It was a war we thought we’d won. But after eight years of escalating violence, the Afghanistan conflict has morphed into something perhaps unwinnable. U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to deny sanctuary to Al Qaeda, a goal we’ve largely achieved. But in years of occupation, Washington has apparently conflated counter-terrorism with nation-building. Now the U.S., NATO and their allies are struggling to destroy a deeply-rooted insurgency in country with a corrupt, ineffective government, poor infrastructure and few prospects for everyday people, but to fight. David Axe visits U.S. forces to see for himself.
by DAVID AXE
The Nevada Air National Guard C-130H2, tail number 79-0475, radio call sign “Torque 41,” lifts off from Bagram air base on an October morning and turns south, Lieutenant Colonel Billy Tony (pictured) at the controls. In the cargo hold, loadmasters Chief Master Sergeant Gary Lanham and Staff Sergeant Renaye Lavin, a reservist and college student, checks the eight pallets of food and water, each attached to a disposable parachute made of recycled plastic that looks and feels like the material your lawn chair is made from. Somewhere over southern Afghanistan, Lavin will open the cargo ramp, Tony will nose up the plane, and the pallets will slide right out — all five tons of them. The ‘chutes will deploy, and meals for a whole battalion of Marines will float to earth, cushioned on landing by cardboard shock absorbers.
Afghanistan’s roads are terrible, where they exist at all. To get around, you fly in helicopters. For resupply, you rely on airlift like Torque 41. The 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron at Bagram mixes C-130s and crews from several Air National Guard units: Alaska, Delaware, Nevada. Around a dozen planes fly up to several missions per day to keep the ground troops in beans and bullets. For relatively easy airdrops, the disposable ‘chutes will do. For tough drops where accuracy really matters, the Air Force might use GPS-guided parachutes.
Torque 41′s mission still demands precision. Tony and the flight crew have to line the plane up perfectly, after threading through a hornet’s nest of air traffic, including fighters, huge C-5 transports, Ariana Afghan Airways Airbuses, Blackwater turboprops and even the ground forces’ hand-launched drones buzzing around the drop zone. In the cargo hold, Lanham checks the load while Lavin opens the ramp. But she makes a mistake, fails to open it all the way. Timing is critical. The older Lanham corrects Lavin, and the ramp opens wide. Right on cue, Tony tips up the plane’s nose. The load slides into the sunlight. “Good recovery on that drop, loads,” Tony says over the intercom, using the loadmasters’ nickname. “It’s not an easy thing to do.”
(Photo: David Axe)
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The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 10/19/2009 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.
[...] Nevada Air National Guard Lockheed Martin C-130H Hercules, radio call sign “Torque 41,” lifted off from Bagram air base, outside Kabul, and turned south. In the cockpit, aircraft [...]