“I feel a personal responsibility for each and every one of you, since I sent you here,” Gates said. “I feel the sacrifice, hardship and losses more than you'll ever imagine. So, I just want to thank you and tell how much I love you guys.”
During the ceremony, Gates recounted the unit’s mission, as it embarked upon its first full-on encounter with an organized Taliban enemy. “We're breaking the momentum of the enemy, and will eventually reverse it,” the defense secretary said. But, he added, “It will be a while, and we'll suffer tougher losses as we go.”
The Silver Star awardees were: Army 1st Lt. Stephen Tangen; Army Sgt. 1st Class John Fleming; Army Staff Sgt. Brent Schneider; Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Hayes; Army Cpl. Joshua Busch; and Army Pfc. Richard Bennett.
The Bronze Star Medals with Valor were awarded to Army 1st Lt. David Broyles; Army 1st Lt. Douglas Jones; Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Loheide; Army Staff Sgt. McCarthy Phillip; Army Sgt. Andrew Kuklis; and Pfc. Alex J. Norzow III. “It’s huge to have the secretary of defense come out here to recognize these Soldiers who are out there taking the fight to the enemy every day,” said Maj. Gen. John Campbell, cmdr of Command Joint TF-101 and RC-East. One of the Silver Star recipients echoed Campbell’s sentiment. “It was an incredible honor that the secretary of defense would come; it was a little overwhelming,” said Tangen, Scout Plt leader, HHC, 2nd Bn. “FOB Joyce gets attacked almost every day, so just the fact that he would come to a remote FOB like this, and put his life on the line – it doesn’t happen every day,” Tangen said.During Op Strong Eagle, TF No Slack was tasked with clearing Daridam Village to stop insurgents from massing in the Ghaki Valley of eastern Kunar Prov. All recipients of the medals were recognized for their actions during time of heavy direct and indirect fire from the enemy during the op. Tangen said he wouldn’t have been able to do what he did without his fellow Soldiers from 1st Platoon, Co. C.
“I'm very fortunate to have competent, knowledgeable officers and NCOs who took charge and accepted the responsibility of the mission,” said Palermo. “We took the experience of other deployments from all of you, asked questions, conducted many meetings to develop the best course of action, then implemented change...setting the wheels in motion to make BAF a better place.”
Palermo challenged Soldiers of TF Archer to create a new mission and improve upon what they accomplished, quoting an example he used during the relief-in-place briefings held the previous week, of building a pyramid one block at a time. “It's our time to turn this mission over to you, and there's no doubt in my mind that your Soldiers will take BAF to new levels of excellence,” said Palermo. “With the entire community of BAF, teamwork and your leadership, I know you'll carry the tradition of excellence to a new level.”Army Lt. Col. John Perkins, TF Archer cmdr, expressed the extent of TF Archer’s mission changes, but assured Palmero that they'd stay focused on the base ops mission. "Our mission is expanded beyond the Base Ops mission of the 86th BSTB. We've responsibility for that mission, as well as our traditional BSB mission of sustaining brigade ops outside the wire in the brigade’s area of responsibility," said Perkins."The passion and hard work the 86th BSTB put into the base ops mission was evident throughout the RIP process,” said Perkins. "I promise the 86th BSTB, just as you built upon the hard work of your predecessors, TF Cyclone, we'll continue your work with the same passion you've shown, and build upon your successes."“There was a project proposed by a local leader to help build a mosque in the village,” Army 1st Lt. Benjamin Davis, 2nd Plt leader, explained. “The project was a carryover from the unit we replaced.”
