You Could Die Any Day: Being Deployed to Afghanistan as a Soldier of the German Army
()
About this ebook
Related to You Could Die Any Day
Related ebooks
An Undesirable Element Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Kosovo Incident Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDescending from the Clouds: A Memoir of Combat in the 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82d Airborne Division Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Into the Viper's Nest: The First Pivotal Battle of the Afghan War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Soldiers Miss War: The Journey Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Cat 2-1: The True Story of a Vietnam Helicopter Pilot and His Crew Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outpost Berlin: Cold War 1961–1964 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSAT & BAF! Memories of a Tower Rat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChindit Affair: A Memoir of the War in Burma Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Desert Fire: The Untold Story of the Air Mission That Cut Off Hitler's Oil Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOut of the Desert: A Story of Palestine, Ploesti and Beyond Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUncommon Warrior Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Battle of the Bulge: The Allies' Greatest Conflict on the Western Front Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Victors: Eisenhower And His Boys The Men Of World War Ii Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5THE BEST VIEWS OF HEAVEN Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWith the 8th Rifle Brigade from Normandy to the Baltic: June 1944 - May 1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLuftwaffe Fighter Ace: From the Eastern Front to the Defense of the Homeland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mortar Gunner on the Eastern Front Volume I: From the Moscow Winter Offensive to Operation Zitadelle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Defending the Iron Curtain: We Were Soldiers Too, #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRemembrances of My Service in World War II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLong Range Desert Group: Behind Enemy Lines in North Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Kaiser and Hitler: From Military Aviator to High Command - The Memoirs of Luftwaffe General Alfred Mahncke 1910-1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPotsdam Mission: Memoir of a U.S. Army Intelligence Officer in Communist East Germany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOperation Wappen: A War That Never Was Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShot Down Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Battle for North Africa: El Alamein and the Turning Point for World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Steel Boat, Iron Hearts: A U-boat Crewman's Life Aboard U-505 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Above the Battle: An Air Observation Post Pilot at War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Teaching Methods & Materials For You
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dumbing Us Down - 25th Anniversary Edition: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Verbal Judo, Second Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Financial Feminist: Overcome the Patriarchy's Bullsh*t to Master Your Money and Build a Life You Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jack Reacher Reading Order: The Complete Lee Child’s Reading List Of Jack Reacher Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Love Languages of Children: The Secret to Loving Children Effectively Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Speed Reading: Learn to Read a 200+ Page Book in 1 Hour: Mind Hack, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Take Smart Notes. One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Principles: Life and Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Closing of the American Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dance of Anger: A Woman's Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing to Learn: How to Write - and Think - Clearly About Any Subject at All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Raising Human Beings: Creating a Collaborative Partnership with Your Child Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Personal Finance for Beginners - A Simple Guide to Take Control of Your Financial Situation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How You Learn Is How You Live: Using Nine Ways of Learning to Transform Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inside American Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French - Parallel Text - Easy Stories (English - French) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Three Bears Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for You Could Die Any Day
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
You Could Die Any Day - Andreas Meyer
story.
Prologue
September 11 2001 I sat at a desk of a logistics company I was employed at as fire warden and coordinator for medical assistance since I left the Bundeswehr from active duty. I was responsible for the preventive fire security and all related aspects within the company. I liked my job. Being the one responsible for the security of my colleagues and having the possibility to be proactive always gave me a good feeling. Since I am a challenge loving person I was really satisfied with my tasks.
This morning though, my whole well settled life was about change in a dramatic way. A change that effected many more people around the globe.
A colleague of mine shouted over to me, I should open the website of CNN. Something about a plane had hit a sky scraper. Moments later I was following the live broadcast from the accident site staring at the horrific inferno of what once used to be the World Trade Center. I could not beliving my own eyes when the second jet flew into the other tower of the WTC.
In the first moment everything looked so staged. Like it was just not real. Like a really really bad movie. But it was real. And the consequences of this new reality were about to affect not only the world in general but also my very own personal life. I was about to face the terror from eye to eye. Not in the states but in Afghanistan.
I rejoined the Bundeswehr and became a soldier once again.
