Alaska-based troops make a difference in Afghanistan

In the seventh month of their one-year deployment, the soldiers of the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) of the 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Richardson, have cut civilian casualties from attacks by the Taliban and other insurgents by nearly 50 percent, said Col. Michael Howard.

At the same time, despite an overall rise in U.S. combat deaths in Afghanistan over the last year, the number of soldiers killed in their three provinces is down about 80 percent compared to same period for the previous U.S. force to occupy that region, Howard said.

Still, 11 soldiers from the 3,500-strong brigade have died in Afghanistan, 10 of them in combat, and 31 were wounded so seriously they will not return to battle.

Howard spoke by teleconference Friday to Alaska reporters from a base in Khost Province. The brigade, and three additional battalions attached to it, patrol Khost, Paktia and Paktika provinces in eastern Afghanistan, an area about the size of Maryland. Their battle space includes about 340 miles of frontier with Pakistan. The Army has attached three additional battalions to the 4-25th, while mixed civilian and uniformed provincial reconstruction teams and agricultural advisors are also working the with brigade, placing the number of people under Howard's command at 5,500.

This is Howard's fourth tour in Afghanistan and the first for the 4-25th, which previously had gone to Iraq for 14 months.

In his first call with Alaska reporters, in May, Howard said 200 Afghan civilians had died over the first three months of deployments. That was unacceptable, he said, since the first rule of counterinsurgency is to provide security for the civilian population.

"The numbers have dropped each month since May now, for an overall decrease of 49 percent," Howard said. "The numbers have dropped because your soldiers made them drop."

Howard attributed the improvements in safety for U.S. soldiers to growing sophistication by commanders and troops and to a decision by the Army to eliminate the use of the once ubiquitous armored Humvees in patrols "outside the wire."

In their place, the brigade has obtained 160 mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, he said. MRAPs, first developed in South Africa, are built to withstand roadside bombs and they've had a major effect in reducing casualties, Howard said.

The brigade and its economic and development teams have built 240 miles of roads and restored 29 schools, five medical facilities and three courthouses, Howard reported.

With winter approaching, combat operations are expected to slow substantially as the mountain redoubts of the Taliban and other insurgents become inhospitable, Howard said. That will provide more opportunities to work on additional civilian projects, he said.

"There's still a lot to do, and there's still a lot of challenges remaining, and there's a lot of danger left to be faced, but be assured, the paratroopers are up to it," Howard said.