Twilight Zone Living (for fun and profit)

Our Crumbling Country

2011-11-23T09:04:00.000+04:30

It looks like the Super Committee is about to tank. Why? The biggest sticking point seems to be the inability for Republicans to agree to reasonable tax increases. You may believe that increasing taxes in a deep recession is a bad thing… for the middle and lower classes you would be correct. For the top 1% you would be completely wrong. Households earning more than $250K are not the engines of job growth you have been led to believe. Trickle down economics is a sham, just ask the architect, David Stockman! Want to create jobs? The only method is to strengthen the economy. More demand = more jobs. Demand comes from lots of people buying consumer goods, not from a privileged few buying derivatives. What’s more governments need to deficit spend in times of recession to hasten economic recovery.

The time to reduce deficits is once the economy begins to recover and tax revenues rebound with it. We had that chance back when “w” took office. He chose to give away our surpluses to the wealthiest Americans rather than cut the deficit. This was done as a reward for a job well done (getting him elected). Then we became embroiled in two wars and “w” argued the tax cuts were fundamental to our economy. No logic or science was used to back these claims but the Republicans pushed them nonetheless.

Now we sit here with a shattered economy. A large number of Tea Baggers won office on the promise of doing things better, at tossing out the old bloated model of government. Are they being effective? That depends on your measure of effectiveness. If complete congressional deadlock, the slow disintegration of the government and of our countries infrastructure are good things then yes, they have been effective.

We live in a country where the super rich continue to grow richer as the rest of us watch our children’s prospect for the American Dream slowly crumble away. Corporations now have complete free speech rights but not the right to go to jail when they rob, maim or kill. A significant number of us claim not to be part of the 99% despite the fact that they earn far less than $250K… face it suckers, math doesn’t lie! If you earn less than $250K then you are not in the top 1%, accept the fact and move on!

Want change? Really? Do you give a damn about your fellow man? If not you had better begin because we all have to start caring about one another if we are to survive this mess. Here are a few starter ideas:
• Dismantle the Department of Homeland Security. It’s extremely costly and adds nothing toward security.
• Tie congressional health care to Medicare. If they are willing to give us the “cure” they had damn well be willing to take it themselves as well!
• Remove the right of the congress to set their own salary! Make congressional salaries, and the president’s salary subject to a national vote.
• Give corporations a choice, they can have full and complete free speech rights but have to accept the full scope of the law or they can have limited liability, not both. Let’s illustrate it this way. Enron illegally manipulated the market and stole millions of dollars. Rather than trying Kenneth Lay, try the entire company and its investors (the investors are the owners). If they stole the money jail every last one of them, all the way down to the janitor! If the corporation breaks the law, and the corporation is made up of its people and investors, then shouldn’t all of those people collectively be deemed to have broken the law? Think that won’t correct corporate greed and malfeasance?
• I don’t recall anything in the constitution that guarantees the right of anonymity with free public speech. If you want to speak in public (via ads, lobbying, etc.) you should be required to do so publicly. Our government is supposed to be operated in public so why do we allow anonymous ads aimed to sway public opinion and government action?
• Want a strong military? Quit throwing cash at the most high tech solution available. Most of our troubles in Iraq and Afghanistan had to do with too few soldiers on the ground. Do you believe manpower costs are the biggest expense in the military, think again. Our military has learned the fine art of creative accounting. Time to beef up the ranks as well as increase financial transparency. Need a more concrete example? Look up the Littoral Combat Ship, that should convince you!
• For all you “free enterprise, private industry is more effective than government” types out there. Please show me a study that proves government waste is, by necessity, higher than private firm profit margins. I agree that much government is inefficient BUT why completely turn your back on government rather than work to fix it? If you privatize ALL government you effectively create corporate anarchy. Everything becomes a matter of profit and dollars. You want a service, you pay. Need the military, the police, medical help, disaster relief, roads, airports, you had better be willing to pay whatever the market will bear. Want efficient government don’t privatize it take part in it! Vote, attend city counsel meetings, demand transparency, demand accountability, stop being so damn civically lazy!

Cherry Blossoms and Empires

2011-04-13T06:17:00.001+04:30

The cherry blossoms are in full bloom. The weather has warmed up. The grass is beginning to turn green. Today we had a huge thunderstorm. Spring has arrived to the Kanto Plain. It seems fitting that, with the change from winter to spring, the Joint Support Force for Operation Tomodachi begins to draw down. Many personnel have departed already. The main focus of operations is now transition. Not a simple return to the USFJ structure pre-quake, instead a slightly beefed up HQ will remain. The need remains for better consequence management for US bases here on Honshu.

We have done some good work here both is providing humanitarian assistance as well as assisting the government of Japan with options for managing the disaster at Fukushima. Having lived in Japan for a number of years I was more than happy to jump into this fray. But… still having such a large force in Japan so long after 1945 is a bit disconcerting. It is yet more proof that the US is an empire. During the operation, personnel had to be reminded repeatedly to remove the word “Foreign” from “Foreign Humanitarian Assistance” in briefings. The correct term was to be simply “Humanitarian Assistance”. After all, we are the foreigners here, we should not be briefing the Japanese, stating we are providing Foreign Humanitarian Assistance. Walking the halls of USFJ I have glanced numerous times at the paintings that line the walls. They are like the paintings in any military HQ. Tonight though, it struck me how bizarre it must be for the Japanese SDF Officers walking these halls. We are in Japan and lining our walls are paintings of Navy Wildcat fighters scrambling on Saipan to attack the Japanese as well as Naval engagements from the Pacific war. I suddenly wondered how the Japanese must feel seeing paintings of their defeat on proud display in their own country. Only an empire would have the balls to pull that.

Random Thoughts about Japan during Operation Tomodachi

2011-04-09T18:16:00.007+04:30

And my food for today you ask? Yesterday on my way back to base after practicing Tai Chi by the river I stopped by a bread shop and picked up a blueberry pastry and then headed over to Seiju Dept Store. Like most large Japanese Dept stores the
first floor is a grocery store. I picked out a ramen sandwich, a small serving of sticky rice topped with salmon and black sesame, a bowl of siamen noodles and a pack of Mochi pastries. I am about the only one here than brings my own lunch. I also brought a liter of water a Georgia MAX Coffee (can of coffee made by Coke) and a Japanese energy drink: Oronami C Drink. This is pretty typical. I figure since I’m over here I should eat off the economy as much as possible. It beats eating mid-rats at the galley. I can only eat so many ham and cheese omelets, chicken cordon blue and canned/frozen carrots, Brussels sprouts, squash, etc. About the only
really stellar food at the galley is the soft serve ice cream, or as one of my friends refers to it… auto dog.
Just before I finished my watch yesterday I was having a conversation with toe people on the oncoming watch. One is a LtCOL that is part of the full time USFJ staff. He is one of the people who was scrambling to react to the emergency from day 1 and attempting how to organize all the augmentees before JTF 519 showed up two weeks later. Talking to him I realized all my frustration with JTF 519 should be set aside. My real focus needs to be on USFJ and providing them feedback necessary to move ahead of this as an organization. I have seen how the JTF works in crisis and am not impressed. USFJ on the other hand has done amazingly well considering their significant limitations. So for my last week here that will be my focus.
Just had another earthquake (I wrote that a few days ago). It didn’t shake much. I was looking at my computer screen and it seemed as if my vision were a bit off. Then I realized it was a small tremor…at least small here at Yokota. Well it turns out the “little” quake was a 7.4 off Sendai! Luckily it was 40 km deep so hopefully it won’t cause another submarine landslide and tsunami. Well it’s been a half hour and no tsunami so we’re good! Peoples reaction to this post on FB has been amusing. Some are amazed that a 7.4 could be considered an aftershock or can’t understand my understated reaction. Seriously though it was no big deal way down here in Yokota. The shaking was nominal. 40 Km deep is really very deep. My personal worry is for Alaska and California. We’ve had multiple quakes around the edges of the Pacific plate (Chili, New Zealand, Baja California, Japan and major volcanic developments on Hawaii. It’s clear the plate is making some major movements. Who knows where it will settle out?
More Random Thoughts…

• After my visit to Kamakura I realize just how provincial Fussa is... Too bad.
• When did it become fashionable for Japanese girls to wear incredibly short shorts with stockings in the winter? Isn’t that cold?
• I am amazed how isolated Americans willingly keep themselves when in foreign lands. I was speaking with a Colonel yesterday and mentioned I didn’t want to move to the other side of the base because it’s too far from the main gate. She then asked almost incredulously if I had been off post. WTF? Don’t these people know too much time on post leads to insanity? The really sad part is how common it is for the military to remain voluntarily cooped up on bases.
• Walking around Shinto shrines from the Middle Ages while listening to NIN and Primus is a very surreal experience.

• Japanese are fun people to party with. They have a great since of humor and are quite generous.
• Mr. Donut still makes the most amazing buttermilk old fashioned chocolate dipped donuts on the planet!! They melt in your mouth and are just sweet enough without being sickly. I’ll take one of these over anything Crispy Cream can produce any day!!

• For a people living in very dense towns the Japanese are amazingly well integrated into nature. Community gardens abound, nature trails abound, I am quite content here.

Kamakura, Thank You

2011-04-06T05:31:00.006+04:30

Humanity accidentally crept into the operational rhythm here this week. We have been granted a one shift break, possibly our only break. They staggered the days off to minimize the impact and based it on the last time we had a day off. For me it was 6 March, so after working for 27 days, much of it 13+ hour shifts, I had a free day. Now when you are on night shift a free day is an odd bit of time to work with. I figured I could spend a night partying in Tokyo or head down to Kamakura to visit an old shipmate from the USS St Louis. I chose the latter. So after my shift Sunday morning I slept for four hours then got up and headed to the train station.

Kamakura is not all that far from Yokota but with three train changes it still takes more than two hours to get there. Arriving early afternoon with several hours before I was going to meet up with Bill I wandered around a few of the temples and shrines I hadn’t visited in 15 years. Then I found a long hiking trail and took a peaceful walk through the woods. Japan is covered with these trails. Most lead to small shrines at mountain tops. It was a wonderful hike with only a small number of others on the trail. When I finally finished it was time to head to the beach and a liquor store where I was to meet Bill. I found it easily enough and when I approached a Japanese woman met me and excitedly told me Bill was in the back cooking (near as I can tell anyway since I don’t speak Japanese). It was nice seeing an old friend after so long. We eventually headed to the store where several friends were drinking and talking. Apparently they’ve been doing this for years and refused to let the rolling blackouts interfere, good on them!

It’s interesting being thrown into a conversation where very little is being said in English. It certainly helped me to begin remembering what little Japanese I once knew. The really nice thing about being there was hearing how much the Japanese people appreciate all the US Military has done to assist with this catastrophe. As much as I have issues with the way this HQ is being organized and run we really have done a great deal to avert suffering... well perhaps not the HQ but the military in general certainly has.

I spent the night at Bill’s and in the morning I borrowed his beach cruiser and randomly rode around town. For lunch we met back up and ate the best sushi I’ve had since I left Japan back in ’97. Then we had coffee in a local shop and ran into a city council member who also expressed his gratitude. I finally started back around 2:30 and made it just in time for my shift.

That little foray down to Kamakura made all the 13 hour shifts worthwhile. I’m glad I went that route rather than a drunken night in Ropongi or Shibuya. Still… if I have more time off before I depart… I’m thinking Shibuya.

Expat Memories

2011-03-31T03:58:00.004+04:30

Yesterday I finally found something I was afraid I’d lost. I rediscovered Japan in a sense. I had about two hours between work and bedtime (10:00 AM). I decided to walk to the river. So I left the base and followed the road past the main train station. It’s interesting seeing how Japanese towns are put together. Lots of small two story houses packed closely together, narrow roads without sidewalks, frequent breaks in the clutter for small community gardens. When I arrived at the river I found there was a small park above the bank with walking trails running both directions. There were only a few old men in the park, some stretching, others chatting with one another. I took the opportunity to practice Tai Chi Chuan. That always relaxes me and generally puts me in a good mood. Tai Chi next to a river is even better.
After exercising I walked along one of the trails for perhaps a mile or two before deciding to head back toward base. On the way I began to rediscover memories. I love the way community gardens are interspersed among the ad-hoc urban sprawl. I wandered into a Buddhist shrine and took some photos. Stores I had forgotten like Sega World, Mos Burgers (home of the awesome yakiniku rice burger) and The Italian Tomato. As I walked and explored I had the feeling of coming home. I was not seeing things as a Giajin, I was seeing the familiar. As much as I stand out among the Japanese I still feel at ease here, at home. I also noticed when off base I automatically bow more and am more polite. Funny how quickly that returns.
So I continue to plug away on the night shift… the 14 hour night shift… but now I know what I need to do in my few free hours away from this office. I need to rediscover my one time home.

Circadian Rhythms

2011-03-28T04:24:00.002+04:30

As I lay in my cot this morning I found myself wondering about the hours I’m working and how my body responds to it. Now mind you this morning was 4:30 PM as I woke to get ready for the night shift and a 14 hour day. I’ve not managed more than 6 hours sleep any night since I left the states. As I think back that is about the best I did when shipboard as well. It struck me that when I am working at my civilian job I need at least 7 hours to focus at work. This baffles me a bit. This job is much longer and more stressful than my other job. Why do I require less sleep? In fact why or how was I able to switch gears to nights without missing a beat? Odd.
The focus here at Op Tomodachi HQ is shifting, finally. What we all recognized at the working level is finally being voiced at the flag level… well at least an aspect of it is. The HA/DR mission here is evaporating as the Government of Japan has increased ability to distribute aid. We are still in the thick of it for the remediation of nuclear disaster though. So, what do you do with a growing organization when the main focus of your efforts begins to melt away like so many spent fuel rods. Well you invent a mission of course! We are beginning to focus on plans for worst case scenarios. Now, before you go off the deep end, please remember worst case by definition is a VERY unlikely event. It assumes all hell breaks loose. If we get asked tomorrow what contingency plans we have for the arrival of Godzilla it wouldn’t surprise me at all. What we are considering is, if some of the reactors go into full melt mode and spew nasty little isotopes, and the wind shifts and blows out of the N.E. for days what will we do about all the military personnel stationed on the Kanto Plain. This is probably useful from a planning standpoint but from experience we have never funded a worst case scenario plan. It’s rather like stocking you very own bomb shelter with enough food to outlast a Dr Strangelove scenario… interesting academic exercise but no, not gonna throw cold hard cash at that!

Not sure where this leaves me and my peers wondering about the end of this operation. It seems to me to be something of a “make work” plan to keep us gainfully employed while they decide when it is politically acceptable to admit that the Japanese don’t need us as much as we’d like to think they do. In the mean time I’ll continue plugging away in this zone where days loose shape and sleep seems unimportant.

My First Japanese Car

2011-03-27T04:26:00.004+04:30

Another day in paradise... I took a walk after work yesterday. I made
my way out into the town outside Yokota. There wasn't much time.
Working 14 hour days doesn't leave you much free time. So I was off on
an unsuccessful quest for a Mos Burger. It was interesting wandering
back through Japanese neighborhoods after 14 years away. The thunk of
concrete tiles over the benjo ditches was a familiar sound as I strolled
along. This urban sprawl is quite different from Sasebo but still the
houses were familiar. They are all quite compact, looking almost
plastic. As I walked along I realized I knew what they looked like
inside as well. I wondered why I didn't feel more deeply connected.
Perhaps because the town is so different here. It's flat, not hilly.
No bays delineating it. It's a rather boring area in fact. Rather like
most Air Force bases in fact. Then I strode past an auto repair shop
and had to stop. There was a Diahatsu Minica parked inside. It looked
just like my first car in Japan back in 1986. I had to snap a photo,
which if anyone noticed would have seemed like a tourist snapping a shot
of a '78 Pinto I imagine. I wish I had the chance to wander around at
night and hit some bars. It would be interesting to see how many I'd be
booted politely out of for being gaijin.

Now I'm back in the J4 shop. I have no idea what my title is tonight.
It seems to change daily. I'm surprised how easily the shift to nights
has been. Tonight I am tasked with finding out inventory numbers on
dosimeters as related goodies. In military parlance I've been flicked
that booger. The challenge is that not everyone has 24 hour coverage
and frequently it is impossible to get good data on the night shift.
This has really been a learning experience for me. So, I sit here
running tasks to ground and wondering when the senior staff will
recognize their true temporary nature. I think they will milk this as
long as they can politically. It's rather sad.
The US Military has
done some wonderful things here and continues to. But we continue
trying to build this large and cumbersome command for an operation that
is winding down in scope. Still, we have delivered a significant amount
of HA/DR goods, cleared debris from the Sendai and Fukushima airports,
run search and rescue missions, surveyed the afloat debris field and and
are still clearing harbors of debris, all great and wonderful things.

Dinner for Breakfast

2011-03-26T05:30:00.001+04:30

The only constant here at JSFJ (Joint Support Force Japan) is change. I
arrived thinking I'd be the Fuels Officer. That never materialized.
Instead I was instructed to improve (fix) communication between USFJ (US
Forces Japan) and C7F (US Navy 7th Fleet). That was not too difficult.
Got good communication channels open and wondered what my job was. I
was next told I was the JFMCC LNO - basically the Liaison Officer at
USFJ representing the fleet. That lasted for a day or two... bear with
me on this days just melt together when you're working 14+ hour shifts.
Anyway I arrived this morning at 06:30 and just before 10:00 was told to
go get some sleep. I am now the head of the Sustainment Cell on nights
in the J4 shop. Wow, I actually have some people working for me now.
Still no one to explain what exactly is expected though.

So the posturing and reorganizing continue as two commands try to merge
on the fly with a rapidly evolving HA/DR effort.

The navy folks I have been working with stand out. I've noticed we are
the only ones around here routinely laughing. It's not that we consider
this petty or worse, don't understand the gravity of it. I think it's
just because we are sailors, it is normal for us to make light of
serious situations.

This entire operation is a grand learning experience for me. The
politics are annoying. But, the dynamic of the evolving organization is
fascinating... knowing our mission is short lived while we evolve as if
it is for the long haul is a strange thing to watch. One of the Naval
Officers I have been hanging out observed that when we (the Navy) went
to OIF and OEF (Iraq/Afghanistan) we were not in a joint environment, we
were in an Army environment. This is a true joint environment. I think
the flags immediately above we are an Air Force one star and Navy one
star. I haven't seen a good org chart so I really can't explain it for
certain. Still, this is kind of weird. It is causing me to think hard
about my recall to the AF/PAK Hands program... which is apparently back
on.

One of the things the public at large does not understand is how
donations can't simply flow seamlessly into disaster stricken areas. It
is a complicated business to be sure. A steamship line just approached
us with a request to distribute 14 TEU's (7 ea. 40' ocean containers) of
supplies. The sent this request to the Host Nations Relation Officer at
one of our bases. This request should have gone directly to either the
Japanese government (GOJ) or to the JSDF (Japan Self Defense Forces -
Japan's Military). Those are the groups with the authority to accept
donations, especially from Japanese companies! What I don't think many
fully grasp is that the US is not the one deciding what should be
delivered where. That is a Japanese decision. This is not Ache
province after the Indian Ocean tsunami or Haiti after their quake.
This is a 1st world country where civil order is still well established
and a fully functioning government exists.

The New Face of Empire
It struck me as I walked to work this morning that Empire has a whole
new face. Now, mind you I already knew that but what was different this
morning was how the thought resonated as I was making my way to USFJ -
US Forces Japan. Here I am in a sovereign country. By nominal per
capita GDP they rank 17th or 18th globally. That is pretty significant.
Anyway, here I am walking and thinking... how many countries have a
combined military HQ for a foreign military located near their capitol?
Chine did at one point, recall the Boxer Rebellion? India did before
that pesky Gandhi guy screwed it all up. My point being this should not
be acceptable by a sovereign government. If they are sovereign what is
the need of a large foreign military presence?

So America, face the facts, we are an Empire and have been one since the
close of the Spanish American War of 1898. Just because we don't call
Japan, Kuwait, Germany, Iraq, England, Spain, Italy, Columbia, South
Korea, Afghanistan and a host of others colonies does not change the
reality on the ground. If you are pro colonialism feel free to revel in
it. If you believe in self determination organize... but then again if
you believe in self determination it probably best to get your own house
in order first.

The Great Balance

2011-03-24T16:32:00.003+04:30

It’s the end of my 4th day, there are snow flurries blowing outside. I just finished another 14 hour shift and for the 2nd day the wi-fi is down. It’s quite frustrating as I only have access to my new military e-mail and FB while at work. It isn’t much for keeping in touch. So I’ll jot down a few thoughts and then hit my cot. There are a small number of Supply Corps officers in the J4 shop. We all get along quite well and all seem to have the same impression of an organization not yet formed. This is an odd business. This is not Haiti or Indonesia. In those countries you can take more liberties in how you execute humanitarian assistance operations. This is a 1st world country. This is Japan. The Japanese have been quite cautious in the amount of aid and degree of assistance they have allowed foreigners to provide. I am not being critical of them. This is appropriate. As they are able to organize and take over distribution efforts it is in their best interest to do so. They are not a country to accept freebies simply because they are offered. Things are improving, roads are being cleared, food is being delivered, gasoline supplies are building, and most important the nuclear reactors are slowly being gotten under control. As these improvements are made the amount of assistance should begin to decrease. I believe this is how the Japanese military views it. That is how I would view it. Unfortunately life is more complicated than that. This beast I am part of, this growing HQ Command, seems poised to keep expanding. That is counter intuitive… except when viewed from a political (within the US military) standpoint. Someone commented yesterday that you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a flag officer in the command cell. I have the impression that they want to jump into the effort to say “I was there to help those poor Japanese, look what great and wonderful things I did!” WTF?

I see the size of this HQ as being balanced quite delicately. On the one hand you have a great deal of bureaucratic inertia pushing for the command to expand and remain for a significant period. On the other hand you have an uncertain funding stream that, should it evaporate, will significantly hamper the Military’s ability to operate throughout the remainder of the fiscal year. I watch as this organization continues to expand and solidify. I also hear increasing cautions about the financial exposure. It is interesting watching this unfold from the inside. Politics make for a fascinating side show.

What Strange Beast is This?

2011-03-24T16:30:00.001+04:30

Wow, I’m pretty damn tired. When I think of it I didn’t sleep much the night the tsunami hit Hawaii, then there was the red-eye flight home last Monday. Tuesday night I was up past midnight entering orders. Wednesday was an anxious night waiting for orders approval and Thursday began a 30 hour trip from LA to Japan via the ROK. I imagine many of my friends and family have visions of me working in a destroyed landscape looking like something out of a bad Hollywood sci-fi movie. The reality is much more mundane. Yokota is a drab Air Force Base just East of Tokyo. It’s surrounded by the Japanese equivalent of suburbs. The houses here are much smaller and closer together than stateside. The weather this time of year is best described as dreary, temps in the 30’s to 50’s with days of drizzle. I’d love to report what the locals think of this tragic occurrence but I haven’t made it off the base yet. Hell in truth I may not ever make it off base if the tempo continues at the current pace.

