avallone

In Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne Division

Charlie Company, 2-506th, moved into the Hesco-barrieredCharbaran District Center, in Afghanistan’s Paktika Province,and assumed control of most of the battlespace of the 173rdAirborne Brigade Combat Team, which was redeploying toItaly after 15 months in country.

ell ‘em we’re here, too,”

the soldier tells me in the

gray light before sunrise

on a ridgeline 7,800 feet

up in the mountains of eastern Afghan-

istan. “Not just the marines,” he adds

with what could be scorn but is

simply understandable envy.

He’s a Currahee, from the U.S.

Army’s 2nd Battalion, 506th

Infantry Regiment, 4th

Brigade Combat Team

(BCT), whose lineage is

traced directly to the

famous Band of

Brothers from the

101st Airborne

September 2008 n ARMY 71

Division’s World War II history. Currahee, a Cherokee wordmeaning “stand alone,” is also the name of the mountain inGeorgia upon which the Band of Brothers trained.

But that was 65 years ago, and hardly anyoneknows these Currahees now. By namesake, it’sappropriate, perhaps, that these men of CharlieCompany are in these hills, though much higher

up, trudging with much more gear, fighting a much moreelusive enemy than their Company E forebears.

Although it is summer now, the altitude, along with the

72 ARMY n September 2008

PAUL AVALLONE, a former Green Beret, served in Afghan-istan in 2002–03 and was an embedded journalist there withthe 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) in 2006. He haswritten several articles in ARMY Magazine, most recentlyin the June issue (“Settling into Afghanistan”).

The soldiers, known as Currahees, aggressively patrol the Char-baran district of Paktika day and night, crossing stream beds(above) and plodding up and down barren hills (right). Before the ar-rival of the 173rd Airborne, there was no police outpost in the area.The rugged terrain served as a staging area for the Taliban for oper-ations into other areas of the province.

74 ARMY n September 2008

slight breeze, makes for the uncomfort-able cold, enhanced greatly by the factthat the two dozen or so soldiers of thisplatoon are soaked to the skin in sweatfrom last night’s 4-hour movementhere.

It was a cross-country trek, in hid-den draws and gullies, up and downthe hills—each soldier in 50 to 60pounds of body armor and kit, plus an-other 30 pounds at least in weapons,extra ammunition and water.

The platoon’s mission was toreach this ridgeline aroundmidnight, then hunker downand overwatch a stretch of

dirt road about 700 meters away for

Three soldiers from Charlie Company bend away as a 120 mm mortarround lights the night, illuminating the loose rock that makes walking difficult.

A platoon from Charlie Company headsinto the hills on a road patrol. During day-

light patrols, the soldiers assert theirpresence to the scattered settlements

and introduce themselves to the villagersas guests of the Afghan government.

76 ARMY n September 2008

Members of CharlieCompany talk with

tribal elders in Pak-tika. The soldiers

try to assure localsthat their govern-

ment is committedto restoring and

maintaining secu-rity in the long-

neglected region.

A tribal elder speaks during a shura, or council meeting, in Paktika Province as an Afghan National Police officer pours chai.

78 ARMY n September 2008

the next eight to 12 hours. It was on that stretch that a con-voy of a company of the 173rd Brigade would march, enroute to a forward operating base (FOB) to redeploy to theirVicenza, Italy, home after their 15-month tour was hit by animprovised explosive device (IED) just days earlier. Therewere no injuries or deaths, but it was a warning to CharlieCompany, which had just moved into a temporary patrolbase at the district center a few miles away: The Taliban areout there, and they like to use familiar IED sites. Each nighta different element of the company has overwatched thatroad from different vantage points and in movements likethis platoon’s the previous night—exhausting, draining—up and down the hills.

The soldier adds, concerning the marines, “They’re do-ing six months here, and we’re doing 15.”

The soldier’s complaint is valid. His 4th BCT, along withhis 101st Division Headquarters, came to Afghanistan atabout the same time as the marines, in March, yet it’s themarines who seem to be getting most of the media attentionin the States. When the soldiers are back at the FOBs, wherethere is Internet and Armed Forces Network television,they see the coverage from back home. It focuses on themarines deployed in Helmand Province to help the Britishforces there fight an entrenched Taliban enemy. They read

the e-mails from family and friends saying, “Thank Godyou’re not with the marines.”

