Engineer Platoon Provides Route Security

Filed under Guard on the Ground by on February 23, 2010 at 8:10 pm {no comments}

By Sgt. Jon E. Dougherty
Public Affairs NCO
203rd Engineer Battalion
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PAKTIKA PROVINCE, Afghanistan – When your primary mission as an engineer platoon is clearing routes of improvised explosive devices – the number one threat to U.S. and NATO forces here – you might not think most other missions are as challenging or rewarding.

But for Second Platoon, 211th Engineer Company (sappers), South Dakota Army National Guard, providing route security comes in more than one form. On a recent cold, windy February day, Second Platoon – known as “The Punishers” to their enemies – took on a different kind of route clearance mission.

While always on the hunt for IEDs, Second Platoon’s focal mission this time was to establish a TCP – traffic control point – along a well-traveled route, with the goal of interdicting insurgents and others who may be transporting explosives, weapons caches or anything aimed at conducting militant operations against the legitimate Afghan government.

The objective, according to Sergeant First Class Jon Albers of Madison, S.D., the Punishers’ platoon sergeant, would be to enhance security along the route, making passage safer for local Afghans. Crews would do so by conducting searches of passing vehicles and tactical questioning of their occupants.

And while that may sound mundane or even routine to some, there is nothing routine about such operations in a war zone.

(more…)

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