I am an augmentee to a Joint Headquarters. Now before you read my impression of what this means realize most big contingency operations are triggered by military action. Those are not surprises and units have time to prep for them. This was a massive natural disaster in a 1st world country. There was no “ramp up” time to prepare so my comments are not meant to disparage the command, just to illustrate what it’s like to jump into this fray.
I’ll be honest the 30 hours of travel time and three room changes in 8 hours had be kinda hating life my first day here. I arrived to find no one knew what I was supposed to do, who I was supposed to work for, where I was supposed to sit, etc., etc. So, I nosed around a bit and found the J4 Shop (logistics shop). I was under the impression I was here to assist in fuels management. Apparently not so. I found there were issues getting sufficient reporting from the fleet. As a HQ Command in an HA/DR operation tracking the quantity/location of supplies (for the victims) is pretty high visibility. I was tasked to try and fix that. I found there was not much of a well organized command structure. This happened because the first priority was SAR and relief supplies. Unfortunately, by initially ignoring structure, nearly a week into this op things were dysfunctional. So I felt quite discouraged that first day. Here I was far from my family, going to miss my son’s black belt test and for what? Were we doing any good? Jet lag and lack of sleep factored in as well.

Day two went better. I began to get a better picture of what was going on. I decided to start organizing the Supply section of J4. By that evening I sent an e-mail to all the Supply Officers assigned to this Op and suggested some things we could do to get better organized and become more interchangeable. I prefaced it by noting I might be way off base and overly affected by jet lag. I still had major issues with the lack of organizational structure. So, don’t like it? Change it! By this point I was being asked to sign up on the watch bill by the night shift leader in J4 (I’d been working days). I ignored that and took advantage of the lack of structure.

Now unless you have served on a large battle staff you have no idea what it’s like. I had some taste from my days on other HQ staffs and naval exercises I’ve been part of. This was different though. This is a staff trying to address a real world unfolding tragedy. The HQ is the coordinating agent of the effort. It doesn’t go to the stricken area. It coordinates the efforts and removes roadblocks for the units and people who are going forward. To accomplish this it requires a great deal of information. This information is then digested in a series of meetings and decisions are made. It is a very unwieldy beast. This HQ is still morphing and isn’t sure what it will become just yet. This makes for a very uncertain environment. You just work what comes your way and hold on for the ride.

Stasis… When are they going to perfect that for travel!?

2011-03-21T17:12:00.002+04:30

The view as we approached Narita was unremarkable. A thick haze and some cloud cover obscured the land. For a while all I could spot were enormous white caps in the Pacific. As we dropped altitude small hillocks and farms came into view. Narita is out in the sticks. Clearing passport control found I was the only gaijin on the flight. Narita looks quite shabby now days. I think the last time I flew through here was in 1986 so that isn’t surprising. There is a mall in this airport as well. At the moment it’s packed. Many people sitting around killing time waiting for flights. Cloth masks are commonly worn in Japan when people are ill. It’s a polite way to avoid spreading germs. Today though, they are more common than ever and by people who appear to be fine. I suspect it is an effort to limit what they breathe in rather than out. I think the unease I feel on this trip is simply anxiety over the unknown. When I go on vacations I may not know what a place will be like but I control my own destiny. Travel for uncle doesn’t work that way.
Funny side note… leading up to 2009 I was getting increasingly queasy when I flew. It was the landings that would get me. Just before touch down the butterflies would hit and a slight feeling of dread. I found it odd because it was new for me to feel that way. Was it too many 3rd world airline flights fishtailing down the runway? I really can’t say. Then my deployment to Afghanistan came along and all that changed. I felt nothing upon landing, not even the butterflies from the temporary weightlessness just before touchdown, nothing. That was beginning to change ever so slightly after I came to realize how much that deployment shut off emotions, especially fear. It’s been a deep dive inside my head to get at those mechanics. Now here I am. The prep time, less than 48 hours was a period of intense focus. Now the trip, the loneliness of not knowing when I’ll see my family again… granted it’s a short deployment but not knowing if it’s for 30, 45 or 60 days still has an impact. 30 days is one round of bills, anything over that gets much more complicated. I recognize between the lack of fear and intense focus I am back in my element. Odd perhaps. I have a civilian job and so much going on at home. Why is it that this is such a welcome breath of air (only slightly irradiated perhaps). The answer to that is to be found in more internal spelunking I suppose… digging back into my own psyche. Sometimes that is the most nerve wracking trip of all.

Crawling Toward Japan

2011-03-19T04:04:00.002+04:30

I’m sitting on the floor of terminal 102 at LAX. There is nowhere else to sit. It’s about 50 minutes to go before boarding time. It’s been a very interesting week. Monday I arrived back in LA after drilling with my unit on Oahu for four days. I was there when the earthquake hit Japan and when the remnants of the tsunami relocated a house on Hawaii to a spot across the bay… actually, in the bay, would be more accurate. When I first heard a big quake struck Japan I wasn’t too worried. I guessed it was probably on Hokkaido and damage would be sparse. When I checked the TV and saw what was actually happening I was astounded. The flood of water was unbelievable. The tsunami was simply erasing large swaths of land taking boats, cars, buildings and everything else with it. The realization that is hit within 35 minutes of the quake was sobering. To me it meant many people would have been unable to escape in time.
But that was all last weekend. Then Tuesday morning I was asked to query my sailors and see who would be available to mobilize for 30 days at Pearl Harbor to help with Pacific Command’s tracking of the disaster as well as any assistance the US might provide. I collected the info and sent a few updates with a promise of a final update after I got home around 8:00 PM. I had listed my name as a volunteer for this on the first update. By that night things had changed a bit I was called and asked if I’d be willing to go to Yokota. I said absolutely I’d be willing. Hell I lived in Japan for nearly 7 years. How could I respond any other way? Then I was asked if I could depart the following day! After talking it over we settled on a Thursday or Friday departure. I needed to pick up some additional uniforms as mine and spread between LA and Oahu. When I got off the phone I called in sick for Wednesday knowing I would be far too busy getting ready for the trip. The following morning I was up and heading off to Pt Hueneme to pick up the new uniforms, I’d been told I’d need. I had effectively avoided getting the new digital blue camo but it looked like I’d have to suck it up now. After spending $500 and getting almost all the way home I realized I had forgotten collar insignia. Damn, that meant another trip to base. More time wasted. I was also checking on the status of my orders. I had finished inputting them half past midnight the night before. By the time evening rolled around my orders were still in routing and we had company over for dinner. I had been planning to sew on all my insignia but that would have to wait for morning.
That brings us to today. I finally had approved orders around 9:30. I also discovered the correct uniform is Khaki. That is one I have. So I waited anxiously to find out when my flight might depart. I called the travel office only to be told they were working on it and would make sure I had adequate notice, 2 hours. I asked for clarification and was told they would make sure I had at least two hours between the tickets being issues and my flight. OK, so that won’t work. I pointed out that international flights requite a 2 hour show time and I leave up to an hour from the airport. Well by 1 PM I finally received tickets. I had a 10:50PM departure… good news. So it was back to base to return the uniforms, deposit some checks into my account and tie up a few remaining loose ends. And now here, wondering what lay ahead.
I write this update from Inchon Airport. I had a 5 hour layover here on my way to Narita. I am in my last hour of that. When I arrive at Narita I am to find the military desk in terminal 1 and get specifics for the bus ride to Yokota. I may well be spending another 5 hours there waiting on that. Then it will be about a three hour ride to base and I report aboard. Finally at that point I may have the opportunity to find out some specifics of this job, this mission.
Until the I patiently wait around airports missing my family and wondering what loose ends I still need to tie up. Thank god for the internet. At least I can pay bills from abroad. Life continues.

Sitting in Cambodia, Thinking of Afghanistan

2010-12-26T13:38:00.004+04:30

Here I sit, in a small restaurant in Siem Reap, Cambodia, eating a breakfast of eggs and rice, mango smoothie and iced coffee sweetened with condensed milk as I contemplate my future. Two days ago I received an e-mail from a Captain at the Bureau of Naval Personnel. It was to tell me my temporary recall back to Active Duty only requires an Admiral’s signature for final approval. This might seem odd. It was only 18 months ago I was returning from a deployment to Afghanistan. You might ask, why on earth would I consider returning to a war torn country in Central Asia. It was last July when the position was advertised. The DOD is putting together something called the AF/PAC Hands Program. The purpose is to build a cadre of personnel drawn from all services that will become experts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The tours are 3 to 5 years with multiple deployments to Central Asia. The main point here is to establish some continuity with personnel who know the language, and are in the same position for several years. Wow, what a concept… actually have military personnel, who have a clue about the region and culture work to influence policy and actions on the US side and continuity with our Afghan and Pakistan counterparts. WTF took Uncle so long to figure out this no-brainer?!

When I was in Afghanistan I told myself if I could do anything to help that actual Afghans in any way, even in a small way, I would. Now, I’m not speaking of the Afghan Govt., or the US Embassy, or the UN Mission, or ISAF… I feel obligated to help the Afghan people. This program’s goals, to provide continuity and establish regional experts, something I railed about during my first deployment, seemed a worthwhile reason to jump back into the fray. It has been frustrating though when trying to get details of the program and the specific billet details. The Navy has never been very good at actually providing good billet info. They are entrenched in the idea that personnel will follow traditional career paths. Funny since we are now 10 years into the ear of the Dirt Sailor. Hell, that’s half a career for an active duty sailor!

I have to be honest though, there are other more tangible benefits for me in this foray as well. Every month I spend in-country BOG is a month with minimal income tax burden. Every 90 days mobilized reduces my retirement age by 90 days and three years active will bump my retirement by about 5 ½% (over just drilling in the Reserves). But those have to be balanced against significant time away from home, moving out of the house we rent in Malibu, disrupting the kids school schedules. I’ll finish up three years with the option of going back to work at my civilian job but without a place to live initially. Multiple ,lengthy deployments are very hard on marriages as well. So, I’ve been debating all these factors in my head as this has played out. My wife wants me to take the jump. I’m not sure how my kids really view it. I know my daughter is nervous.

I’m still digging for more details, even as the machinery turns to bring me back on active duty. The first billet title I was provided sounded like an FMS (Foreign Military Sales position). That caused me some degree of soul searching. Selling guns and ammunition to the Afghan Govt. is a dubious way of helping the people. Then, a few days before I left on this vacation, I received a position description. It looks like it is more of a PR job; selling the notion that ISAF and the US are training the Afghan security forces for the betterment of the Afghans. I can buy into that. If the Afghans have more faith in their Army they will be more likely to be effective. The more effective the Afghan Army is the sooner the US and ISAF can get the hell out of Afghanistan and allow the Afghans to run their own country… as they should be.

So here I am, on vacation, thinking, planning, wondering. Life is going to get quite hectic for the next 3 ½ years. Here I go about to jump back on that roller coaster. The one I thought I was finished with. This seemed a fitting time to restart the blog. Thanks for reading.

Broken Governance

2010-06-05T11:35:00.001+04:30

California is a broken state. It has always courted corruption, after all its wealthy and wealth breeds corruption. About 100 years ago things were so bad the initiative process was written into the State Constitution. This was a method for the people to take back governance. It was necessary because the robber barons were running the state. Now as all life does, we have come full circle. The initiative process has been usurped by today’s robber barons. This is not a recent event but has been building momentum for several decades. The fatal flaw being brilliantly exploited by big business and powerful individuals alike is that initiatives in California are amendments to the State Constitution. As such they can’t be modified by legislative law. What was once a strength is now our bane.
Anyone with sufficient funds can kick off an initiative. All it takes are signatures and a good advertising campaign. Now that the puppets in the Supreme Court have approved unlimited cash infusions by corporations into the electoral process things are getting worse in a hurry. Modern Americans are controlled by advertising. Having a third rate education system most do not learn critical thought. Government is taught in such a way as to induce coma. So, we tend to believe the most attractive advertising without question, especially where governance is concerned. How else can so many politician’s frequent and unchallenged dramatic changes on key issues be explained. They aren’t any stupider than the average Joe. They know they are on video and audio saying just the opposite only days or weeks before but not to worry, no one will recall. I struggle with this phenomenon. It has nothing to do with intellect. How is it that no one feels the need to pay attention to matters that directly affect them?
I have come to the conclusion that life in a dictatorship/kingdom/oligarchy etc. has a certain luxury lacking in democracies. People love this freedom and feel, being in a democracy and all, that they should have the right to it as well. It is the freedom to not give a crap. There are many rationalizations for the exercise of this freedom. Some common ones… “my vote won’t count anyway”, “I don’t understand the initiatives”, “both parties are the same” . I could continue but you get the picture.
So were am I going with this rant? A California private utility company has sponsored an initiative disguised as a “taxpayers right to vote act” that in reality is protection from competition for this utility. I worry because the advertising for this measure has been glossy, professional and very well funded. And, as I’ve pointed out the voting public is apathetic and uninformed. In a few days the votes will be cast and we shall see if my worries are ill founded. I really hope I’ve missed the mark on this.

Calif Prop 16... How Stupid Are We?

2010-06-05T02:59:00.001+04:30

Prop 16… it’s a sucker’s play. As I’ve watched all the glitzy advertising for this measure I’ve wondered how bright the California public is. Will a majority fall for this tripe? My first clue this was a scam was the assertion that private energy trumps public energy. I was a resident of LA back when Grey Davis was flailing about and Enron (via El Paso Gas) was playing the state like a puppet. Electricity rates soared for most of the state, doubling and even tripling while mine remained unchanged. The LA Dept of Water and Power had remained a public entity during the craze to privatize the electric grid in the state. They were set up to effectively avoid these regional price spikes and I was grateful for that! Now public utilities are not always better but consider this. The assumption that private trumps public rests on the theory that public waste always exceeds private profit. If this were true the entire theory of economics would collapse. Economics is based on the belief that all firms maximize profit. Therefore a private company taking over for a public utility will earn profits that equal the waste (from the public utility)… net sum zero. Now once that conversion is done it is much more difficult to move back to public ownership and the private utility has more room to expand profits.
Why is it difficult for municipalities to move back into the utilities business? If you believe Prop 16’s message it’s a simple change and you have no voice in the matter. Standing up a public utility takes a significant amount of capital. To raise that cash municipalities float bond measures which we vote on… oops did I get that right? Prop 16 claims we have no vote in the matter. Now why would they lie about such a thing? Isn’t this all about the vote? This is about votes; it is about private utility using votes as a method to eliminate competition. The entity paying for Prop 16 is Pacific Gas and Electric, a private utility. This scam to provide you a “voice” in how your municipality is run is PG&E’s attempt to eliminate any threat of public utilities encroaching on their very profitable business.
Why would PG&E try to make a difficult process (standing up a public utility) even more difficult? They obviously have a great deal of profits at stake. Recall at the start of my rant the economic theory that private utilities would charge the same amount as public utilities (it’s called economic profits). This is a one way deal. It doesn’t flow the other way. In other words if a private utility is excessively profitable due to “barriers to entry” then a public utility could well come in cheaper in providing the same services. Public entities do tend to be somewhat wasteful but they are not driven to become so. But, private enterprises are driven to maximize profits. Public = waste to the extent the voting public allows it. Private = profit to the extent the paying public revolts. The big difference is that with a public utility you have some voice through your elected representatives. With a private utility all you can do is put up your own solar panels and but a generator!
Anytime you see a proposition, look who is behind it… in this case a powerful company is pushing a move to eliminate competition. Let’s see if the California public is as ignorant as PG&E thinks they are!

Education… or the Lack Thereof

2010-02-13T09:28:00.001+04:30

What a country I reside in!! I am constantly forced to remind myself that we are an ignorant society. It’s not so much that people are willfully ignorant, it’s that our education system is horribly sad. People forget that the quality of our universities does not reflect the sad quality of our primary education. Primary education in the USA is largely indoctrination. Don’t believe me? Try reading “Lies My Teacher Told Me” or “A Peoples History of the United States” with an open mind.
A friend visiting our home made the comment the one day that people suspected of crimes against children should be made to take truth serum. I pointed out that the 5th amendment prohibits forced self incrimination. She stated that the law should be changed when children are involved. I then reminded her that it would take a constitutional amendment to accomplish that. I couldn’t get upset with her ignorance. The sad truth is that most citizens don’t understand much about our government or constitution. This is not their fault. This is the fault of our sad system of education.
Not long ago our Supreme Court struck down a prohibition against corporation’s rights to influence campaigns. This was stupidly said to be a defense of the freedom of speech. I could complain about the right wing balance of the current court but I will refrain, except to point out that the law struck down was 103 years old and signed into law by Teddy Roosevelt. I bring this up because a Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey has proposed a constitutional amendment to specifically allow congress to regulate the speech of corporations. Republican Congressman Sensenbrenner responded that it would be the first time the Bill of Rights would be amended and he believed that a very bad precedent to set.
Now why would I bring this up? What side do I fall on? Going back to my original complaint about the state of our education… the problem with the proposed amendment is not that it would alter the Bill of Rights (and therefore would never stand a chance of passing) the problem is that it does not address the core issue. The only reason this even came before the Court is a longstanding gross misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment. For those of you who are not up to speed the 14th Amendment, it was written to allow former slaves to enjoy the full rights of citizenship. After passage, a number of cases brought before the Supreme Court established that Corporations were in a legal sense, people! Now I don’t know about you, but to me this is asinine! The logical fix for the recent Court decision is not to amend the bill of Rights. The PROPER fix is to define “Person” for the purposes of the 14th Amendment.
Now I find myself at an impasse. Is the Democratic Congresswoman from New Jersey a simple product of the American educational system? Or did she propose this misguided amendment knowing full well that it would not gain any real traction and in fact did not impact the root cause of the inequity? Why not, it allows her to pretend she is addressing a problem without any real shot at changing the status quo. Wow, I must confess I’m torn between my contempt for the American primary education system and my contempt for the motivation of American politicians. Such is my dilemma!

Frustrations Run Deep

2010-01-29T00:29:00.001+04:30

I was curious while listening to Obama’s State of the Union Speech last night. Now, I’ve never been under any allusions that our current president is anything other than a centrist moderate liberal in the same vein as Bill Clinton. I’m not fond of centrists but supported him nonetheless because he was the only candidate with a positive message.

So, here we are a year in. To date I have been sorely disappointed at the ineptitude of the Democrats to take control and pass needed reforms. They have a majority, it’s time to show backbone. If the GOP insists on a filibuster then force them to use the old fashioned kind… talking 24 hrs a day until someone cries uncle!

But more to my current thoughts, last night’s speech. There were some elements I was happy to hear, like the blast to the 5 Injustices of the Supreme Court. But, there were many elements I find alarming.
• The statement that we need a massive construction project of “safe” nuclear power plants is a cause for worry. I have not heard of any regulatory enhancements to repair the damage the bush administration did to nuclear power safety. In case you didn’t know, under bush the rule requiring reactors to be able to be SCRAM’d (emergency shutdown) from outside the plant was removed. Why are we even considering more plants if we refuse to make our current once safe?
• While a desire to increase exports is sound, the idea that we will increase jobs by increasing farm exports is laughable. This is a dangerous idea that provides deep insight into the current administration. We are able to export a great deal of food due to significant government subsidies. We have put huge numbers of foreign farmers out of work through this practice. Mexico and Haiti have seen significant population movements as a result of our arrogance. Our current glut of illegal’s can be tied in part to this practice. Who benefits? About 90% of the food produced in the USA is controlled by 4 companies. Under no stretch of the imagination could this be considered a boon to family farms. This is a government hand out to agribusiness and nothing more.
• Elimination of the capital gains tax for small business. This one threw me for a loop. Small businesses buy equipment to produce things. This equipment depreciates as it is used. They don’t acquire capital assets that appreciate… unless of course the small business is a small investing firm. So I am undecided if this is a ruse to give the appearance that small businesses are going to benefit or a hand out to Wall Street. Let’s face it, if government wants to encourage smart investment the way to do it is to have a very steep short term capital gains tax followed by a very lenient or even nonexistent long term tax. This refocuses businesses to aim for long term sustainability and growth not the next short term bubble!

So, was I disappointed? Not so much, I really didn’t have very high expectations to begin with. What should Obama do? He should bring the key Democrat leaders into his office and tell them the gloves are off. No more useless attempts at bipartisanship. It’s time to take one from the GOP play book and run roughshod over the opponent! Begin passing meaningful financial reform if you want to fix the economy. Enforce better controls over energy speculation (one of the key triggers of the current economic slump). Go after big pharma, they have a bigger role in health insurance costs than anyone wants to acknowledge. This one is an easy fix; all the govt. has to do is negotiate prices using Medicare, the DOD and other federal entities. They talk a good line about the free market, why not use the free market? As for health care, why are we working on a one-size-fits-all bill? Tackle this in manageable pieces and progress will be made. As for the Supreme Court Decision, we don’t need a new law or Constitutional Amendment all we need to do is flood the courts with challenges to the idea that the 14th amendment had anything to do with Corporations. If the court can overturn a 102 year old precedent they can certainly overturn that one!

I tend to be a bit jaded. So, do I think any meaningful change will take place… not in my lifetime and likely not in yours.

Last Day in Paradise

2010-01-10T08:01:00.003+04:30

What a wonderful morning and lunch. We strolled the Casco Viejo, buying trinkets and smoking Cuban cigars. A local man, Conrad Grant, began walking with us as an informal tour guide. He was 73 and of Jamaican descent. His grandfather was brought to Panama to work on the canal. He pointed across the bay to the multiple high rise apartments and told us that it was not Panama but Miami. The rents for newly remodeled buildings in Casco Viejo run $1,500 and up, this in a country where 80% earn less than $300 a month. It’s an interesting neighborhood. Buildings being refurbished for the well off and expats next to buildings half collapsed and filled with squatters.
On the walk back to the hotel we visited the city’s fish market and had cups of ceviche. I never cared for ceviche before visiting Panama. Here it seems an altogether different dish, clean, fresh and cool. It’s typically enjoyed as an after work snack with a beer, a perfect accompaniment to a hot day. We couldn’t order the beer with it due to a holiday but it was a wonderful lunch all the same.
This afternoon its off for the obligatory visit to the canal locks and then exploring the “Miami” part of the city. So much to do and so little time, it looks like additional visits are in order.

Paradise Lost

2010-01-09T07:58:00.003+04:30

Sitting in a beach cabana on the Pacific at a location I choose not to name. This beach is amazing… 22 km long, water the temp of a warm bath, less than 30 people on the beach today, sparsely developed, in a word heavenly! Which explains why I decline to mention it’s name. Wonderful places are becoming more and more scarce.
We have been looking for land near Volcan Baru. Boquete is a wonderful place but was “discovered” by the expat European and American community at least 10 years ago. They came because of the cool temps, wonderful views, quaint local Indians, coffee plantations and excellent retirement benefits in Panama. They like it so much they are buying up coffee land and building gated communities or huge fenced in homes. They love it so much a group of them meets regularly to discuss what they would like to change in the community… it may be paradise but why not make it a bit more like Ohio or Denmark? A friend of mine from Brooklyn chased them out of his Pizzeria when he heard what they were discussing!
What is the allure of making paradise a bit more like home? I wish I knew. Wouldn’t it be more convenient simply to play photos of paradise across your 65” flat screen TV? You’d still have Budweiser and MGD instead of settling for Atlas or Balboa. No pesky Panamanian drivers to deal with and no need to speak poor Spanish. Please consider this option. That way I can continue visiting my beach paradise uninterrupted.

2010-01-05T07:33:00.004+04:30

Contrasts within the country… the USA is said to be a land of contrasts and so is Panama. Having spent several days in the land of the Kuna as well as Bocas Del Toro was educational. Both areas are on the Caribbean, both are poor (in relative terms) and both bracket the Mosquito Coast.

