Jerry Hogan - Columnist
Rockwall County Herald-Banner
July 03, 2008 11:54 pm
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“I’ll never forget some of the responses that I heard from friends and family when I was told that I’d be deploying to Afghanistan. For the most part they expressed relief that I would not be sent to Iraq. That response can certainly be understood. For all the attention being paid to the conflict in Iraq, there is very little being heard about Afghanistan. It is NOT for lack of violence.”
These are the words of Justin Lee, a friend of mine who lives in Tyler, Texas and who is in the Army Reserves. But he wasn’t always going to drill on the weekends.
Justin grew up in Lindale, Texas and graduated from Lindale High School in 1999. That fall he entered Texas A&M University, the second largest fraternity in the world only following the US Marine Corps in size and enthusiasm, and graduated in 2004 with a degree in Political Science. Two things then quickly happened; he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army and he married his sweetheart, Christy Gilmore, from Tyler, Texas. After a very short honeymoon, the both of them packed their bags and headed for Fort Rucker, Alabama, where Justin attended the Officer’s Basic Course and spent twelve months learning how to fly helicopters.
When he entered the Army, he actually entered as a Reserve officer. Under this entry program, he was to attend flight school and the basic training course for officers and then he was to report to his reserve unit where he would continue on active duty for a total service time of two years. After graduating- from school, he did report to his unit in Fort Sill, Oklahoma; a CH-47, Heavy Lift, dual rotor, helicopter organization.
Just about the time that Justin reported for duty in September, 2005, a major devastating earthquake of 7.6 on the Richter-scale hit the Kashmir region of Pakistan. 87,000 people were killed, 128,000 were injured, and over 3,400,000 became homeless. Justin’s new unit was tasked with aiding the government of Pakistan with relief and reconstruction efforts. As a result, within one month of graduating from flight school, Justin was flying heavy lift helicopters in some of the most mountainous and dangerous terrain in the world, that area along the Pakistan-India border. This area is also known for being a prime recruiting area for Al-Quaeda terrorists as well as for Taliban recruits for the war in Afghanistan.
As Justin says, “Our mission was to bring refugees from the mountains into the cities to get medical attention and also to carry relief supplies to the hardest hit villages in the mountains. There are few passable roads in the mountains of Pakistan and what roads there were had been blocked by landslides triggered by the earthquake. As a result, they had to rely exclusively on American airpower to deliver supplies before the harsh Himalayan winter set in. The magnitude of the devastation was horrific.”
The unit was in Pakistan for about three months, and then rather than be deployed back to the States, they moved over the mountains into Southern Afghanistan where they became a part of Kandahar Air Base. Here they picked up two new missions, the resupply of Forward Operating Bases throughout the southern sector of the country and the conduct of “deliberate operations” where the helicopters would be used to place combat troops on a target to kill or capture known Taliban operatives.
In the resupply mission, Justin said “Our cargo varied based on the needs of the supported unit but typically included items like food, water, ammunition, fuel, etc. We also had the capability to externally carry artillery guns and vehicles. When we were involved in a “deliberate operation” we not only would place troops to kill or capture Taliban personnel but also support villages by placing Special Forces, Afghan Army, Canadians, French, and other Coalition forces in the villages to show our presence and keep the Taliban away.”
Because of the terrain, flying in that area of the world is difficult. Here’s what Justin had to say about it. “Despite the fact that the Taliban was active in the area, another more potentially lethal enemy was the weather and terrain. Helicopter performance drops the higher you go in altitude and the higher the temperature. Consequently Afghanistan is literally the ‘perfect storm’ of poor conditions. Much of the country is mountainous and it is generally very arid and hot, especially in the southern sector. Carrying the heavy loads we did tends to exacerbate the problem. Another challenge which the terrain posed was that it provided fewer avenues of approach to certain objectives. This meant we often had little in the way of surprise and had to rely on speed and efficiency in order to conduct combat operations.”
“The amount of flying that I would do depended greatly on the mission requirements. The resupply missions were generally very long (5-7hours) and included many stops at different locations. The “deliberates” were typically shorter but would require more preparation. The temperatures were typically very high during the day so when we could we would fly missions at night to take advantage of lower temperatures and a lower profile. For the year that I was gone (3 months in Pakistan and 10 months in Afghanistan) I logged over 425 flying hours. And since the annual minimum requirement for hours is 90, you can see the work load was very heavy.”
I asked Justin what he would tell a person thinking about joining the service today. “The US military has a fine tradition of service in defense of our nation and anyone should be proud to put on the uniform of an American Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine. The skills and responsibility that the military entrusts with its troops is extraordinary. Those that are serving in places like Iraq and Afghanistan are a testament to the character and fortitude of the American spirit. I’ll leave the debating of the politics of Afghanistan to someone else. What I do know is there are Americans fighting and exhibiting extraordinary valor in the face of a fierce and determined enemy to bring security to places like Lashkar Gah and Kandahar. These days we seem to hear a lot about what is wrong with America. Nevertheless, I can say with one hundred percent certainty that the Soldiers serving in Afghanistan, like their brothers-in-arm in Iraq, are a great example of what is right with America.”
Lieutenant Lee returned to the States in October of 2006 and is now in the Reserves. His unit, the same one he went to Pakistan and Afghanistan with, is located in New Century, Kansas, and he spends about four days each month with them continuing to fly the Chinook, CH-47 Heavy Lift Helicopter. When he is not on duty as a Soldier, he works in the District Office of Congressman Jeb Hensarling of the 5th District of Texas. He and his wife live in Tyler, Texas.
Here again is a story of one of our young men from eastern Texas who grew up here, went to school here, married his sweetheart from here, and then went off to war half-way around the world. While the debate rages on how this war should be fought, which path of withdrawal is correct, and who has the best foreign policy plan, it’s not the politicians who are fighting, being wounded, and dying in this war. Its men like Justin Lee who continue to tell us how extraordinarily brave, courageous, and dedicated our American fighting men and women are as they continue to engage the militant Jihadists throughout the world. I personally believe they are what stand between us and the loss of our freedoms and our way of life which these fanatical Jihadists are so dedicated to overthrowing. Please go out of your way to thank them and to find a way to help them and their families who are left behind here in our towns and cities as the warriors go off once again to fight for all of us.
To have the story of your friend or relative told in this column, please contact retired US Army LTC Jerry Hogan who volunteers to write these articles. He can be reached at 214-394-4033 or jerryhogan@sbcglobal.net.
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