To all friends and families of First Platoon,
Another month done! Everyone is still safe and healthy. What else can you ask for, besides a ticket home of course?
This month has been fairly uneventful except for when SFC Dowell dislocated his finger catching a football. He was out of commission for a few weeks but is back with the platoon once again. SSG Rivera had to step in and fill the platoon sergeant shoes while SFC Dowell was injured, but that is a position all too familiar to Rivera. He played the part of platoon sergeant for many months before SFC Dowell made it to the unit in December.
We have a new addition to the platoon; former second platoon member SGT Bouxsein is now joining the best platoon in the company. We are lucky to have him. He fits in well with the other Soldiers and brings a wealth of knowledge to the table. We have already sent him to Bagram to get some training on a new system that the Army is trying to implement. Once he returns he will be the subject matter expert and it will be his job to teach us about it and help us put it into operation.
PFC Contryman’s mom sent over a handful of mini refrigerators for the guys. Her generosity, and that of the others that helped her with the project, is greatly appreciated. It is hard to believe how something as simple as a cold drink can raise the spirits of the men, but it does. It especially comes in handy on those long, hot, all day missions. So thank you to Mrs. Contryman and those that helped her.
Redeployment is still a ways away but information is starting to flow down on what is happening to the unit once we get back from Afghanistan. So just keep asking your Soldiers questions and hopefully we can get you the answers you need as you plan for possible future moves.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Letter Seven
Here are some pics of me I thought you all might like to see. I have a couple with the kids and one with my interpreter Nisar. Either Nisar or his brother Bashir go out on mission with me everytime and help bridge the language barrier. Nisar is 23 and his brother Bashir is 25 but they both look old like all afghani's.
Love, Todd
Love, Todd
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Letter Six
Hello Everyone,
I know that it has been a long long time since I last wrote one of these emails. My Bad. It is mainly because I can't think of what to write. The interesting or exciting stuff in my life right now I cannot write about due to operational security and the rest is just pretty much monotonous and not interesting. Anyways, over the last few months we have been doing the same stuff over and over again. We drive to a few main high threat areas and drive around all day looking for bombs or bad guys so that it is safe for the rest of the coalition forces and Afghan people to move about. When we get bored we play with the local kids or go shoot off a bunch of rounds and find something that needs to be "blown up" and we take care of it. The action has picked up lately as the temperature has been rising. I suppose it will stay that way until winter hits and the mountain passes are all closed. Where I am at it gets between 100 and 130 degrees every day. That sucks but we are used to it by now. It should cool off here in the next few months and the rainy season should hit. While everyone else is getting snow we will just get a break from the heat and maybe a little rain. They have not had snow where we are at for the last 5 years which is kind of good because it won't be freezing but it is bad because that means we won't get a break from our usual mission set. We will be doing the same thing all year long while the rest of our guys down south will transition to snow and ice removal in the winter months.
Latest rumor around here is that they will be trying to move me to an executive officer position in the next couple of months. That takes me off of the road and puts me behind a desk handling the maintenance and supply issues of the company. It will be kind of nice to have the change and I will be a lot safer, but I hate to leave the guys. I wish I could take them all the way home. There is also a lot of talk about moves happening once we get back. So to make a long story short I will probably not be in Kansas very long once the deployment is over. I will either be in White Sands, NM, or Fort Leonardwood, MO. We will see, I have some decisions to make and anything can change in the next 10 months we are here. That's just how the Army is.
I love all of you. Thanks for the support. I can't wait to get home on leave to see most of you.
