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Task force after Taliban target

Army News Service

Release Date: 3/10/2004

By Staff Sgt. Jeff Troth

FOB SOLERNO, Afghanistan (Army News Service, March 10, 2004) -- The word came in. An intelligence report said a possible Taliban commander was nearby and task force leaders quickly formulated a plan to seal off the village.

Three hours later Soldiers of Task Force 1-501st Parachute Infantry Regiment were in the village near Forward Operating Base Salerno searching for the Taliban leader.

The mission was two-prong. Company B flew by CH-47 Chinook helicopters to positions surrounding the village to provide a cordon in order to prevent anyone from entering or escaping from the village. Company C and Detachment D convoyed to the location and then started their search for the man after nightfall.

"The mission went well," said Capt. William Brown, executive officer for Co. C. "We were able to, within a few hours, mass three full companies at our objective. We had the area cordoned off and had total control of the area and started the search."

In the house where their intended target was, they did not find the man, but found several rifles and munitions. The search continued the next day throughout village and in the target's house, where several more munitions were found buried.

This was not the only cache that was found. When Detachment D's 1st platoon rolled into the village, their mission was to pull security within the city. It was determined that they would be more effective on the outskirts of the village. This proved to be a worthwhile move.

"We were pulling security when Sgt. (Jonathan) Wells saw a strap hanging out of a haystack," said Cpl. Eric Townsend. "There were four or five guys that tried to stop us from searching the haystacks."

The Soldiers did not pay attention to the locals and found several recoilless rifle rounds, a hand grenade, a RPG round, armor-piercing rounds and an antitank mine hidden in the hay. Besides the munitions, also stashed in the stacks was a uniform and a briefcase which contained pictures of the target and other high ranking Taliban members, passports and money.

"Other than the guys at the haystacks, everyone else in the village was cooperative," said Townsend.

Co. B Soldiers were surprised at the help they received at one household.

"They were friendly, they brought all the stuff out to us," said Staff Sgt. Jack Hensley, 2nd squad leader for Co. B's 3rd platoon. What the teen males of the house gave the Soldiers was around 3,000 AK rounds, 2,000 rounds for 303 enfield rifles, a fuse for a 107mm rocket and 100 sticks of RPG propellant.

"They said that it had been taken from a rival village," Hensley said. "After they brought the munitions out we still searched the compound and found some rifles. The kids said they didn't bring them out because they thought they were able to have them."

Besides collecting the weapons and munitions the task force members also gathered information about the village. U.S. Soldiers sat down with the village elders and found out what they needed.

"We told them that we were there not just for the guy, but also to do a village assessment, to see what they needed," said 1st Lt. Brett Sheats, forward observation officer for Co. C. "We tried to balance out the fact that we had come in and disrupted their routine for a day with the offer of help."

During the meeting, the elders said that their village needed a well and a clinic.

Although the Soldiers moved quickly into location, they did not catch their target. But, the munitions and weapons taken from the houses was enough to equip a small army.

"The mission was still a success. It gives them less tools to attack us with," said Brown. "I still think that there is a lot more stuff in the village, but we would have had to spend a couple days there to find it all."

Regardless of that, Brown said that the biggest payoff for the mission was psychological not material.

"We showed them that when there is a bad guy in their village, we can show up within a couple hours, search their town and take away guys with close ties to the target."