The Tough Zormat District

Zormat, the city - of sorts - is known from the earliest days of the Taliban as a safe haven for them. The town lies west of Gardez on the route to Gazni, a major trade route and a line of infiltration from Pakistan. Combat Outpost (COP) Zormat dates back to early days of Operation Enduring Freedom.

The COP sits on land that was salted by the Soviets to make it permanently infertile, part of the kind of scorched earth mentality that led them to put tens of millions of land mines in Afghanistan.

In a quirk of geography, the flat upland valley - Zormat sits around 8,000 feet - has a shallow water table. Dig down a foot and you hit water. Consequently living conditions at the COP, primitive as they are, are exacerbated by lack of drainage. Virtually every B-hut has up to a foot of standing, stagnant water under it.

We won't go into the abysmal sewage disposal and other sanitary issues. Suffice it to say that Soldiers at COP Zormat live in conditions that would be considered unacceptable by civilians in the US.

And they are, for the most part, happy to be here. The enemy is nearby and they know that they can make a contribution to the fight.

We visited the local district police station on three occasions, patrolling by foot through the streets of Zormat to the fortified station. The police chief worries that his area of responsibility - which is relatively large - is too big for the few officers he has. He has sent a list of new recruits to province headquarters but processing is slow.

With warmer weather the Taliban are coming out of hiding. Along with them, the chief is concerned about foreigners. Village elders have warned of Chechnens, Pakistanis, Saudis, and others among the population. Suicide bombers and IED specialists come from the foreigners.

The MP unit assigned to COP Zormat, 3rd Platoon, 92nd MP Company, 95th MP Battalion, led by Sergeant First Class Ronje, trains, mentors, and works with the local Afghan Police on almost a daily basis. (Pictured: SFC Ronje with the Zormat police chief)

His Soldiers teach both policing and military skills to the Afghans and over the ten months that they have been assigned here have developed strong mutual bonds with them.

 The Soldiers are doing everything possible to prepare suitable areas for them to move over to district headquarters and co-locate with the police. They are already taking steps to make the tranistion to the incoming unit smooth, so that the new arrivals can take advantage of the relationships they have developed. (Pictured: Afghan members of the Zormat police force.)


At the unit level, the progress is tangible, if still frustrating in the time it takes to develop. But this is Afghanistan, and things happen here on a very different schedule.