Night Walk with 4-4 Cav

04 November 2011

It’s amazing how many lights can be seen on a dark night.  Especially if you are with the US military.  Different-colored lights are useful for differing purposes. The color you use can depend on your job. For medics, blue light is good for blood.  It’s also good for tracking blood trails.  Bright white is best but then the enemy can shoot you.  Red light can make blood disappear, but then again blue light makes petroleum look like blood, and so if you are treating patients at night from after an IED strike on a vehicle, there can be confusion.  American military maps are made to be “red light readable” because red light preserves night vision and is harder to see from a distance.  The question of lights and how to use them can soak up thousands of words and so let’s keep it simple and move on.

These are night photographs, and so the shadows are coming from moonlight, which of course is reflected sunlight.

The light on the Soldier’s helmet is called a firefly, or IR strobe.  The flashing infrared light is invisible to the naked eye but can be seen with night vision gear and also with my special camera.

Tonight was very bright and so it’s tempting not to wear the PVS-14 night vision device; it’s easier to walk without it.  But I—and probably 25 Soldiers over different missions—have been chastised by the commander, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Katona, for not wearing them.  After five previous combat tours, he runs herd on wearing the night vision no matter how bright the night.  During one mission, I joked with LTC Katona that he’ll still have on the PVS-14 at eight in the morning.  But it’s no joke and he’s right.  When the enemy starts firing, if you’ve got that night vision on you’ve got an instant and extreme advantage; if they are in a position to hit you, their muzzle flashes will be very bright through the PVS-14, and with the great accuracy of the M4 rifles, the troops can return decisive fire very quickly.  During a mission wherein it was very bright, an NCO and I were not using our PVS-14s, and I followed him right off the cleared trail.  IR chemlights were marking the trail but we didn’t even know that.  One of our Soldiers died similarly in September.  The Afghans don’t wear the PVS-14s, and some walked off the trail, and our Soldier was hit by an IED while following them.

Americans with night vision, Afghans without.

Both at night and daytime, it can be difficult to maintain convoy or patrol integrity.  You can end up with a slinky-effect, or often just a break in contact.  If it’s a big group, say 100 troops walking at night, and they keep a five-meter interval, that’s five hundred meters.  About a quarter mile.  And one big problem is that you don’t move like a snake where the head is connected by a long body to the tail.  You move more like a broken slinky, or many broken slinkies is more like it.  Southern Afghanistan is filled with obstacles such as grape rows, and so when the point element comes to a grape row, everyone ends up waiting while each person goes over.  A snake can only move its head a very short distance before the tail gets the message.  But with people, you end up kneeling and sitting a lot, and occasionally you have to move fast to catch up.

Movements with many Soldiers at night can get tricky and you can accidentally shoot each other.  For instance, during this movement, not far from where this photo was taken, the patrol took a right-hand turn that was about 90 degrees.  And so now instead of being in a line, we were in an L shape.  If you take contact, everyone must be very careful with their trigger finger.  Those night vision devices can be crucial advantages in deciding friend or foe.

It’s also difficult for the aircraft to decide who down below are friends versus enemies because every unit I’ve ever been with, or likely ever will be with, has breaks in contact during night movements.  That’s the way it goes.  And so sometimes the pilots will radio down saying to turn on fireflies if they are not already on.  The night vision gear that foot troops wear is great, but the aircrews have much better gear.  4-4 Cav was good at night movements, but let’s face it, this ain’t easy and that’s the way it goes.  Always using the PVS-14, no matter how bright the moon, was a big help.

In constricted terrain or built-up areas, movement becomes far more dangerous.  Much of the night advantage evaporates because the enemy can easily hide for a tight ambush.  He could remain hidden in broad daylight.  When close firefights begin, you can’t call airstrikes or artillery, but those crazy Kiowa pilots can help tip the scales back in our guys’ favor, but that’s only if the weather is okay and they are around.  Such areas can lead to straight-up slugfests, and if the enemy has realized you might come this way—which has often been the case—there might be many bombs hidden in the walls or the path, or in places you might seek cover.  At some point, it’s just extremely dangerous and that’s tough luck and part of the job.  Heck, all of this is extremely dangerous, but these areas can be extra-extremely dangerous, as the Marines and British saw so often around places like Sangin.  The troops keep going.

The Soldiers rested a few hours inside an Afghan family compound.  Poppy plants were drying on the roof and they had a giant dog but he was quiet.

While most of the Soldiers got to rest, others pulled guard duty and leaders had leadership work to do.

The red zigzags are from headlights, and apparently someone used a white light for a dash.

Two Air Force JTACs (or possibly TACPs) were on the roof trying to make comms.  I’ve never seen so many comms problems as in this area called Zhari District.  Zhari seems like a Devil’s Triangle for radio waves.   They were having problems getting connected, but they tried until they succeeded.  There was a gunshot from somewhere, but only one and it didn’t sound like it was for us.  And that was it.  A night walk during a mission with 4-4 Cav.

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