Chapter 4 HIGH/HOT/HEAVY COMBAT AIR ASSAULTS IN AFGHANISTAN 2002-2006

The CH-47 Chinook proved its mettle in high elevation combat air assault operations during Operation ANACONDA. The ability of the aircraft to insert large numbers of troops and equipment into mountainous Afghan terrain proved invaluable to Task Force Rakkasan’s success in the Shahi Kowt Valley. Combined Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC), Rakkasan, and Task Force Talon commanders realized and understood early-on that Chinooks would in all likelihood be the aircraft of choice for OEF missions into high altitude HLZs.¹¹¹

“It’s important for Americans to know this war will not be quick and will not be easy…the battles in Afghanistan are not over,” President George W. Bush told the crowd gathered for the George C. Marshall ROTC Award Seminar on National Security at Virginia Military Institute in April 2002. President Bush announced a new offensive campaign, code named Operation MOUNTAIN LION, designed to “hunt down [remaining] al Qaeda and Taliban forces and keep them on the run.”¹¹² At the time of the President’s address, the 90-day operation to clear enemy sanctuaries in Paktia, Paktika, and Oruzgan provinces was already underway. The CJTF Mountain plan called for battalion or company sized units to conduct a series of air assault/full spectrum operations in and around the key cities of Gardez, Khost, and Orgun-e, to kill/capture Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, and to set the stage for the upcoming loya jirga that would elect a transitional Afghan government.¹¹³

In the opening action of Operation MOUNTAIN LION, the 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry air assaulted from Kandahar onboard CH-47 Chinooks to seize and clear a suspected enemy cave and tunnel facility near the Zhawar Kili mountain range in Paktia province. The air assault was unopposed, and the 1-187 IN Soldiers systematically cleared the complex then flew back to Kandahar. During the spring of 2002, British and Canadian forces conducted a series of sub-operations – PTARMIGAN, SNIPE, HARPOON, TORII, CONDOR, BUZZARD, and CHEROKEE SKY – in support of the overall MOUNTAIN LION effort. Although three Royal Air Force HC Mark II Chinooks from the 27th Squadron at RAF Odiham deployed to Afghanistan, many of these allied operations were supported by CH-47 crews and aircraft from the 7th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment and 1st Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, 18th Aviation Brigade.

Chinooks, for example, flew soldiers from the 3d Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry Regiment on a sensitive site exploitation mission to the Tora Bora area during TORII in May. More than 400 US, Canadian, and Afghan Soldiers were involved in TORII, which also included a team of American forensic experts which collected DNA samples from deceased/buried Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects. Also in May, four companies of Royal Marines from the 45th Commando Regiment, TF Jacana, air assaulted into the mountains of Paktia province during Operation CONDOR in search of Taliban fighters who had ambushed an Australian Special Forces team. British Marines participating in Operation SNIPE conducted air assaults into a region southeast of Khost, and in Operation BUZZARD at the end of the month, TF Jacana returned by Chinook to Paktia to deny the Taliban freedom of movement between Khost and the Pakistan border. Finally, in June 2002, military vehicles and US Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters transported Canadian troops on a sweep of Zabol province designated Operation CHEROKEE SKY to establish a coalition presence, gather intelligence, and foster positive relations with local Afghan citizens. CHEROKEE SKY was the last of the Operation MOUNTAIN LION missions.¹¹⁴

Lieutenant General Dan McNeill and Combined Joint Task Force-180 (CJTF-180) – XVIII Airborne Corps – assumed responsibility for OEF Coalition operations in June 2002. Later that summer, Combined Task Force (CTF) 82 – 82d Airborne Division – deployed to Afghanistan and replaced the re-designated CTF Mountain, and the infantry units of the 10th Mountain and 101st Airborne Divisions returned home. Bravo Company, 159th Aviation Regiment and A Company, 7th Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, the CH-47 Chinook units that had flown in Operation ANACONDA and during the ensuing months, remained in Afghanistan to support CTF 82 which established its headquarters at Bagram. Task Force Panther, CTF-82’s tactical forces based at Kandahar, was comprised of two battalions from the 3d Brigade and one battalion from the 1st Brigade, 82d Airborne Division.¹¹⁵

During the remainder of the summer 2002, TF Panther began establishing forward operating bases (FOB) Salerno, Shkin, and Orgun-e in southeastern Afghanistan and soon began an ongoing series of raids and cordon/search operations, nearly all of which were supported by Chinooks. 82d Airborne Soldiers continuously air assaulted into small villages, such as Qiqay south of Khost, in search of weapons and equipment left behind by enemy forces. On 10 August, hundreds of paratroopers flew to the village of Malakay on the Pakistan border to search buildings and confiscate weapons.¹¹⁶ In a June 2008 interview, Lieutenant General McNeill described the TF Panther tactical campaign as a “rolling series of operations going on all the time” to prevent the Taliban from reconstituting.¹¹⁷

