brewmonkey
11-11-2004, 16:51
I know Dr. Kiper and took several classes with him when I was studying for my history degree. For those that know him they know he is a riot to talk to and is full of history tidbits.
Kiper sent to record soldiers' stories in Afghanistan
Rich Kiper spent a lot of time in war zones during his 26 years in the U.S. Army.
That meant many separations from his wife, Diane, and his children.
That's why he and Diane had to think long and hard about him going to Afghanistan in 2002.
This time, however, he wouldn't be doing the fighting himself. Instead, he was one of four men with military experience, writing skills and historical knowledge sent to interview troops to write a book from their point of view.
A NEW MISSION
"The Army was looking for someone with a Ph.D. in history who'd been a Special Forces officer," Kiper said, noting there weren't a lot of people who met that criteria.
Besides those qualifications, he also had a couple of books under his belt. One won the prestigious Pratt award for the best non-fiction Civil War book in 1999.
When the friend in charge of the Afghanistan project called Kiper about it, he admitted "It was certainly intriguing."
That was in January 2002, after the war had been going on since mid-October.
SPECIAL OPERATIONS
"The idea was to capture what Special Operations soldiers were doing in Afghanistan from the beginning of the war until May, about 6 1/2 to 7 months," he said.
Kiper reflected on the thoughts he and his wife shared after he got the call at their daughter's home in Ohio, where they'd just seen their first grandchild.
"You've spent all this time, and there's been a lot of separation and we figured the danger part is over," he said. "We had our first grandchild, and it was time to move on, but golly, it nagged at me."
It was finally a case of his wife saying, "If you don't do it, you'll always regret it."
He agreed. "As much as neither of us wanted to be separated, we had to look at this as a blessing."
After all, he pointed out, how often would the opportunity arise to use his historical and Special Forces experience "to go to a place you've never been to write something that's never been written?"
Before long he was on a plane to Fort Bragg, Ga., for the first phase of his adventure, which lasted about 9 1/2 months altogether.
INTERVIEWING SOLDIERS
There the four-man team assembled to interview soldiers who'd returned from Afghanistan as well as doing more research to have some basis of knowledge for what they would find in the war-torn country.
Kiper, who'd served as an officer in the Special Forces, airborne and infantry units statewide and overseas, had made it a point to keep in shape after he retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1993.
"I run a lot," the 59-year-old veteran said, and his friend in charge of the project knew that.
They dressed for action in Afghanistan -- boots and cargo pants, a Kevlar vest and a carbine as a weapon. But Kiper and the others added a few more tools for a new trade this time -- a tape recorder and cameras, "and many pens," he added with a laugh.
"We were all interviewing," he said, "and we split into two teams."
TEAMS SPLIT UP
The headquarters was in Bagram; one team went to Kandahar; his team worked between Bagram and Kabul.
"From the headquarters, we were able to observe the operations of the tactical operations center and also interview the troops deploying in and out of Bagram," Kiper said.
Their focus was on Special Operations, which he described as "operations performed by troops who are specially trained, organized and equipped to perform missions sensitive in nature. The regular Army is not trained to do that."
FIVE COMPONENTS
Within the Army now, Kiper said, Special Operations are divided into five components. They include Special Forces (Green Berets), Rangers (light infantry specially trained to seize airfields, for example), Civil Affairs (trained to provide humanitarian assistance), Psychological Operations (leaflets, radio broadcasts, TV, loud speakers, for example, done at the strategic level as well as going into the villages) and Special Operations Aviation (helicopters).
Besides these five components, there are support elements, including communications and logistics, and the team sought their stories as well, Kiper said.
The Special Operations forces were a big factor in Afghanistan, and the teams learned just how they operated. For example, they talked to the Ranger whose helicopter mission occurred Oct. 19, 2001, near the beginning of the conflict.
SOLDIERS' STORIES
They interviewed men who designed the leaflets dropped into the villages, the civil affairs officers who got food to the villages, and the list goes on.
"The Special Forces were primarily involved in advising what we now call the warlords," Kiper said.
They talked to Special Operations officers who were advising Hamid Karzai, who became the first democratically elected president of the country just last month.
The regular Army wouldn't have the training for such missions, Kiper said, but the Special Operations troops were advising the tribal leaders as they maneuvered against the Taliban.
'JUST PHENOMENAL'
He talked to the teams in helicopters that have equipment that allow them to operate in the dark. These "Night Stalkers" use "infrared, highly sophisticated radar," he said.
Kiper said the term "fun" probably wasn't the right way to describe his experience, but he was quite impressed with the quality of the soldiers.
"They were just phenomenal," he said, citing sergeants who had master's degrees, who were fluent in several languages -- even a Kansas State University graduate whose rodeo skills came in handy in building rapport with a warlord.
But the Special Operations officers were able to bond the most with the Afghan leaders when they called in the B-52s, Kiper said.
"They liked that," he said. "The tribal leaders had no air power."
INSTILLING NATIONALISM
He also got a feel for the Special Forces officers tasked with instilling a sense of nationalism among the Afghans, something they didn't have. One Special Forces' mission was to help establish a training site in Kabul for a national army.
The teams' first task when they returned stateside was producing a magazine. The September 2002 issue of "Special Warfare" was devoted to Afghanistan. Kiper wrote eight of the 21 articles for that edition.
He described the articles as vignettes, or separate stories about troops' experience. The book, he said, "was more of a narrative, melded into some sort of chronological flow."
'WEAPON OF CHOICE'
The book, "Weapon of Choice: ARSOF in Afghanistan," is what Kiper calls a "popular history," as opposed to an academic one. It came out in August, and "the hope is it will be used in classrooms as a teaching tool for the Army," he said.
