Just in time for the summer fighting season, the 4th Brigade Combat Team from Fort Carson settled into familiar territory this week, assuming full control of the same four provinces in eastern Afghanistan that the “Warrior” brigade fought to secure more than two years ago.The transition from a Hawaii-based brigade to the 4th Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division comes at critical juncture in the Defense Department’s plan to hand over military control to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.In the two years since leaving, leaders of the 3,500-soldier Fort Carson unit say Afghanistan has built a bigger military and the forces have become more adept at protecting their country and are beginning to take the lead in combat missions.“Here, the Afghan forces have the ball and are running with it,” said Maj. Christopher Thomas, a brigade spokesman, said in a telephone interview from Afghanistan.While the Afghans have the ball, the U.S. will still be fighting in what Thomas describes as one of the country’s “more complex tactical environments,” Thomas said.Two of the four provinces — Kunar and Nuristan — feature steep, rugged terrain similar to the Rockies, Thomas said.The elevation is comparable to the mountains west of Fort Carson, where the thin air complicates helicopter flights and the terrain helps insurgents hide.The battles in these mountains should be fierce in the initial weeks of the fighting season, Thomas said. The instigators also figure to vary.Troops have noticed a mix of established drug cartels and warlords — including Soviet-era warlords who often oversee the poppy crops — in these provinces, as well as Taliban forces who migrate between Afghanistan and PakistanIn the brigade’s area along the Pakistan border, drug trafficking is rampant — a particularly worrisome trend because the money from narcotics sales often go to support insurgents, Thomas said.The fighting season hits in summer, an agricultural downtime for the region.Poppy fields — a cash crop for drug lords who process it into heroin — are often harvested in the spring, Thomas said. The fighting often winds down in the fall as corn and other crops near harvest.During the winter, insurgent groups have traditionally rebuilt their ranks and trained for summer battles.U.S. and Afghan forces locked down the Pakistan border over the winter, hampering insurgents from returning to safe havens to resupply and regroup before the spring fighting season, Thomas said.“We’re looking at a desperate enemy that wants to start the fighting season off in better shape than he is,” Thomas said. “If they don’t maintain their pace of attacks, they risk having their credibility fall.”The brigade suffered dearly the last time it deployed to these provinces.

Thirty-nine soldiers in the brigade died during its last deployment to eastern Afghanistan. Eight of those soldiers were killed in one battle in October 2009 at Combat Outpost Keating — a post established in a mountainous valley near the Pakistan border.Despite being outnumbered five-to-one, Fort Carson soldiers fought off about 300 insurgents in the hours-long battle, one of the bloodiest of the war. The outpost was closed days later.A report by the Army blamed lax oversight and delays in closing the outpost for the attack.Afghans also were blamed for running from the insurgents, instead of holding their ground.This summer, those Afghan troops are expected to in the thick of combat in the region.Despite a decade of U.S. efforts to build the Afghan Army, American troops still lead the majority of the missions in eastern Afghanistan. But Thomas said brigade leaders already have noticed “tremendous improvement” in the Afghans’ skills.Thomas pointed to a recent explosives seizure as evidence the Afghans are ready.Late on March 31, Afghans manning a checkpoint in Kunar province noticed a truck that appeared to be weighed down. Inside the vehicle, the Afghans discovered a booby trapped payload of 17,000 pounds of chemicals used to make explosives. The Afghans called in a U.S. bomb squad and detained the driver.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been changed to correct the number of soldiers who died during the brigade’s last deployment.

Former Taliban militants hold copies of the Quran during a joining ceremony with the Afghan government in Herat, Afghanistan, Saturday, March 31, 2012. About 35 former Taliban militants from Herat province handed over their weapons as part of a peace-reconciliation program. (AP Photo/Hoshang Hashimi) Photo by STR

Hoshang Hashimi