Headed Back Downrange

We're in the final prep stage of a return trip to Afghanistan. Usual problems getting an Afghan visa - we're still waiting on tenterhooks for FedEx delivery from the DC embassy - but otherwise just about ready to fly.

Beds in the motel in St Augustine are covered with gear, divided (not so neatly) in piles. One to carry with us, another to ship to our apartment in Spain, and a third to wait in storage here in the States. Big lesson learned from the first embed: we carried way too much stuff.

Years ago in Special Forces training I was coached: "Travel light; freeze at night." Seem to have forgotten it this past spring when we went loaded with enough gear to scale the Hindu Kush Mountains (Avery actually dragged along *two* sleeping bags and ski pants, of all things. Somehow she'd imagined possibly getting stuck at the top of the K-G Pass in a freak springtime blizzard; probably meeting some Taliban at some point wasn't an issue, although the near-impossibility of getting frostbite led to some strange excess gear). Maybe packing too light this time, but perhaps we can borrow anything we left behind.

Plus we have our combat stuff waiting in a conex at Baghdad, and that helps a lot. I'm already worn out at the thought of lugging a full ruck, an assault pack, and the body armor and helmet. Every time I have a pity-party I try to remember that Soldiers carry our minimums and add the crushing weight of ammo, water, comm gear, and assorted odds and ends to their loads. We'll carry maybe 80 to 90 pounds each just while in transit... while they routinely carry at least that every day, and often much more while in transit.

Maybe this works for the desert - my jury is still out - but it's an unimaginable load if we ever get into a fight in the tropics again. And, for the record, be advised that we have spec ops forces working in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao and teams in Colombia, among others.

The working load of a Soldier and Marine in today's environment easily exceed 80 pounds and more commonly approaches 100. In my opinion this is far too much for dismounted operations, but the tendency is to pile it on. The immutable tradeoff for protection comes from decreased mobility, not a trade I like, nor do many of the troops. But given the risk-adverse proclivity of US society we'll probably add more armor before someone finally says "enough."

Anyway, we are scheduled to arrive in Bagram Air Field out of Dubai in mid-October, stay only long enough to get our badges and arrange a down-country flight to the east where we intend to link up with the 95th MP Battalion, working as Task Force Sheriff in the tough provinces adjacent to the Pakistan border. The region across the fence is strictly Tribal areas pretty much left alone by the Pakis and a safe haven for al Qaeda and Taliban.

We have been on the road steadily since we left Afghanistan in mid-May, stopping for several pleasant weeks in New Zealand to rough out the initial draft of Warrior Police that we sent to our publisher, St Martin's Press, and is now in the hands of our editor Marc Resnick.

We promised Marc that this last embed would serve to bring the book as current as possible prior to release and so expect to spend time with the legendary 615th MP Company, that replaced the 92nd MP Company which we rode with out of Gardez. We had joined the 615th for training last December in Grafenwoer, Germany and promised to stay with them downrange, but missed their deployment by a couple of weeks. So now we're going to make good on our word.

Apologies for neglecting this blog, but we have been busy. In addition to drafting the manuscript in New Zealand, we spent two wonderful weeks at Fort Leonard Wood, MO for the MP Regiment's 69th anniversary. We met more Soldiers, got some great interviews, and enjoyed the excellent hospitality of friends on Post.

One piece of good news: Our editor, Marc, promised that the publication date for Warrior Police will be 1 Sep 2011. That means our first public launch of the book will be at the 70th MP Regiment anniversary - hooah!

More regular observations as we continue of this embed. Stay tuned.

Packing for Afghanistan -- my gear list

After an amazing and very productive summer we're just days away from jumping back off the cliff to return to Afghanistan. At least that's what it feels like! Although we've already been over there, the anticipation factor at the moment is similar to getting ready to leap off solid ground into a great unknown abyss that's always changing at the bottom of the pit. You just never know exactly who (or what) will greet you when you get there. That said, I'm personally very confident that members of the 95th MP Battalion will very quickly snag us up again for the long ride out to their new FOB (Forward Operating Base) somewhere near the Pakistani border.


