Month 12 Day 3

Notebook entry

20 reports given CJ Radin here, Afghan national Army directing construction, post-deployment health assessment, picture, communications read tip class.

Journal entry

I checked with the ANA in the morning and they were not amenable to CJ Radin coming at 2130.  Apparently, the DOMEX terp did not want to work in the morning because he was fasting.  Great, so our terps do?  You are making over $200,000 per year.  Suck it the fuck up and do your job. Ah well.  Anyway.  Capt CJ Radin came over and worked with the guys.  Well he really just sat in their office with Dinar and had Dinar translate everything.  They decided to make their own weather slide even though it took months for the ANA to larn how to use the one they had, and then he didn’t think to convert from Imperial to Metric.  The partnering is amazing. 

I went from there an checked on the teachers.  They have seen better days. 

After that I came back and the Bde Xo and the GSU were just caught trying to direct the ANA to build them new buildings.  Specifically, they wanted a new mosque.  The building that they took over was not satisfactory in their estimation, so they were trying to order around the construction workers to build them a new mosque.  The construction workers were kind of at fault for this.  They had allowed the ANA to push their way into the old mosque, so the ANA had learned that they could intimidate them into action.  They were sitting there saying yes to everything, they could build a new mosque (the funding for this would not be allowed it would have to be a cultural center or some bullshit), when they had no idea what goes into the contracting for this.  The LtCol went over and tried to stifle it this time, but it would have been better to avoid it entirely. 

At midday I went for my Post-Deployment Health Assessment (we’ve still got a month left, but whatever). 

After that I ran to get my picture taken for my Official Military Personnel File and pay LaFranchi money for the officer’s dues (basically a fund to give the Col a big present after he leaves). 

I came back and worked on Yale Applications, job applications, and that’s about it. 

The nightly meeting was nice.  We had two of the advon guys with us.  I gave them a big welcome, it is the beginning of the end.