August 2008 - SITREP

Hey Hey

I just wanted to take a short break from the monotony of combat to say thank you for all the support I’ve received over the past month. I can’t tell you all how much I appreciate coming back to my hooch in the evening and see a package waiting for me. Not only does it provide bragging rights to my fellow officers, but also a source of comfort that my family and friends are not too distant. So keep ‘em coming if you so desire. And a special thanks to my awesome wife who has her hands full with two active boys. Not sure how you do it, but I’m deeply grateful and love you for all your support. Thanks HB!
Well, TF White Currahee has had its adventures since we took ownership of our new operating environment in East Paktika. While we’ve made some headlines (local and national) with significant contributions to the war on terror, the real work goes unnoticed for the most part. We do operate in a very lethal AO, however, the TF’s primary focus involves our ability to separate the Taliban from the local populace, promote the local and national government – ensuring the people of Paktika and Afghanistan have a sense of confidence in their governance, and continue to partner with local organizations to foster a society conducive to suitable infrastructure, education, road networks, and other essential services. Each entity being no more important than the other; but a profound level of security that enables these facets of growth and expansion remains our critical and essential task.
Life at FOB Orgun-E is repetitive, yet interesting as the TF continues to establish roots with the local nationals. As we continue to redirect our combat power throughout our AO in an effort to provide some additional flexibility, agility, and lethality, we remain resilient in promoting theater specific directives.

Dave

A Quick Update

Sorry for the lack of activity on the blog. David is so busy these days that he has not had time to post anything. If you have been watching the news, you probably know that there is a lot going on in his neck of the woods. He does have personal internet access now at his new location - from his laptop in his room. But, he only goes back to his room to sleep for a few hours every once in a while from what I understand! And, he is currently out "running errands" as he puts it. So, we haven't heard from him lately, and I'm not sure when that will end. As you can imagine, I don't like it when he is out running errands! Please say a special prayer for him and his unit right now.

Last week was a very hard and sad week for David. Our unit lost 1LT Nick Dewhirst, who was a member of the "XO Squad" that David proudly wrote about below. Nick was the D Company XO. As Battalion XO, David worked very closely with him for the past year. David described Nick as an outstanding officer and a superb person. He was killed in action when his vehicle was ambushed with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. Nick was a mere 25 years old. Please keep his parents, other family, and friends in your prayers. The link on the sidebar will take you to a listing of all fallen heroes from the 101st Airborne Division. There is probably more David would like to say, and I hope he will get the chance to soon.

Another link that might be of interest is http://www.506infantry.org/. It is the web site of the 506th Infantry Association, and it has links to numerous articles about our unit and their deployment to Afghanistan. To get to the articles, click on "506th today" in the sidebar. When you get to that page, click on "2nd Battalion" and then on "articles." It is a great source for news from our guys.

Price, Harper and I have been trying to keep busy. We made a short weekend trip to St. Louis to visit a law school friend of mine and her family. Thank you to the Baloghs for hosting us and showing us a great time! We are currently in the D.C. area visiting family on both sides. More about that when we get home!

The video clip below is just of Harper walking around so that David could see. So, will be boring to most everyone else! And, I took it with my still camera and held the camera up length-wise. Then, I couldn't figure out how to rotate it. So, it is a good thing David will be watching it on a laptop and can just turn it sideways!! It takes a while to upload video here, so I gave up and put the others I had on YouTube . . .

P.S. The date above is misleading as it is now July 28th! I first uploaded the video on the 22nd, but didn't get around to adding any text until today. Don't know how to change the date!

Arrival at Orgun-E

Posting from Dave: David doesn't have personal internet access right now, so he sent this to me via his AKO account. Hopefully, he will be able to get internet service in the near future. I've learned that soldiers can be very resourceful - some of them have purchased satellites and are charging others to hook up to them. David is working on getting one of the soldiers to run internet to his room. But, for now, this will have to do -

After a 30 plus day and 400km journey from Kandahar Airfield in Southern Afghanistan via Bagram Airfield, my Company XOs, Supply Sergeants and I finally arrived at FOB Orgun-E! On our final leg, my logistics party traveled three and a half hours via CH-47 aircraft to Eastern Afghanistan and landed on 6 July at Dennis Airfield. FOB Orgun-E is located in the Paktika province of RC-E and is settled at about 8000 feet elevation. The weather is a relief with almost a 20 degree cooler variant from life at Kandahar. The FOB itself is a transformed Russian airbase from the Afghanistan-Soviet War. Though rustic in nature, the quality of life is very acceptable for this region of the country. We are fitted with a more than acceptable DFAC managed by our internal cooks. There is a small shopping village with stores and a café. The physical fitness center has all the amenities necessary to retain the proper conditioning for our operating environment. And of course a small post office, MWR facility, and radio station. The biggest culture shock, however, is the amount of local national employees that work on the FOB as either laborers, store owners, or interpreters.
As we transition with our counterparts and meet the local leadership, TF White Currahee will enter a very volatile combat environment with high expectations to further promote and provide security, governance, and development among the populous of Paktika.

Happy 4th of July!

We had a very independent Independence Day - just went to the playground and hung out around the house. In fact, we have spent the month of June just doing your typical summertime "stuff" - going to the pool, the movies, and playing outside. Here are a few pictures . . .

