Retrograde Movie Afghanistan [WORK] Download
Antonette Hespe
Strap Fix At Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Staff Sgt. Anderson Gorman loosens straps holding down palletized bundles of munitions retrograded from Afghanistan, May 6, 2021. Pfc. Breneck Richards inspects the load from atop the truck's flatbed. Share: Share Copy Link Email Facebook X LinkedIn WhatsApp Download: Full Size (737.28 KB) Photo By: Army Staff Sgt. Neil W. McCabe VIRIN: 210506-A-VQ285-102
Ammunition Supply Tractor-trailer trucks arrive May 6, 2021, at the ammunition supply point at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. They carry palletized bundles of munitions retrograded from Afghanistan. Share: Share Copy Link Email Facebook X LinkedIn WhatsApp Download: Full Size (931.84 KB) Photo By: Army Staff Sgt. Neil W. McCabe VIRIN: 210506-A-VQ285-105M
"Retrograde" is an official military term for the processes involved in moving a base, withdrawing from a territory, for out-and-out retreats. The official language describes retrograde as an "organized movement away from the enemy" and that's what Heineman captures, in haunting sequences showing the Special Forces unit burning print-outs and maps, removing computers, reducing their presence to nil, leaving nothing behind. (Here's an interesting article about the magnitude of the retrograde operation in Afghanistan.) Retrograde, of course, has symbolic astrological connotations, hard to avoid when witnessing the sheer chaos and panic erupting when the Americans begin the retrograde operation.
Tactical vehicles sit on the flightline prior to being transported to an aircraft in support of retrograde operations March 20, 2015, at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. At the height of retrograde in 2014, Airmen assigned to the 451st Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron were responsible for shipping more than 9,000 tons of cargo each month. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Whitney Amstutz)
A crate sits on a K loader prior to being transported to an aircraft in support of retrograde operations March 20, 2015, at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. At the height of retrograde in 2014, Airmen assigned to the 451st Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron were responsible for shipping more than 9,000 tons of cargo each month. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Whitney Amstutz)
Aerial porters work with maintainers to load a CH-47 Chinook into a C-17 Globemaster III in support of the Resolute Support retrograde mission in Afghanistan, June 16, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Corey Vandiver)
Aerial porters work with maintainers to load a UH-60L Blackhawk helicopter into a C-17 Globemaster III in support of the Resolute Support retrograde mission in Afghanistan, June 16, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Corey Vandiver)
Numerous articles have highlighted the monumental and complex efforts by U.S. and coalition forces to draw down the force, close operating bases, and remove the equipment and supplies that accumulated throughout Afghanistan during 13 years of combat operations. The signing of the bilateral security agreement (BSA) late in 2014 with the Afghanistan government had a profound impact on our ability to close the retrograde mission by December 2014. Prior to the signing of the agreement, there was a legitimate concern that we would have to rapidly accelerate throughput across all available means and modes if conditions in the BSA were unfavorable to our forces and coalition partners. Anticipating this situation, the responsible force drawdown, materiel retrograde, and base closure and transfer missions were collectively the top priority for the commander of U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) throughout 2014.
Senior Airman Matthew Hunter, 19th Movement Control Team aerial porter, helps Sgt. Bandar Al Saleem of the Jordanian Army palletize their luggage at Forward Operating Base Salerno, Khost Province, Afghanistan, Sept. 22, 2013. The 19th MCT, a small squadron of Air Force surface movement controllers and aerial porters, have the herculean task of overseeing the vast majority of retrograde operations at FOB Salerno. Hunter, a native of Trophy Club, Texas is forward deployed from Travis Air Force Base, Calif.
(USAF Photo/Master Sgt. Ben Bloker)
In addition to combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Pagan has served as a logistics advisor in U.S. Southern Command, working with militaries in Central and South America. He served as a logistician during the Haiti earthquake relief. Any humanitarian mission, he points out, is a giant logistics operation, and after relief supplies have been distributed, retrograde of military property must play an earlier role.
As retrograde has become a larger focus, these sorting operations have increased dramatically. When Pagan arrived in Afghanistan eight months ago, they were processing the equivalent of 250 twenty-foot containers of equipment each month; now they are averaging 278 per week, with shifts working 24-hours a day.
