Month 12 Day 11

Notebook entry

10 reports given, class with Salim, doctors from Ministry of Defense, combined staff, tram in a hole, fire steal wood

Journal entry

I needed to do the class at 0900 because we had a 'don't beat your wife, shake your baby, or kick your dog class at 1000.' When I was trying to search for them I walked past where the two tents burnt down.  There were no less than 10 rat holes in the ground where the tents once stood.  it is a freaking infestation.

In the morning I did a half-assed class with Salim.  It would have been better, but the Gunny was busy uninstalling Windows Black and installing the real version of XP onto their office computer.  He was also late because he was at the drivers course, despite the XO's orders.  He admitted again that he was just in the course so that he could get a license when he goes up to Kabul.  We went over SigAct pattern tracking, and that's about all. At the end he called me lazy for not giving him everything he wanted, even when I just arranged to get his computer fixed, gave him 18 reports the day prior, just finished teaching him a class.  He still doesn't get that I'm not going to give him a hand-out. 

I had our lingists translate a bunch of documents that I got while the MoD CI guys were in town.  I basically stole the docs from them.  they implicated the GSU commander in selling 400 liters of fuel in Garmsir, extorting 45,000 Afghani out of the contractors we use to build their camp, bringing hashish and alocohol onto base, and trying to keep his own counterintel guys from reporting on him because he was stealing so much stuff.  He did this by taking away their vehicle and forcing them to stay on base.  The documents also implicated the GSU Security Company Commander for stealing seven months of his soldiers pay by not reporting him in an unauthorized absence status. 

They had the combined staff meeting in the morning, that went ok, but in the middle of it one of the front-end loaders that the Marines were using to spread gravel backed into a giant drainage hole, it fell, thankfully the Sergeant was not hurt.  Maybe Marines aren't so different from Afghans.

I went to lunch and just after I got back one of the Marines screamed 'FIRE, FIRE'

I grabbed the truck keys and we all went racing to the next tent that we on fire.  Naturally when I arrived all the Afghans were just sitting there looking at the tent burning and not paying any attention to the adjacent tent which could catch-fire at any moment.  I grabbed water bottles out of the bed of the truck and started the douse the adjacent tent, I threw some bottles to the ANA to do the same and they just shook their heads.  I made fun of them.  "that's right just watch the Marines fix the problem, don't do anything to help.  To their credit the ANA fire department showed up pretty quickly and used their new fire truck to great effect (even though it still had the tow strap dangling from the bottom from when it was taken from Leatherneck.  It was an interesting sight, guys in flip-flops fighting the fire. 

The tent that burned down was the S2 tent.  I tried to rib Salim for smoking in the tent.  He would later get really upset at me about that saying that everyone now believed he was smoking because I said so, and that would mean he was breaking the fast.  He might have been, who knows.  

I came back and worked on the Gazette article for a while.  I stopped to take a pee break, went to talk to Munir about a crazy soldeir who was getting transferred to ANA custody.  He had shot himself in the chest and was now threatening other soldiers and officers. 

I had just got that out when Amir Dad came in and said 'Qais and the GSU Security Company commander are fighting.'  I went with Munir and he told me on the way 'we need to hurry.'  We come out of the back office buildings where the GSU have their offices, and I see Salim and Qais surrounded by about 13 GSU guys.  Qais is beat red, and the Security Company commander raises his right hand and punches Qais in the face. He then tells all of his soldiers to 'get him.'  Qais

I'll have to send the rest later. I'm out of sniper hill

So I see Tahir bring up his right fist and punch Qais in the face.
Qais raises his fists and hits back.  Tahir tells his soldiers to ‘get
him’ and they all start swinging at him.  I yelled to STOP and a lot
of the soldiers backed up, but Qais was still yelling that he was not
a woman and trying to come at Tahir.  I grabbed Qais and told him that
he was done and this was not the time.  He kept jumping and as he did
the buttons on his uniform popped off one by one as my grasp fought
against his momentum.  I turned around and pushed Maj Tahir back as
well and told him this was not the time.  I saw Qais reach down and
grab two handfuls of gravel and he threw them at Tahir.  That was
enough.  I turned Qais around and pushed him back to his office.
Salim and Munir grabbed the truck.

I grabbed Sammy because I wasn’t sure of all of the words that they
were saying and we went up to the tower.  Munir called and spoke to
the Bde Cmdr, and S2.  The story they gave went like this.  Qais and
Salim were driving to their new tent because their other one just
burned down, and Tahir told them tostop.  Once they came out he asked
them why they told the MOD that he had stolen seven months of this
soldiers pay.  Qais told him that it was his job and Tahir started to
call them names and wanted to fight.  I talked to Qais about how
stronger men were the ones who backed out of fights that involved
their own honor, and weaker ones went to fight at every personal
insult.  He kind of smiled and agreed, he said that in the ANA the
punishment for someone who fights is the same.  It doesn’t matter if
they start the fight, or if they are the recipient.  I think I know
why a lot of this is happening.  You can see it from the spittle
crusted lips.  All of these guys are exhausted because of Ramadan,
they don’t eat enough, they don’t eat at a sane time, and most of all
they are dehydrated as hell.  Of course they are going to fight.  I’m
just glad that not many of them are much more than a hundred pounds,
so when they get into it you can literally just grab them and throw
them apart.