-Todd
I know that it has been a long long time since I last wrote one of these emails. My Bad. It is mainly because I can't think of what to write. The interesting or exciting stuff in my life right now I cannot write about due to operational security and the rest is just pretty much monotonous and not interesting. Anyways, over the last few months we have been doing the same stuff over and over again. We drive to a few main high threat areas and drive around all day looking for bombs or bad guys so that it is safe for the rest of the coalition forces and Afghan people to move about. When we get bored we play with the local kids or go shoot off a bunch of rounds and find something that needs to be "blown up" and we take care of it. The action has picked up lately as the temperature has been rising. I suppose it will stay that way until winter hits and the mountain passes are all closed. Where I am at it gets between 100 and 130 degrees every day. That sucks but we are used to it by now. It should cool off here in the next few months and the rainy season should hit. While everyone else is getting snow we will just get a break from the heat and maybe a little rain. They have not had snow where we are at for the last 5 years which is kind of good because it won't be freezing but it is bad because that means we won't get a break from our usual mission set. We will be doing the same thing all year long while the rest of our guys down south will transition to snow and ice removal in the winter months.
Latest rumor around here is that they will be trying to move me to an executive officer position in the next couple of months. That takes me off of the road and puts me behind a desk handling the maintenance and supply issues of the company. It will be kind of nice to have the change and I will be a lot safer, but I hate to leave the guys. I wish I could take them all the way home. There is also a lot of talk about moves happening once we get back. So to make a long story short I will probably not be in Kansas very long once the deployment is over. I will either be in White Sands, NM, or Fort Leonardwood, MO. We will see, I have some decisions to make and anything can change in the next 10 months we are here. That's just how the Army is.
I love all of you. Thanks for the support. I can't wait to get home on leave to see most of you.
-Todd
Monday, July 16, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Newsletter
To all friends and families of First Platoon,
We are back under a year again, finally. This month has been a pretty busy month for the platoon. We are still clearing lots of kilometers but we are starting to fall into a good routine. We try to give the soldiers as much down time as possible and no one seems to be getting burned out yet. We had our first group of guys go home on leave. That is a grand milestone to reach because it starts to give the guys something to look forward to. We had two new babies born in the platoon; congratulations to the Ford and Aven families. SSG Rivera took second place in a 10k run on the Army’s birthday. We got the internet hooked up in the soldiers rooms as some of you may have heard. Hopefully, this helps them stay in touch with you at home a little better. I know a lot of them have already purchased the web cams and other accessories so their loved ones can see them and vice versa back home.
With all of the countless number of miles spent on the road I think the statistic that we are most proud of as a platoon is that we have won over a confirmed number of 973 hearts and minds of the Afghan people.* The preferred method of winning hearts and minds is to utilize our friendly smiles and graceful waves. Children seem to be the easiest ones to win over with adults a little more skeptical.
On a negative note, the temperatures have reached 100+ degrees around here and we are burning up. Along with the warm temperatures all the sweet creepy crawly animals are coming out to play. Cooper and Horne said they saw a spider walking down the road the other day that had its own shadow.
The Colonel came and visited the platoon and seemed to be pleased with the way your Soldiers have been operating, so make sure to congratulate them on a job well done so far. We appreciate all of the support from home and look forward to the day when we get to take our own leave for those of us who haven’t yet.
If you have any questions or need any assistance please feel free to contact me at todd.j.severson@us.army.mil.
1LT Todd Severson
1st Platoon Leader
* Disclaimer: This is just an arbitrary number and there is nothing confirmed about it.
We are back under a year again, finally. This month has been a pretty busy month for the platoon. We are still clearing lots of kilometers but we are starting to fall into a good routine. We try to give the soldiers as much down time as possible and no one seems to be getting burned out yet. We had our first group of guys go home on leave. That is a grand milestone to reach because it starts to give the guys something to look forward to. We had two new babies born in the platoon; congratulations to the Ford and Aven families. SSG Rivera took second place in a 10k run on the Army’s birthday. We got the internet hooked up in the soldiers rooms as some of you may have heard. Hopefully, this helps them stay in touch with you at home a little better. I know a lot of them have already purchased the web cams and other accessories so their loved ones can see them and vice versa back home.
With all of the countless number of miles spent on the road I think the statistic that we are most proud of as a platoon is that we have won over a confirmed number of 973 hearts and minds of the Afghan people.* The preferred method of winning hearts and minds is to utilize our friendly smiles and graceful waves. Children seem to be the easiest ones to win over with adults a little more skeptical.