The whole going back thing reminds me of that crazy song and accompanying dance of "Let's Do the Time Warp Again" out of the film classic "Rocky Horror Picture Show" -- at least in the sense that all of Afghanistan seems to be permanently stuck in another dimension based on the realities of many hundreds of years ago. Afghans don't care even a lick about such things as Brittany Spears, other celebrity news, stranded miners in Chile, currency exchange rates, baseball, DC and EU politics, or anything else that the entire Western world is actively and continually obsessed with. Theirs is a world where debating about whether the prophet Mohammad ate watermelon or not (note that eating watermelon was never mentioned in the Koran, as pointed out by a prominent imam who therefore refuses to eat it either) is a far more relevant subject to consider.


It's another world over there, and another time too.


Anyway, I'm wrapping up the critical task of packing up today, with just enough gear for a month plus a few days each for near-entry and near-exit through the nation of the United Arab Emirates. Dubai has issues of its own: it's a Muslim nation where it's best to always wear long-sleeved blouses and very modest slacks if you're female, also a place where the big electronic signs that flash warnings about holding hands or kissing in public are to be ignored only at one's own risk. 


When we finally arrive in Bagram we'll dig out the gear we stashed in a Conex there last spring, things like the required gloves and armor and helmets, although we'll have to bring everything else with us from the States.


Here's my packing list, posted here just in case that someone out there is headed in the same direction. I would have paid good money for this list earlier this year when I was completely clueless, and while I'm hardly a pro today this still  might help some fellow traveler out there in some way:


MAIN PACK (checked baggage with mostly bulky and/or heavy stuff)
Extra-large poncho liner (serves as a blanket, sheet, or sleeping pad -- depending on location)
Small light sleeping bag (mummy type, the size of a football when stuffed into its case)
Desert boots (my heavy winter socks are already stashed and waiting in Bagram)
Duct tape, electrical tape, zip lock baggies of different sizes, and discarded plastic grocery bags
Electrical adapter plug (220 to 110 converter)
Desert sand Crocs (these serve as shower and B-hut shoes)
Micro-fiber bath towel (blot dry type, hope to acquire a real towel again when I get there)
Micro-fleece pull-over sweater (a mid-layer that can be worn under an ACU top)
Micro-fleece bottoms (sleeping bottoms or can be worn under ACU pants)
Floral black long sleeve shirt (a sleeping shirt)
Black 3/4 sleeve shirt (secret underlayer that won't show under an ACU top)
Plain olive green t-shirt (regular Army issue, should be Desert Tan but the PX didn't have any that day)
Olive green 2009 MP Anniversary t-shirt (looks like regular Army issue when worn under an ACU top)
Black 2010 MP Anniversary t-shirt (another second sleeping shirt and treasured prize possession)
Plain Burgundy t-shirt (got away with wearing this last trip, also looks nice over jeans while in Europe)
Underwear and socks
Several cartons of cigarettes and an economy pack of new Bic lighters
Headlamp with red, blue, green, and white lights (subdued colored lights are required in blackout FOBs)
Striped neon yellow reflective belt as required after dark in some locations
Standard issue desert beige webbing-type pants belt
Zip lock baggie filled with standard AA and AAA batteries
Knife (worn on the front of my IOTV in case of vehicle rollover or other emergency)
Ear plugs ("ear protection" aka "ear pro" for chopper flights)
Roll-style hanging toiletry organizer with a large tube of toothpaste, sun screen, essential face goo, hair ties, deodorant, foot powder, mole skin strips, bandage strips, nail clippers, tweezers, sample-sized soaps / shampoo / conditioner