The 2nd Battalion originally deployed to Kandahar (theneighboring province to Helmand, which, like Helmand, isunder NATO command) as a tactical task force (TTF) in sup-port of the Canadians in Kandahar and the British in Hel-mand. The marines’ arrival stripped the battalion of its mis-sion, and it was moved east under U.S. command, in limbofor more than a month until it could assume control of themajority of the departing 173rd’s battlespace. The soldiersliked being the TTF and were looking forward to the actionthey’d be seeing in Helmand; now they had been movedout. Now the battalion’s three line companies were dis-persed to three different remote rural district centers on aquickly drawn-up operation to interdict and disrupt the Tal-iban infiltration routes (known as “rat lines”) to and fromneighboring Pakistan.

Charlie Company arrived in country less than fivemonths after the 173rd came to Charbaran District,a remote, 7,000-foot elevation, with a scattering ofsettlements almost too small to be called villages.

Back in November 2007, just before the snows, the 173rdhastily erected a Hesco-barriered compound. In the spring,

The commanding officer of Charlie Company, accompanied by some of his sol-diers, shares his views at the shura with local residents in Charbaran District.

80 ARMY n September 2008

local contractors were paid to build twobrick-and-mortar structures and a sur-rounding rock wall; the place becamethe Charbaran District Center. Built in abowl surrounded by hills, the centerwas manned by two small platoons ofAfghan National Police (ANP). A fewweeks before Charlie Company’s ar-rival, the Taliban attacked and overranone of the two hilltop cinder-block ob-servation posts but were fought off bythe remaining ANP defenders below.

The Currahees’ arrival thisspring was a 5-hour groundconvoy in newly deliveredmine resistant ambush pro-

tected (MRAP) vehicles over risky dirtroads and a 12-minute air assault via CH-47 Chinook helicopters. Theyparked the MRAPs inside the sparse,electric-powerless compound, utilizing the vehicles asweapons platforms, command posts and off-and-on genera-tors to keep the radios and high-tech equipment charged.They beefed the center’s exterior security with more Hescos,sandbags and fences of concertina wire, while aggressivelypatrolling the area, day and night, upand down the hills. The daytime pa-trols were mostly to assert their pres-ence to the village settlements, to intro-duce themselves to the villagers as theAmerican guests of the Afghan gov-ernment, here to assure the locals thattheir central government was seriousabout wresting power from the Talibanand maintaining security in this long-neglected region.

The nighttime patrols were to takeup their positions and lay in wait,hoping the enemy would come, hop-ing for a successful ambush. That’swhat would make all that climbing

and stumbling in the dark, slipping in the loose rock,sometimes sliding butt-to-the-ground, always strugglingfor breath beneath that nearly hundred-pound load,worthwhile. Even if the enemy doesn’t show his face tofight, most likely they are watching—the Taliban.

Charlie Company soldiers drive a stakethat will soon support concertina wire.The effort beefed up exterior security

with more fences and sandbags atCharbaran District Outpost.

A Charlie Company lieutenant radiosat dawn. Even in summer, it can be

cold in the 7,000-foot elevation oftheir theater of operation.

Probably, they had seen the Currahees come in, andthey had lain low or moved out the long wayaround; either way, they were not going to con-front the American soldiers. They were likely

waiting for the Americans to leave—hoping they would,the sooner the better—perhaps correctly assuming that,spread so thin throughout the southern portion of theirbattlespace, the American brigade could not stay and holdevery remote, sparsely populated district, including places

like Charbaran. And they would be right. After a couple ofweeks, Charlie Company was directed to pack up andmove out, leaving the district center to the ANP and relo-cating to permanent FOBs, combat outposts and firebasesto replace the departing units of the 173rd.

On July 13, with only a few more days left in their 15-month tour, nine soldiers in the 173rd were killed in a bat-tle with more than 200 Taliban militants, the deadliest at-tack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan in three years. M

82 ARMY n September 2008

Newly delivered mine resistant ambush protected vehicles (MRAPs) traveled 5 hours over dangerous dirt roads to transportCharlie Company to the Charbaran outpost. The team uses the vehicles as weapons platforms, command posts and generators.

A soldier on patrol car-ries extra ammunition

magazines for the M203grenade launcher at-

tached to the barrel ofan M16 assault rifle.