ISIS fighters now control a piece of territory the size of California across Iraq and Syria and are threatening to seize total control of Anbar Province, the border of which is only 25 miles from Baghdad. They are also poised to take the Syrian town Kobani, raising concerns about a civilian massacre and potential spillover violence in bordering Turkey.

While the Kurds’ 150,000-soldier-strong Peshmerga army is roughly four to five times the size of ISIS, they are woefully underequipped and outgunned by ISIS fighters who, despite more than 6 months of U.S. and coalition airstrikes, are still on the offense.

Yet the Iraqi government continues to stonewall the transfer of weapons and equipment to the Kurds. And the U.S. hasn’t been much more helpful.

So far the U.S. has supplied the Kurds with some AK-47s, fewer than 100 mortars and a few hundred rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). This type of support is reminiscent of the U.S. supplying the Ukrainian army with meals ready-to-eat as they stared down a combined regular Russia army/rebel invasion—but I digress.

Despite their precarious logistical situation, the Kurds may be the last, best option to prevent using U.S. ground troops to fight ISIS.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan

The U.S. military is turning its armored personnel carriers and airplanes into scrap metal and the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) have misplaced hundreds of thousands of U.S. weapons.

Nolan also adds, while stationed in Afghanistan last December as a war correspondent, he walked by seemingly endless rows of abandoned Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, known as MRAPs, and other trucks and equipment destined for Afghanistan’s scrap yards.

At a cost of $1 million each, the ugly tan beasts known as MRAPS have saved countless lives and absorbed or deflected thousands of insurgent bomb blasts in teeming cities, desert flats and rutted mountain roadways. The lumbering vehicles are so beloved that soldiers have scrawled notes of thanks on their armor.

Much of the equipment destined for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) would be more useful for U.S. strategic interests in the hands of Kurds.

According to a July 2014 report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), 747,000 weapons given to the ANSF (including rifles, machine guns, and grenade launchers) have gone missing and could end up in Taliban hands. The report added that Afghanistan’s military received 83,000 more AK-47s than they needed in 2013 alone.

As the U.S. seem to get closer to ground war in Iraq, the Kurds are our last option to stay out. We have to give them every advantage, even if that ruffles a few feathers in Baghdad, Ankara or Kabul.

Sources include: Blue Force Tracker / Los Angeles Times / SIGAR

Camp Atterbury trained more than 275,000 troops and housed various facilities that supported the war effort, including: Wakeman General Hospital, a pioneer in plastic and neurological surgery; and a Prisoner of War internment camp that housed 15,000 Italian and German POWs from 1943 to 1946.

The installation served as a premier training site through periods of conflict to support the nation’s needs until 1969 when the Indiana National Guard assumed operational oversight. From the 1970s through the 1990s the primary mission was to support US Army Reserve and National Guard Soldiers in various missions to support conflicts in Vietnam, Desert Shield, and Desert Storm.
Immediately following the events of September 11, 2001, Camp Atterbury again stepped forward to become a mobilization platform in support of the Nation's defense mobilizing more than 195,000 personnel from the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines and Navy, with theater-specific training and validation of all medical requirements from 2001-2013.

“At the same time the troop mobilizations were going on at Camp Atterbury we were asked to assume the role of the civilian mobilization platform in 2010,” said Lt. Col. David Ellis, Director for IRDO.

The IRDO program trained, equipped, and medically validated civilian contractors with the Non-Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) encompassing more than 600 different agencies deploying to every combatant command around the globe. “We built a platform that was world renowned for the service and support offered by applying Hoosier values,” said Capt. Matthew Limeberry, IRDO Operations Officer.

The IRDO program served as the nation's civilian contractor Deployment Center of Excellence at Atterbury-Muscatatuck from 2010-2014. The success of the program was a result of the close partnerships between the Indiana National Guard, Camp Atterbury, IRDO, First U.S. Army and other U.S. Army Forces Command assets. Together they ensured that all deploying and redeploying personnel were provided the utmost in timely and theater specific training, support and accommodations.
Retired Sgt. Maj. Gina Owens, IRDO Program Manager said, “All went above and beyond to ensure the needs of the IRDO customer were exceeded. This included working weekends and holidays, if it took ten hours to process the IRDO customers, our employees worked ten hours.”

Camp Atterbury has since completed processing of more than 70,000 Non-LOGCAP personnel in support of requirements in every theater of operation and employed more than 300 contractors and Soldiers at its peak of the program. “Atterbury took a platform that raised the importance and credibility of deploying contractors across the globe. The chapter was successful and will be bittersweet to end, but it will ultimately help Atterbury continue to write the story of being a world-class platform for future markets and Department of Defense requirements,” said Limeberry.

As a result of the conclusion of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan the reduced demand for mobilization affected the mobilization effort at Atterbury. In consultation with senior military leaders it was determined the continuation of the IRDO program would be best served by consolidating with other mobilization efforts located at Ft. Bliss, Texas.

“Camp Atterbury has served the nation well in this latest effort and stands by, prepared to serve the State and Nation's defense requirements yet to be determined. Atterbury has been hardened with sweat, steel, fire and conflict to become a gem to be proud of,” said Ellis. Ellis continued to say, “The current IRDO mobilization mission is ending at Atterbury, but the infrastructure established here and the training completed solidified Atterbury-Muscatatuck as the platform that can get it done no matter the complexity or size.”

While Camp Atterbury is a tremendous asset as a training center the greatest value are the men and women of Central Indiana who served as the cadre to operate it for the last 73 years. It could be stated that though training areas and buildings exist in other locations, no one else has the quality of personnel who joined together to create the longest running period of success in Atterbury's history. While this chapter closes, the book of Atterbury is far from written.