At the evening meeting Casbarro said that the Troute Clearance Company
returned the plywood and 2x4s that they stole from the contractors who
are building the new ANA buildings.  No punishment for the ANA, they
just gave it back.

At least this isn’t boring.

Month 11 Day 19

Notebook entry

13 reports given, Carambul game, class to Qais and Najib good, terrain analysis, class with Tawoos afternoon, military a combined obstacle overlay 18 month burn, Elton John Flack under uniform, general paranoid soldiers killed, Corps you're not lying.

Journal entry

My stomach has really been bothering me, and that soured most of my morning.  

I went to see the S2 and talked about the Military Decision making process.  After I spoke with him, I went to the COC.  I found the Afghans in there playing a game that resembles pool very closely called Carambool.  I took a picture.  Capt Nowak was sitting in there just watching, there was a time when he would have been pissed and stormed around, but he's just exhausted and he's given up.   I met up with Qais and Najib in the morning on terrain analysis.  I put them in competition with one another.  I had them race to find the areas on the map, and the first guy who did the correct cardinal directions got a point.  I had them into it, they were fully participating in class.  By the end Qais came up to me and told me 'you are a good teacher and I will make sure I always come to your classes from now on." I was really stoked about this, but I am trying to not get my hopes up. As I walked out of the class Capt Nowak was playing Carambool, stood up and yelled America because he had just won. 

I took the terps to chow, and they we all had fun saying what a pain-in-the-ass my guys were, how they didn't learn properly, and they were altogether too careless.  

In the afternoon the net kept cutting in and out.  I tried to make it work, but I ended up giving up and working mostly on the job and Master's degree stuff.  

I waited to teach a class to Bernie at 1530, but he didn't show.  I found him sitting outside with the General, they were about to drink tea.   The General kindly allowed him to go to class after I told the story of how he killed the most dangerous Talib in the AO a few days prior (he was a 3 in mouse). 

The class went well and Bernie was engaged. we talked about trends in the AO. 

In the evenin meeting a few interesting things came up.  First, elton John, the GSU S3, wears an flak vest under his uniform because he's afraid he'll be shot.  Second the General is using the shooting of Karzai's brother as the fodder to claim he needs a private shower, he's scared for his life.  Whatever. and 18mo old girl 'ran into' a pot of boiling oil and burned her lower extremities.  I hate these people.  the Major reported that the Corps has finally realized that we are not bullshiting them about how fucked up the ANA are, they finally realize admitted that the MoD-14 process is broken and that sending the body of a dead ANA soldier to the wrong house is sub-par performance. Finally one soldier straight up killed another soldier today in Nawa after an arguement, this could be the source of some of the paranoia. 

hhhhh

Month 10 Day 17

Notebook entry

53 reports given, conversation with dinar, conversation with the major, Dr.'s birthday.

Journal entry

In the morning I was only able to sleep until 0630, that was not fun because I was really tired and needed to get some extra sleep.  I couldn't.  I went to the shower cut my hair had my Friday breakfast in the chow hall, and then came back to camp.  I fought the battle of the inbox most of the morning and did a good job of it.  I was nice that I was able to access my e-mail from LNK because I didn't have so much to catch up on.  

I took Dinar to lunch.  He spoke to me about how bad he felt about how the Gunny treated him.  I told him everything I could think of.  Gunny's omnidirectional hatred because of his failed marriage, poor relationship with his daughters, the rejection of the USMC.  I told him how we couldn't touch the Gunny because he had reached sanctuary, and how Dinar shouldn't take these things personally.  I told him how other people see what they are expecting to see and therefore see a lazy Afghan when they look at the linguists because that is what they expect.  I told him how to try to turn the other cheek, I talked about Job, I talked about persecution even unto death, and that is where I had to stop.  I felt really bad for him.  

He's like. "you know how it makes me feel when educated marines (12th grade education) say that "I hate this country, I hate all of the lazy fuckers in it.  Do you know how much of my family I risk to be here?  Do you know how much I am reviled by the Taliban. I don't want to complain to the boss because I don't want to be weak, and because he alreday has a million problems with the general.  Just sometime, when Col Schmitt asks, how things are going with the team I want to tell him the truth, but instead I tell him, it's all great, sir."