Bocas is populated by a combination of indigenous tribes, African slaves and Jamaicans. The main language spoken is Creole, a mix of several languages. The locals live in built up towns of wooden homes on the edge of the sea or in mangrove swamps, filthy and run down. The average income appears to be quite low with most of the cash coming from tourism. We visited on New Year’s Eve but I have the feeling the party atmosphere dominates the main town of Bocas all year long. The visitors are a mix of dreadlocked surfers and preppy beachgoers who alternate between laying in hammocks and bar hoping with countless numbers of each to choose from. The food was quite good but the average waiting time for a meal was about an hour from point of ordering, fine if you’ve nothing to do and nowhere to go but otherwise it pretty much sucks. Boca a great place to chase girls and get drunk and not necessarily in that order. Using water taxis to bar hop was a new experience for me. Racing back to our hotel after midnight in an open speed boat crashing over the swells and waiting to see if it takes a wave wrong was also new for me. A bit of an adrenalin rush to be sure. So my basic impression of Bocas is… old style, poor, hoping sailor town, a great place to go whoring and drinking or equally to simply vanish from the world. This is a place that would serve fine as a modern day set for a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

The Kuna to the East are an entirely different story. The Kuna, following an uprising in the 20’s, gained semi-autonomy. Several years ago they took the seemingly drastic measure of kicking out all foreigners living in or owning property (everyone not Kuna) they did this without paying for the land they recovered. This has allowed them tremendous control over their future. Where Bocas is fighting the loss of one of their best beaches (Red Frog Beach) to a large development the Kuna face no such issues. To outward appearances the Kuna appear every bit as poor as the Bocas locals, poorer even. But what the Kuna have achieved is sustainability and defacto independence. The tourist islands they manage are operated as non-profits and benefit the village not individuals. The vegetables served to the tourists are brought in which eliminates artificial price spikes to locally grown produce. They harvest coconuts and sell them to the Columbians. They have a relatively nice school are travel as far as Panama City to sell handicrafts. What I admire about the Kuna is that if tourism vanished overnight they would continue on with minimal disruption. While they use outboard motors to ferry visitors to the islands most of their fishing is done from hand paddled dugout canoes. The manage fish stocks to avoid overfishing. The jungle for 100’s of miles around their land is trackless and seemingly impenetrable.

Two populations in relatively close proximity yet worlds apart. The Kuna have a system worth study and imitation. They have much to offer other populations living sustainably in potentially prime tourist locations like the Hindu Kush and Karakorum.

Several Worlds Away

2009-12-31T17:26:00.006+04:30

I’ve spent many years in the tropics. Most of the time I was “haze grey and underway” which is naval slang for being at sea. I’ve sailed through the Coral Sea, been to Queensland Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam, Okinawa, Singapore, Myanmar and the Peruvian Amazon. There were even tentative plans to visit Tahiti though I think that’s effectively on the back burner for now. Panama seems different though. I am not yet sure if it’s the place or me. I’ve felt a bit off balance since I arrived and not as nearly prepared as I usually am. The country has much to offer and the people are wonderful but something feels out of place. I search and search but am still without an answer. So, until I come to terms with my quandary I go on with our vacation.

Today we visited Casco Viejo the old part of Panama City. Old and disheveled it struggles to restore itself. The colors run from muted browns and off-white to vibrant primary colors. Far too few of the old buildings have been restored, those that haven’t are either in very poor repair or empty shells without internal floors, plants growing everywhere and the odd vulture standing watchful on the roof.
A chunk of cash and this would be THE spot for tourists in Panama City. It appears most of the available coin has been sunk into the high rise apartment across the bay, too bad for historical preservation. While in Casco Viejo I also purchased the obligatory Panama Hat (made in Ecuador of course) and a Cubano cigar. The hat was a must. I grew up hearing my dad talk about his visits to Ecuador in the late 40’s, so that purchase was as much in his memory as my own taste for hats.

All in all I can do without Panama City. I’m not a big fan of many cities. Let’s see, the short list would have to be: LA, New York, DC, Singapore, Roma, Cuzco, San Francisco… I think that’s about it. There are many places I’d like to visit and even return to, like Buenos Ares, London, Bangkok and Munich but the short list is places I could really spend some time and not get anxious in short order.

Panama, the country outside the big city, is curious to me. This is the first place I’ve visited with huge flocks of vultures. Personally I’m quite fond of vultures so I’m cool with that. I even felt a bit sorry for the hundreds of them we saw circling above the meat packing plant waiting on the meal that will never materialize. The jungle here is quite serious. Even at more than 8,000 ft elevation the rain forest is dense and unforgiving. We looked over some land up north near Cerro Punta, beautiful land, but very wet and steep. It would be a great local for an Eco-Lodge or possibly for growing some coffee. That is something I’ll dig a bit deeper into. It could be that some of my curious unease is that this time we are really considering retirement locations. I haven’t found and really good mountain biking areas and even Vulcan Baru at more than 10,000 ft just does not compare to the Sierras.

The people here have been wonderful. We’ve met a number of locals I could easily remain friends with. It’s worth keeping in mind thought that only 2.3M people live in the whole country. It’s all a bit of a small village outside of Panama City. Laura, the realtor in Vulcan is a true free thinker. She fled Panama under Noriega because she refused to live in a dictatorship. Now back and with a growing business she is taking on interests trying to dam up a local river. She’s doing this without a group, just by herself. In a few short days she had collected over 300 signatures in an area with about 10,000 residents, not bad!

The best food so far has been at a restaurant names La Isletta. Roberto and Arturo run the place along with a working ranch and small B&B. All the beef they serve is grown, grass fed and hormone free, on the ranch. It’s the best beef I’ve ever tasted (apart from Kobe). Roberto an amazing family property along the Inter American Hwy and made it a must see locale. They offer kayaking, hiking, a wonderful place to sleep and fantastic food. If you are driving from Panama to David this is a great place to break up the 5 hour drive.

The town of Boquete has recently overthrown the long reign of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee with Geisha Coffee. I hear in the US it fetched over $100 a pound! A beautiful place and the current darling of expats residing outside Panama City, Boquete is a compact town of coffee plantations and small farms butted up against the Eastern flank of Volcan Baru. It’s nice but I doubt I’ll end up there. The mountain roads are too prone to mudslides and the prices have already been driven up by expats. Volcan and it’s surrounding area on the West of Volcan Baru have more to offer. That is, they have more to offer me. Volcan is a cow town but the prices are not yet over the top and there is room to find a few acres and disappear if one chooses.

From Bad to Worse

2009-10-31T09:12:00.000+04:30

I’ve been struggling for months with how to respond to the question everyone keeps asking me: “What do you thing about the surge in Afghanistan?” It’s always worded a bit different. Some ask it seemingly reluctantly, wanting to know but not sure how to ask it. I do love Afghanistan. I long to see more of the country… but cannot. I want so badly to see a chance for improvement. I want to but the final card just dropped. I just read that Abdullah Abdullah is going to drop out of the runoff election with Karzai. Abdullah has been pushing for a power sharing deal and the sacking of the head of the election commission. Karzai has been stonewalling and apparently all bets are now off.
I was listening to an interview with the former deputy head of the UN’s mission in Afghanistan, Peter Galbraith. He was sacked by Ban Ki Moon prior to the primary election for pushing too hard for free and fair elections. His specific complaint was that too many polling places were going to be designated. Now before you scoff and ask why that is a bad thing it’s important to remember that many parts of the country are still outside the direct control of Kabul. Mr. Galbraith’s complaint was that to open polling places that likely would not be manned would allow easy ballot stuffing. If the polling place never opens except on paper it’s too easy to make up imaginary votes and record them. He made these specific complaints before the first election and low and behold what happened? Exactly that! The UN threw out so many votes for Karzai that a second election was warranted.
A few days ago I heard that the “Independent “ Election Commission in Afghanistan was going to open even MORE polling places for the runoff election. I heard that and thought “it’s over”. It’s a bold move to be sure. Even more phantom polling places to record make believe votes. It was clear to me Karzai was going to steal this election at any cost, the greedy bastard. Now the story about Abdullah, I no longer have any hope that we can have a positive impact on the country.
In 1963 we supported a coup d’etat against Diem in South Vietnam. This was a regime change of a government we were “supporting” we all know how that one ended. So now we have an illiterate government, of our own creation, running the country we are fighting in. This can’t possibly end well. More cash, more troops, it won’t matter. You simply can’t bring peace and stability to a country without a central government short of straight up colonization and that is but a short tern solution which also generally ends badly.
I was hopeful that General McCrystal’s strategy of protecting the populace would improve conditions but how can that possibly work when the central government is horribly corrupt? How do you hand off control of a country to someone only interested in raping it?
Does this mean I think the Taliban are a good alternative? Hell no! The Taliban are an evil Pakistani construct, not an Afghan movement. We look to have burned all our bridges though. We have played this misadventure so badly from the get go that we no longer have any options. I hate to say this. I love Afghanistan and want above all else to put on rose colored glasses and pretend we can fix the mess. I simply can’t pretend any longer. This tears me up but I can’t ignore it. We need to extricate our troops and let the Afghans decide their own destiny.
At this point the best we can do is work feverishly to cut all the funding strings to the Taliban and drug lords. This we CAN do. We know who these people are. We know how to disrupt international funding channels. If we were to effectively limit outside influence from Afghanistan, our own included, the country would sort itself out. Will we do that? No. Too bad. You have no idea how angry this all makes me. Here we go again…

Back in the Saddle

2009-10-07T21:56:00.004+04:30

Just two months back from Afghanistan. I live in a privileged beach community on the West Coast. Given I didn’t have anything to do with combat in Afghanistan and actually enjoyed my time there I should have had an easy transition. At least I would have thought so. My first month or so was vacation time. I thought I would accomplish so much. Not so, to my dismay. Last month I spent back at Corporate America. I returned to most of my duties. Things began slowly, boring, bland. I wondered what the hell I was doing there, in my little cubicle. It’s been a strange transition. I’ve been away before but never for so long, especially never so long without a break.

I heard my wife telling her best friend that I was burned out from working more than six months without a day off. It didn’t feel like the cause though. I am glad she has friends to confess to, to confide in. I had one once. It’s important to have someone other than a spouse to talk to. So here I am, a bit better now. The turning point seems to have been a dream in which I died. I’ve never died in a dream before. The strange thing is that I was falling and knew it would end badly. Rather than taking control of the dream as I usually have I concentrated on relaxing and letting go. At impact I was suddenly somewhere else. Someone was walking toward a fence with me to see the carnage. A person had landed badly, fatally, from some great distance. When I looked I saw it was my body lying there. I was not feeling bad, just curious. There I stood looking at my shattered form on the concrete. I told my friend about the dream but shortly thereafter they vanished. So, here I am somewhat transformed, somewhat back to normal, but lacking a key person in my life. Cest la vie.
Yesterday I climbed mount San Jacinto. It was my first ascent since I began the foray into Central Asia and the bowels of petroleum management. The last peak was San Gorgonio in Sep 08. I love mountains. They help me maintain balance. They make me feel at home. I suppose I’ve always liked abandoned places. Places forgotten. In High School I used to go to the old LA Zoo, long abandoned. It was like ruins in the middle of a city. Anyway I finally made it back up a mountain for the first time since staring at those wonderful peaks surrounding the Shamali Plain. Climbing early you manage to miss most other people, at least on the ascent. It was comforting to sit at the summit for a short while in relative privacy. I can’t imagine a better vantage point from which to contemplate the world. Taoists have the right idea.

Out Of The War Zone Into The Fire Zone

2009-10-02T00:20:00.001+04:30

I’ve been back in So Cal for six weeks now. I’ve had this ongoing internal debate on weather to retire the blog or keep writing. People keep reading it so I decided I should keep writing it. The LA basin is in for a hell of a fire season. It’s early in the season and already the Station Fire has charred 160,000 acres of local mountains. A new fire is raging as I write this. This new fire is upwind from the canyon I live in and with Santa Anna winds blowing, that can be worrisome. I spent six months in Afghanistan and generally felt safe. If some dumbass shoots at you, bullets can be sent back post haste. If Katushka rockets or mortars are inbound, they generally come in threes or fours, they are short lived attacks and infrequent. Mind you this is from my experience at Bagram not at Helmond, Kandahar, Patika, Ghazni, etc. That said, my community lies anxiously waiting for the end of the Santa Anna’s. We are at the mercy of random arsonists. Cowardly bastards that should be severely punished. Such is life in the alleged bastion of democracy.
There is a major debate in the USA right now about Afghanistan. Should we send in more troops and prove we could have won in Vietnam or do we cut our losses and pull out? I am asked my opinion about this almost daily. My friends and neighbors want to hear the opinion of someone who has seen Afghanistan. I am struggling with the answer. Anyone who has read this blog knows I think highly of the potential of Afghanistan. I think highly of the resourcefulness of the Afghan people. I would love nothing more than to be able to tell people we should send in more troops and that we can win this in under a year. I would love to… but I cannot. I am have this melancholy feeling that we already shot our wad in Central Asia. We had the initiative and going into 2003 we threw it away on the whims of a fascist administration. (As I write this you should know I choose my words carefully) We have really screwed this war up. You can’t invade and then throttle back and pretend all is well. The initial good will of the Afghans, happy to be free of the despotic Taliban Regime, is long gone. The average Afghan wants peace. They want their homes intact, not bombed. They want the mines and ordinance removed, not limbs removed by explosives. We are in a sad state of affairs in Central Asia today.
If the US Army were still led by soldiers who had fought in the hell of Vietnam we might have stood a chance. Insurgencies are ugly. Fighting an enemy who look like civilians is a nasty business full of misidentification and tragedy. I worry that the senior officers raised in the turkey shoot of Desert Storm are completely out of their element now. The lack of effective leadership I witnessed at the field grade officer level leaves me full of unease. I read General McCrystals guidance. It was sound. Unfortunately I don’t have faith that the current Army leadership is capable of understanding and implementing that guidance. If we leave Afghanistan in a quagmire it will not be the Taliban Insurgency that beat us it will have been our own ethnocentrism that kicked our ass.

The Wall

2009-07-30T10:55:00.009+04:30

The Kabul city wall presents an interesting hike to see a side of Kabul not often visited by outsiders in the past 30 years. I went with an Afghan American friend. Where the wall reaches down to the road between Kuh-e-Sherdarwaza Mountain and Antenna Mountain it is too steep to hike, rock climb perhaps but not hike. So to begin the hike we drove up some very steep dirt roads through poorer neighborhoods. We stopped at a small fortification with two cannon that used to fire to signal noon. This spot has an impressive view of Babur’s garden and mausoleum. Babur founded the Mughal Dynasty in the 16th century and loved Kabul. The road ends perhaps half way up the flank of Kuh-e-Sherdarwaza. From there we sent our driver to the other side of the mountain, near the city cemetery. We quickly worked past the last few mud brick dwellings. The people who live this far up the mountain have no running water or power. Water is generally brought up by donkey as few of these residents own cars. Mud brick outhouses sit 20 or 30 feet from the dwellings. Looking at these neighborhoods and the steepness of the streets I was glad it was summer and not the snowy winter or very wet spring. This would be a real challenge to navigate in poor weather.

The wall on this steeper side of the mountain is not much more than a jumble of rocks for much of its length. As we worked our way higher up the ridge line the wall is in better condition. During one rest stop three young boys walked past us, ignoring our presence as if we were part of the landscape. This is a wonderful hike to view Kabul from above. Despite the ever present haze I was able to take a number of good photos of the city. The summit of the mountain has a small fortification built into the wall. My friend told me this dated from the civil war and was not part of the original wall.

The wall itself is an impressive feat of engineering. Built 1,100 years ago the base looks to be dry rock (no mortar). The Afghans to this day build amazing dry rock walls. It’s a skill largely lost in Europe and America. Sections of the wall still have intact ramparts, these being built of mud brick, plastered over. The best of these sections overlook the city cemetery. The brick, mortar and plaster are of a much higher quality than I’ve seen elsewhere in Afghanistan. These sections have withstood 1,100 years of snow, rain and wind. To the touch they feel like rock, not hardened mud. These sections of the wall still have downward openings for defensive fire.

The view on ridgeline that slopes toward Bala Hissar (the 5th century Fortress) is dominated by the huge city cemetery and marshes. Like far too many cemeteries in Afghanistan it is festooned with flags. These flags, mostly green are placed above the graves of martyrs. In a country that has seen more than 30 years of continuous fighting there has been no shortage of martyrs.

As we walked past the highest house on the slope a small girl ran out. Perhaps 5 years old she tried to sell us a small piece of beadwork. She was very cute and had light hair and green eyes but her hands were covered with numerous warts. My friend gave her a few Afghani’s and sent her home. She flew the 100 meters or so to the house and immediately her older sister, perhaps 8, ran toward us. She wore a beautiful blue dress and had the same light hair and green eyes. A few more Afghani’s and admonishment not to send any other siblings and we continued on our way.

When we reached the edge of Bala Hissar it was time to work down through another neighborhood toward the cemetery and our ride. The paths were amazingly steep again. The smell of feces and livestock hung in the air. As we walked down a family with two donkeys was heading up with bags of rice. This is not an easy life.

Kabul... Malls and Walls, oh my!

2009-07-29T20:34:00.008+04:30

Where to begin…I am packed, checked out, weapon is clean, bullets turned in, waiting on a flight to Kuwait to go through Warrior Transition Training. One adventure gives way to another. A few days ago I was in Kabul. I hiked the ancient city wall, ate some very good food, met with contractors, saw the shops on Chicken Road and basically had a fantastic time. Life here has moved so fast I have a difficult time knowing where to start.

I began my last trip to Kabul to introduce my relief to our Strategic Reserves, fuel storage facilities. I’ve seen them so I set my relief on his way and proceeded to go out to lunch with one of our contractors. We ate at Rumi, a traditional Afghan restaurant. The food was amazing. I have loved the food here. Like all the other restaurants here in Kabul the outside is unassuming, just a wall with a tall steel gate. It could be a home or a junk yard. Once you clear the security the place is quite lovely. It has the obligatory garden dining as well as very nice indoor areas decorated with paintings of Whirling Dervishes.

Later that day, when the others had returned form their site visits we went out to eat at the same restaurant for dinner. We had the same food again and I enjoyed it just as much. After dinner we went to a Lebanese place for beer and hookahs and eventually ended up at a French Restaurant for drinks. All of these places have outdoor dining in beautiful gardens. It’s a side of Kabul very few in the military know about, let alone visit.

On Sunday I left the others and hooked up with a different contractor, an Afghan American I had ridden up to Hairaton with several months ago. He has been promising me a hike along the old Kabul City Wall for months. With four days left we finally made it. The wall is something like 1,100 years old. The base is made of stones with the rampart constructed of mud brick and mortar. It is amazing to look at the surviving sections of bud brick, still intact after 1,100 years of rain and snow! Some sections are still plastered, the bricks and plaster feeling like stone. This impressive civic works project follows the ridge line over a mountain that divides moderns Kabul. I felt lucky to have had this opportunity. Few foreigners have been able to take this walk over the past 30 years due to the wars.

Lunch on Sunday was at a small French café near Chicken Road. The food was wonderful, fresh bread and homemade jam, the first decent coffee I’ve had in Afghanistan (I’ve been drinking tea when off Bagram). The compound contains an art gallery and as you enter the garden various carpets and kilims hang from the wall. Chicken Road used to be the hippie area of Kabul in the 60’s and 70’s. Now it is the antique area. I wish I’d have found out about it earlier. If I make it back here as a tourist in a few years it will be a necessary stop.

It’s been wonderful seeing Kabul in this manner. I visited a fantastic book shop with many English titles and even walked through a shopping mall. At the mall I had to check my weapon at the door. It was a bit disconcerting to be sure. Drop the mag, hand it over, receive a claim check. When I left I handed over my ticket and received my M9, then had to sign a receipt ledger. The mall was very modern. It has several floors of shops and the upper floors contain a hotel. If dropped off inside this place you would never guess you were in the heart of Kabul, war torn Kabul. This place is not at all what people are seeing on the news. It’s a shame. If these views were more prevalent in the West people might have more faith in the potential of Afghanistan.

Down to Single Digits

2009-07-21T21:03:00.001+04:30

My relief has arrived and we are turning over the position but I still can’t focus on my departure. Life is too busy here. People keep asking me if I’m excited. I tell them I’ll be excited when I step aboard the C17. This isn’t too unusual for me though. I’m the same way going on vacation. It’s a good trait, being able to avoid anticipation and maintaining some detachment.

Not everyone can break free of their environment so easily. A civilian gentleman in our office is in charge of food for all US Forces in Afghanistan. While pushing jet fuel is a challenge during the winter months, summer presents a challenge for food. Bill arrived about the same time as me but looks like he aged five years in these past six months. He has little real direct control of food deliveries. He is more of an information conduit and cares deeply about his job. I have seen him reduced to near tears by senior officers who have no leadership ability and no clue. He was so upset yesterday I was worried about his state of mind. All for a job that is 90% providing information on the situation. It’s the age old problem of shooting the messenger. Bill is going home a few days early and though he is upset I am glad. He doesn’t need this B.S. He was treated poorly.

Yesterday I was cashing a check in the finance office. I am generally in a good mood (when I’m not ranting) so I asked the cashier, an Army Specialist, “Are we having fun yet?” He told me “actually, no.” As it turns out he is in the first week of a 12 month tour and hates being at Bagram. I find this odd, and a little disturbing. I don’t understand people who join the military and then become upset at being deployed. If you don’t want to be sent to occasionally unpleasant places work at Wal-Mart, don’t join the armed forces for gods sake!

Then there is the PFC that went missing and was announced as captured by the Taliban. Reports of what happened have been contradictory. The latest is a video statement from PFC Bergdahl where he states he lagged behind on a patrol and was captured. This is possible, it’s also the best story for the Taliban to push, “young soldiers beware you are not safe even with your squad!” Initial reports from the Afghans indicated that he wandered away from his camp drunk, unarmed and without body armor. This story sounds more plausible to me although most people probably don’t want to hear that. It wouldn’t surprise me if a distraught PFC became drunk and wandered off. It would be an act of attempted suicide to be sure, but then suicide is not unusual in the Army today.

Suicide is something the Army is really struggling with right now. It is at record levels. At the same time, being strapped for personnel, the Army has cut entrance requirements and mobilized a large number of personnel from the inactive reserve. In most cases these are soldiers who had an active duty as well as reserve obligation under their enlistment contract. They finished their active stint and decided not to reenlist only to be brought back anyway. In general these are not very happy people.

It’s well past time the Military, and the Army in particular, worked to restore the leadership qualities it has lost over the past few decades. Too many senior officers direct subordinates to “Just get it done”, probably the most cowardly phrase in common use within the military. There is no hint that these officers have any inkling of what is required to get the particular job done and they certainly aren’t interested in providing any assistance in getting the job accomplished. It is a phrase that indicates a complete lack of leadership ability.

So to summarize: we have placed large numbers of poorly motivated soldiers in the hands of “leaders”, some of whom are worthless, to go fight in a foreign land most Americans couldn’t find on a map, even if it were labeled. We still have a chance to do good here but it’s difficult for me think about that right now. I’m too pissed off at seeing a good man reduced to tears by worthless “leaders”.

