5 weeks until I touch down on sweet American soil. Not much has changed in my world. Still, more folks from the GA National Guard arriving daily. With the influx of people, more people to cause trouble, spread germs and, as mentioned before, just make the place less pleasant. Well, when you tell all these people who, apparently, know everything that it is vital that everyone follow certain rules designed to prevent the spread of germs and they don’t choose to follow the rules, people get sick. I fell victim one night this week to a 24 hour bug that put me down hard. I am better now and ever vigilant of the non-hand washing newbies that have taken over our slice of heaven.
I have been able to turnover my U.S. responsibilities, so now all I have are my mentoring jobs. I’d rather have had only the mentoring jobs the entire tour. The next hurdle is getting the GA guys to take the same attitude and initiative we had toward the mentoring mission. I fear that they underestimate the importance of the mission and will neglect it. One does not have to look far to find that our priority in AF is to build a self-sufficient government and security force to combat the Taliban and other Anti-AF Forces. How can they possibly think that they can roll into these people’s backyard and not interact with them. They are coming around, but initially they had no intentions of working with the ANA. Still, they do not have the training that even I have for this. One guy that I am working with has been in the country as long as me and has never used an interpreter. It truly blows my mind. I would love to tell you that this is all part of someone’s bad plan, but this is shear accident. My team has been scheduled to leave in late Nov for several months. This GA Guard unit just showed up here a few weeks ago to call Hughie home. They weren't sent here as part of someone's master inadequate plan. They got booted from Kabul and literally just packed the trucks and came to our area and started looking for a base to set up in. By virtue of them moving in and staking claim, they inherited our mentoring mission. So, without them, the guys we (including my predecessors) have been working with for several years would have been left to fend for themselves. Yes, they are grown men. Yes, they should be able to handle independent operations, but the cold hard truth is that they can’t. We have had many small successes, but the battle of training up a real, complete fightin’ army is far from over. Sure, they know how to fight, and can reasonably drive vehicles, but the administrative, maintenance, and logistics areas remain weak.
On a better note, I went up to the ANA front gate today, and when I got there, I noticed that all the guards were wearing helmets, bullet proof vests and looked to be attentive. My first instinct was, “What the hell is going on here?...Should I be up here?” First thing is first, I told my terp to find out what the hell was going on. He asked the guy in charge and that guy explained, “It is our main gate we must be professional and ready for anything.”
SIX MONTHS! SIX FREAKIN’ MONTHS! After blood, sweat, and nearly tears, they show a glimmer of understanding. Is it going to be like that every day? NOPE. Why? Because if I thought it would be, I’d be expecting it to be, and that is poor expectation management.
While up there, I note that one of the soldiers’ AK47 machine gun is on the full auto setting. I told the terp to inform him of this. The soldier replied with, “No it is not.” I asked to see the rifle, but before he turned it over, he had to repeatedly pull the trigger to show me how safe the gun was. It wasn’t pointed at me at the time, but I do think my heart skipped a beat. I showed him that he was, in fact, walking around with his weapon in a less than optimal condition, but he would have none of it.
Security Company and Headquarters Company (both departments I mentor) were issued 4-wheelers this week. I have scheduled Saturday as a intro to 4-wheelers instructional course. I have heard horror stories from other units around the country turning over 4-wheelers to their counterparts and these guys destroying them and hurting themselves. With no concept of safety or control, things can go real bad real fast.
Didn’t stay up and watch the Saints game last week, guess I am not a true fan. A Giants fan did refer to them as the ‘Aints a few days ago. I replied, “I am pretty sure you can’t call them that anymore.” Should be a classic battle on the bayou this weekend in Tiger Stadium. I will be watching at 4am.
Have a great weekend. Geaux Tigers and God Bless.
BMP
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