Month 9 Day 19

Notebook Entry

None

Journal Entry

I got up or watch at 0500 completely wrecked. I had no idea that I had watch and I was totally out of it.  I got a chance t speak t Suzan for a while and that was really great.  I was exhausted but I decided to go run, shit shower and shave.

I was still wrecked when it was all done but we went t Shorabak for a meeting with the ANA. They basically shut down the ‘friendship gate’ onto the an aide because there was some indirect fire that hit the base this morning.  Even though the fire did not originate from the ANA camp the standard clamp-down reaction made moving difficult.

I got word that the SSgt who was driving the Major’s vic when it was hit by an IED was now complaining of headaches and neck pain, so he would not be making the rest of the trip. That seems like an aweful lotof bullshit. He wasn’t complaining about shit before. Well I guess if you are going to complain of something its best to wait until you can make it to a place where the complaint is actually going to make a difference.

We had a meeting with the ana to include the Deputy CG.  Just prior to the meeting I see the fat XO from 4^th tolai of 1^st kandak, the one who I had tried to teach the 5ws and reporting to.  The same one who the Marines had truancy problems with and the same guy who was resistant to basic intel.  Well he is going to be the new Reconnaissance Company commander, fuck.  I asked him who took his old job and he shrugged and said that he did not know.  What a turd. They had no idea what the plan was for the fielding of their kandak.  Maj Valquist explained it to them. Then the deputy CG said that he wanted the brie on paper and because it was a combined operation the USMC should provide the plan to him.  Of course its combined, which in his mind was a shortcut for American do all my work for me.  After the meeting I explained to the ANA kadak commander and his staff where we are and how, how wer were going to get were we were going and the distances between their positions (they didn’t know how to tell distance from the map).  I also had a stroll through the Corps CoC almost all of the positions that they had listed for our brigade on their map were incorrect. This would be understandableif they were not getting the information from the brigades, but even information that they had such as the name change of 2/2/215 to 6/1/215 was not correct.  It basically looked as though their map had not been updated in over a year. How are you supposed to plan operations when you don’t know where your own people are?

They also wanted some extra bottled water from us because they had filled one of their fuel tankers with water, the soldiers drank from it and now had diarrhea. 

I met up with Maj James Blitz, had lunch in the Tombstone chow hall with him and the Corps G2A (the G2 is on leave). he was a nice old fellow, he seemed to have a lot of energy, be open to a lot of ideas, but he was pretty noncommittal. I asked him to tell my guys what he wants them to report on (PIRs).  Demand quality from my guys (the 5Ws). Most of all I asked for his help with the manning issues.  He said they would be solved in a week when the new S2 came. Apparently my guy has been transferred to Kabul.

We went back to his room with Maj James Blitz it was really nice and comfortable.  He flipped on some Russian channel that had a sequence of ‘reality’ shows that basically showed soft core porn.  Three nerdy guys would rate Russian girls on their legs, faces, how they looked in bathing suits.  In another show some dude was in an ‘elevator’ with two chicks and they stopped at each ‘floor’ and would be given something by someone that would be used in a sexually suggestive manner (e.g. a bowl of ice cream that was then licked off of the guy.  There was another one where a parade of unattractive dudes were rated and picked out by some hot chicks to go out on a date.  Needless to say the plots were thin, but having field goggles on seeing Russian girls in bikinis was distracting as hell.  Oh well it was all good muslim fun because they weren’t Afghans.

I was also distracted because Maj James Blitz wasn’t talking business. He was just talking to his guy.  He just made it back from Eleave and really has not spent much time here, so he is just getting his feet under him.

I met up with Capt Kim Sengupta the British 3^rd brigade mentor for chow.  He seemed like a nice guy and said ‘at least it isn’t just me’ when I told him about some of my problems.

I got a copy of the next iteration of HUMINT source money Form Bs it looks like either my guy came to Shorabak to steal the money while still ‘sick’ or someone forged his signature.  Another 230,000 Afghani, pilfered.