23 May

My it my Bench


Made it out of 3 pieces of wood



Don't know how to top this




My first shot with an AK-47


It was a good day





The guys i took to the range on day 2





Afghan kids...one in the blue must be a fighter. He was shadow boxing and giving me thumbs up.






Kids in the field

Children of the Okra. Okra is one of the major crops around the garrison along wheat and tomatoes.

It was a busy week. Most of my command went on a 3 day convoy, and I was left behind as senior man running the garrison. Nothing too exciting.

We are all issued personal locator beacons (PLBs). When you activate your PLB, a signal is sent to to some satellites and back down to a controlling station that lets them know that PLB#02489750423 is going off and where it is. The geniuses that control these things and issue them don't bother to attach a name with a number; therefore, when one goes off, that is all you got. Well, wouldn't you know, my first day in charge some idiot's PLB goes off at 7pm and they call to tell me that the grids mark on top of my FOB. We checked a few lists that we have with no success then went door to door/room to room until 9pm looking for the culprit. Finally found him playing cards...he was OK.

Went to the range with the ANA Wed and Thurs...it was a lot safer than I had expected. For the most part, they were well disciplined and followed my safety instructions and the orders of their officers. I got to shoot an AK47 both days. The rifles I shot were fairly accurate. Some of the soldiers missed the paper completely at 25meters...it was pretty sad. One soldier that shot very well caught my eye. A friend (pictured above) approached him, told him he was a good shot and asked where he learned to shoot. Via the terp, he replied "I am Mujahideen." (Mujahideen was the rebel faction that fought against the the Russians over 20yrs ago. Osama fought with them, and the grand ole USA funded them (see Charlie Wilson's War. The term is also used for any guerilla jihadist fighter.).) This guy was no more than 35 yrs old...this is a crazy place.

I had another lunch in the security commander's office. I really enjoy these meetings. I have a laundry list of things that I need to get him to fix when it comes to security. I try to phrase the recommendations in a manner that gives him an idea so he thinks he actually comes up with the stuff. Well, I think he just decided to skip that part. He told me the other day, "Whatever you say, we will do." That is not really the response I was looking for, but if he means it, that is how we'll roll. I was meeting with him one day this week, and he got a call on his "mobile." I nodded that he could answer, and he did. After a volley of loud angry Pashtu, he hung up and said something to the terp. The terp says the guy on the other end of the phone said, "You will do what I tell you, or I will kill you with the Taliban."

I asked him what Farmanullah said, and he replied, "F--- You and hung up."

We had our first snake incident. One set of guards watched a cobra eat a frog and did nothing about it. They turned over to the next set of guards and didn't even mention the snake. The snake then decided to enter the guard shack. I wish I could have seen those Georgia guardsman jumpin' around fightin' off the cobra. They managed to beat it over the head, but said that it was up and hissing at them and striking...I don't know how they didn't shoot it.

That is all for now. Have a good Memorial Day weekend. God bless and take care.

BMP