Progress

Random soldier who stopped me to take his photo. This happens on a regular basis, the soldiers enjoy having their picture taken.

Jason, the new broadcaster on our team, sits about 30 feet up on the crumbly mud roof of an abandoned building that was once part of a Russian base.

Afghan soldiers hurry to the starting point of their training lane while practicing squad tactics.

Sgt. Dan Allinson and Lance Cpl. Matt Tune discuss possible changes to an Afghan Army training event.

An Afghan soldier rushes toward an enemy fighting position during a training exercise designed to teach squad tactics.

Yesterday I was able to link up with two British soldiers responsible for training Afghan National Army instructors while they held a class on squad tactics. Yes, the very same soldiers who also accomplished the 24-hour run. It’s amazing how networking happens sometimes and I was very thankful for the receptiveness to our tagging along. Their training event taught the ANA soldiers how to react to an enemy attack, which included attacking the enemy and then holding the position.

After a brief ride in an over occupied humvee, we arrived at training location where ANA soldiers were about to begin the practical exercise of their training. Jason, the new broadcaster on our advisory team, and I quickly got the lay of the land and were brought on top an abandoned building to watch the first iteration of the exercise. I found out that the mud buildings we were standing on were part of an old Russian forward operating base – wow, very surreal.

I didn’t stay on the rooftop long before heading down for some close-ups of the Afghan soldiers as they used their newfound skills to defeat a simulated enemy. Immediately, I noticed a distinct difference in the noise levels of the blanks fired from their AK-47 rifles and the blanks we used in our M4s at training – theirs are much louder! Later, I also found out that I should watch for instructors with flash bangs because having one go off a few feet behind me was extremely startling; a stunt that I’m sure was intentional.

The Afghan soldiers had been split into two groups, so we had the ability to watch both in two different scenarios. I was very impressed with all of the ANA instructors and their leadership, especially when one of them scolded a soldier and forced him to run down the lane and back with his rifle over his head. Listening to the British mentors talk about the Afghan soldiers’ progress, while interviewing them for a story, was a sign that we are making head way with the Afghan Army. Personally, I feel this country is a long way from some of the lofty goals I hear about, but, after watching the soldiers train, I realized that we were one step closer to helping create a self-sustaining Army.

Another great day in northern Afghanistan, keep checking back for stories from just another day in my life.

Acquaintances

Being deployed provides another perk to military life – meeting new people. I know that the civilian sector isn’t much different in this realm but there are a few unique differences to making friends in the military. To start with, meeting several people and then spending six months or more living, eating, working, etc, is not as common outside the military. Another distinctive aspect in a deployed scenario is that there are no familiar family members or friends to balance our new acquaintances against, which means that like it or lump it, they are all we’ve got.

This deployment hasn’t been without its share of new faces. From going to two separate pre-deployment training courses, where I made several new friends, to travelling companions, and now the people I work with and meet at my current location, I am always pleasantly surprised by those I get to know. I’m not sure if it’s the lack of closeness in a new environment or the needs of being a social creature, whatever the drive, I seem to be much more open to new friendships when deployed.

Over the past few days, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Specialist Lamar. Lamar is a medic who was called back to duty from his Inactive Ready Reserve status to deploy to Afghanistan. IRR is the time owed, after your active service commitment, to your respective branch of service; when you enlist for four years you are also committing to four years of IRR where you can be called back up from your civilian life to serve again. Lamar was a nurse during his time away from the Army and is now leaving Afghanistan to go back to that life.

Because of another IRR soldier working in my office, Lamar hung out with us while waiting for transportation out of the country. Lamar is a big guy, both in the physical sense and in his personality. Not your typical soldier, he immediately stood out because of his commanding stature and presence. Sure, Army guys can be loud and intimidating, but Lamar wasn’t the average Army type. Loud, yes, but not in the drop and give me 20 push-ups kind-of way. Big, yes, but not in the watch me bench-press a tank kind-of way. Lamar was a jovial, fun-loving civilian who happened to be in the Army.

During his last night here, Lamar sat and talked to a group of us gathered in our “only slightly warmer than outside” office. Yes, our heater does not do its job…which could be its own blog post all together. Anyway, Lamar had spent each evening entertaining us with photos, videos, stories, and even an audio recording of an hour-long firefight that his unit was involved in. On this last evening, it was a free-for-all of stories from his life that left us sore from laughter.

