The Battle of Wanat, Afghanistan

Last July, 9 US soldiers from the 173d Airborne Brigade were killed in a battle high in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Writer Thomas Ricks has published a 7-part series on his blog that is an excellent analysis of the battle, including what went wrong and what we can learn from it.

The 173d Airborne Brigade is based in Vicenza, Italy and is one of the best light infantry units in the US Army. This tragic event occurred during the last days of the Brigade's deployment to Afghanistan, and the news hit the Vicenza military community hard, just as they were preparing to welcome their soldiers home.

I spent several months in the same part of Afghanistan in 2002, and the terrain is simply unbelievable. The courage and fortitude of these soldiers should not be forgotten.

The story can be found on Thomas Ricks' blog. I highly recommend it.

There is also a well-researched summary of the battle on Wikipedia here.

10th Mountain Division Reenactors Association - in the Czech Republic

While researching material for this blog, I came across a site in the Czech Republic run by a group of what appear to be very organized and professional military re-enactors.

They base their activities on a unit of the 10th Mountain Division, and from the look of some of their photos and activities, they look to be very good at what they do.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, my friends in the 10th Mountain Division should be very happy with these guys.

Since they are in Czech, I may be able to pay them a visit one day.

Great job, guys!

10th Mountain Division Reenactors Association Banov

Army Mountaineering in Alaska, 1981

In 1981 I attended a course at the Northern Warfare Training Center in Fort Greely, Alaska as part of my work as a cadre member of the 1st Ranger Battalion's mountaineering team. The Junior Leader Orientation Course - Summer was designed as a 3-week overview of skills required to get around in the mountains of the north in the summertime.

My fellow Rangers and I arrived in Fairbanks, Alaska after a 14-hour odyssey by air from Savannah, Georgia across 9 time zones. We arrived at 11 PM, thoroughly disoriented from consuming all of the beer and wine on the plane we could get from the very accomodating stewardesses, and also from the fact that the sun was shining brightly in the middle of the night.

Dozing on the bus on the way to Ft. Greely, we were awakened by a loud crash - the result of our bus hitting a 400-pound cow moose that was standing in the middle of the road. Within what seemed like minutes, a half-dozen locals had appeared out of nowhere and were negotiating over how they were going to divide up the meat. Welcome to Alaska.

The first week was spent on rock climbing, knots, rappels and suspension traverses on the lower mountaineering area on Ft. Greely. For most of us this was all review, but any chance to play with ropes and climb rocks was a welcome change for us, and we did learn some new techniques. At the end of the week we climbed Gunnysack Mountain, a 7000 foot peak near the base, skipping across talus fields and laying in fixed ropes for the practice.

Week two was Riverine Operations, and we traveled around in 20-foot boats powered by 25 HP Evinrude engines. One of the unique features of this rig was the "jackass handle," a steel bar that you could push down to the deck to raise the motor up over deadfall that was prevalent throughout the area. It was called a jackass handle because if you were holding on to it and didn't see a piece of deadfall, the motor would ride up over it and handle would pull you to the deck - making you look like a jackass. The weather was perfect and we caught a lot of fish, which were consumed after cooking over fires on the banks during our rest stops.

Week three was ice climbing and glacier movement, an area which I had no experience in. We learned to cut steps, put in ice pitons and other anchors, roped-up movement along glaciers, and my personal favorite - crevasse rescue. All of this was performed with ropes and gear that the Army hadn't updated since World War II, and we wore wool and leather as the Army hadn't gotten to Gore-Tex yet either.

The course instructors were all members of the Army's high Altitude Mountaineering Team, and they all were very experienced climbers who had been all over the world. We were lucky to have them and they were a wealth of knowledge. It was the first of many military mountaineering courses I was to attend in my career and a welcome break from the brutal pace we were used to as soldiers in a Ranger battalion.

D-Day Commemoration at Pointe du Hoc

Rangers past and present join to pay tribute to their forbears who scaled Pointe du Hoc on D-Day

(DF - One of the most courageous assault climbs in modern history.)

Release Date: Jun 11, 2009

Army Sgt. Fay Conroy
21st Theater Sustainment Command Public Affairs

POINTE DU HOC, France - It was beautiful day. The sun was beginning to peek through the clouds. The waves crashed against the side of breathtaking cliffs as seagulls gently glided through the air. It is a peaceful place now, in June 2009, but the pockmarked grounds and shattered concrete testify to the battle that raged here in 1944.

Sixty-five years later, U.S. Army Rangers returned to Pointe du Hoc to honor the Rangers of World War II who scaled the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc. Their solemn ceremony June 6 was one of dozens across Normandy in honor of the 65th anniversary of D-Day.

There was one former Ranger among them.

James Gabaree was a 19-year-old private with the 5th Ranger Battalion when he got on an assault craft 10 to 12 miles from the beach at Pointe du Hoc and headed towards the shore. "Some people think it's weird, but I wasn't scared," he said. "I knew we were well trained."

Gabaree was a Bangalore torpedo man. The Bangalore is a long metal tube filled with explosive charges used to blow up barbed wire and mines to clear a passage for incoming troops.

