Quote:
Originally Posted by Homeslice
What other types of people were based there?
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I assume you mean at Bagram specifically. It's a base of 10,000 some odd personnel, if not more. A lot of those, possibly half, are contractors. That said, Bagram houses all MOS's and all types of military units, except maybe cook companies (food services are handled by contractors, for probably 5x the cost). There are military cooks at Bagram, but they're assigned to security. Go figure.
Bagram has infantry, artillery, air wings and support (obviously), intel, medical, and special operations forces. All four services are represented. While I was there, Bagram took indirect fire (usually 105mm rockets) at least once a month. In more than one case, security personnel watched the enemy set up the rockets, launch, and leave unobstructed. When the base was attacked directly by about a dozen Taliban in May of 2010, the only resistance they had was from special operations units. The guard towers never fired a shot. If there hadn't been Green Berets and SEALs on the base, there would have been a lot of dead Americans that day. The point is, the enemy was there, and we had the capabilities to engage them. We just didn't.
Don't get me wrong, there are places in Afghanistan that are hot and heavy. I've been told that the Marines in Helmand were/are still engaged in offensive operations. But almost without fail, everywhere else it is defensive battles. And barely that. When my team was sent out to a smaller COP, the Army unit we were with was refused the use of their .50 cal machine gun when they came under fire (it could have eliminated the Taliban firing on them from the cover of a kulat). They had to bed down and wait for air support, which missed. Every time. This happened on every single patrol they made. Enemy contact, take cover, wait for air support. Is it any wonder that COP was hit with a coordinated, multi-phase attack later in the month? That was in addition to near daily bombardment from mortars and rockets.
But the problem was Burger King. That's what was keeping us from accomplishing the mission. Not hiding our heads in the sand. Not a systemic misallocation of resources, assets, and capabilities. Not a complete and utter failure to apply lessons-learned from Iraq to the Afghan TAO. Not moron captains that spin up entire infantry companies to engage targets that had already been captured, and were currently
on base. Not HUMINT sergeants who call their girlfriends stateside to give them play-by-plays of their "secret" missions,
during the mission.
It was Burger King.