Lamar’s gift-for-gab was delivered in a monologue-like fashion equal to that of a comedian. Each story flowed into the next, laced with witty humor and side-splitting endings. Regardless of the topic, too include Afghan police being attacked by starfish and meeting a girl who materialized out of thin air, all of us were laughing out of our seats. No topic was safe and even the occasional story by someone else was quickly attacked and beaten with quick-witted jests. It was one of those “laugh so hard you cry” moments.

For a moment as we all sat there, we weren’t deployed; we weren’t dealing with the struggles of our daily events; we weren’t worrying about anything…we were friends.

Thanks Lamar!

Keep coming back to see what else might occur in just another day in my life.

Qala-i-Jangi

Completed my third mission within the last five days here in Afghanistan. Today’s journey took me to Qala-i-Jangi, a fort on the outskirts of Mazar-e-Sharif. Before I left Colorado, aside from returning home, I wanted only one thing during my time here, to visit Qala-i-Jangi. This fort has an important role in history for both America and Afghanistan.

In 2001, after the terrorist attacks in New York, a team of Special Forces was dropped off in the northern regions of Afghanistan with one mission – overthrow the Taliban. Their goal wasn’t to do the task themselves; instead they were to coordinate the efforts of the Northern Alliance – a rag-tag group of Afghan warlords and soldiers, basically a militia.

With the help of airpower, Special Forces helped the Afghans put the Taliban on the run and they eventually freed the city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Shortly after, and through a series of shady-deals, hundreds of Taliban were captured and taken as prisoners to Qala-i-Jangi. Most of the Taliban had not realized they were being held as prisoners and eventually they started an uprising within the walls of the fort.

On the day of the revolt, Mike Spann was within the southern courtyard of the fort. Spann was a former Marine and was currently serving as a CIA operative with the mission of tracking down Taliban leaders, more specifically – Osama bin Laden. News footage from on-scene reporters would later show Spann questioning prisoners, one of which was John Walker Lindh – an American born, California native. Shortly after the footage was taken, a grenade blast launched the uprising into the hell that would continue for several days. Spann was overtaken and killed, making him the first American casualty of the war on Afghan soil.

Qala-i-Jangi had once been a Russian base and stores of weapons and ammo still remained. Heavy-machine guns, rockets, mortars, grenades and rifles soon found their way into hands of the Taliban fighters. A ferocious battle played out within the confines of the fort over the coming days. Airstrikes and a determined Northern Alliance left the remaining Taliban fighters holed-up in the basement of a building known as the Pink House, named because of its pink exterior. For three days, and after shooting through basement windows, lighting oil on fire that had been poured in, and eventually flooding the basement, a defeated enemy finally emerged - beaten and broken. Of those, Lindh survived and was eventually tried and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

A memorial now stands in front of the Pink House in honor of Spann and his sacrifice that day. Standing in the courtyard, I couldn’t help but think of Spann’s wife and children and the loss they suffered. It has been more than nine years since his journey ended here and I now stand on that same soil facing my own journey - thankfully in a much more secure Afghanistan thanks to Spann and many other brave souls that followed.

Below is a brief glimpse of my trip today with the Afghan Route Clearing Company sent in to clear the fort of unexploded ordinance and other dangers that litter the courtyard.

One of the many weapons that sit rusting in the southern courtyard of the fort.

A metal storage container full of destroyed rifles and heavy-machine guns.

The Pink House with memorial to Mike Spann under the dome in front of the building.

View from one of the rooms inside the Pink House where a weapon of some sort has punctured the roof.

One of the basement windows where Afghan soldiers fired their weapons into and poured oil to ignite and try and force the Taliban fighters out.

Remains of weapons lay at the bottom of the stairway that led to the basement.

In the pitch-black basement of the Pink House, a flashlight illuminates a mortar fuse left behind on the dry, cracked floor that once housed the last surviving Taliban fighters.

Scorched walls reveal the attempts of Northern Alliance soldiers to force the Taliban from their stronghold.

From on top of the Pink House, neighboring buildings show the scarred walls from a fierce battle within the southern courtyard of the fort.

This battle-scarred building stands as a reminder of the Taliban uprising at Qala-i-Jangi.

Mortars excavated from a nearby crater wait for demolition.

A view from inside the ammo supply point that the Northern Alliance tried so desperately to destroy before the Taliban could gather more resources.

