Meeting the Locals in Badakshan Province

For the most part, the local people we came into contact with during our trip were very friendly and very curious about us. Their needs are huge - no roads, no hospitals, decaying buildings, no electrity, no work. Most of the area survives as an agrarian economy. I've seen more donkeys here in a week than I've seen in my entire life before I came here. Lots of livestock - mostly sheep and goats and donkeys wandering the roads and fields. The Afghans I met were grateful for our help and genuinely recognized we were there to assist them. The problem is, sprinkled amongst the population are die hard religious radicals who are determined to keep this Country in the middle ages, only with modern weapons - Ak-47's, IED's, and Rocket Propelled Grenades. And you never know when one of them is going to step around the corner and take a pot shot at you - so you always have to stay on your guard.

Our S-2 (Intelligence Officer), LTC Wayne Dick, with his back to the camera, is talking to some of the local population in one of the villages we went through. Jawanshir, our translator, is facing the camera. You can see the curiousity of the local people when we'd get out to talk with them reflected in the faces of the crowd that would inevitably gather around us. LTC Dick was soaking it in and would stop often to speak with people as American intelligence knew almost nothing about the area we were in so he wanted to learn as much as he could. He's already prompted me to plan another excursion in early November before the snows come.

In photo two we are in the courtyard of the local Afghan police station we'll be tearing down and rebuilding in Jurm. We're talking with the local police commander (in the brown cap facing the camera) to coordinate the work for the Spring. He had a very impressive air about him and I very quickly got a good gut feeling about the guy. He also expressed his gratitude to us - he said he knew we had left our homes and families 1000's of miles behind in order to come here and help his country. Shortly before the photo was taken I'd been outside the compound on the street chatting with some of the Afghan police when MSG dragged me back inside the courtyard - he'd glimpsed a man down the street carrying an automatic weapon on a tripod eyeing us and told me to get my ass back inside. "Yes Master Sergeant!!"

Photo three is of some of the local police force in Jurm. The building behind them is their barracks - no windows, no electricity, no plumbing, no heat, no A/C. The condition of the building on the outside is better than it is on the inside and I think you can see from the picture the outside ain't so great. In our country this would be a condemned building. Here's it's all that they have. Made me glad that I'm going to be instrumental in giving these men probably the nicest facilities they've ever seen in their lives.

Into the Unknown Continued

I took quite a few pictures on this trip, but can only send them 3 at a time (something about the way earthlink sets things up)- so here's the next three.

Sorry - one more hilltop photo - the guys in the middle are two of my key staff, Nandy Perillo, my project Engineer, is my technical go-to guy who understands how the Army Corps of Engineers does business, and the thinner fellow is Jawanshir, our Afghan interpreter. They are both critical to our success. Little did Nancy know he'd be driving thru the wilds of Afghanistan when he was sitting in his thermo-fluid dynamics class back in engineering school!

This is the point where the road began morphing into the donkey trail from hell. This river gorge to the side of the "road" contained the kokacha river. Stunningly beautiful most of the way with crystal clear water. But, sorry, I've had dysentery before and there's no way I'm drinking anything other than bottled water no matter how pretty it looks. That's MSG Cotton in the 2nd photo.

Into the Unknown - Chapter Two!

Here's a few more photos of the trip into Badakshan Province.

After driving through Keshem we needed to find a nice high point with good visibility to stop for lunch. That way no bad guys could sneak up on us while the French waiters we brought along served us Champagne. (Did you go for that one?) The route up the nearest hill didn't go quite as smoothly as we'd hoped....(Picture One).

It turned out that spot we picked for lunch had an awesome view. Here's a couple of photos of MSG Cotton and myself. MSG Cotton, by the way, is the most educated non-commissioned officer I've ever met. He's got an engineering degree! 