CTF 82 and TF Panther next launched Operation MOUNTAIN SWEEP, the largest OEF air assault mission since ANACONDA. Soldiers from the 1st and 3d Battalions, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (505 PIR) launched onboard 7-101st Chinooks from Kandahar to HLZs southwest of Gardez, near the villages of Dormat and Narizah, in search of Taliban fighters in and around the Shahi Kowt Valley. Over the next six days, the Paratroopers air assaulted from village to village in Paktia province’s Zormat district capturing Taliban sympathizers and confiscating caches of enemy weapons, ammunition, and documents. More than 2,000 US and Coalition forces participated in MOUNTAIN SWEEP, which once again made evident the Chinook’s ability to quickly deliver overwhelming combat power into Taliban sanctuaries in even the remotest regions of Afghanistan. During the five combat air assault missions, the CH-47 helicopters were escorted by AH-64 Apache gunships. “The air assaults were complex, with some requiring two lifts to get all the forces into the objective area,” CJTF-180 spokesman Major Gary Tallman explained the day after MOUNTAIN SWEEP ended.¹¹⁸

During the fall of 2002, TF Panther Soldiers began moving out from Kandahar to the newly established FOBs in Khost and Paktika provinces. The troops also continued their progressive series of offensive sweeps supported in part by Chinooks for air assaults.¹¹⁹ During Operation VILLAGE SEARCH in October, 3-505 PIR launched from FOB Salerno and searched four high-desert villages along the Pakistan border for enemy fighter and weapons caches. In November, CH-47s air assaulted Soldiers from 1-505 PIR into several villages surrounding Bagram Air Base. Operation KOFI SOFI, which also included Chinook insertions and extractions of troops in the nearby Kohe Safi Mountain range, was designed to eliminate weapons and ammunition caches that were in close proximity to the base. Finally, in December, CTF 82 conducted an air assault into the village of Shumace in Parwan province just twenty miles northeast of Kabul. This mission was flown by pilots and crews from Charlie Company, 159th Aviation Regiment. The landing was unopposed, and once on the ground, the Soldiers offered medical assistance and humanitarian aid to the local Afghan villagers.¹²⁰

First Brigade, 82d Airborne – TF Devil – replaced TF Panther in January 2003. Soon after arriving, TF Devil initiated Operation MONGOOSE, a Chinook air assault to search for Taliban and to exploit cave facilities southeast of Kandahar in the Adi Ghar Mountains, near Spin Boldak. Nearly 350 Coalition troops, including Soldiers from 2-504 PIR, cleared 75 caves in the honeycombed complex before being extracted by CH-47s in early February.¹²¹ Less than two weeks later 2-504 PIR air assaulted into the Baghran River Valley in search of Taliban leaders. The intense village-by-village cordon and search conducted during Operation VIPER result in the discovery of several weapons caches and the capture of eight suspected Taliban operatives.¹²²

On 20 March, several CH-47s from C Company, 7th Battalion, 101st Airborne Division participated in a night air assault into several HLZ in the Sami Ghar Mountains. Operation VALIANT STRIKE was a two-battalion insertion into eastern Kandahar province involving Soldiers from both the 2d and 3d Battalions, 504 PIR, along with Romanian and Afghan Army forces. More than five-hundred 504 PIR and Special Operations Soldiers air assaulted into Sangin, Helmand province, during Operation RESOLUTE STRIKE the following month. During the remainder of spring 2003, Chinook pilots and crews took part in a number of additional air assault missions in support of Operation UNIFIED VENTURE – US, Italian, and Afghan troops inserted along the Pakistan border, Operation DELIBERATE STRIKE 37 miles north of Kandahar, and Operation DRAGON FURY, in which US and Italian troops were inserted back into the Shahi Kowt Valley.¹²³

Task Force Warrior, comprised primarily of the 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, replaced TF Devil as CJTF-180’s principle tactical combat force in southern and southeastern Afghanistan during the summer of 2003. TF Warrior included four light infantry battalions, a typical assortment of supporting elements, and Coalition forces from Romania, France, and Italy. CH-47 Chinook aviation support for Warrior air assault operations remained the responsibility of C Company, 159th Aviation Regiment and newly arrived Detachment 1, B Company, 2d Battalion, 104th Aviation Regiment, a Connecticut Army National Guard unit from Windsor Locks.¹²⁴ Although routine combat and stability operations were normally conducted within ten to fifteen miles of the Forward Operating Bases at Salerno, Shkin, and Orgun-e, TF Warrior did launch several large-scale, battalion-sized, combat insertions into remote regions significantly distant from its FOBs.