I met up with Major Tawoos this afternoon.  He is a man with one lazy eye, about 5,5 and a normal build.  I walked into the bedroom and it was cleaner than when it was just Salim.  He had rearrangeed it, there was now a soldier to serve Chai, he gave us some ubiquitous crappy candy and poured some glasses.  He told me  that he started in the Army 25 years ago under the Russians, that he began as a commando went to school in russia, came back and after the Russians fell he stayed in the Army, they put him in the infantry.  When the Taliban came to power he didn't have a job, and then when Karzai came in he rejoined.  He has been working for the pastsix years in Zabul and Qandahar.  Most of his time has been in Counterintel and in HUMINT working for the legacy program.  He told me as he took a drag on his 'pine' brand cigarettes.  He informed me that he really needed to make sure there were no threats inside of the Army and that he had already spoken to the XO about getting a counterintel officer at each of the kandaks.  He had no idea that they were missing regular intel officers.  He has eight kids, three boys, the oldest boy is 14 and the rest are girls.  They live in Kabul and he hasn't been able to see them in two months.  He was hoping to get transferred to Kabul after working for 6 years in the south, but he was not able to.  I told him about his predecessors, he shook his head an agreed that a lot of the officers try to buy their positions, and they are only in it for the money.  He wanted to know how the section was doing and how things were going in the brigade.  I gave him my assessment of his sergeants and how intel was not functioning right now.  He said he needed help with getting air conditioners and stuff for his office and room, I told him that they used to have offices with A/C, but because the S-2 was gone so long other officers took over those places.  He's said this is the most important thing.  I said "really, I thought the most important thing was beating the Talban" He smiled wryly and said "yah, you're right."  I told him about the training goals I had to accomplish with him, the class schedule, my weekly reports, how and when I give them reports, and how things needed to go. He seemed a bit resistant, "I have a lot of experience." well I've heard that before, we'll see.  I set up a time for Salim to show him all that he has learned in the past few months.  I asked him to be careful of Salim's feelings.  Salim has not learned a lot, but he has done his best, worked hard for an Afghan (1 hour per day of class), that's all I ask.  

I went to the birthday of the Hospital Corpsman rate, it is a dumbed down Marine Corps ball, but it is good that they have a little special esprit for the harder lives that they lead with Marines as opposed to how they live on ship. 

Month 9 Day 22

Notebook entry

Sgt. Paul Radley a turnover, $250 million tombstone next fiscal year, $100 million ongoing, $500 million upcoming soon

Journal entry

Woke up and stood watch. Went to Tombstone.

The Major really went there to hash out the details of the move, arrange Kalimars o move the 40 foot containers, arrange flat beds for the track hoe, bulldozers, etc. This is a lot of extra troublefor guys that the RCT wants to use as provisional riflemen. One funny episode the Kandak commander blamed some manufactures defect on the reason all of the transmissions were broken in the dump trucks.

I found out the Maj James Blitz’s orders were somehow messed up or incomplete and the he would be returning to the US on Tues.  This meant that I spent most of lunch and the early afternoon doing a turnover with Sgt Paul Radley.  I gave him an overview of the problems that I was facing and told him that I really needed to start with the personnel, once I got decent personnel I could then move on to training them or sending them to training. I told him that my section had basically regressed since I had arrived because of personnel turnover.  I told him that the general signed but ignored PIRs, that they did not drive a collection effort, that the information they took in was merely typed (because they feel that is more official) then signed by the general then two hole punched and put into a binder never to be seen again, with this in mind they do no analysis, no production, and dissemination is limited to voice transmissions over their one HF radio set.

After that I fought the battle of the inbox for a little while.  Did some coordination with the CLB guys who are going with us on the move and then eavesdropped on a meeting that the G-4 was having.  Apparently the us army Corps o engineers briefed that it is in the midst of $100,000,000 worth of projects for helmand and nimruz, about to kick off another $500,000,000 in projects and they are going to be spending $250,000,000 on camp Shorabak, the corps headquarters alone.  They will also be dealing with the operations and maintenance of those contracts until 2014. When the mentors asked who was going to be training them how to use and maintain the facilities that they have the rep smiled and said, you guys. I cannot believe this shit. Especially when some of the projects are to rebuild/move shit that is already in place.  Just like the millions that are being poured into Camp Garmsir even though it is only a temporary facility. 

I also chased down the billet and ID number of an Afghan soldier detained for associating with the TB the Corps is going to talk to MGen Malouk and figure out how they are going to treat this guy.

Came back, ate chow, took a picture of the giant lot of trucks.

