POWERGRAMS

6 The day after Thanksgiving 2003 was Black Friday for Broderick Smith in more ways than one. It was on that day Smith got the call sending him into one of the most dangerous war zones in the world. The Army Reserve sergeant was told to report to his unit in Huntsville a week later. Smith spent two months at Fort Benning, Georgia, receiving refresher training in weaponry, hand-to-hand combat and other skills. By March, he was on the ground, beginning his yearlong deployment in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. "When we first got there, nobody knew what to expect," said Smith, field service representative, Montgomery Meter Reading. "I'm not afraid to say I was scared. Before we were deployed, we would often hear stories about suicide bombers blowing up buildings, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) hitting convoys and killing American soldiers. Who wouldn't be on high alert or afraid of the unknown?" As one of the unit leaders, Smith said the responsibility for his men weighed heavily on his shoulders. "Some of the soldiers I was in charge of had never been in combat, much less away from home for an extended period," said Smith, who had served in the Reserve since 1991. "Some of the guys were new and had just gotten into the military. I reassured them that it was a new situation for the whole unit. None of us had been deployed before." FIRST STOP After they landed in Afghanistan, Smith and the other soldiers in his engineering unit were dispatched to Bagram Air Base. Their mission was to build a new runway. As sergeant, Smith was in charge of overseeing the excavation of an old dirt runway and the distribution of manpower for the project. He was also the unit's safety officer. It was his job to ensure that there were no accidents or injuries. On the surface, it seemed like a basic construction project. But Smith and his comrades soon realized there were hidden dangers. As they were preparing the ground and digging the path for the runway, the soldiers kept finding missiles that had been buried by Russians when they were at war with Afghanistan. "We would see something sticking out of the ground, and it would be a bomb that had been there for years," Smith said. "You had no way of knowing if it was live. We would have to stop work, clear the area and get the bomb squad to remove it." Smith said having responsibility for his unit's safety was "scary" at times. While the team worked, the runway remained open, with airplanes taking off and landing night and day. If he got word from air traffic control that a plane was heading toward the runway, it was Smith's job to clear the area as fast as possible. "I still remember literally running across our airfield one day to get a couple of dump trucks out of the way," he said. "The planes had to come in regardless." Smith said another issue was they did not always know who their enemies were. Some Afghan locals were hired to work on the project with the soldiers. Smith said although they were friendly, it paid to be on guard. Smith in Afghanistan.

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