Battalions reunite for first time since Vietnam

GHAZNI PROVINCE, Afghanistan—Their reunion was 41 years in the making, and in the insurgent-ridden district of Andar, no less. Two infantry battalions from the 2nd Infantry Regiment have been separated more by duty than choice. The last time they met, they spent more than four years battling the Viet Cong in South Vietnam.

This time, their reunion was brief and marked by ceremony. The morning was crisp Jan. 3, as the 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment took over the battle space from the 2nd Battalion, that had just finished a year-long mission in Afghanistan.

“I hope what we’ve done here has meant something,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alan Streeter, 2nd Battalion commander. “I hope we’ve established a foothold which our sister battalion can now exploit.”

The Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion are just days away from returning home to Ft. Knox, Ky., where the battalion falls under the 1st Infantry Division. 

Streeter’s Soldiers have had a trying year pushing back belligerent insurgents in Andar and Deh Yak, the two Ghazni Province districts that make up the battle space the 2nd Battalion is relinquishing to the 1st Battalion. Based an ocean-distance away, the 1st Battalion is part of the 172nd Infantry Brigade in Grafenwoehr, Germany.

The calls have been close and common for Streeter and his Soldiers throughout their deployment, especially during the unforgiving summer months when enemy rockets constantly whistled over Forward Operating Base Andar.

There was also Mother’s Day when the 2nd Battalion Soldiers spent their Sunday in fighting positions picketed along the FOB walls defending themselves from an onslaught of hostile fire.

By miracle, or skill, or a touch of both, the 2nd Battalion’s casualties have been low. During their year-long deployment, three Soldiers have died. The losses have nonetheless been deeply felt.

“When I lose a soldier, it’s like losing a kid,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Walter Tagalicud of 2nd Battalion’s fallen that include Sgt. Kristopher J. Gould, 25, of Saginaw, Mich.; Sgt. James W. Harvey II, 23, of Toms River, N.J., and Spc. Joseph A. Kennedy, 25, of St. Paul, Minn.

Things weren’t much easier in the fall of 1965 when the battalions first deployed to Vietnam. But it was in that coastal nation, embroiled in civil conflict, that the battalions further forged their regiment’s legend.

Vietnam was where the 1st Battalion got its “black scarves” moniker. The story goes while searching Lo Go Village, 1st Battalion Soldiers seized a bounty of black cloth, used to make enemy uniforms. The battalion commander ordered the cloth be cut into dozens of scarves, so he could distinguish his men from other Soldiers in the division.

It was also in Vietnam, that the regiment had its second Medal of Honor award recipient, Staff Sgt. James Leroy Bondsteel. Armed with his M-16 rifle and grenades, Bondsteel, known as “Buddha,” for his burly frame, singlehandedly destroyed 10 enemy bunkers, taking out a machine gun and saving the life of an officer, while rallying his troops to victory. During the 4-hour battle, Buddha refused medical treatment although he took shrapnel to his face and chest from an enemy grenade.

In Afghanistan the regiment has had its own modern-day heroes.

U.S. Army Sgt. Isaac Inay, a 2nd Battalion sniper team leader, spent 14 hours lying on his belly, flat in a grape field, in wait for a posse of motorcycle-riding insurgents who were known for transporting weapons through the town of Mungor. When the posse finally came along, laden down with a cache of arms, Inay and the rest of the scout team took them out, one by one, before they knew what hit them.

“I’m going to miss some of the firefights. I’ve never felt so alive,” said Inay. The Colorado Springs, Colo., native is returning to the States with the 2nd Battalion and earned an Army Commendation Medal with “V” device for valor, for his actions.

Recently, the Soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Battalions gathered together one last time to prepare for battle-space changeover and continue the mission.

For 1st Battalion commander, Lt. Col. Earl Higgins, Jr., who has known 2nd Battalion commander Streeter since the two were lieutenants, the moment is all the more poignant.

“I’m able to assume a battle space from a friend and continue the hard work that the battalion has already carried forward,” Higgins said.

While some came to the ceremony out of formality, others came to witness history.

“This may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said 1st Battalion Command Sgt. Maj. Brian Woodall. “It’s possible that you may never see those two guidons together again.”

After the ceremony, the last of 2nd Battalion’s Soldiers waited to leave Andar, bound for home, on a CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

As the bird lifted off with Andar’s sand and stone quickly dwindling underneath them, they could breathe a little easier knowing their old battle space was in their sister battalion’s capable charge.