Salutations from Afghanistan!

Wow, time has flown by over here. Before you know it, we will be on

the big “Freedom Bird” headed towards the States. This sentiment hit

me hard as we gathered our bags and began to pack our container. The

container will be shipped back to the States in another month or so. It

will hold most of our equipment we are not turning over to the new

SFAT teams replacing us. It also holds our extra duffle bags and boxes

we shipped over from Fort Sill, Oklahoma many months ago. This is

one of the first steps to begin movement towards redeployment. Let’s

not get too far ahead of ourselves.

But the mission is not over yet, far from it. We are closing down shop

here on the JRAC and preparing to move us and our ANCOP Kandak

out into a new area for the remainder of the time in Afghanistan. Your

Soldiers (our SFAT Staff and Soldiers) have trained their counterparts

as well as the ANCOP policemen on a multitude of tasks. More impor-

tantly, we’ve built a capacity in that we’ve trained subject matter ex-

perts (SME) within the ANCOP unit. These SMEs are skilled in: tacti-

cal driving, police tactics, weapons tactics and marksmanship, counter

IED skills, and medical skills. These SMEs will in-turn, train all their

subordinate units. It will be Afghans training Afghans, without assis-

tance from International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF). Your Sol-

diers have taught the ANCOP to be self-sufficient for training in these

tasks, and more. The real key to mission success is having the Afghan

Nation Security Forces (ANSF) capable of training, equipping and sus-

taining themselves, without assistance from the ISAF. With minor as-

sistance from your Soldiers, they are one more step closer to accom-

plishing this mission. Sometimes the training has not been glamorous

or perfect, but it is Afghan sustainable.

See page 3: “Piece of History”

SFAT TEAM 33

Special points of interest:

Each Page.

Team Leader

“”Closing Down Shop and Carved out a Piece of History”

NCO’s

“Guide and Direct”

Your Soldiers Pics

1 September 2012

Volume 1, Issue 5

Operation Enduring

Freedom

2012-2013

BUSHMASTERS

Closing Down Shop & Carved

out a Piece of History

MAJ Crooks loading up his

“Tuff Boxes” on the Ranger to

take them out to the storage

MAJ Crooks and

CPT Martin

enjoying some lunch

at the SFAT dining

facility

To the family and friends of SFAT Team #33, another

month has come and gone and as the calendar turns here

in Afghanistan we find ourselves preparing to deploy

with our ANCOP counterparts out into sector. The days

are getting shorter and even the temperatures have got-

ten to become more bearable in place of the 100 plus

temperature days.

We’ve had the opportunity to help guide and direct our

counterparts in the right direction for their training,

we’ve completed a lot this past month as far as assisting

them to become “Self Sustainable” in all operations of

their missions. The most difficult thing we’ve found is

understanding the Afghan way of doing things and not

trying to “reinvent the wheel”, so to speak, from what we

as ISAF would do in similar situations. We are here to

help guide them develop their own systems and stan-

dards that will be sustainable now and after our time

with them here is complete.

They have completed the first ever class on Counter Im-

provised Exploding Device (IED) training to be held here

at the JRAC, utilizing the outdoor classroom and the

IED training lane to sharpen their individual detection

skills. We obviously didn’t have the opportunity to assist

in the training of all of the ANCOP, but we did divide

each company to ensure that they each had Subject Mat-

ter Experts (SMEs) attend all the training. They will

train their own with the Counter IED training, Basic

Rifle Marksmanship (BRM) and weapons maintenance,

police training as well as mine detection training with

the Afghan equipment.

We as a team have been consistent in our own training

as well, we completed the Army Physical Fitness Test

(APFT) on the 21st of the month to ensure that we are

keeping up our standards as individual war fighters. We

took our vehicles to services to ensure that our trucks are

ready for our movement out to sector as well as ensure

they are up to date with any new upgrades or modifica-

tions to keep us as safe as possible. Proper maintenance

and oil changes enables ourselves to move and assist our

counterparts with their mission, and prepares our vehi-

cles for acceptance of them to our replacements in the best

possible condition.

The container loading was also completed this month on

the 23rd, all extra items, team as well as individual equip-

ment sent from Ft. Sill that is not mission essential has been

packed up, sealed and ready for its trip back to Ft. Sill. In

doing so we as a team had to send individuals to specific

training as to complete the inspection process properly and to

standard so as there won’t be any problems with the con-

tainer when they are delivered as we will be out with our

counterparts assisting them on their mission.

