Month 12 Day 21

Notebook entry

Eight reports given, I am the anti-tribe, Munir flirting, executive officer wall and stage.

Journal entry

Today was a day to remember. 

It started out like any other day, some weird dream about a mouse infestation, normal routine, normal run, normal 3S.  But this day was extrodinary. 

When I came back from the shower, a wet back against my backpack, I stepped into the COC.  It went to the desk to fish my two CLIF bars out for breakfast.  I turned around and looked at the nametapes of the Marines congregated in the center of the COC.  Lt Siegel, my savior, was there. 

He was shorter than me and excitedly grasped my hand when I said “Capt Scott Shane”

I think I was gladder to see him than he was to see me though.

It seemed familiar.  I was in his shoes not long ago.  He is eager to do the things that he has been trained to do. 

Before we really had a chance to meet I met with the literacy instructors and talked to them about class attendance.  They had offered up their classroom for recoilless rifle training (rockets).  I asked Shafiullah what the deal was and I got “wazi fai ma n’est” its not my job.  “If the students don’t show up, then what am I supposed to do?”  I could tell him what he is not supposed to do.  Be sleeping during class time, like I found him.

We gave them a series of classes in the morning on all of the reports that they will be expected to submit. I covered my piece of the pie, the literacy instructors, Data Transfer Agent, Foreign Disclosure representative, the attendance program, the command chronology. 

We went on a walkabout with the new guys, showing them all of the buildings in progress.  The Gunny piped up at several spots throughout the tour which elicited, askance views from Capt Nowak and the others, “how do you know how far the run is around the camp?”  “I got it off of a Facebook post” was his quick reply.  The LtCol told me that the new team was wowed by my Dari. 

After that Lt Siegel was all mine.  I barraged him with information until the 1815 meeting.  Even when I did the class with Munir I was really teaching him.  When I told him that the next class was going to be his he was happy.  When I woke Munir up, and asked why he was sleeping while he said he was on duty,  Lt Siegel seemed a little taken aback.  The guy has a good perspective.  He knows that these guys are the way out, but he doesn’t really understand the people yet.   He understands what he reads in the newspapers about what is happening in Kabul, but he doesn’t yet understand that this is not a country, but merely the place where all of the other countries end.  He took my pointed advice as dissatisfaction with my job.  I didn’t intend for it to come off like that.  I was trying to tell him what makes these guys tick, what they want.  Ultimately, he will have no command authority over them, merely influence, and the only way to really secure that influence is by appealing to their desires.  Not what they expect from him (to give them stuff).  But to their desires.  He still thinks like an American, and he thinks like a Marine (he wanted to know who wasn’t gay on the Afghan camp—I had to tell him that despite them having sex with each other I don’t think many of them were gay, they just don’t treat women well, ever see them, so they’ve got to have a sexual outlet).  Inside of every one of them is a Marine, buried deep down, or so he thinks.  I feel kind of bad because he seems crestfallen, maybe he will just think I am a nut until he learns it for himself, but maybe that will take many wasted months. 

A couple of things occurred to me today. 

First was about me.  I think I am the anti-tribe.  It’s not that I don’t have the urge to join a tribe, be it of a political type, or another type. I have the same urges as everyone else.  The difference is that I am very reluctant to give up my own judgment about things. To the group, any group.  Perhaps this is why I am such a slave to my routine.  Because it allows me to offload a lot of the thinking about daily actions that most people depend on cues from others to obtain, there is no carpooling to breakfast, no deviating from lunch for me.  I’ll just run there myself, and walk back.  I think I am afraid of tribes because they will make me more stupid.  There is nothing wrong with a collection of people who believe the same things that I do, but I don’t want to believe the same things that others do merely because I belong to a section of people.  Its not that I’m not a member of a tribe, it’s that I am anti-tribe.