CARRY ON / 72-HOUR PACK
Laptop in a thick neoprene sleeve with charger and mouse
Down vest (to help further pad and protect laptop)
IPod and charger
Kindle (ebook reader now with over 200 books on mine) and charger
Electronic cigarette batteries (four), nicotine cartridges, and charger
Bose noise-canceling headphones with fresh AAA batteries
Sony Cyber-shot digital camera with spare battery and charger
Thumb drives with manuscript, photos, scanned passport, databases, contact lists and other essentials
Long-sleeved beige plaid blouse (proper attire for Dubai)
Beige slacks (also proper for Dubai)
701st MP black t-shirt with tiger logo (especially soft, want it with me, also serves as a sleeping shirt)
Assorted Velcro name tags and patches
Spare underwear and socks
Snacks (jerky, gummie bears, power bars, Vitamin C hard candy, tea bags and Equal sweetener)
Toiletry zip-lock baggie with tooth brush, mini-tube of tooth paste, floss, lip goo, and eye shades
Hair brush


TRAVEL GARB
Passport pouch / ID carrier
Black slacks
Burgundy long-sleeved blouse
Zip-up cardigan fleece sweater
Underwear and sock
Running shoes (doesn't match the outfit, but needed for trips to the latrine over gravel in the dark)


Hmmm. Hard to believe that just about everything on this list will be used every day. I'd like to trim down the clothing list further, but it just isn't practical to do laundry more than a couple of times a week max. Fewer clothes would mean more hours doing laundry, which isn't possible in some locations, so there's no way around taking five t-shirts instead of just two.


Maybe TSA will read this list and get bored rather than tossing the contents of my main backpack yet again!

Firefight at Precinct 2

We rode out about mid-morning to Khowst Provincial Headquarters, joined elements from Bravo Company, 151st Infantry, Indiana Army National Guard, and visited several sites, including Precinct 2, where, just two weeks earlier, Soldiers from the unit were in a TIC (troops in contact) that left two Taliban dead and several Americans wounded.

To view it at the most charitable, Precinct 2 is a work in progress. More severe critics might describe it as a pile of rubble. Somewhere between probably lies the truth. (Pictured: Afghans working to repair the remains of Precinct 2.)

Complicating matters, Captain Chris Crawford points out, are bureaucratic snarls over which Afghan government agency actually owns the land. If, for example, Ministry of Defense owns the space and another agency such as police (under Ministry of the Interior) improves the land, then fear is that MOD will simply demand that the improvements transfer over to their agency, leaving police to find a new site.

Dealing with such apparent trivialities in the middle of an active insurgency causes teeth-grinding frustration among Coalition and Afghani officials alike.

Precinct 2 is an example. Work is progressing - we were surprised to see almost 50 laborers and several machines pouring concrete footers, removing rubble, and constructing walls when we arrived unannounced. A tall stone wall now exists on one boundary of the property that was not yet built just a few weeks ago.

Existing buildings on the property are marked for demolition. One, puzzlingly, is an agency that deals with nomad issues, including the oxymoronic proposition of issuing national ID cards and other documentation to the Kochi people, who from ancient times have roamed unimpeded across these mountains and plains herding sheep, goats, and camels, and trading goods often across unrecognized national boundaries.

Somehow these issues will be resolved. Meanwhile, work proceeds to construct living barracks, operational space, and parking areas for Afghan Uniformed Police and their vehicles.

Soldiers pointed out a heavily-damaged, two-story small brick building at the edge of the property (see photo above). This was where at least two Taliban set up to ambush Soldiers when they arrived on a visit to Precinct 2. "They opened up on us when we dismounted from our MRAPs," explained 1SG Larry Sparks, pointing toward the building. "As we moved up to engage them we began to pick up small arms fire from back over there." He gestured in the direction of some residences a block or so distant.

It was not known whether these were additional enemy fighters, or ANA who may have been shooting at the small building also. Typical of urban fighting in this country, much of the time you never know who is shooting at whom.

Twice Sparks' people assaulted the building only to be driven back by a swarm of hand grenades that wounded two to three Soldiers. "At one point," Sparks said, ANA and AUP were firing RPGs at the building. "They were flying all over the place. Only a couple hit and didn't do much damage. Then we pulled out our AT-4s (a portable anti-tank weapon) and put two into the building. At that point we launched our final assault."