Short Timer

2009-07-16T20:46:00.004+04:30

I’m getting down to the wire here at Bagram. Within two weeks I depart for Kuwait. I miss home but I’m also going to miss Afghanistan. Kuwait, from my perspective, is kind of like purgatory. All us Navy types get shuttled through the “Warrior Transition Program” in Kuwait. We turn in our gear. Turn in our weapons. Listen to lectures and take survey’s all geared toward decompressing before heading back to the land of the big PX (the USA). It still seems odd to me that I’m being sent from beautiful Afghanistan where the temperature has been in the mid 90’s down to Kuwait and temps around 120F. Somehow the Navy feels this is preferable to flying us back to some point in the USA to accomplish these tasks. The only good part is that I’ll be able to turn in most of my gear, including my weapon and body armor before I have to lug them all the way to the USA.

Getting ready to transfer has made life even busier than normal. I’ve had to update all our Standard Operating Procedures work up a transition schedule and will be training my relief in all the various reports and analysis we perform. I’m going to try and work in another trip to Kabul as well. There are several projects we’ve just kicked off that are still in a planning stage so my relief should have an interesting start! Just to keep things really interesting I’m also helping to organize a Fire Safety meeting in the community that I live in back in the states, a short vacation and a long list of chores around the house. Somehow getting back to my civilian job is going to seem like a vacation.

I need to climb a mountain or two when I get home. It’s been frustrating being here in view of such beautiful mountains without access to them. Departing is made somewhat easier by all the airborne dust above the Shamali plain in June and July. The mountains that have teased me for the past six months are frequently barely visible now. Looking at them reminds me of LA back in the 60’s and 70’s. Luckily it doesn’t grab at you lungs the way the LA smog did.

Much as I am certain I’ll miss Afghanistan, I’ll be quite happy saying goodbye to the US Army, the 82’nd Airborne and piss poor contracts awarded to companies that survive off war profiteering. From a taxpayer standpoint this place can be infuriating. Of all the ranting and raving that’s carried on in the USA about entitlement programs wasting money, they don’t hold a candle to the amount of waste carried on in a war zone. To clarify, I am not speaking of war itself. War is terribly wasteful but some will defend a given war as vigorously as others defame it. I am speaking of all the needless waste caused by lack of leadership, lack of management acumen, lack of accountability. These are the things that should inflame the tax critics and conservatives. I find it curious that I don’t hear anything at all about this in the US media. Apparently the forces of fiscal accountability are asleep at the switch!

Things That Go BOOM!!!

2009-07-14T21:42:00.002+04:30

(or… “things you don’t tell your wife while you are away”)

9 Mar 09
The things you don’t tell your spouse…. When I was away from Bagram a car bomb went off near the post. It looks like they were attempting to target a convoy coming or going from Bagram. Not a big deal for anyone on the base but a pain in the ass for receipt of cargo and fuel. There has been a great deal of intel on attacks targeting the main gates with car bombs. Most of it is BS. I think a lot of local intel consists of conversations overheard of Afghans sitting around BS’ing about what they’re going to do. Not unlike Americans griping about the commies back in the day, much hot air, not much action.

One night at work we heard a loud, deep, boom. It sounded like a cargo container being dropped. As we wondered if it was a mortar the big voice came on and instructed Bagram that we were at an amber alert. This basically means no moving about base and a 100% muster of all personnel. When we were finally allowed to go back to our berthing area across base we discovered the alert was not being universally managed. We arrived at our berthing compound only to be ushered into a vehicle maintenance tent for another hour and a half. All this inconvenience was the result of a rocket attack. Three rockets were launched at the base. Two landed near isolated guard towers causing no damage. The third, the one we heard, landed on the roof of the prison. The funny thing is that an intel report from the prison indicated an attack would be forthcoming. Looks like they did a poor job of targeting! The base should have issued an immediate local press release claiming the rocket caused massive death and injuries to the prisoners. What the hell, why not have fun with propaganda? Only minor damage was done to the roof. No big deal.

Funny things is, these petty attacks don’t faze me at all. Should they? From my perspective, driving the freeways daily in LA exposes me to more danger. I certainly see more damage and injuries on a day to day basis. I heard about a mortar attack happening on Balad in Iraq the other day. A friend of mine was stationed there and told me how safe it was. This attack was out of the blue, killed 4 and injured a dozen when rounds hit a berthing area.

20 Mar 09
Next week the local bazaar will be closed, our fueling ops will cease and one corner of the base will be temporarily off limits to most personnel. Apparently they recently found a 500 lb bomb next to the base. I’m guessing it was found by the mine clearance team working to clear land for a fuel point by one of our suppliers. Funny how these things hide. The plan is to burn it up, hopefully without detonating it! I haven’t heard but I’m assuming it is an American bomb. We’ve been the only ones with a reason to drop 500lb bombs on Bagram. Funny how karma works.

I’m getting more attuned to the low frequency booms. It catches your attention when something goes off and the big voice hasn’t announced the Ariel Gunnery Range is hot or a controlled detonation is about to take place. That’s when here at Bagram. We heard one when driving around Kabul. You never know if it’s military practice or an IED. For some reason it still doesn’t bother me.

7 April
Every day I sit in on a briefing and one of the slides shows hostile actions throughout the Combined Joint Operating Area (CJOA for short). It’s only April and deaths occur a time or two each week. Not a lot given this is across the entire country. These deaths result from small arms fire, IED’s and indirect attacks (mortars and rockets). Generally the small arms attacks are against patrols in the countryside. The IED’s can be anywhere but are primarily in the south and east. The indirect attacks happen anywhere there is a concentration of military, any nationality, foreign, Afghan, doesn’t matter. These are usually poorly targeted. It’s lucky for us the VC are not running these attacks. As resourceful as the Afghans are they haven’t cracked the code on high trajectory weapons yet. This isn’t to say they don’t occasionally get lucky. But, given the number of drunk drivers on the PCH I’m guessing my odds are even up. Not bad. During one of the briefings last week I found out Bagram had been hit by a few rockets. It was news to me. They hit the Korean compound.

This year the Taliban Militia didn’t retreat across the Pakistan border, instead they went south for the winter. The area around Kandahar has been problematic for the past few months. It will be interesting to see how things change now that the weather is heating up. Spring is when the bad guy’s generally begin acting up in earnest.

2 May
Spring doesn’t just bring flowers in Afghanistan. It’s the beginning of ramped up combat operations by all sides. There were10 fallen comrades yesterday. Three Americans, 2 Latvians and 5 Afghans. The Americans had their farewell parade at Bagram a short while ago. They call it a Fallen Comrade Ceremony. All available personnel line both sides of Disney drive. There are uniforms at attention as for far as you can see. Today three Humvees drove by at a slow walk pace. The back of each held one casket draped with an American flag with members of the fallen soldier’s lining the troop seats on either side. This is how dead soldiers leave Afghanistan.

15 May
A couple of days ago a GI in Iraq went nuts and killed 5 other GIs in a clinic. I just found out that one of the victims was an officer I went to training in South Carolina with. Small world. It was a random event that could have happened nearly anywhere. A guy goes loony tunes and decides to take a few bystanders along for the ride. Unfortunately when someone cracks under stress in a war zone weapons and ammo are readily available and don’t raise any eyebrows where carried about. I don’t know many particulars of the event. I do know that combat stress is taking a significant toll on our armed forces. I read that 17% of the personnel deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have PTSD issues.

3 June
My assistant and I went to the DFAC (modern army term for chow hall) at the North end of Bagram. It’s the only DFAC that specializes. They cook BBQ. We go there every other week or so. It’s located near a bunch of tents used for personnel arriving in theater enroute to other FOBs, a small concession area, a PX and another DFAC. The BBQ DFAC is set up in a tent. It’s the smallest one on post and always has a line.

After waiting in line for five or ten minutes we were finally inside at the counter. Suddenly a deep whump sounded. MSG as I looked at each other and noted that there was no announcement over the big voice of a pending controlled detonation. A few seconds later there was another deep whump, then another, five in all by the time it finished. We were wondering if these were incoming or outgoing. I’ve never seen any indirect fire weapons here at Bagram.

We asked around later and were told that inbound mortars are not that uncommon at the north end of the post. They don’t announce them to avoid panic. I am amazed that as resourceful as the Afghans are they are so poor at aiming mortars. It’s a good thing they aren’t Vietnamese!

June 6th?
Sitting at a new DFAC we found on the East side of the base. It’s the cleanest galley we’ve eaten in here at bagram. A tent galley like I used to run back in Pohang, Korea but with vinyl floors. The food’s not bad, furniture is new, it’s in the middle of a tent city for the surge. So, we sit there eating when suddenly a loud WHUMP, the tent pushes in on itself, we feel the concussion and shortly after smell cordite. It definitely got our attention! We sat talking about the blast and waiting for another or an announcement, something, anything…. nothing happened. When we finished eating we asked a couple soldiers walking by if they knew what happened. They said it was a controlled detonation by the EOD team. Seemed odd as it was unannounced and the mine clearance activities on post are a good 1/8 mile away at the closest. Never a dull moment!

June 11th?
Tried to drive down to the BBQ DFAC again but traffic on Disney drive was insane. It just sat. So after putting up with that for about 10 minutes we turned around and ate at another DFAC. After lunch the traffic was just the same, stopped heading north as far as you could see. It remained that way for the entire day, one long line of stopped vehicles. No announcements. Later in the afternoon we had business at one of the Entry Control Points (ECP) and asked the officer in charge of the ECP if he knew what was happening. He told us he knew but couldn’t provide any details. But he did say he was hoping the standoff would be resolved peacefully? The next morning a white 747 with no markings except for a tail number and a white C130 with no markings at all were at Bagram. These were gone by that night.

Father’s Day June 21st 01:50
Woke up to an odd noise, it sounded like a shot and a ricochet followed by another shot. Just sharp pop sounds and that odd sing of metal thru air. I waited and listened but just heard a few voices through the wall of my Chu. About 15 minutes later I heard the Big Voice faintly in the distance. We don’t have speakers close to our berthing. So, I lay there trying to hear what the hell is being announced. Eventually I heard the personnel from AECOM walking around with bullhorns announcing an Amber Alert. I lay there debating weather to run through the drill. I decided not to be an ass, got up and dressed and went out for muster still not knowing precisely what had happened. To my surprise they sounded the all clear in about a half hour so I went back to my Chu and bed. The following morning we were off to Jalalabad for a site visit early and didn’t find out what had happened until we returned that afternoon. Apparently four 107 mm rockets were fired at Bagram. One hit off base. One was a dud and hit a fuel line at one of our fuel farms breaking the line but causing no other damage. Two landed near some B Huts killing two soldiers and wounding six (2 civilians, 4 military). Life at Bagram, interesting as always, but this time not in a good way.

June 25th
Another day another rocket attack. This one hit the fuel facility outside the base. Initial reports didn’t indicate any damage. The interesting part is that the rockets appeared to have flown completely across the base only to impact by the fuel farm. Thank god these dumbasses are such poor shots!

10 July 09
Last night as we slept the Commander who runs the Bagram Defense Reutilizationa dn marketing Organization or DRMO (essentially the base junk yard) was making coffee at about 3:30 AM. He suddenly heard a very strange noise outside his office. When he went outside to investigate he found a 107mm rocket motor still sputtering. EOD was called and they realized this rocket was missing its warhead. As far as I know they haven’t located the warhead yet. Back at our office we speculated that perhaps the Taliban knew the rocket was defective and were mearly attempting to turn it in to DRMO… makes sense to me!

12 July 09
Another night of funny noises. I was sleeping lightly and woke up by the big voice. I lay there trying to discern what it said. There aren’t any speakers in the compound I sleep in so it comes across faintly. Anyway I was laying there when the all too recognizable boom followed by the singing of shrapnel split the air. I lay waiting and 3 or 4 seconds later the second boom hit. No announcement, no alert, just silence for a time. Eventually the jets began spooling up engines as they worked on them. Apparently the rockets hit off-post. A 107 mm rocket makes a pretty distinct sound when it hits. I don’t imagine I’ll ever forget that noise.

It occurs to me that given the lack of understanding of these rockets by the dumb asses firing them we could easily thwart these attacks. One method would entail simply having a predator drone loiter over Bagram at night. A rocket launch would be easy to pick out on infrared. This would allow you to nail down the location of the launch and possibly catch the perpetrators. A more effective method would be to but a large quantity of Chinese or Russian 107 mm rockets and booby trap them. Then filter them back out into the local supply in Pakistan. After loosing a number of dumb asses who would then accidentally blow themselves up trying to set them up for launch would cause them to suspect all rockets. This brings two big bonuses. First you are guaranteed to kill dumb asses engaged in an act of war without endangering civilians. Second you see a drop in the number of rocket attacks as they come to understand they are unreliable and not worth the losses.

Good Ideas Deaf Ears

2009-07-12T09:42:00.000+04:30

It’s not too difficult to find really good ideas in this country. All you need do is listen to the people around you. I have heard some fantastic ideas from Afghans as well as several from collation force members. I’ll bring up a few here just to give them some air. I don’t pretend to think anyone in a position to implement would pay any attention. Such is life.

An Afghan who has worked with both NGO’s and the military pointed out the fatal flaw in using local Afghan’s for advisors. All too often they have local allegiances that overshadow their role. Many of the attacks on villages that have resulted in high civilian casualty counts were the result of intentionally poor advice. What better way to settle a score in a war zone? His solution: use Afghan nationals but move them to unfamiliar parts of the country. They will still be effective at communicating but will have a more objective view without any local ties to color their loyalties. A former Special Forces member had another take on this point. Apparently we don’t keep translators for very long. Odd given all the clearance they have to get to qualify for the job. He recommended we pay them more and guarantee them longer contracts or favored immigration/work visa status.

A former Mujahideen Commander had several suggestions. He pointed out that Night Vision Goggles and other high tech gear including MilSpec GPS systems are openly available in several local bazaars. He bought one and tried to get the US Forces to take action but got nowhere. I’ve seen this same claim about Pakistani bazaars. Makes sense to me, where else would a thief sell all the items stolen in transit to coalition forces? This same gentleman told me how he had been negotiating with Egyptian Clerics to declare that the fight in Afghanistan is not a jihad. This is significant because Egypt is still a key center of religious authority. If they declared that Afghanistan was not a jihad the Taliban would loose a significant number of their foreign fighters as well as local fighters. President Karzai replaced this man on the project and it fizzled. Karzai is a Pashtun, the Commander is a Tajik.

One item that is finally happening, I met an Afghan woman who returned to the country when we invaded and has been working for either the military, government or NGO’s ever since. This is a very brave path to choose for an Afghan woman, especially one who could easily have remained in the USA. She told me a few months ago that US Forces were now producing information packets specific to geographical areas. These have detailed information on the local tribes, villages, customs, etc. These are for small geographic areas, Konar valley for example. To win in Afghanistan you cannot paint with a broad brush. You have to understand the local issues at a very granular level. The first step is understanding the basic cultural and political terrain. This woman plays a key part of that.

There has been a great deal of speculation as to General McCrystal’s plan. He is now the top dog in country. Many have speculated that he will say one thing to the press and direct his commanders to do another. I haven’t followed it closely but I have read his guidance to his top commanders. For this first time protecting civilians is the #1 priority. If followed, that alone will go a long way toward settling things in this wild land. I am of the opinion this is not one organized insurgency as the press likes to sell it. To be fair to the press it makes for an easier story if you treat it as a cohesive effort by evil Muslim hoards. I’ve seen enough of the politics in this country and watched the population though. I see this as a number of lawless players. There are Taliban, the Hezb-e Islami, local warlords, drug kingpins and common criminals. This is not a classic insurgency. This is an insurgency combined with a fragmented country that lacks a charismatic leader to pull it all together. I do think we can defeat the Taliban. I don’t believe we can force a solution for all the countries ills. That is for the Afghan people to decide. It likely won’t be pretty. It will probably piss off a lot of westerners who believe they know best (in the best colonial spirit). Like it or not the future of Afghanistan rests ultimately with the Afghans.

Valley of the Five Lions

2009-07-07T20:24:00.012+04:30

I was particularly fortunate to go on one trip recently. We took a day trip to the Panjshir Valley. This is the birthplace of Masoud, the only place in Afghanistan to repeatedly repulse the Russian onslaught. This valley also resisted the Taliban and was the birthplace of the Northern Alliance. This place has seen some of the most brutal fighting in the past 30 years. The Russians sent in armored columns and carpet bombed in nine separate campaigns but never conquered it. You might think that a place so embroiled in combat over 25 years might be a depressing place to visit. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Panjshir is a beautiful valley and one of the only places I’ve been in Afghanistan where smiling people are commonplace. This is the region where lapis Lazuli, gold and emeralds are mined. The Panjshir comprises the main valley and numerous smaller valleys that branch off of it. I’m told if you follow the valley to its end you enter the Wakhan, that long sliver of land that ends at China. This is a special place.

We were traveling with Commander Moslem. He had been one of Massoud’s bodyguards and local commander in the war against the Russians. This was a fascinating chance to see this beautiful place, still festooned with abandoned Russian heavy equipment, with a guide responsible for most of that equipment’s destruction. The Russians lost somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 pieces of equipment in the Panjshir, tanks, BMPs, BTRs, heavy trucks, cannons, etc. At times the Panjshir River became chocked with the dead of both sides. In the end the Russians stopped offensive actions to cut their losses.

The people of the Panjshir are mostly Tajik. They look different from the population of the Shamali plain (between Bagram and Kabul). Lighter skin and eyes predominate. Many will tell you the green eyes and lighter skin are the remnants of Alexander the Great’s army. I’ve no idea if that is true but the people of the Panjshir do look different.

To enter the valley you must pass through a very narrow gorge. The road sticks impossibly to the side of the cliff right above the raging Panjshir river. It would make one hell of a kayak run, but you’d have to be pretty damn good, there are no take out spots and the rapids are long and wild. When the gorge opens up again the valley remains narrow in most spots with very fertile farmland at the floor. They were harvesting wheat when we visited. They still cut it by hand, bundle it up and pack it on donkeys to transport it to be threshed. Interspersed among the fields are rusting tanks and other pieces of equipment. I wished I had a proper camera and more time. The mountainsides are various shades of brown and grey. Flowers gave them a purple cast from the distance. Down along the river were trees covered with pink blooms. The wheat fields alternated between bright green and gold.

We stopped at the memorial being built for Massoud. This is on a prominent hill at one end of a wide point in the valley. In addition to what will one day be an impressive monument, there are large photos of Massoud and a collection of Russian armor. This was also the site of a significant battle. Commander Moslem pointed out the sector he defended and told us of friends who were caught by landmines. During the worst of the war the civilians were all evacuated to neighboring valleys and the Mujahideen laid ambushes throughout the villages. At other times they abandoned the valley floor to the Russians and took to the high ground. To look at these mountainsides it is easy to imagine how invisible they must have been to the poor Russians below!

At the far end of this particular valley is Massoud’s home. The house he was born in has been added onto and the property has a large garden designed by Massoud. It looks across this lovely valley, his memorial at the far end. The garden is such a peaceful place with such a serene view. It’s difficult to imagine carpet bombing and armored columns fouling this scene. My heart goes out to these people. I sincerely hope the peace in this region holds and grows. I want to come back to the Panjshir as a civilian. I want to meet back up with Commander Moslem and hike the mountains. This is a magical place that holds me in captivated.

Rest and Relaxation on the Shamali Plain

2009-07-04T20:53:00.008+04:30

Here in Afghanistan we are allowed a four day pass every six months to travel down to Qatar for R&R. The problem is that four days in Qatar frequently becomes two weeks away. The extra time is spent in air terminals getting bumped off various flights. I don’t have much patience for such silliness. Well that and the fact that the R&R is still on a US base. Swimming pools with a Chili’s restaurant just don’t do it for me. I’m not into paying to go on a field trip to shop or go to the beach. Let’s think about this, the beach, in the gulf, in the summer, in 120 degrees plus. I’ll pass.

So what do I do for some R&R? I take little field trips to Kabul or the Panjshir Valley. It’s amazing how a short trip away, if even a short overnight can recharge you. Kabul for all its current dirt and decay is still a worthwhile sightseeing trip. While there is still considerable battle damage from the civil war there has also been extensive rebuilding. I was told that during the Taliban years a drought persisted in Afghanistan. The reservoir on the outskirts of the city was empty. Now it is full again. The restaurant on its edge is once again in full business in all its 60’s funky glory. Back before the country began to devolve Kabul was a party town with multiple cinemas, places to drink and eat a beautiful, quaint place for the occasional tourist. It is still far from its heyday, but it now has a couple of shopping plazas several very nice restaurants and a bar or two if you know where to look. Most of the patrons are still westerners but not all. While reports in the West may have you thinking this is a very devout country full of radical’s it is not. True enough that in the villages people are suspicious of outsiders. You would be to after 30 years of war. But most of the Afghans I deal with in a business relationship are not devout. They don’t pray 5 times a day and are likely as I to drink. Their view of Islam differs dramatically from that of the Taliban. This is a very diverse country. Drive from Bagram to Kabul and you will pass truck drivers, local villagers and herders, nomad families, businessmen, each of these groups has very different needs and likely a very different outlook on life. I’ve been told by SOF guys I know that even villages in the same valley differ dramatically, one will be pro-government and the next pro-Taliban.

So, what do I do for a little R&R? I travel Afghanistan about in civilian vehicles wearing civilian clothes playing the tourist. It’s relaxing and refreshing. It’s a view of this place I wish more people were privy to. I like this place.

Local Humanity… war, the mixing pot

2009-07-01T20:55:00.003+04:30

It’s interesting to see who shows up when you throw a war. I’m not talking about the soldiers who sign up for myriad different reasons. Nor am I talking about the DOD civilians who volunteer to come along for the financial perks. I have spent the last five months looking at the civilians who work for various contractors supporting this effort. The conflict in Afghanistan and by implication all the third and fourth world conflicts around the globe draw an interesting mix. Bagram is primarily run by a gooup of contractors. While there are more local nationals on base here than you might find in Iraq most of the hired help is from other countries. You’ll find people from the USA working for various contractors. A good many of them are former military who like the civilian pay and freedoms. This is common in the fuel community. Walk around Bagram and you’ll see large numbers of Sikhs, Kyrgyz, Ukrainians, Slavs, Filipinos, etc. Having grown up in the Navy during the cold war it’s a bit disconcerting hearing Russian spoken and seeing Russian aircraft landing on base. There are a good many supporting companies that are located off post as well. These also tend to be heavily staffed by expats. Aussies, Brits, Scotts, Norwegians, Americans and others. Many of these people have served in other conflict areas as well, the Balkans, Sudan.

One of the people I’ve met was raised in Rhodesia during the Bush Wars. He lived on a farm and at the age of 8 was firing an FN assault rifle in defense of his home. He also worked is Sudan and narrowly avoided being killed by the Janjawid a time or two. For him this place in no big deal for him. Another of my acquaintances is a former LCDR in the Norwegian navy and spent a great deal of time in the Balkans moving fuel there as well. I also met a Brit who worked for the Halo Trust removing mines from Afghanistan.

It’s an interesting mix, all these people so far from home, accepting of being in strange lands, socializing with other expats. We went out drinking in Kabul with one of our business partners and at the end of the evening he told me how nice it was to be around fellow Americans for the evening. He missed being able to joke and laugh. Humor often doesn’t translate well.