On 30 August 2003 for example, to kick off Operation MOUNTAIN VIPER, Chinooks inserted a company-sized unit from 2d Battalion, 22d Infantry into the mountainous region near the village of Deh Chopan in Zabol province. The purpose of this air assault was to clear a twenty square mile area east of the landing zone of Taliban fighters. The following day additional 2-22 IN Soldiers air assaulted into HLZs north of the original site in pursuit of fleeing Taliban elements. CH-47s flew the Quick Reaction Force from Kandahar to join the fighting on 1 September. Afghan National Army forces were then inserted by Chinook into the operation to conduct patrols and establish checkpoints. Over the next few days, 2-22 IN conducted several additional Chinook air assaults in the region while pursuing Taliban leaders and exploiting cave complexes. By the end of the week, operations around Deh Chopan ended and CH-47s picked up the 2-22 IN Soldiers and flew them back to Kandahar.¹²⁵

During a night air assault on 6 November, Chinooks inserted A Company, B Company, and 2d Platoon, C Company, 2-22 IN into the Hindu Kush Mountains near the village of Namgalam, Nuristan Province. Operation MOUNTAIN RESOLVE was a hammer and anvil mission with 2-22 IN sweeping north through the Waygal River Valley, thereby forcing al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters into blocking positions established by Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force (CJSOTF) elements. After six days, the 2-22 IN Soldiers were extracted by Chinooks and returned to Bagram, only to be re-inserted into the same area of the Waygal for a follow-up operation a week later.¹²⁶ In December, Chinooks conducted dozens of air assaults in support of four week long Operation MOUNTAIN AVALANCHE to “deny sanctuary and disrupt the activities of terrorist forces simultaneously throughout the eastern, southeastern, and southern regions of Afghanistan.”¹²⁷ With four battalions and 2,000 Soldiers participating, “this one is the largest [assaults] we have ever designed…the enemy isn’t going to know when we hit and he isn’t going to know what we’re doing,” explained Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty, spokesman for US military headquarters at Bagram Air Base.¹²⁸

In Helmand province, Paratroopers from the 1^st Battalion, 501^st Infantry Regiment used CH-47s for company-sized air assaults in Operation MOUNTAIN BLIZZARD during the winter of 2004. Thousands of US, Coalition, and Afghan Army troops conducted patrols, raids, and cordon-and-searches, discovered dozens of weapons and ammunition caches, and killed 22 enemy combatants in the operation which ended in March.¹²⁹ “In Operation MOUNTAIN BLIZZARD…Coalition forces have succeeded in finding and destroying scores of weapons caches, placing numerous terrorists and other enemies of Afghanistan under control, and establishing the conditions for security and stability,” Lieutenant Colonel Hilferty told Voice of America News in mid-February.”¹³⁰ In TF Warrior’s last major operation before redeploying code-named MOUNTAIN STORM, 2-22 IN conduct five Chinook air assaults in conjunction with several cordon and search missions in the vicinity of Kandahar.¹³¹ The overall operation was conceived by Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan (CFC-A) the new senior military theater strategic headquarters for OEF established at Kabul in October 2003. In addition to 2-22 IN’s insertions at Kandahar, US Marines from the 22d Marine Expeditionary Unit and two battalions of Afghan soldiers conducted a series of simultaneous assaults into the southern and southeastern provinces “to crush anti-coalition forces along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan.”¹³²

New Tactical Headquarters – Combined Joint Task Force-76

CJTF-76 from the 25th Infantry Division replaced CJTF-180 as the Coalition’s operational and tactical headquarters in May 2004. CH-47 Chinook air assault support for CJTF-76 was provided at the time by B Company, 214th Aviation Regiment at Bagram and F Company, 131st Aviation Regiment from the Alabama and Georgia Army National Guard at Kandahar. Company F conducted missions throughout southern and southeastern Afghanistan in conjunction with the 25th ID’s CTF Bronco, which included 2d Battalion, 5th Infantry (TF Bobcat), 2d Battalion 35th Infantry (TF Cacti), the Romanian 281th Infantry Regiment, plus additional supporting units. F Company had 14 CH-47s and was a component of TF Diamondhead (2-25 AVN), which was subordinate to TF Wings – one of six CJTF-76 task forces – that was responsible for all Army aviation coverage in Afghanistan.

