30 May 09

Another week down. As usual, I had a very busy week. I spent a lot of time mentoring my security officer counterpart. There are several issues that I continue to struggle to get squared away. One of the main ones is proper employment of a drop-arm gate that is manually raised and lowered by an Afghan soldier to allow passage of vehicles and people on bikes/motorcycles. When I first arrived, the gates were used sparingly, and often left 1/2 open...in a manner that would allow bikes/people, but not a truck to pass...but what about a car...like the ones bombers use? I explained this repeatedly, and finally got them to fully lower the arms. The small success came with a lot of push back. One soldier took the time to explain to me that if he lowered it all the way, he would have to open it every time someone walked up...to that I replied, "That pretty much sums up your job description." Another explained that his arm would get tired of the up-down-up all day...to that I replied, "For the longest time, I have heard about the legendary Afghan people. Resilient, tough, fierce fighters...and all I hear is you crying." At that point, my interpreter said, "We go now!"

The latest revolt is leaving these gates unmanned. Yesterday, I came back from a convoy and found the first line of defense unmanned. As soon as I grounded my gear, I grabbed a terp and marched into the security company commander's office and told him we were going for a walk. It was the 3rd time in 24 hrs that I had to contact him for the gate being unmanned and fully raised. When we got to the gate, it was manned and lowered, but he knew that I was telling the truth and proceeded to yell at the soldier that had abandoned his post. When the supervisor arrived, he told him, "A human should be told things once, maybe twice. You people though, are like animals...I have to say over and over and you still don't listen." Well put. I tried to explain that they are the first line of defense and must operate the gate properly to prevent a car bomber from getting to the main gate...many of the soldiers think that their shear presence will prevent such attacks. Many point to their AK47s and explain that they will stop them. I tell them that I have been to the range with them and that they aren't stopping anything.

We did a humanitarian mission this week. We brought blankets, soccer balls, books, pens, shoes ...etc to a school in the city. The sight of the young boys and girls smiling and carrying their new toys was refreshing. However, the retarded ANA soldiers idea of crowd control was disheartening. I witnessed ANA officers stealing some of the goods. I saw some soldiers swinging a 6' fiberglass radio antenna at crowds of kids (4yrs to 15yrs old). Many other soldiers were throwing and swinging sticks. One was brandishing a rubber hose. We even saw one swinging his AK47 by the barrel. I never saw anyone get hit with anything but small sticks or the rubber hose. For the most it was just to scare the kids...so how did the kids react to all of this? About like a dumb stray dog. They would run away laughing when being pursued, but slowly creep back to their previous positions...it was a giant game. Just another testament to the way these people's brains work (or don't work). Although entertaining, it was sad to watch this. Don't get the complete wrong picture. Some of the soldiers and officers are very professional. I watched one soldier in particular talking to the kids and acting like your average American would act on a humanitarian mission.

Sorry that this posting is not as funny or uplifting as others. I just wanted to let you know some of the daily challenges we face besides the threat of the enemy. We are fighting many battles here. Thank you for your continued support, prayers, and emails. Take care and God bless.

BMP

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

Chugging Along

Site of planned ANA shooting range. The whole area is rubble from old buildings and blast craters from American bombings in 2001/2002.



I took out my bottom bunk for more room in my cube.



Computer stand (suspended from ceiling--engineering marvel





Dove Hunter in the garden with pellet gun






A view of the computer stand from my bunk through mosquito netting







Coonass Ceiling fan (has since been updated...will send updated pics later)




Afghan Cement Mixer. Notice these guys are making a store ("Haji Shop" is what Americans call any store not run by the U.S.) out of connex boxes like you see going down the HWY on the back of a semi. These craftsman are actually in the process of joining two connexes together and cementing the entire floor of both of the connexes and installing plate glass windows. They are pretty remarkable at there building capability with little or no tools. Also, note reflection in the window of one of my beloved tents!

"Normal Week" complete. Once again, not too much to report...the tents are finished, though. The company that sold them to us "with labor" finally came and made good on their contract. They were originally supposed to build all the tents and wire them, but they didn't show up with the tents and we needed them built right away for people that were showing up, so we had to proceed. So the great Tent Village is complete and almost all the tents have been built 3 times.

This week was overall pretty slow. I had lunch yesterday with on of the guys that I mentor in his office. We were in the middle of a meeting and he asked if I wanted to have lunch with him. I said yes and he mumbled something to someone and within seconds, a red vinyl tablecloth was on our rubbermaid table and a minute later someone came in and threw down several slabs of unleavened bread, a bowl of soup, a bowl of beef, a plate of rice, some eggplant dish, a bowl of unpasteurized yogurt (consistency of watered down room temp cottage cheese), and four spoons.