Mortar fuses seem to be everywhere you walked in the southern compound but were in abundance in the ammo supply point.

Another view of the mortar fuses in the ammo supply point.

More weapons excavated from a crater next to the ammo supply point.

As I wandered from one empty room to another, I would see many types of explosives, including this mortar, which looked in good condition.

Walking around the courtyard yielded many views of the fragmented mortars that were either fired intentionally or exploded when airstrikes found their mark.

This abandoned rocket looked like it was ready for immediate use.

After viewing the other photos above, the need for clearing teams such as this was self-evident.

The turret from a Russian tank lays on top of an outer wall as a reminder of the fog of war. The tank was being used by the Northern Alliance when a 2,000 lb bomb missed its mark and hit the northern tower of the fort. The turret was blown onto the wall where it still sits. Many Northern Alliance soldiers were killed along with many injured American Special Forces.

Today, several U.S. soldiers made the trip to see this historic place.

A view of the inscription on the memorial built in honor of Mike Spann.

Today was a good day in my life, keep coming back to see what might happen next.

Repetition

With so much time on my hands, I am forced to find ways of filling the groundhog days of my deployment. Yes, for my non-military family and friends, deployments are the perfect example of the Bill Murray classic – without the ability to change the outcome of the future. After a while you don’t even care what day of the week it is because it has zero influence on what you do that day. Occasionally something will break up the monotony but more often then not, I live like a programmed machine.

Wake up – regardless of the time; it’s the same routine of lying in bed thinking through my morning process. I will go through the steps of showering, shaving, remembering to grab a water bottle for brushing my teeth because we can’t use the tap water, and so on. Not sure why I do this but if it means making it to the bathroom without realizing I forgot my towel, then I can manage.

Breakfast – after completing the cleaning process, I head to the dining facility, pronounced dee-fak because of its acronym (DFAC), for the usual bowl of cereal, coffee, and an orange, which I take to the office to eat. I say bowl, but it’s actually the foil covered individual serving plastic container – usually Total Raisin Bran, but Special-K Red Berries is a close second.

Work – this is the part where there is some variety, typically in the amount of time we spend with the Afghans. Some days our hand is forced because of their priorities and other days we have to return to our office to get something done for them, regardless, it is the same routine.

Gym – after finishing with our Afghan friends, I typically head to the gym while everyone else hits the DFAC for lunch. My work out routine is built on a 5-on 1-off schedule but the only day that really matters is the off day because I get to eat guilt-free, and believe me – I do! Once I feel physically prepared to start my marathon training the routine will shift to a 5-on 2-off schedule to accommodate the longer runs and muscle recovery.

Work – yes, back to work to complete whatever project needs finishing or just to check my email for any new work that might need attention. This is about the time that I have to find creative ways of passing time until dinner: Facebook, blog posts, play with Dave’s video camera, or a quick stop visit to the “Free X” (a glorified closet, open to the entire camp, full of items either from care packages or that were purchased but not used – basically a way to pay it forward).

Dinner – my second meal of the day is usually some sort of salad made by shredding whatever the main dish is over some lettuce and topping that with some cheese from the sandwich buffet. Might not sound appeasing, but I have created some pretty tasty meals by simply putting stuff on lettuce. Truth be told, the food here is very good and even if I might not be in the mood for the selection of the day, I am rarely disappointed.

Evening – after dinner it is a complete free-for-all trying to get access to an open computer in the MWR building. I often strike out and retire early to my room for a movie…or two. Yes, movies in Afghanistan are a staple of my life in the evenings. Because I workout early in the day, I have more free time to play with at night; hence the movie watching. There is no shortage of movies or television shows in this country, which finishes out my day on a very relaxing note.

Zzzzzzzz and REPEAT

Despite the monotony of it all, I will continue to seek new and interesting ways of both passing the time and mixing things up a bit. Keep checking back to find out how I made it through just another day in my life.

Help for Heroes

So, a quick photo story to share the journey of two British soldiers who decided to complete a 24-hour treadmill run that they had organized to raise funds for the Help for Heroes fund.

Sgt. Dan Allison and Lance Cpl. Matthew Tune had set fliers out around the camp with pledge sheets for donations, as well as, create a donation website so others, not deployed, could help out as well.

I happened to be in the gym when they began the grueling challenge of taking turns running one hour at at time. I was very inspired by their will to complete such a daunting task and had a very enjoyable conversation with them before they began.


