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Troops’ holiday surprises
arrive as snow and fire

Tropic Lightning soldiers of the 25th Infantry Division spent New Year's Day delivering humanitarian assistance to a village in northeastern Paktika province in Afghanistan and experienced something they would never see in Hawaii -- 14 inches of snow.

An Army news release said the village is located about 5 miles from the Wolfhounds' home, Forward Operating Base Orgun-E. The heavy snowfall, which villagers said was the most snow they had received at one time in six years, canceled the Wolfhounds' visit to two other villages.

Capt. K.C. Evans, commander of the 2nd Battalion's Headquarters and Headquarters Company's anti-tank platoon, said: "The areas up there in the northeast part of Paktika haven't seen a lot of Coalition forces' presence, and almost no USAID or other NGOs (non-governmental organizations), so we spend a lot of time up there doing reconstruction and humanitarian assistance missions."

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In another part of Afghanistan, Kaneohe Marines and sailors of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, spent Christmas Eve under small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire. India Company had just completed pursuing insurgents in the valley, a Marine Corps news release said. "It started during a watch changeover, so most of us were awake," said Navy Seaman Jonathan Seaux, hospital corpsman with India Company. "I checked on my Marines to make sure everyone was OK, and then I just did the first thing I thought to do: Pick up the squad automatic weapon next to me and start firing back."

Seaux didn't even notice the 7.62 mm round that lodged in his body armor just above his heart until the next day. "I guess I'm just lucky," said Seaux. "Better me than one of my Marines," said the corpsman, who helped bandage another Marine's bullet wound the very next day.

On Christmas Eve, India's anti-armor team went to retrieve the Marines who were maintaining an overwatch position in the Korangal Valley. After extracting the Marines, they got their own taste of action in an ambush by heavily armed forces from fortified positions.

"We heard muted gunfire, RPGs exploding and the sound of rounds hitting the trucks," said Cpl. Josh Burgbacher, India's machine gunner. "That lasted for maybe half of a second, and then you could hear every single gun in the convoy open up. Everyone just reacted with their training."

The ambush was a well-planned attack, according to platoon commander 1st Lt. Jonathan Frangakis. He said the enemy had a pile of rocks marking the start of the kill zone. "We thought at first it was an improvised explosive device, but they knew how many vehicles we had, and as soon as the first vehicle got near the marker they opened up on us," Frangakis said.

For several Marines, it was their second firefight within a few hours. "I heard the rounds impacting," said Lance Cpl. Daniel Alfieri, India's machine gunner. "I just thought, here we go again."