The other thing that occurred to me recently and I don’t know if I mentioned it was that Munir has been trying to flirt with me.  Every time that I get upset with him he kind of lowers his head, looks up at me through long lashes, gives me a creeping smile and says nothing.  It’s the kind of wry look that a boy gives a girl when he is being coy.  I think this is because he has always been able to use his good looks to flirt his way out of trouble with other men.  At first I thought it was just his way, but now I think I see more.

The other things to note are that the XO is now finished with his giant wall around his container, and that he has a stage built for himself now.  It is made out of a couple of the old pallets that we were going to use to boost the tents, I pounded the damn thing together myself when it was being used as a port-a-john shade, and anyone to stands on it is taking his life in his own hands. 

Handover Briefings with the new guys

Month 11 Day 25

Naikpai Hazara comment, schedule class, Qais no-show and fouth Kandak teleconference, sixth Kandak, Capt. Habib back, Bernie leave pistol clothes, linguist/Lieutenant, ditch crap.

Journal entry

One thing I forgot to mention from yesterday.  The other terps were giving Naikpai shit because he was bad-mouthing the general.  They were saying he is your general, he's a Hazara just like you.  I fucking lost it.  I told them that I would crush any of them that made another ethnic comment.  It is the first time I've ever threatened anyone bodily harm on the team, but they shut up. 

In the morning there was some new-to-us gym equipment in the tent at the MWSS, that pretty much made my day. 

I went to see the Major in the morning to discuss the schedule with him and the Sgts, he had already spoken to them about it.  That's nice.  He told the Sgts to show up to class as 1000 and I thought that would be the end of it, but when class time rolled around only Najib showed up.  I had him walk the Sgt from 4th kandak through all of the stuff that he had been learning.  I think that it was nice for him.  He got a chance to see how far he had come, and the other Sergeant was in awe, Najib might as well have been talking about physics.  The end of the class I again went over key terrain in a conventional and COIN fight.

At lunch I worked on some more stuff for Qualcomm, I am pretty pleased with my .pdf ninjary. 

In the afternoon we had the leave flight.  I was checking the roster against my database, but Capt Nowak was out searching.  Bernie tried to keep his pistol with him and said that he had a card which said it was ok.  I told him not to do that, but he didn't listen and Capt Nowak got into it with him.  Ultimately, no pistol went on the flight.  The general's aid also tried to bring like four sets of cammies, when he was told he couldn't take them he went back, put them in the bottom of his bag and came back.  Capt Nowak then proceeded to tear them out and throw them on the ground.  He was pissed that the guy would lie right to his face and further pissed off when they would not pick up their own trash despite his orders.

We had the teleconference in the afternoon.  2nd kandak was here in person in all of his stupidity.  6th kandak was the only kandak to call in.  Gul Rahim apparently refused to show up.  That's not entirely surprising, he's done that before.  On the bright side, Capt Habib is back the longest "school" in the history of Afghan intel. 

We are having more issues with ditch-crapping.  Basically any place where lights aren't shining on them the Afghans will leave their hootch, go to a trench and shit in it.  We used to have the problem by our compound, but now that we have the lights up we haven't seen it in a while.  We think it is just a convenience thing.  They have plenty of Turkish toilets, but it's just closer to shit in a ditch.  The main concern is that we have a couple hundred guys living on the camp, and if they all crap in the ditch especially around the chow hall, then we could have some disease issues.  

Month 10 Day 24

Notebook entry

10 reports given, Skype, Sammy, what for, interviews, sleep.

Journal entry

I slept in until about 0730.  Did the regular 3S routine, cut my hair and came back.

I got on the phone and on Skype with Suzan because the connection wasn't fast enough to do both at the same time.  I missed her even more for having seen her.

After that I went to interview two guys who came in from Durzay who were beat up and shot by the TB. This is what I came up with.

Interview #1

Time 1140 Local

Interviewee: Ali Riza, Sgt 2^nd Kandak

Place of Birth: Mazar-i-Sherif

Height: 65in, weight 150lbs

Marital status: married

Place: Clinic, Camp Garmsir

After initial questions about his biography to determine a baseline the interviewee was asked to describe the circumstances that led to him being in his hospital bed.  This was an open-ended question with no prompting.