With no precedent for need for an Army recovery unit, the task fell to the newly established CMRE and the 401st Army Field Support Brigade. They established central retrograde sorting facilities at Kandahar and Bagram Air Fields and began picking through the masses of equipment and vehicles arriving daily from across Afghanistan.
Each team consists of a military forward retrograde element and a Defense Logistics Agency hub-based disposal operations team. The teams move from base to base, Gamble said, opening and sorting through containers and rolling stock.
In contrast, equipment and materiel that is being retrograded is being moved out of theater over various land routes or flown to a multi-modal site. From there it will move by sea back to depots in the U.S. to be prepared for redistribution and reuse. The routes are directed by U.S. Transportation Command, but the destinations are determined by the type of equipment being retrograded.
For example, in August, 60 percent of retrograding equipment was transported via air - both direct and multi-modal - in a deliberate strategy to mitigate the effects of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, he said. And in February, 100 percent of the retrograde equipment was transported by air because the Pakistan Ground Lines of Communication were closed.
With several different routes and means available for retrograding equipment, Transcom directs the movement of retrograde equipment based on traffic and price, the general said, noting that price is usually the deciding factor.
After the Pakistan GLOC reopened, it quickly became the dominant route for retrograde, Gamble said. By September, 70 percent of all retrograde equipment was moved out of the country over land, and 98-99 percent of that movement was via the Pakistan GLOC, he said. For October, approximately 60 percent of all retrograde equipment will be moved out of the country by land.
Imagine, though, what happens when the burn pit isn't just filled with garbage; it is also filled with care packages, printers and maps as part of a military retrograde operation. Imagine what happens when the military is destroying valuable materials it doesn't want landing in the hands of its enemy because it doesn't trust its allies enough to protect them. Imagine burning all of those things, because you have been ordered to, even when you think it's a really bad idea.
The film isn't questioning whether the war should have ended. Instead, it focuses on how it ended; it is the hasty retreat of the military, the retrograde operation, that offers the film's central tension. Heineman's original plan was to offer viewers a close-up view of the operation of a Green Beret unit after almost two decades of war. Arriving in Afghanistan in 2020 around the time Joe Biden was elected, he and his crew soon learned all U.S. troops were to leave Afghanistan. What had been planned as a film about an ongoing operation now had to pivot to a film about the end of the longest war for both the United States and Afghanistan.
At its heart, the film asks whether the grand narratives of history really ever tell the story, since the moving story of General Sadat and the relationship he built with his Green Beret allies doesn't fit any predictable mold. Following a similar theme to many of Heineman's films, "Retrograde" shows that if you look really closely at the people embroiled in a conflict, they won't conform to stereotypes or stark notions of good or evil, winner or loser, hero or villain. If the traditional headlines, narratives, and sound bites that have been used to understand the conflict in Afghanistan miss the point, then the film suggests that maybe they are what is truly retrograde.
We start with an embedded Green Beret team working alongside the Lt. Gen. Sami Sadat of the 215th Corps in the Helmand province. Sadat relates well with his Special Forces counterparts and we get a strong sense of the camaraderie between the Afghan National Army (ANA) troops and the US Soldiers. Sadat is the leader of the ANA special forces as well. The order comes down from President Biden that the United States is going to withdraw from Afghanistan and will begin to immediately retrograde. This emotionally affects everyone on the ground and we see the worry begin on Sadat's face and in his actions. The US troops must destroy any gear, ammunition or equipment that cannot be turned over to the ANA. Much useful equipment and ammunition are expended during this period.
The Multi-National Force-West completed the turn-in of Principle End Items on Feb. 10. As of April 2, of the 121,143 PEIs received at LOGCOM-Forward, 32,807, or 27 percent, are currently en route to the United States; 14,701, or 12 percent, have been redistributed in-theater; and 73,635, or 61 percent, have completed retrograde and shipped to depot or other maintenance or storage facilities. All equipment was washed, prepared for customs processing and transportation, as needed, using Marine Corps personnel and contractors.
The retrograde was completed a month ahead of schedule, and Braden credited the Marines on the ground in Kuwait for that accomplishment, plus the fact they provided logistics support for military operations in Marjah, Afghanistan, the biggest offensive since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
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