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August 20 (FOB Mirwais)

from Dust of Uruzgan by Fred Smith

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about

When the Dutch pulled out of Uruzgan in August 2010, we needed to replace their Provincial Reconstruction Team missions in the districts of Chora and Deh Rawud. I went up to FOB Mirwais in Chora, 40km up the Baluchi Valley from Tarin Kowt, with a force protection team of 15 American shooters commanded by Lieutenant Willard Cooper. We took over two tents in the accommodation lines and half a shipping container for an office. We inherited a great interpreter, Zia, and a bunch of contacts from the Dutch, but apart from that it was pretty hard going settling the Team in and getting on with the job of building relationships with the local community in the middle of a hot fighting season.
The FOB Mirwais Command Post was headquarters for the Australian Mentoring Team –Charlie, which had Combat Outposts down through the contested Baluchi Valley and into eastern Dorafshan. It was staffed by guys from Brisbane-based 6RAR. They had been there for six months and were pretty tight. I wrote this song from my diary entry on August 20, when Grant Kirby and Tomas Dale were killed while manning an overwatch position for an Afghan Army patrol in the Valley.

lyrics

An August summer’s day, a morning clear and bright, a week after Ramadan, the lines were nice and quiet. The Sappers were away and from the tent next door some boys were down in the valley on an op. at COP Mashall.

I went to find my ‘terp’ to call the district chief. Walked past the Afghan’s kitchen stuck my head in the CP. I heard a call come in from India 36
Through the static of the iCom saying something about a TIC. Another IED a couple of category A’s
MO’D called in a medevac and I got out of the way.
Went up to my desk to type up a report of a conversation I had had the day before. Willie wondered in to call his missus dear, found that the phones were cut confirming what I’d feared

Two choppers circled in, from Tarin Kowt they said through the Chora saddle, to our dirt and stone LZ. The MP got off first he’d done all this before. A brick of boys got on the bird to reinforce Mashall

The MP came around, by then it was half past three. Those who’d stayed from the tent next door helped him with the inventories. Packed all their effects, less pornos and their fags, ready for Sunday’s chopper in white painted Eshelen bags.

I went back to the CP for the 1730 brief. The staff were sitting quietly the room was thick with grief.
‘Til Dukesy arched up red saying “let’s go settle scores!” The OC said “we keep our heads and crack on like before”.

And all through dinner time and that evening warm and still, quiet speculation about what happened on that hill. ‘Til Willie briefed the Team and laid the facts out cold, then went through the orders for the next day’s foot patrol.

Glossary
‘terp’ – interpreter; CP – Command Post
India 36 – call sign I36; iCom – radio
TIC – troops in contact; op - operation
Category A’s – the highest category of wounds
Medevac – medical evacuation (by helicopter)
MO’D – Captain Michael O’Donnell, OPSO MT-C
LZ – landing zone; MP – military police officer
‘brick’ – team of 5 men
OC – Officer Commanding

credits

from Dust of Uruzgan, released August 30, 2020

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Fred Smith Canberra, Australia

“Fred Smith is simply the best folk/country musician working in this country in 2020. Beyond writing some of the finest songs about Australians at war, he has created a repertoire that is wry, literate, witty, powerfully emotional and insightful.”(Bruce Elder, Sydney Morning Herald). ... more

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