July 4, 2009: Fob Forsaken What better way to celebrate the 4th of July than by spending it on an under manned under gunned under supplied FOB in the middle of enemy territory? Aside from the 1 hour I spend playing volleyball with the men I did very little in way of celebration. My thoughts were turned towards security and operations. Forward Operating Base Forsaken measures approximately 200 meters by 500 meters. The walls are presently unmanned and unguarded. There is no concertina wire at the top of the double Hesco barrier wall. Hesco walls are the unbiquitous barrier constructions here. Imagine a wall composed of 4 x 4 chain-link boxes lined with a sediment barrier and filled with rocks and gravel. Stack these blocks in a quadrilateral formation, add Infantry and voila! instant FOB. Our company has been tasked with a four team mission and only has three teams to accomplish that mission. My platoon therefore has to cover down on two platoon’s worth of work. Each mission requires a minimum of four trucks manned by four soldiers. My platoon has 18 men including myself. At any given time the remaining 16 men will be required for missions. Meanwhile we still have to allocate resources to operate the (tactical operations center) and provide FOB security. We simply do not have the manpower to man all of the required tasks. For some reason known only to those at higher pay grades one of our platoons (1st) has been exiled to Camp Spann. We could desperately use the additional manpower and given our present location hours from resupply, hours from reinforcement, and hours from (medical evacuation), we should be fully manned. And yet, such is not the case. We have no mechanics, no spare parts for the vehicles and no means to obtain same. As Rumsfeld said, “you go to war with the Army you have not the army you want.” Natch. I spent additional time with Capt. Irvin in preparation for our mission tomorrow.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 23:29:58 +0000
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