I suppose the strangest thing for me is the realization that I have more in common with this odd group of expats than I do with most my fellow soldiers, sailors and airmen.

Jet Fuel Mobile Homes

2009-07-01T18:53:00.003+04:30

The drivers in this corner of the planet are an interesting bunch. By Afghan standards they are paid pretty well. It’s not an easy gig though, and often difficult, dirty and dangerous. Drivers here carry spare parts and fix their own trucks. Not like spare fan belts and filters, I’m talking pistons and rods, serious stuff. They are shot at. Bombs are placed on their trucks. Some of the roads are a long slow slog. Drive 50 feet up a steep hill, wait 10 minutes then another 50 feet. A drive that takes 40 minutes in a car can take 6 or more hours in a truck. They live in their trucks as well. Not like American truckers spending lots of time the cabs of their Peterbuilts and Kenworths. These trucks don’t have a regular sleeper cab. These trucks are not 16 wheelers. Afghanistan also lacks truck stops. There are dirt lots walled off for drivers to stop for the night in a few places. They also just park on the roadside to rest. They sleep in their cabs. It’s not unusual to see them cooking or making tea right next to their truck. This is a bit disturbing when it’s a fuel truck. In the space of four days, in two separate incidents we have had drivers decide to cook in the cab of their truck. I’m sure it’s more common than just these two. They just set themselves apart. They use kerosene (jet fuel) fueled stoves to cook and make tea. We know about this habit because the two drivers in question accidentally set fire to their trucks. In both cases the truck was a write off and the adjacent truck was also damaged. One unfortunate driver was sleeping in the cab when his friend set fire to the cab. The cook received burns; the sleeping driver received a cremation. Not a good way to meet your end in a country without life insurance. Many of the trucks have fire extinguishers inside. Unfortunately, if the drivers use them the trucking company charges them a recharge fee. To avoid the fee the drivers will try to put out the fire with clothes, hands or anything else sitting around. This results in burns to their hands and upper arms. The fire extinguisher remains intact but as we have seen some drivers do not. Life is cheap in the fourth world.

State Department Droids

2009-06-25T20:22:00.000+04:30

The American Embassy in Kabul is more like walking into the twilight zone than anywhere I have ever been… and I’ve been to some pretty strange places. The streets of Kabul are dirty and chaotic. Once you gain access to the barricaded street the Embassy sits on there is the heavily controlled access point. Although I am in the military, because I was in civilian clothes, I wasn’t allowed to carry my Beretta into the Embassy. We found this out after setting off the metal detector and annoying the civilian guards. It seemed odd from the get go seeing civilians controlling access rather than Marines. So, once we make it through the comedy section at the gate we walk out into a science fiction movie set. The Embassy building is mustard colored. Elsewhere on the grounds are housing for staff, a swimming pool, tennis courts, lots of lawn (a rarity in Afghanistan), and flower beds full pf Pansies… how very appropriate for State Dept personnel. Everything is scrupulously clean and manicured. It’s a veritable Stepford community!

It would be no less dramatic to step through the looking glass. I understand the Embassy is meant to be a small slice of Americana but it comes across more as a caricature of Americana. The movie Demolition Man springs to mind.

War Heroes and Martinis Downtown Kabul

2009-06-20T20:47:00.006+04:30

Kabul is a fascinating city. It isn’t for the weak of heart though. One of the first sights that jumped out at me while we were driving through downtown was the droves of school girls. It was 5:00 PM and we must have been near a large school. There were all these young girls in black dresses with white head scarves. It’s good to se so many kids attending school.

The large number of police check points can be a bit intimidating until you realize the security is being stepped up ahead of the elections. There are 41 candidates but only two are considered really in the running. Election posters are everywhere; even the minarets are not immune. People talk openly about them, again a good sign.

The UN has a very heavy presence in Kabul. I’m not sure where they are headquartered but there are a large number of UN trucks scooting about the streets. They are always painted white with UN painted in blue or black in two foot tall letters on the doors and hood. You generally don’t see them parked. I’ve no idea where so many of them could be going or what purpose they are serving.

I wrote before about women in burkas. That was way up in Khulum and Samangan. They had an ethereal look with the breeze blowing their bright blue fabric behind them. In Kabul not many women wear burkas. Most are in dresses with head scarves. A few wear jeans. The burkas I saw in Kabul were different. First I noticed the blue was more subdued, then that they seemed to be cut higher in front. I’m guessing this makes it easier to walk about. The most interesting thing is to look at their feet. Most of these women wore heels, and very nice slacks. An odd contrast to be sure.

The streets in Kabul are in pretty bad shape, dirty, some unpaved, rough and uneven. On one street a large group of goats was tearing through trash. The next day I saw the same goats in the same place but there were three men opening bags of trash for them. I suppose this in inner city grazing. There are a few nice looking shops but generally it all looks pretty dingy. One large section near downtown in walled off and barricaded. This is where the embassies, a few military posts and some government ministries are. A few days before we came to town a demonstration of 300 people was held to protest these street closures. Having key streets blocked off makes traffic in Kabul even crazier. I’m told the traffic here is not unlike Cairo. Above the city is Babar’s fort dating to the 15th century. The city wall dates to the 5th century. If it weren’t for the current strife this would be way up on my list of vacation spots. I regret only having a point and shoot camera here. I did stumble across a great web site with photos of Kabul from the 1970’s before all hell broke loose: http://avalon.unomaha.edu/afghan/index.htm

Both nights I was in town we went out to eat. The nicer places to go in Kabul are marked, if at all, with a small sign. They have doors that look as if they should lead to an alley or hovel. When you enter there are metal detectors and guards in the entryway. Once you clear all the security it’s like stepping through the looking glass. Wonderful places that look all the world like restaurants and bars in Bali, Cuzco or Buenos Aries. The first night was at a Lebanese restaurant with a large grassy garden with tables set out. I was introduced to one distinguished Afghan in traditional pakol hat, obligatory vest and scarf. He was very polite and friendly and quite likeable. I was told later that during the war with Russia and after he was provided extensive western military training and had been Massoud’s right hand man. He reminded me very much of the General I met in Hairaton a few months ago. Both came across thoughtful and gentle. These are genuine war heroes who have seen the worst of combat. They now carry themselves with the air of statesmen. It gives me hope for this land. The second night we went to an Italian restaurant and afterwards a bar. Life is pretty good when you can sit and drink martinis in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan. There are a great number of western contractors, NGO personnel and wealthy locals that frequent these places. The military rarely make it off the FOB’s and bases to see this side of Afghanistan. It’s a shame we keep them bottled up, segregated, sanitized. They serve their tours and never really know where they were.

Life on the Shamali Plain

2009-06-19T22:06:00.008+04:30

The road to Kabul has changed dramatically in the few months since I last took it. The road itself is still in very poor shape, but the landscape has transformed. Back in February I would have bet nothing ever grew on that barren dirt expanse. Now there is a carpet of green interspersed with wheat fields and occasional groups of purple thistles. The nomads who were below the Kabul gorge have moved onto the foothills between Bagram and Kabul city. They tend their flocks of goats with donkeys and camels wandering around their encampments.

Closer to Kabul we came on the brick kilns, black smoke drifting down the valley from the tires they burn as fuel. This is the cottage industry in the valley. As we drove along there are a number of walled compounds that appear empty. These are basically land claims. The Afghan’s are prolific wall builders. Find a little spot you want just build a wall around it. These are almost always a square or rectangle. Not the greedy grab of all available land that one might expect. It makes for good business for the kilns. All but a very few walls are made of the mud bricks they produce.

Shops outside Kabul look like roadside shops in so much of the 3rd world. Small cinder block or mud shells crammed full of stuff for sale, sodas, snacks. These seem to cater to the road traffic, mostly truckers. Closer in we come into the industrial area of Kabul. I’ve been here before. This is a place of fuel farms, factories, trucking firms, military posts. Eventually we ended up on the main road into town. Traffic is crazy by western standards. One of my Afghan colleagues said that while in most of the world pedestrians are afraid of vehicles, in Afghanistan the reverse is true. It’s an odd place to travel. We even saw a cyclist riding toward traffic in between lanes. No concern on his face.

The presidential election is in August and the security in Afghanistan is being stepped up considerably. There are numerous police checkpoints all around Kabul. They pull cars seemingly at random to check credentials. We were even stopped once or twice. An Afghan driver in a suit and tie, two westerners dressed like contractors in a black Lexus LX570, so much for profiling the Taliban. The heart of Kabul is not so very different from other cities in much of the world. They have small supermarkets, malls, car dealers, butcher shops with dressed lambs hanging for inspection, fruit peddlers with carts pushing their way along with the cars.
It’s quite impressive how much reconstruction has taken place in Kabul. This city was ground zero during the civil war between the Taliban and Northern Alliance. A good deal of the city no longer bears the scars of war, because it’s new. The old Soviet built apartment blocks are a notable exception. Heavily bullet pock marked. You get an idea just how fierce the fighting was. One of the few complaints about Ahmad Shah Massoud was that during the civil war he freely shelled Kabul after loosing it to the Taliban. Even so, there is a large monument to him on the outskirts of the diplomatic area of Kabul.

I feel fortunate having the opportunity to travel about like a civilian. Moving about anonymously, rather than up armored and in full battle rattle, allows you to get much closer to Afghanistan. I like this country. I like these people. I hope to return one day.

Mud - Tech

2009-06-15T20:43:00.004+04:30

One of our fuel suppliers is expanding their storage. We drop by every week or two to check the progress. The last time we visited they were building quarters for the work crew that will be building the fuel tanks. They were building typical Afghan mud houses, the first I’ve seen during construction. I am guessing this is the same construction method used since the time of Abraham. They were building them against an existing wall to save effort. When we arrived they were nearly complete and were “plastering”.

On this wide valley between the Panjshir and Kabul wood is scarce as are large rocks and clay. The only readily available building material is dirt. This is not like the dirt I played in as a kid. The dirt here is as fins as talcum powder and when the mud from it dries it’s not unlike concrete. I’ve seen the kilns they make bud bricks in near Kabul but I had no idea how the actual construction was done. One of the workmen mixed mud with straw into a soupy paste and then put it in a wheelbarrow. Other workers took handfuls of the mix and threw it at the wall of the building and spread it in place. Another man used a short board to smooth large sections of the wall. The roof consists of beams made of small trees (about 4 in dia.) and presumably matting and more mud. The roof mud is mixed with more straw than that on the walls. I didn’t have the opportunity to look inside.

It was fascinating to watch. The only difference between what I saw and what would have happened 2,000 or more years ago is the type of tools used. Now steel trowels and boards cut with saws are used. Other than that, why change a good system?

Pink Belts and Boonie Hats

2009-06-12T20:59:00.000+04:30

The 82nd Airborne are in town and times they are a changing! Life in the military is partly comprised of regulations based on personal whim, ego and misplaced priorities. We received notification recently of several changes to the rules at Bagram for military personnel living on post. Here are a few of my favorites:

Boonie hats are not authorized. Now the Navy issued me two of these floppy sun hats at Fort Jackson. Apparently protection from the sun is not on the agenda for the 82nd. Too bad your tax dollars bought these items I am not allowed to use.
Sunglasses are not to be worn during physical exercise. Gee, I guess to you like jogging windy days are now off limits. It’s been dryer lately as summer approaches, windier too. The dirt in Afghanistan is like talcum powder. This is not an exaggerated analogy either. It really is that fine. When the dust is blowing it can get pretty unpleasant if you aren’t wearing eye protection. But apparently the 82nd places looks above safety. Go Army!
Reflective belts shall only be yellow, orange or blue. Got that. No pink reflective belts! None whatsoever. Now just so you know, every one of these colors are issued. Apparently the pink belts are offensive to some senior officer. This is my favorite little piece of stupidity. I personally don’t wear my reflective belt at all. We are supposed to wear them in periods of reduced visibility. I believe it is because they are trying to cut down on vehicle accidents. Now I’m just an ignorant navy type but it occurs to me that if I were a bad guy looking to do ugly things to soldiers, I’d use cover of darkness to shoot at a few bright reflective belts! From an esthetic standpoint a reflective belt over a camouflage uniform is an oxymoron at best.

I can’t help but be amazed at just how much this place is a soup sandwich.

Fraud, Waste and Abuse

2009-06-05T20:40:00.007+04:30

NOTE: The following information is aggravating. In an attempt to soften the impact I’ve decided to post some photos of local flowers. These have nothing directly to do with this post. Now that that point is cleared up please read on….

Waste fraud and abuse is the catch phrase for tax payers dollars needlessly squandered. There are mechanisms to report this… or I should say there were mechanisms to report this. Problem is, after seeing what has happened over the past 10 years I have no faith in those processes and procedures. Call me jaded if you will, I think of it as realism.

There is rampant stupidity in command decisions here at all levels. I’m told to wear body armor standing behind six foot thick dirt walls because of an imaginary fence line (the real line is the dirt wall… duhh!). Then I drive home (no body armor) along the perimeter road separated from any would be bad guys by a chain link fence. There are lines of up-armored Freightliner trucks sitting idle because someone forgot to order spare parts. Rather than designate a half dozen trucks for cannibalization should the need arise before the spares arrive they all sit. Up-armored, idle, unable to protect anyone. We have enough living containers and tents inbound in support of the surge to house twice the entire military presence in Afghanistan. These are being flown in rather than using surface transport. What the hell, it’s only US tax dollars.

Speaking of tax dollars, we are about to finish up a brand new facility for uploading and downloading fuel tankers. This project costing millions was engineered in the states. We have come to find out it was designed for stateside tankers as well. Tankers in the US have four inch download fittings and are designed to gravity download. Tankers in Asia use two or three inch fittings and are downloaded using pumps. Given the volume of trucks we process the ability to up and download at the same time is important. It’s too bad then that someone nixed one of the two pipelines between this facility and the fuel farm. The end result is that after spending a huge sum we are about to open a facility we won’t be able to use. Now that is a bit harsh. Allow me to soften the blow. We are about to open a state of the art facility that is less efficient than the ad hoc facility now in use. All of this because the designer ignorantly assumed the world at large was just like America!

The biggest insult here at Bagram is the situation at the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO). Now in the states DRMO is where you turn in gear you don’t need or that is worn out. Units can pick up items from DRMO for free. It’s a great place to use as a supply source. I’ve outfitted a warehouse in Calif. with equipment from DRMO. All of it was free issue in great shape, probably saved tax payers $200K. If no one needs it and the equipment has military use DRMO will de-mil it, basically they destroy it. If the item can be sold, vehicles, ovens, tools, etc. they sell it at auction. It the item is scrap they sell that at auction as well. So, you may well ask why is all that a problem. As it goes, here at Bagram things work a bit differently. People in this theater, turn in lots of unused material. They turn in brand new engines, transmissions, tires, tools, pumps, generators, etc. In addition many damaged vehicles get turned in. These are MRAPS and up–armored Hunvees that are battle damaged. While partially destroyed these vehicles still have tons of vital parts in useable condition. Now, given that DRMO’s title contains the word “reutilization” one would think this is a great source for parts to get vehicles back on line for the war effort. You would think that but you would be wrong. The problem is that the contractor hired to run this operation is paid to keep the yard clear of items and to process scrap. So, the other day they took a plasma torch and cut nice little holes in a brand new truck transmission costing over $45,000. The box this tranny was in was still factory sealed (about a $2K box by the way). This was clearly waste, not fraud or abuse though because some idiot wrote the contract that is being executed by Taos, the DRMO contractor. It’s just like our fuel facility. Some bozo without a clue, sitting in the states, without any idea where Afghanistan even is wrote the contract. Does anyone else see a problem here?

The DRMO issue is particularly disturbing because we have also contracted out vehicle maintenance. AMC contracted AECOM to do that. The contractor doing that job is off the hook as long as parts are on order. It doesn’t matter if a vehicle is projected to be down for 400+ days! In many cases the required part is available at DRMO but the mechanic has no reason to go look. After all, why do more work than is required to satisfy the contract? As much as this attitude annoys me I can only get upset with the contracting officer that wrote such a flawed contract.

We have a Navy storekeeper in my office whose job it is to expedite parts. He has successfully identified and placed millions of dollars of parts from DRMO into the hands of units that need them. This isn’t his job. He does it because units need vehicles repaired. From his perspective why wait for a new part from the US if one is a available a half mile away? He is looking at the big picture, get the vehicle repaired no matter the parts source. I see him come into the office at times ready to explode because an item he is trying to get to a customer has already been de-milled. The Taos contractors who run DRMO seem to believe every item they see requires destruction with a plasma torch. Tires, vehicles, computers, there isn’t much that isn’t fun to cut up with a plasma torch!

This is the situation we are in now that we have contracted out so many basic support functions. I’ll put this in perspective, short and sweet. We are paying contractors to destroy items desperately needed by our war fighters. To put it another way, American tax dollars are being spent to degrade the effectiveness of the US military. Does that piss you off?

A Little Dose Will Do Ya

2009-05-30T21:50:00.000+04:30

Getting prescriptions in the military is pretty simple. I has allergy problems and neither Claritan nor Zyrtec did anything. A quick trip to the clinic and I’ve got a big bottle of Allegra. The best part is, it helps. It’s a good idea to do some of your own research though. Many of the doctors in the military join to avoid traditional residency. As a result many are not yet board certified. Now I don’t know how much this impacts on drug policy but it doesn’t hurt to hedge your bets.

Here in Afghanistan malaria meds are mandatory. I was given Doxycycline as my malaria prophylaxis. I wasn’t too fond of it. Eat one on a nearly empty stomach and feel seasick, not fun. So anyway I was picking up allergy tablets and decided to ask about different malaria meds. They handed me Mefloquine so I promptly went online to look into it. I found a great site for travel medicine (www.traveldoctor.co.uk). I discovered that Doxycycline is only approved for use up to 6 months. Guess what, guys here for a year have been given… yup, you got it Doxycycline!

It reminded me of the stink over Anthrax shots. It was in and out of the courts for years. Eventually a judge rules that enough shots had been given to military members (many illegally and or under protest) that it had been effectively tested for general use!

Just call me guinea pig! I can’t even recall all the vaccinations I’ve been given. I know there’s been Yellow Fever, Typhoid Fever, Cholera, Anthrax, Smallpox (yes that disease confined to US and Russian labs since the early 70’s) and who all knows what else. I’m pretty much set to hang out in any hellhole Uncle thinks the press won’t visit. When you sign on the line it really should be in blood. You really do agree to die if asked. Kinda weird. Very weird that I find myself writing this. Whod a thunk it!

Business and Politics

2009-05-26T20:31:00.006+04:30

One of our carriers visited me today. He showed me documents that caused him concern. The copy that his driver presented to him was different than the one the military processed for payment. Funny thing, on his copies the fuel delivered was greater than on the government’s copies. It was pretty obvious to me but being polite in such circumstances takes the ability to hold a straight face. On his copies twos had been changed to sevens, zeros to nines, etc. I politely pointed this out but told him I would look into the issue further. I think it was all a ploy to fish for additional business. Near the end of the meeting he began asking about other types of transport jobs. Alas I only control fuel. This is such an odd business environment. It doesn’t help that US government contracting officers are so incompetent. Many of the problems we have here result from poorly written and poorly managed contracts. People think they can sit behind a desk in DC and write a relevant contract for Afghanistan. Sorry, but I’m here to tell you, it can’t be done! They need to make significant changes when contracting for this theater. I’ll throw in my two cents when I out brief a few months from now but I don’t honestly expect any of it to change. It’s not that I’m jaded, I’m just realistic. Well OK and a bit jaded!

The business environment here for importers necessarily involves the Afghan central government as well. I don’t have much direct interaction there but one of my buddies does. This may surprise the average American. A number of Afghan Gove officials are funded by USAID. That’s correct kiddies your tax dollars pay to run the Afghan government. Now if all ran well that might be excusable. If all ran well. The various government ministries routinely work at cross purposes to each other. This hampers bringing military supplies into the country I can only imagine the impact on commercial goods. Many of these same USAID paid government “servants” also actively solicit bribes. Now that’s an interesting concept. The US Govt. pays them and in addition they try to solicit bribes from the US Govt. Come to Afghanistan, step through the looking glass!

As much as I love the Afghan people, I don’t hold out much hope for the broken, puppet government we have installed. I do feel the country still holds promise but not if politically modeled after modern America. The central governments of Afghanistan have always had limited reach. America’s ethnocentric view of the country resulted in supporting a strong central government, central police force and strong military force. Not to piss in anyone’s popcorn but these concepts are foreign to Afghanistan. It’s time to suck it up and learn the way Afghanistan functions if we want to succeed here. The tribal regions of Pakistan have much more in common politically with Afghanistan than does America. We should be doing everything we can to bring peace at the village level and providing them the means to maintain that peace. Not an easy task. This country has typically existed as a loose confederation of villages, tribes and provinces. Gee, sounds a bit like the founding of the US doesn’t it? Strong states and a weak central government. I find it amusing that an avowedly conservative US Administration chose to ignore the conservative ideal of America (strong states weak central powers) when modeling their new and improved Afghanistan. Rather than building up the provinces they threw everything at the central government staffed by their own lackeys. Is it any wonder the government isn’t working here?

I am a military officer and businessman by training, not a politician, not a political scientist. So if you feel I shouldn’t be offering advice for the future of Afghanistan feel free to stop reading now.

This is a country of very tight local ties and very loose national ones. This is not America or Europe or Iraq. This is Afghanistan and needs an Afghan system. We (the West) need to quit assuming we know what is best for the world at large. We don’t! The solution here is to fix the infrastructure, work on education and encourage trade. Forget the government entirely! If we enable a working economy, a self sustaining economy, the people of Afghanistan will act like people everywhere. They will work and feed their families and worry about their children. Movement of goods encourages movement of ideas. Education encourages movement of ideas as well. Steer clear of teaching anything remotely religious. Teach Pashto, Dari, mathematics and economics, biology, environmental studies, etc. If the children are raised to recognize their inherent interdependence on one another the next generation will be less inclined to go to war. If the economy is functioning the government will evolve. Anyone recall how long America went without a functioning central government? There was a six year gap between the end of the American Revolution and start of Washington’s presidency. Did anyone have to force a government on us? My point is simple. Afghanistan is a wonderful land full of resources, amazingly resourceful people and a rich history spanning millennia. Afghanis given the opportunity to live in relative peace and pursue a livelihood will evolve their own government. It may not be what we envision but then it’s not our government to live under, is it!

Every Day is Exactly the Same… sort of

2009-05-19T21:26:00.002+04:30

Monotony can make life much easier. No need to think much about schedules. Every day repeats itself. Hours blur into days blur into weeks blur into months. The time slides by. The funny thing is how even chaotic and very high paced jobs can feel monotonous at times. Working without a break contributes to that. Life at Bagram is punctuated by the Crisis De Jour the odd personnel change an occasional trip. This might all sound odd given my last post. The truth is that monotony (at least in my head) does not necessarily equate to boredom. My life has become monotonous many aspects of my job have as well but my job can also be quite interesting.

mo·not·o·nous --------adj.
1. Sounded or spoken in an unvarying tone.
2. Tediously repetitious or lacking in variety.

