Fort Carson's 4th Brigade acclimates to Afghanistan

The area in Afghanistan that a Fort Carson brigade now patrols bigger than it looks.

It's not that the provinces near the Pakistan border patrolled by the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division are diminutive.

"It's an area the size of Massachusetts," said Col. Randy George, the brigade commander. "I was told if you could roll it out flat, it would be the size of Kansas."

The 3,500-soldier brigade left for war last month and took a few weeks to learn about the place they'll work for a year before taking the reins from another unit there last week.

The brigade's headquarters is in Jalalabad, a city in a lush river valley known for farming. The mountains around Jalalabad soar like the Rockies, forming a backdrop for jagged foothills that torture the landscape.

In those hills and mountains lies the elusive enemy George's soldiers hunt during daylong foot patrols as 110-degree heat cooks the rocky soil and roils the surprisingly humid air.

"There's all kinds of bad guys over here," George said during a telephone interview, noting that hardcore Taliban fighters and common criminals are among the challenges soldiers face.

The brigade came home from Iraq in 2008 with its soldiers experienced in urban fighting from armored Humvees.

In Afghanistan, its soldiers are often engaged in grueling foot patrols to reach isolated villages.

George ran his soldiers through a tough training regimen last year to get them ready for the task. As Olympic athletes know, workouts in 6,200-foot Colorado Springs pays off in competition.

"What we did to stress physical training and doing it altitude has worked," George said.

Now, the soldiers are focused on learning their new area of responsibility, visiting each village to learn local problems and meet leaders who can help with the task.

The brigade is working to build up local governments and improve the faltering economy in a bid to turn locals away from the insurgency.

"We have really got to get focus on the population," George said.

The brigade is also working with and training Afghan police and army forces, using their local savvy with American tactics to take on insurgents.

The Afghans have had success in keeping open a main highway through the region running to Pakistan through the Khyber Pass.

"They understand they need for that for commerce," George said. "It's a priority for the Afghans, and it's a priority for us."

George said the area is far from calm, through. Most of the brigade's soldiers have already seen fighting.
Pfc. Steven T. Drees, a 19-year-old soldier in the brigade's 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, died last week from wounds suffered when he was shot during a June 24 firefight in Konar Province, northeast of Jalalabad.

George said the enemy comes at Americans with everything from mortars and rifles to mines and bombs.

"This is a tough mission," George said. "It's very different from what you've seen."