Two "stacks" of Soldiers entered the building. One from B/151, a second from a Cav unit that had been passing nearby and opportunistically joined the fight. According to the Soldiers, they had cleared the top floor and one Taliban was dead, another severely wounded. A Soldier who was involved recalled, "We were just inside the room when someone fired into the chest of one of the Taliban. He saw him move. Well, this guy had a suicide vest on and the shots detonated part of the vest. Blew us down the stairs and caused a couple of more people to get wounded. Fortunately only part of the vest exploded and nobody was killed."

The TIC at Precinct 2 is typical of what fighting in Afghanistan has become. Small groups of Taliban infiltrating urban areas and making a stand in a local strong point. TICs last for hours primarily because of restraints placed upon commanders regarding use of weapons. They are prohibited from employing the heavy weapons that would rapidly degrade an enemy strong point because of the possibility - regardless of how remote - of property damage or civilian casualties.

America is now in the position that official policy has come to accept friendly losses rather than risk harming an Afghani civilian. It is a philosophy that brings into question the validity of the entire counter-insurgency strategy.

Also dominating Coalition actions is the notion that in every instance Afghani forces must be given leadership – at least a chance to exercise the opportunity to take the lead - even if it means risking lives. We saw instances of this in Paktia and Khowst Provinces and have heard reports from other areas affirming the strategy.

Is the game worth the candle? While the strategy may be sensible from the viewpoint in distant Kabul, Washington, or Brussels, it weighs heavily on the Soldiers who are called upon ultimately to do the door-kicking and risk their lives for a theory.

Combat Awards In Khowst Province

From the ramparts of the police station in Matun city, a few minutes drive outside of Forward Operating Base Salerno, in Khowst Provice, you can see the beginning of the famous Khowst-Gardez Pass. Looking westward in early evening with a setting sun and storm clouds gathering over the 14,000 foot peaks, it is an impressive sight indeed.

Since we had come eastward part-way through the K-G Pass a week or so ago viewing it from this angle was especially interesting. It was easy to let imagination take hold and wonder about the narrow, winding roads, steep dropoffs, wandering bands of nomads, and waiting hostile Taliban fighters who inhabited the Pass.

Avery and I flew out of FOB Lightning - for the final time on this embed - at about 0630 on a contract air chopper. These helicopters are the workhorses of Afghanistan. Large, forest green Russian birds with foreign crews who make daily runs between FOBs and isolated combat outposts, moving people and light cargo to and fro. We were loaded with rucksacks - we needed to fly bag-and-baggage for this one - along with standard IOTV body armor and ACH helmets.

Lightning to Salerno took about 20 minutes, liftoff to landing. I mused about the ease of flight compared to the bone-jarring ride of almost four hours in MRAPs that took us previously to the police station at Waza Zadran, only a third of the way through the pass. By now most of the snow has melted even in the highest peaks, with only isolated patches left in deep, shady crevasses remaining to remind of how bitterly cold these mountain tops can be.

The COP outside Salerno is located adjacent to an Afghan Uniformed Police headquarters and an Afghan National Army outpost. The ANA are headquartered inside an old British-made fort (see photo above) - probably late 19th century construction although it's difficult to know for certain. We're told by Captain Chris Crawford, commander of Bravo Company, 151st Infantry out of the Indiana Army National Guard, that two more forts exist down in the city itself, and that we will visit them tomorrow.

The COP, also known as KPHQ (Khowst Province Headquarters) is home to a joint tactical operations center - manned by a combination of Coalition forces, ANA, and AUP staff. There they share intelligence, plan combined operations, and monitor activities in the province. It is a busy station. Khowst Province borders the Pakistan border and just across those mountains to the east lay Waziristan and the Free Tribal Districts of Pakistan, long a sanctuary and breeding ground for al Qaeda and the Taliban.

"We have identified more than 300 access points - from major roads to goat trails - crossing the border," we are told by one of B/151's TOC non-commissioned officers. "It is possible to interdict some with traffic check points, and we're doing that fairly well, but there's no way we can monitor them all." So despite combined attention to the problem, some - perhaps many - leakers are going to get through.

