Bagram duty has its hazards

  • Published
  • By Louis A. Arana-Barradas
  • Air Force Print News
Talk of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' win in the Super Bowl stopped abruptly Jan. 27 when a work crew uncovered an unexploded bomb at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.

A team working in an area behind the base's control tower unearthed an unexploded Russian-made anti-personnel bomblet. The Air Force compound at this Army base was evacuated.

While most of the base is secure, U.S. forces face unexploded ordnances and mines left over from the countless battles fought at this base 35 miles north of Kabul.

"This isn't something new," said Capt. Nathan Schalles, commander of the 455th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron. "We have these kinds of evacuations a couple of times a week."

Schalles leads more than 50 security forces airmen who are in charge of Air Force security at the compound.

"You've gotta stay on your toes all the time because you never know what somebody's going to find around here," said Staff Sgt. Chris Veilluex, a security forces member.

About 100 airmen gathered in an area some 200 yards from the tower waiting for an explosive ordnance disposal team to remove the bomblet.

But unexploded munitions and mines are not the only dangers the 6,000 soldiers and 450 airmen assigned here face. There have been several rocket attacks during January aimed at the base, and each evening the staccato bark of small arms fire reminds people that "the bad guys" are not far away.

The last rocket attack took place Jan. 22, but the 107-mm rocket fell some 400 feet short of the Bagram perimeter. Its impact reverberated off the mountains of the nearby Hindu Kush and shook the base.

Staff Sgt. Mike Wilhelm, a weapons loader, was sleeping at around 12:30 a.m. when he heard a loud boom.

"We're used to hearing a lot of gunfire at night, but when that rocket went off, it was a shock," he said. "We all knew it was for real."

Soldiers maintain a strong ring of protection around the base. Airmen provide backup and protect the flightline and Air Force compound. Despite all the protection, U.S. commanders here realize it is hard to stop rocket attacks.

"It's not a question of are we going to get hit, it's a question of when," said Brig. Gen. Greg Ihde, the "air boss" in Afghanistan who directs the air component coordination element for Combined Joint Task Force-180.

Stopping rocket attacks is tough because attackers use makeshift launchers with crude aiming devices with preset rockets to launch long after they have left the area.

"Because they know our A-10 (Thunderbolt IIs) would go in and get them," said Col. Greg Marston, 455th Expeditionary Operations Group commander. The group flies the attack aircraft providing close-air support to coalition forces.

Fortunately, the enemy's hit-or-miss tactics are not accurate. Still, each rocket has a 115-foot killing radius, Marston said, and a rocket hitting Bagram is a sobering thought. Although there are many bunkers throughout the base, nearly all the troops live in tents.

Despite recent attacks, it is the enemy's slow season.

"Rocket attacks are a fact of life here," Marston said, but such activity generally dies down in the winter. "But it picks back up in the spring."

Ihde is confident the security procedures in place will keep people secure. Plus, airmen receive constant training tailored to their base. That ensures they understand their responsibilities and know what actions to take during an attack.

"An attack alarm puts a new sense of urgency in your response," Schalles said. "Because here our responses and actions are for real."

On the flightline where he works, Wilhelm said he is not worried about rocket attacks. Having been in an attack, he knows how it feels and how to react.

"Rockets are indiscriminate, and there isn't too much anyone can do to prevent an attack," he said. "We all just have to know what to do in case of an attack. It's that simple."