Map of Afghanistan
1 January 2005
10 th of January 2005 I received a call from the company sergeant (Spieß
) of my former unit, the 294th Mechanized Infantry Brigade. He was looking for a logistics assistant for the upcoming overseas mission. The destination: KUNDUZ, Afghanistan. I was quite surprised. But being a member of the reserve with still valid certification for this kind of position I had no doubt that I was going to support and accompany any battalion they would assign me to. At that time, I had a good job. I had responsibilities. But nothing could stop me from going with them. It´s one of these things you become a soldier for. Yes, of course I had been in the Army for 8 long years already. But it was nothing compared to what was about to come. Those years we´ve only been to countless exercises. All with the same scenarios. All about the same enemy. The enemy those days: The East
. In that past, counterterrorism and asymmetric warfare, at least in Germany, were not even close to become a term the army would focus on. You had 2 nations or blocks in conflict. Blue and red. Blue = good. Red = evil. After 9/11 the whole role of the Bundeswehr and its enemies had changed rapidly.
After the phone conversation with my Spieß
I went straight to my boss asking him for approval to join the Bundeswehr for active duty to go on mission. He was far away from being amazed by my idea, but after a long discussion about a man´s values and appealing to his idealism he finally agreed. After taking care of all administrative things with my employer and covering all needed aspects with my family I confirmed my participation in the upcoming mission. The preparations for my first mission began.
Those days I felt like I would finally do something meaningful for those people who had known only three things in the last year: war, suffering and oppression, caused by the same inhuman creatures who attacked the way of life of the western world. There are so many thoughts running through your head while preparing for a mission. You need some time to get their true meaning. To realize what is coming up to you. I was married at that time and my son had just turned 7. It was a hard battle to convince my wife. But like many times before my will won over her concerns.
During the time of my active duty in the past I learned the true meaning of comradeship. What it means to have true fellow soldiers. This understanding already began with my first day in basic training. 12 completely different characters put into a tiny room in a lousy barrack forced to come along with each other for months. Back then, a lot of the guys were away from home for the very first time in their life which led to the funny picture of a crazy long cue in front of the only phone cell on our military base every single evening. Fortunately, I was spared that kind of homesickness since I had left my home early to be trained as a cook prior to joining the military. But these new dogmas of order and obedience left a strange taste inside my mouth and stomach.
Coming back to camaraderie, I witnessed that we were capable of achieving anything as long we stood together. Within the group as well as with the platoon. You help each other no matter what. Being it the seemingly endless marches, the combat and survival exercises or our final military exam. You carry the backpack of someone who is close to collapse. You turn around and grab a guy whose legs refuse to keep on running. You do all this because you can be sure that they would do all this for you as well once you faced your limits. It was a uniquely good feeling to know this each time we managed an exercise or task. This feeling stayed throughout all my courses and later in the everyday military life. The things I learned and the role models I was led by created the credo I used through my military career as a Sergeant leading young people myself. I, as a sqad leader won´t expect or force anyone to do anything that I am not capable of doing myself.
Just like Alexandre Dumas wrote in The three musketeers
One for all and all for one! Those years in the army really brought me forward as a human being in many aspects.
In Germany of the 1980s the relationship between the civilian population and its countries’ forces and the picture the people had of its soldiers was a much better one than nowadays. You could see it specially during the large exercises like 1984 Flinker Igel
or 1987 Kecker Spatz
. Farmers would let you rest and sleep in their barn and when you had to make a tactical stop in front of a gymnasium of a school, kids would gather around and watch you curiously. Often, people would bring you fresh bread, eggs, bacon and refreshments. Sometimes civilians were even directly involved in the exercise by helping out or give a hand to set up our infrastructure. As the field cook, I always had more than enough work to do. Being responsible for the food supply kept me busy every single minute, especially when I had to care about groups being deployed on very short notice.
In these cases, I was happy to have my little helpers around. Meaning, whenever we had a bunch of guys having to deploy within minutes I just placed crates with the different goods on cued tables, positioned my helpers behind the crates and let them pack the food packages, then passing them on to the next helper in the chain like in a little factory.