For the Soldiers here it has been an experience to watch our

counterparts develop and emplace their own standards and

goals and achieve them. I am very pleased with the work that

each member of the team has done as we all have our own

piece of assisting and improving our ANCOP counterparts so

when the time is decided upon by their government, they can

stand alone without any assistance and make their Country

better for themselves as well as their families.

I would like to personally thank you all for the support you’ve

given your individual soldier as well as the team. It’s hard

enough to do what we are out here doing daily, and the sup-

port we each receive from home makes it that much more

bearable. As we are getting closer to the end of our time here

we must remain focused on the tasks and mission at hand

and assist our Afghan ANCOP counterparts in securing their

Country from insurgents so as generations to come have the

opportunity to grow up in a World without conflict. God Bless

SFC Richard Darrow

SFAT Team # 33 NCOIC

NCO’s: Guide and Direct

SFAT TEAM 33 Page 2

SFC Darrow Standing by the “Marines”

Flag raising monument at one of the

Army Dining facilities.

ARMY PHYSICAL

FITNESS TEST

MAJ Crooks,

SFC Caldwell,

CPL Johnson, and SPC

Buckland

are read the RULES

SFC Darrow,

SPC Rodriguez, and

SGT Bashant

waiting for the APFT

CPL Johnson and PFC Page download...

Your Soldiers PICS

Piece of History

Page 3 Volume 1, Issue 5

1LT Horvath the

team Movement Officer….waits

“What is the hold up”???

CW2 Johnson, waiting

for the Physical

Fitness Test

Major Crooks: CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1:

Your Soldier has carved out a little piece of history for them-

selves. They are the first SFAT team to join the ANCOP,

they were the first to build/occupy our Tactical Operation

Centers on the JRAC and Azzizullah, first to train the AN-

COP, first to build and train on the JRAC C-IED lane, and

many other firsts. Along the way your Soldiers have blazed a

new trail for others to follow. Not only in the above areas, but

also in systems and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

which will be used long after this SFAT team is gone. In this

relatively short amount of time, your Soldiers have accom-

plished more than they realize. It may take months or years

for them to understand, but they helped shaped a little part of

history.

I’m extremely proud of each and every one of them. Each

brings a unique talent needed for this team to be successful.

This has been a very memorable deployment for me, and and

for each Soldier. All this would not have been possible with-

out your support, your letters and your prayers. Thank YOU

for making this a successful deployment. We still have sev-

eral more months to go, so do keep your heads up.

As always, please feel free to send comments or recommen-

dations to Kevin.crooks@us.army.mil . Until next time!

Thanks again and have a Steel Warrior day!

Kevin Crooks

Major, United States Army

Team Leader

Each person needs to have four copies of

their packing lists for inspection.

SPC Buckland taking

a break

in the shade

1LT Horvath

supervises bracing of

the boxes container by

SFC Darrow and

SFC Caldwell

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SFAT 33 Conducts Civilian Police Tactics Training

SFAT TEAM 33 Page 4

PFC Page

SPC Rodriguez loading his Magazine

PFC Ford

SPC Buckland

PFC Morris PFC Guerrerovazquez,

SFAT 33 at Civilian Police Tactics Training continued

Page 5 Volume 1, Issue 5

SGT Bashant, SPC Rodriguez, PFC Page, SPC Buckland, SPC Rani

PFC Guerrerovazquez, PFC Morris, PFC Ford and SGT Hooper

SGT Hooper

SGT Bashant

SPC Rani

SPC Rodriguez

(Civilian Police mentor) Frank gives a block of instruction to the team

Your Soldiers PICS

H a v e a B o x o r M a i l f o r yo u r So l d i e r ?

First Name, Last

SFAT TEAM 33

FOB JRAC

APO-AE 09355

SGT

Bashant

And

SPC

Buckland

Finish

Install

Of

MWR

Dish

SFAT 33 and the PSD conduct vehicle briefings

Last day to ship LETTERS and BOXES to your

SOLDIER and know they will be received.

CPT Martin smiles for

the camera “Say Cheese”

1LT Schwen helps open community care

boxes and store all the treats on the top

shelf for all to share

SGT McWilliams

And

SPC Rodriguez

at the...

SGT McWilliams and PFC Ford

on Afghan Repairman escort duty

PFC Guerrerovazquez ready

to move some Team bags

C

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1LT

Schwen

And

ANCOP

S4

Reps

1LT Ostruske “40 Years Old!!”

B

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W

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L

K

OCT

15th

2012

HOT!!!

See Note “HOT”