I had to pull up the definition to make sure I wasn’t completely off the mark. The second definition: “Tediously repetitious” is right on the mark. Even the odd crisis become repetitious. It’s a very odd way to exist. I don’t bring this up as a complaint. It is more of an observation. Much of it is my own doing. Get up, exercise a bit, shower, phone home, off to work. Work is full of reports, spot checks, crisis interventions, analysis then it’s back to the chu (my converted ocean container) on the computer, phone home, sleep repeat. Time goes quickly. Life on the outside continues, jobs change, kids go to school, neighborhoods meet, all in a parallel universe. Cest le vie.

I lost my assistant. He went back to his job in Europe. There was a week gap before his replacement arrived. From a work standpoint I now have to do the entire job while I train my new assistant. Personnel changes make such a difference at work. The level of performance isn’t the biggest impact. The personality change is. My last assistant was so very different from most people I know. Of European decent, raised in South America born an American, he is a practical joker, stubborn, bright, funny. All in all he was a great companion in this very odd existence. Now I have to get used to someone very different. This is Navy life. People are always coming and going. I don’t know that you ever really get used to it but you adapt to it all the same.

When the new guy is up to speed I need to take a trip. Even a short jaunt to Kabul would be helpful. I need to recharge. It’s funny, spending too much time here on Bagram I can feel the “us or them” mentality creeping into me. I think of road trips and I get a tiny bit apprehensive. That apprehension is new. It’s bad. It’s caused by the unknown. I need to reconnect with Afghanistan off the FOB, out of the up-armored metal beast. I need to be back on the road like a tourist. An Afghan friend of mine recently went for a long hike on the old Kabul city wall. I’m going to ask him to take me. It’s older than the Great Wall of China. What a crime to bring so many foreigners into such a storied and ancient land only to keep them pinned up on a FOB. I don’t like being fenced in.

Eating Stress for Breakfast

2009-05-14T18:48:00.006+04:30

NOTE: This specific posting is not about the Afghan people. This is not about life on Bagram. This is a quick sample of the issues being juggled by one person. It should probably be taken as a rant. Or, it could be looked at for what it actually is, a snapshot.

Crisis at home, daily crisis at work, life is far from boring. Here is a sampling:

A leaky fuel meter at a pipeline on base. This was an issue because KBR claimed they didn’t need to fix it based on a 13 month old memo. The key here is that their current contract is only 1 month old. Here’s the kicker, the contracting officer is backing their position. Apparently he failed basic contracting law. Too bad for uncle. After much fighting we did get them to fix it, a small gasket needed replacement, probably 10 minutes of actual work. The core issue still remains though. That is a future battle.

One of the FOB’s we direct deliver to has multiple leaks at pipe flanges and an inspection cover on a 210K gal. tank. It appears the contractor used incorrect gaskets for all these connections. Just to complicate matters a wee bit more there is a dispute involving the contractors being paid for the work. This was a contract the Army did on it’s own. They ignored all the engineering resources available to them and ended up with a crappy product. Even myself, a simple gear-head, can spot the significant engineering flaws. Oh, and just to make it really interesting the personnel in charge of fuel at the FOB don’t feel a need to take direction or answer e-mails in a timely manner.

Three days ago a pipeline on base ruptured. This dumped about 20K of jet fuel and spread over an area of about 1.5 acres. There are multiple issues involved so I can’t point to any one root cause. The simplistic cause is that the hose was abraded on a rock and failed under pressure. These hose lines are walked several times a day. The hose was changed out a year ago. We are eight years into this gig and still using flexible hose for pipelines and storing fuel in bladders, not steel tanks. The hose lines run over barren ground not in lined culverts. We were pumping form two sources at the same time and therefore didn’t notice the rupture for some time. Poor, planning, poor contracting, poor contract supervision, poor contract execution. I believe the proper term is systemic. So much for the weekly bazaar, it’s location is soaked in jet fuel.

One of our FOB’s recently changed trucking contracts. The outgoing outfit is Afghan owned and reasonably reliable but lost the bid. One of the reasons they were reliable is that they paid off the correct warlords. It would appear they are still paying those warlords. But now they are paying them to disrupt the flow of trucks rather than allow the flow. This is significant. Fuel is the lifeblood of the effort here. This is an example of Combat Capitalism at its best! This is the folly of W having placed all his eggs in one basket and thrown everything behind the idea of a strong central government. It works in America, gee I can’t understand why it doesn’t work in Afghanistan. What a quintessentially American SNAFU.

Just to put the icing on the cake home life is a challenge at 7,700 miles as well. The military refers to higher headquarters (back in the states) meddling in local issues as the 10,000 mile screwdriver. I find I am trying to use the same 10,000 mile screwdriver to get me children to do well in school. I am guessing they don’t appreciate it any more than we do. Oh well. Issues with the ex, issues with kids, teachers ignoring e-mails, car problems, loosing a renter and finding another, trying to stay in the loop on local issues like our budding neighborhood volunteer fire dept, this is life when deployed. It may not be pretty but it is a common issue for most all deployed military. I am lucky in that I only have six months boots on ground and not 12 or 15!

It helps to be motivated by stress. Many people are paralyzed by stress. I am paralyzed by boredom. Stress is good, stress helps me focus. So, all the above is not a complaint.

Good Days and Bad Days

2009-05-06T19:47:00.003+04:30

The other night I was woken abruptly at 02:30 but a jet making that sounded like it was doing a very low pass or touch and goes. When it passes the usual roar of the engines changed into a high pitched scream I haven’t heard before. In my semi-conscious state I expected to hear an explosion. I was sure the jet was crashing. I lay there afterward, wide awake and shaking. It’s a hell of a way to be woken up.

When the day finally broke I began the work day with a depressing argument. It looked like things were just going to go downhill from there. Now a few days later I read that that same day I was so rudely awoken somewhere between 30 and 120 villagers, womes, children, elderly were accidently bombed in a fight between US and insurgents in the West of the country. I have no idea when the battle took place of if the jet that left me so shaken took part. The coincidence still leaves me uneasy.

A few days ago we had lots of rain. We had been having thunder storms for several days. This day though it just rained steadily all day. At the beginning of the work day we heard that one of our fuel trucks was stuck on the road near the pump house. Around 10:30 we headed over to check the progress on getting it unstuck. By then it had been freed but the road was a mess. The ruts were almost 2 feet deep in the mud. It was bad enough that the KBR personnel who run the pump house weren’t allowing any more trucks to use the road fearing more would be trapped. This had stranded about eight trucks at the pump house. Not good for the drivers or our fuel operation. The drivers were hungry and don’t appreciate sitting around. Now, to add insult to injury there is a construction area just past the mud-soup road that offers an alternate access to the pump house. Unfortunately since the construction is ongoing no one was allowing the heavy trucks to use this access. We made sure food was enroute, halal MRE’s, and went off to see what we could do to help the situation.

My assistant and I went straight to Public Works and spoke to a senior NCO who agreed to dump gravel on the road. He was unable to do other work that day because of the rain and was happy to help. He promised to send several truckloads of heavy gravel and a front end loader to spread it around. After lunch we headed back to the pump house to check on progress. When we arrived the road was still a mess and the drivers were still sitting around. We went and spoke to the foreman at the construction site to explain the problem and ask who we would need to get permission from to allow the trucks to transit the site. He was going to call his boss but decided to take the initiative to allow the trucks to pass. As we stood by guiding the trucks through the site they all had big smiles and gave us a thumbs up. About the time the last truck exited the gravel trucks began showing up to fix the road.

Two days later, we went to check on the road. The weather had been sunny and dry. When we got there we were amazed at the quantity of gravel dropped off. The deep ruts were filled. The road looked completely different. As we stood there checking it out a push of six or eight trucks arrived. As the drivers lumbered past they were all grinning and again gave us thumbs up. I have never seen drivers so happy. It was a nice feeling to have had an impact, however small.

War Porn

2009-05-02T20:33:00.009+04:30

War Porn is what the Major called it when he walked into our office. Our TV signal went away a week or so ago. No more news updates at work. So what to do with a flat screen TV and no TV signal? The solution was to hook into the Predator UAV feed. What the hell is the Predator UAV feed you ask? According to the Major, porn. The Predator UAV’s are unmanned planes that fly around spying on things. They look like a cross between a wasp and a glider. Besides the advanced cameras gear they also carry Hellfire missiles. The technology is fascinating. These small aircraft will fly at something like 20K ft and zoom in on a person walking down a trail or track a vehicle in a busy neighborhood. They flip between b&w, color and IR views. It’s amazing because the view doesn’t look like it’s from a moving aircraft. These things are so far overhead the picture looks like it’s from a stationary platform. Truly amazing stuff and pretty damn useful for battlefield info I suppose.

It’s easy o fall in lust with the technology here on display. There are cameras on portable towers that can read a license plate at 10 miles. Very useful for counting fuel trucks waiting to enter the base! Down Disney Drive from my office is the Robotic Repair facility. In addition to remote control tractors used for mine clearance there is frequently a guy out front testing a small remote vehicle with a camera on top used to investigate suspected bombs. These are all very cool toys that any 14 year boy would want. Some of these are pretty useful when used correctly. As it turns out the cool looking remote control tractors didn’t pan out. The five sets in country have been sitting for about a year. They are too slow for road clearance. MRAPS with high tech versions of WWII mine rollers work better. They could use them for mine field clearance but Afghans with shovels employed by the HALO Trust seem to have that wrapped up.

The latest high tech gadget for Bagram is a new power plant. We currently use a large number of leased diesel generators for our power needs. This is not the best system. It is dirty, loud, ugly, not at all glamorous or the slightest bit high tech. Worse of all it doesn’t meet the growing needs of the base. So, lets go with a high tech solution shall we? Why not high tech is always better!!! I know, turbines, we need turbines! So, let’s take a quick look at the cost breakdown for this no-brainer.
OK I am told we spend something like $20M annually to lease the current rigs. That sounds excessive! Owning our own generators should be an easy sell. You may ask what the cost is of the turbines. I could tell you that. Unfortunately, I would not be able to tell you the cost to purchase piston driven rigs. OK, perhaps I’m being picky. Lets look a bit closer.
Well it says the fuel will switch from diesel for the current generators to jet fuel which we have much more of. That sounds good. What, you say we currently burn jet fuel in our “diesel” generators. Oh.
Alright then how about the cleaner burning turbines. The change out of a gaggle of piston driven engines for greener, cleaner turbines should be a significant benefit. It will clean our air right up! That alone should justify turbines! Oops, I seem to have forgotten that the Afghans in this area burn tires as fuel to bake bricks. Well there’s that and the open pit incinerators KBR runs on the other side of the base. So, I suppose a somewhat lower level of exhaust will help even if no one notices the difference. Alright, lets cut to the brass tacks. These high tech engines will use substantially less fuel, right? Right? Please tell me I’m right. The original justification told me they would be more efficient!

I suppose my first clue that something was amiss was the request that we provide six times more fuel for these newer, more efficient, engines. A bit of digging and asking questions didn’t get me far. The initial request for fuel misstated our current consumption more than two fold. A new presentation for the turbines indicates they aren’t that wasteful… well to be honest the numbers are still a bit fuzzy. In fairness I won’t completely drive the bus over this project quite yet. I am yet hopeful these new engines won’t suck us dry of fuel. I still don’t like the math but from what I’ve seen the US military, the Army particularly, can’t cost analyze its way out of a wet paper bag. I think wet tissue paper would actually challenge them!
My worry is that this is an ill conceived project picked only for its gee wiz factor. I’ve seen this before. I expect I’ll see it again. But for now, I will sit back, watch, hope I am way off base on my own analysis…and continue to dig. A bad decision I can live with. An egregiously poor decision based on fake facts to satisfy someone’s personal whim? That decision I would have a great deal of difficulty living with. Time will tell.
Gee, hope I don’t get in trouble for writing this!

I Love Dark Clouds

2009-05-02T20:03:00.001+04:30

There was a beautiful thunderstorm yesterday. We went out to check on a reported leak at the pipeline and the sky was dark with clouds and blowing dust. The entire sky to the southwest looked as if night had fallen. It was warm out making the landscape seem eerie. The leak didn’t amount to much so we took the opportunity away from the office to visit the tank farm being constructed and photograph birds. As we took our time lightening began popping off in the distance. Next we drove over to the maintenance yard to have the slow leak in our tire repaired. While we were there the first drops began to fall. By now we needed headlights on. As we drove back to the office a dumpster across the street blazed away, probably the result of some careless smoker. The lightening began hitting within a half mile, the rain came down cooling the ground and dampening the dust. It was a wonderfully magic day.

Martial Training Discouraged in a War Zone?

2009-05-01T22:16:00.000+04:30

I was interrupted the other night. I am trying to get back into shape so that I will have a better chance of successfully scaling Mt Whitney this August. I want to try the Mountaineer’s Route. So, anyway, I’ve started jogging (& walking) at night. After my run I do some Chi Gong and Tai Chi Chuan. Apparently I was reported and MP’s in an up-armored Humvee were sent out to investigate. They were told a suspicious person was practicing martial arts. Seems a bit weird to me, all these military personnel and one person practicing martial arts is suspicious and worthy of closer scrutiny. I could be wrong, but martial arts, in a martial environment….hummm seems like a no-brainer.

Feeling Patriotic?

2009-04-25T22:13:00.005+04:30

Sometimes I’m not as strong as I wish. I really didn’t choose this path. As a matter of fact I chose a much shorter stint here in far away land. The original plan Uncle had for me involved 15 months teaching Iraqi’s how to perform Army supply tasks. Hell of a gig for a Naval Officer. This job was shorter. As a side benefit it actually falls in line with my career path, what a concept! But, as I was saying, I don’t always hold up as well as I would like to. I guess the real enemy, for me anyway, is boredom. The song by NIN “Every Day is Exactly the Same” comes to mind.

I’m not fond of depression. I do my best to avoid it, but still, sometimes it’s a bitch to fight off. Here I am 80 days of straight work without a day off. Then again my last real day off, not in uniform, living on a cot or bunk bed in a barracks was about 104 days ago. It begins to grind on you after a while. I need to find something to break the monotony, perhaps another short trip, something. Ah what the hell, only 100 or so days still to go.

My work shouldn’t be boring, at least in theory. I like to say we have the crisis de jour. There is rarely two days in a row without something out of the ordinary requiring special attention. But when it’s the crisis de jour, even different sweat-ex’s begin to seem the same. My own personal weakness in this situation is the need for input. I need to be learning or teaching all the time to avoid boredom. Boredom is my kryptonite. Bad stuff to be sure.

Things become more complicated when communication becomes garbled. It’s not easy trying to be a father and husband from far away land. Even with daily calls, it’s still a call. E-mail lacks emotion or becomes misunderstood. Just another complicating factor is this career path.

The weird thing is even though I am writing this in such a public forum I am not looking for sympathy. I am not looking for people to treat me differently when I return to “normal” life. Doing this is cathartic for me to some degree. I guess what I hope for is people to recognize the sacrifice paid by people in this line of work and by their families. To be sure, I am not being shot at or blown up. The danger level for my job is about the same as my daily commute in LA. Even so, being in the military is a sacrifice. I know many more military with broken marriages than civilians. Our families suffer as much as we do, perhaps more so because life goes on in the “normal” world. They don’t look different. Their schedules don’t change much. Outward appearances are largely the same. But, they are without a spouse, a father, a mother. Their life is altered profoundly but not visibly so it’s easy to forget.

This is a hell of a way to earn a retirement. I suppose the key is to support your military in deeds and civil actions rather than platitudes. It’s OK to protest wars. In fact it’s a great idea. If you really want to help military members, vote. Let your congressman know you support veterans programs and programs for military families. The latest high tech fighters aren’t helping us here. Programs for kids with PTSD and permanent headaches from IED explosions are what help. The most important thing you can do though, the real key to it all, is to only support wars you would willingly attend yourself or would send your children to. That should be your guide. I mean that in all seriousness. It requires a dispassionate analysis of your real feelings. It requires you be deeply honest with yourself. I watched the fiasco unfold in Iraq. I saw the large number of people who supported the invasion. I have my doubts that many would have willingly sent off their kids if that were the basis to show support.

I was not convinced we needed to invade Afghanistan. To be sure we needed o take action. To be sure we had a legal right to take action. That said, had we avoided Iraq, Afghanistan would likely be a much better place now. This tour would have been much different.

So, do me a favor, if you supported the Iraqi fiasco bend over backwards to help returning soldiers harmed in the line of work. Bend over backward to help their families. You owe them that. If you were at any of the war protests or actively lobbied against and voted against the mess you already did a great deal. Dissent helps keep politicians honest, thank you.

People’s Attitudes and Stereotypes… and Hope

2009-04-22T21:32:00.006+04:30

Back when I decided to become a drilling reservist, in 2002 the US was prepping and posturing to make war on Iraq. At the same time patriotism was rampant to an unhealthy degree. All those flags flown on cars by people who had never given anything more to their country than tax money, really bothered me. I thought the flags were over the top and I had spent over 12 years on active duty. Anyway, here I was back in the Navy and watching my country’s liberties erode before my eyes. The constitution I took an oath to defend was being subverted by my bosses. It caused a serious crisis of conscious for me. I was somewhat outspoken on drill weekends. This ensured some lively debates. Most in the military prefer to believe their bosses know something more. People wanted to believe the USSR was evil, wanted to believe Iraq posed a threat, just wanted to believe they weren’t being asked to do something that would be amoral in hindsight. I remember telling my fellow officers that I felt In understood what it must have been like to be a German in the 1930’s. That really pissed people off. It’s important to remember that the military is staffed by a cross section of society. They want to believe in what they are doing. They should be able to believe in what they are doing. It’s unfortunate that the last administration was so hell bent on abusing the military’s trust.

The military tends to be a little to the right politically. Part of this is their wish to believe in the petty wars their bosses toss them into. Part of this is a bit more sinister. The seven years I lived in Japan the base radio station only carried one radio political talk show… guess who? Rush Limbaugh. So much for balance.

I’ve come to realize this left bent is more on the surface than deep held feelings though. I used to have some pretty inflammatory left wing bumper stickers on my truck. I was always prepared for someone to go off on me when I was on base. It never happened though. The only comments I ever received were positive. Not many times, mind you, but all positive.

Now that I’m over in Afghanistan more of the people I’ve dealt with in the military are willing to question the right wing BS that brought us into these wars. A bigger complaint is the mismanagement they see. Here we are seven years into Afghanistan and basic infrastructure is still absent. It shouldn’t be any surprise that the Taliban are emboldened. But I digress. What seems to be bothering the people, who are increasingly stepping away from the right, is the utter waste of tax dollars. (If you really want to listen to some horror stories talk to someone who works for the Inspector General) To use a common Naval term… this place is a soup sandwich. It’s the turn of attitude though, subtle as it yet is, that brings me hope. This turn away from blind, unquestioning subservience to questioning the status quo, points to our salvation. Remember that the people I work with are a general cross section of society – a bit more to the right but still a cross section.
This is momentum that needs to be built upon. Now, I’m not saying we need to fall in lock-step with what we are told is the left. What we need to build upon is the trend toward questioning our leaders decisions NO MATTER WHO OUR LEADERS HAPPEN TO BE! Only be exercising our freedoms can we keep them. So, lets all fall in line with the tradition set by Socrates and question authority!

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

2009-04-17T20:10:00.007+04:30

Afghani kids are like kids everywhere else. Their chores differ though. The kids near the base sheppard sheep, goats and cows. We see them outside the wire every day on our way along the perimeter road. They are out now because the grass is growing and the animals have food. The other day as we drove along three small boys ran toward the fence and threw rocks toward the road. They weren’t even close to hitting our car and I found my reaction interesting. I watched them and thought, wow boys are the same everywhere! They must have been 10 or 11 years old at most. It’s about the same thing I did at that age.

We receive lots of snacks and candy in care packages all the time. All manner of stuff shows up. More than normal recently as Easter was approaching. My friend had thrown some packs of gum to the kids over the wire before. With the new candy he decided we needed to share the wealth. Now on a pretty regular basis we drive by the wire and toss over whole bags of hard candy, chocolate Easter eggs, Peeps, etc. We joke that throwing them Easter treats will turn them into Christians! The kids look like Olympic sprinters racing for the loot. They do share, which is good. Just so no one thinks we are completely twisted and before you ask, yes we are careful NOT to throw the candy into the minefields! It’s really not a laughing matter (then again all life really is a laughing matter!). There are still numerous mine fields both on and off the base. The locals live right next to them. A local company is clearing a large field next to the base for a commercial project. It’s nearly done and now the locals can graze their livestock there as well. I wish we had more interaction, but there’s always the razor wire between us.

We were at a facility off base the other day and one of our business partners mentioned to his boss that the windshield on their truck had a hole in it. The guy who brought it up is ex-military, as many of the contractors are. Apparently they were driving between Kabul and Bagram and had pulled over for a convoy going the opposite way. One of the MRAP Gunners threw a rock at the truck and missed. Then another MRAP gunner was more accurate. This guy was good natured about it, I would have been furious. He told me that when he was here doing patrols (with the Army) he had to keep his guys from throwing half full Gatorade bottles at kids to watch them fight over them. These things piss me off. Here we are, way too long in this mess because we screwed away the initiative years ago. Here we are in a country where cultural awareness and make or break the effort. Here we are and our soldiers are acting like 10 year old boys. It’s high time we grew up if we expect this to end well!!!

Oh, before I forget, when we drive the perimeter road past the local kids, no more rocks are being thrown our way, but we do get waved at a lot now.

Wild Wild West Style Logistics

2009-04-10T22:59:00.002+04:30

The Challenge of Logistics in the Wild Wild West

I received an e-mail late last night about an attack in Pakistan. Apparently a truck yard outside Peshawar was attacked and a number of fuel trucks set ablaze. This is a yard used for the fuel we are tracking for Afghanistan. It’s a fair bet we lost a day’s supply of Pakistani jet fuel. This is the most challenging war we have fought since Korea for logistics challenges. In the past months Pakistan has become a significant concern. We are not in Pakistan in force. We rely on the Pakistani military for in-country security. Bad guys figured out they can more easily attack our supply chain over there rather than risk a large scale attack in Afghanistan. I suppose it’s positive on the one hand because it shows the Bad Guys are less inclined to attack here.

Pakistan’s stability is a concern. They have a very long running war with India over Kashmir. They have never held political control of the tribal areas. Most Americans don’t understand the relationship Pakistan has with these areas. The tribal regions are referred to as semi autonomous because they exist much like Indian Reservations do in America. They fall under Pakistan for foreign policy but not for internal governance. Add to these issues the presence of a growing Taliban in country and things get very dicey. The amusing thing (black humor here) is that the Taliban was allegedly created with the help and guidance of the ISI, Pakistani intelligence. Funny how these things come home to roost.

It’s good to see overtures being made to Iran. If they begin allowing supplies to cross their territory it accomplished two key things. First, it opens dialog with Iran. We need dialog with them. You can’t resolve differences if you don’t talk! Second, it takes a great deal of logistics pressure off Pakistan. If Pakistan becomes one of three logistics routes the Bad Guys have much less impact when they hit us. It also allows us to be much more stringent with Pakistan. To be fair Pakistan still views India as their #1 threat. We’d make significant progress is we tried to diffuse that long standing issue.

Other than that there is always the question of when the Salang pass will be taken down for maintenance. This is the only feasible route from the north into the Kabul plain. For the past several years the Afghans have told us they are shutting down the tunnel for maintenance. At this point everyone treats it like the boy who cried wolf. I worry that when they do shut it down no one will be prepared.

