Bayonet Soldiers Reflect on Role in Afghanistan Story by SSG Christopher Klutts BALKH PROVINCE, Afghanistan – As U.S. Army 1st Lt. Zachary Weigelt and Staff Sgt. Christopher Lepczyk conducted their final patrols in Shor Tepah district, they didn’t act like soldiers preparing to return home – they acted like men leaving it. “It’s finally setting in,” said Weigelt, a Missouri Valley, Iowa native at an Afghan police compound. He was halfway through a four-day mission to transfer his responsibilities to a fellow platoon leader in C Company, 40th Engineer Battalion, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. It was less than a week before he and his soldiers started travel back to Baumholder, Germany, after nine months deployed to Afghanistan’s border with Uzbekistan. In a country where U.S. soldiers have conducted missions for more than 10 years, Shor Tepah was still relatively uncharted territory when C Company soldiers arrived in early 2011. Lepczyk, a Las Vegas native, now a squad leader, said his platoon patrolled to the village more times in their first month than the previous unit had during their yearlong deployment. Before the surge of troops to Afghanistan in 2010, there were nearly no U.S. forces in the district. “People wanted to know if we were Germans because they’d never seen Americans before,” said Lt. Col. Erik Zetterstrom, a Duxbury, Vt., native, now the 40th Engineer Battalion commander. Soldiers with 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team across Regional Command North are transitioning from traditionally structured battalions to streamlined security force advisory teams. As part of that transition, Weigelt and his soldiers were sent home. But gains in security and ongoing infrastructure projects will not be sacrificed. Another platoon from C Company will still patrol to Shor Tepah until they too return to Baumholder in early 2012. After that, projects underway will be monitored by soldiers from the next unit, although they will primarily focus on advising Afghan security forces, Zetterstrom said. When they arrived, soldiers with 4th Platoon were ordered to train and partner with Afghan police and to assist the district government in providing essential services to its people, said Capt. Neil Kester, Greenville, S.C., native, now the C Company commander. Deep relationships were forged through mutual needs, Lepczyk said. Police showed the soldiers alternate routes through the district’s narrow village roads, around its web of irrigation systems and across its desert expanse. Soldiers showed police new ways to fight and commanders how to better equip their patrolmen. Most of Weigelt and Lepczyk’s farewells were quiet. An Afghan Border Police commander sat still like a statue on the floor with his legs folded as he shifted prayer beads on a necklace in his hands. His eyes were fixed somewhere beyond those in the meeting. He listened to the interpreter translate the news that his partners would be heading home. “People see the building projects, the schools, the bridge and it’s good they see that,” he said. “But they don’t see the good you’ve done for us in training.” Both police commanders in Shor Tepah said they were aware that transition after transition will eventually lead to the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from the country. The chief of police in Shor Tepah said, “I’m sure we can handle the security of this area. We grew up with war. Everybody knows about the fight.” His point is evident at one the district’s schools where a spent artillery round is used as a bell. At the end of each multiday stay at the police compound, U.S. soldiers buy food that the Shor Tepah district chief of police insists on preparing. Their last mission was no exception. Weigelt enlisted soldiers from the incoming platoon to cut vegetables. The chief of police directed his patrolmen and the soldiers as if he were calling orders during a mission. Three hours later, Lepzcyk helped carry platters of the meal from the outdoor kitchen into the compound’s dining room, bootless, as he was still in someone else’s home. His standard issue socks padded the tile of a room he’d eaten in many times, but would never see again.
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Posted
Nov 01 2011, 02:00 AM
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