‘Two of us left our post looking for food.  First we went to a shop with energy drinks.  I purchased some with the Pakistani Money that I had.  I wanted to call home and next door there was a shop that allowed me to make the call, so I went in there.  There were three men in the shop.  The shopkeeper said that two of them were his relatives.  They asked him if me if I would like to stay for dinner, and I said no. At that time the two relatives left the building. I asked the shopkeeper for change to make a telephone call.  While I was on the phone my soldier came in and told me that the two guys who went outside were smoking hashish drinking Fanta.  As he was speaking the men returned to the shop on a motorcycle and began to shoot, they shot me in the arm and then in the butt, then they ran out of ammunition.  I tried to return fire, but they pulled on my weapon and because I only had one good arm, they pulled it free.  They tried to shoot me with it, but they didn’t know how to use it, so they started to beat me with it.  The shopkeeper also started to beat me. While they were beating my weapon broke from the force.  I tried to grab the shopkeeper’s legs to keep him from beating me, but I was not able to stop him.  I made my way out of the shop and tried to run back to the post, but I could not.  I saw a shepherd boy and yelled to him to tell the soldiers and Marines that we were being attacked.  The next thing I remember is the Marine Doctor telling me to stay awake, giving me medicine.  After that the next thing I remember is being in the Marine hospital. Now I don’t know what is going to happen to me they might put me in jail.  I tried to hold onto my weapon, but I just couldn’t.  The S2 says I am Taliban.’

Through subsequent questioning the Sergeant revealed the following.

There are five soldiers at the post.  The post is approx 300m from the Bazaar.  The Marines only have the ANA stand post in the evening, so he was free to go during the day.  Most of the patrols they do with the Marines, but since this was just a resupply they only had two soldiers.  His fellow soldiers knew that he left and gave him money to buy them things in the bazaar. As soon as he left the shop he believes his attackers got on their motorcycle and fled because they saw the shepherd boy running to get help.  He has spent four months in Durzay.  He feels bad because his soldier was hurt worse than him. He believes the shopkeeper is going to accuse him of trying to steal Fanta or pressure him into getting him some, but that doesn’t make sense because he already had Fanta.

Comments:

Before beginning his narrative of events he tried to sit up to speak more emphatically. This was a break from the previous baseline, but it could be attributed to him having been questioned before by the S2 and his desire to emphasize his innocence.

Interview #2

Time 1300 Local 

Interviewee: Salim, Soldier, 2^nd Kandak

Place of Birth: Bamyan

Height: 65in, weight 150lbs

Marital status: Married

Place: Combat Surgical Hospital, Camp Dwyer

After initial questions about his biography to determine a baseline the interviewee was asked to describe the circumstances that led to him being in his hospital bed.  This was an open-ended question with no prompting.

‘We left to go to Headquarters, but stopped in a bazaar at a shop with a bunch of energy drinks and bought some.  I saw the shopkeeper leave the shop and he went to meet up with two guys who were sitting some distance away.  When I approached them they moved behind the bazaar.  I came back to tell my Sergeant and when I came back they came up behind me with a motorcycle and started to shoot.  After they shot me they beat me and my sergeant with our weapons. I don’t know how my Sergeant got out of the shop.’

Through subsequent questioning the solder revealed the following:

He had not spoken to his sergeant since the event.  He claimed that they were going to Headquarters to get supplies. 

Comments:

The soldier’s tone became more emphatic as he continued with his story, but none of the questions broke his natural rythmn.

Irregularities:

The first sergeant claimed that he entered two shops, while the Soldier only claimed that they went to one shop.

The Soldier said he could did not see the sergeant leave the shop, and had not seen him leave, but the soldier did know that he left the shop.