During their deployment F Company Soldiers conducted approximately 200 air assault missions, the largest of which required was the attack of a suspected Taliban training facility that involved twelve Chinooks, six Apaches, and four Black Hawks. Coalition and Afghan Soldiers were picked up at both Kandahar and FOB Gereshk and flown north to a suspected Taliban training facility along the Helmand River. The Chinooks then landed the troops in ten separate HLZs on both sides and in the middle of the valley. The training site was cleared without resistance and the Soldiers were extracted the following day. Chinook crews and aircraft stood continuous Quick Reaction Force (QRF) duty at Kandahar. The same day and night crews served in this capacity 24/7 for a week at a time. Numerous air assault, insertion, and extraction missions were conducted by the Chinook crews in the QRF role. The Company also flew general support missions for the 22d Marine Expeditionary Unit at FOB Ripley in Oruzgan Province. Chinooks from F Company inserted TF Cacti Soldiers into the Arghandab Valley on a cordon and search operation north of Kandahar in July.¹³³

Later, in October 2004, A Company, 2d Battalion, 35th Infantry was ambushed and pinned down at Baylough Daychopan in Zabol Province. Taliban controlled the mountains surrounding the town and attacked A Company with heavy machine gun fire, rocket propelled grenades, and mortars during five straight days of fighting. If the Soldiers tried to escape in their own vehicles, they would have been destroyed. Chinook crews from F Company volunteered to conduct the emergency rescue mission. In adverse weather conditions and under enemy fire, a flight of Chinooks landed in hot HLZs and extracted the A Company Soldiers and their equipment in less than 15 seconds. Following the successful extraction, the appreciative A Company commander, Captain Peter Farrell, explained, “There were no go-arounds, no missed hook ups, and despite all that was going on around them, they managed to get our people off the ground and back home safely.”¹³⁴ During the winter 2005, F Company Chinooks and TF Bobcat Soldiers conducted additional air assaults into Sha Wali Kot District of Kandahar Province, Mirabad in Helmand, and the Bahguchar Valley in Oruzgan Province.¹³⁵ Pilots, crew members, and support teams from F Company returned to Georgia and Alabama in March 2005.

Also in March 2005, the Southern European Task Force (SETAF) replaced the 25th Infantry Division as the CJTF-76 headquarters element. Although several operations were initiated, such as DETERMINED RESOLVE, LIGHTNING FREEDOM, VIGILANT SENTINEL, COUNTERSTRIKE, and SECURE PROSPERITY, to disrupt any potential Taliban resurgence and set conditions for the September Afghan parliamentary and provincial elections, none required Chinook combat air assault support. SETAF controlled all US tactical ground forces in Regional Commands South and East. The 173d Airborne Brigade Combat Team, CTF Bayonet, at Kandahar was responsible for RC-South, while 1st Brigade, 82d Airborne Division, CTF Devil, directed operations in RC-East from Bagram Air Base.

The principal focus at this time was the less kinetic pillars of counterinsurgency operations rather than fighting Taliban. As described by CTF Bayonet commander Colonel Kevin Owen, the emphasis was on providing “a secure environment for the Afghan people…to allow governance to develop and economic initiatives to take hold.”¹³⁶ Soldiers moved off of the FOBs into the villages, took responsibility for specific AOs, and lived among the Afghans. For the paratroopers of 2d Battalion, 504th Infantry in RC-East this experience was significantly different from that of their first OEF deployment. Previously 2-504 Infantry was more mobile – a small unit would air assault into an objective area, fight for several days, fly back to the FOB, and do the same thing over again in a different location a week or so later.¹³⁷ For 1st Battalion, 325th Infantry, responsible for Wardak, Lowgar, and portions of Ghazni and Paktika Provinces, all movements were on foot or by HMMWV – the battalion never conducted a single air assault mission.¹³⁸

By the time the 10th Mountain Division assumed command of CJTF-76 in February 2006, the Taliban had begun a surprisingly resilient resurgence. To thwart the Taliban buildup, the Caolition undertook a second Operation MOUNTAIN LION designed to clear, hold, build and engage in the Pech River Valley, Marawara district, Kunar Province. Nearly 2,500 US Soldiers, Marines, and Afghans from the 3d Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain (TF Spartan), the 1st Battalion, 3d Marine Regiment (TF Lava), and the ANA 203d Corps, participated in the operation. CH-47 Chinook air assault support in Afghanistan at this time was provided by 3d Battalion, 10th General Support Aviation Brigade and B Company, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, an Army Reserve heavy lift company from Kansas.