American Border Patrol agents would understand of the problem all too well.

Bravo Company is unusual in several ways. Coming from the Indiana Guard, many of these Soldiers have been together in the unit for several years. Unlike the Regular Army, rotation is minimal. In more than a few instances families are part of the unit. One sergeant has three of his step-sons in the unit with him. A set of brothers profiled for a photo opportunity by the public affairs photographer who has accompanied this visit from 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), based at Salerno, commanded by Colonel Viet Luong.

Colonel Luong is also the "landowner" or battle-space owner, in military parlance, and so CPT Crawford reports to him, as he does to LTC Duane Miller, commander of the 95th MP Battalion, who is also visiting. One thing we quickly discovered in theater is that everyone seems to have multiple bosses, adding an element of confusion even to those who purport to understand the complex chains of command.

COL Miller along with Command Sergeant Major Henry Stearns are here for several reasons. The surface motivation for the visit is an awards ceremony. Many of B/151's Soldiers have been recommended for decorations including Combat Infantryman's Badges, as well as Combat Action Badges (for non-Infantrymen) and a Combat Medic's Badge. Some of these awards were pending for quite some time and both 95th Battalion leaders are a bit irritated that the "system" somehow delayed presentation.

"We're gonna take care of that today!" CSM Stearns emphasized, adding some choice expletives about unnecessary delays in paperwork.

Also making B/151 somewhat unique is that they are running essentially a police advisory, training, and mentoring mission, hence the reporting chain up through the 95th MP Battalion. Why is an Infantry unit tagged for this? Simply because the US Army is short of MPs, so others have to pick up the slack.

With General Stanley McCrystal's emphasis on counter-insurgency and building a law-and-order environment, emphasis has slowly shifted from building the ANA - a process now four years in the undertaking - to building the AUP, something only a few months old. Remarkably, B/151 has accepted the mission with alacrity and done well with it.

"One reason we are able to pull this off," Bravo Company First Sergeant Sparks told us, "is that we bring a lot of civilian skill sets to the table, being National Guard. One of our platoon sergeants, for example, is an Indiana State Trooper." Others have experience in civilian law enforcement, and that adds to the capability. (Pictured: Captain Crawford, left and First Sergeant Sparks, right with me in the middle.)

Morale in B/151 is high. The unit has been involved in several combat actions, and while suffing some wounded, has not lost a Soldier despite some fairly intense fighting. They are nearing the end of their tour and are proud of their accomplishments.

"When we took this site over," Crawford explained on a tour, "only the stone building and one B-hut were here." Since that time, his Soldiers have constructed several comfortable plywood and lumber housing units, brought in shower and latrine facilities, and build a mess hall. The unit has organic cooks assigned and prepares all food on site.

Assembled for the award ceremony (see photo above), the Soldiers stood tall and received their combat badges - and the traditional pounding on the chest - with grins. Afterwards the mess sergeant had prepared a special celebratory meal that included prime rib and some of the largest baked potatoes anyone had seen.

Stearns gave a coin for excellence to the cook following the meal. It was a nice touch, recognizing someone who works hard and rarely gets formally thanked.

Tomorrow the Soldiers of B/151 will strap on body armor and pick up weapons for yet another patrol. But this evening they are able to relax and enjoy the ambience of the moment.

HIIDE & Seek

Ever wonder what the world would be like without having a birth certificate, social security number, a drivers license or some other form of identification -- a world without any identification databases at all? 

That's Afghanistan today, with very few exceptions. Unless you work for the government, or have been recently arrested (yikes!), chances are that there's no formal record of your existence at all. Think about it: without databases, there is no way to prove that you are who you say you are, no proof of where you live, no standardized records of what you own or who your family is.

This can be a real problem for individuals who are living in a country where terrorists purposely conceal themselves within the larger population. Meanwhile, there's an active ongoing search going on to locate those who plant improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the roads, would-be suicide bombers, arms traffickers, home made explosive (HME) cooks, and other bad characters who are hell-bent on killing in the name of beliefs, affiliations, or for some quick cash. (Photo at the left: a picture that I took while tagging along when Afghan police and US Army MPs were preparing to enter and search a typical qalat -- or private compound -- one morning not too long ago.)