Several months ago, Co A, 1st Sqdn, 172nd Cav Regt, TF Morgan - the unit the 832nd replaced - met with local malik Sayad Kareem. Kareem represents 19 villages east of Bagram Airfield. In the village of Bajarwi, Kareem said that the villagers wanted to build a mosque to hold worship services. “The people of Bajarwi didn't have a mosque and weren't able to get together and pray,” Kareem said. “Everyone in the village is happy and appreciative that the coalition has been able to support the construction of the mosque. Our economy is not that good, and that's why we couldn't build it completely by ourselves, and requested the help of the coalition.” Aiding in the construction of a mosque is a rather unique undertaking for CF. “It’s very rare that U.S. or CF would get to participate in the construction of a mosque,” said Army Capt. Tim Creasman, 1st Sqdn, 113th Cav Regt, civil-military ops officer. Creasman said the villages are more likely to approach the coalition for assistance in education and quality-of-life issues, as opposed to religious needs. Both the citizens of Bajarwi and the Soldiers from the 832nd said that they look at the mosque construction as a step in an improved partnership, between the local citizens and CF. During their trip to the mosque Dec. 2, the 832nd took the opportunity to appraise the construction of the mosque, as well as to supervise the delivery of 100 additional bags of cement toward the mosque construction. A local Afghan contractor delivered the cement to the village. The perimeter walls of the mosque are complete. The walls exemplify Ahmad-Zai’s craftsmanship and feature elaborate arches along the sides of the building. “I did it in 5 months, a little at a time, and continued working as I got materials,” Ahmad-Zai said. “This was my first mosque.” Ahmad-Zai also added that members of each household in the village donated money toward construction of the mosque, and those who could not contribute money, sent family members to help with the labor. As they stared at the walls, the Soldiers said they were amazed at Ahmad-Zai’s building skills. To finish the mosque, Kareem said that the building requires 5 tons of 16 millimeter rebar, which Creasman said the coalition will look into helping to provide. Abdul Mazai, Bajawri’s malik, said that the Red Bulls are carrying on the partnership that the village shared with TF Morgan, and he can't express the gratitude he and the villagers feel. “The CF came here and talked to us,” he said. “They listened to our problems and provided us some assistance. This mosque was built by our people through the help of the CF and the Red Bulls with materials. We hope to continue to work together, here and throughout Afghanistan.” Davis said that 2nd Plt meets with maliks and local villagers on an almost daily basis, since they arrived here almost a month ago. The engrs, led by Army Capt. Scott Hansen have assumed responsibility for providing security to 120 villages, all of which fall within a 10-km area of the Bagram District. Davis said that the unit also tries to help the villagers with their daily needs, and to improve their quality of life. “We’re trying to capture the human factor,” Davis said. “We can’t really understand what the people here need and how they operate, without being amongst the people. They're getting more comfortable talking with us, and realizing they don’t need to be scared of us.” The Red Bulls engr’s visit didn't end with the trip to the mosque. From there, the Soldiers walked with the villagers to the school at the opposite end of town. Army Capt. Joshua MacLean, 1st Sqdn, 113th Cav Regt info officer spoke with Kareem on a previous visit to Bajawri. Kareem mentioned there were 2,000 children attending the school, and that they enjoy playing cricket. MacLean acquired 8 cricket sets from the outgoing unit, complete with helmets, pads, balls and racquets, for the children of the school. The engrs delivered the sets to Nassar Ehmad, the school’s principle. “They like to play cricket,” Davis said, “It shows them we're here to help.” Before the Soldiers left, Kareem told them he would set up further meetings whenever they wanted to meet with him, and include the other maliks of the surrounding villages. “We hope to have a great partnership with the Red Bulls,” Mazai said, summing up the sentiments of the Soldiers and his townspeople."I wanted to continue the Family tradition as far as being in the Army," Jernigan said. Gibbs, who recited the Oath of Enlistment to Jernigan, said that he always relishes the opportunity to reenlist Soldiers.
"I enjoy doing these reenlistments; today's especially good, because it's someone from my own team," Gibbs said. "We always say that there are 3 things that we get to do that are really fun. One of them is promote somebody, the other one is reenlist somebody, and the third one is give somebody an award. Any time you can do any 1 of those 3 things, it's very rewarding."
Gibbs added that reenlistments mean a lot to him, because his troops mean a lot to him. "Our Soldiers are great. We couldn't do what we do without them; I couldn't do my job without them," Gibbs said. "They do so much that makes me able to do my job without any headaches, especially this team. I've got a good team, I'm really proud of them, and I look forward to seeing them move up higher in the ranks."
After the ceremony, Jernigan expressed gratitude to her boss for inspiring her to continue her military service. "Thank you, sir, for standing behind me, and molding me into who I want to be."
By Staff Sgt. Nathaniel Smith
IqAF Brig. Gen. Tamimy, the cmdr of the IAF's 70th Sqdn, hosted the group for lunch, and spoke with the group of Americans who had been wounded in Iraq years before. "I would like to thank you for all the sacrifices that you've made to accomplish our wishes to build a safe and secure and democratic Iraq," Tamimy told the Americans. "We promise you, we are going to work as hard as you did to accomplish these wishes, and we hope to God that he blesses you and blesses us all."
Iraqis traditionally honor their own war wounded on the Day of the Wounded Soldier, with gifts, and with a lifetime salary for the disabled. One Basrawi, who wished to remain anonymous, met the troops and said that he felt indebted to the American visitors with Proper Exit. "I think American wounded Soldiers cannot be honored enough, because what they've done for our country is priceless; they gave us the freedom we, the Iraqis, were dreaming of."
The man added that he personally thanked the wounded warriors who visited, and he believes that Iraq should honor Americans who've made sacrifices, with monuments in every city.
Before dining, Tamimy left the Americans with a final, meaningful message. "I would like you to consider Iraq your second country," Tamimy said. "Without all this work that you've been doing here, we would not be here in front of you, so thank you for all the work that you did for us."
Americans and Iraqis dine together at an IqAF cafeteria in Basra. "We in Iraq are so thankful for the U.S. Soldiers who helped us get rid of Saddam's regime, after living under his dictatorship for decades," said one Basrawi.