Assessment

It is the interviewer’s assessment that these soldiers left to buy food in the bazaar.  Leaving with this number of soldiers is probably a common occurrence, and not seen as irregular based on them both offering the same information with no prompting. They may or may not have tried to pressure the shopkeeper to give them energy drinks at a reduced price.  They were both attacked in the manner they described.  They were overpowered by their assailants and had their weapons taken.  It is unlikely that they sold their weapons to the Taliban.  The reason for the attack could be many.  Their small size, their ethnic/linguist/religious background (Hazara/Dari/Shia as opposed to Pashtun/Pashto/Sunni).  Their assailants could have had ties to the Taliban, but this is not necessarily the case. 

The irregularities in their stories are slight, and can be attributed to translation errors, medication, and forgetfulness. 

I spoke with Sammy about it after I was done.  I just couldn't understand why people here hate each other so much. There has to be a damn good reason to kill someone else, and I just don't see it around here.  I understand the history of these tribes and clans, but so much of what they did to each other happened 10 years ago.  Let it go.  He started saying that he doesn't understand either.  He is a Pashai, and I don't understand it, but we even see it in the terp tent Naikpai being hazara, Dinar, Tajik, Fareed, pashtun.  

I listened as Josh and Maj Davidson reported on their trip to the Corps.  The Marines up there seem to think that most ANA don't steal, and that they are not in it for themselves.  Speaking to the Danes who run the GSU up there, they were told that the GSU commander recieves about $30,000 US per month and pays off Malouk the Corps commander, directly.  I think they take it personally when you tell them their Afghans suck. 

I the afternoon we worked on turnover stuff and  Iwas ordered to take a nap.  I slept much monger than expected and the boss excused me from the meeting after I briefed my portion.  

I have been thinking about two other things.  

It doesn't matter what you want, only what is possible.  I think that should be the dictum of advising. 

I also wonder whether or not the awards process at the end of tours prevents Marines soldiers etc from being unbiased observers.  Everyone wants to feel like they made a difference.  Commanders write up awards for the hard work of subordinates and are not going to talk about the things that they couldn't accomplish because they were too hard because people are self-rationalizing.  People also start to believe what they continually say, write and read, regardless of veracity.  It is just the way people are.  This is especially true of things that people write/create themselves and put effort into.  America expects unbiased observations from the military, but is that really possible after all, they are human beings.

Month 10 Day 13

Notebook entry

Seven reports given, work giver of self and creator of self-identity? Awards, Salim regarding the country guys, no party, Dinar's sentiments, general flowers, Salim class comments.

Journal entry

I made it almost to the end of Friedan.  She made an extraordinary claim.  “Work is the giver of self and the creator of self-identity.”  This is why she was so distraught that women were culturally discouraged from working outside of the home in the 1950s. That is similar to what I heard Rick Warren say in the TED talked that I watched a couple of days before that. The problem is, I’m just not sure if it is true.  I have a job, I work for pay, I make a lot of cash, my job is very respected by society, I walk around all day and people call me ‘sir’  this should in theory bolster my self-worth, identity and tie me to the broader world.  I thought it would too when I started it. Maybe it will someday, but I have to wonder if this isn’t an Americanism too.  There are a lot of Afghans here who don’t give a shit about work, they would happily steal their way to the top and live in the lap of luxury, maybe Friedan was part of a bigger culture that glorified careers.  I certainly have trouble with the universality of her claims. 

I worke on Awards for both docs most of the morning.  The Gunny went on a tirade about them at lunch he said that only one person, GySgt Young, rated one.  He also said that HM1 was self seeking.  I told him he had omni-directionaly hatred.  He seems to be really unhappy.  I think this is because he has destroyed his marriage, barely knows his daughters, and has been rejected the Marine Corps that he ostensibly did it for. 

I tried to work with Salim, but he was tasked with getting a list of all of the ANA soldiers who had family members who lived outside of Afghanistan. I E-mailed a list for him again a capability he will never have…

At noon I thought that we were going to do the party that the Public Affairs officer had talked about, but no party happened.  Dinar said this is just bullshit that people say.  Times have changed in Afghanistan. I did get a bunch of plastic flowers from the general they were cheap, but it was nice. 