It can be pretty scary to have a bunch of cops and foreign military forces knock on your door when you realize that they really don't know who you are, and what you may know or don't know. On the one side you're happy that they're there providing security and actively looking for the bad guys who are in fact known to work out of your very own neighborhood On the other hand, you also know that some security personnel are also threatened on a regular basis and they have very real reasons to be worried for themselves and their own families too. Some of them even cover their faces since they often have no idea who's a terrorist and who's not, or exactly who's looking at them with bad intentions, when they patrol and search through neighborhoods. For these reasons you understand and don't want to make them nervous, and just want to go on record as a good person who belongs while everything is A-OK.  (Pictured: a masked Afghan security officer walking past a handmade mud-constructed animal shelter inside a residential qalat, as a chicken looks on. For additional insight take a look at Gordon's short article "Who is that Masked Man?" here).

Next thing you know, one of the US Army Military Police (MP) soldiers accompanying your local cops whips out this weird little box and invites you to open your eyes wide for a teenie little camera inside. Pass your fingers over the touch-pad on top and viola, your prints will be entered into a database that can record and prove who you are and where you belong at long last -- a real benefit from the perspective of many Afghans villagers.


The little box that some MPs carry is called a HIIDE system, short for a "Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment" system. It scans your fingerprints and the retinas of your eyes to create an identity record for you, and is used in conjunction with interviews to help you describe yourself, where you belong, and what you're really about. In effect, instead of going to the DMV (which doesn't exist), the DMV comes to you. 


Most Afghan villagers who I've seen "getting HIIDE'd" were anything but intimidated by the process. This is undoubtedly because they knew that being entered into the system doesn't mean you're suspected of wrongdoing at all -- that the goal (reachable or not) is to eventually add all Afghans into a database that will help to identify the innocent as well as those guilty of horrible crimes. No discrimination, just sheer necessity in a land plagued by violence. 


Sadly, one soldier privately told me that one villager had once asked if having such a record made could help verify his remains someday if something bad were ever to happen to him... as what happened to a neighbor of his (unsaid but presumably referring to some kind of mass casualty situation). It makes you think hard, about a world without any identification databases and the various pros and cons to that thought.

Pictured above: a few of the many interesting people who were included during a HIIDE session. The goal (acheivable or not) is to eventually add everyone into an identifying database to help sort out who's who in a country that's still plagued by terrorism.

Convoy Ops Through the K-G Pass

On 21 April we joined a joint convoy of US Military Police and Afghan Uniformed Police on a three-hour, 38 kilometer trip in and out of the famous Khowst-Gardez Pass. The pass transverses part of the White Mountains and links two key eastern provinces. (Pictured: a member of our convoy, Specialist Lovenburg, in the K-G Pass.)

It is a trecherous road in places, closed by frequent landslides and unstable, narrow roadbeds. Despite the climb - it rises to almost 10,000 feet at the top - it is a major route for goods entering the country from Pakistan, exports, and inter-province trade in food products, firewood, and people.

Most goods are moved by "jingle trucks" - colorfully decorated, dilapidated vehicles that haul enormous loads across the pass. With bald tires and problematic mechanical condition, one wonders how they make it at all. (Pictured: one of the many jingle trucks that squeezed past our MRAP on the unpaved and extremely narrow mountain road.)

While slowly creeping along a narrow roadway with a steep cliff on one side and a thousand-foot drop into a mountain river on the other, frequent caravans of Kochi nomads pass casually along, tending herds of sheep and goats, hustling loaded donkeys, or steering camels with children and livestock too small to make the walk tied securely to their packs. Little boys ride the top of the hump in colorful garb.

The mission was to accompany AUP leadership to major sites along the pass, including Waza Zadran and Shwak, two large police encampments, and two smaller, permanent traffic check points.