Price "graduated" from his swimming lessons yesterday. Below is a proud Price with his best picture "smile" and holding his certificate. When I asked him what his favorite part about swim lessons was, he said "the teachers." I think that is because they let him pass even though the hair on the top of his head didn't even get wet when he went under water. Who knew you could technically go under water with the water just barely getting over your eyes for a split second! (We still have lots of work to do at the pool!) We celebrated afterward with ice cream. Price found it easier to just drink his . . .

Harper loves hanging out at the pool, too, but still doesn't like hats!

One night, Price wanted to sleep in one of Daddy's t-shirts. He thought it was hysterical that it was so big on him!

We finally got Addy to lay down for one of the pictures we took today, even though she didn't get anywhere close to the boys . . .

XO Squad

During my tenure as Battalion Executive Officer for TF White Currahee, I've had the honor to work with some of the most passionate and patriotic Soldiers and Officers. My team of Company XO's - affectionately known as the "XO Squad" - resemble what's great about junior leadership in the military. I've watched these outstanding men grow and develop as both Officers and Leaders over the past year as logistic coordinators, operational synch's, and 2IC's. CPT Andrew Kemp (current TF S4) and 1LT Jon Rascher (HHC/2-506 IN), 1LT Dan Huff (A/2-506 IN), 1LT Abe Rush (B/2-506 IN), 1LT Frank Gonzalez (C/2-506 IN), 1LT Nick Dewhirst (D/2-506 IN), and 1LT John Taylor (FSC/2-506 IN) are the bedrock and critical C2 nodes that allow TF 2-506 IN to execute day to day operations. These men could be counted on numerous times to execute independent, decentralized operations in a very complex, challenging, and non-contiguous operational environment...and at the end of the day there were always smiles and sometimes witty humor as the mission and focus changed. It has been my privilege to mentor, develop, and work with such fine examples of American patriots. We continue to stand united as a Band of Brothers within the Currahee legacy.


MAJ Dave Foley
Outgoing XO, 2-506 IN
White Currahee

The Latest From The Homefront

Well, it has taken a while for me to finally get up to speed with the whole blogging thing. So, more than three months into the deployment, I'm finally getting some news posted! Here are just some of the highlights and big events we have had since Price and Harper's "Daddy" has been gone . . .

Dave was going to miss Price's 3rd Birthday, so we had an early pirate party at home before he left . . .

The "boys" spent some quality time together the morning that Daddy was (supposedly) leaving. The early part of that day was harder than either of us ever thought it would be. We had our very emotional good-byes and left David at his office to go to the processing center, knowing that his plane was not leaving until late that night though. Then, later that afternoon, I came down with the flu . . . and at 8:30 that night, I got a call from David that their plane was broken down and to come pick him up at 9:30! With chills and all, I went to get him. The next morning, he had more quality time with the boys while I went to the doctor. By the time we re-dropped him off that afternoon, I was very sick and we all had gotten our emotions out the afternoon before. So, it was pretty much a good-bye just like any other day at the office! I told him he couldn't come back home that night because it would be too confusing for Price (and me!). His flight left as planned that day, though. So, we began this journey on March 11, 2008. I spent the next week in bed, and my mom (thank goodness) was able to come up and help me. David spent the next week stuck in Bagram before finally making it to his final destination at Kandahar.

We spent Price's real birthday and Easter in Hendersonville with the Parkers . . .

In early April, we made a trip to Alabama and Mississippi for my Granny's 95th Birthday celebration . . .

When we got home, Price and Harper's special "Daddy Dolls" were waiting for us . . .

There was another big milestone in May, when Harper turned "1"! Lots of people came to help us celebrate - Grandpop and Nonna, Granddaddy and Grandmama, and Uncle Jay, Aunt Donna and Trey, to mention a few. Harper even took his first "step" on his birthday! He was so proud of himself! He didn't much like the hat (even though Price kept trying to make him wear it!), but loved the cake!

Since Harper's birthday, we've had a visit from Aunt Sara and Cousin Will and have made another trip to Alabama to play with Cousin Trey with a sidebar trip to Mississippi to visit Granny.

Now that I've gotten this started, I hope I'll be better about keeping it up to date (I think the hardest part is over). I've been focusing most of my time lately on keeping Price busy and his mind off of missing his Daddy. He asks for him more than I ever thought he would (especially when he gets in trouble or hurt!) and gets sad whenever he even sees a dad with children on television (I've learned the hard way the past few weeks that I have to be very careful what he watches). He is trying to be strong, though, and proudly tells people that his Daddy is in Afghanistan "helping the people." (Although, lately, he has been saying "helping the people with his gun." Yikes! I have no idea where that came from.) Thanks for reading, and please keep David and us in your prayers.

Transition to FOB Orgun E

Hope all are doing well. Its been an extremely busy month for TF White Currahee. We reached our 100 days in theater milestone and are currently transitioning from Southern Afghanistan to Eastern Afghanistan. I am temporarily displaced to Bagram where I await the remants of the battalion's fleet of equipment to posture ourselves forward to our new location. Bagram is quite the place. Its a city unto itself and very desegregated from the constant monotony of combat operations. I am eager to join the rest of my battalion in Eastern Afghanistan and hope to arrive there in the next couple of weeks. I will be transitioning from the Executive Officer position to the Operations Officer and am excited to do so. Its been a long year full of logistics, maintenance, and deployments. Claire and the boys are doing great back in Clarksville. I miss them every day, but the care packages and the internet keep us updated on each others situation. The coming months will be very challenging, but my battalion stands ready to do our part to support the people of Afghanistan.

Dave