Month 5 Day 10

Notebook Entry
Thirteen reports to the Afghan National Army, morning weather, afternoon list of stuff from officer rearrange morn met with Ops. Clean 120 viruses off Samir’s computer, Operations Shura starts.

Journal Entry
Spoke to all of the OpsOs in the morning about intel, their role in Intel, and their reports. I was proud of Samir, he spoke to them very well. I cleaned 125 viruses off of his computer in the afternoon. We’ll see how many he gets back, and how quickly. We also rearranged his office and put up a new maps. We also came up with a wishlist of stuff that he wanted and we started to sit down and find the numbers for the items. They have several printers available in the Afghan supply system at a cost of $120,000. Thank you America. Do you know what these guys are going to do to your stuff?

Sat watch in the morning. Got yelled at by Capt Nowak for saying that I had work to do and that I didn’t have time to sit watch any more when I already sit 8 hours more watch than anyone else. He later apologized. I think he was just a little on edge. A push happened with [a fellow Marine]'s company in the morning. Nothing happened, no sigacts [Significant Activity], nothing, but I still wished that I had a platoon for a little while. Oh well. Spoke with the General about getting additional personnel for intel. He basically told us that when the new batch of NCOs [Non-Commissioned Officer's] arrived we would get some, as far as new officers, he said my guys would be returning soon after his 120 days of leave, and that he had spoken to Corps about a counterintel officer. Basically we got the brush-off. It is frustrating because unless we get the personnel we need there is not much that we can do. Intel is a people business. Again, though it loses out to the tangible functions, like logistics. Because we provide information, not stuff, the contribution cannot be defined. You will get as much out of your sections as you are willing to put in, you pompous little ‘General.’ Maybe you should give up your aid, who can read, write, and is a hard worker, maybe then we can get something done. Oh well. I’ll press on. I got Audible downloaded on my computer finally, so now I don’t have to ask Suzan for audio books. I also got Farsi installed on all of the computers. That will make life easier.

Panoramic view of one side of the office

Panoramic view of the other side.  Not much to look at, but much larger than what we had, as it should be.