Winsted native Angell helping lead Afghanistan drawdown

WINSTED — Winsted native Maj. Aaron Angell of the United States Marines has been redeployed to Afghanistan to command a unit in support of the drawdown in forces ordered by President Barack Obama. The drawdown is expected to continue into 2014.As he has done in the past during deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, Angell, 38, has agreed to correspond with his hometown paper during his latest mission in Afghanistan’s Helmland Province, where he has previously provided logistical support to Marines operating out of Camp Leatherneck. Back at Camp Leatherneck this time around, Angell is leading a regiment that is responsible for helping draw down forces in Afghanistan after more than 11 years of warfare. The primary objective now is to keep U.S. forces safe from harm as they pull out of the country and hand over control to Afghanistan’s national government.In his first dispatch since arriving in Afghanistan approximately one month ago, Angell said his unit held an official ceremony Jan. 26 to assume a transfer of authority in the country. “Now Combat Logistics Regiment 2 (CLR-2) is responsible for providing tactical logistics support to forces assigned to the Regional Command, Southwest (RC[SW]) operating in the Helmand and Nimruz Provinces in southwest Afghanistan,” he wrote. “To illustrate for you what that means, here is a list of some of the capabilities that our 1,200 Marines and Sailors provide: Convoys, surgical support, explosive ordnance disposal for removal of improvised explosive devices, recovery of destroyed or stuck (from mud due to rain) vehicles, postal services, pay services, engineer construction, bridge emplacement and removal, water purification, field showers and laundry services, fueling of ground vehicles, food services, maintenance, and supply.”Angell is the operations officer for the unit, which receives requests for assistance from customers across an area the size of West Virginia that has only two paved roads and is divided by the Helmland River. The Helmland Province, one of 34 provinces across the country, covers approximately 58,000 square miles and contains 14 districts with approximately 1.4 million people living there.Angell said forces must contend with a small group of insurgents that continues to resist the national government and coalition presence. U.S. forces have been working with the national government to battle the insurgency and promote development.“Since my last deployment a very significant change is the shift in focus to developing and transferring lead security responsibilities to several arms of Afghanistan National Security Forces, in the form of the Afghanistan National Army and several sects of Afghanistan National Police,” Angell wrote. “In our area of operations, many of these Afghanistan elements are doing very well, although they do still have some challenges with the long-term sustainability.”Operations ‘going well’In a brief subsequent dispatch, Angell said logistics operations were going well in Helmand Province and that his unit was busy providing support to other units throughout the southwest Afghanistan.  During the winter months, temperatures in the Helmland Province are in the 70s and 80s, but both temperatures and violence tend to increase during the spring and summer months. One of the major environmental problems in the area has been the drying of the Helmland River, which has forced many farmers to resort to planting drought-resistant opium crops. Opium has also become a source of funding for insurgents, who regularly travel back and forth across the border with Pakistan.“As with the last deployment, I will do my best to send a note each week with a brief taste of what we are doing,” Angell noted, “and to include a picture. As much as possible I will tie it to some recent operations.“This week I am sending a picture of one of our AV-8B Harriers. These are aircraft that can lift off the ground and land vertically, or they can fly like a ‘normal’ plane using the length of a runway. These Harriers provide us eyes in the sky as well as provide us security support with guns and bombs. We use the weapon systems only when we have positive identification of an enemy who has shown hostile intent or committed a hostile act against our friendly forces.“Because our unit conducts so many convoys over long distances, we will often have these Harriers flying high above us with the ability to respond rapidly if we need assistance. They can even help us see far in front of our convoy and let us know if there is anything that we should be aware of.  We communicate to them through radios in our vehicles, as well as radios all the way back to our operations centers. Sometimes even if our convoy is out of radio range to us, the planes can even relay information back to our operations centers. Thus, these planes definitely have many uses, and we capitalize on those uses. We don’t have a lot of them, but even a few can do quite a bit for us.”Angell noted that his mailing address while deployed is Maj. Aaron Angell, CLR-2 (HQSVC/S-3), FPO AE 09510-3760. He appreciates it when anyone sends dark blends of Starbucks coffee and Partagas Black Label cigars. “In my old age, I am a little particular,” he joked.Angell, who has a wife, Megan, and three daughters back at home stateside, said he will provide frequent dispatches from Afghanistan in the coming weeks and months as his unit works to support the ultimate goal of getting American forces safely out of the country.