Last weekend there was a car bombing (VBIED - vehicle borne IED) in Kabul against one of our convoys. If you read the news, it was the one reported on with 13-14 KIA. It was huge here, although I know even big events like that don't garner much attention in the states. I understand the mindset though, since this is combat. If 14 people had been killed in a VBIED in Atlanta or Cleveland or DC, it would be huge, it wouldn't make sense. The reality is, the American media understands one thing correctly; in war, people die. Just because someone dies in war, doesn't make it a breaking news events.
Since I manage the tactical operations of our unit, coordinating the attack assets and other special items like satellites and aviation and such fell to me, as well as ensuring the unit on the ground was able to fight, and didn't have to worry about annoying staff officers calling asking for updates. I reigned in our own staff several times, and it was a long day, squelching the rumr intelligence (RUMINT) and false reporting. I set myself up as the sole authority on accurate information, and was able to keep the troops on scene focused on the fight.
The next evening, the remains were fully processed here on Bagram and ready to fly back home. This whole process is called a Dignified Transfer, when the transfer cases (coffins) are driven from the Mortuary Affairs Collection Point (MACP) to the flightline and onto the bird (airplane). This is also called a Ramp Ceremony. After attending dozens of events, ceremonies, memorials, and such, some for strangers, others for those I knew well, some whose deaths I was closer to than I ever imagined I would be while deployed last time, I vowed to myself I wouldn't go to another one. I told my boss here I've buried enough friends, I don't need to stand in a formation to make myself feel closer to combat, especially when I'm one of only a few in the brigade to actually have faced it. He was receptive. However, I found myself not only in formation for the ceremony, but I also was involved in the transfer itself for 9 of the 13 we loaded onto the plane. I am pretty stoic in general, emotionally, so I guess it makes sense for someone like me to be involved in that situation, no matter how I feel about it overall.
Everyone has different ways of dealing with that. Some guys talk about the incident in detail, what they experience on the day it happens, what they ate, how many steps they took walking into the command post (TOC) on first recall. Others avoid it as much as possible and make forced smalltalk. One I know made nervous, unrelated jokes, while trying not to look at the bird or transfer cases, but catching anxious glances every so often. As for myself, it is something just as natural as anything else. After leading so many post blast investigations, instinct kicked in and I analyzed the burned out vehicle, identified what happened to the folks inside, and so on. We all have our coping mechanisms.
My troops are doing well. I have staff of 3, not including another Officer who I manage in a peer to peer relationship. We perform our rather mundane job pretty easily, and I've started looking into getting some schools and classes done while here. I also work out twice a day. It is pretty slow when we're not managing an event that ends the world for some families back home. Bagram is large and generally pretty safe, and I run the perimeter once a week. Otherwise, not much to report. I think the next blog will be about the weather.
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