3rd Battalion in action

By Staff Sgt. Bradley Rhen
Army Public Affairs Office

Photo by Staff Sgt. Bradley Rhen

A 3rd Battalion soldier searches a crawl space for hidden weapons during Operation Vigilance April 15 in Wardak Province, Afghanistan.

On the job in Wardak Province

WARDAK PROVINCE, Afghanistan – As the sun peeked over the mountains early on the morning of April 15, three CH-47 Chinook helicopters packed with U.S. and Afghan soldiers sped toward their target.

When the helicopters landed, the soldiers raced out the back ramps. While the Afghan National Army soldiers formed a perimeter around the compound, soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, of the Virginia Army National Guard searched for three men suspected of having ties to the Taliban.

The men were not home, but the soldiers confiscated some weapons and gained valuable intelligence during questioning of others.

The air-assault mission was the first mission of Operation Vigilance, which included humanitarian aid drops in several villages, said Lt. Col. Blake Ortner, 3rd Battalion commander.

“The objective this morning was we were going after three targeted individuals that we were trying to kill or capture,” Ortner said. “From here on out, we’ll have some additional targeted operations, but also a lot of patrolling and other operations within Wardak to set conditions for the future.”

Due to the large amount of snow this winter and the bad road conditions, the mission was delayed several times.

“This was essentially an operation we wanted to kick off to disrupt any of the spring attacks that may be going on up here,” Ortner said. “We seem to have a larger threat up in Wardak than we do in other areas, so we wanted to kind of preempt some of that.”

The mission came nine days after a CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed in Ghazni, killing all 18 people aboard. Many of the 3rd Battalion soldiers who took part in the Operation Vigilance mission are based at Camp Ghazni, which is just a few miles from the crash site, and participated in the recovery effort of the crashed helicopter.

Spc. Robert Mumaw said the crash weighed on many soldiers’ minds.

“We saw that first-hand, so that was probably the biggest worry, not going in and doing the actual mission,” he said.

Mumaw said that once he hit the ground, those worries disappeared and he was able to focus on the mission.

He said they found about 20 rocket-propelled grenades, about 200 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, a few AK-47s and a few grenades. They also large amounts of cash on the women.

Wardak Province is southwest of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. Ortner said a coalition presence in the province is important because of its proximity to the capital and the Ring Road, Afghanistan’s lone major highway that connects several of its biggest cities.

In the past, the coalition has not had a significant presence in the province, Ortner said, but that’s something he’s working to change.

“Our big intent was to get up here and really get a feel for the area,” he said. “We wanted to get a lot of patrols out to a lot of villages and try to build confidence in the people.”

For Mumaw and his fellow infantrymen, the operation was a chance to get their boots muddy.

Coming into the deployment last year, many 3rd Battalion soldiers didn’t know what to expect coming here. Some have found themselves pulling guard duty in towers at Bagram Air Base.

“Infantry just ain’t used to getting stuck in towers,” he said. “This is what we’re supposed to do.”