Along the way we also made a brief stop at Combat Outpost Wilderness, a Coalition base camp where elements of the 92nd MP Company keep a permanant presence.

LTC Duane Miller, commander of the 95th MP Battalion, and his Command Sergeant Major Henry Stearns were along for the trip, accompanying Afghan Police General Farar on the inspection.

The convoy of several MRAP armored vehicles was joined in Gardez by a handful of hunter green AUP Ford Ranger trucks, all with RPK machine guns mounted in the bed. Since Taliban presence in the pass is a given, everyone was on the alert. The necessity of takng the same route out as into the pass - there is no alternative road - increased the danger of IED or ambush.

The AUP general is a pro-active leader. He questioned subordinates about missions, care and feeding of soldiers, and maintenance of grounds and vehicles.

At the two major stations he did not see or hear what was up to his standards and promptly relieved the commanders, instructing them to turn over their stations to the men he was sending to replace them. (Pictured: Afghan soldiers standing by while listening to the General first chew out and then dismiss their supervising officer.)

Colonel Miller and CSM Stearns have high regard for the general and support his actions. This convoy was the first time that both US and AUP forces have engaged in a joint operation of this type. "We're going to do a lot more of this kind of thing," Miller said, obviously pleased with the results.

Unlike units such as Special Forces that have much more aggressive operational tempo, Military Police operate on the need to have AUP forces take the lead and the initiative.

"Until they realize how effective these kinds of operations are and develop the confidence to do them on their own, they will always depend on us. We are doing everything we can to encourage their confidence and independence," Miller said.

There are some heart-stopping moments in transiting the K-G Pass, even without someone shooting at you. The views, while occasionally terrifying, are stunning.

A universal comment from Soldiers and writers alike was that "this is what we expected to see when we came to Afghanistan." (Pictured: US Soldiers and their Afghan counterparts inspecting a lookout bunker far above the main Waza Zadran facility.)

Soaring peaks, rising toward the east and north eventually become the Himalayas. In the near distance, the Pakistan border sits, generally ignored by the Pashtu tribesmen who occupy both sides.

Now that spring is in the air, the valleys are greening up splendidly, making the terrain softer and more visually appealing than the stark desolation of the tail end of winter.

Fast-moving water flows through the steep valleys and draws; small, hand-tilled fields are sprouting, and new lambs and kids play on the mountain sides.

This idlyic picture is darkened by the harsh realities of life for an Afghan peasant: farming at the survival level and fearful of roaming Taliban who impose taxes, take young boys, and threaten the lives of any who cooperate with the government.

By extending rule of law through Afghan resources - the Army and Police primarily - the MPs and the Coalition intend to make life more peaceful and relatively prosperous for ordinary people. (Pictured: an Afghan guard mans a roadside checkpoint.)

It is a laudable goal in a land that has rarely known such security.

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.

Cruising the Streets of Zormat

After nearly a week without internet access we're finally back in FOB Lightning and able to post some pictures from our stay in Zormat, where we walked through the streets with the MPs from the 92nd.

Many will remember that way back in December 2001, immediately following the infamous Battle of Tora Bora, Bin Laden and many of his Al Qaeda buddies escaped US forces using two different routes: one over the mountains into Pakistan, and the other south into the areas of Gardez (where we are now) as well as the little nearby village of Zormat.

The Taliban also have a significant presence there to this day, and as we walked through the streets with our military escorts we wondered who they were among the hundreds of people we saw there. Here's just a little of what we saw while walking alongside our military escorts:

The villagers are already used to seeing US soldiers in their neighborhood, and most of them seem to appreciate our presence there. Suicide bombers are a constant threat, so this is hardly surprising. Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are also a very serious ongoing problem for local civilians, Afghan law enforcement and security personnel, and NATO forces; we saw several civilian vehicles that had been destroyed by IEDs, including this one that's now home for this sleepy stray dog:

Back on the street the many shop keepers and street vendors are always eager to sell you their wares, and are in fact fairly aggressive salesmen, although MPs can rarely take the time to stop to buy anything:

Over several days I only saw a few women in Zormat, and all of them were escorted by male members of the family. If you look carefully at this photo you'll notice the little child glancing at the MPs while zooming past my camera with his parents on a motorcycle:

At any rate, everybody in the village knows that the MPs are on their way to train and otherwise work with the Afghan police just beyond this same street, and that their long-term security rests with the the local police. Gordon will be writing a bit about the police training program in Zormat in the next couple of days, so stay tuned for more!

