Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
6:35 | It was July 4, 2010 when the patrol went out from their outpost in Afghanistan to set up an overwatch. Mortarman Colin Colquhoun needed somebody to carry some extra rounds so he took a newly arrived soldier named Clay McGarrah with him. (Caution: strong language)
Keywords : Colin Colquhoun mortarman Afghanistan Clayton McGarrah Improvised Explosive Device (IED) shrapnel 60mm mortar M4 Carbine Matt Hagland medic physician's assistant (PA) Taliban air support Medical Evacuation (Medevac) Bell OH-58 Kiowa Boeing AH-64 Apache 30mm cannon
After a lot of training, Colin Colquhoun was feeling kind of cocky but when he got to the 82nd, he was just a new guy. The battalion was destined for Iraq but a changing situation in Afghanistan rerouted them there. At first they were spread out all over the place but finally the whole battalion was gathered in the Arghandab Valley. (Caution: strong language)
He was only in the sixth grade at the time but the day of 9/11 stuck with him throughout the rest of his childhood. As soon as he graduated high school, Colin Colquhoun joined the Army ready to do his part.
It started off slowly but as the calendar moved into spring the fighting season was on. Colin Colquhoun recalls his first firefight with the Taliban which escalated from one squad to the whole company engaged. When he prepared to fire his mortar he made a rookie mistake that could have been costly. (Caution: strong language)
Mortarman Colin Colquhoun used both high explosive and white phosphorus rounds. The HE rounds were handy for punching through the roof on a tough Afghan building and the smoke rounds were good for marking targets for the helicopter gunships. The pilots were from the 82nd Airborne just like the troops so they would go the extra mile.
When it was time to rotate out of Afghanistan, for some reason, the Army sent an artillery unit to replace Colin Colquhoun's infantry unit. They were totally unprepared. Someone up the chain had messed up.
Colin Colquhoun tells the tale of a special care package one of the men received from his wife containing an intimate personal item. That was a little needed comedic relief but when his unit returned from Afghanistan and he slowed down a little, he realized something was wrong. He'd changed.
There were good reasons to go to war in Afghanistan but then the mission creep set in. Colin Colquhoun laments how we lost our way there. He did his part and he loves getting together with his buddies to keep the brotherhood alive.