Yep, no plates or bowls. You just use your spoon to get what you want and your bread to keep from dripping all over the table or yourself. You can also use the bread to pinch rice and beef then eat it like a little sandwich. I eat all the food that they offer. Like I said before, it hasn't even slightly upset my stomach yet...that is more than I can say for any Navy or Army dining facility.

Some of the things I get to do here are pretty interesting. One day early this week I spent my entire day driving a 5ton forklift moving bed frames and mattresses out of the connex boxes...that is fun stuff. I did an ANA weapons inventory this week...AK-47s and RPGs...how many people get to play with these kinds of toys. One of the AKs was stamped 1963 with the newest being 1987. They just got a shipment of M16s, so they will be replacing their AKs with those.

I got put in charge of getting an obstacle course built for the ANA soldiers, and found out the ANA Colonel wants a swimming pool. I found out that if I justify the pool as a firefighting reservoir, there is a minute chance of pressing forward with it...we'll see.

God bless and take care

BMP

08 May

"One Piece at a Time"

Mobbing

Mob in hot pursuit

Well, have been in country for over a month now and getting into the rhythm of things. The only bad part is that not too much new happens around here. As I have mentioned before, my FOB is about 100m x 300m in area. We had about 200 people living and working here, but now we are over 300 and growing. For the last week I have been building large tents. The tents are pre-fabricated in Pakistan. They come with a wooden floor that we had to put together and level. After we got the floor together, we had to figure out how to put together the Paki tents with little or now directions. We worked all day last Friday (supposed to be our day off) putting up 3 tents and did 3 more on Saturday. Well, sure enough, a freak dry season rain came along Saturday night and down they went. Sure, we didn't do what we could to ensure proper water runoff, but I'm sure we'd have gotten around to that. Everyone else wants to blame the length of the stakes or Paki manufacturing, but I pretty much blame us. So, we spent Sunday and Monday rebuilding and reinforcing what was already there and the rest of the week through yesterday building the rest of the tents.

A team of Army guys is here this week validating our Afghan counterparts. Their job is to come in and take a look to see if these guys could run a base without American assistance. It has been a good experience because I have learned a lot about how the Afghans do business. It would have taken me much longer to learn most of this stuff on my own. One of the things I did was a long walk-about with the security officer to show him the full ANA Base so he could assess their security capabilities. When we got over to where the villagers and farmers live, the kids started asking for pens, our water bottles, and then money! I saw the little curly hair girl from a previous story. I gave her a piece of paper from my notepad and a mechanical pencil. Well that started a riot. Kids came out of the woodwork. We told them no more and kept walking, they followed. One of the guys with us thought it was a good idea to give her a dollar and tell her to run in the hopes that the rest would follow (pretty sick, but not a bad idea). As you can see from the pics, she is running off and they are not following her. Shortly after this pic, we went into a gate and left them outside.

I have been working on my room a lot. I started out living on the bottom bunk and decided to switch. Switching to the top allowed me to remove the frame from the bottom and gave me more room for my stuff. Now I have to build an "entertainment center" for watching movies from the top bunk.

I have befriended several of the interpreters that work for us. They are young Afghan men that want to make their country better (and they get paid more than senior Afghan military officer for doing their jobs). Most of them aspire to go to the states for further education or work. One of them is only 18 and another is younger, but I am not sure exactly how old. They often go to wedding parties on the weekends to see friends, and a few of them call themselves the wedding crashers. The weddings are usually 600 to 1000 people at large hotels. Sounds fun doesn't it? Now, close your eyes and picture this: 1. No alcohol. 2. Males and Females are completely separated in different ball rooms. I was surprised to here about the separation thing, so I asked what they do, and he said, "Some of my friends, we dance and have fun." Now just picture our wedding with everyone separated, but still having a grand ole time dancing and singing...keeps me laughing. Boys and girls are allowed to play together and hangout until around 13 yrs old. After that, unless it is your sister or wife, you probably won't see her face. I asked him how they get to know girls and he says you can meet them at their house and visit with the parents or there are special restaurants where an unmarried couple can go and visit, but no touching. Alcohol is not sold in this country in stores, you must do it "in secret" according to the terps.

I have eaten at the interpreter or ANA officer dining facility several times and had a dinner with the ANA Base Commander. Now some of you know that I have a history of "stomach issues," but my stomach has been rock solid in this place. Everyone around me has had GI issues since we have been here, not this guy. I don't know what it is, probably the year I lived with Glueck, Flynn and Trip prepared me to deal with any viral or bacterial infection.

I still haven't seen any snakes, though sightings have been reported on our FOB. Miss you all. Take care and God Bless.

