GOOD JOB LD!

U.S. 'Horse Soldier' Tells How He Helped Direct Afghan Air War
(Bloomberg.com, March 20, 2002)
A U.S. airman riding horseback used lasers, satellites and other high-tech gear to call in air strikes that helped defeat Afghanistan's Taliban militia. Air Force leaders at a congressional hearing highlighted Staff Sergeant Matthew XXXXX, 26, and his bravery, horsemanship and high-tech attacks as emblematic of a service using old tactics and new equipment to improve mobility and killing power.

Here's the full article.

U.S. `Horse Soldier' Tells How He Helped Direct Afghan Air War

Washington, March 20 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. airman riding horseback used lasers, satellites and other high-tech gear to call in air strikes that helped defeat Afghanistan's Taliban militia.
The tactics of Staff Sergeant Matthew Lienhard, 26, included directing B-52s dropping satellite-guided 2,000-pound bombs against Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters who were within 2,000 feet of him in northern Afghanistan.
``We made sure we were `head-down,''' Lienhard said in his first on-the-record interview. ``The pilot let me know when he released the bombs -- 16,000 pounds of explosives that were going to go off almost simultaneously. You could feel the shock waves and blast of dirt, dust and smoke in the air.''
Air Force leaders at a congressional hearing today highlighted Lienhard and his tale of bravery, horsemanship and high-tech attacks as emblematic of a service using old tactics and new equipment to improve mobility and killing power.
Air Force Secretary James Roche and Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper repeatedly referred to assisting future Lienhards with an array of emerging systems such as unmanned drones and the Lockheed Martin Corp. F-22 fighter dropping satellite-guided bombs.
Lienhard will help the Air Force continue to explore new tactics, techniques and warfighting procedures, such linking armed Predator drones with ground target spotters, Roche and Jumper told members of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee.
Lienhard, who didn't testify, sat right behind Roche and Jumper and drew applause from lawmakers and staff.

`Country Boy'

Lienhard is a native of Louisiana, Missouri, which is 30 miles south of Hannibal on the Mississippi River. He's ``a mild-mannered country boy'' who took to Afghanistan the hunting, fishing and tracking skills he honed growing up, his father, George, said in a telephone interview.
Lienhard says he was a swimmer and accomplished motorcycle rider and not a cowboy.
``I had some experience as a kid 10 or 15 years ago,'' he said of riding a horse. ``I knew the general gist but had to learn everything as soon as I got there.''
``We used horseback just to get around to different observation positions,'' Lienhard said. ``Once we got there we'd dismount, set up our lasers and communications and direct strikes.''

Clear Role

Lienhard was dropped into Afghanistan by helicopter Oct. 28 to join a U.S. Army Green Beret team operating with the Northern Alliance. His mission was to improve targeting of Taliban fighters who controlled the regime's northern stronghold of Mazer-e-Sharif.
U.S. officials determined the team needed Air Force targeting skills. Lienhard and another airmen from the 23rd Special Tactics Unit at Hurlburt Air Force Base, Florida, were with the first Green Beret teams assigned to join with the opposition forces and gain their confidence in U.S. firepower.
Northern Alliance commanders ``were sketchy on how we would conduct business and what we could do for them,'' said Lienhard, who's been in the Air Force eight years, four of them specializing in reconnaissance and air strikes.
``Once they saw the first precision strikes with the laser-guided bombs and Jdams -- we were able to hit bunkers very precisely -- they became believers and we were very much in demand,'' he said, referring to the Boeing Co. satellite-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition.
Lienhard directed air strikes from B-1B and B-52 bombers and Navy F-18 and F-14 fighters.

High-Tech Targeting Gear

Lienhard used a Northrop Grumman Litton Laser Systems ``Special Operations Forces Laser Marker'' to get a bearing on a target and his hand-held compass to determine its coordinates. This information was fed to his Garmin Ltd. off-the-shelf Global Positioning Satellite device.
Lienhard then used a Harris Corp. PRC-117 specialized radio to relay the GPS coordinates to aircrews who fed them into the Jdams' electronic brain.
Lienhard estimates he called in strikes of several hundred bombs over three weeks. The battle for Mazar-e-Sharif was furious and he sometimes found himself on the run.
Retreating from one Taliban assault, Lienhard called in the GPS coordinates of his just-abandoned position to a B-52 circling 39,000 feet that dropped Jdams on an enemy in hot pursuit.
Mazar-e-Sharif fell to the Northern Alliance on Nov. 10.
``I was able to help the special forces team become a `force multiplier' and allowed for a more efficient destruction of targets,'' he said. ``We were able to move into Mazer-e-Sharif six to eight months earlier than anticipated. That sped up the war a lot. The other cities collapsed fairly quickly.''
Lienhard's account is backed up by numerous press accounts and official statements that credited ``eyes on the ground'' with defeating the Taliban.

Feet on the Ground

Lienhard downplays the contribution that horsemanship made to this effort, and traces his celebrity to a single instance when his team made a narrow escape on foot and eventually made contact with horse-mounted troops of the allied Northern Alliance.
``I let a pilot know we were going to get on these horses and ride to safer location,'' said Lienhard. ``I think that's where some of the `CAS on horseback' came from.'' CAS stands for ``close air support.''
Asked about his current riding skills, Lienhard said: ``I'm pretty good but I don't have a desire to ride a horse for quite a while.''

--Tony Capaccio in the Washington newsroom