Prior to the official launch of MOUNTAIN LION, Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 32d Infantry, TF Chosin, infiltrated to blocking positions in the valley. Then at H-hour, 11 April, Coalition forces conducted a pre-dawn air-ground assault into the Korengal and Shuryak Valleys in search of Taliban sanctuaries. At the same time, Marines and B Company, 1st Battalion, 32d Infantry air assaulted into an area 20 miles west of Kunar’s provincial capital of Asadabad near Sawtalo Sar Mountain to seal off potential Korengal escape routes. By the end of June 2006, having successfully cleared the valleys of Taliban fighters, Coalition forces began establishing a permanent presence in the formerly disputed region. The CH-47 combat air assaults during operation MOUNTAIN LION were conducted by pilots and crews from B Company, 3-10 AVN.¹³⁹

To set the stage for the takeover of RC-South by NATO-International Security Assistance Forces, CJTF-76 initiated Operation MOUNTAIN THRUST in May 2006 to drive Taliban insurgents from sanctuaries in Kandahar, Helmand, Zabol, and Oruzgan Provinces. Ten thousand Coalition and Afghan forces participated in the operation, in which movement was conducted primarily by ground vehicles or on foot. As a precaution, however, several CH-47 Chinooks from 3-10 AVN were re-positioned from Bagram to augment those of B Company, 7-158 AVN already at Kandahar. As MOUNTAIN THRUST unfolded, the Chinooks were utilized increasingly for a wide variety of re-supply and air assault missions. In late May, for example, 2d Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team (TF Warrior) conducted a Chinook air assault into the Chalekor Valley, Deh Chopan district, in northern Zabol Province in support of the arrival of a Romanian battalion.¹⁴⁰

Next in June, CH-47s inserted a Quick Reaction Force from A Company, British 3d Parachute Battalion to help rescue a logistics convoy that had been ambushed near Sangin in the Helmand River Valley. The next day, C Company, 2d Battalion, 87th Infantry, led by Captain Jared Wilson, drove out to the ambush site and led the stricken convoy back to Musa Qal’eh. Chinooks extracted the 3d Para QRF and returned them to FOB Robinson. On 17 June, Chinooks inserted 170 Soldiers from Wilson’s company onto Hill 1999, which offered a commanding view of the Baghran Valley. Two days later, C/2-87 successfully fought off an attack by 60 Taliban fighters. The company was subsequently extracted by Chinooks on 5 July and flown to Musa Qal’eh.¹⁴¹ Finally, in a follow-on operation designated MOUNTAIN FURY, two TF Warrior companies conducted Chinook air assaults into eastern Ghazni Province to establish blocking positions in Andar district.¹⁴² “We did all of our air assaults with Chinooks,” Lieutenant Colonel Frank Sturek, TF Warrior commander said. “We put sniper teams on M-Gator utility vehicles, loaded them last, so they could be first off the ramp…after landing they would race to the high ground…set up an overwatch…while the rest of the platoon established a perimeter,” Sturek explained.¹⁴³

From March to October 2006, Bravo Company, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment conducted 1,000 missions, logged more than 7,700 flight hours, and carried 25 million tons of men and equipment in support of the 10th Mountain Division in RC-South. Shortly after mobilizing, B Company was diverted to Pakistan to provide several months of humanitarian assistance following the October 2005 earthquake. Once in Afghanistan, the 230 member company became the heavy lift component of Task Force Knighthawk at Kandahar. Pilots and crews began flying day and night missions immediately in support of US and Coalition forces – British, Canadian, French, and Afghan – along the ring route, which included FOBs, COPs, and other outposts, such as Cobra, Anaconda, Tarin Kowt, Deh Chopan, Robinson, Gereshk, Qalat, and Spin Boldak.¹⁴⁴

Two or three Bravo Company Chinooks stood QRF duty each day and night. During one high priority QRF mission, US Special Forces and Afghan military personnel were inserted into an area near the Kajaki Dam about 100 miles northwest of Kandahar City. The landings created an enormous brownout, but the Chinooks were in and out in 30 seconds. With the Chinooks capacity to haul large numbers of Soldiers, “you could surround a village in no time…it was going to be a bad day for somebody,” Bravo Company commander, Lieutenant Colonel Walter Bradley explained in a post-deployment interview. “We’d move quickly, often conduct our briefings on a dirt patch, and give the ground commander whatever he wanted,” Bradley continued.¹⁴⁵ Three and often four Bravo Company Chinooks flew the air assault missions during Operations MOUNTAIN LION, MOUNTAIN THRUST, and MOUNTAIN FURY, described above. The company returned to Kansas in October 2006.

HIGH, HOT and HEAVY:

THE CH-47 CHINOOK IN COMBAT ASSAULT OPERATIONS IN AFGHANISTAN