Henderson resident recalls five months with Desert Rats
When they left five months ago on a mission to win the hearts and minds of Afghanistan’s people, the Army Reserve’s Vegas Desert Rats knew the job wouldn’t been easy.
Now with about half of their yearlong deployment remaining, “morale is good,” Cpl. Eric Roberson says.
But they know how tough the task has become with potential danger from roadside bombs, mortars and small-arms fire lurking around their combat outposts.
Members of one small team made from the two dozen Delta Company soldiers from the North Las Vegas-based 405th Civil Affairs Battalion earned their combat action badges two days into the deployment.
One attack on June 8 from Taliban mortar fire turned into a close call for Roberson, who talked about the situation after returning to his Henderson home on leave recently to the surprise and open arms of his wife and family.
Roberson, a Las Vegas police officer who served as a Marine in the Gulf War, said a round blew up the outpost’s shower in eastern Afghanistan.
“We had taken seven or eight rounds that day, a combination of RPGs, 82 mm mortars, recoilless rifle fire and some smaller grenades.
“We were looking at some of the areas that had been blown up and laughing about how the shower now has a sun roof,” he recalled.
His team leader, Staff Sgt. Colin Veltman, walked over to check out a building that had a hole in it from a rocket-propelled grenade. While Veltman wanted to continue to inspect the damage, Roberson wanted to leave.
As luck would have it, “if I had not waited with him and turned around and walked away two seconds earlier, I would have been killed,” he said.
“We both turned around and walked back, and I heard the last split millisecond of it screeching through the air. It blew up about 5 meters in front of us. The sound of the explosion and the concussion knocked us back about 15 feet off of our feet.”
What sticks in Roberson’s mind “is the earth exploding right at us.”
“The concussion shook my whole insides. I had the worst headache I’ve ever had in my life. My left ear was ringing really, really bad. I felt sick, and my balance was off. I couldn’t walk in a straight line or stand on one foot,” he said.
Both soldiers managed to escape without shrapnel wounds.
Roberson said coming home on leave “is different. It’s harder to relax than I ever thought it would be because we’re coming from a place that’s pretty kinetic and we’re on a high state of alert all the time. “
Roberson said he feels compelled to return to his team but is torn to leave behind his sons, daughters and wife, Tracy, who beams with a smile.
“I’m happy,” she said. “Life is good.”
Her husband hasn’t lost sight of the mission.
“We try to find the village elder. We try to sit down and have a conversation with him,” he said. “We’re trying to ascertain if there are any sources of instability and how the government is working and if the local nationals know how to solve their problems through the government.”
The team especially wants to know whether there is any kind of shadow government from the Taliban in place.
“Are they using that form of government? We’re trying to steer them away to get them to buy into and believe in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,” Roberson said.
In another part of Afghanistan, Logar province, disbursement officer 1st Lt. Xiao Sessler has been busy settling with families of civilian airstrike victims.
It has been almost two weeks from Tuesday that her husband, Warren Sessler, has heard from her, but he has faith she’s doing fine.
“I have the utmost confidence in the Desert Rats being able to fulfill their mission,” said Warren Sessler, a Korean War veteran and Silver Star medal recipient.
“They’re lucky to have extremely good leadership” in Maj. Victor Ingram and 1st Sgt. Randy Ford, he said.
Sessler said he wonders, though, how in tune the American public is with U.S. troops completing a decade of war that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“There’s no daily impact on every citizen’s life. Everybody’s interested in jobs, the economy and the conflicting propaganda on both sides in the election,” he said. “But we military families are very aware of what’s going on, and we must support our military spouses.”
Roberson noticed the same aloofness while shopping at a local grocery store.
“People don’t have a clue about what’s going on. In Afghanistan, you absolutely know there’s a war going on.”
Nevertheless, he said, “we live in absolutely the best country on the planet. But they don’t seem to know that until they’ve been where I’ve been for the last five months.”
Are the U.S.-led NATO forces making progress?
“Yes,” Roberson said. “As long as we’ve been there we’ve got to be making progress. There is a definitive government in place. It’s in its infancy, but it’s promising.”
Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.