BMP

Snake Season (28 April)

Weather is getting warmer. It marks the start of the snake season. Nope, not the snake hunting season or a weird reptile festival…just the time of year where they all come out. I haven’t seen any yet, and hope not to see any. A buddy of mine went to meet with his Afghan counterpart and found him and several other grown military professionals on the floor of his office taunting an Indian Cobra by smacking it on the head and laughing. He rescheduled the meeting for after they were done.

I met with my counterpart yesterday and as usual, he offered me food. They always offer chai (tea) and some sort of fruit, nuts, or something. Yesterday it was apples. Business was done when he offered me apples, so the conversation was dead. I opted to exercise my terp (interpreter) by trying to have casual conversation with my counterpart. I asked him what he thought about the upcoming elections (August). I asked if they thought Karzai was going to win (I still haven’t got a straight answer if he can run again), and he answered, “;aldjfalkdjflkjd OBAMA a;dlfkjadslkfjj.” Which translated means, “It is up to OBAMA.” They always say “Enshalla” which means “God willing.” Now they are apparently saying “Obama Willing.” He was laughing, so I laughed, but I was surprised that he would say this. I don’t know if this is really how some of them feel…couldn’t get a straight answer (rarely do).

On my way back to the FOB, I was talking to my terp about snakes (topic of the day) and he said he hadn’t seen any and hadn’t been here for a snake season. I told him repeatedly how much I hate snakes and he replied simply, “they are hateful animals.” That is all for now. Take care and God bless.
BMP

Start of the Week (17 April)

Well my week starts on Saturday. Friday (JUMA) is our weekend. Our Afghan counterparts have JUMA, their day of prayer, so we take time to catch up on personal stuff and relax. There is also a Bazzare every Friday with local vendors. They sell rugs, different silks, jewelry, and a bunch of other stuff that is usually junk. I bought a shemagh to keep the dust/sun off of my face and two rugs for my cubicle...(pics to come of my cube and our FOB). We reserve JUMA as our day of peace and happiness. We try to eradicate cursing and any kind of hate amongst each other to include friendly fun poking. If you think you deserve it, JUMA is the day for cookies and ice cream after lunch and dinner. Today was my first interaction with the local kids. We prepared for our outing by arming ourselves: Semi-automatic weapons for the Taliban and play-do and a frisbee for the kids. Luckily all we had to use was the frisbee and the play-do. we gave the kids the play-do and did our best to tell them not to eat it because they run up asking for chocolate "mista" and we gave them play-do. Then on our way back i see empy play-do cans and a kid trying to sell me gum...wonder what that was. There was one little girl that would just walk in front of me backwards staring up at me making faces (squinching her lips and nose). She was cute...until on our way back we had one piece of candy left and there were three of them, so like any responsible group of 20 somethings, we threw it among the two little girls and one boy...hair pulling and fist flinging ensued. My little friend came up victoriously. Those kids run around barefooted through fields, "roads," ditches...you name it. There is coiled razor wire along the roads to sperate us from the fields, but those kids run straight through it without even looking down...their feet just know where to go. Many of you may have read/heard about some deadly earthquakes in the region Friday morning...I didn't feel a thing. Have a good weekend. Take care. BMP

Made It (April 14th)

After two weeks of travel, I have made it to my new home. Today I got to ride in a Canadian helocopter through the Afghan mountains and over some beautiful country side. We literally flew through the mountains in that when you looked out one side, you saw the face of a cliff and the same out the other side less than 100' away on either side at times. It was a great ride and a great way to see the quickly changing unforgiving terrain of this country. I got picked up from the helo pad (gravel lot) by a couple of guys driving "Gators" (gas powered, heavy duty golf carts with truck beds) and was brought to my FOB (Fwd Operating Base). We share some real estate with an Afghan National Army (ANA) Post. There isn't much here which is nice because that means there is no significant infastructure to attack and minimal reason for high ranking officials to visit and ruin our fun. The guys that I'll be working with seem like a bunch of good guys...a few from each branch of service except Coast Guard. I have been assigned as the Force Protection/Security Officer for the base. My job will entail ensuring our security and status of readiness is always good to go and advise the ANA in security matters. For those that are questioning, yes I do have experience in this...force protection is a big deal for submarines and we trained on it in Kansas. Right now the area is a muddy mess, but the say the weather has been real nice until today. There is one spot where you can go up and look through a gun hole and look out over some fields where farmers are working just outside the wall. The consensus here is that it is a great place to be, so I am looking forward to getting to work. Our main mission is, as advertised, to mentor the ANA in running a base. We also do Humanitarian Aid drops to the surrounding villages. The Afghans in the area that I saw when we did a walking tour of the area outside our FOB (still on the ANA Base) are friendly and seem happy. One thing that is frustrating is that the language training I did in KS is the wrong language for the area...I guess I'll have to relearn those 5 phrases. Hope all is well. Take care. BMP