Afghanistan Surge: For These Soldiers, Lots of Questions, Few Answers

FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- Right on schedule, the 105mm howitzers opened up from a fire base miles away. The heavy shells sighed invisibly across the sky above us and detonated in geysers of dirt and snow on a ridgeline a few football field-lengths ahead of Bravo Company's soldiers. At a signal from Staff Sgt. Benzell Vereen, they began to move forward up the icy road. On schedule, the artillery barrage ceased and mortars began pounding the target, halting just seconds before the soldiers began their final rush.

The artillery rounds and mortars were real; the maneuvers, designed to practice the tight coordination of artillery, mortars and ground troops, were part of the final preparation of the 10^th Mountain Division's 1^st Brigade Combat Team to deploy quickly to Afghanistan as part of President Obama's "surge'' of 30,000 troops.

"Get it right -- this is the last time to get yourselves together,'' Lt Col. Michael J. Loos, battalion commander, told his men during the exercise.

The brigade's 3,600 soldiers are ready, hard-trained and mostly eager; their families are proud and braced for a difficult year apart. What none of them know is, what are they going to be doing in Afghanistan?

The president has addressed the nation on his new strategy. The top commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and other senior officials have testified for long days before Congress, and subjected themselves to hours of intensive media interviews.

But out here in the real military world of "make-it-happen,'' precisely what the mission will be remains undefined despite orders to be in Afghanistan by March. The troops know the crux of the new U.S. strategy is to accelerate the fielding and training of Afghan soldiers and police. But what part of that will they be responsible for?

It could be that 1^st Brigade's 3,600 soldiers are headed into hard and unrelenting combat to clear Taliban insurgents. It might be that they'll be assigned to set up basic training camps for Afghan recruits. It might be that they will mount joint operations against the Taliban with Afghan army and police, working with the Afghans to polish their combat skills. It might be all three.

The brigade commander, Col. Bill Burleson, has developed a stock answer to anyone who wants to know what exactly lies ahead. He puffs out his cheeks, blows out air, rolls his eyes and performs an elaborate shrug.

"We've been identified as the first training brigade combat team,'' he said, and when I asked what that meant, he puffed his cheeks, blew out air and shrugged. "I haven't had it fully defined.''

To be ready to operate in Afghanistan in March is a tight deadline, given that it can take three months to transport the brigade's equipment and heavy supplies to a seaport, move it by sea to Pakistan, and then on into Afghanistan by road (the brigade could be on the ground and operating without all its gear much earlier).

Burleson's logistics officer is Maj. Melissa Eslinger. She holds masters degrees in oncology and epidemiology and has taught at West Point. She is ready to plunge into the hard work of moving an entire brigade halfway around the world, except for one thing: The details of what to take, what has to go by air and what can go by sea, and a million other details, "are tailored to the area we were going to and we don't know where we are going,'' she said with a pained smile.

When will you know? I asked. "I don't know that either,'' she said.

Out on the troop line, ambiguity -- be ready for anything -- is a comfortable way of life. If the soldiers don't know precisely what the mission is going to be, they'll find out. Word will come down from 'higher' (headquarters) and they will execute the mission, whatever it is.

So it was a pleasant surprise, many soldiers said, to hear directly from their commander in chief, in his prime time speech from West Point Dec. 1. What most Americans heard was Obama's explanation of why he is ordering an expansion of the war; what the troops recognized was what they call the "commander's intent.''

Across the U.S. military, at every level, a commander issues his intent for every operation: what he wants done. How it's to be done is determined by subordinates. I have heard platoon leaders tell their 30 guys the equivalent of, "By dawn tomorrow I want you guys on that mountaintop over there, and I don't care how you get there or what you do along the way.''

At a higher level, a brigade commander's intent might be: "Over the next three months you will train 1,000 Afghan police in local constabulary operations so they are capable of operating on their own, to the standards set forth below." How that is accomplished is up to his battalion and company commanders and their senior sergeants.

When the 10^th Mountain Division's 1^st Brigade soldiers tuned in to the president that night, they had not received orders for Afghanistan, but they pretty much knew they'd be going. In October, 2008, they had returned from 15 months in Iraq, and since then the soldiers had trained up to a razor's edge of readiness. They were assigned to deploy back to Iraq, then that order was canceled. For months, they had been caught in limbo, expecting but not receiving deployment orders, and Afghanistan was the obvious mission. When Obama spoke, many felt they had a personal stake in the message.

"Soldiers are trained to follow a commander's intent, to get a general direction and figure it out for themselves how to do it,'' said Burleson. "Well, here were our soldiers listening directly to the commander in chief, telling us his intent. That was something!''

Then came word, during a Friday evening round of Christmas parties, that they were being ordered to Afghanistan. Word raced down two parallel official channels: one to soldiers, one to spouses. Within 24 hours everyone had been notified.

"It was a relief, frankly,'' said Loos, who commands the 2^nd Battalion, 22^nd Infantry, part of the 1^st Brigade.

"Deploying is what we do -- we're soldiers,'' Loos said. "It's always nice to know what's ahead of you; predictability is important for families. You can only hold your breath for so long."

Said a junior soldier: "It's like being part of history. We're not just going on some deployment. This is big, something they're talking about in Washington. We're going to really make history.''

At Fort Drum this week, soldiers were polishing combat skills in final drills, rechecking equipment, ordering spare parts, getting final medical and dental exams, finalizing wills. Single soldiers were arranging to vacate apartments and put their belongings in storage; some young wives were planning to spend the year back home with family.

At least one soldier made plans for marriage. He went to a local jewelry shop with the wife of an Army buddy, and while she and the jeweler squealed over gorgeous rings, the soldier put his head in his hands. "What the hell am I doing?'' he moaned, but he went ahead with the purchase (I can't mention his name without spoiling what's intended as a surprise proposal).

The soldiers of 1^st Brigade will all go on leave in mid December, and when they return in early January they'll be swept up in final preparations to go.

"Everybody just wants to know the details, the when's and where's,'' said Capt. Dan Gregory, who commands one of the brigade's infantry companies. "Everything else we can make happen.''