On D-Day the Rangers scaled the 100-foot cliffs using rope ladders and grapples, determined to capture German 155mm guns aimed at Omaha and Utah Beaches. The Germans had built six reinforced gun casements to protect the guns and despite multiple bombardments by allied planes they still remained. "When I finally got up the hill, I looked out over the beach and saw bodies being blown up and I lost my religion," said Gabaree.

When the Rangers got to the top of the cliffs they discovered that the guns had been moved farther inland, so they pushed on to complete their mission.

Gabaree was on of seven Rangers sent back to Omaha Beach to get reinforcements. On the way he was shot in the hip and back. The rest of the team left him so that they could continue on to get reinforce-ments. Unable to walk, Gabaree crawled until he came across a German soldier in a
foxhole. In the ensuing firefight Gabaree killed the German and crawled into the foxhole with him.

"I gave myself 30 minutes and then I was going to kill myself," he said. "I knew that I was dying and I didn't want to die a slow death, and I didn't want to be captured by the Germans."

Gabaree was soon discovered by an U.S. Army patrol and later evacuated to England. The initial landing force of 225 Rangers was reduced to only 90 men who were still able to fight when they completed their mission two days after the landing.

For the Rangers who attended the ceremony here commemorating the 65th anniversary of the action at Pointe du Hoc, seeing the place where their forbears fought so tenaciously was an inspiring moment.

"You see pictures in books, but it doesn't do it justice." said Sgt. Nick Scarafile of the 1st Ranger Battalion, based at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga. "It's pretty amazing and it's a lot to live up to."

It was equally emotional for Gabaree to see today's Rangers, many of whom are combat veterans themselves.

"It was very humbling and I felt very gratified. To know that the tradition is being carried on, I'm very appreciative," he said.

Grappa and History

The Museo del Ponte Degli Alpini in Bassano del Grappa, Italy, has an outstanding collection of artifacts and photos from the monumental conflict between Italy and Austria in World War I. As if that wasn't enough, it is also downstairs from a tavern that anchors one end of the Ponte Vecchio, a beautiful wooden bridge over the river that passes through the city.

The Ponte Vecchio has a long history and traditions that live on today. On any given Sunday, you will see Italian families strolling back and forth across the cobbled surface and lingering over the view of the Dolomiti to the north. This scene is made all the more delightful by the tradition of drinking a glass of grappa in each of the taverns that reside on either end of the bridge. Bassano del Grappa is the birthplace of grappa - a powerful distillation of what is left over after one squeezes the juice out of wine grapes. There are many monuments to grappa sprinkled throughout this part of the Veneto, including the Poli Grappa Museum just up the lane from the Ponte Vecchio. Grappa can be as diverse as its cousin, wine, and just as fun to sample the varieties. Unfortunately, it is so powerful that one is not likely to get through many samples before keeling over in a blissful stupor.















It was while I was dangerously close to one of the aforementioned stupors that I literally stumbled upon the Museo. It is located downstairs from the taverna on the west end of the bridge and although I was looking for the bathroom at the time, it was as if I stumbled through a wardrobe into Narnia when I stepped into the museo. The collection of artifacts from the war includes climbing gear, weapons, photographs, medals and other memorabilia from the epic struggle between Austria and Italy over the fate of the Sud Tirol, which ultimately became part of Italy following WWI.















This part of Italy is filled with reminders of the unbelievable hardship and courage of the men who fought here, and rightfully so. The conditions in the Dolomiti at altitude are enough to humble even the most experienced climbers. Imagine making it just to one of the passes (never mind the peaks) while carrying a weapon, ammunition, climbing gear and provisions - under fire, and you may begin to get a sense of the incredible feats performed by the soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

Vicious Combat on Skis in the Norwegian Woods - 1808

http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/battles/c_viciouswar1808.html

The Long March

The Norwegian Home Guard Officer's School is moving to another part of the country and the current class has opted to make the 1500-mile march to their new location on skis.

http://www.barentsobserver.com/1500-kilometers-on-skis-for-norwegian-home-guard-cadets.4554986-116321.html

I really love vintage ski posters, and occasionally I will also run across something really interesting like this advertisement for Alpine tourism in the USSR from Intourist. I cringe at what it must have been like to take an Aeroflot jet to some far-off Soviet backwater to climb mountains under the care of besotted mountain guides with dubious credentials. That may not be an accurate picture of how these tours were run, but it's fun to imagine.

Black Forest Sunday

Despite the unsettled weather, I took a motorcycle ride up into the Black Forest in search of smoked trout and was not disappointed. The Wurzbachtal Forellenzucht in Calmbach served me up a whole smoked trout and some crisp white wine and I noshed away while reading the New Yorker and listened to the babbling stream just behind my table. Baby trout jumped randomly out of a small pond, sometimes literally - an evening meal for a waschbear (raccoon) or the family cat.
This was followed by a relaxing and hypnotic ride down the Klein Enztal, flowing around corners like water in the river below. On the ride back, I drifted in and out of a rainstorm heading my way back to Stuttgart. By the time I got to Herrenberg on the last leg home, I was slightly soggy and anxious for some relaxation.