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Interview with LTC Dennis Sullivan

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In July 2003, Lieutenant Colonel Dennis Sullivan deployed to Afghanistan as the executive officer of 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment and served in this capacity throughout his nine-month tour operating mostly in the country's Paktika Province. During his first two months, he ran the battalion staff on the firebase at Orgun-E and describes the unit's mission as such: "One was to secure the firebases and provide security to the other elements on the bases so they could perform their missions as well. It eventually evolved into conducting our own combat operations in those areas of operation," Sullivan added. "We were supposed to focus on the enemy and identify, kill or capture any enemy forces that we found in those areas." He comments unfavorably on the decentralized nature of battalion operations, identifies a major challenge as their lack of a clearly defined enemy picture, and reports additional problems in terms of a digital connectively infrastructure at the three firebases that 1-87 was responsible for: Orgun-E, Shkin and Gardez. Sullivan talks about the nature (and nationality) of the enemy forces the 1-87 soldiers were up against, their positive interactions with Afghan civilians and Afghan Military Forces, and reflects on the difficulties of operating in Afghanistan's mountainous and porous eastern border regions. In addition, he explains why his battalion preferred to work with US Marine Corps helicopters rather than Army Apaches. From September to October 2003, Sullivan ran FOB Salerno in Khowst Province and then, for the remainder of his tour, he ran Shkin during which time he conducted counterinsurgency operations in the Bermel Valley along the Afghan-Pakistan border, once even firing illumination rounds into Pakistan to support Pakistani border guards who were battling al-Qaeda fighters. Indeed, Sullivan notes, "I think our battalion was one of the first, if not the first, battalion in Afghanistan for the light bulb to come on and say, 'This is a counterinsurgency fight.'"

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In July 2003, Lieutenant Colonel Dennis Sullivan deployed to Afghanistan as the executive officer of 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment and served in this capacity throughout his nine-month tour operating mostly in the country's Paktika Province. During his first two months, he ran the battalion staff on the firebase at Orgun-E and describes the unit's mission as such: "One was to secure the firebases and provide security to the other elements on the bases so they could perform their missions as well. It eventually evolved into conducting our own combat operations in those areas of operation," Sullivan added. "We were supposed to focus on the enemy and identify, kill or capture any enemy forces that we found in those areas." He comments unfavorably on the decentralized nature of battalion operations, identifies a major challenge as their lack of a clearly defined enemy picture, and reports additional problems in terms of a digital connectively infrastructure at the three firebases that 1-87 was responsible for: Orgun-E, Shkin and Gardez. Sullivan talks about the nature (and nationality) of the enemy forces the 1-87 soldiers were up against, their positive interactions with Afghan civilians and Afghan Military Forces, and reflects on the difficulties of operating in Afghanistan's mountainous and porous eastern border regions. In addition, he explains why his battalion preferred to work with US Marine Corps helicopters rather than Army Apaches. From September to October 2003, Sullivan ran FOB Salerno in Khowst Province and then, for the remainder of his tour, he ran Shkin during which time he conducted counterinsurgency operations in the Bermel Valley along the Afghan-Pakistan border, once even firing illumination rounds into Pakistan to support Pakistani border guards who were battling al-Qaeda fighters. Indeed, Sullivan notes, "I think our battalion was one of the first, if not the first, battalion in Afghanistan for the light bulb to come on and say, 'This is a counterinsurgency fight.'"

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