For him, Kiper said, "It was a great project, and it was fun because it was so inspiring."
Kiper sent to record soldiers' stories in Afghanistan
Rich Kiper spent a lot of time in war zones during his 26 years in the U.S. Army.
That meant many separations from his wife, Diane, and his children.
That's why he and Diane had to think long and hard about him going to Afghanistan in 2002.
This time, however, he wouldn't be doing the fighting himself. Instead, he was one of four men with military experience, writing skills and historical knowledge sent to interview troops to write a book from their point of view.
A NEW MISSION
"The Army was looking for someone with a Ph.D. in history who'd been a Special Forces officer," Kiper said, noting there weren't a lot of people who met that criteria.
Besides those qualifications, he also had a couple of books under his belt. One won the prestigious Pratt award for the best non-fiction Civil War book in 1999.
When the friend in charge of the Afghanistan project called Kiper about it, he admitted "It was certainly intriguing."
That was in January 2002, after the war had been going on since mid-October.
SPECIAL OPERATIONS
"The idea was to capture what Special Operations soldiers were doing in Afghanistan from the beginning of the war until May, about 6 1/2 to 7 months," he said.
Kiper reflected on the thoughts he and his wife shared after he got the call at their daughter's home in Ohio, where they'd just seen their first grandchild.
"You've spent all this time, and there's been a lot of separation and we figured the danger part is over," he said. "We had our first grandchild, and it was time to move on, but golly, it nagged at me."
It was finally a case of his wife saying, "If you don't do it, you'll always regret it."
He agreed. "As much as neither of us wanted to be separated, we had to look at this as a blessing."
After all, he pointed out, how often would the opportunity arise to use his historical and Special Forces experience "to go to a place you've never been to write something that's never been written?"
Before long he was on a plane to Fort Bragg, Ga., for the first phase of his adventure, which lasted about 9 1/2 months altogether.
INTERVIEWING SOLDIERS
There the four-man team assembled to interview soldiers who'd returned from Afghanistan as well as doing more research to have some basis of knowledge for what they would find in the war-torn country.
Kiper, who'd served as an officer in the Special Forces, airborne and infantry units statewide and overseas, had made it a point to keep in shape after he retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1993.
"I run a lot," the 59-year-old veteran said, and his friend in charge of the project knew that.
They dressed for action in Afghanistan -- boots and cargo pants, a Kevlar vest and a carbine as a weapon. But Kiper and the others added a few more tools for a new trade this time -- a tape recorder and cameras, "and many pens," he added with a laugh.
"We were all interviewing," he said, "and we split into two teams."
TEAMS SPLIT UP
The headquarters was in Bagram; one team went to Kandahar; his team worked between Bagram and Kabul.
"From the headquarters, we were able to observe the operations of the tactical operations center and also interview the troops deploying in and out of Bagram," Kiper said.
Their focus was on Special Operations, which he described as "operations performed by troops who are specially trained, organized and equipped to perform missions sensitive in nature. The regular Army is not trained to do that."
FIVE COMPONENTS
Within the Army now, Kiper said, Special Operations are divided into five components. They include Special Forces (Green Berets), Rangers (light infantry specially trained to seize airfields, for example), Civil Affairs (trained to provide humanitarian assistance), Psychological Operations (leaflets, radio broadcasts, TV, loud speakers, for example, done at the strategic level as well as going into the villages) and Special Operations Aviation (helicopters).
Besides these five components, there are support elements, including communications and logistics, and the team sought their stories as well, Kiper said.
The Special Operations forces were a big factor in Afghanistan, and the teams learned just how they operated. For example, they talked to the Ranger whose helicopter mission occurred Oct. 19, 2001, near the beginning of the conflict.
SOLDIERS' STORIES
They interviewed men who designed the leaflets dropped into the villages, the civil affairs officers who got food to the villages, and the list goes on.
"The Special Forces were primarily involved in advising what we now call the warlords," Kiper said.
They talked to Special Operations officers who were advising Hamid Karzai, who became the first democratically elected president of the country just last month.
The regular Army wouldn't have the training for such missions, Kiper said, but the Special Operations troops were advising the tribal leaders as they maneuvered against the Taliban.
'JUST PHENOMENAL'
He talked to the teams in helicopters that have equipment that allow them to operate in the dark. These "Night Stalkers" use "infrared, highly sophisticated radar," he said.
Kiper said the term "fun" probably wasn't the right way to describe his experience, but he was quite impressed with the quality of the soldiers.
"They were just phenomenal," he said, citing sergeants who had master's degrees, who were fluent in several languages -- even a Kansas State University graduate whose rodeo skills came in handy in building rapport with a warlord.
But the Special Operations officers were able to bond the most with the Afghan leaders when they called in the B-52s, Kiper said.
"They liked that," he said. "The tribal leaders had no air power."
INSTILLING NATIONALISM
He also got a feel for the Special Forces officers tasked with instilling a sense of nationalism among the Afghans, something they didn't have. One Special Forces' mission was to help establish a training site in Kabul for a national army.
The teams' first task when they returned stateside was producing a magazine. The September 2002 issue of "Special Warfare" was devoted to Afghanistan. Kiper wrote eight of the 21 articles for that edition.
He described the articles as vignettes, or separate stories about troops' experience. The book, he said, "was more of a narrative, melded into some sort of chronological flow."
'WEAPON OF CHOICE'
The book, "Weapon of Choice: ARSOF in Afghanistan," is what Kiper calls a "popular history," as opposed to an academic one. It came out in August, and "the hope is it will be used in classrooms as a teaching tool for the Army," he said.
For him, Kiper said, "It was a great project, and it was fun because it was so inspiring."