Funny thing, wars in Afghanistan. They have always hinged on logistics. You would have thought we’d have thought this through better and pushed to improve the roads, bridges and passes before now. What the hell, we’ve only been here 7 ½ years. So much for superior US ingenuity and planning! It’s high time we cut the crap and made some improvements to the infrastructure here. It helps us, it helps the Afghans, it will shorten our time here! It’s well past time to start doing it right!

The Schizophrenia of This Life

2009-04-10T21:28:00.007+04:30

It’s funny writing these journal entries. I like writing about the land I currently live in. At the same time, I’m here doing a job, seven days a week eleven plus hours a day, I work for the war effort. I was not in favor of invading Afghanistan. I thought our aims could be achieved with less effort. But, we did invade. The Afghans were generally happy to be done with the Taliban Regime. They looked on the change with promise. Now, seven and a half years into it their patience is threadbare. I’m here supporting a military effort that after seven and a half years finally getting serious. It’s a crap shoot at this point. If you’ve read many of my entries you’ll know my hopes and prayers are with the Afghan people. I think we still have a chance to make good at this. It’s one reason I’m here. It’s how I can support this effort with a clear conscience. War is a bad thing. It’s not why I joined the Navy so many years ago. I joined because I needed a job! Seriously though I have always believed having a strong military was meant to prevent wars. People who start wars are evil people. People who start “preemptive” wars are evil people and liars.

Well, I see I’ve become a bit sidetracked. As I was saying, I like writing about Afghanistan. At the same time I am compelled to write about my job and my observations of the military effort. There is much promise here. There have also been many mistakes. It’s important that people recognize everything that is going on. Don’t fall for simplistic reports or opinions. This is not a simple place. This is not a simple war. These are not a simple people.

This war needs to end. As I said, wars are evil by their very nature. BUT… we need to end this correctly. The Afghans deserve peace. They deserve the responsibility for their own future. What we need to do is give them is a fair shot at achieving peace. If we can provide some infrastructure improvements, build on successful models like Balkh (a peaceful province by the Afghan’s own hand), and help with economic and educational programs that aren’t overly intrusive to the governance of the country, this may yet end well. I hope it does. No people deserve 30+ years of war!

There I go, sidetracked again. As I write, I find myself pulled between writing about the country, the war, my job pushing jet fuel and the schizophrenia of being separated from my family and town. This is an odd life. To be sure, I am not as isolated now as I was on a ship 23 years ago. I am able to call home as often as I want. The internet allows me to keep in touch with friends and check up on news. I can even keep track of my kid’s homework grades on the school website. But I am still 7,700 miles away. I can’t touch my family. I can’t attend neighborhood meetings. I might as well be in outer space. This is the life 30,000 or so foreign military live in Afghanistan. I’ve no idea how many foreign contractors there are or personnel working for NGO’s. It’s a key point. When the public agree to go to war, this is the life they inflict on their military. I’ve got it easy here. I’m not being shot at. I don’t travel in convoys that hit IED’s. I have a desk job.

A quick rant: Never trust anyone that tells you a war is going to be quick and glorious. Both the Kaiser and Hitler told the Germans that. Rumsfield , Bush & Co. told Americans that. If someone is too egger to start a war, let them lead the charge on the ground and make damn sure they have their children along side them. You’ll find out instantly how serious they are about the glories of conflict.

Well I’m not too sure what I’ll write next… but it will be about Afghans, and war, and pushing jet fuel and missing my family. As one of me best friends pointed out… I’m writing a travelogue for a war.

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points

2009-04-06T20:06:00.013+04:30

Travel in Afghanistan is an interesting proposition. If you happen to be Afghan it’s no big deal. Pack as many people in a car as you can and off you go. Not very different from any other 3rd world country I’ve visited. If you are in the military, a DOD civilian or a military contractor, things are different. These groups travel by convoy, Mil-Air, Jingle-Air or Rotary Wing.

Convoy travel involved climbing into an up-armored Humvee or MRAP and commanding the road with M2’s, M240’s, M249’s and Mk19’s (all crew served weapons mounted in turrets). If you are real lucky perhaps you’ll ride in an up-armored SUV. Everyone has seen these before. They are the same in the states when big wigs travel about. Over here the only real difference is that in addition to Suburbans there are up-armored Toyota Land Cruisers and Nissan Patrols. More comfy than the Humvees and MRAPS and they travel quite a bit faster.

MIL-Air includes jets and large turbo props, C17’s, C130’s and the like. These are good because they are not very dependant on the weather. They can also carry more passengers along with cargo. I flew with mail, panels of used Humvee armor and 155mm artillery rounds on one hop. These aircraft have no windows to speak of though and you’ll likely be sitting in a jump seat. In the C130’s it’s a bit disconcerting to look up and see a row of parachutes hanging just in front of you. This is very utilitarian travel. The inside of these aircraft look like a set from Aliens. Everything is grey, exposed wires and hydraulic lines run the length of the fuselage, not the most attractive ride.

Jingle-Air is contracted air. Blackwater is the operator. These are mostly small turbo props that most resemble Chevy Vans with wings. They carry up to 8 passengers and some cargo. These are an interesting ride. They have windows and fly rather low so there’s a good view. They frequently drop off schedule because of weather though.

I can't speak for the rotary wing yet... I have yet to ride in a helicopter. I'm told the back seat in a CH47 is a great ride if you are in the last one. That one will have the ramp open for a tail gunner.... fantastic views!

You can try to get “space blocked” on these to move about the country of simply fly space A. Given the number of cancellations I just wing it with space A. This entails spending a great deal of time in makeshift passenger terminals, nights on cots in tents and very fluid schedules. Most of the personnel in theater only experience these modes of travel. It’s a shame because you never get a reasonable understanding of the country moving about like that.

Unlike my brethren, I have had the opportunity to travel like a civilian. Moving about in a normal Toyota Land Cruiser, in civilian clothes gives a very different perspective. No need for body armor. There is significant freedom in moving about as the low value target. Who wants to waste an expensive IED on some stupid civilian? The contractors we work with for fuel and cargo deliveries travel like this. It’s not odd, or particularly dangerous.

My mom sent me a magazine recently. It seemed a bit out of character because it was a very local periodical from my home town. It’s a very left wing rag, not that I have any issue with that. One of the articles in it was written about Afghanistan by a Brit who was a one time prisoner of the Taliban Militia. She published the article in Dec 08. In it she claimed that 72% of the country and 4 of the 5 highways leading to Kabul were controlled by the Taliban. I found this astonishing because I’ve driven over 3 of them in the past month. No worries. No bad guys controlling the roads, just lots of Afghans, traveling, selling fish, selling sugar cane. She made mention of 20+ fuel trucks littering the road from Jalalabad. To be fair there was an attack at the Torkam border in Nov or Dec and a number of fuel trucks did burn. That was one attack, in one place. I am bothered that the facts have been so badly misrepresented. I expect severe spin from the right. I suppose it ignorance on my part to expect that the left would do any different. So, where can anyone get objective news from Afghanistan? Beats me, I wish I knew. In the mean time I’ll just continue to jot down my observations and thoughts here in cyber space.

Businessman Generals... NOT!!!

2009-04-05T10:03:00.011+04:30

WARNING… what follows is a small rant on the state of US military command structure. Read on if you must.

I’m sitting here with a headache, again. I don’t know why but every Sunday I wake with my head fuzzy and hurting. It seems odd, it’s my only late day so I get a chance to sleep. There must be something tied tothe psychology of having free time at Bagram. About the only thing to do on post that is different is to wander the bazaar on Fridays. Truth be told, even it starts looking the same after a trip or three. This is the strangest place I’ve ever been stationed.

No one is in charge here. Back in the Navy I grew up in every base you visited had someone in charge. If something was wrong with the base there was the “one belly button” to reach out and touch. There was no question of who controlled base projects, base security, base services. These CO’s took pride in their bases. There was always a base theater, base gym, a park with softball diamonds, tennis courts. It didn’t matter where you were on the planet. If you got dropped on a US military base, you knew it. Then along came the Executive Management Certificate programs at schools like Wharton. Now senior officers believed they knew how tooperate t military like a business. Forget the fact that none of these bozos had ever worked for a real business in a management position. They now had the paper that trumped all real world experience! God help us.

Soon the “Enterprise” concept of organization came into favor. This was an attempt to create a matrix organizational structure. This structure works well n many businesses. It is too bad though that the military is not one of those businesses. There have been many brilliant military philosophers throughout the ages beginning with Sun Tzu. None have advocated a decentralized and conflicting command structure. Now, to be fair, a matrix organizational structure should not conflict with itself. Hence the main issue. What we now have is a series of stove pipe structures without a central authority to tie them together. This brings me back to Bagram, urban planning gone horribly awry. It’s not so much a base as a series of smaller bases cobbled together within one fence line. The “one belly button” no longer exists. In its place we have chaos pretending to be order. There’s no telling when this stupid trend will correct itself. Not likely in my career. It facilitates a shell game with taxpayers money and allows senior officers to pretend they work for a productive business.

The US Military, in the effort to become lean and mean and good stewards of the public’s funds has become a bloated and chaotic dysfunctional entity! We are well be able to fight on a battle field but couldn’t manage our way out of a wet paper bag!

It seems odd to me that I can be so critical of this military disorganization and yet so hopeful for the Afghan people. I see their ability to press on, despite all odds. I see their amazing history. I see their fierce independence. I see hope.

I hope with them.

Random Thoughts, Flowers and Rocks

2009-03-30T21:56:00.005+04:30

It’s springtime in Afghanistan. The weather is warming. The fields are turning green and this week beautiful flowers began to spring up just outside the fence line. It’s funny, the first time I drove past a large patch of the blossoms I saw red and white ones side by side and my first thought was… someone must have marked off a minefield I hadn’t noticed. It took me a second to realize I was looking at flowers and not rocks painted to delineate a mine field. It’s rather odd being somewhere where that thought pops into one’s head so easily. The flowers really are beautiful, red, white or pink, I think they are wild tulips. I like being places where flowers define the time of year. Japan was very much like that. Southern California is as well. I’m missing the poppies and lupine this year.

I’m curious how this landscape will change over the next months. When I arrived there was nothing covering the fields but dirt. It didn’t look as if anything could, or ever had, grown here. Now the snow is melting leaving the mountains brown but the fields are turning. At least if I have to work on such a fugly base I can still see the fields next door and the nearby mountains. It’s calming. Even on this butt ugly base some of the trees that looked dead and gone are blossoming. These poor retched trees that looked like they belonged warming some Afghan’s mud house have become beautiful explosions of fuchsia. I suppose it’s a good lesson. One should not look out at the world and assume it will always look that way.

Truckin....

2009-03-22T21:36:00.007+04:30

The trip I took to Hairaton was another great learning experience for me. My host kept apologizing for the weather conditions. I knew it was a rainy day and likely to be snowing at the Salang Pass. Not far outside Bagram we had to negotiate a river of mud. I believe it is supposed to be a road but last year they removed the blacktop to lay a new road. Unfortunately the new road never made it. From what I heard the contractor did such a poor job on the road from Kabul to Bagram that he fled the country. It certainly made me a believer in the Toyota Land Cruiser/Lexus LX 470 we were in. It had no problem slogging along. It wasn’t so easy for the Jingle trucks. The truck drivers here work in conditions that would cause US Teamsters to go postal. I have great admiration for their endurance and resourcefulness. During the next three days I would see trucks broken down in the mud, ice, snow, tunnels, etc. The thing is, here in Afghanistan, truck drivers share a great deal with European Rally drivers. If their rig breaks down they fix it… on the spot… with minimal tools. The trucks are never down long. They always seem to get them back up in a day or two, even for severe repairs. On our trip back I saw a truck with a brand new engine in a crate next to it! How often do you see that in the states!

Back to the trip, it’s a good thing we had tire chains, we needed them up on the Salang, even with four wheel drive and locking hubs. The tunnel under the pass is at 11,700 ft. It’s one of the highest in the world and about a mile long. Besides the tunnel there are about 27 snow galleries. These are like tunnels but run along the side of the mountain to protect the road from avalanches. In a few places the galleries had gaps in the outside wall that let in snow drifts. It’s a very odd thing, driving thru a tunnel only to come across a snow drift covering half the road. It took eight hours to make it over the Salang. It would normally take an hour and a half or so. When we weren’t stopped we were frequently down to a crawl as cars and trucks negotiated the ice and occasional one lane sections of road. It certainly makes you a believer in Toyota Corollas and Afghan truck drivers. In a fair world neither would have to be out in these conditions in large numbers. But this is Afghanistan and everyone takes it in stride. There is no road rage here.

When we returned from Hairaton a few days later the Salang pass was clear and breathtaking! The mountains here are even more stunning close up! It’s not likely I’ll have an opportunity to climb any on this trip. But given the chance…. It really is a world class scenic drive from the steppe near the Uzbek border to Bagram over the Salang. I want my family to see it. Not this year. But hopefully not too many years from now.

A Very Old Place

2009-03-19T20:23:00.006+04:30

I think it’s time for a road trip. The monotony here is starting to bug me. Although there is a great deal to do, and new crisis erupt and evolve daily, it all starts to feel the same. Then again I might be feeling some influence from my assistant. He just returned from a site visit up North to Hairaton. He is of the opinion all US forces should take a similar road trip. I can’t disagree. It helps to see a part of the country free of war and lacking the heavy damage inflicted by years of civil war in the South. It gives a fresh perspective and reason for hope. Hope is crucial. In some cases it’s everything. If our forces loose hope they can’t instill it in the population. After all, you have to have hope to project it. Hope is the reason I voted for Obama. I wasn’t overly impressed with his politics but he was the only candidate who refused to abandon hope. Right now it’s the most important commodity in the world. It’s all too easy to look over the state of the planet and despair. There is climate change, the global economic contraction, hot wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Kashmir, Darfur, Nigeria, Somalia, just to name a few, corporate and personal greed are at an all time high, I could continue but it would be counterproductive. It’s easy to look at all this and forget that back in the 1950’s Londoners were dying from killer smog and protestors were being killed in the US for trying to gain basic freedoms, the cold war was in full swing, hot wars raged in Vietnam and Korea. Hell, I grew up believing a nuclear war would happen in my life time. As a species, humans are a mixed bag to be sure, but amazingly resilient. It may be odd but the older I get the more hopeful I become. Reading history helps. As bad as things appear it’s never anything new.

I am hopeful for Afghanistan. This land has a rich cultural heritage dating back centuries. This is the probable birthplace of Zoroastrianism, the oldest known monotheistic religion. This is the location of Balkh, known in ancient times as “the mother of all cities”. I recently read that there is likely a 3rd Buddha statue at Bamyan. This one is believed to be a reclining Buddha over 300 meters long. On a recent trip to Hairaton we visited a site near Samangan. There is a Zoroastrian temple on one hill and a Buddhist cave complex on the next hill. I haven’t been able to find specific information on these sites. It’s unfortunate but archeological efforts in Afghanistan ground to a halt in the mid 70’s. I am hopeful that as some measure of stability spreads the people here will start reacquainting themselves with their illustrious history. It’s the one element common across the many ethnic and religious groups that comprise Afghanistan. It’s the one thing that may once again unite this diverse and beautiful place.

Voltron

2009-03-15T09:48:00.000+04:30

When my son was very little he loved watching Voltron. It’s an old Japanese cartoon where these kids control robotic lions that merge together to form a giant robot, Voltron.
I don’t know why today’s trip reminded me so much of Voltron. It probably should have reminded me of the Transformers instead. But, it didn’t.

Normally when I go off the FOB, to visit one of our contractors located immediately outside the gate, I travel in my Land Cruiser Prado. I wear body armor but the Toyota does not. It’s right next to the base, it is quite safe.

Today felt quite different. Today someone else arranged the trip. We had to deliver a piece of equipment to the contractor and then check on the trucks coming onto the base. Today we traveled in three up-armored Humvees. Large, sand colored SUV’s with appliqué armor and turrets. These are the vehicles that can take significant small arms fire in stride. Each had a Mal Duce (M2 50 cal heavy machine gun). Each of the passengers had weapons as well, M9s, M16s, M249s. We all wore body armor.

Where I normally have a windshield, side windows and rear window to look out, I now had a small ballistic glass square to observe from. I was in the back but giving directions trying to see out a windshield obscured by radios, computers, the legs of the turret gunner dangling next to me. This was my first ride in a full up Humvee. It was a surreal way to travel: bouncing along, rapid ratcheting clicks as the turret traversed, black rubber padding lining the inside complemented the olive drab paint and khaki dust, the guy in front entering updates into the computer/nav system. It’s a very claustrophobic ride, a very industrial ambiance.

When we arrived at our destination a full 10 seconds outside the gate, I got out and felt pretty normal. The Humvees looked like Humvees again. That’s when the Voltron connection struck me. From the inside these machines don’t resemble SUV’s or trucks much at all. They look pretty normal on the outside, even with the turrets. At least, I’m used to seeing these 11,000 lb 4x4’s so now they look pretty normal. On the inside things are quite different. You are divorced from your surroundings on the inside. You can see out but you don’t feel like part of the surroundings. You feel like you are transiting through an alien place, clearly an observer who does not belong.

Now I could be unduly overcome by the newness of this means of travel. As I said this was a first for me. I don’t really think that’s the issue though. Getting in these and traveling instantly creates an, us vs. them mindset. There are the guys inside the robot and all manner of potential dangers and strange people outside the robot.

I miss my Prado.

Old Navy

2009-03-10T19:43:00.005+04:30

Things have changed a bit since I joined this yacht club 23 years ago. We used to be allowed to have a beer or two at lunch. Now I’m in an AOR where drinking is prohibited. That’s right, no drinking in the Middle East or Afghanistan. I think the official rational is that we are in Muslim countries. This would be a good reason except that many Muslims drink, just like many Christians and Mormons drink. I think it’s because they don’t want to deal with the occasional drunk idiot. By this logic the US should have much more stringent laws governing human behavior. Sharia law perhaps?

This is indeed the oddest work environment I’ve been in. The truly surreal aspect is that it all feels very normal. I live and work in this place resembling a sci-fi set for a B movie. Every morning I wake up ion my 20 ft container. I get dressed and strap on my 9mm in a drop down holster. I normally only carry 45 rounds because of the weight, I’m supposed to be carting around 75 rounds because I travel off the FOB regularly. Again, this seems normal. Any time I go outside the gate I am supposed to be in full body armor. I’ve removed the shoulder protectors because they are too cumbersome. We walk around counting trucks mixing with locals going about their business as if everything is quite normal. Us dressed like starship troopers, them dressed like 18th century nomads.

Most of the time, I work at a desk in an office. It’s normal enough looking for a govt. office: cluttered, ugly furniture, maps and clocks on the walls, beige paint, florescent lighting. Each desk has two computers, one normal, one secret. I compile reports, analyze our logistics chain, talk to our suppliers and carriers. Most of it is not unlike what I do in civilian life, except for the 9mm on my hip and sounds of aircraft constantly taking off.

Road Trip to Jalalabad - Pt II

2009-03-09T20:11:00.018+04:30

I felt bad about writing so much in Part I of this trip with only two photos. So here I will attempt to regain some balance. This is where the photos dominate.

After bypassing Kabul proper, and several large military bases we turned onto the highway that follows the Kabul River. This is the same path the doomed Brits followed in 1842. The gorge the river cut is spectacular. The traffic following the road can also be spectacular! This highway carries most of the freight bound for the cities of Jalalabad and Kabul. It runs from the Pakistan border, through the Kyber Pass and eventually to Kabul. Traffic is slowed dramatically in the afternoons when a large number of trucks are on the road. The road is new (built by the Japanese) and in great shape so why the bad traffic? Even with a number of trucks I couldn't figure out why it was at a crawl. I thought there must be an accident. As it turns out the road may be new and wonderful but the tunnels haven't been improved.

The trucks carrying freight are too tall to enter the tunnels unless they straddle the center line. Truck drivers jump out and direct traffic one way and then the next to get the trucks through the tunnels. Into this are cars trying to dart their way around the trucks and jockeying for a few yards of space. Driving in Afghanistan is not unlike driving in Indonesia. Lanes are very approximate ideas here. If traffic backs up the oncoming lane is always available for passing. Blind curve? Crest of hill? Not a problem in Afghanistan! Entertaining if you don't have to negotiate it daily.

The thing that caught my attention the most are broken down trucks. They stop wherever they are. Most make it to the side of the road but not all. I haven’t seen a tow truck or garage. So, when trucks break the drivers fix them. Now when I say the drivers fix their trucks I don’t mean replacing fuses or adding water. They do those things but they are minor. I have seen trucks with differentials apart, transmissions pulled, snapped axles. We are talking advanced gear-head type repairs, all on the side of the road, all with minimal tools. I am in awe!

Another striking feature of Afghan roads is the diversity of vehicles. There are Toyota HiLux trucks, Toyota Surf SUVs and Toyota Land Cruiser SUV’s and Toyota Corollas. Now to be fair I think I’ve seen one or two Hyundai’s as well (no more than 1 or 2 though).

Toyota should really consider using Afghanistan as a place to film ads. I am told the Corolla is the best car on the planet because it goes anywhere and runs forever. To hear people talk it sounds like a 1965 VW Bug!

Anyone can get a drivers license here. No test, just pony up some Afghani’s and you’re good to go. It shows in their driving. Seat belts are not worn. I rode in a Lexus LX and all the seat belts had been disabled. It certainly adds to the excitement! Mirrors are of unknown use. They do use turn signals though. They aren’t for signaling turns they are for indicating it is safe to pass. I think they do this in Georgia as well. I wouldn’t recommend driving here to anyone without previous experience in similar places. Given all the things to look at being a passenger is a much better gig.

You'd think by what I just wrote that I never saw anything but the road. I guess it's because the road has so much to do with what I am doing here. The scenery on the road from the Kabul river gorge to Jalalabad was eye opening for me. Where the river slows and widens, agriculture is widespread. The villages are on hills above the cultivated fields. The bright green fields stand in stark contrast to the khaki brown hills. We passed nomad tents, people selling fish from wheel barrows and baskets. Market places in small towns were selling bright oranges and pomegranates. At one point the road was lined with small stands selling what I think was sugar cane. All this commerce, but all so local. Without a good, secure, road network these items don't travel very far. It's a shame.

High Fashion..... Burkas

2009-03-09T19:31:00.007+04:30

Funny thing, when I was in the US I thought burkas were a terrible thing forced upon the wives and daughters of devout, right wing, Muslims. A woman wearing a burka was someone to feel sorry for. I even held this belief when I first arrived in Afghanistan. Driving from Bagram to Jalalabad I didn’t see many burkas. It wasn’t until I was driving through the old bazaar in Khulum that I encountered any number of burkah clad women. As we drove through the crowded bazzar there were many blue apparitions floating along. The burkas are made of very thin fabric. It has the look of silk pleated very tightly, like harem pants. Nearly all are a bright sky blue and flow in the breeze. Weather walking or simply standing these women have a spectral appearance. They are beautiful and stand out in a land dominated by shades of brown. It has forced me to rethink my opinion of this maligned garment.

