The Army National Guard taught me to march, fire weapons, and rig explosives. Eventually, it shipped me to Fort Hood, Texas, to train for deployment to the Afghanistan War. The inadequacy of our training for that war is the subject of another column, but it’s worth noting that the Army drilled us well in how to fire our weapons, but almost not at all in when to fire our weapons.
We received no briefing on the subject, but were given a Rules of Engagement pamphlet, a short, trifold glossy paper meant to explain when we could and could not fire.
The ROE card began, “You have the right to use force, including deadly force, in self-defense of you, US forces, others designated by your command, and mission essential equipment.” My government provided me with the training. Now it was providing the means and the legal authorization to kill human beings.
The ROE card continued:
“Force used in Self Defense must be NECESSARY. Force is necessary when you face:
a. A hostile act, an actual use of force against you.
b. A hostile intent, the threat of imminent use of force against you.
(1) You do not have to wait for the threat to use force first.
(2) Ask yourself, “If I don’t stop the threat now, will the threat hurt me or my unit before I can get help? If you answer “Yes,” then you face a hostile intent.”
This made sense when reading the ROE card on the safe air base. But outside the wire, everything was more complex. Some Afghans looked at us in hostile ways, speaking a language we did not understand. Were they plotting hostile actions? The card said I did not have to wait for them to use force. Could I just shoot them?
The ROE card continued with the “Four S’s,” a series of minimal force steps to take toward threat elimination. We were to “SHOUT,” general American curses or warnings in their language. We could “SHOW” our weapons. This technique was particularly effective on a few terrible occasions. Next was the never-used “SHOVE” option. No way would I allow a hostile Afghan within arm’s length of my weapon. The last step was “SHOOT (to kill).”
The “Four S’s” seemed to make sense to me. Except that immediately following those instructions was the guidance, “YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE EVERY STEP IF TIME DOES NOT ALLOW!”
How were we supposed to know how much time we had? An Afghan standing beside the road with his AK-47 and a mean frown looked like someone with hostile intent. If he decided to fire, we would have seconds. So … blast him? According to the ROE card, maybe. But we would have ended up killing tons of perfectly decent Afghan men just because they believed in our Second Amendment, but were not super cheerful.
THE CONGRESSMAN AND THE CAPTAIN
“How’d I end up here? I’m supposed to be teaching high school English,” I would say to myself when I had to make these decisions. Eventually, we decided there were “Five S’s” and the first was “SMILE and wave.” I learned to say, “Hello, friend,” in their language, and when I manned the Humvee gun turret, I would smile and wave like an idiot, especially to any armed or potentially hostile Afghan. If he smiled and waved back, his hand was off his weapon, and he was probably harmless or at least delayed if he did intend to attack. If he did not return the greeting and still looked mean, we knew to watch him.
I thank God that I never had to kill a human being, even a member of the evil Taliban. But I’m still a little perplexed about why the Army offered so little guidance and training on an issue of such importance. To a great extent, we had to use the cowboy way, developing our own policy in the absence of clear guidance from the Army, making it up as we went along.
Trent Reedy, author of several books, including Enduring Freedom, served as a combat engineer in the Iowa Army National Guard from 1999 to 2005, including a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
*Some names and call signs in this story may have been changed due to operational security or privacy concerns.