Into the Unknown - Badakshan Province

After a few days at the bridge site in early October, LTC Gallagher, the Chief of Construction, called me and informed me that I'd be going along on a five day reconnaisance mission into Badakshan Province. In the Spring we'll be building nearly 60 Aghan National Police posts in Northern Afghanistan. The majority of those fall into my area, and most of those will be spread throughout Badakshan Province. The area is almost completely unknown to Americans - it's isolated, mountainous, and there's only one "road" in. And "road" is a very generous term for what turned out to be mostly a narrow, boulder-strewn donkey trail that we could only negotiate at 5 to 10 miles an hour. We didn't know what to expect so we were loaded for bear - nine of us carrying a SAW, grenades, shotguns, M-4 or M-16 long guns, and 9 mm pistols with LOTS of ammunition. What we did know for sure was that they grew poppies up there for heroin production and the area was rife with drug smuggling activities. After the first two hours of driving the blacktop degenerated into a rough, one-lane wide track that took us into the mountains. We spent a lot of time negotiating hairpin switchbacks clinging to the sides of mountains with a sheer cliff on one side and a thousand foot drop inches from our wheels on the opposite side. It was at this moment in time that it dawned on me that the Afghan culture had not yet assilimated the terms "safety, safety regulations, or highway safety." I wish I had some photos to show of some of those trails, but I couldn't seem to pry my fingers out of the front dashboard and my seat cushion long enough to fumble with my camera.

Picture one is a typical view you'll see scattered every few miles along the route. The Russians apparently had their asses handed back to them here on silver platters by the Mujahadin in the 80's. After driving the route I thank god I wasn't born to grow up and be a Russian tank crewman - the trail was just one long bushwacking waiting to happen with no escape route.

In photo two we were just stopped for a security halt. The blacktop was still good....little did we know how good we had it at that moment.....

Any time we go out I make it a point to smile and wave at the Afghans we pass along the road side. Generally, after a moment's surprise or shy hesitation they return the greeting and smile back. When we drove thru the town of Kesham the smiles weren't returned. We were just stared at expressionlessly. We all felt something bad was about to happen and closed up the distance between our vehicles for better defense. Fortunately our fears weren't realized. We don't know if they just didn't know how to react to us having never seen Americans before, or if there was an undercurrent of menace there. Regardless, the children always are fascinated to see us and always gather around quickly - picture 3.

Travels to the Bridge, 3 October

I've been swamped since I arrived here, but thought I'd try and catch up a little on news here. I flew to Kunduz and then road convoyed to our bridge site on 3 October. It was quite a strange day. I was loaded with all my gear onto a small 9 passenger plane at the Kabul airport and then flown over these huge brown mountains into an old soviet airstrip in a deep valley with a small town in it called Feyzabad. That flight was like riding a roller coaster with wings. The pilot did a deep dive into the river valley that would have made a Stuka pilot over Warsaw proud. Then he flew up the valley doing 60 to 90 degree turns so that when I looked out the window I'd alternately see the river at the base of the wingtip, then the houses on the side of the cliffs at what looked like a distance of 10 feet from the tip of the wing. It was such an awesome view I didn't think to get scared, which I should have been. When we landed at this tiny little airstrip the plane was met by several men carrying AK-47's and various other types of automatic weapons. Fortunately, they were on our side as all I had with me was a 9MM and 3 clips of ammo. I was seriously outgunned.

They added some passengers to the flight and I turned around to see an older Muslim man who was dressed like he must have been the Grand Poobah or some such personage waiting to get on the plane. Wanting to ensure that I didn't offend this obviously important Mullah I turned to him, put my hand over my heart and said "Salam", which is the proper way of greeting someone over here. At that point he stuck out his hand to me and said with this huge grin on his face, "Hi,I'm George from California, nice to meet ya." That guy had me in stitches for the next five minutes. (See Photo #1) There were a couple of German Polizei loaded on the plane also. I told them I was sorry, that I thought I'd paid that speeding ticket on the Autobahn in 1986 and I was impressed that they really don't stop until they track down their man. They let me off with a warning.

Half an hour later I landed in Kunduz, another old abandoned Soviet airstrip which is surrounded by the rusting hulks of abandoned Russian armored vehicles and trucks in the surrounding fields, and 2 gutted soviet transport helicopters sitting off to the side of the tarmac. My Master Sergeant picked me up and we drove thru Kunduz to the Tajikistan border and my new job. The drive thru Kunduz was beyond strange. Aside from some motorized transport on the road, it was like stepping back in time 4 centuries. (See the next 2 photos) I'll send some more photos in my next e-mail. Right now it's time to hit the hay as I just got back from a 5 day reconnaisance operation into Indian territory and I'm beat. That's an adventure I'll cover at a later date.