I can’t pretend to agree that forcing people to dress a particular way is remotely OK. To be fair, I don’t know how many would wear a burka anyway. My host mentioned, as we drove through Samangan, that the most beautiful women in Afghanistan came from there. Who could argue when all you can see are their hands and ankles? It occurred to me that if all women wore burkas the whole concept of feminine beauty dissolves. Let’s face it, if the only woman you ever see is your wife it’s easy to accept her as the most beautiful woman in the world! Unfortunately like all things, it’s not nearly that simple. It seems odd to me, but in the land of burkas, truck drivers have pin-up posters taped to their vehicles. Can you say hypocrisy?

Well, I have yet to decide my stand on this topic. All I know for sure is that the sight of a sky blue burka flowing in the breeze is beautiful.

Road Trip to Jalalabad - Pt I

2009-03-07T22:55:00.003+04:30

I bent the rules the other day. I left my 9mm and uniform on the base and took a ride with one of our contractors to visit a FOB (Forward Operating Base) in Jalalabad. It was a very rewarding trip for me, both professionally and personally. I have a much better understanding of the traffic patterns and issues facing trucks as they negotiate the pass up the Kabul river gorge. What should take an hour and a half could easily be an 8 hour trip at the wrong time of day. The logistics issues we deal with in the states are a cakewalk compared to Afghanistan!

The trip was a short fused opportunity for me. The offer came up one evening and the next day I was off the FOB in civvies. I was a bit apprehensive. Bagram is a very insular place. It has the look and feel of somewhere in a Mad Max movie. The up armored trucks add to the si-fi effect. It’s easy to look out past the mine fields and ruined mud compounds and imagine a world torn by insurgent warfare. I knew our carrier reps drove this regularly but people on the base generally fly from place to place or speed along in frightening columns of sand-colored, steel reinforced trucks topped with heavy machine guns and automatic grenade launchers. So I was trying to imagine what I was going to find on the other side of the wire. It was disconcerting leaving the base in civvies with body armor on.

Once outside the base I met up with our rep, left the armor with my assistant, and we were off. Driving away from base was liberating. The ruins gave way to occupied mud castles. The compounds here have two or three foot thick mud walls 10 or more feet tall. They look imposing but the living quarters aren’t that large, just the wall. The road between Bagram and Kabul climbs slowly up a low pass. Not much grows here this time of year. The horizon is dirt without trees, those mud compounds and the occasional police checkpoint. The road itself is pretty bad, potholes everywhere. The speed bumps by the checkpoints seem nearly invisible thanks to the khaki dust everywhere. It’s a very alien landscape. The only place I’ve been that comes even close is Bolivia between Copacabana and La Paz. As we drove we passed the occasional kid shoveling dirt into potholes and holding out their hand for donations to their road maintenance efforts. GW would be proud of this privatized road maintenance scheme!

Once through the low pass the smog from Kabul came into sight. This confused me. I wasn’t aware Kabul had any industry to speak of and there aren’t that many cars in the area. I was wondering, why the smog? I found out a short distance later. The Afghans have a booming industry in mud brick production. They are firing these with a unique, if not filthy, fuel source… old tires. They cut them up and use them to heat the furnace. Not clean, but quite effective.

The landscape on the downhill run to Kabul varies little from the run out from Bagram. More mud castles some kiln chimneys, a few Afghan national Army and Coalition bases, oh and more Russian armor carcasses. Unfortunately the old Russian armor can’t be melted down and reused because it is not normal steel. Like all modern armor it is a weird allow of steel, magnesium and who knows what. The Afghans, being fantastically resourceful completely dismantle every bolt on part from these old relics. BMP’s and BTR’s are barely recognizable carcasses. The T62’s and T72’s are more easily spotted because the turrets and main guns are not easily removed. I’m guessing these are cleaned out inside like the APC’s. I don’t have much desire to climb inside one to check. A friend told me of a couple Americans that tried that a while back in the large tank graveyard north of Bagram. They stepped on a land mine in the process. Oops!

Traveling around this land I am struck by the amount of heavy equipment left behind by the Russians. They were fighting against light infantry that had decentralized command structure. These fighters didn’t have much in the way of heavy weapons and yet the Russian losses were staggering. It’s a sobering sight.

Leading piss from a boot with directions on the heel

2009-03-07T22:45:00.005+04:30

Leading piss out a boot with directions on the heel. Seems like a simple enough task, doesn’t it? Unfortunately I am supporting a Colonel without the ability to perform that task. Pontificating and grandstanding in a large meeting is not leadership. Asking questions that show your lack of basic logistic situational awareness, when you own the logistics, is not leadership. Asking questions, when you have no intention of listening to the answers, is not leadership, it is arrogance. To run a military operation without a basic understanding of the limitations and challenges of the logistics environment is pure folly! I’ve worked before for people who wanted their way without any desire to understand the reality on the ground. The disturbing thing this go-around is that I am supporting a war effort. Screwing up logistics in this environment could kill people and loose territory. I can’t help but be shocked when the person who’s job it is to have a well grounded understanding of the logistics picture doesn’t even understand who is responsible for what.

Now, having gone off on that tear, I must be honest about my situation. I have already have enough years toward retirement. This particular blowhard can not do anything to impact my career. My task, under these circumstances, is to do my job well and ignore his bullshit to the best of my ability.

It’s funny, when I travel around this country I can’t help but love it and feel great hope and promise for the future. Then I run into idiots, like this particular colonel, and I hope and pray they do not screw up the whole enterprise! We have the chance to do some real good here. It would be a crime to screw it away because of a lack of effective soldiering at the senior officer level. This happened here once before, in 1842. If anyone ever wondered about the line from the Rolling Stones song Sympathy for the Devil “And I lay traps for troubadors who get killed before they reach Bombay” read up on Major-General William George Keith Elphinstone, CB (1782–April 23, 1842). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Anglo-Afghan_War

Pretty Red and White Rocks

2009-02-28T21:01:00.007+04:30

On a more scenic topic I have decided how I’ll decorate the garden when I return. I’m getting quite fond of little white rocks and red/white rocks. The solid red rocks are another story. It’s a funny thing here. You look out into the fields off the base and see lots of painted rocks. These are all about baseball size. The three color combos they’re painted is important stuff. I’m quite surprised we didn’t get any briefing on these before we arrived. They are the kind of garden decoration you really want to understand before you first see them. What you want to do is stay on the white side of these markers. The red side denotes un-cleared minefields. So you look out and see paths cleared and marked by red/white stones. In other places red stoned dot fields. Not a good place to hang out. I prefer to keep my limbs attached, thank you. No fences separate these fields from areas used for farming or goad herding. I don’t know how many kids accidentally chase livestock into these fields, but I do know it happens. One of the fields near the base has a few scattered craters and the hulk of a Russian armored vehicle decorating it.

Now, as odd as it is to gaze out at these low-tech life savers the really odd sight are the steep mountainsides covered in large white spots. It’s the same system applied to places difficult to imagine as normally passable to other than mountain goats. Apparently the Russians were worried of the Mujahideen scrambling down cliffs to attack convoys on narrow mountain highways. To be fair it I sure they were simply trying to avoid the fate of Elphinstone’s army. He was the British general who lost 16,000 retreating from Kabul to India in 1842. Only one man survived the ordeal. Not the most glorious page in Brit military history!

Now, land mines share some key benefits with that other favorite fixture of modern battlefields, cluster bombs. They are both fantastically effective against the enemy. As an added bonus they are both fantasticality effective against kids, livestock and the occasional adult once the battle has moved on to another town. These really are barbaric implements. So far as I know we haven’t used either in Afghanistan. The mines are Russian made souvenirs. I don’t know if cluster bombs have been used here. Anyone with a thread of morals will support the ban of these disgusting trinkets of war. Mines still show up in European fields on occasion, leftovers from the 40’s. As for the cluster bombs, I vividly remember a movement to ban them when I was a kid and we used them in Vietnam. Anyone who defends the use of either is a sick SOB who should be made to clean them up from the fields of the world.

If anyone is interested in knowing more here are some good sights…

http://www.icbl.org/
http://www.landmines.org/
http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/
http://www.clusterconvention.org/

Jet Fuel Makes the World Go Round

2009-02-26T21:30:00.005+04:30

The fuel business in Afghanistan is different. When the US first began bringing fuel in the shortages/theft was endemic. It was eventually discovered that truck drivers in Afghanistan normally are not paid by the load. They take payment by keeping some of the goods transported. That didn’t fly too well with Uncle’s auditors so we ensured the companies hiring the drivers began paying them by the load.

That was several years ago. Fuel theft is still an issue. It’s too valuable and too easy to sell. That and the locals who transport our goods are dirt poor. There is high reward and reasonable risk. Not that this is confined to locals. Our own contractors have been involved from time to time. Here, and other theaters as well. But, I digress. I’m looking into several discrepancies and trying to piece the puzzle together. I’m dealing with large international companies, local companies, defense contractors and the military. It’s a curious business. At the moment I’m focused on creating better audit trails and transaction transparency. This should be interesting. I have some feel for the people I’m dealing with but I’m still FNWGY. It’s a bit like being thrown into a James Bond story albeit without much dramatic action, just much confusion over who is trustworthy and who isn’t. Good thing I like puzzles!

At the moment there are complaints by the drivers against one of our military contractors. The first I heard of it was from the COO of one of our suppliers. Not a good start. At first it looked like pointless grumbling. I am looking to tighten audit trails as a way to prove or disprove these complaints and hopefully improve the efficiency of the entire supply chain. Interestingly enough an offhanded complaint by me in a conversation with another officer led to the confirmation of one of the driver complaints. It turns out that they are being prevented from leaving the base if they have too great a shortage upon delivery. Bad deal for everyone. They are already being penalized by the companies that hire them. Holding them here is unethical, pointless and damages our ability to get our job done! It’s a typically American short sighted solution that damages us in the long run.

I don’t like that some drivers steal fuel. But, I accept that it is the norm. It’s been cultural here. Cultural changes do not take place in a few years. They generally take a generation or more. We can continue to ferret out their schemes or we can react in a knee jerk fashion that harms the entire business relationship… drivers, carriers, suppliers. I can’t say this surprises me. The turn over here is appalling. Granted I am only here on 6 month orders, but at least we are staggered out so that the entire office does not swap at the same time. This is not true for the Army. They reinvent the wheel every year. So much for efficiency or sound business practices.

I’d better stop here and start a new entry. Going into the inefficiency, waste, short sightedness, of the modern, heavily contracted-out military machine will lead me into a book, not a blog entry. Certainly not something most want to read. It’s too heartbreaking and infuriating. Hey, think of it this way… it’s your tax dollars at work!!!

A Rant... of sorts

2009-02-20T21:22:00.003+04:30

Funny day. Dreary and rainy but busy as hell. It seemed like the first chance I had to check the clock it was already 4:00 PM. Over lunch I met with several reps from one of our suppliers. The logistics issues here are somewhat different than back in the states but not dramatically so. Lucky for me, it’ll shorten a normally steep learning curve. One of the reps I met with was Afghan. He moved to the US at age 13, completed school in south OC, Laguna Nigel, Dana Point. He is now one of the Country Managers for his company and back in Afghanistan. It’s his opinion that one of the major factors in the decline of the country was the brain drain that happened when everyone with sufficient capital fled the Russian invasion. It created a power vacuum that allowed the shrewd but not necessarily bright to move into key positions. I’m sure his case has some merit but at the same time he was obviously somewhat privileged. So…accurate argument or anger over the loss of what once was? I can’t say. I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve been here longer and hopefully had more dealings with the local populace.

Such promise here, but so many issues to deal with. While there was never a fantastic infrastructure the country was once rich in agriculture and the world’s top almond producer. For centuries it was the only sizeable source of Lapis Lazuli. It has been at the crossroads of West Asia, East Asia and South Asia for millennia. A key link in the silk road and spice trade. I’m told it was a wonderful place to visit before the late 70’s. When the kingdom crumbled it allowed the chaos that brought in the Russians.

After more than 30 years of decay the infrastructure is shot. Families that once owned orchards no longer remember how to farm. That kind of knowledge is lost over a couple of generations. The isolation of villages has allowed thought to stagnate and backward ideas to gain influence. The best analogy I can offer up is the dark ages in Europe. As the Roman Empire fell apart, trade declined, knowledge was lost as people became isolated in their small kingdoms. Things moved backward. That’s what has happened here. When populations are isolated the free flow of ideas atrophies. Without new ideas creativity implodes. It’s all bad. Isolation is a bad gig.

Funny, I’m sitting here writing, the rain has turned to snow, the internet is out. Jets aren’t flying, due to the weather I suppose. I was planning to talk more about my work day but am distracted. This whole concept of civilizations decaying and cultural collisions fascinates me. When I was in Kuwait one of the contractors training us in convoy ops had some interesting stories. He had been a marine and had served here in Afghanistan. He told us of the night raids the US Special Forces are fond of conducting here. They will sneak in at night to pick up bad guys. They invariably secure a large section of the neighborhood for their own safety. He told us of breaking in doors and forcing families to lie on the floor during the operation. It occurred to him that that the fathers must have felt completely gutted of any power. In this culture that is a very bad thing. He also relayed the tale of a young NCO who was asked by the bad guy they came to pick up (via interpreter) to please wait until they were outside to handcuff him, to please not disgrace him in front of his family. The NCO spat out an expletive, forced him to the ground and cuffed his hands behind his back. These are the actions that win small battles but loose wars. During the 60’s the talk was of winning hearts and minds. In many cases we do that. We’re good at helping orphanages. When allowed we interact fairly well with local populace. Unfortunately we also really screw up on far too many occasions. Our military can’t be entirely faulted. We still train to kill bad guys and hold ground. If we were fighting WWI, WWII, Korea or the Russians that training would be quite applicable. In non-Christian countries with vastly different cultures and low-intensity conflicts this training is terribly insufficient. We should be training in cultural awareness, Islam, Pashto and Dari. I don’t mean the usual bullshit few hours that are given. If we want to be effective, our troops in leadership positions need the equivalent of AA degrees in these cultures. Anything less and they won’t be prepared to make correct decisions.

I’ll relate just one more story. I read a news article a month or so ago about the way the US enters villages on raids. These generally happen at night. They are targeted at specific individuals or houses. Unfortunately Afghans, because of their isolation, have very close knit neighborhoods/villages. When someone starts shooting at your neighbor in the middle of the night you help your neighbor out and shoot back at the intruder as well. It’s worth remembering that we aren’t the only armed group in the country. Feuds and warlord struggles are still taking place. So, the crux of it is this, the US reports fighting dozens of insurgents. The Afghan press in turn reports 1 or 2 insurgents killed and a dozen local lads slain. We generally get our man but were loosing the war in the process. The article was reporting on the Afghan army’s request to have troops imbedded with us Special Forces to mitigate these situations. I don’t know what the outcome will be.

I am not totally pessimistic about the Afghan chances. I am an optimistic pessimist. The Taliban is attacking more now but the fight still appears to be somewhat low intensity. It is all small unit ambushes and IED’s. It doesn’t appear that the Taliban are all that numerous. That said, my observations over the years are that 80% of the general population go with the flow. 10% line the hard left 10% the hard right. Or you could say 10% are hard charging, motivated and concerned and 10% are criminally minded. The labels don’t matter much. The point is that a small but motivated group can swing the momentum of the masses. Our challenge is to help the few highly motivated individuals that want Afghanistan to become a partner in the modern world, not a backward, reclusive, haven for heroin production and fringe element terrorists.

Urban Planning Gone Horribly Wrong

2009-02-17T21:46:00.004+04:30

Ships are noisy places. Fan rooms hum or roar depending on your proximity. Transformers make a terrible, high pitch, screeching, buzz. If you are on a big deck (Aircraft Carrier, LHA, LHD, etc.) you put up with jets and helicopters taking off just feet above your head. Flight deck crews drag chains across the deck when chocking and chaining aircraft. Mt basic point here is that when assigned to a ship, noise is constant. You can not avoid it. The only time things get truly quiet is when you go: hot, dark and quiet. This is bad because it means the electrical load dropped, lights are off, ventilation shuts down, etc. Nice for lack of noise but very, very bad for all else.

So, why am I talking about ships while living in a 4th world, land locked country? This base has some significant similarities to shipboard living. True the real estate is a larger footprint, but there are more similarities than differences. The noise is the first big clue. Living next to an airport isn’t doesn’t provide a fair comparison. Big civilian jets are meek, quite creatures compared to military fighters. And, let’s not forget, commercial airports don’t generally fly aircraft between 11:00 PM and 05:00 AM. Here, F15s can be screaming into the night sky at any hour.

One advantage of ships is that they are purpose built. There is great conservation of space. Generally thought goes into the placement of compartments and functions. Can’t say that for here. The base is a mixture of a few old, Russian buildings and countless temporary structures. Temporary ranges from tents and B-Huts (plywood buildings about 20 by 40 ft) to the seeming favorite, ocean shipping containers welded together. That’s what I live in, a 20 ft sea container. In my last job I counted TEU’s now one’s my home! Not too horrible when they finish. Thank god they don’t have lightening storms here!

The character of this place is that of a B movie sci-fi set. Structures don’t seem to be placed with much thought. One side of the place is very crowded while the other is mostly open ground storage and fuel farms separated by the odd minefield or pile of old broken Russian truck skeletons. The main road around base is mostly paved. Most others are gravel. With the snow and shush on the ground you have to be careful not to get stuck. But hey, at least it’s not dusty at the moment! I haven’t decided which condition best suits this weird set: Cold, snow, frozen mud, white and dark brown or shades of khaki with a constant brown haze and dusty film covering it all. Funny, you would think the snow and rain would clean up the haze. Instead the haze shifts from dirty brown to foggy white. I’m guessing it’s the evaporation. Don’t know, just a guess.

Settling In

2009-02-14T20:32:00.005+04:30

What a wonderful day out. It snowed all day yesterday. Not too much accumulated though. The flakes were large and wet, dropping slush for the most part. Last night the temp dropped and this morning it is sunny and white. The scenery is beautiful! I look at the fields (mine fields perhaps but fields nonetheless) and they look so perfect. The mountains want to be climbed and skied. I love this place! I want off post. I want to look around and explore! Funny thing is, I guess I am one of the few people that feel that way. I was driving most of the office to work today and it became obvious that most of them hate this place. It's really a shame. It's really a very American attitude. I suppose I am the odd one here… although it doesn't feel odd to me!

Yesterday in the slush and gloom two of our fuel trucks slid off the roads on base. One we were able to free. The other truck could not be moved. The front and driven tires were in a ditch filled with freezing water and mud. We are trying to get the supplier to trans-load the fuel to another truck. That should lighten it enough to pull out of the ditch. The sad part is the status of the driver. When drivers come on base to deliver fuel they are escorted. They sleep in their trucks the few days they are stuck on base. The driver in this case had to spend the night in his truck, in the ditch, at the fuel farm. They are usually in a parking lot and can at least congregate. We feed them 2 MRE's a day. This poor guy was shivering as we looked over the situation. Here we were in the snow and he's wearing sandals, a sweater, no heavy jacket. I felt sorry for the guy.

Here we are seven years into this mess and we still don't have proper infrastructure or procedures in place. Too many turnovers, people are assigned for only six months to a year. It kills continuity. We constantly reinvent the wheel. Sometimes I feel like the entire effort is doomed to collapse under the weight of our own stupidity! It's such a shame. A few days ago there was an attack on several government ministries in Kabul. Eight kids (20 to 25 years old) attacked with AK47's, pistols, grenades and explosive vests (suicide vests). They killed at least 20 and wounded many more. This was a criminal act apparently sponsored from Pakistan. We report and treat these things as acts of way. You cannot counter small groups with an imperial war machine! You need to employ law enforcement and intelligence. We should be performing a full court press to upgrade the countries infrastructure and then commerce. Bring back the almond trade, lapis lazuli mining, etc. By allowing Afghans to earn a living and feed their families the extremist Islamic movement will implode. That cancerous movement uses the same motivations as the right wing movement in America. Keep people frightened and feeling imperiled and you can get them to agree to terrible things. In Afghanistan they kill civilians in the name of Allah. In America they dismantle democracy in the name of security. Both are crimes against humanity. Is one worse than the other? I can't say.

Mountain Living

2009-02-10T21:48:00.004+04:30

Made it to Afghanistan!!! The “tactical landing” was no big thing after all. They made it sound like a rollercoaster landing. But, hey, when you’re packed like a sardine wrapped in body armor into the center row of seats on a C17 you don’t feel a thing. Well almost nothing. Sitting without being able to shift your weight for three and a half hours does make you feel as if your ass is completely broken, never to heal again. All in all not a ride I would look forward to. To put it another way, in the military we don’t travel coach, we travel steerage!

I arrived Saturday and was pretty wiped out by the late afternoon. Oh I forgot to mention. We fly in the wee hours without any sleep the night before. It’s just the Military’s attempt to add ambience to the experience. Thanks Uncle Sam!

When I walked out from the plane the first thing that caught my attention were the mountains. They are stunning! I can’t wait until the security here improves so that I can come back and climb them!!! Bagram sits in a bowl at about 5,000 feet surrounded by the Hindu Kush mountain range. Dust the consistency of talc covers everything and creates a haze during the day. Mornings are still clear though.

The base is an odd place. It is very industrial, very temporary and poorly slapped together. It has the character of urban planning gone horribly wrong. I work on one side of the runway, reasonably close to dining facilities and the post exchange (shops). I live on the other side. Just outside the base are ruins of Afghan mud compounds. I am guessing they were destroyed during the Soviet occupation as well as the fighting that followed. Small red inverted triangle’s are on most fence lines both on and off base to alert us to mine fields. They are clearing them very slowly. I doubt they will finish before we depart this place, whenever that happens. I’ll post some photo’s on my facebook page when I have the chance.

It's just like the beach....

2009-02-07T15:39:00.004+04:30

I just returned from more close combat shooting and convoy training out in the sands of Kuwait. It's a lot like Zuma beach... without the water. I imaging this landscape is about the same from here to the Sinai. Need any inexpensive camel grazing grounds? I'm pretty sure I can hook you up!

Generally fun, and useful, training provided in a pretty stark environment. We fired lots of rounds, standing, walking, running. We learned the latest stuff about IED's and practiced convoy operations. Fun stuff all!

Kuwait is not very senic, to be sure. I am pretty amazed at the lack of flora that supports so many camels. They really are impressive creatures. The entire landscape consists of sand laced with rocks, sand mounds, sand berms, litter, slosely cropped stalks from weeds of some sort and left over brass from men playing army in the sand. Oh, did I mention the sand?

Today we wait for a flight. It rained early this morning. I thought it would keep the dust down but no luck. It's been pretty windy so the sand is everywhere. Good news is this "white space" will be over soon. Am I aprehensive about the location change... Nope. Couldn't be happier. I am bored here in Kuwait!!! Boredom is bad.

The Sand Box

2009-02-01T21:20:00.003+04:30

It's interesting typing on a keyboard without letters. I should be used to this... it's endimic in 3rd world net cafes. All that aside, here I sit. I am surrounded by a vast expance of dirt/sand. It's way too flat to suite my tastes but then I didn't choose the spot. The overriding color scheme is khaki brown. I was going to say dirt brown but khaki being a specific color of dirt suites it better. So there we are. Nearly everything is khaki. The green tents are now khaki. The cement blocks, if left long enough, will become khaki as well. At least the temp is reasonable. It's rather like Hawaii in the off-season. I'll be here for a few lazy days before moving on. I can't wait to see what comes next.

For now, it's a few meetings, training, good food and lots of white space... It's a good place to experience purgetory.