Hunting Cyclops
This post is dedicated to those who’ve served, who’ve been wounded, who’ve fallen, and all their families.
Thank you for your service and sacrifice
Lest we forget.
When I stop and think about my time in Afghanistan I inexorably think of the days leading up to Remembrance Day 2009.
Remembrance Day has always had significant meaning to me. As a youth I was always impressed watching the older men from town don their blue legion jackets, grey pants and medals and march the colors smartly and proudly to the front of the school gym during our Remembrance Day ceremony. I remember seeing their faces, present but also a thousand miles away, and not understanding how they could look proud and sad at the same time. I would ask them questions, genuinely interested to know their stories, but they would politely change the topic or just say something to the effect that “I wouldn’t understand”.
I get it now...
It was driven home just the other day when my 4 year old son, Owen, came home from Kindergarten and saw me wearing a poppy. He told me that he learned that we wear a poppy because we live in a peaceful country because of soldiers. He then went onto explain, as only a talkative 4 year old can, how the center of the poppy can only be green or black, but he decided to colour his green. I don’t know what my exact reaction looked like (obviously) but I could feel myself smiling, and being proud of him, but he seemed out of focus, and I realized that in those few brief seconds I was reliving hundreds of days walking and living on that infamous war torn patch of earth.
I think many of us have a moment in their life when a memory from the past, a significant event, slips quietly into our conscious thought. It could be about anything, one moment your ordering ice cream, and then bam…your reliving a particular day and wondering what you might have done differently 5, 10, or 15 years ago. This isn’t unique to veterans, but I know most veterans, especially those who have served in Afghanistan, can relate to it on some level. Some would call these memories intrusive, and for some it is. I don’t find it intrusive, at least not anymore, especially after hundreds of re-runs in my mind and purposefully reflecting on it during Remembrance Day.
For those who may not have served or had family or friends in Afghanistan, you many not be aware that it really only has two seasons, not four like most other countries in the world. Sure spring, summer, winter and fall come and go but its with little notice, because in Afghanistan the only seasons that matter are “Fighting season” and “IED Season”. The actual weather was almost always of little consequence because you were going to go out and patrol in it regardless. The only weather we really cared about were the violent windstorms which would ground the Medevac choppers.
The majority of my last tour spanned the end of fighting season and most of IED season, right at time when the Taliban was stepping up it’s IED production to levels unseen during the conflict to date.
It was on 11 Nov 2009 that our team would take it’s first direct IED casualty while on patrol.
09 Nov 2009
Getting ready for a Big OP tomorrow to seize a mid level Taliban Commander by the name of Kaka Abdul Kalik…aka Cyclops. Yesterday we did the recce for the mission and some planning and we will launch tomorrow morning. It’s a pretty big deal since this guy is believed to be responsible for the 82 mm (recoilless rifle) attacks and other IED’s. I am expecting a lot of causality since there are going to be 3 objectives each separated by at least a kilometer and there is sure to be IED’s in our path. Hopefully all our guys pull through. I am definitely nervous about it but also very relieved that we will be going somewhere we can do some good. Also I might get to see Alex at MSG which would be awesome!
11 Nov 2009
Today was quite the day. Left MSG at 0430 and headed for objective Athens. The route was about 4km but we had to cross approx. 6 wadis in the dark with NVG’s. The first one had water that was higher than my waist so we were all soaked. What made it absolutely awful was that it was about 4 degrees Celsius with a bitter wind coming down off the mountain…brrrr. I’ve been on a lot of shitty walks but that is in my top 3 for sure. Pretty uneventful morning and march onto our objective, found a weird bunker / tree OP and talked with a few locals. On our way to objective Rome to head back to MSG an ANA soldier hit a PPIED (pressure plate IED). It destroyed both his legs and put shrapnel through his arm and testes. Not sure how but 6 other guys, two of which were Rhys and Greg, missed it? I got on scene a little in the black and didn’t notice Cory was already there. He was a star and did the majority of the treatment and bleeding control. Being my first real trauma I was a little scatter brained in my approach but eventually got done what needed to happen. The soldier was in rough shape but we got him on the bird after a bit of delay getting it launched. Although the trauma and image of his torn body was pretty bad it doesn’t really stand out in my mind. What I’ll never forget is after the Dust-off loaded the guy and took off, another ANA soldier came running out of the dust waving the guys leg/foot still in the boot with the bone sticking out and threw it at the Blackhawk. It was so surreal, everything about it was both sickening and hilarious in a way that only war/conflict can be. I’m glad the first one is out of the way, I feel ready for the next one; I just hope it doesn’t happen.
We didn’t get Cyclops on that mission, but it was useful in so much that we (ISAF) covered a lot of ground and found some significant weapons caches.
It wasn’t until mid Oct 2010, nearly a full year later on Operation Dragon Strike they would find and kill Kaka Abdul Kalik the Taliban commander for the district and his deputy Kako.