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View from an outpost: 'Tall Afar was lit up’

Feb- 4-2005 » Filed Under: TF Freedom

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By Steve Walsh / Post-Tribune

TALL AFAR, Iraq -- Local Indiana National Guard troops stationed at the remote outpost at Tall Afar, spent most of this week recovering from the elections.

Troops with the 113th Engineer Battalion had many of the same duties as their counterparts in Mosul.

They installed barriers and constructed concrete security devices around polling places on the days leading up to last Sunday’s election.

Troops also guarded one of the outer checkpoints leading into the city.

“It was amazing to watch. Tall Afar was lit up. We could hear small-arms fire and explosions. It would have given me pause, but these people walked right into the middle of it to go vote,” said Hobart’s Capt. Andrew Kovats, commander of A Company, stationed at Forward Operating Base Sykes, near Tall Afar.

Mosul is at least a 2 1/2-hour ride by convoy, where most of the 113th Engineer Battalion is stationed.

The base and Tall Afar sit in a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, including the mountains that mark the border with Syria.


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