I had a class with Salim in the Afternoon.  I was trying to teach him about water flow in the AO.  It is important because all the people are farmers. He said ‘fuck all of these peoples mothers, I don’t care if they starve’  he wasn’t serious, but would you say that if you thought about these people as ‘us.’

I got into with Fareed because, he wanted to talk to his family at 1500, he claimed he had to meet with maj Davidson, I confirmed that he did not need to meet with him, I tried to get Fareed and he said he wanted to talk to his family.  I had a heart to hear with him and here were some of his remarks

‘I NEED to go to the MWR’

‘when the Marines give me the sat phone they always give me phone 2, it doesn’t work right’

‘it is not my responsibility to pay for the wiFi in the tents the marines should pay for it for me’

‘I can’t wake up at 0400, I have to go to the MWR at night’

The quick sense of entitlement around here is amazing.

The General Presenting me flowers for my promotion

Myself and Dinar (The general is the photographer)

Month 10 Day 4

Notebook entry

One report given, formation, certificates, met Razaq, Met executive officer, biometric automated toolset Razaq, meeting, detainee, illegible.

Journal entry

We had a combined formation with the ANA in the morning.  The XO did their version of a troop review.  WE then gave all of the guys from the 5^th kandak CLP their awards and reawarded Yunis his medal.  I was not expecting it, but I was called out along with LtCol Valquist and GySgt Casanova to receive an award from the Afghans.  This was really surprising.  I have no idea what it says because it is written in formal, stilted Dari.

Immediately after the formation I walked over to the living quarters and Maj Razaq was there.  Skinny, unshaven, blouse open.  I asked him about the HUMINT money and he claimed he had all of the appropriate forms.  HE complained that since he left someone stole his blanket.  I told him with a bit of a wry smile that there are a lot of people in this country that are only out for themselves, he should know that as an intel officer and that if you leave for 260 days, then you should not expect that your things will be in that place that you left them.  He didn’t take my bait, but I think he caught the double entendre.

I met with the XO, the GSU commander and the S2 briefly.  I gave them the S2 performance review from the week prior.  I just happened to run into Salim as he was carting around his ‘bandee’ (detainee). I called Bobby Brumfield our Law Enforcement professional to again try to work with Salim on interrogation techniques.  As luck would have it when I came in the afternoon Razaq was in the COC.   HE did not have any paperwork, but since Lekic and James were there doing the BATS, I got his stupid ass enrolled.  I also got our detainee enrolled.

I went to Razaq later and asked for the forms he said he gave them to the XO. I went to the XO and as I suspected, he had no forms.  He called in Razaq and then his story changed, ‘well the XO has seen the forms, and I can get them for you if I go to Shorabak…’ liar.  Anyway I went to the evening staff meeting where I found out that the Afghans had destroyed our doorbell by yanking it off the wall rather than pressing the button.  Awesome, and after that I went back to meet with the XO per his request. 

He calls me in and we sit down on the floor of his living quarters, he winks at me and reaches under his bed to pull out a bunch of forms.  These forms implicate the General in stealing over 150,000 Afghani, he also implicates the S-3 and the S-2/G-2.  He hands them to me.   I tuck them in my blouse, head back scan them and bring them back.  When I return there is another guy in his office, so I clandestinely tuck the forms under a pillow on the floor so only the XO can see and then I depart.  The XO wanted me to stay for dinner, but I told him  I had to run. He also made another comment.  He called in Salim and said that he was a good sergeant and that he had picked Salim and Qais for me.  He said if it were up to the general all of S-2 would be Hazara’s then he says in English ‘made in China.’  I wonder if I just became a bit player in his inter-tribal game.  I can’t help but like the guy, but I don’t think he is any less corrupt than the General.

Maybe the best thing that will come out is that corruption cannot be forgotten by anyone and that everyone should be scared if it is everyone against everyone, then maybe that will reduce corruption. 

