Month 8 Day 1

Notebook Entry
Met with the Count in the Morning, gave weather. Samir ‘die’

Journal Entry
Maj Hesco left in the morning. He didn’t really have a system for tracking personnel. He would just kind of look at it and calculate it as best he knew in his head. While it is a method, it is just not a good one. I spent a good part of the day creating a spreadsheet to actually calculate personnel statistics.

I had my first meeting with ‘the count’ the Afghan S-1 [Administration Officer] he is a colonel, but definitely an Afghan. “since you are my mentor now I need you to get me flights, get me a copier, get me paper, pens, etc.” Awesome.

This whole picking up the S-1 and the S-2 is going to be painful for a while, I can see it now.

The leave flight for the ANA [Afghan National Army] from Kabul was pulled because of higher operational commitments. The Major was not happy, but looking at the historical perstats, it doesn’t seem to do any good anyway. The premise that if we send these guys home and take them back regularly that they will not go UA [Unauthorized Absence] is flawed. It just isn’t supported by the numbers. I want to tell the Major this, but Capt Arthur and the others think that they will just blame the inconsistencies in the system for not creating faith, this is an intangible I can’t square. He said give it two more months. I will, but at $20,000 per flight, this seems like an epic waste.