I made another stop in the gym later in the evening to offer encouragement and see how things were going. They were both pleased with their progress so far and really seemed prepared to finish with ease. When I went in the next day, Sgt. Allison was completing his final leg of his 12 runs.

Cpl. Tune had recently completed his 11th leg and resorted to sleeping on the treadmill despite the fact that they had brought a cot to sleep on. At this point the task had taken its toll on both runners.

Cpl. Tune was woken with 10 minutes before his 12th and final time on the treadmill in 24 hours. Support was given to them all night including movies, a projector, food, conversation, and even a statement that hid their time from them as they pounded away.

An announcement was made over the camp loud-speaker to encourage people to stop by and cheer the runners on to their finish. It was a great turn-out and their support was an obvious boost to the pair as they stepped out the final mile of their run. Sgt. Allison had since joined Cpl. Tune in the final minutes where the two completed their 24-hour journey to the cheering of coalition soldiers.

Between the two, they had ran 134 miles and raised more than $2,500. It was great to see such determination and gave all of us a sense that we can accomplish anything that we put our minds to. In a surprise ending, each of the runners was given a Georgia Guard Commendation Medal along with certificates of appreciation.

Stay tuned to see what else might happen in just another day of my life.

Acceptance

Afghan culture is obviously different from our own. One aspect that is most readily evident is the affection they show to one another. Seeing two men holding hands does not have the same connotation that it might in the U.S. As part of our cultural training, we were told about some of these differences to make us aware of the meaning behind them but it really is different when the rubber meets the road.

Immediately we saw these affections in the way they greet each other and in their social interactions. As we sit and talk with them it is not uncommon for them to sit almost on each other's lap. Initially I thought part of the reason was because of the small office they use and the lack of space created when four of us Americans come in. Later I saw that their perception of personal space, or their "bubble" as you might call it, is non-existent. While sitting next to each other they will often place their hands on each other's leg, again, something that would have a much different perception in America.

So, I took it as a sign of acceptance when we visited their office the other day and the major casually placed his hand on my leg. Truth be told, after 34 years of upbringing in our world of not entering someones bubble, it came as a surprise to be in such a predicament. I tried to remind myself that it is important, as we are spending time with the Afghans, that we embrace their cultural sensitivities, so I sat calmly - despite the fact that it wasn't exactly within my comfort zone. Later we all talked about it in the office and realized that this will only progress further as we spend more time with them and that it was good to have made such progress so quickly.

I will probably never have to share this behaviour in the U.S. and might never get completely used to the physical aspects of their culture, but I do embrace their trust in us. They have faith in our ability to teach them and they are more than willing to learn in order to stand on their own two feet. If their way of showing us this trust is a simple physical gesture, I can tolerate it in the spirit of our new friendship...even if it is uncomfortable.

Camp Confessions

As you wait in line at the store you hear the phone conversation from the person behind you. No, they have no intention of keeping their discussion a secret. Regardless of the topic, they are oblivious to the social taboo of sharing their dialogue. Without any other recourse, we are all drawn into the inevitable eavesdropping.

Being deployed is no break from this phenomenon but it does have a slightly different twist. My experiences come in the form of either sharing banks of phones or the occasional loud talker using one of the few video-messaging computers in the MWR building. Don’t be fooled though, it is truly the same experience.

While chatting on Facebook with my wife, I couldn’t ignore the gentleman behind me if I tried to. I felt as if I was listening to a soap opera as he refuted his wife or girlfriend’s claims of having another interest. At one point I actually wanted to hear the female’s responses, which would further infuriate the man to another decibel.

As I thought about it, I considered the numerous times I’ve had to sit and wait for an empty phone to use only to be drawn into someone’s discussion. From a simple “I love you” to unsettled disputes and the consistent money problems, I’ve heard it all. Sometimes sad but more often excited, these are the background noises of phone and computer facilities across deployed bases everywhere.

The taboo that comes with being in public, where you could choose to go somewhere else to finish your phone call, is absent when you have no other option. So, those of us deployed are often forced into sharing a laugh, planning return parties, or just pouring out our hearts in front of an audience.

One thing’s for certain, we all take the stage with pride when it’s our turn for a few minutes on the phone with family and friends…audience and all.

Keep checking back to see how things turn out in just another day of my life.