On a negative note, the temperatures have reached 100+ degrees around here and we are burning up. Along with the warm temperatures all the sweet creepy crawly animals are coming out to play. Cooper and Horne said they saw a spider walking down the road the other day that had its own shadow.
The Colonel came and visited the platoon and seemed to be pleased with the way your Soldiers have been operating, so make sure to congratulate them on a job well done so far. We appreciate all of the support from home and look forward to the day when we get to take our own leave for those of us who haven’t yet.
If you have any questions or need any assistance please feel free to contact me at todd.j.severson@us.army.mil.
1LT Todd Severson
1st Platoon Leader
* Disclaimer: This is just an arbitrary number and there is nothing confirmed about it.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Friday, May 11, 2007
Newsletter
The Family Readiness Group (FRG) has a monthly newsletter that Todd has been asked to contribute to. Here is the first entry he wrote and a couple of photos of the 1st Platoon:
1st PLATOON
To all friends and families of First Platoon:
Well, we have knocked out the first month. The only problem is that after we got one month down they told us we are extended for three more months. Talk about one step forward and two steps back.
The first month was pretty eventful. It took us a while to get into Afghanistan, I think we flew through 5 different countries, but once we landed we hit the ground running. We had a bunch of in-briefs to go through so that we could learn the rules of the FOB (Forward Operating Base), the culture in our region, and some of the diseases and threats in the area. After we finished those we started getting classes from the unit we were replacing on our equipment and tactics. They were very helpful and defiantly set us up for success. We started riding along with them on missions and then slowly integrated in until we were running missions alone.
We live like gypsies a lot of the time driving from place to place living out of a sleeping bag. So far we have cleared about 2000 km of road. It gets monotonous at times, but we still have fun with it. We spend a lot of our free time watching movies and playing cards, video games, and volleyball. We are going to be road trip experts by the time we get home at the end of the year.
Your letters, packages, and prayers have helped us immensely since we have been here. I know the soldiers don’t get to the phones or internet as much as we would like, but they are working on the limited access issue here and hopefully it will get better. The good news is that it has only been taking about 8 days for packages to arrive from the states. Thank you for your support.
If you have any questions or need any assistance please feel free to contact me at: todd.j.severson@us.army.mil.
Grizzly 16
1LT Severson
Clearing routes and beautiful scenery
Mechanics conducting inventory on the equipment. Is that Todd sitting in the chair in the background?
1st PLATOON
To all friends and families of First Platoon:
Well, we have knocked out the first month. The only problem is that after we got one month down they told us we are extended for three more months. Talk about one step forward and two steps back.
The first month was pretty eventful. It took us a while to get into Afghanistan, I think we flew through 5 different countries, but once we landed we hit the ground running. We had a bunch of in-briefs to go through so that we could learn the rules of the FOB (Forward Operating Base), the culture in our region, and some of the diseases and threats in the area. After we finished those we started getting classes from the unit we were replacing on our equipment and tactics. They were very helpful and defiantly set us up for success. We started riding along with them on missions and then slowly integrated in until we were running missions alone.
We live like gypsies a lot of the time driving from place to place living out of a sleeping bag. So far we have cleared about 2000 km of road. It gets monotonous at times, but we still have fun with it. We spend a lot of our free time watching movies and playing cards, video games, and volleyball. We are going to be road trip experts by the time we get home at the end of the year.
Your letters, packages, and prayers have helped us immensely since we have been here. I know the soldiers don’t get to the phones or internet as much as we would like, but they are working on the limited access issue here and hopefully it will get better. The good news is that it has only been taking about 8 days for packages to arrive from the states. Thank you for your support.
If you have any questions or need any assistance please feel free to contact me at: todd.j.severson@us.army.mil.
Grizzly 16
1LT Severson
Clearing routes and beautiful scenery
Mechanics conducting inventory on the equipment. Is that Todd sitting in the chair in the background?
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