These little helpers were kids from the nearby villages who were always happy to be a part in this.
Remembering this time as a young Sergeant and field cook, there is another episode coming to my mind which was positive as well and which should convince me one more time of how small the world is. I was preparing the dough for an apple pie that was planned as a special treat for the next morning´s breakfast for the company when a high-ranking officer suddenly opened the door and appeared right in front of me. Normally you would jump into attention immediately and do a military salute but I was kind of confused by this surprising visit. I guess that was obvious to him and with an expression in his eyes that I have never forgot since then he just said: "no report needed soldier.
What tasty treat is it you have there? And with these words he came closer and put his finger right into the dough. I was just saying:
So what do you think?" He just laughed and said that it is a shame that he won´t be there to try it tomorrow morning because he loves apple pie so much. I almost …in my pants. I had never met such a high-ranking officer before and this guy was a Colonel. This Colonel, this episode of camaraderie made a very strong impression on me although I had no clue who he was. Years later we met again. Not in Germany but in Afghanistan. That time I of course knew who he was. Brigade General and Commander of the 8th German mission contingent to ISAF, General A.
During the time of my first enlistment to the army I came to know another very impressive man, Colonel B. Back then he was a Major and became my company commander in NAGOLD in 1987. Later, after 41 years of service, he served as the commander of the airborne and air transportation school in ALTENSTADT. These 2 men had a very strong influence on me and my military career through all the years which I am very grateful for.
2. Preparations
The preparations for my very first deployment began with the standard medical checks and countless vaccinations. Tetanus, Hepatitis A and B, rabies and so on… I got it all. All was documented meticulously via a timeline checklist according to an individually specified vaccination scheme for the deployment region. There is a scheme for every different region.
Once I got the approval by the medics I was sent on the mission specified basics training (ESGA) in STETTEN AM KALTEN MARKT followed by the centralized combat troops training (ZENTRA) in HAMMELBURG at the Training Centre of Infantry. The training was very accurate. From mine and improvised explosives device (IED) detection to a very realistic scenario of being captured and held hostage, we trained every possible situation we could get into during the mission. Another important part of the training was the cultural education with insights into afghan population, habits and social structure as well as a basics language training of the most important phrases. We got a bunch of handbooks and vocabularies German - Paschtu and German - Dari, the two main languages that are officially used in Afghanistan.
There is a picture in one of the handbooks showing an Afghan building an IED made of fertilizer. That one remained in my mind till today. He was using a yellow canister. The officer who conducted the lesson told us to always pay attention to these canisters if we see them. A nice advise that some time later unfortunately showed to be absolutely useless, but we will return to this topic.
After the described preparation training followed the preparation for the individual tasks in the battalion (BN) in the ALBKASERNE in STETTEN. Lots of meetings and briefings with the Chief of logistics (J4 officer) and the BN commander were to be hold. Everything related to personnel and material was planned to the smallest detail. That time I also had to join all kind of individual mission task related trainings like Peace Support Operations PSO or workshops for logistics personnel and specialists of the Mission Contingent of the ISAF mission.
In advance of the actual deployment I additionally had to join a reconnaissance mission to AFG to the place of our responsibility at the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) at KUNDUZ. Our team consisted of 4 officers and 2 sergeants including me, who were given the task to evaluate the situation on ground in and around the operational base and to verify the information we had received till then. Although we were provided with quite a lot of data we wanted to be sure that they were still up to date and reliable. Next time I would arrive here as the BNs TVB responsible for the supply and provision of our soldiers, not only in the camp and nearby areas, but also for the ones on missions and at the forward operation bases (FOB) deep in enemy territory. This is completely different from doing this job back home. In mission country you cannot just drive over to the next garage to get spare parts for your combat vehicle. No, in combat areas the lines of supply are much more complicated and way longer.
sunset in the Camp
Structure wise, I was assigned to the Staff and Supply Company. Due to that I also was responsible for the support with personnel and material of the Staff with its 7 sections as well as the Base Security / Defense Company and the military police. One who has never been in the Bundeswehr may imagine