From Iraq?
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Seeing the recent reports of the bad guys in Afghanistan using US supplied ammo really isn’t a surprise. With the ANA always at the ready to sell their gear and equipment at the local bazaar, this is basically old news to the people who have served in Afghanistan.
Every 30-60 days I would receive a new group of ANA soldiers and there would always be a couple without any equipment. After realizing what some of these soldiers were doing, I would recommend to their commander that those individuals must still go on the missions without weapons and ammo. To my surprise the ANA commander agreed with me and forced a couple of the soldiers who had sold their gear to go on the missions. It didn’t take long for word to trickle back to the rear as all ANA soldiers began showing up with all of their gear and issued equipment.
What I did find surprising was what we discovered while doing Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) after a firefight we had with the bad guys. We had recovered four RPG launchers from the bad guy’s position and brought them back to the FOB to re-distribute to the ANA. While cross-referencing the serial numbers the launchers had been stamped with, we were informed (from some highers database) that one of the launchers had been manufactured in Iraq in 2003 and we were to hold it until a “team” was flown in to recover it.
Everyone was surprised that we had found an Iraqi RPG launcher on a mountaintop on the south eastern Afghan-Pakistan border in 2007. In this section of the world, the trafficking of weapons and ammo across poorly guarded borders happens on a daily occurrence.
Live free or die trying!
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