Operation Sleigh Ride Brightens Troops’ Day
Two determined U.S. Army officers ensured soldiers serving in Afghanistan would receive packages from home in time for Christmas.
A U.S. soldier assigned to the 173rd Airborne Infantry runs to meet a incoming CH-47 Chinook as it brings Christmas Eve mail to a forward operating base in Afghanistan. (U.S. Army photo by Cpl. John Chriswell)
U.S. Army Cpl. John Chriswell
BAGRAM, Afghanistan, Dec. 27, 2005 — Christmas in Afghanistan will never rival a Christmas at home, but for two U.S. Army officers from the 1st Personnel Command, they have gone above and beyond to bring home to soldiers serving in Afghanistan.
Col. Philip J. Smith, 1st Personnel Command commander from U.S. Army Europe and Capt. Peter M. Perzel, commander of the 510th Postal Company, delivered more than 10,000 pounds of mail to forward operating bases at Salerno, Ghazni, Orgun-E and Sharana, during Operation Sleigh Ride on Christmas Eve and Christmas.
"Seeing the smiles on the faces of these soldiers as they receive packages from home makes being here during the holidays worth while," said Smith.
While being here through the holidays is rough on just about everybody, missing family and home are some of the biggest problems most soldiers have to deal with.
"Dressing up as Santa is only one part of this journey today," said Perzel, "Delivering the packages their families have sent them for Christmas, helps the distance between them close, which completes our travels here."
For one soldier in Organ-E, it meant the world to see Santa.
"I thought that I was not going to get mail for awhile, but seeing the helicopters come in brought a light to all of us," said Staff Sgt. John Brooks. "And seeing Santa come off the back put the icing on the cake."
Support Command Focuses on Training Iraqi LogisticiansBy Jim Garamone - American Forces Press Service
FORWARD LOGISTICS AREA ANACONDA, Iraq, Dec. 26, 2005 – It doesn't matter how many troops you have or how well trained they are if you can't sustain them. Coalition logisticians are working with the nascent Iraqi army to build a logistics capability for the force.
Army Lt. Col. Steven Shapiro, chief of operations for 3rd Corps Support Command and selected for promotion to colonel, said the command's soldiers are training Iraqis through schools and, mostly, through on-the-job experience. "We're training the Iraqis to follow up and provide support to their forces as they engage the enemy," Shapiro said during an interview in Balad.
On paper, and increasingly in reality, Iraqi logistical units are embedded in Iraqi maneuver units. The 3rd Corps Support Command is partnered with Iraqi motorized transportation regiments. "When you see an Iraqi army unit engaged, ... their physical resupply is through their motorized transportation regiments," he said.
Plans call for one motorized regiment per division, and the Iraqis plan for nine divisions. The regiments will handle all their own maintenance and their own security. "When we operate on the roads, we protect the convoys," Shapiro said. "The motorized transportation regiments will have their own mobile force protection assets embedded with them."
Three regiments are operating now. Coalition logistics personnel handle supplying the rest of the Iraqi force, Shapiro said.
The 3rd Corps Support Command has U.S. military transition teams working with the regiments, he explained. Each team has about 30 soldiers when it starts working with Iraqi forces. As the Iraqis learn and become more proficient, the transition team shrinks. Some teams now have only five soldiers, Shapiro noted.
American noncommissioned and commissioned officers are working with their Iraqi counterpartss. They show them how to set up an operations order and how to execute one, then work with the Iraqis as they learn, then step back as Iraqis handle missions on their own, Shapiro explained.
Iraqi units delivering supplies to their own forces means U.S. drivers and trucks aren't making the deliveries. "The more the Iraqi motorized transportation regiments do, the better off we are," Shapiro said.
As the maneuver units are doing what they need to do on the battlefield, the logistics command can get them what they need -- ideally a bit before they need it, he said.
Iraqis still are wrestling with how to set up their logistics command. "We're ready to help them whenever they decide," he said. "They seem to be leaning toward setting up their version of a corps support command."
People shouldn't expect the Iraqi system to be a mirror of the American system, Shapiro said. The American logistics effort is state-of-the-art. Computerized, satellite-monitored global positioning system tracking is not going to be part of the Iraqi logistics effort. The Iraqi logistics effort will be nowhere near as technical, nor does it have to be, Shapiro explained.
"As souped-up as it is with us, ... I would submit to you that they don't need that. (Theirs) will be based on more manual systems," Shapiro said. "The Microsoft suite of software will be as high-tech as they will need to go, at least at first."
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3rd Corps Support Command