The Lost Platoon

1LT Sam Smallwood
166th Engineer Company
3rd Platoon

The members of 3rd Platoon were attached to the A Company, 62nd Engineer Battalion not long after arriving in Afghanistan. We were sent to FOB Shank from FOB Sharana, from which the rest of the 166th Engineer Company and the majority of the 877th Engineer Battalion operates. Shortly after arriving to Forward Operating Base (FOB) Shank we were sent out on our first mission to build COP McClain. My platoon consists of 35 personnel, but we usually never had more than 20 to 25 people out on the COP at any time due to R&R or other small duties or projects that we would have going on at FOB Shank. 3rd Platoon built 4 b-huts (about 20' x 30' in size) for command and control purposes and built 5 guard towers for force protection. We also built 32 tent floor structures for housing and one for a dining facility. We put in 12 to 14 hour days, 7 days a week for the two months we were out on this project. We lived in tents with make shift plywood flooring with no heating or air conditioning in them, sleeping on cots in pretty tight quarters. We took bottle water showers and washed our clothes in 5 gallon buckets. We often ate our meals out in sandstorms which occurred almost every day, sometimes multiple times a day. Getting building material was always hectic and we didn’t have many tools at all to work with when we began, but these guys didn’t let that get in their way as they pushed forward every day. Despite all of our problems with logistics and tools these guys still finished this project ahead of schedule. All were hoping that, once we completed this project, we might get to work on future missions at FOB Shank where we would have 3 hot meals, hot showers, and heated/cooled rooms for a while. That wasn’t to be.

Much like our first mission, our second one was to go out and build Combat Outpost (COP) Sanchez. This mission was practically identical as far as what we had to build and the living conditions we had to endure, but this time we were blessed with a little more experience, the majority of our tools, and a lot of our building material on hand. As a result, we only had to put in about 10 hour days, and we even took an occasional Sunday off. These guys filled what little spare time they had by playing cards, throwing the pigskin around or just watching movies on their computers. Most guys have bought local cell phones so that they're able to keep in touch with their loved ones back home, which is a big moral boost. Just as with the first project we completed, we finished ahead of schedule. Finally, we would be going back to FOB Shank for our next mission.

By this time, our sister company the 168th Engineer Company had came to FOB Shank and replaced A Company. We were happy to see some familiar faces and hoped that life would improve now that we were working with people from our own battalion. The 168th Engineer Company has done a good job of looking after us, but for all they have done we were still not really a part of their unit. That is what gave us the feeling of being "the lost platoon." We were not with our own company, and we never felt like we really belonged to someone. On the other hand, I believe my guys just became more resilient, and I am very proud of how they've performed and of the level of morale they've maintained. We have been lucky in that about half of our platoon has previously deployed, so their experiences have really helped the ones who had not had these experiences in the past. Another positive factor has been SFC Willingham, our Platoon Sergeant, who has already served during a deployment in this role. His leadership and experience has been vital to the success of our platoon, proving himself again to be a very good leader who really knows how to get the most out of his Soldiers. With that in mind, he's also someone who is very approachable and is willing to talk to the guys anytime of the day or night. I know I have learned a lot from him and am very happy that I had him as my Platoon Sergeant.

We have been involved with many mission here at FOB Shank, from building more Guard Towers, to doing various QA/QC projects, to monitoring local national laborers, to going out and doing winterization missions. I currently have a squad out building a conference room for a General out on another FOB. My last group of soldiers will be leaving for R&R this week, after which time we should start our last mission and the task of preparing for our redeployment back home. I just wanted to let the folks back home know what the Vernon detachment has been doing. I have seen articles put on our websites or sent back to papers back home, but I have seen very little mentioned of these fine soldiers, so I just wanted to write down a few lines to let the loved ones of these soldiers back home know what good work they have been doing and that what we have been doing has helped out our fellow soldiers on the front lines in harm’s way every day. We've made their living conditions more bearable. I would just like to end this article by saying these are a great bunch of soldiers and that, again, I am very proud to have been their Platoon Leader. I just can’t wait for all of us to be back home with our loved ones.

Members of 3rd Platoon: 1LT Sam Smallwood, SFC Walter Willingham, SSG Richard Fant, SSG Jay Cain, SSG Mike Lindsey, SGT Mike Wisdom, SGT Craig Pennington, SGT Carlos Flynn, SGT Shawn Gottwald, SGT Lakeesha Hannah, SGT Aaron Crossfield, SGT Jamar Miles, SGT Thomas Welch, SGT Melvin Bradley, SGT Jerry Johnson, SGT James Walker, SGT Joe Brown, SGT Robert Smith, SGT Loyd Franks, SPC Nathan Smith, SPC Augustus Owens, SPC Bernardo Burkette, SPC Derrick Vincent, SPC Samuel Estep, SPC John Caddell, SPC Brian Stansel, SPC Brandi Lawrence, SPC Charlotte Phillips, SPC Joshua Silas, SPC Bobby Liverman, SPC Derek Clingan, SPC Dwain Kindleberger, SPC Reginald Johnson, SPC William Brown and SPC Wessley McClain.

We had a few soldiers get assigned to duties back at FOB Sharana, they were SFC Jerry Nalls, SFC Shane Sanderson, SSG Dennis Stewart, SPC William Dimon, SPC Robert Miller, SPC Christopher Warnack, SGT Loyd Wright and SSG Russell Edmonson