Operation Mountain Sweep

On this day 20 years ago, 3rd Battalion 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment embarked on a seven day operation in eastern Afghanistan.

This wasn’t the first operation for many of us; we had been in country for almost six weeks. Some of us had been outside the wire for various smaller operations like supporting Special Operations Forces, security operations, and other various tasks. But, none of us had been involved in anything this large.

To date, after the forty months I spent in combat, this operation was the most expansive, physically taxing, and intricate operation I participated in.

It started with a large helicopter lift from Kandahar Airfield. It took two full turns with CH-47 Chinook helicopters to get us all on the ground. Those helos were operating with additional fuel tanks because each leg of the trip took two and a half hours. I spent almost five hours on the ground with only half my force. And that’s how it began.

We made four different air movements in those seven days, securing five different objectives. I wrote before about our long walk on that first night in my blog Priorities. We did a daytime seizure of an old Soviet airfield to assess if it could be used by U.S. forces for continued operations. That was the first night I was shot at. The battalion perimeter took three rockets; two falling short and one landing inside the ring of Paratroopers and all of them in my Company sector. Thankfully no one was injured. Our response was quick and overwhelming. We returned fire with company and battalion mortars on the suspected launch site, delivering high explosives on anyone that would have remained. The following night, my company set out on an ambush to see if anyone dared return to fire on us again. No one did.

We moved, as a battalion, over those seven days to places that had never seen Americans before. We did finally end up clearing Shah-i-Kot Valley, the location of the famous Operation Anaconda about six months previous. Alpha Company was high in the mountains, watching our every move. Charlie Company was trailing behind me. Delta Company was up on the Whale in the west keeping an eye on old enemy positions. There was a Special Forces team moving in front of me. My company, Bravo Company, was tasked to clear the valley from north to south, ensuring the Taliban had not repopulated the area.

We all bedded down in the valley that night, begging anyone to come find us and pick a fight. No one did. We resupplied with water, batteries, and food. I doubt many folks slept that night. The following day, we walked back north through the valley to a place where Alpha and Charlie company could fly back to Kandahar. That left Bravo, Delta, and the headquarters elements in the valley for a second night. I know for a fact I didn’t sleep that night. I honestly felt that after being there for over twenty four hours and now having half the force on the ground, we would be attacked. Again, thankfully it never came.

The next morning, the helos arrived to take the rest of us back, knowing that our Delta company still had to make the long drive to return to Kandahar. That was it. Seven days, five objectives, four air movements. Zero casualties. We were tired. We were filthy. We were hungry. But we had spent the last seven days doing what we had trained to do as a battalion, so we were also happy. Happy to be where we were, doing what we were doing.

We didn’t know that was the beginning of 20+ years of doing the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan. We didn’t know our efforts would be culminated with a harried and unfortunate withdrawal. All we knew was that we had been tested physically, emotionally, mentally.

That group of men, that battalion, that team was the best unit I served with in my career.

H-Minus!!!