On the ride back from the trucks dinar asked me “are people in America like they are here? I mean you can feel how much they hate you when they see your dark skin and when they find out you are a Muslim. It feels terrible.” I told him that people are scared of what they don’t know and if he goes to a place where they never see a brown person, then he could run into trouble, but if he sticks to some of the bigger cities where he will not be special then it would not be a problemexcept possibly at airportss.  I felt pity for him as he said the next words “you know even in the remote parts of Afghanistan people are understanding and forgiving, they have lost sons to the Taliban, sons to the Americans, and they understand, sons die in war.  When I go back to them they tell me ‘you are so lucky to be working for the Americans’ and I say yah, I don’t have the heart to tell them.” 

photos of the hundreds of trucks just baking away in the sun at the higher headquarters.  Each one paid for by the American Taxpayer

Month 9 Day 4

Notebook Entry
Ten Reports given, actually chewed out Slovak. Leave flight, varsity level Military Decision making process. Make believe staff in the afternoon. General stomp out. Power/generator. Intelligence guy back.

Journal Entry
Lots happened yesterday, but nothing happened. It turns out I actually chewed out a Slovak not a Croat. I found out that our coalition brethren are just as litigious as we are. He needed something in writing from one of his own brigade combat teams that I had been given an exception to the rule. The word of an officer Is not good enough. Fuck the coalition. It has made communication almost impossible with all of these extra networks. In coming together we have actually pushed ourselves farther apart. I spent the whole day just trying to get in touch the the FOBs [Forward Operating Bases] that was are going to stay at and doing basic updates on the ConOps [Concept of Operations].

The rest of the team, basically in its entirety, was dedicated to the leave flight. What a waste, and just a few days before we are supposed to go, stupid. Samir and Salim both made it back on the leave flight, but I am told that Samir is just here to check out.

I guess the Military Decision making process class that the RCT [Regimental Combat Team] did was comically bad. The ANA [Afghan National Army] showed up in the morning and Maj Kraus asked my guy in front of everyone “so what’s happening in Trek Nawa?” He is out of touch, the guy can only remember where Trek Nawa is about 75% of the time. In the afternoon none of the ANA showed up except for the S-3. All of the RCT guys were pissed off. They were like, where is my guy, this is the ETT’s fault said LtCol Walcott. Our fault? You told them where to be, they didn’t listen to you, they don’t give a shit that you are a pissed off LtCol. The afghans just started pulling in random guys and claiming that they we part of this section or that section. It was complete bullshit, but because the guys from the RCT have been here so little they didn’t know the difference. The General came in for a couple of minute said he was embarrassed, knocked over his water bottle and stomped out. LtCol Walcott fell asleep in his chair. Maj Kraus came up to me afterward and was like “have you been working with them on this?” I said that this was the RCT’s thing and that we were told to stay out of it. I also mentioned the convoy in a couple of days again and I think he understood that we had more pressing concerns. He went one talking unrealistic things about the Socratic method. I spoke to Qais later about it and he told me that the Marine Sergeant, SSgt Robert Burns, was no good and that he wanted me to teach him. It will be an interesting few weeks without us to be their crutch.

Month 9 Day 2

Notebook Entry
Yesterday missed class with Qais, Concept of operations all morning. Fear of Afghan National Army from Regimental Combat Team. Qais missed class today, Munir our yesterday, Afghan National Army Quick Reaction force. Provisional rifles.

Journal Entry
I worked on the ConOps [Concept of Operations-plan] all morning. I am so happy that Lekic is basically on autopilot when it comes to the roster. Though he did really annoy me with some of his data-entry, it took me almost an hour to fix some of his mistakes yestday on the spreadsheet.

The RCT s-2 [Regimental Combat Team Intelligence Officer] called about their teleconference, they didn’t know how to set it up, wanted to do it over there because it is more convenient. Capt CJ Radin nickname No Impact No Idea-CJ RADIN is a real genuine idiot. Not good for an intel guy. He wanted to know why I couldn’t come at three and I’m like dude, why can’t you come here at three. Whatever.

Capt Nowak got pissed at me again because I relayed a message from Maj Valquist about setting up billeting at LNK [Camp Leatherneck]. I said could you set up billeting at LNK? Started with a Sir and ended with a V/R,. He was annoyed because he thought I was tasking him. I wrote him back that I would try not to hurt his feelings. The guy is really hyper-emotional.

I found out that Monir, the GSU S2 [Garrison Support Unit Intelligence Officer] who has been here for 2 months went on leave yesterday. Fuck.

I am getting annoyed about the assignments that the RCT does for the new kandaks coming in. They are treating all of them engineers, recon, etc as provisional riflemen. What a waste. I pushed back, and was told by Maj Valquist that they were not attached to me. Capt Arthur says that he was there when the Maj brought this up with the RCT and was shot down, I have also heard the Maj speak on the phone about how dumb this is. Oh well, we don’t have the power.

The cherry on top was that Qais didn’t come to class. I wonder if me telling him I couldn’t do the class at Garmsir, but could at the Combine COC had anything to do with it.

All this just to get more stuff and people from Kabul.