USD alumnus combats insurgency abroad

Pulling a small, slightly weathered card from his wallet, U.S. Army Capt. Chris Mercado reads out loud the words etched on the paper.

“Discipline. Do without being commanded, what others do only from fear of law.”

To some, these words merely recite a quote from Aristotle. To Mercado – to each member of Bushmaster Company, 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment – these words define one of four values that became the soldiers’ ethos to counterinsurgency efforts in northern Afghanistan.

Mercado, a 2004 distinguished military graduate from the University of South Dakota, was back on campus Nov. 28 as he recounted to a crowded Farber Hall the experiences he and his fellow soldiers encountered during a year-long deployment from February 2011 to February of this year in the Imam Sahib and Dast-e Archi districts of the Kunduz Province.

Road of a student/soldier

Before he ever set foot in Afghanistan though, Mercado said he was fortunate to gain the lessons he did as a USD student. With a major in criminal justice and minors in civic leadership and military science, the 32-year-old credits the university, and the W.O. Farber Center, in preparing him for a career in public service.

“The military, believe it or not, is a small community. It can make people very insular,” he said. “Coming to (USD) — in short, the experience broadened my horizons, not just in relation to the military, but in understanding politics and

leadership.”

But Mercado’s road to a degree was not an easy one.

After enlisting in the military his junior year of high school, he went into basic training after graduation, with a few years serving in the South Dakota National Guard. With a decision to pursue a college degree at USD, Mercado, his wife and their two children moved back to South Dakota after a stint of active duty in Alaska.

Difficult, challenging and rewarding, Mercado described his normal day as a student with a 4 a.m. wake up call, as he commuted to Vermillion from Canton S.D., about an hour drive, before he would join fellow ROTC members for a 6 a.m. work out. Overloaded on credit hours, he would spend the day in class, while also maintaining a job in Sioux Falls and a position in the S.D. National Guard to make ends meet. Not to mention, coming home at the end of the day and “being a dad to my children and getting my homework done.”

“I remember when I was in ranger’s school, which is a grueling experience, I was sitting on a hill watching some of my buddies struggling,” Mercado said. “I thought to myself, at least I’m not in college again, because this is much easier.”

Graduating in 2004, he was deployed to Iraq to serve as a combat adviser to the Iraqi Army in central Baghdad for 15 months. He was later deployed again, for his first tour in Afghanistan, managing the reconstruction and development of Panjshir Province as a member of the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team.

Counterinsurgency in Imam Sahib

As Mercado recalls his three years spent in combat, it is difficult to miss the amount of pride in his voice as he speaks about the soldiers he served with as rifle company commander in Bushmaster Company. Undergoing six months of training in Germany and a year spent in Afghanistan, the group of soldiers trained themselves, deployed to combat and executed “this campaign trying to restore stability to a volatile region of the world” through means of counterinsurgency, Mercado said.

Effective counterinsurgency in Imam Sahib, a highly contested district in the Kunduz Province, meant “finding solutions to ambiguous problems” and was largely dependent on the mindset of the team of soldiers brought together to combat insurgency, Mercado said.

For B Company, this meant defining values as a unit that each soldier could learn and apply to combat. Mercado said while he chose the four values: discipline, strength, honor and fraternity, a concept he modeled after USD Professor Matt Fairholm’s four “V’s” of leadership, he left it up to the company to define the values.

As the company arrived to Afghanistan, they were tasked with a campaign plan to engage and influence the people of Imam Sahib and Dast-e Archi, and work with the Afghan Uniformed Police to “combat disinformation and propaganda” by meeting with members of the Afghan community, Mercado said.

The major challenge B Company faced in their deployment was building a combat outpost in Imam Sahib, so they would no longer have to travel three hours from the current operating base. Mercado said the company had a limited window to build it, as they raced to finish construction before insurgents fighting around the district returned in the spring. With no running water, sewage or electricity, Mercado said the conditions were terrible, but they loved every minute.

By successfully building the outpost, B Company seized the initiative from the insurgents, allowing the soldiers to foster better relationships with the Afghan people they were trying to protect. It also allowed Mercado to experience the ups and downs of implementing American foreign policy of the ground level.

“There is never enough time or resources to accomplish everything that you want, so you have to adamant about prioritizing,” he said. “You also have to be very good about identifying and understanding where the problems lie and being able to frame a problem up front.”

The company also worked on a number of development projects that included repairing roadways in the dangerous district of Dast-e Archi, so they could penetrate the region and allow local police to move in and hold the terrain. After several more months of building relationships with the people in the districts through mediation and conflict resolution, Mercado relinquished command to assume the position of commander for his battalion’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company.

While their deployment was anything but easy, Mercado said the deployment focused on “a really outstanding group of soldiers and leaders who achieved something

incredible.”

Coming back ‘home’

Eight years after graduating from USD, Mercado said he jumped at the chance to come back to campus.

“I want to share my experiences with the students who will be the civic leaders of our country at some point,” he said. “Nothing in combat and war is ever easy, but I was able to apply lessons I learned as a student in the army, and I want other students to know this is possible.”

And Mercado was not alone on his trip back to USD. The former rifle company commander was joined by 28-year-old Dan Fischer, a former platoon and scout leader who served under Mercado for nearly two years.

Fischer, a Stanford University graduate who now works in a congressional office on issues of veteran affairs said what set Mercado apart from other officers in combat situations was the level of thought and analysis he applied to every

situation.

“I hadn’t seen many people in the army who were thoughtful about things outside of the military, and were able to look around the proverbial lantern, so to speak,” he said.

Fischer regards Mercado as a friend and mentor, and while he originally joined the USD graduate to speak to students, he was taken by complete surprise when Mercado ended his presentation by awarding him the Order of Saint Maurice. The order is awarded by the National Infantry Association, and are given to service members who demonstrate significant contribution to the infantry and represent the highest standards in areas like integrity and moral character, Mercado said.

Aside from handing out the accolade to Fischer, who was nicknamed Captain America by his unit, Mercado spoke to a political science class and other students on campus about a range of topics, from China to trends in officership and the military.

And it was well worth the visit back to Vermillion for the graduate.

“South Dakota is home and anytime I get the opportunity to ‘go home,’ I take it,” he said.