Month 9 Day 9

Notebook Entry
Trees, Afghan National Army tanker. Year round work, eves on buildings. Lone Hill. No Tree shot holes. Poles Area of operations equals shot holes.

Journal Entry
We moved from Qalat to Ghazni today

The thing that struck me as we moved through the counryside were the trees. There were orchards and rows of lovely trees. I am nor arbor day fanatic, but they seemed odd. I also noticed that where there were trees there were no holes in the road from where IEDs had gone off. I wonder if trees would be a good metric for success in this campaign, they are a tenure crop that basically says, I am going to be here for a while, I will have buy-in with the community, work hard etc. I also wonder if people are idle for less of the time if they plant trees . so many of the problems that we have in helmand are the result of idle hands. There are [migrant] workers who come in an work feverishly for the poppy harvest, ther are almost no sigacts [significant activity] during this time, and after the poppy harvest is done, then the sigacts shoot back up. needless to say there were no trees in helmand or qandahar. Along with the trees I noticed an architectural feature called a ‘Nawa’ it sounds kind of like the city. Basically it is an eave. It keeps rainfall from running down the entire mud wall and damaging it. I started to see these in qalat, toward the end of the day they petered out. As did the orchards. As soon as they did I started to see tons of shot holes in the road. We were constantly vering around them or using the dirt on the side of the road because they had blown up a culvert.

I asked the linguists about it they said it was because the people in that part of the country are just lazy and they don’t give a shit. They said at the Kabul zoo they have a [sign] thatasays don’t feed the animals at the Qandahar zoo they have a sign that says don’t fuck the animals at the Helmand zoo they have a sign that says don’t eat animal food. This is what they think of their countrymen.

I can’t help but think that it is something deeper than that. People with no hope or thought for the future.

One thing I noticed about a lot of the old villages what that they almost all have a lone high-hill with I evidence of some fortification on top once or currently. I am sure these would have been ideal stops for the caravans, but it lets you know what an isoloated and war-torn country this was even then

We traveled into the polish battlespace. We are actually staying on a polish base. There are always a few Americans around I got connected with an army MSGT and she set us up with a decent place to stay

I had a run around base and on this ‘small’ army FOB I nearly got lost.

Had a decent dinner in the chow hall until the indirect fire warning went off. Then I spent the next hour in an air raid shelter with an army SgtMaj and an air fore retiree. They told me that the polish owned this battlespace, but that the us army was here to mentor them. So the americans are mentoring the poles who are mentoring the ANA. They complained about a lot of the same issues that we have to deal with. Stealing, ineffetive chain of command, little regard for human life. It looks good on paper to have the polish running their own battlespace, but in fact I am starting to see why there were so many shot holes in the road.

What is old is new again, an old fort re-purposed as a new fort.

An old minaret outside Ghazni

One of the innumerable 'jingle trucks' so named because of the jingling decorations that festoon them.

If only the Russians could see it now, Polish Hinds ready to fly air support for us.

Month 9 Day 8

Notebook Entry
Cipher from the Ministry of Defense, cell phone, Qandahar Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive device and threat empty. Use of Blue Force Tracker. Keeping Nice things from Aghans. Remain-over-night Qalat.

Journal Entry
Went to the 215th corps HQ Unis got a cipher from the Corps HQ but it did not say what it needed to. It said that 17 pax [people] and 4 vics [vehicles] needed to be supported with chow on the way to kabul, it made no mention of fuel, maint, or any other useful thing that they might need nor did it mak any mention of the 500pax that were coming back down and the 130 vics that they would be bringing with them. I was not happy. The major and I went back to speak to the ANA [Afghan National Army]  OpsO [Operations Officer] about it and they promised that there would be a new cipher. The we also got the corps guys on it so they will be tracking when it is appropriate.

On the way out they told us to let 3rd brigade know that we were coming through their ao [Area of Operations] on the way by so they could provide support. Really, guys these are your subordinates and you are standing five feet from your coc [Combat Operations Center] and they all have cell phones and so do you. You shoud call your own guys. Unis forgot his cell phone on the way out and we had to hold up the convoy to get it.