AJ quick note: different weapons, yup

Hello all, some more random thoughts pictures that don't quite fit with our other blog entries...

Gordon and I have finally been getting out on missions this past week, and while tagging along on guard detail during a Afghan ceremony in Gardez I saw this guard with an RPG standing watch on a wall:

He didn't speak English but I was able to ask him to stand with me wearing my new hat (a floppy "boony" hat) for a photo anyway. Well, as soon as we came to that agreement using sign language, another Afghan officer came running up wanting to be in the picture. Unfortunately, when the third Afghan security man insisted on joining in, the second started getting his hackles up -- so Gordon took the shot in a hurry and we left them behind to sort out whatever differences without me being stuck in the middle.

At any rate, it is a bit strange seeing Afghan security forces carrying around AKs and RPGs so casually, not exactly approved weapons for the US military personnel responsible for training them. It's an interesting situation that leads to show-and-tell moments for both sides (the man shown here in the blue shirt is a "terp" -- short for interpreter -- who arrived to translate for the occasion):

I'll be posting more photos soon, meanwhile, take a look at Gordon's latest post on our trip to Forward Operating Base Chamkani!

Into the Hindu Kush Mountains

We made the four-hour convoy run from FOB Gardez to FOB Chamkani, located in the mountains only 8 kilometers from the Pakistan border, for an overnight visit (photo: homes on a steep hill alongside our travel route, as taken from behind the bullet proof window of an MRAP). The road up is exceedingly rough in spots - at one point it actually follow the bed of a fast-running mountain river for about a quarter mile.

Soldiers from 3rd Platoon, 92nd MP Company say it has been improved over the past year and we passed considerable construction work on route. We also noted that most of the villages had what appeared to be a standard deep well for community use. One of the interpreters, "Bill," said that USAID was responsible for the clean water project.

Chamkani is a town of about 30,000 or so and is deep in Indian country. "See that road?" a sergeant pointed to a winding path leading south. "Right past there is all Taliban. We get into a fight every time we go there. The Special Forces work that area all the time."

Soldiers at the FOB have a bit of improved living conditions compared to what they endured for several months. It used to be "showers" done by having a buddy pour cold bottles of water over your head, chow strictly MREs, and tent living. Over the months they have installed hot and cold running (sometimes) water, have hot food of sorts prepared at the neighboring Special Forces compound, and have constructed the ubiquitous B-huts that dot bases in Afghanistan.

Scenery-wise it is a million-dollar view, with sharp mountains rising on all sides and parallel ridgelines disappearing in the east into Pakistan's troubled tribal area (photo: Chamkani living quarters threatening to slide off the mountain above the parking lot, with the village in the valley below). Ultimately these mountains peak in Nepal with Everest and K-2.

Along the route we saw many of the nomadic Kochui people leading camels, herds of sheep and goats (mostly black lambs), donkeys, and horses.

These people follow the seasons and stay near water, so the low passes are ideal for them at this time of year. They decorate their animals with gaudy colors and pitch tents in community groups for temporary rest stops. (The photo shown here was also taken through bullet proof glass from a moving vehicle, therefore quality suffered a bit).

However, all is not calm here. Along the way we passed a patrol from the MPs based at the FOB who were engaged in a firefight with Taliban. They were accompanying Afghan security forces who had been fired on from ambush.

Chamkani was the scene of a fierce fight in the early days of the war when it was strictly a Special Forces compound. Now that MPs are there, the organic firepower they bring to the fight is an incentive for the Taliban to keep distant.

As we post this, we are back at Gardez preparing for an afternoon mission. Soon we will be at other FOBs and will be reporting on what we see and learn.