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Robert Richmond--Photos
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Outside of Kabul holding one of the local's pet hawk |
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Stopped to take a leak while traveling from Kabul to Orgune, realized we were taking a leak in a thousand acre pot field. This is the last thing I remember before returning home from deployment. |
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A picture of me and Wally the shit burner just outside Firebase Harriman, Orgune, Afghanistan. We hired the nicest guy in Afghanistan to burn the crap. Each morning after he got everything burning, he would catch us on the way to chow and shake our hands while we were waiting in line. We would wash up again, get in line again, and he would sometimes try to say hi twice. |
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Manning the gun while on Patrol, Paktia Province, Afghanistan |
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Incoming!!! The dust is settling from an incoming BM12 105mm round that just missed an Apache. It
was one of four rounds that splashed during the attack Camp Harriman, Orgune, Afghanistan. Our
firebase took incoming every other week on average, and twice a week during Ramadan. The average
attack consisted of 4 to 6 rockets each. All would come in with a few seconds of each other. The
largest attack was 20 plus rockets, two or three coming in every ten minutes or so from all sides
of the firebase. Intelligence warned us that a four hundred man element promised to over run our
firebase that week. Lawara had just been abandoned 30 days prior, because they were taking incoming
three times a week from Pakistan and rounds finally began to hit consistently inside the small firebase.
The closest round they managed to fire at us was 200 meters from the wall. Because we knew of the
pending attack, we beefed up our firebase with 12 more guys, so we were about 90 strong if you count
the cooks and supply guys and the B team. It was the first time we had air cover standing by. Nothing
sweeter than watching fast movers pass over your firebase.
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A BM12 mounted on two crossed sticks. I was using a quadrant to measure the angle. The Afghanis
did not have quadrants. They tried to set the rockets up on consistent angles similar to that pictured
here, which was about the max range of the rocket, 8 Kilometers, and instead of adjusting the rocket
angle on the next attack they would adjust the lunch site back and fourth until they found something
that worked. Note the battery and plastic jug with duck tape. The rockets are fired electronically.
There are tripod mounted single guns that can fire them but more they were more commonly fired from
multiple rocket launchers. The insurgents would wire the one side of the battery to the side of the
jug with a loop on the end, the other side to a hook mounted on a small piece of wood or float. They
would hammer a nail into the jug, fill it with water, then pull the nail out. As the water drained
the piece of wood with the hook would pull lower and lower through the loop until the hook touched
the loop completing the electrical connection and firing the rocket approximately 30 minutes after
the insurgents left the area.
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