The tripswent pretty well . it was pretty fast traveling with a small convoy and on blacktop we tried to keep it going at about 40 Mph.

The only hiccups were in qandahar we got a tip from the ana [Afghan National Army] that some bad hit had one down in Qandahar the day before, so I sent a BFT [Blue Force Tracker] message back to the rear. They confirmed that there had been 7 simultaneous attacks the day prior. When we got to qandahar there was a major roadblock on the way in. Gunny, my gunner heard 1 shot of SAF [Small Arms Fire] but couldn’t PID [Positively Identify] we found out why once the army directed us around. There were two ieds that they had just found about 100m away from an engagement spot. I could tell because the army actually uses the bft and puts enemy on there as well as friendly, nice idea. They blew one in place about 150m from us and shredded the back of a little hatchback then let us through. I saw a mass of vics [Vehicles] on hwy one on the bft up ahead I asked for clarification from the army guys. They said that they were in the middle of a firefight and that commandos were clearing the building. I asked for permission and then took us one street over. The place was really reminiscence of Haiti, the small open sewers. The little bit of greenery bravely holding on to the brown soil. It was really odd to drive through there. The entire city was dead. All of the shops were closed the only people on the street were cops and military.

Once we made it out of qandahar and started to hook up the eastern side of the hindu kush things started to look a lot better. There was natural greenery. The peoples houses didn’t all look like shit. In fact with the mountains in the background it looked down right bucolic and nice.

As we moved to the edge of zabul the buildings changed we started to see some of the old ghaznavid architecture. Some of the little towns though smaller than they once were were clearly maintained much better than the stuff further south. Once we made it into qalat the buildings actually started to look decent, not like the run-down stuff in the south.

When we made it to eagle/apache the ana had a little trouble getting on, but the army 1stSgt in charge of billeting told me that they had already unpartnered one ana kandak and that the whole base we are staying on is about to be taken over by the 2/205

Maybe I am wrong. Maybe this is possible. I wonder what makes this different than helmand.

The 215th Corps Headquarters building, they lived better than the Marines, as it should.

Month 6 Day 23

Notebook Entry
Spin Gar to Geronimo met with Major Omar and Executive Officer

Journal Entry
Back from Spin Gar to Geronimo. I rode with Havoc, the Battalion Quick Reaction force. This was probably the first time that I was really scared in Afghanistan. The threat was no high or anything, but the guys drove like maniacs. Gunning the engine through every puddle. They were real assholes, not seat belts, no gunner restraints, no PPE [protective equipment], trying to splash little kids with the water, trying to scare goats out of the way. The were driving so recklessly that my pack actually bounced out of the back of the truck, over about a 5 foot tall barrier and into a huge mud puddle-cool. Then they tell me they rolled a truck a couple of weeks ago. Fucking crazy, I understand you haven’t had a very exciting deployment, but don’t get your thrills on the road. I told them to cool it down, but the guys up in front were driving so fast there wasn’t much they could do. Fuck. I made it back to Geronimo, met with Maj Omar. He is still a dumb-ass. We talked about what we talked about with the companies and platoons. He tried to come up with the excuse that he had already tried but that the company commanders wouldn’t listen to him (probably true). I said fine, and that we should go speak to the kandak XO since the CO wasn’t there. He relented. We spoke to the kandak XO. The XO was in full support (how could he not be it required almost nothing from him but an order, all of the work was done). I also told them how all the HUMINT money was stolen. He said that in Afghanistan ‘if there is a great flood, mothers will abandon their children, men will leave their wives and they will all struggle on their own.’ Basically he is saying this is now an every-man for himself society. Interesting to hear it from one of them. Maj Omar wanted Sgt Salim to come hang out but Salim said that he was afraid the Major would want to have sex with him since the Major is from Qandahar, so Salim stayed with us.